"The mother of the celebrated divine had some forefeeling that John was to be the foremost of her family; and she says with emphasis: 'I do intend to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child!'

"During these years strange 'noises' were heard at the Epworth parsonage. They were first heard in the whistling of the wind outside. Latches were lifted; windows rattled, and all metallic substances rang tunefully. In a room where persons talked, sang, or made any noise, its hollow tones gave all the louder accompaniment. There was a sound of doors slamming, of curtains drawing, of shoes dancing without a wearer. When any one wished to pass a door, its latch was politely lifted for them before they touched it. A trencher, untouched upon the table, danced to unheard music. The house-dog, with furious barking, met the unseen intruder the first day in brave mastiff style, but thereafter he sneaked, cowed and whining, behind some human friend. At family prayers the 'goblin' gave thundering knocks at the Amen, and when Mr. Wesley prayed for the king, the disloyal being pushed him violently in anger. The stout rector shamed it for annoying children, and dared it to meet him alone in his study, and pick up the gauntlet there. It obeyed Mrs. Wesley. If she stamped on the floor, and bade it answer, its response was instant. If one said, 'It is only a rat,' the noise was more fast and furious. At last the family seemed to enjoy their lively and harmless unseen guest, and when after two months he left them, they lost an amusement. Many, then and since, have tried to explain the cause. It was thought to be a spirit strayed beyond its home and clime, as an Arabian locust has been found in Hyde Park. Of such things this writer has no theory. There are more things in heaven and earth than his knowledge or philosophy can compass. Only he is sure that outside of this world lies a spiritual domain, and it is not strange that there should be intercommunication.

"The effect of these Epworth noises' on John Wesley's mind was excellent. It taught him to acknowledge fully the spiritual world, and at the same time neither to fear nor regard it. He believed in God every hour of his life; with spirits he had simply nothing to do. His calling did not cross theirs."

Robert Southey, in his Life of Wesley, in speaking of these manifestations, says that they continued in the

Wesley family in England, commencing in 1716, for over thirty years. Priestley refers to the Wesleyan phenomena as among the most striking on record. Samuel Babcock, in a letter inserted in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No. XX., says:

"There were some strange phenomena perceived at the parsonage at Epworth, and some uncommon noises heard there from time to time, which he was very curious in examining into, and very particular in relating. I have little doubt that he considered himself the chief object of their wonderful visitations. Indeed, his father's credulity was in some degree affected by it; since he collected all the evidences that tended to confirm the story, and arranged them with scrupulous exactness, in a manuscript consisting of several sheets, which is still in being. I know not what became of the ghost of Epworth; unless considered as a prelude to the noise Mr. John Wesley made on a more ample stage, it ceased to speak when he began to act.”

Chambers' Encyclopædia, in its article on John Wesley, relates how the paternal house was haunted by a ghost, but Goerres, in his Die Christliche Mystik, has given the best account of the disturbance, which remains unexplained to this day.

Gentlemen, how do you account for these facts? Were the noises at Epworth parsonage caused by legerdemain? The intelligent movements of inanimate objects feats of jugglery? Did some unseen magician frighten the brave mastiff, or did the keen vision of the noble animal see more than the Seybert Commissioners with their pocket looking-glass?

The evidence upon which these facts rest is too strong to be set aside by sneer or sarcasm. Your experience with sealed envelopes, printers' ink, magic paper, and séances affords no explanation. John Wesley himself and his father and mother believed them to be spirit visitations ! Poor benighted souls! with what self-satisfied complacency you, gentlemen, can smile at their ignorant credulity, and thank God you are not as other men.

CHAPTER IX.

"In the multitude of COUNSELLORS there is safety."

Proverbs xi. 14.

"Look here, upon this PICTURE and on THIS."

SHAKESPEARE.

In the year 1869 THE LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY appointed a committee consisting of thirty-six learned men, to investigate the phenomena of "Modern Spiritualism." This committee met, and divided their body into six sub-committees of six members each. Immediately thereafter they proceeded to perform their duties, each sub-committee pursuing its own course in its researches. Four of them obtained results that convinced them that the phenomena they witnessed could not be accounted for by any known natural law; and that there was at their meetings an unseen force that moved ponderable objects, and that that force was intelligent. The fourth and sixth committee obtained no results. A learned scientist once remarked that a failure in experimenting was sometimes better than a success; for it proved that certain conditions were necessary to produce all natural phenomena, and that these conditions always depended upon natural law : not so with feats of jugglery or legerdemain; for there the conditions were always under the control of the performer. I publish the reports made by these sub-committees, that the reader, with little comment on my part, may observe the difference between the opinion of the thirty learned Englishmen and the Seybert Commissioners, that the difference between "THIS PICTURE and this" may be clearly seen.

Surely if there

is safety in a multitude of counsellors," then doth truth abide with the multitude of wit

nesses.

Another observable feature in this report, compared with the other, is its candor. The committee seemed to be impressed with the magnitude of their duty, and desirous of making a "thorough investigation," and of truthfully reporting the result. Reader, compare the two reports, and, then, in mercy to the Seybert Commissioners, - although I am an attorney against them, I ask you to deal as kindly with their reputation for truth and candor as the circumstances will justify.

I need say no more. I offer the two reports in evidence before you. They speak for themselves. The one all candor and apparent sincerity, the other like Shakespeare's simile of life. [See Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5.]

At a meeting of the London Dialectical Society, held on Wednesday, the 6th of January, 1869, Mr. J. H. Levy in the chair, it was resolved:

“That the Council be requested to appoint a committee, in conformity with By-law VII., to investigate the phenomena alleged to be Spiritual Manifestations, and to report thereon."

COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL.

At a meeting of the Council of the London Dialectical Society, held on the 26th January, 1869, on the motion of Dr. Edmunds, a committee was appointed, in conformity with By-law VII., to investigate the phenomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and to report thereon. The committee to consist of the following members:

H. G. Atkinson, Esq., F.G.S.
G. Wheatley Bennett, Esq.
J. S. Bergheim, Esq., C.E.
H. R. Fox Bourne, Esq.

Charles Bradlaugh, Esq.
G. Fenton Cameron, Esq., M.D.
John Chapman, Esq., M.D.
Rev. C. Maurice Davies, D.D.

Charles R. Drysdale, Esq., M.D.
D. H. Dyte, Esq., M.R.C.S.
Mrs. D. H. Dyte.

James Edmunds, Esq., M.D.
Mrs. Edmunds.

James Gannon, Esq.

Gratton Geary, Esq.

Robert Hannah, Esq.

Jenner Gale Hillier, Esq.

Mrs. J. G. Hillier.

Henry Jeffery, Esq.

Albert Kisch, Esq., M.R.C.S.
Joseph Maurice, Esq.
Isaac L. Meyers, Esq.

B. M. Moss, Esq.

Robert Quelch, Esq., C.E.

Thomas Reed, Esq.

C. Russell Roberts, Esq., Ph.D.
William Volckman, Esq.

Horace S. Yeomans, Esq.

Professor Huxley and Mr. George Henry Lewes to be invited to co-operate.

Drs. Chapman and Drysdale and Mr. Fox Bourne declined to sit, and the following names were subsequently added to the committee:

George Cary, Esq., B.A.

E. W. Cox, Esq., Serg.-at-Law.
William B. Gower, Esq.

H. D. Jencken, Esq., Barrister-
at-Law.

J. H. Levy, Esq.

W. H. Swepstone, Esq., So-
licitor.

Alfred R. Wallace, Esq.,F.R.G.S.
Josiah Webber, Esq.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

GENTLEMEN :-The Committee appointed by you to investigate the phenomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations, report thereon as follows:

Your Committee have held fifteen meetings, at which they received evidence from thirty-three persons, who described phenomena which, they stated, had occurred within their own personal experience.

Your Committee have received written statements relating to the phenomena from thirty-one persons.

Your Committee invited the attendance and requested the co-operation and advice of scientific men who had publicly expressed opinions, favorable or adverse, to the genuineness of the phenomena.