the Zulu medicine-man, in Mr. Rider Haggard's Allan's Wife, 'who can
make men see what they do not see.' The class of persons who are
said to have possessed this power appear, now and then, in all human
history, and have at least bequeathed to us a puzzle in
anthropology. This problem has recently been presented, in what may
be called an acute form, by the publication of the 'Experiences of
Mr. Stainton Moses'. {78b} Mr. Moses was a clergyman and
schoolmaster; in both capacities he appears to have been
industrious, conscientious, and honourable. He was not devoid of
literature, and had contributed, it is said, to periodicals as
remote from mysticism as Punch, and the Saturday Review. He was a
sportsman, at least he was a disciple of our father, Izaak Walton.
'Most anglers are quiet men, and followers of peace, so simply wise
as not to sell their consciences to buy riches, and with them
vexation, and a fear to die,' says Izaak.

In early middle age, about 1874, Mr. Moses began to read such books
as Dale Owen's, and to sit 'attentive of his trembling' table, by
way of experiment. He soon found that tables bounded in his
presence, untouched. Then he developed into a regular 'medium'.
Inanimate objects came to him through stone walls. Scent of all
sorts, and, as in the case of St. Joseph of Cupertino, of an unknown
sort, was scattered on people in his company. He floated in the
air. He wrote 'automatically'. Knocks resounded in his
neighbourhood, in the open air. 'Lights' of all varieties hovered
in his vicinity. He spoke 'automatically,' being the mouth-piece of
a 'spirit,' and very dull were the spirit's sermons. After a
struggle he believed in 'spirits,' who twanged musical notes out in
his presence. He became editor of a journal named Light; he joined
the Psychical Society, but left it when the society pushed