MEDIUMS AND MYSTERIES.

BY NARISSA ROSAVO.


So long as the world lasts, no doubt a large portion of its inhabitants
will run after that which the Scotch expressively term "uncanny." The
absence of accurate knowledge and the impossibility of thorough
scientific investigation, of separating the chaff from the wheat, the
true from the counterfeit, becomes at one and the same time the charm
and the counterblast to diligent searchers.

For the most part, these are persons of inferior mental calibre, of
somewhat unrefined instincts; but, on the other hand, I have known
mighty intellects lose themselves in this maze, where no firm clue can
be seized by which to go forward safely, to advance at all, while the
return journey must be made with _certain_ loss. Persistent endeavour
brings weakened faith in God, in place of that certainty spiritualists
talk of when they say their arts are beneficial, proving a hereafter--a
spiritual world.

It is not thus we get on firm footing. We but advance into sloughs of
despond, led by wills of the wisp; and the girl mediums, the so-called
clairvoyantes, invariably lose mental health and physical strength. It
is but a matter of time, and they become hysteria patients or
inhabitants of lunatic asylums. I have known a clever clergyman of the
Church of England determine to find out the truth, if any, on this path.