The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

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48 7llE llONOJlUIAC.
future events; and though he ever pertinaciously insisted
that this insight into the future was likewise derived from
the communication of his precious spirit-whisperer, the
learned of the land (Great Britain) decided that "spiritwhiaperers"
were not held as legal witnesses; that naturals,
sjmpletons, and even idiots, had been known to be
possessed of the gift of prophecy; that the faot of their
being wiser than other people was even deemed sufficient
evidence of gross deficiency of intellect, or morals; and 80,
as old Tom Martin had done mnch good service, ,he could
not reasonably be deprived of his good service-pension
and home in Greenwich Hospital; and as he was, moreover,
neither simpleton, natural, nor idiot, but only flagrant
in the last count, namely, that of being wisei' than other
people, his case was finally disposed of under the head of
Monomaniac.
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