'Twixt two worlds : a narrative of the life and work of William Eglinton

Phases of Opposition; Spiritualism and Art; and a Problem for Conjurers. 185
with administered. A correspondent wrote :— " I have just seen a copy of a recent issue of
your paper, and I much regret to find that you sneer, in an ignorant way, over the wonderful
gifts that Mr. Eglinton has received from his Maker. I say ' ignorant ' advisedly, because you
have no right to sneer at anything that you know only by hearsay." A description of the
writer's experiences follows, and he winds up by assuring the Whitehall Review that although
there might be plenty of humbug mixed up with Spiritualistic phenomena, yet that " does
not the least affect the facts, absolute facts, such as I have just roughly laid before you, and
you will make a strange mistake if you allow your paper to sneer at the marvellous, yet most
simple acts of communion that are daily occurring between the spirit world and our own. The
Bible is one long history of this communion between the heavens and the hells and earth.
Why should this have ceased, or how can it have ceased Our parsons' asseverations will
not alter God's laws."
Truth followed suit, but while the Whitehall Review was never vulgar or abusive, the
former paper indulged in the most malignant and rancorous language, finding an able lieutenant
in Dr. Ray Lankester, of Bow Street notoriety. A lengthy correspondence took place in
the Pall Mall Gazette, introduced by a self-styled thought-reader, who, partly seeing an
opportunity of making some capital for himself, and partly acting as a decoy of Mr. Labouchere,
entered the lists with a pseudo-challenge, the circumstances connected with which are already
familiar to the public. Dr. Lankester, however, deserves immortalising, and I am not altogether
unwilling to oblige him and his confrere. I cannot do this more effectually than by quoting
some of the opprobrious terms used by him concerning Spiritualists in general and Mr. Eglinton
in particular. Mr. Labouchere was good enough to employ such epithets as "knave," "rogue,"
"cheat," "vagabond," while Dr. Lankester's superior erudition gave him a somewhat wider
choice in "sludge," "pickpocket," "unsavoury specimen of natural history," "vermin and skunk."
No wonder Mr. Eglinton was disinclined to meet the authors of bantlings like these, and I,
in common with the majority of Spiritualists, rejoice he did not fall into the trap, and demean
himself in such company. As he remarked, with true dignity, he could afford to bide his
time. The facts will be acknowledged some day, when prejudice has grown tired of its vain
attempts to strangle them. There was, however, no lack of defenders, and a tribute is due to
Mr. A. P. Sinnett and Mr. C. C. Massey, amongst many others, for the loyalty to truth evinced
in connection with this matter. The Manchester Evening News was fair and courteous, and
pointed out that " to call an opponent by names, not usual in well-conducted society, might be
hard hitting, but it was not good manners," and it then proceeded to give a short account
of one of Mr. Eglinton's psychographic seances. Figaro, in presenting a portrait of Mr. Eglinton
to its readers, thought it could not be denied that he was a " very clever individual," and contented
itself with a few very general observations, while in the " greatest humbug " competition
started by the Pall Mall Gazette, he comes fourteenth on the list with only nine votes, outrunning,
however, Madame Blavatsky, who only polled four. Such is the distinction made
between fame and notoriety.
Mr. C. B. Hankey, of Stanstead, Emsworth, had a curious experience at a seance at Mr.
Eglinton's, in the course of which he recovered some lost property by spirit agency ; and a
little later Mrs. Cowley, well known to many Spiritualists, relates some interesting incidents which
succeeded other remarkable experiments in psychography. She states :— " Mr. Eglinton, who
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