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

Phases of Opposition; Spirituilism and Art; and a Problem for Conjurers. 189
are engaged in this research need all the light that can be obtained from any source whatever,
and speaking from my own personal observation and what others have told me, M. Tissot has
been singularly successful in his object. How great the change which takes place at such
times may be seen by comparing M. Tissot's etching with the portrait of Mr. Eglinton
facing this page. The latter is from a photograph taken in Vienna in March, 1885.
While Mr. Eglinton was in Paris, he had a si'ance with M. Detaille, the great painter
of battle scenes. M. Richet, the distinguished savant and editor of the Revue Bibtiotheque,
also had some startling experiences, an account of which he promised to publish in that
work. Wishing, however, to verify his results, he abstained from doing so until he had
had further experience, and on the occasion of a subsequent visit to London, he, in company
with Dr. Myers, brother of Mr. W. F. H. Myers, of Her Majesty's Education Department (who,
by the way, has also had several interesting sittings), obtained the most absolute confirmation
of the facts, and in such a manner as completely to upset the " thought transference," or
" unconscious secondary-self" theories, he had devised as an explanation of them, and an
account of which, I believe, he has prepared for publication.
Amongst other old friends whom Mr. Eglinton met during his short stay in the French
capital was Mr. J. H. Gledstanes, of Bordeaux, who came specially to Paris to meet him.
Exceedingly loth to say good-bye to this and other friends, he, after three days' stay, left
Paris for Vienna, where he arrived on the 28th February. Baron du Prel, the well-known
Munich savant and litterateur, had come specially to meet Mr. Eglinton, and to be present at
some seances. He has since published a most interesting and valuable account of his
experiences under the title of " A Problem for Conjurers." He describes four out of the
man}' seances at which he was present, three of which were in full light and the fourth
only in darkness. Pointing out the fallacy of the argument that the slates used for the
direct writing are prepared beforehand, and also the inadequacy of similar stock arguments,
he proceeds to narrate his personal experience. This is similar in character to much of
the best evidence I have already recorded, but I must forbear the temptation to repeat, and
pass on to a brief summary of the conclusions at which he arrived, giving, however, a
representative and unique case. He says, describing a seance which took place at the
residence of Baron Hellenbach, " Our slates lay upon a table illuminated by three gasburners
;
Eglinton, whom we left completely to himself, evidently soon lapsed to a state of
semi-consciousness, acting instinctively and without conscious will. He asked Baron Hellenbach
for a blank sheet of paper, and when a packet was handed to him (taken out of a
writing-case, of rather stiff note-paper, about the size of a post-card) he took a sheet,
laid it upon the table, then went to a bookcase, took out a book at hazard, which he
likewise laid upon the table. He then tore off a corner of the sheet of note-paper, which
he put in my hand, after which he placed the blank sheet in the book, placing likewise a
morsel of lead pencil in it, and then closed it. We then united our six hands together
above the book, Eglinton kneeling between us on the floor, when Baron Hellenbach put a
question on a matter connected with his private affairs and studies, which demanded a long
answer. In a very few seconds I thought I felt the vibration of the writing in one of
my hands ;
and when I put my ear down to the book, I distinctly heard the muffled sound
that rapid writing, under such circumstances, would produce. Three quick raps, coming in the