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

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Scientific Investigation on the Continent. 61
husband (Colonel Lean), George Cruikshank, George Grossmith, and Rutland Harrington. Seated
in the dim light, with Venetian blinds drawn, Mr. Eglinton was seen by all present to ascend
and float across the window.
In January, 1880, he was invited to read a paper upon " Mediumship," before the Dalston
Association of Spiritualists. The Rev. W. Miall took the chair. The paper dealt chiefly
with the unsatisfactory relationship then existing between mediums and the Spiritualistic
public, and a full report appeared in the Spiritualist for January 1 6th, 1 880.
In February of this year (1880) he again went to Cambridge University, and, under the
auspices of the Psychological Society of that town, gave seances at which striking results were
obtained, while he was handcuffed to one person, and held by another.
It was in this month that Sir George Sitwell and Mr. Carl von Buch "exposed" Mrs.
Corner. I need not refer more particularly to this affair, except to say that the last word
of this, as of most other " exposures," has probably not yet been said. Time brings its
own revenge in most things, and Spiritualism is no exception to the general rule. It is to be
hoped that when maturer experience has shown these youths the folly of their hasty and
precipitate action, and their consequently fallacious conclusions, they will be honourable enough
to publicly confess the error into which they, no doubt, unwittingly fell. So much at least
is due to the medium most concerned.
After this affair Mr. Eglinton, in a spirit of loyal devotion to truth, immediately
wrote to the exposers, offering to give them a seance at the residence of Dr. Nichols, but
although they came, nothing was obtained.
At that time arrangements were being made for a more extended continental trip, and on
March 4th he left London, witli two friends, for Holland, en route for Leipsic. Here he
became the guest of Baron von Hoffmann, and was engaged to give seances to Professor Zollner
and others connected with the University. Work was commenced on the 8th of March, two
seances being given daily, or twenty-five in all. This was his first meeting with Zollner.
Writing of this, Mr. Eglinton says :— " I fell in love with him at once, he was so genial and
open-hearted. We had a continuous series of marvellous successes. Zollner had intended
writing a volume of his experiments, many of them novel and striking, but death intervened."
Mr. A. J. Riko, of the Hague, writing in Spiritual Notes, May, 1880, says, referring to
these seances in Leipsic :
" Zollner has also written to me. He is very satisfied with his
experiments with Mr. Eglinton, from which he learned very much— Sie waren lehrreich
as he says." As a proof of his appreciation and satisfaction, I may say, he and Professor
Thiersch— another convert — presented Mr. Eglinton with a handsome cameo pin, which is one
of the most valued of the many pleasant souvenirs received by him. Herr G. C. Wittig, editor
of Psyschisclie Studien, gives a long account in that journal of the satisfactory manifestations
occurring in the presence of himself and friends during Mr. Eglinton's stay in Leipsic. It
is only possible, however, for me to refer to some of these reports.
On the 22nd March he left Leipsic for Zwickau in Saxony, Professor Zollner coming
to the train, and bidding him farewell. The experiments at Zwickau took place at the
residence of Dr. Kellner, in the presence of eight or ten scientific men, all of whom were
entirely new to the subject. Great interest was taken in the experiments, and many converts
made. Dr. Kellner gave an entertaining account of the results in Licht Mchr Licht.