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

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Drawings and Writings Produced by Abnormal Means. 79
a letter from Dr. Ferguson would hesitate to swear to his handwriting, and, in regard to the
whole matter, fraud was " impossible."
In the garden room, used as a seance room, I was sitting one evening with Mr. Eglinton
and a young man who was encountering the usual difficulties of the beginning of a literary
career. Egiinton took up a blank card from several lying on the table, showed us both sides
of it, and then threw it into a corner of the room, under some book shelves, where the light
was obscure. With the card, or directly after it, he threw a stump of a lead pencil, and
instantly said to me,— "Doctor, please pick up the card!" I sprang and got it. It might
have lain two or three seconds. On one side of the card we found the following :
" Mons. Hargravc :
"La bonne fortune el la inauvaise, sont necessaire a Vhomme, pour le rcndrc habile;
ct aitssi la patience est amor, mats son fruit est doux."
My readers will pardon me for giving a translation for the benefit of some who may
possibly have forgotten their French. It is,— " Good and bad fortune are necessary to man
to develop his talents (to make him clever) ; moreover, patience is bitter, but its fruit is
sweet,"— probably a quotation from "Ernest's" favourite author, La Rochefoucauld.
On a blank portion of this side was also written the word " renverser." Turning over
the card, we found ten words in a language none of us knew, even by sight, though I
recognised a likeness to some of the Sclavonic tongues, and thought it might be Czech or
Hungarian. A German gentleman, who visited me lately, told me it was Hungarian, but he
could not translate it.
Of course I have no idea why a spirit should occupy two or three seconds in writing a
few lines of French and Hungarian on a card thrown into a corner of the room, except to
give us a demonstration of spirit-power. No doubt, receiving a message in an unknown
tongue, may make it more impressive. I remember an instance. The Countess Wachtmeister was
with us one evening and wished to get a message. She was quite familiar with three languages
—Swedish, French, and English, and naturally expected one of these. A blank card, which she
carefully examined, was laid in the centre of a thick book taken from the shelf for the
purpose, on which she laid her hands. In a few moments' she took out the card, and found
it written all over in German, which neither she nor any one present could read. So she
was obliged to take it next day to a German friend, or one who understood German, and get
it translated. Of course it was all the better as a test, which was, perhaps, what she most
needed.
When a spirit materialises so that we can see him, there must be matter solid enough to
reflect the light. When spirits can grasp you by the hand, and hold up a chair or table,
exercising, as I have seen them, more force than is possessed by ordinary men, they give
proof that their bones, muscles and tendons, are as solid as our own. I have calculated that
one spirit, whom I have many times seen and felt, has exercised a muscular power three or
four times greater than my own.
A spirit-hand that you can see, and feel, and grasp, can of course be moulded like any
other object. The Hon. J. L. O'Sullivan, a well-known American publicist and diplomatist, whom
I have known for some thirty years, has given in English and American Spiritualist journals an