came to me and brought with him a little boy much smaller than himself He said, 'Tell papa Will.””

At the sitting Mrs. Sherman and myself had with Mrs. R., May 2, Willie was reported saying to me: "Papa, I want you to see Will Chadwick and tell him his little boy was at our house with me the other night, and sent him this word, ‘Tell papa Will."" The same afternoon I called upon Mr. Will R. Chadwick, who seemed to be expecting me. I asked him if a little boy of his had died recently who called him "Papa Will."

He replied that his little boy, who had died a year previously, called him "Papa Will." He added immediately, without waiting to hear what I had to say further, that he knew I was coming.

I asked him how he knew, and he replied that he could not tell how such impressions came to him, but they did come. He had received the impression that his little boy had been to my house with Willie a day or two before, and had thought of going to see me about it, but refrained from doing so because I would think it strange he should make such an inquiry. Afterward he received the impression that I would come to see him about it. In further explanation, Mr. Chadwick said that ever since boyhood he had seen, or thought he had seen, spirit forms about him, and had received impressions from them, but had never made any investigation of the subject or tried to develop the clairvoyant faculty. He had also frequently heard his little girl, three years of age, talking to her spirit brother as though she was playing with him, and in reply to inquiries the child had said her brother was there, and did not seem to realize that he was not there in the flesh.

On one occasion the control of a trance medium in a city distant from my home was describing the interior of my residence and its furnishings, as shown her by Willie. Everything was correct until she said, "There is a stove in this corner of the room." I said, "Is there a stove there, Willie?" The control said: "Oh! \ he is taking the stove away." This was a remarkable test, and illustrates the faculty of the soul to see things as they have been, and not alone as they are at the immediate moment of physical time. Willie's earliest recollection of the room, and of the particular corner designated by the control, was as described. A stove did stand there for many years, but was taken away when Willie was not more than five years of age.

I hold that the phenomena manifested and the tests given in the circumstances reported in this chapter demonstrate beyond question that they were produced by spirit intelligences, exactly as claimed. No other hypothesis can be framed which will supply a

reasonable explanation of them, or even a possible explanation, unless many psychic facts which are positively demonstrated are entirely ignored. And why should any other explanation be sought? Is it not a pleasant and satisfactory thing to believe and to know that individual life is continuous, and that physical death is really birth into a new, happier, nobler and grander life-the real life of the soul?

CHAPTER XXV.

PERSISTENCE OF PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS IN DECARNATE LIFE THE AFFECTIONS CLING TO FIRST LOVES-MARKED DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE FACT-REMARKABLE TESTS IN GIVING NAMES OF DECEASED PERSONS-THE LOVING MESSAGES OF A FATHER TO HIS SON-WILLIE GIVES AN ADDRESS IN RESPONSE TO AN UNSPOKEN AND Unseen REQUEST.

[OTHING is more marked in spirit manifestations

NOTH

than the fact that every soul carries its characteristics into decarnate life, and that its affections, its likes and dislikes, its inclinations, perhaps even its ambitions, are the same there as here. I have had many proofs of this fact. Indeed, every spirit who communicates with me demonstrates it by the character of his communications. Willie loves his home where he was born and always lived; he is full of affection for members of his family; he is interested in the little affairs of their every day life; he loves fun and frolic; and he is delighted to be able to give to papa and mamma tests and proofs of his presence, and of his love. Albert, my son who died in infancy, shows his love and 'his delight at being recognized, but exhibits no interest in the affairs of a life which he scarcely knew. The spirits of men who labored for the welfare of their fellow men while upon earth, according to the light they then had, I find just as

anxious to promote the truth as they now understand it. Chemists, electricians and other promoters of special sciences while upon earth, are still interested in scientific development, and use their knowledge to promote communication between the two worlds. Every manifestation demonstrates, not only the continuity of life, but also the continuity of the personality and all its characteristics.

As no passion of the incarnate soul is more universal or stronger than that of love, so we find that on the decarnate side of life love reigns supreme. And not love in its broad and general sense only, but the love which seeks out and clings to its special object of affection, and is pained and grieved if its love is not returned, or is not true. I have in my possession a slate communication constituting a reply to this question addressed to a deceased lady, "Are you willing your husband shall marry again ?” The reply is as

follows:

"If my husband is so anxious to marry again, let him go ahead, and I will find a partner here. I am sick of this fickleness. No sooner do the men think we are under the sod than they are looking for other women."

The first communication I ever received from a decarnate soul was the reply to a question addressed to my father, published in the twentieth chapter. Seventeen years later, when I next sought means for communicating with my friends in decarnate life, my father again manifested himself, and expressed his great love for me. But it surprised me not a little that in all his communications through different mediums he said nothing directly of my mother, still living. Finally, on one occasion, I said: "Father, why do you never speak of mother?" The control replied, after a little: He says he knows it was not right, and that he ought not to have felt so; but he could not help feeling badly that she should have married again. But he feels differently about it now." I said: "Why, you know, father, that mother had a hard struggle to get along alone." The reply was: "I know it; I ought not to have

felt so; but I couldn't help it." I said: "Father, would you like to have me take mother to a medium so that you can talk with her?" The reply was that he would be delighted to have me do so; but that he feared she was so grounded in orthodoxy, and so hostile to the idea of spirit communication, that she would not believe it genuine.

On Friday, June 14, 1895, I arranged with a medium, Mrs. C., for a sitting the next day, telling her that I should bring a stenographer, but giving her no intimation that any one else would accompany me. As I entered the house with my mother I said: "I will make no introductions." The medium replied: "That is all right, but I knew you would bring a lady." "How did you know?" I asked. She said: "Some one waked me up at three o'clock this morning and said: 'Albert will bring Mary today.'"

The medium having passed into the trance state, the control said:

"Your father is here. He puts his arms around the lady and says: This is my Mary.' And soon afterward:

"I shall have to go back now to the time when he passed into the spirit life. I see the lady sitting by the bed upon which he is lying. The children stand by her, one a young girl and a smaller one who looks like a boy. A baby (yourself) lies in the cradle.

"Your husband (the lady's) says it made him feel badly to leave you unprotected. You were lonely and broken-hearted, and had to struggle hard to get along and care for the children. Then you were married again. He says he was selfish and couldn't bear to have you take another husband. The other one is not with you now. He was glad when he went out and you took the name Sherman again. He says he ought not to have felt that way, but you were his first and only love and he could not help it.

"He has always been near you, except during the years when you lived with the other husband, when there was a break; but now he comes back and stays near you all of the time. He says it will not be long before he can take you in his arms and have you all his own again. He has prepared a lovely home for you, with a big easy chair, in which you can sit down and put on nice slippers which are soft for your feet; and he has a lot of things ready for you. It isn't cloudy over there; it is always pleasant. The good book tells us the streets are paved with gold, but they are not; it is all grass, and trees, and beautiful flowers."

Asked to give a test, he said: "You had to work very hard, and it made me feel badly to see you struggle along so. One time when you were washing I saw you standing by a tub and the baby lay in the cradle. The baby cried, and you lifted up the tub hurriedly. It hurt you, and I felt so badly that I couldn't help you; I didn't know how. Then the baby cried again and you fed it and put it to sleep. The strain gave you a crick in the back which you did not get over for two or three days. I could not get close enough to you to help you."