The years from 1854 to 1857, inclusive, formed a very memorable period to several eminent persons, with whom I had the privilege of being acquainted. I am very unwilling to offend deep-rooted prejudices, which may originally have had “a leaning to virtue's side,” at the same time I should be a moral craven—which I am happy to believe a woman seldom is—if I omitted from the record of my recollections circumstances which not a few persons have considered the most important in their lives. I allude to that outpouring of spiritual manifestations which came upon the world about the period mentioned above.

Let me begin by saying that I never, but once, paid a shilling to a professional medium, and that once was at the urgent solicitation of a friend, and when visiting a seer. Nor did I ever attend a public seance. My experience came through the mediumship of private friends, personages of unblemished character, and of intellect far above the average. First on the list I may mention a lady, now the widow of a physician, but whose name, as she happily still lives, I will refrain from mentioning. From royalty downwards she has been an influence in numerous lives, in breaking up the rusty fetters of materialism, or in making stable a wavering faith in immortality and in the unseen powers which surround us.