er vision
and sense of proportion which assured them that behind all these
follies and frauds there lay a mass of solid evidence which could not
be shaken, though like all evidence, it had to be examined before it
could be appreciated. They were not such simpletons as to be driven
away from a great truth because there are some dishonest camp followers
who hang upon its skirts.

A great centre of proof and of inspiration lay during those early days
in Mr. D. D. Home, a Scottish-American, who possessed powers which make
him one of the most remarkable personalities of whom we have any
record. Home's life, written by his second wife, is a book which
deserves very careful reading. This man, who in some aspects was more
than a man, was before the public for nearly thirty years. During that
time he never received payment for his services, and was always ready,
to put himself at the disposal of any bona-fide and reasonable
enquirer. His phenomena were produced in full light, and it was
immaterial to him whether the sittings were in his own rooms or in
those of his friends. So high were his principles that upon one
occasion, though he was a man of moderate means and less than moderate
health, he refused the princely fee of two thousand pounds offered for
a single sitting by the Union Circle in Paris.

As to his powers, they seem to have included every form of mediumship
in the highest degree--self-levitation, as witnessed by hundreds of
credible witnesses; the handling of fire, with the power of conferring
like immunity upon others; the movement without human touch of heavy
objects; the visible materialisation of spirits; miracles of healing;
and messages from the dead, such as that which converted the
hard-headed Scot, Robert Chambers, when Home repeated to him the actual
dying words of his young daughter. All this came from a man of so
sweet a nature and of so charitable a disposition, that the union of
all qualities would seem almost to justify those who, to Home's great
embarrassment, were prepared to place him upon a pedestal above
humanity.

The genuineness of his psychic powers has never been seriously
questioned, and was as well recognised in Rome and Paris as in London.
One incident only darkened his career, and it, was one in which he was
blameless, as anyone who carefully weighs the evidence must admit. I
allude to the action taken against him by Mrs. Lyon, who, after
adopting him as her son and settling a