ia. Dr. Hodgson was the spirit who
professed to preside over this experiment. You would think that the
simple words "St. Paul" occurring in the other scripts would be
all-sufficient. But no; he proceeds to make all sorts of indirect
allusions, to talk all round St. Paul in each of the scripts, and to
make five quotations from St. Paul's writings. This is beyond
coincidence, and quite convincing, but none the less it illustrates the
curious way in which they go round instead of going straight. If one
could imagine some wise angel on the other side saying, "Now, don't
make it too easy for these people. Make them use their own brains a
little. They will become mere automatons if we do everything for
them"--if we could imagine that, it would just cover the case.
Whatever the explanation, it is a noteworthy fact.

There is another point about spirit communications which is worth
noting. This is their uncertainty wherever any time element comes in.
Their estimate of time is almost invariably wrong. Earth time is
probably a different idea to spirit time, and hence the confusion. We
had the advantage, as I have stated, of the presence of a lady in our
household who developed writing mediumship. She was in close touch
with three brothers, all of whom had been killed in the war. This
lady, conveying messages from her brothers, was hardly ever entirely
wrong upon facts, and hardly ever right about time. There was one
notable exception, however, which in itself is suggestive. Although
her prophecies as to public events were weeks or even months out, she
in one case foretold the arrival of a telegram from Africa to the day.
Now the telegram had already been sent, but was delayed, so that the
inference seems to be that she could foretell a course of events which
had actually been set in motion, and calculate how long they would take
to reach their end. On the other hand, I am bound to admit that she
confidently prophesied the escape of her fourth brother, who was a
prisoner in Germany, and that this was duly fulfilled. On the whole I
preserve an open mind upon the powers and limitations of prophecy.

But apart from all these limitations we have, unhappily, to deal with
absolute coldblooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous
intelligences. Everyone who has investigated the matter has, I suppose,
met with examples of wilful deception, which occasionally are mixed up
with good and true communications. It was of