ht' was very true, yet he made a
great many mistakes and deceived himself."

Phinuit, sent to find Stainton Moses, ends by bringing him. George
Pelham warns the sitter against the confusions and incoherences of
Stainton Moses's communications. "When he arrives," says George Pelham,
"I will wake him up."

Professor N.--"Is he asleep?"

G. P.--"Oh, Billie, you are stupid, I fear, at times. I do not mean wake
him up in a material sense."

Professor N.--"Nor did I."

G. P.--"Well, then, old man, don't be wasting light."

Professor N.--"I'm not wasting light, but I am obliged to find out what
you mean."

G. P.--"Well, this is what I wish also."

Professor N.--"Stainton Moses has been nearly three years in the
spirit.... Do you mean to say that he is not yet free from confusion?"

These explanatory passages would be of great value if we were sure that
we were not dealing with a secondary personality of Mrs Piper.

Later still, George Pelham returns to the probable mental confusion of
Stainton Moses, and to the necessity for taking certain precautions in
order to obtain clear communications. He was quite right. These
sittings, in which Stainton Moses was the self-styled communicator, are
exactly those which make the spiritualist hypothesis most difficult to
accept. All the exact information given existed already in the minds of
those present; all the rest was untrue. Stainton Moses had an excellent
chance of proving his identity. We have said that he had written down
the real names of his "spirit-guides" or "controls" in one of his
note-books. At the time these sittings were taking place in America,
Frederic Myers, in England, was studying these note-books in order to
publish so much of them as he thought fit. He knew these names, but I
believe he was the only person in the world who knew them. Stainton
Moses was told, "Give us the names of your spirit-guides; it will be a
splendid proof. Mr Myers knows them, but we do not. We will send them to
him, and if they are correct we shall no longer be able to have a
reasonable doubt of your identity." The self-styled Stainton Moses
seemed perfectly to understand what was asked of him; he gave the names,
and every one of them was wrong.

In October 1896 Dr Hodgson made George Pelham understand the necessity
of obtaining exact information from Stainton Moses, in order that the
problem, which seemed to interest George Pelham as much as it did Dr
Hodgson, might be solved. S