ind of the sitter, but this mind is imprisoned in
matter, and greatly clouded by it; the communicator only recognises the
mind of the sitter when it is functioning actively, if I may thus
express it; when the sitter is thinking, and, above all, thinking of the
communicator. This is why, when the communicator perceives that his
ideas are becoming confused, he constantly says reproachfully to the
sitter, "Oh! why don't you speak? Say something to me, help me. You want
me to work for you, but you will not do anything for me." The dead
cousin of Professor Hyslop, Robert MacClellan, says to him, for example,
"Speak to me, for Heaven's sake. Help me to reach you." Analogous
passages are very numerous.

I return to Professor Hyslop's report. The most important communicator
after his father during the sittings was his uncle Carruthers, whose
name, however, was always mangled by Rector, and given as _Clarke_ or
_Charles_. This uncle had died only twenty days before the first
sitting.[80] At his first communication he inquires anxiously about his
wife Eliza, Robert Hyslop's sister, whom his death had left desolate.
"It is I, James," he says to the inquirer. "Give my love to Eliza; tell
her not to get discouraged, she will be better soon. I see her often in
despair." Professor Hyslop asks, "Do you know why she grieves?" "Yes,
because I left her; but I did not really leave her. I wish I could tell
you all I would like ... you would not think I had left entirely. Will
you comfort her? She ought not to be left lonely." "Yes, I will comfort
her." "I am so glad!" At that time Professor Hyslop did not guess that
his aunt was so completely alone and in such deep despair. He only found
this out on inquiry.

I will quote another incident of "Uncle Carruthers'" communications,
because on account of its stamp of vivid realism it is one of those
which the telepathic hypothesis does not explain satisfactorily. Mr
Carruthers suddenly perceives the presence of Dr Hodgson and says, "You
are not Robert Hyslop's son, are you? You are not George."[81] Dr
Hodgson replies, "No, I am not George." "No, James, I know you very
well, but this one" (speaking again to Dr Hodgson), "Did you know the
boys? Did you know me?"

I shall only quote one more incident of these interesting sittings. The
communicator this time is Professor Hyslop's brother Charles, who died
in 1864 aged four and a half. Robert Hyslop's last child had been born
long after Charles's d