constitute the most convincing
of all evidence. It is one thing to show that people in general live
after physical death. It is quite a different matter to establish the
personal identity of one of them who is communicating, and that is one
of the vital points involved. W. J. Stillman, the eminent journalist,
gives us some valuable evidence on personal identity. In his earlier
years he had studied art in London. Shortly before the death of Turner,
the great artist had volunteered to give Stillman some advice on
painting, but had not redeemed the promise at the time of passing away.
Stillman had a friend whose daughter was mediumistic and he decided to
experiment. Immediately on beginning the seance the young girl was taken
possession of by an entity claiming to be Turner. Stillman asked his
question silently, speaking no words, but mentally requesting Turner to
write his name. The only reply was an emphatic shake of the head. He
then asked if he would give some advice on painting. The response was
another decided negative. Stillman felt that he was foolishly wasting
his time and declared the seance at an end. But the girl sat silent.
Then after a moment she slowly arose with the air of decrepitude, took a
lithograph from the wall and went through the pantomime of stretching a
sheet of paper on a drawing board, sharpening a pencil, tracing the
outline, the washing-in of a drawing, etc., and then proceeded to show a
simple but surprising method of taking out the lights. "Do you mean to
say that Turner got his effects in that way?" asked the incredulous
young artist. The answer was an emphatic affirmative. Stillman then
asked if the central passage of sunlight and shadow through rain in the
well known drawing "Llanthony Abbey" by Turner, had been done in that
way and was answered by another emphatic affirmative. So sure was the
young artist that this could not be true that he gave it up in disgust
and abruptly left. A few weeks later Stillman was calling upon Ruskin
and related the experience. Ruskin, who had known the celebrated dead
artist intimately, declared that the contrariness of the medium at the
beginning of the seance was remarkably characteristic of Turner. But
what was much more to the point, in the way of evidence, was that the
drawing in question was in Ruskin's possession and eagerly it was
brought down from the wall for examination. After close scrutiny the
great art critic and the young artist agreed that, b