s agreed to allow her to go to Edinburgh, it being
understood she should immediately return. She never did so, and
witness did not see her again until the 31st of January.

Here the romance and superstition end. The petitioner became a wiser
and sadder man. Esmeralda lived to repent of her folly, and so did the
Oxford man of learning.

CHAPTER LXXII.

Spiritualism--Spiritualism not a new
Delusion--Phantoms at a _Seance_--Juggling of a
Medium--Unsuccessful Effort at a Vulgar
Deception--Spiritualists exposed--A Medium's Deception
discovered--Foolish Exhibitions--Russian Peasants and
their House Spirits--Spirits' Care over Persons and
Property--Death, Pestilence, War, and other Evils
foretold by Spirits--A Suggestion.

Much might be written concerning spiritualism (already alluded to in
these pages); but really the subject deserves little attention,
further than that it might be worth serious consideration whether the
class of persons who lay claim to the power of raising the dead, and
of being able to command responses from spirits, should not be
prosecuted as rogues and cheats. Spiritualists cannot even pretend
they have discovered anything new. We have repeatedly, particularly
under the head "Laws against and Trials of Witches," shown that
deceitful girls and old crones could perform all the sleight-of-hand
and delusions practised by modern spiritualists.

Spiritualists have grossly imposed upon credulous persons; and others,
without much consideration, attend _seance_ after _seance_, for no
other reason than that the manifestations displayed by the tricksters
have become the grand arcana of fashion. The phantoms raised at a
_seance_ are in proportion to the gloom surrounding the audience. It
cannot be doubted by men of penetration, that spiritualism, in its
birth and maturity, is associated with sordidness and wickedness. At
best, the spiritual operations are childish, or at least they fall
short of the tricks of a Chinese juggler.

One gentleman, writing of the spiritualistic movement in 1871, says:--

"A new movement on behalf of spiritualism has sprung up in the
metropolis, and Miss Kate Fox, Rochester, United States, in whose
family the phenomena were first discovered, is now in England on a
propagandist mission. I was invited last night to meet Miss Fox, but
owing to a cold the lady was unable to come. A celebrated medium was,
however, present, as w