en her ghost. What was more strange, she
left a message for him similar to that which the apparition delivered.
On his next voyage the young man told his companions that on the
previous night he had seen his mother floating in the water like a
mermaid, and that she had made a sign for him to come to her. Next
night a storm arose; the ship was in great danger, the decks were
swept, and the young man was washed away. His last words were,
"Mother, I come."

CHAPTER XXXII.

Spiritualism Past and Present--Coffee-house
Keeper--Magic taught in Leipsic--Intercourse with and
Control over Spirits--Spirit of Marshal Saxe called
up--How Spirits were Invoked--Voices of Good and Evil
Spirits--A Terrified Company--Mysterious Death of a
Magician--Unearthly Huntsman--Prediction and its
Fulfilment--An Estate lost at the Gaming Table--A
Baron Shot--A Marriage prevented by an
Apparition--Strange Sights and
Sounds--Murder--Consulting a Witch--Raising the Spirit
of a Murdered Man--A Murderer's Fate.

Writers generally supposed to be well informed have said that
spiritualism is a system of professed communication with the unseen
world, which originated in America about the year 1848. Others have
endeavoured to trace the origin of spiritualism to the writings of
Swedenborg. Both parties are in error. Long before Swedenborg's time,
and anterior to Columbus discovering America, spiritualism in various
forms was believed in in Scotland, England, Ireland, all over Europe,
and elsewhere. Reginald Scot, in the year 1584, wrote against
witchcraft and demonology; but so general was the belief in
spiritualism, and so abhorrent were the opinions of Scot, that his
book was ordered to be burned by the common hangman. Let those who
claim for America the discovery of spiritualism, real or feigned, read
1 Samuel., and they will perceive how much they have been
deceived. We may return to spiritualism as looked upon in the present
time; meanwhile we shall continue our own course, proving, step by
step, the former belief in spiritualism, or what we prefer to call
demonology.

A coffee-house keeper in Leipsic, named Schrepfer, studied and taught
magic as an art. He boasted of his intercourse with and control over
spirits, whose presence, he alleged, could be commanded at any time.
Owing to a degrading insult offered him, he left Leipsic, none knew
whither, but after a lapse of time