phenomenon. Glanvil had verified it. So had
Wesley, and his children. So we have seen, and others. But in all
these cases the matter rested there and the observation was not
prosecuted further. As, previous to the invention of the steam
engine, sundry observers had trodden the very threshold of the
discovery and there stopped, so in this case, where the royal
chaplain, disciple though he was of the inductive philosophy, and
where the founder of Methodism, admitting, as he did, the
probabilities of ultramundane interference, were both at fault, a
Yankee girl, but nine years old, following up more in sport than
in earnest, a chance observation, became the instigator of a
movement which, whatever its true character, has had its influence
throughout the civilized world. The spark had been ignited,--once
at least two centuries ago; but it had died each time without
effect. It kindled no flame till the middle of the nineteenth
century.

"And yet how trifling the step from the observation at Tedworth to
the discovery at Hydesville! Mr. Mompesson, in bed with his little
daughter (about Kate's age), whom the sound seemed chiefly to
follow, 'observed that it would exactly answer, in drumming,
anything that was beaten or called for.' But his curiosity led him
no further.

"Not so Kate Fox. She tried, by silently bringing together her
thumb and forefinger; whether she could obtain a response. Yes! It
could _see_, then, as well as _hear_. She called her mother. 'Only
look, mother,' she said, bringing together again her finger and
thumb, as before. And as often as she repeated the noiseless
motion, just as often responded the raps.

"This at once arrested her mother's attention. 'Count ten,' she
said, addressing the noise. Ten strokes, distinctly given! 'How
old is my daughter Margaret?' Twelve strokes. 'And Kate?' Nine.
'What can all this mean?' was Mrs. Fox's thought. Who was
answering her? Was it only some mysterious echo of her own
thought? But the next question which she put seemed to refute the
idea. 'How many children have I?' she asked aloud. Seven strokes.
'Ah!' she thought, 'it can blunder sometimes.' And then aloud,
'Try again.' Still the number of raps was seven. Of a sudden a
thought crossed Mrs. Fox's mind. 'Are they all alive?' she asked.
Silence for answer.