ply: "I do not know whether I
shall be able to help you at all, but it seems there is something I have
to tell you or explain. When I read your note I felt bound to come,
although my husband tried to dissuade me. It seemed to me as if the
spirits came all the way with me in the cars."

She then gave me quite a good sitting, but on the ordinary lines, ending
up by the description of the relatives mentioned, and by making the
usual "mistake" about their relative spiritual positions.

This was all said in trance. When she returned to consciousness I said:
"Now, Mrs Brown (her real name), I must tell you honestly that you have
made one cardinal mistake, but I am also bound to say that five or six
professional mediums have done just the same as regards the same
matter." I then explained, and asked if she could account for such a
persistent and obvious misconception.

"Wait a moment," she answered; "perhaps the spirits will tell me."

She looked up with a very intent expression for a minute, as though
listening to some explanation which did not cover the ground of her own
experience, and then said very quickly and in a monotonous voice, as
though repeating a verbal message:

"It has nothing exactly to do with our earthly idea of 'goodness.'
Spiritual life can only come to those prepared for it, within the limits
of their capacity. The male spirit you mention was a clergyman of the
Church of England. He was a very holy man, but he was in some way creed
bound. He was a man of strong creed; he clung to his creed here, and
cannot quite free himself from it even now, although he has advanced
very much in spiritual perception. Now his wife had a very sympathetic,
_apprehending_ nature. She can therefore receive spiritual light more
fully and freely. That is why she has risen to a higher plane. This is
not a question of character so much as of _spiritual capacity_, and in
this she is the more highly gifted of the two. She is on a different
plane, but she is able to help her husband very much, and in time he
will join her, and they will progress together."

All this was said in a quick, decided way, and without the smallest
hesitation.

One would hardly have expected a young woman in the midst of the Rocky
Mountains to know the exact meaning of the term "_clergyman of the
Church of England_," for the word is almost unknown in America, where
they speak invariably of a _minister_. Yet the words were given with
quick, firm preci