--who repels
rather than attracts me--despite all this, there was a Jesus Christ who
actually was a great and benevolent Spirit, temporarily incarnate, and
who really did suffer on the Cross in the manner described in
subsequent MSS.,--I believe it all implicitly. I back the still, small
voice of my Guardian Spirit against all the arguments scepticism can
produce.

Very good, then. I believe in the existence and spirituality of Jesus
Christ because of the biddings of my Guardian Spirit, and, for the very
same reason, I attach credence to the tradition of the quivering of the
aspen. The sceptic accounts for the shaking of this tree by showing that
it is due to a peculiar formation in the structure of the aspen's
foliage. This may be so, but that peculiarity of structure was created
immediately after Christ's crucifixion, and was created as a memento,
for all time, of one of the most unpardonable murders on record.

There is something especially weird, too, in the ash; something that
suggests to my mind that it is particularly susceptible to superphysical
influences. I have often sat and listened to its groaning, and more than
once, at twilight, perceived the filmy outline of some fantastic figure
writhed around its slender trunk.

John Timbs, F.S.A., in his book of _Popular Errors_, published by
Crosby, Lockwood & Co. in 1880, quotes from a letter, dated 7th July
1606, thus: "It is stated that at Brampton, near Gainsborough, in
Lincolnshire, 'an ash tree shaketh in body and boughs thereof, sighing
and groaning like a man troubled in his sleep, as if it felt some
sensible torment. Many have climbed to the top of it, who heard the
groans more easily than they could below. But one among the rest, being
on the top thereof, spake to the tree; but presently came down much
aghast, and lay grovelling on the earth, three hours speechless. In the
end reviving, he said: "Brampton, Brampton, thou art much bound to
pray!"' The Earl of Lincoln caused one of the arms of the ash to be
lopped off and a hole bored through the body, and then was the sound, or
hollow voice, heard more audibly than before, but in a kind of speech
which they could not comprehend. This is the second wonderful ash
produced by past ages in this district--according to tradition,
Ethelreda's budding staff having shot out into the first." So says the
letter, and from my own experience of the ash, I am quite ready to
accredit it with special psychic properties, t