It was not long before we obtained rappings, and were enabled to repeat all the experiments which I had tried during my visit to the Fox family.  The spirits of our deceased relatives and friends announced themselves, and generally gave a correct account of their earthly lives.  I must confess, however, that, whenever we attempted to pry into the future, we usually received answers as ambiguous as those of the Grecian oracles, or predictions which failed to be realized.  Violent knocks or other unruly demonstrations would sometimes interrupt an intelligent communication which promised us some light on the other life:  these, we were told, were occasioned by evil or mischievous spirits, whose delight it was to create disturbances.  They never occurred, I now remember, except when Miss Fetters was present.  At the time, we were too much absorbed in our researches to notice the fact.

The reader will perceive, from what he knows of my previous mental state, that it was not difficult for me to accept the theories of the Spiritualists.  Here was an evidence of the immortality of the soul,—­nay, more, of its continued individuality through endless future existences.  The idea of my individuality being lost had been to me the same thing as complete annihilation.  The spirits themselves informed us that they had come to teach these truths.  The simple, ignorant faith of the Past, they said, was worn out; with the development of science, the mind of man had become skeptical; the ancient fountains no longer sufficed for his thirst; each new era required a new revelation; in all former ages there had been single minds pure enough and advanced enough to communicate with the dead and be the mediums of their messages to men, but now the time had come when the knowledge of this intercourse must be declared unto all; in its light the mysteries of the Past became clear; in the wisdom thus imparted, that happy Future which seems possible to every ardent and generous heart would be secured.  I was not troubled by the fact that the messages which proclaimed these things were often incorrectly spelt, that the grammar was bad and the language far from elegant.  I did not reflect that these new and sublime truths had formerly passed through my own brain as the dreams of a wandering imagination.  Like that American philosopher who looks upon one of his own neophytes as a man of great and profound mind because the latter carefully remembers and repeats to him his own carelessly uttered wisdom, I saw in these misty and disjointed reflections of my own thoughts the precious revelation of departed and purified spirits.