The Medium then proposed to attempt the experiment of causing the chair upon which Professor Thompson sat, to rise from the floor, without external agency other than that of the hand of the Medium on the back of the chair.  In answer to the question, ‘Will you try to lift the chair?’ the response was ‘Yes.’  Mr. Sellers, being requested to write a question on the back of the slate near him, wrote the following, ’What is the time?’ After some little time, during which the Medium furtively glanced at the slate, the answer was given, ‘A little after twelve.’

Upon being requested to open his left hand and hold it thus extended in a position beneath the top of the table to his left, Mr. Sellers complied with the request, when a slate, which had been held by the Medium under the opposite leaf, was passed across, and, after touching Mr. Sellers’s hand, fell to the floor.  After several repetitions, the slate was passed into Mr. Sellers’s hand, but the experiment was accompanied by a motion of the Medium which was evidently such as would have been made if the Medium had passed the slate across by his foot. [At his seances Dr. Slade wears slippers, into and out of which he can readily slip his feet.—­G.S.F.]

In answer to the question, ‘Are you ready to lift the gentleman?’ the response, in writing, was given, ‘Yes.’  Clasping the back of the chair firmly with his right hand, and approaching it close enough to enable him to place his knee under the seat of the chair, the Medium, after very considerable effort, caused the chair to rise from the floor an inch or two.  The physical strain on the part of the Medium was evident.

Professor Thompson, having obtained the permission of the Medium, wrote the following upon the slate, ’Can a Spirit, still in the body, write with a slate pencil without touching the pencil?’ After some delay, and frequent surreptitious glances at the slate by the Medium, the answer was, ‘Yes, we can tell.’  This trial not being satisfactory, the same question was repeated.  The answer, which was longer delayed than the one preceding it, was, ‘We can do so, if the conditions are favorable.’

Professor Thompson (interposing):  Do you remember the Medium’s remarks about the resistance of the Spirits?

Mr. Sellers:  I do.

Professor Thompson:  When he was pushing and pulling the slate, and meanwhile looking at it—­while moving it backward and forward—­the Medium remarked, ’There seems to be some kind of resistance; they don’t seem to know what to make of it’—­meaning that the Spirits were making some resistance to his moving the slate.

Mr. Sellers here resumed and completed the reading of his minutes, as follows: 

The experiment attempted on the second day, of causing a slate pencil to jump from a slate without any disturbance of the slate, was here repeated.  A line was drawn upon the slate, and upon this line a small bit of pencil was placed, the success of the experiment depending upon this small piece remaining immovable upon the line.  After several trials this was accomplished.  The experiment of playing an accordion beneath the table was next made, and in one instance the top of the instrument was thrown upon the table.