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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39718-8.txt b/39718-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e6ca41 --- /dev/null +++ b/39718-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8166 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, by Arthur Conan Doyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wanderings of a Spiritualist + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [EBook #39718] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. + Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected. + + + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ ON THE WARPATH IN + AUSTRALIA, 1920-21. + + + +_THE +WANDERINGS OF A +SPIRITUALIST_ + +BY +SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE + +AUTHOR OF +"THE NEW REVELATION," "THE VITAL MESSAGE," ETC. + +"Aggressive fighting for the right is +the noblest sport the world affords." + +_Theodore Roosevelt._ + +HODDER AND STOUGHTON +LIMITED LONDON + + + + +_By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE_ + + +THE NEW REVELATION + + Ninth Edition. Cloth, 5/. net.. Paper, 2/6 net. + + "This book is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's confession of faith, very + frank, very courageous and very resolute ... the courage and + large-mindedness of this book deserve cordial recognition."--DAILY + CHRONICLE. "It is a book that demands our respect and commands our + interest.... Much more likely to influence the opinion of the + general public than 'Raymond' or the long reports of the Society + for Psychical Research."--DAILY NEWS. + + +THE VITAL MESSAGE + + Tenth Thousand. Cloth, 5/. + + "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The New Revelation' was his confession + of faith. 'The Vital Message' seeks to show our future relations + with the Unseen World."--DAILY CHRONICLE. "... it is a clear, + earnest presentation of the case, and will serve as a useful + introduction to the subject to anyone anxious to learn what the new + Spiritualists claim for their researches and their faith.... Sir + Arthur writes with evident sincerity, and, within the limits of his + system, with much broad-mindedness and toleration."--DAILY + TELEGRAPH. "A splendid propaganda book, written in the author's + telling and racy style, and one that will add to his prestige and + renown."--TWO WORLDS. + + +SPIRITUALISM AND RATIONALISM + + + WITH A DRASTIC EXAMINATION OF MR. JOSEPH M'CABE + + Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's trenchant reply to the criticisms of + Spiritualism as formulated by Mr. Joseph M'Cabe. + Paper, 1/. net. + +_HODDER & STOUGHTON, Ltd., London, E.C.4_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +CHAPTER I 9 + +The inception of the enterprise.--The Merthyr Séance.--Experience +of British lectures.--Call from Australia.--The Holborn +luncheon.--Remarkable testimony to communication.--Is individual +proof necessary?--Excursion to Exeter.--Can Spiritualists continue +to be Christians?--Their views on Atonement.--The party on the +"Naldera." + +CHAPTER II 24 + +Gibraltar.--Spanish right versus British might.--Relics of +Barbary Rovers, and of German militarists.--Ichabod!--Senegal +Infantry.--No peace for the world.--Religion on a liner.--Differences +of vibration.--The Bishop of Kwang-Si.--Religion in China.--Whisky +in excelsis.--France's masterpiece.--British errors.--A procession +of giants.--The invasion of Egypt.--Tropical weather.--The +Russian Horror.--An Indian experiment.--Aden.--Bombay.--The +Lambeth encyclical. A great novelist.--The Mango trick.--Snakes.--The +Catamarans.--The Robber Castles of Ceylon.--Doctrine of +Reincarnation.--Whales and Whalers.--Perth.--The Bight. + +CHAPTER III 60 + +Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.--Challenges.--Mr. Carlyle +Smythe.--The Adelaide Press.--The great drought.--The wine +industry.--Clairvoyance.--Meeting with Bellchambers.--The +first lecture.--The effect.--The Religious lecture.--The +illustrated lecture.--Premonitions.--The spot light.--Mr. +Thomas' account of the incident.--Correspondence.--Adelaide +doctors.--A day in the Bush,--The Mallee fowl.--Sussex in +Australia.--Farewell to Adelaide. + +CHAPTER IV 84 + +Speculations on Paul and his Master.--Arrival at Melbourne.--Attack +in the Argus.--Partial press boycott.--Strength of the movement.--The +Prince of Wales.--Victorian football. Rescue Circle in +Melbourne.--Burke and Wills' statue.--Success of the +lectures.--Reception at the Auditorium.--Luncheon of the British +Empire League.--Mr. Ryan's experience.--The Federal Government.--Mr. +Hughes' personality.--The mediumship of Charles Bailey.--His alleged +exposure.--His remarkable record.--A test sitting.--The Indian +nest.--A remarkable lecture.--Arrival of Lord Forster.--The +future of the Empire.--Kindness of Australians.--Prohibition. +--Horse-racing.--Roman Catholic policy. + +CHAPTER V 114 + +More English than the English.--A day in the Bush.--Immigration.--A +case of spirit return.--A séance.--Geelong.--The lava +plain.--Good-nature of General Ryrie.--Bendigo.--Down a gold +mine.--Prohibition v. Continuance.--Mrs. Knight MacLellan. +--Nerrin.--A wild drive.--Electric shearing.--Rich sheep stations. +--Cockatoo farmers.--Spinnifex and Mallee.--Rabbits.--The +great marsh. + +CHAPTER VI 136 + +The Melbourne Cup.--Psychic healing.--M. J. Bloomfield.--My +own experience.--Direct healing.--Chaos and Ritual.--Government +House Ball.--The Rescue Circle again.--Sitting with Mrs. +Harris.--A good test case.--Australian botany.--The land of +myrtles.--English cricket team.--Great final meeting in Melbourne. + +CHAPTER VII 151 + +Great reception at Sydney.--Importance of Sydney.--Journalistic +luncheon.--A psychic epidemic.--Gregory.--Barracking.--Town +Hall reception.--Regulation of Spiritualism.--An ether +apport.--Surfing at Manly.--A challenge.--Bigoted opponents.--A +disgruntled photographer.--Outing in the harbour.--Dr. Mildred +Creed.--Leon Gellert.--Norman Lindsay.--Bishop Leadbeater.--Our +relations with Theosophy.--Incongruities of H.P.B.--Of D.D. Home. + + +CHAPTER VIII 176 + +Dangerous fog.--The six photographers.--Comic +Advertisements.--Beauties of Auckland.--A Christian +clergyman.--Shadows in our American relations.--The +Gallipoli Stone.--Stevenson and the Germans.--Position of +De Rougemont.--Mr. Clement Wragge.--Atlantean +theories.--A strange psychic.--Wellington the windy.--A +literary oasis.--A Maori séance.--Presentation. + +CHAPTER IX 198 + +The Anglican Colony.--Psychic dangers.--The learned dog.--Absurd +newspaper controversy.--A backward community.--The Maori +tongue.--Their origin.--Their treatment by the Empire.--A +fiasco.--The Pa of Kaiopoi.--Dr. Thacker.--Sir Joseph Kinsey.--A +generous collector.--Scott and Amundsen.--Dunedin.--A genuine +medium.--Evidence.--The Shipping strike.--Sir Oliver.--Farewell. + +CHAPTER X 223 + +Christian origins.--Mithraism.--Astronomy.--Exercising +boats.--Bad news from home.--Futile strikes.--Labour +Party.--The blue wilderness.--Journey to Brisbane.--Warm +reception.--Friends and Foes.--Psychic experience +of Dr. Doyle.--Birds.--Criticism on Melbourne--Spiritualist +Church.--Ceremony.--Sir Matthew Nathan.--Alleged repudiation of +Queensland.--Billy tea.--The bee farm.--Domestic service in +Australia.--Hon. John Fihilly.--Curious photograph by the State +photographer.--The "Orsova." + +CHAPTER XI 255 + +Medlow Bath.--Jenolan Caves.--Giant skeleton.--Mrs. +Foster Turner's mediumship.--A wonderful prophecy.--Final +results.--Third sitting with Bailey.--Failure of State +Control.--Retrospection.--Melbourne presentation.--Crooks.--Lecture +at Perth.--West Australia.--Rabbits, sparrows and sharks. + +CHAPTER XII 280 + +Pleasing letters.--Visit to Candy.--Snake and Flying Fox.--Buddha's +shrine.--The Malaya.--Naval digression.--Indian trader. +--Elephanta.--Sea snakes.--Chained to a tombstone.--Berlin's escape. +--Lord Chetwynd.--Lecture in the Red Sea.--Marseilles. + +CHAPTER XIII 303 + +The Institut Metaphysique.--Lecture in French.--Wonderful +musical improviser.--Camille Flammarion.--Test of materialised +hand.--Last ditch of materialism.--Sitting with Mrs. Bisson's medium, +Eva.--Round the Aisne battlefields.--A tragic intermezzo. +--Anglo-French Rugby match.--Madame Blifaud's clairvoyance. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +On the War-Path in Australia, 1920-1921 _Frontispiece_ + + _Facing page_ + +How This Book was Written 9 + +The God-Speed Luncheon in London. On this occasion +250 out of 290 Guests rose as testimony that they +were in Personal touch with their Dead 16 + +The Wanderers, 1920-1921 72 + +Bellchambers and the Mallee Fowl. "Get along with +you, do" 80 + +Melbourne, November, 1920 96 + +A Typical Australian Back-Country Scene by H. J. +Johnstone, a Great Painter Who Died Unknown. +Painting in Adelaide National Gallery 128 + +At Melbourne Town Hall, November 12th, 1920 144 + +The People of Turi's Canoe, after a Voyage of Great +Hardship, at last Sight the Shores of New Zealand. +From a Painting by C. F. Goldie and L. G. A. Steele 208 + +Laying Foundation Stone of Spiritualist Church at +Brisbane 240 + +Curious Photographic Effect referred to in Text. +Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane. +"Absolutely mystifying" is his Description 252 + +Our Party _en route_ to the Jenolan Caves, January 20th, +1921. In Front of Old Court House in which Bushrangers were +Tried 256 + +Denis with a Black Snake at Medlow Bath 264 + + + + + TO MY WIFE. + + + THIS MEMORIAL OF A JOURNEY WHICH + HER HELP AND PRESENCE CHANGED + FROM A DUTY TO A PLEASURE. + + A. C. D. + + _July 18/21._ + + + + Illustration: HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + The inception of the enterprise.--The Merthyr Séance.--Experience + of British lectures.--Call from Australia.--The Holborn + luncheon.--Remarkable testimony to communication.--Is individual + proof necessary?--Excursion to Exeter.--Can spiritualists continue + to be Christians?--Their views on Atonement.--The party on the + "Naldera." + + +This is an account of the wanderings of a spiritualist, geographical and +speculative. Should the reader have no interest in psychic things--if +indeed any human being can be so foolish as not to be interested in his +own nature and fate,--then this is the place to put the book down. It +were better also to end the matter now if you have no patience with a +go-as-you-please style of narrative, which founds itself upon the +conviction that thought may be as interesting as action, and which is +bound by its very nature to be intensely personal. I write a record of +what absorbs my mind which may be very different from that which appeals +to yours. But if you are content to come with me upon these terms then +let us start with my apologies in advance for the pages which may bore +you, and with my hopes that some may compensate you by pleasure or by +profit. I write these lines with a pad upon my knee, heaving upon the +long roll of the Indian Ocean, running large and grey under a grey +streaked sky, with the rain-swept hills of Ceylon, just one shade +greyer, lining the Eastern skyline. So under many difficulties it will +be carried on, which may explain if it does not excuse any slurring of a +style, which is at its best but plain English. + +There was one memorable night when I walked forth with my head throbbing +and my whole frame quivering from the villa of Mr. Southey at Merthyr. +Behind me the brazen glare of Dowlais iron-works lit up the sky, and in +front twinkled the many lights of the Welsh town. For two hours my wife +and I had sat within listening to the whispering voices of the dead, +voices which are so full of earnest life, and of desperate endeavours to +pierce the barrier of our dull senses. They had quivered and wavered +around us, giving us pet names, sweet sacred things, the intimate talk +of the olden time. Graceful lights, signs of spirit power had hovered +over us in the darkness. It was a different and a wonderful world. Now +with those voices still haunting our memories we had slipped out into +the material world--a world of glaring iron works and of twinkling +cottage windows. As I looked down on it all I grasped my wife's hand in +the darkness and I cried aloud, "My God, if they only knew--if they +could only know!" Perhaps in that cry, wrung from my very soul, lay the +inception of my voyage to the other side of the world. The wish to serve +was strong upon us both. God had given us wonderful signs, and they were +surely not for ourselves alone. + +I had already done the little I might. From the moment that I had +understood the overwhelming importance of this subject, and realised how +utterly it must change and chasten the whole thought of the world when +it is whole-heartedly accepted, I felt it good to work in the matter and +understood that all other work which I had ever done, or could ever do, +was as nothing compared to this. Therefore from the time that I had +finished the history of the Great War on which I was engaged, I was +ready to turn all my remaining energies of voice or hand to the one +great end. At first I had little of my own to narrate, and my task was +simply to expound the spiritual philosophy as worked out by the thoughts +and experiences of others, showing folk so far as I was able, that the +superficial and ignorant view taken of it in the ordinary newspapers did +not touch the heart of the matter. My own experiences were limited and +inconclusive, so that it was the evidence of others which I quoted. But +as I went forward signs were given in profusion to me also, such signs +as were far above all error or deception, so that I was able to speak +with that more vibrant note which comes not from belief or faith, but +from personal experience and knowledge. I had found that the wonderful +literature of Spiritualism did not reach the people, and that the press +was so full of would-be jocosities and shallow difficulties that the +public were utterly misled. Only one way was left, which was to speak to +the people face to face. This was the task upon which I set forth, and +it had led me to nearly every considerable city of Great Britain from +Aberdeen to Torquay. Everywhere I found interest, though it varied from +the heavier spirit of the sleepy cathedral towns to the brisk reality of +centres of life and work like Glasgow or Wolverhampton. Many a time my +halls were packed, and there were as many outside as inside the +building. I have no eloquence and make profession of none, but I am +audible and I say no more than I mean and can prove, so that my +audiences felt that it was indeed truth so far as I could see it, which +I conveyed. Their earnestness and receptiveness were my great help and +reward in my venture. Those who had no knowledge of what my views were +assembled often outside my halls, waving banners and distributing +tracts, but never once in the course of addressing 150,000 people, did I +have disturbance in my hall. I tried, while never flinching from truth, +to put my views in such a way as to hurt no one's feelings, and although +I have had clergymen of many denominations as my chairmen, I have had +thanks from them and no remonstrance. My enemies used to follow and +address meetings, as they had every right to do, in the same towns. It +is curious that the most persistent of these enemies were Jesuits on the +one side and Evangelical sects of the Plymouth Brethren type upon the +other. I suppose the literal interpretation of the Old Testament was the +common bond. + +However this is digression, and when the digressions are taken out of +this book there will not be much left. I get back to the fact that the +overwhelming effect of the Merthyr Séance and of others like it, made my +wife and myself feel that when we had done what we could in Britain we +must go forth to further fields. Then came the direct invitation from +spiritual bodies in Australia. I had spent some never-to-be-forgotten +days with Australian troops at the very crisis of the war. My heart was +much with them. If my message could indeed bring consolation to bruised +hearts and to bewildered minds--and I had boxes full of letters to show +that it did--then to whom should I carry it rather than to those who had +fought so splendidly and lost so heavily in the common cause? I was a +little weary also after three years of incessant controversy, speaking +often five times a week, and continually endeavouring to uphold the +cause in the press. The long voyage presented attractions, even if there +was hard work at the end of it. There were difficulties in the way. +Three children, boys of eleven and nine, with a girl of seven, all +devotedly attached to their home and their parents, could not easily be +left behind. If they came a maid was also necessary. The pressure upon +me of correspondence and interviews would be so great that my old friend +and secretary, Major Wood, would be also needed. Seven of us in all +therefore, and a cheque of sixteen hundred pounds drawn for our return +tickets, apart from outfit, before a penny could be entered on the +credit side. However, Mr. Carlyle Smythe, the best agent in Australia, +had taken the matter up, and I felt that we were in good hands. The +lectures would be numerous, controversies severe, the weather at its +hottest, and my own age over sixty. But there are compensating forces, +and I was constantly aware of their presence. I may count our adventures +as actually beginning from the luncheon which was given us in farewell a +week or so before our sailing by the spiritualists of England. Harry +Engholm, most unselfish of men, and a born organiser among our most +unorganised crowd, had the matter in hand, so it was bound to be a +success. There was sitting room at the Holborn Restaurant for 290 +people, and it was all taken up three weeks before the event. The +secretary said that he could have filled the Albert Hall. It was an +impressive example of the solidity of the movement showing itself for +the moment round us, but really round the cause. There were peers, +doctors, clergymen, officers of both services, and, above all, those +splendid lower middle class folk, if one talks in our material earth +terms, who are the spiritual peers of the nation. Many professional +mediums were there also, and I was honoured by their presence, for as I +said in my remarks, I consider that in these days of doubt and sorrow, a +genuine professional medium is the most useful member of the whole +community. Alas! how few they are! Four photographic mediums do I know +in all Britain, with about twelve physical phenomena mediums and as many +really reliable clairvoyants. What are these among so many? But there +are many amateur mediums of various degrees, and the number tends to +increase. Perhaps there will at last be an angel to every church as in +the days of John. I see dimly the time when two congregations, the +living and those who have passed on, shall move forward together with +the medium angel as the bridge between them. + +It was a wonderful gathering, and I only wish I could think that my own +remarks rose to the height of the occasion. However, I did my best and +spoke from my heart. I told how the Australian visit had arisen, and I +claimed that the message that I would carry was the most important that +the mind of man could conceive, implying as it did the practical +abolition of death, and the reinforcement of our present religious views +by the actual experience of those who have made the change from the +natural to the spiritual bodies. Speaking of our own experiences, I +mentioned that my wife and I had actually spoken face to face beyond all +question or doubt with eleven friends or relatives who had passed over, +their direct voices being in each case audible, and their conversation +characteristic and evidential--in some cases marvellously so. Then with +a sudden impulse I called upon those in the audience who were prepared +to swear that they had had a similar experience to stand up and testify. +It seemed for a moment as if the whole audience were on their feet. _The +Times_ next day said 250 out of 290 and I am prepared to accept that +estimate. Men and women, of all professions and social ranks--I do not +think that I exaggerated when I said that it was the most remarkable +demonstration that I had ever seen and that nothing like it had ever +occurred in the City of London. + +It was vain for those journals who tried to minimise it to urge that in +a Baptist or a Unitarian assembly all would have stood up to testify to +their own faith. No doubt they would, but this was not a case of faith, +it was a case of bearing witness to fact. There were people of all +creeds, Church, dissent, Unitarian and ex-materialists. They were +testifying to an actual objective experience as they might have +testified to having seen the lions in Trafalgar Square. If such a public +agreement of evidence does not establish a fact then it is indeed +impossible, as Professor Challis remarked long ago, to prove a thing by +any human testimony whatever. I confess that I was amazed. When I +remember how many years it was before I myself got any final personal +proofs I should have thought that the vast majority of Spiritualists +were going rather upon the evidence of others than upon their own. And +yet 250 out of 290 had actually joined hands across the border. I had no +idea that the direct proof was so widely spread. + +I have always held that people insist too much upon direct proof. What +direct proof have we of most of the great facts of Science? We simply +take the word of those who have examined. How many of us have, for +example, seen the rings of Saturn? We are assured that they are there, +and we accept the assurance. Strong telescopes are rare, and so we do +not all expect to see the rings with our own eyes. In the same way +strong mediums are rare, and we cannot all expect to experience the +higher psychic results. But if the assurance of those who have carefully +experimented, of the Barretts, the Hares, the Crookes, the Wallaces, the +Lodges and the Lombrosos, is not enough, then it is manifest that we are +dealing with this matter on different terms to those which we apply to +all the other affairs of science. It would of course be different if +there were a school of patient investigators who had gone equally deeply +into the matter and come to opposite conclusions. Then we should +certainly have to find the path of truth by individual effort. But such +a school does not exist. Only the ignorant and inexperienced are in +total opposition, and the humblest witness who has really sought the +evidence has more weight than they. + + Illustration: THE GOD-SPEED LUNCHEON IN LONDON. On this occasion + 250 out of 290 guests rose as testimony that they were in personal + touch with their dead. + +After the luncheon my wife made the final preparations--and only ladies +can tell what it means to fit out six people with tropical and +semi-tropical outfits which will enable them for eight months to stand +inspection in public. I employed the time by running down to Devonshire +to give addresses at Exeter and Torquay, with admirable audiences at +both. Good Evan Powell had come down to give me a last séance, and I had +the joy of a few last words with my arisen son, who blessed me on my +mission and assured me that I would indeed bring solace to bruised +hearts. The words he uttered were a quotation from my London speech at +which Powell had not been present, nor had the verbatim account of it +appeared anywhere at that time. It was one more sign of how closely our +words and actions are noted from the other side. Powell was tired, +having given a sitting the night before, so the proceedings were short, +a few floating lights, my son and my sister's son to me, one or two +greetings to other sitters, and it was over. + +Whilst in Exeter I had a discussion with those who would break away from +Christianity. They are a strong body within the movement, and how can +Christians be surprised at it when they remember that for seventy years +they have had nothing but contempt and abuse for the true light-bearers +of the world? Is there at the present moment one single bishop, or one +head of a Free Church, who has the first idea of psychic truth? Dr. +Parker had, in his day, so too Archdeacons Wilberforce and Colley, Mr. +Haweis and a few others. General Booth has also testified to spiritual +communion with the dead. But what have Spiritualists had in the main +save misrepresentation and persecution? Hence the movement has +admittedly, so far as it is an organised religion--and it has already +360 churches and 1,000 building funds--taken a purely Unitarian turn. +This involves no disrespect towards Him Whom they look upon as the +greatest Spirit who ever trod the earth, but only a deep desire to +communicate direct without intermediary with that tremendous centre of +force from and to whom all things radiate or return. They are very +earnest and good men, these organised religious Spiritualists, and for +the most part, so far as my experience goes, are converts from +materialism who, having in their materialistic days said very properly +that they would believe nothing which could not be proved to them, are +ready now with Thomas to be absolutely wholehearted when the proof of +survival and spirit communion has actually reached them. There, however, +the proof ends, nor will they go further than the proof extends, as +otherwise their original principles would be gone. Therefore they are +Unitarians with a breadth of vision which includes Christ, Krishna, +Buddha and all the other great spirits whom God has sent to direct +different lines of spiritual evolution which correspond to the different +needs of the various races of mankind. Our information from the beyond +is that this evolution is continued beyond the grave, and very far on +until all details being gradually merged, they become one as children of +God. With a deep reverence for Christ it is undeniable that the +organised Spiritualist does not accept vicarious atonement nor original +sin, and believes that a man reaps as he sows with no one but himself to +pull out the weeds. It seems to me the more virile and manly doctrine, +and as to the texts which seem to say otherwise, we cannot deny that the +New Testament has been doctored again and again in order to square the +record of the Scriptures with the practice of the Church. Professor +Nestle, in the preface to a work on theology (I write far from books of +reference), remarks that there were actually officials named +"Correctores," who were appointed at the time of the Council of Nicæa +for this purpose, and St. Jerome, when he constructed the Vulgate, +complains to Pope Damasus that it is practically a new book that he is +making, putting any sin arising upon the Pope's head. In the face of +such facts we can only accept the spirit of the New Testament fortified +with common sense, and using such interpretation as brings most +spiritual strength to each of us. Personally, I accept the view of the +organised Spiritual religion, for it removes difficulties which formerly +stood between me and the whole Christian system, but I would not say or +do anything which would abash those others who are getting real +spiritual help from any sort of Christian belief. The gaining of +spirituality and widening of the personality are the aims of life, and +how it is done is the business of the individual. Every creed has +produced its saints and has to that extent justified its existence. I +like the Unitarian position of the main Spiritual body, however, because +it links the movement up with the other great creeds of the world and +makes it more accessible to the Jew, the Mohammedan or the Buddhist. It +is far too big to be confined within the palings of Christianity. + +Here is a little bit of authentic teaching from the other side which +bears upon the question. I take it from the remarkable record of Mr. +Miller of Belfast, whose dialogues with his son after the death of the +latter seem to me to be as certainly true as any case which has come to +my notice. On asking the young soldier some question about the exact +position of Christ in religion he modestly protested that such a +subject was above his head, and asked leave to bring his higher guide to +answer the question. Using a fresh voice and in a new and more weighty +manner the medium then said:-- + +"I wish to answer your question. Jesus the Christ is the proper +designation. Jesus was perfect humanity. Christ was the God idea in Him. +Jesus, on account of His purity, manifested in the highest degree the +psychic powers which resulted in His miracles. Jesus never preached the +blood of the lamb. The disciples after His ascension forgot the message +in admiration of the man. The Christ is in every human being, and so are +the psychic forces which were used by Jesus. If the same attention were +given to spiritual development which you give to the comfort and growth +of your material bodies your progress in spiritual life would be rapid +and would be characterised by the same works as were performed by Jesus. +The one essential thing for all on earth to strive after is a fuller +knowledge and growth in spiritual living." + +I think that the phrase, "In their admiration of the man they forgot His +message," is as pregnant a one as I ever heard. + +To come back then to the discussion at Exeter, what I said then and feel +now is that every Spiritualist is free to find his own path, and that as +a matter of fact his typical path is a Unitarian one, but that this in +no way obscures the fact that our greatest leaders, Lodge, Barrett, +Ellis Powell, Tweedale, are devoted sons of the Church, that our +literature is full of Christian aspiration, and that our greatest +prophet, Vale Owen, is a priest of a particularly sacerdotal turn of +mind. We are in a transition stage, and have not yet found any common +theological position, or any common position at all, save that the dead +carry on, that they do not change, that they can under proper physical +conditions communicate with us, and that there are many physical signs +by which they make their presence known to us. That is our common +ground, and all beyond that is matter of individual observation and +inference. Therefore, we are not in a position to take on any +anti-Christian agitation, for it would be against the conscience of the +greater part of our own people. + +Well, it is clear that if I do not begin my book I shall finish it +before I have begun, so let me end this chapter by saying that in +despite of all superstition we started for Australia in the good ship +"Naldera" (Capt. Lewellin, R.N.R.), on Friday, August 13th, 1920. As we +carried two bishops in addition to our ominous dates we were foredoomed +by every nautical tradition. Our party were my dear, splendid wife, who +has shared both my evidence and my convictions. She it is who, by +breaking up her household, leaving her beloved home, breaking the +schooling of her children, and venturing out upon a sea voyage, which of +all things she hates, has made the real sacrifice for the cause. As to +me, I am fond of change and adventure, and heartily agree with President +Roosevelt when he said that the grandest sport upon earth is to champion +an unpopular cause which you know to be true. With us were Denis, +Malcolm and Baby, concerning whom I wrote the "Three of them" sketches +some years ago. In their train was Jakeman, most faithful of maids, and +in mine Major Wood, who has been mixed up in my life ever since as young +men we played both cricket and football in the same team. Such was the +little party who set forth to try and blow that smouldering glow of +truth which already existed in Australia, into a more lively flame. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + Gibraltar.--Spanish right versus British might.--Relics of Barbary + Rovers, and of German militarists.--Ichabod! Senegal Infantry.--No + peace for the world.--Religion on a liner.--Differences of + vibration.--The Bishop of Kwang-Si.--Religion in China.--Whisky in + excelsis.--France's masterpiece.--British errors.--A procession of + giants.--The invasion of Egypt.--Tropical weather.--The Russian + Horror.--An Indian experiment.--Aden.--Bombay.--The Lambeth + encyclical.--A great novelist.--The Mango trick.--Snakes.--The + Catamarans.--The Robber Castles of Ceylon.--Doctrine of + Reincarnation.--Whales and Whalers.--Perth.--The Bight. + + +We had a favourable journey across the Bay and came without adventure to +Gibraltar, that strange crag, Arabic by name, African in type, Spanish +by right, and British by might. I trust that my whole record has shown +me to be a loyal son of the Empire, and I recognise that we must have a +secure line of communications with the East, but if any change could +give us Ceuta, on the opposite African coast, instead of this outlying +corner of proud old Spain, it would be good policy as well as good +morality to make the change. I wonder how we should like it if the +French held a garrison at Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, which would be +a very similar situation. Is it worth having a latent enemy who at any +time might become an active one, or is it wiser to hold them to us by +the memory of a great voluntary act of justice? They would pay, of +course, for all quays, breakwaters and improvements, which would give us +the money to turn Ceuta into a worthy substitute, which could be held +without offending the pride of a great nation, as old and proud as +ourselves. The whole lesson of this great war is that no nation can do +what is unjust with impunity, and that sooner or later one's sin will +find one out. How successful seemed all the scheming of Frederick of +Prussia! But what of Silesia and of Poland now? Only on justice can you +build with a permanent foundation, and there is no justice in our tenure +of Gibraltar. We had only an hour ashore, a great joy to the children, +and carried away a vague impression of grey-shirted Tommies, swarthy +loungers, one long, cobblestoned street, scarlet blossoms, and a fine +Governor's house, in which I picture that brave old warrior, +Smith-Dorrien, writing a book which will set all the critics talking, +and the military clubs buzzing a year or two from now. I do not know if +he was really forced to fight at Le Cateau, though our sympathies must +always go to the man who fights, but I do feel that if he had had his +way and straightened the salient of Ypres, there would have been a +mighty saving of blood and tears. There were sentimental reasons against +it, but I can think of no material ones--certainly none which were worth +all the casualties of the Salient. I had only one look at the place, and +that by night, but never shall I forget the murderous loop, outlined by +star shells, nor the horrible noises which rose up from that place of +wrath and misery. + +On August 19th we were running up the eastern Spanish coast, a most +desolate country of high bare cliffs and barren uplands, studded with +aged towers which told of pirate raids of old. These Mediterranean shore +dwellers must have had a hellish life, when the Barbary Rover was +afloat, and they might be wakened any night by the Moslem yell. Truly, +if the object of human life was chastening by suffering, then we have +given it to each other in full measure. If this were the only life I do +not know how the hypothesis of the goodness of God could be sustained, +since our history has been one hardly broken record of recurring +miseries, war, famine, and disease, from the ice to the equator. I +should still be a materialist, as I was of yore, if it were not for the +comfort and teaching from beyond, which tells me that this is the +worst--far the worst--and that by its standard everything else becomes +most gloriously better, so long as we help to make it so. "If the boys +knew what it was like over here," said a dead soldier, "they would just +jump for it." He added however, "If they did that they would surely miss +it." We cannot bluff Providence, or short-circuit things to our liking. + +We got ashore once more at Marseilles. I saw converted German merchant +ships, with names like "Burgomeister Müller," in the harbour, and +railway trucks with "Mainz-Cöln" still marked upon their flanks--part +of the captured loot. Germany, that name of terror, how short is the +time since we watched you well-nigh all-powerful, mighty on land, +dangerous on the sea, conquering the world with your commerce and +threatening it with your arms! You had everything, numbers, discipline, +knowledge, industry, bravery, organisation, all in the highest--such an +engine as the world has never seen. And now--Ichabod! Ichabod! Your +warships lie under the waves, your liners fly the flags of your enemies, +your mother Rhine on either bank hears the bugles of your invaders. What +was wanting in you to bring you to such a pass? Was it not spirituality? +Had not your churches become as much a department of State as the Post +Office, where every priest and pastor was in State pay, and said that +which the State ordained? All other life was at its highest, but +spiritual life was dead, and because it was dead all the rest had taken +on evil activities which could only lead to dissolution and corruption. +Had Germany obeyed the moral law would she not now be great and +flourishing, instead of the ruin which we see? Was ever such an object +lesson in sin and its consequence placed before the world? But let us +look to it, for we also have our lesson to learn, and our punishment is +surely waiting if we do not learn it. If now after such years we sink +back into old ruts and do not make an earnest effort for real religion +and real active morality, then we cumber the ground, and it is time that +we were swept away, for no greater chance of reform can ever come to +us. + +I saw some of the Senegal troops in the streets of Marseilles--a whole +battalion of them marching down for re-embarkation. They are fierce, +hard soldiers, by the look of them, for the negro is a natural fighter, +as the prize ring shows, and these have long service training upon the +top of this racial pugnacity. They look pure savages, with the tribal +cuts still upon their faces, and I do not wonder that the Germans +objected to them, though we cannot doubt that the Germans would +themselves have used their Askaris in Europe as well as in Africa if +they could have done so. The men who had as allies the murderers of the +Armenians would not stick at trifles. I said during the war, and I can +clearly see now, that the way in which the war was fought will prove +hardly second to the war itself as a misfortune to the human race. A +clean war could end in a clean peace. But how can we ever forget the +poison gas, the Zeppelin bombardments of helpless cities, the submarine +murders, the scattering of disease germs, and all the other atrocities +of Germany? No water of oblivion can ever wash her clean. She had one +chance, and only one. It was to at once admit it all herself and to set +to work purging her national guilt by punishing guilty individuals. +Perhaps she may even now save herself and clear the moral atmosphere of +the world by doing this. But time passes and the signs are against it. +There can be no real peace in the world until voluntary reparation has +been made. Forced reparation can only make things worse, for it cannot +satisfy us, and it must embitter them. I long for real peace, and +should love to see our Spiritualist bodies lead the van. But the time is +not yet and it is realities we need, not phrases. + +Old travellers say that they never remember the Mediterranean so hot. We +went down it with a following breeze which just neutralised our own head +wind, the result being a quivering tropical heat. With the Red Sea +before us it was no joke to start our trials so soon, and already the +children began to wilt. However, Major Wood kept them at work for the +forenoons and discipline still flourished. On the third day out we were +south of Crete, and saw an island lying there which is surely the same +in the lee of which Paul's galley took refuge when Euroclydon was +behaving so badly. I had been asked to address the first-class +passengers upon psychic religion that evening, and it was strange indeed +to speak in those waters, for I knew well that however ill my little +pip-squeak might compare with that mighty voice, yet it was still the +same battle of the unseen against the material, raging now as it did +2,000 years ago. Some 200 of the passengers, with the Bishop of +Kwang-Si, turned up, and a better audience one could not wish, though +the acoustic properties of the saloon were abominable. However, I got it +across, though I was as wet as if I had fallen overboard when I had +finished. I was pleased to learn afterwards that among the most keen of +my audience were every colored man and woman on the ship, Parsees, +Hindoos, Japanese and Mohammedans. + +"Do you believe it is true?" they were asked next day. + +"We _know_ that it is true," was the answer, and it came from a lady +with a red caste-mark like a wafer upon her forehead. So far as I could +learn she spoke for all the Eastern folk. + +And the others? At least I set them talking and thinking. I heard next +morning of a queue of six waiting at the barber's all deep in +theological discussion, with the barber himself, razor in hand, joining +warmly in. "There has never been so much religion talked on a P. & O. +ship since the line was started," said one old traveller. It was all +good-humoured and could do no harm. Before we had reached Port Said all +my books on the subject were lent out to eager readers, and I was being +led aside into remote corners and cross-questioned all day. I have a +number of good psychic photographs with me, some of them of my own +taking, and all of them guaranteed, and I find these valuable as making +folk realise that my words do in truth represent realities. I have the +famous fairy photos also, which will appear in England in the Christmas +number of the _Strand_. I feel as if it were a delay-action mine which I +had left behind me. I can imagine the cry of "Fake!" which will arise. +But they will stand investigation. It has of course nothing to do with +Spiritualism proper, but everything which can shake the mind out of +narrow, material grooves, and make it realise that endless worlds +surround us, separated only by difference of vibration, must work in the +general direction of truth. + +"Difference of Vibration"--I have been trying lately to get behind mere +words and to realise more clearly what this may mean. It is a +fascinating and fruitful line of thought. It begins with my electric fan +whizzing over my head. As it starts with slow vibration I see the little +propellers. Soon they become a dim mist, and finally I can see them no +more. But they are there. At any moment, by slowing the movement, I can +bring them back to my vision. Why do I not see it all the time? Because +the impression is so fast that my retina has not time to register it. +Can we not imagine then that some objects may emit the usual light +waves, long enough and slow enough to leave a picture, but that other +objects may send waves which are short and steep, and therefore make so +swift an impression that it is not recorded? That, so far as I can +follow it, is what we mean by an object with a higher rate of vibration. +It is but a feeling out into the dark, but it is a hypothesis which may +serve us to carry on with, though the clairvoyant seems to be not a +person with a better developed physical retina, but rather one who has +the power to use that which corresponds with the retina in their own +etheric bodies which are in harmony with etheric waves from outside. +When a man can walk round a room and examine the pictures with the back +of his head, as Tom Tyrrell has done, it is clear that it is not his +physical retina which is working. In countless cases inquirers into +magnetic phenomena have caused their subjects to read with various parts +of their bodies. It is the other body, the etheric body, the +"spiritual" body of Paul, which lies behind all such phenomena--that +body which is loose with all of us in sleep, but only exceptionally in +waking hours. Once we fully understand the existence of that deathless +etheric body, merged in our own but occasionally detachable, we have +mastered many a problem and solved many a ghost story. + +However, I must get back to my Cretan lecture. The bishop was +interested, and I lent him one of the Rev. Charles Tweedale's pamphlets +next day, which shows how sadly Christianity has wandered away from its +early faith of spiritual gifts and Communion of Saints. Both have now +become words instead of things, save among our ranks. The bishop is a +good fellow, red and rough like a Boer farmer, but healthy, breezy, and +Apostolic. "Do mention his kind grey eyes," says my wife. He may die a +martyr yet in that inland diocese of China--and he would not shrink from +it. Meanwhile, apart from his dogma, which must be desperately difficult +to explain to an educated Chinaman, he must always be a centre of +civilisation and social effort. A splendid fellow--but he suffers from +what all bishops and all cardinals and all Popes suffer from, and that +is superannuation. A physiologist has said that few men can ever +entertain a new idea after fifty. How then can any church progress when +all its leaders are over that age? This is why Christianity has +stagnated and degenerated. If here and there one had a new idea, how +could it survive the pressure of the others? It is hopeless. In this +particular question of psychic religion the whole order is an +inversion, for the people are ahead of the clergy and the clergy of the +bishops. But when the laymen lead strongly enough the others will follow +unless they wish to see the whole Church organisation dissolve. + +He was very interesting upon the state of Christianity in China. +Protestantism, thanks to the joint British and American Missions, is +gaining upon Roman Catholicism, and has now far outstripped it, but the +Roman Catholic organisations are very wealthy on account of ancient +valuable concessions and well-invested funds. In case of a Bolshevist +movement that may be a source of danger, as it gives a reason for +attack. The Bishop made the very striking remark that if the whites +cleared right out of China all the Christian Churches of divers creeds +would within a generation merge into one creed. "What have we to do," +they say, "with these old historical quarrels which are hardly +intelligible to us? We are all followers of Christ, and that is enough." +Truly, the converted seem far ahead of those who converted them. It is +the priesthoods, the organisations, the funds and the vested interests +which prevent the Churches from being united. In the meanwhile ninety +per cent. of our population shows what it thinks by never entering into +a church at all. Personally, I can never remember since I reached +manhood feeling myself the better for having gone into one. And yet I +have been an earnest seeker for truth. Verily, there is something deep +down which is rotten. It is want of fact, want of reality, words +instead of things. Only last Sunday I shuddered as I listened to the +hymns, and it amazed me to look around and see the composed faces of +those who were singing them. Do they think what they are saying, or does +Faith atrophy some part of the brain? We are "born through water and +blood into the true church." We drink precious blood. "He hath broken +the teeth in their jaw." Can such phrases really mean anything to any +thoughtful man? If not, why continue them? You will have your churches +empty while you do. People will not argue about it--they will, and do, +simply stay away. And the clergy go on stating and restating incredible +unproved things, while neglecting and railing at those which could be +proved and believed. On our lines those nine out of ten could be forced +back to a reconsideration of their position, even though that position +would not square with all the doctrines of present-day Christianity, +which would, I think, have offended the early Christians as much as it +does the earnest thinkers of to-day. + +Port Said came at last, and we entered the Suez Canal. It is a shocking +thing that the entrance to this, one of the most magnificent of the +works of man, are flanked by great sky advertisements of various brands +of whisky. The sale of whisky may or may not be a tolerable thing, but +its flaunting advertisements, Dewar, Johnny Walker, and the rest, have +surely long been intolerable. If anything would make me a total +prohibitionist those would. They are shameless. I do not know if some +middle way could be found by which light alcoholic drinks could +remain--so light that drunkenness would be hardly possible--but if this +cannot be done, then let us follow the noble example of America. It is +indeed shameful to see at the very point of the world where some noble +sentiment might best be expressed these huge reminders of that which has +led to so much misery and crime. To a Frenchman it must seem even worse +than to us, while what the abstemious Mohammedan can think is beyond my +imagination. In that direction at least the religion of Mohammed has +done better than that of Christ. If all those Esquimaux, South Sea +Islanders and others who have been converted to Christianity and then +debauched by drink, had followed the prophet instead, it cannot be +denied that their development would have been a happier and a higher +one, though the cast-iron doctrines and dogmas of the Moslem have +dangers of their own. + +Has France ever had the credit she deserves for the splendid faith with +which she followed that great beneficent genius Lesseps in his wonderful +work? It is beautiful from end to end, French in its neatness, its +order, its exquisite finish. Truly the opposition of our people, both +experts and public, was a disgrace to us, though it sinks into +insignificance when compared with our colossal national stupidity over +the Channel tunnel. When our descendants compute the sums spent in +shipping and transhipping in the great war, the waste of merchant ships +and convoys, the sufferings of the wounded, the delay in +reinforcements, the dependence upon the weather, they will agree that +our sin had found us out and that we have paid a fitting price for our +stupidity. Unhappily, it was not our blind guides who paid it, but it +was the soldier and sailor and taxpayer, for the nation always pays +collectively for the individual blunder. Would a hundred million pounds +cover the cost of that one? Well can I remember how a year before war +was declared, seeing clearly what was coming, I sent three memoranda to +the Naval and Military authorities and to the Imperial Council of +Defence pointing out exactly what the situation would be, and especially +the danger to our transports. It is admitted now that it was only the +strange inaction of the German light forces, and especially their want +of comprehension of the possibilities of the submarine, which enabled +our Expeditionary Force to get across at all, so that we might have lost +the war within the first month. But as to my poor memoranda, which +proved so terribly correct, I might as well have dropped them into my +own wastepaper basket instead of theirs, and so saved the postage. My +only convert was Captain, now General, Swinton, part inventor of the +tanks, who acted as Secretary to the Imperial Defence Committee, and who +told me at the time that my paper had set him thinking furiously. + +Which leads my thoughts to the question of the torpedoing of merchant +vessels by submarines. So sure was I that the Germans would do this, +that after knocking at official doors in vain, I published a sketch +called "Danger," which was written a year before the war, and depicted +all that afterwards occurred, even down to such small details as the +ships zig-zagging up Channel to escape, and the submarines using their +guns to save torpedoes. I felt as if, like Solomon Eagle, I could have +marched down Fleet Street with a brazier on my head if I could only call +people's attention to the coming danger. I saw naval officers on the +point, but they were strangely blind, as is shown by the comments +printed at the end of "Danger," which give the opinions of several +admirals pooh-poohing my fears. Among others I saw Captain Beatty, as he +then was, and found him alive to the possible danger, though he did not +suggest a remedy. His quiet, brisk personality impressed me, and I felt +that our national brain-errors might perhaps be made good in the end by +the grit that is in us. But how hard were our tasks from our want of +foresight. Admiral Von Capelle did me the honour to say during the war, +in the German Reichstag, that I was the only man who had prophesied the +conditions of the great naval war. As a matter of fact, both Fisher and +Scott had done so, though they had not given it to the public in the +same detail--but nothing had been done. We know now that there was not a +single harbour proof against submarines on our whole East Coast. Truly +the hand of the Lord was over England. Nothing less could have saved +her. + +We tied up to the bank soon after entering the Canal, and lay there most +of the night while a procession of great ships moving northwards swept +silently past us in the ring of vivid light cast by their searchlights +and our own. I stayed on deck most of the night to watch them. The +silence was impressive--those huge structures sweeping past with only +the slow beat of their propellers and the wash of their bow wave on +either side. No sooner had one of these great shapes slid past than, +looking down the Canal, one saw the brilliant head light of another in +the distance. They are only allowed to go at the slowest pace, so that +their wash may not wear away the banks. Finally, the last had passed, +and we were ourselves able to cast off our warps and push southwards. I +remained on deck seeing the sun rise over the Eastern desert, and then a +wonderful slow-moving panorama of Egypt as the bank slid slowly past us. +First desert, then green oases, then the long line of rude +fortifications from Kantara downwards, with the camp fires smoking, +groups of early busy Tommies and endless dumps of stores. Here and to +the south was the point where the Turks with their German leaders +attempted the invasion of Egypt, carrying flat-bottomed boats to ford +the Canal. How they were ever allowed to get so far is barely +comprehensible, but how they were ever permitted to get back again +across one hundred miles of desert in the face of our cavalry and +camelry is altogether beyond me. Even their guns got back untaken. They +dropped a number of mines in the Canal, but with true Turkish +slovenliness they left on the banks at each point the long bamboos on +which they had carried them across the desert, which considerably +lessened the work of those who had to sweep them up. The sympathies of +the Egyptians seems to have been against us, and yet they have no desire +to pass again under the rule of the Turk. Our dominion has had the +effect of turning a very poor country into a very rich one, and of +securing some sort of justice for the fellah or peasant, but since we +get no gratitude and have no trade preference it is a little difficult +to see how we are the better for all our labours. So long as the Canal +is secure--and it is no one's interest to injure it--we should be better +if the country governed itself. We have too many commitments, and if we +have to take new ones, such as Mesopotamia, it would be well to get rid +of some of the others where our task is reasonably complete. "We never +let the youngsters grow up," said a friendly critic. There is, however, +I admit, another side to the question, and the idea of permitting a +healthy moral place like Port Said to relapse into the hotbed of +gambling and syphilis which it used to be, is repugnant to the mind. +Which is better--that a race be free, immoral and incompetent, or that +it be forced into morality and prosperity? That question meets us at +every turn. + +The children have been delighted by the fish on the surface of the +Canal. Their idea seems to be that the one aim and object of our +excursion is to see sharks in the sea and snakes in Australia. We did +actually see a shark half ashore upon a sandbank in one of the lower +lakes near Suez. It was lashing about with a frantic tail, and so got +itself off into deep water. To the west all day we see the very wild and +barren country through which our ancestors used to drive upon the +overland route when they travelled by land from Cairo to Suez. The smoke +of a tiny mail-train marks the general line of that most desolate road. +In the evening we were through the Canal and marked the rugged shore +upon our left down which the Israelites pursued their way in the +direction of Sinai. One wonders how much truth there is in the +narrative. On the one hand it is impossible to doubt that something of +the sort did occur. On the other, the impossibility of so huge a crowd +living on the rare wells of the desert is manifest. But numbers are not +the strong point of an Oriental historian. Perhaps a thousand or two may +have followed their great leader upon that perilous journey. I have +heard that Moses either on his own or through his wife was in touch with +Babylonian habits. This would explain those tablets of stone, or of +inscribed clay burned into brick, which we receive as the Ten +Commandments, and which only differ from the moral precepts of other +races in the strange limitations and omissions. At least ten new ones +have long been needed to include drunkenness, gluttony, pride, envy, +bigotry, lying and the rest. + +The weather grows hotter and hotter, so that one aged steward who has +done 100 voyages declares it to be unique. One passenger has died. +Several stewards have collapsed. The wind still keeps behind us. In the +midst of all this I had an extensively signed petition from the second +class passengers that I should address them. I did so, and spoke on deck +for forty minutes to a very attentive audience which included many of +the officers of the ship. I hope I got my points across to them. I was a +sad example of sweated labour when I had finished. My wife tells me that +the people were impressed. As I am never aware of the presence of any +individual when I am speaking on this subject I rely upon my wife's very +quick and accurate feminine impressions. She sits always beside me, +notes everything, gives me her sympathetic atmosphere which is of such +psychic importance, and finally reports the result. If any point of mine +seems to her to miss its mark I unhesitatingly take it out. It interests +me to hear her tell of the half-concealed sneer with which men listen to +me, and how it turns into interest, bewilderment and finally something +like reverence and awe as the brain gradually realises the proved truth +of what I am saying, which upsets the whole philosophy on which their +lives are built. + +There are several Australian officers on board who are coming from the +Russian front full of dreadful stories of Bolshevist atrocities, seen +with their own eyes. The executioners were Letts and Chinese, and the +instigators renegade Jews, so that the Russians proper seem to have been +the more or less innocent dupes. They had dreadful photographs of +tortured and mutilated men as corroboration. Surely hell, the place of +punishment and purgatorial expiation, is actually upon this earth in +such cases. One leader seems to have been a Sadic madman, for after +torturing his victims till even the Chinese executioners struck, he +would sit playing a violin very exquisitely while he gloated over their +agonies. All these Australian boys agree that the matter will burn +itself out, and that it will end in an immense massacre of Jews which +may involve the whole seven millions now in Russia. God forbid, but the +outlook is ominous! I remember a prophecy which I read early in the war +that a great figure would arise in the north and have power for six +years. If Lenin was the great figure then he has, according to the +prophet, about two years more to run. But prophecy is fitful, dangerous +work. The way in which the founders of the Christian faith all foretold +the imminent end of the world is an example. What they dimly saw was no +doubt the destruction of Jerusalem, which seems to have been equally +clear to Ezekiel 600 years before, for his picture of cannibalism and +dispersion is very exact. + +It is wonderful what chances of gaining direct information one has +aboard a ship of this sort, with its mixed crowd of passengers, many of +them famous in their own lines. I have already alluded to the officers +returning from Russia with their prophecies of evil. But there are many +other folk with tales of deep interest. There is a Mr. Covell, a solid +practical Briton, who may prove to be a great pioneer, for he has made +farming pay handsomely in the very heart of the Indian plains. Within a +hundred miles of Lucknow he has founded the townlet of Covellpore, +where he handles 3,000 acres of wheat and cotton with the aid of about +the same number of natives. This is the most practical step I have ever +heard of for forming a real indigenous white population in India. His +son was with him, going out to carry on the work. Mr. Covell holds that +the irrigation of the North West of India is one of the greatest wonders +of the world, and Jacob the engineer responsible. I had never heard of +him, nor, I am ashamed to say, had I heard of Sir Leonard Rogers, who is +one of those great men like Sir Ronald Ross, whom the Indian Medical +Service throws up. Rogers has reduced the mortality of cholera by +intravenous injections of hypertonic saline until it is only 15 per +cent. General Maude, I am informed, would almost certainly have been +saved, had it not been that some false departmental economy had withheld +the necessary apparatus. Leprosy also seems in a fair way to yielding to +Rogers' genius for investigation. + +It is sad to hear that this same Indian Medical Service which has +produced such giants as Fayrer, Ross, and Rogers is in a fair way to +absolute ruin, because the conditions are such that good white +candidates will no longer enter it. White doctors do not mind working +with, or even under, natives who have passed the same British +examinations as themselves, but they bar the native doctor who has got +through a native college in India, and is on a far lower educational +level than themselves. To serve under such a man is an impossible +inversion. This is appreciated by the medical authorities at home, the +word is given to the students, and the best men avoid the service. So +unless a change is made, the end is in sight of the grand old service +which has given so much to humanity. + +Aden is remarkable only for the huge water tanks cut to catch rain, and +carved out of solid rock. A whole captive people must have been set to +work on so colossal a task, and one wonders where the poor wretches got +water themselves the while. Their work is as fresh and efficient as when +they left it. No doubt it was for the watering, not of the population, +but of the Egyptian and other galleys on their way to Punt and King +Solomon's mines. It must be a weary life for our garrison in such a +place. There is strange fishing, sea snakes, parrot fish and the like. +It is their only relaxation, for it is desert all round. + +Monsoon and swell and drifting rain in the Indian Ocean. We heard that +"thresh of the deep sea rain," of which Kipling sings. Then at last in +the early morning the long quay of Bombay, and the wonderful crowd of +men of every race who await an incoming steamer. Here at least half our +passengers were disgorged, young subalterns, grey colonels, grave +administrators, yellow-faced planters, all the fuel which is grown in +Britain and consumed in the roaring furnace of India. So devoted to +their work, so unthanked and uncomprehended by those for whom they work! +They are indeed a splendid set of men, and if they withdrew I wonder how +long it would be before the wild men of the frontier would be in +Calcutta and Bombay, as the Picts and Scots flowed over Britain when the +Roman legions were withdrawn. What view will the coming Labour +governments of Britain take of our Imperial commitments? Upon that will +depend the future history of great tracts of the globe which might very +easily relapse into barbarism. + +The ship seemed lonely when our Indian friends were gone, for indeed, +the pick of the company went with them. Several pleased me by assuring +me as they left that their views of life had been changed since they +came on board the "Naldera." To many I gave reading lists that they +might look further into the matter for themselves. A little leaven in +the great lump, but how can we help leavening it all when we know that, +unlike other creeds, no true Spiritualist can ever revert, so that while +we continually gain, we never lose. One hears of the converts to various +sects, but one does not hear of those who are driven out by their +narrow, intolerant doctrines. You can change your mind about faiths, but +not about facts, and hence our certain conquest. + +One cannot spend even a single long day in India without carrying away a +wonderful impression of the gentle dignity of the Indian people. Our +motor drivers were extraordinarily intelligent and polite, and all we +met gave the same impression. + +India may be held by the sword, but it is certainly kept very carefully +in the scabbard, for we hardly saw a soldier in the streets of this, +its greatest city. I observed some splendid types of manhood, however, +among the native police. We lunched at the Taj Mahal Hotel, and got back +tired and full of mixed impressions. + +Verily the ingenuity of children is wonderful. They have turned their +active minds upon the problem of paper currency with fearsome results. +Baby writes cheques in quaint ways upon odd bits of paper and brings +them to me to be cashed. Malcolm, once known as Dimples, has made a +series of pound and five pound notes of his own. The bank they call the +money shop. I can trace every sort of atavism, the arboreal, the cave +dweller, the adventurous raider, and the tribal instinct in the child, +but this development seems a little premature. + +Sunday once more, and the good Bishop preaching. I wonder more and more +what an educated Chinaman would make of such doctrines. To take an +example, he has quoted to-day with great approval, the action of Peter +in discarding the rite of circumcision as a proof of election. That +marked, according to the Bishop, the broad comprehensive mind which +could not confine the mercies of God to any limited class. And yet when +I take up the oecumenical pronouncement from the congress of Anglican +bishops which he has just attended, I find that baptism is made the +test, even as the Jews made circumcision. Have the bishops not learned +that there are millions who revere the memory of Christ, whether they +look upon him as God or man, but who think that baptism is a senseless +survival of heathendom, like so many of our religious observances? The +idea that the Being who made the milky way can be either placated or +incensed by pouring a splash of water over child or adult is an offence +to reason, and a slur upon the Divinity. + +Two weary days upon the sea with drifting rain showers and wonderful +scarlet and green sunsets. Have beguiled the time with W. B. Maxwell's +"Lamp and the Mirror." I have long thought that Maxwell was the greatest +of British novelists, and this book confirms me in my opinion. Who else +could have drawn such fine detail and yet so broad and philosophic a +picture? There may have been single books which were better than +Maxwell's best--the "Garden of Allah," with its gorgeous oriental colour +would, for example, make a bid for first place, but which of us has so +splendid a list of first class serious works as "Mrs. Thompson," "The +Rest Cure," "Vivian," "In Cotton Wool," above all, "The Guarded +Flame"--classics, every one. Our order of merit will come out very +differently in a generation or so to what it stands now, and I shall +expect to find my nominee at the top. But after all, what's the odds? +You do your work as well as you can. You pass. You find other work to +do. How the old work compares with the other fellow's work can be a +matter of small concern. + +In Colombo harbour lay H.M.S. "Highflyer," which we looked upon with the +reverence which everybody and everything which did well in the war +deserve from us--a saucy, rakish, speedy craft. Several other steamers +were flying the yellow quarantine flag, but our captain confided to me +that it was a recognised way of saying "no visitors," and did not +necessarily bear any pathological meaning. As we had nearly two days +before we resumed our voyage I was able to give all our party a long +stretch on shore, finally staying with my wife for the night at the +Galle Face Hotel, a place where the preposterous charges are partly +compensated for by the glorious rollers which break upon the beach +outside. I was interested in the afternoon by a native conjurer giving +us what was practically a private performance of the mango-tree trick. +He did it so admirably that I can well understand those who think that +it is an occult process. I watched the man narrowly, and believe that I +solved the little mystery, though even now I cannot be sure. In doing it +he began by laying several objects out in a casual way while hunting in +his bag for his mango seed. These were small odds and ends including a +little rag doll, very rudely fashioned, about six or eight inches long. +One got accustomed to the presence of these things and ceased to remark +them. He showed the seed and passed it for examination, a sort of large +Brazil nut. He then laid it among some loose earth, poured some water on +it, covered it with a handkerchief, and crooned over it. In about a +minute he exhibited the same, or another seed, the capsule burst, and a +light green leaf protruding. I took it in my hands, and it was certainly +a real bursting mango seed, but clearly it had been palmed and +substituted for the other. He then buried it again and kept raising the +handkerchief upon his own side, and scrabbling about with his long brown +fingers underneath its cover. Then he suddenly whisked off the +handkerchief and there was the plant, a foot or so high, with thick +foliage and blossoms, its root well planted in the earth. It was +certainly very startling. + +My explanation is that by a miracle of packing the whole of the plant +had been compressed into the rag doll, or little cloth cylinder already +mentioned. The scrabbling of the hands under the cloth was to smooth out +the leaves after it was freed from this covering. I observed that the +leaves were still rather crumpled, and that there were dark specks of +fungi which would not be there if the plant were straight from nature's +manufactory. But it was wonderfully done when you consider that the man +was squatting in our midst, we standing in a semi-circle around him, +with no adventitious aid whatever. I do not believe that the famous Mr. +Maskeleyne or any of those other wise conjurers who are good enough +occasionally to put Lodge, Crookes and Lombroso in their places, could +have wrought a better illusion. + +The fellow had a cobra with him which he challenged me to pick up. I did +so and gazed into its strange eyes, which some devilry of man's had +turned to a lapis lazuli blue. The juggler said it was the result of its +skin-sloughing, but I have my doubts. The poison bag had, I suppose, +been extracted, but the man seemed nervous and slipped his brown hand +between my own and the swaying venomous head with its peculiar +flattened hood. It is a fearsome beast, and I can realise what was told +me by a lover of animals that the snake was the one creature from which +he could get no return of affection. I remember that I once had three in +my employ when the "Speckled Band" was produced in London, fine, lively +rock pythons, and yet in spite of this profusion of realism I had the +experience of reading a review which, after duly slating the play, wound +up with the scathing sentence, "The performance ended with the +production of a palpably artificial serpent." Such is the reward of +virtue. Afterwards when the necessities of several travelling companies +compelled us to use dummy snakes we produced a much more realistic +effect. The real article either hung down like a pudgy yellow bell rope, +or else when his tail was pinched, endeavoured to squirm back and get +level with the stage carpenter, who pinched him, which was not in the +plot. The latter individual had no doubts at all as to the dummy being +an improvement upon the real. + +Never, save on the west coast of Africa, have I seen "the league-long +roller thundering on the shore," as here, where the Indian Ocean with +its thousand leagues of momentum hits the western coast of Ceylon. It +looks smooth out at sea, and then you are surprised to observe that a +good-sized boat has suddenly vanished. Then it scoops upwards once more +on the smooth arch of the billow, disappearing on the further slope. The +native catamarans are almost invisible, so that you see a row of +standing figures from time to time on the crest of the waves. I cannot +think that any craft in the world would come through rough water as +these catamarans with their long outriggers can do. Man has made few +more simple and more effective inventions, and if I were a younger man I +would endeavour to introduce them to Brighton beach, as once I +introduced ski to Switzerland, or auto-wheels to the British roads. I +have other work to do now, but why does not some sportsman take the +model, have it made in England, and then give an exhibition in a gale of +wind on the south coast. It would teach our fishermen some possibilities +of which they are ignorant. + +As I stood in a sandy cove one of them came flying in, a group of +natives rushing out and pulling it up on the beach. The craft consists +only of two planks edgewise and lengthwise. In the nine-inch slit +between them lay a number of great twelve-pound fish, like cod, and tied +to the side of the boat was a ten-foot sword fish. To catch that +creature while standing on a couple of floating planks must have been +sport indeed, and yet the craft is so ingenious that to a man who can at +a pinch swim for it, there is very small element of danger. The really +great men of our race, the inventor of the wheel, the inventor of the +lever, the inventor of the catamaran are all lost in the mists of the +past, but ethnologists have found that the cubic capacity of the +neolithic brain is as great as our own. + +There are two robbers' castles, as the unhappy visitor calls them, +facing the glorious sea, the one the Galle Face, the other the Mount +Lavinia Hotel. They are connected by an eight-mile road, which has all +the colour and life and variety of the East for every inch of the way. +In that glorious sun, under the blue arch of such a sky, and with the +tropical trees and flowers around, the poverty of these people is very +different from the poverty of a London slum. Is there in all God's world +such a life as that, and can it really be God's world while we suffer it +to exist! Surely, it is a palpable truth that no one has a right to +luxuries until every one has been provided with necessities, and among +such necessities a decent environment is the first. If we had spent +money to fight slumland as we spent it to fight Germany, what a +different England it would be. The world moves all the same, and we have +eternity before us. But some folk need it. + +A doctor came up to me in the hotel and told me that he was practising +there, and had come recently from England. He had lost his son in the +war, and had himself become unsettled. Being a Spiritualist he went to +Mrs. Brittain, the medium, who told him that his boy had a message for +him which was that he would do very well in Colombo. He had himself +thought of Ceylon, but Mrs. B. had no means of knowing that. He had +obeyed the advice thus given, and was glad that he had done so. How much +people may miss by cutting themselves away from these ministers of +grace! In all this opposition to Spiritualism the punishment continually +fits the crime. + +Once again we shed passengers and proceeded in chastened mood with +empty decks where once it was hard to move. Among others, good Bishop +Banister of Kwang-si had gone. I care little for his sacramental and +vicarious doctrines, but I am very sure that wherever his robust, +kindly, sincere personality may dwell is bound to be a centre of the +true missionary effort--the effort which makes for the real original +teaching of his Master, submission to God and goodwill to our fellow +men. + +Now we are on the last lap with nothing but a clear stretch of salt +water between our prow and West Australia. Our mission from being a sort +of dream takes concrete form and involves definite plans. Meanwhile we +plough our way through a deep blue sea with the wind continually against +us. I have not seen really calm water since we left the Canal. We carry +on with the usual routine of ship sports, which include an England and +Australia cricket match, in which I have the honour of captaining +England, a proper ending for a long if mediocre career as a cricketer. +We lost by one run, which was not bad considering our limited numbers. + +Posers of all sorts are brought to me by thoughtful inquirers, which I +answer when I can. Often I can't. One which is a most reasonable +objection has given me a day's thought. If, as is certain, we can +remember in our next life the more important incidents of this one, why +is it that in this one we can remember nothing of that previous +spiritual career, which must have existed since nothing can be born in +time for eternity? Our friends on the other side cannot help us there, +nor can even such extended spiritual visions as those of Vale Owen clear +it up. On the whole we must admit that our Theosophical friends, with +whom we quarrel for their absence of evidence, have the best attempt at +an explanation. I imagine that man's soul has a cycle which is complete +in itself, and all of which is continuous and self conscious. This +begins with earth life. Then at last a point is reached, it may be a +reincarnation, and a new cycle is commenced, the old one being closed to +our memory until we have reached some lofty height in our further +journey. Pure speculation, I admit, but it would cover what we know and +give us a working hypothesis. I can never excite myself much about the +reincarnation idea, for if it be so, it occurs seldom, and at long +intervals, with ten years spent in the other spheres for one spent here, +so that even admitting all that is said by its supporters it is not of +such great importance. At the present rate of change this world will be +as strange as another sphere by the time we are due to tread the old +stage once more. It is only fair to say that though many spiritualists +oppose it, there is a strong body, including the whole French Allan +Kardec school, who support it. Those who have passed over may well be +divided upon the subject since it concerns their far future and is a +matter of speculation to them as to us. + +Thrasher whales and sperm whales were seen which aroused the old whaling +thrill in my heart. It was the more valuable Greenland whale which I +helped to catch, while these creatures are those which dear old Frank +Bullen, a childlike sailor to the last, described in his "Cruise of the +Cachelot." How is it that sailors write such perfect English. There are +Bullen and Conrad, both of whom served before the mast--the two purest +stylists of their generation. So was Loti in France. There are some +essays of Bullen's, especially a description of a calm in the tropics, +and again of "Sunrise seen from the Crow's Nest," which have not been +matched in our time for perfection of imagery and diction. They are both +in his "Idyls of the Sea." If there is compensation in the beyond--and I +know that there is--then Frank Bullen is in great peace, for his whole +earthly life was one succession of troubles. When I think of his cruel +stepmother, his dreadful childhood, his life on a Yankee blood ship, his +struggles as a tradesman, his bankruptcy, his sordid worries, and +finally, his prolonged ill-health, I marvel at the unequal distribution +of such burdens. He was the best singer of a chanty that I have ever +heard, and I can hear him now with his rich baritone voice trolling out +"Sally Brown" or "Stormalong." May I hear him once again! Our dear ones +tell us that there is no great gap between what pleases us here and that +which will please us in the beyond. Our own brains, had we ever used +them in the matter, should have instructed us that all evolution, +spiritual as well as material, must be gradual. Indeed, once one knows +psychic truth, one can, reasoning backwards, perceive that we should +unaided have come to the same conclusions, but since we have all been +deliberately trained not to use our reason in religious matters, it is +no wonder that we have made rather a hash of it. Surely it is clear +enough that in the case of an artist the artistic nature is part of the +man himself. Therefore, if he survives it must survive. But if it +survives it must have means of expression, or it is a senseless thing. +But means of expression implies appreciation from others and a life on +the general lines of this one. So also of the drama, music, science and +literature, if we carry on they carry on, and they cannot carry on +without actual expression and a public to be served. + +To the east of us and just beyond the horizon lie the Cocos Islands, +where Ross established his strange little kingdom, and where the _Emden_ +met its end--a glorious one, as every fair minded man must admit. I have +seen her stern post since then in the hall of the Federal Parliament at +Melbourne, like some fossil monster, once a terror and now for children +to gaze at. As to the Cocos Islands, the highest point is, I understand, +about twenty feet, and tidal waves are not unknown upon the Pacific, so +that the community holds its tenure at very short and sudden notice to +quit. + +On the morning of September 17th a low coast line appeared upon the port +bow--Australia at last. It was the edge of the West Australian State. +The evening before a wireless had reached me from the spiritualists of +Perth saying that they welcomed us and our message. It was a kind +thought and a helpful one. We were hardly moored in the port of +Fremantle, which is about ten miles from the capital, when a deputation +of these good, kind people was aboard, bearing great bunches of wild +flowers, most of which were new to us. Their faces fell when they +learned that I must go on in the ship and that there was very little +chance of my being able to address them. They are only connected with +the other States by one long thin railway line, 1,200 miles long, with +scanty trains which were already engaged, so that unless we stuck to the +ship we should have to pass ten days or so before we could resume our +journey. This argument was unanswerable, and so the idea of a meeting +was given up. + +These kind people had two motors in attendance, which must, I fear, have +been a strain upon their resources, for as in the old days the true +believers and practical workers are drawn from the poor and humble. +However, they certainly treated us royally, and even the children were +packed into the motors. We skirted the Swan River, passed through the +very beautiful public park, and, finally, lunched at the busy town, +where Bone's store would cut a respectable figure in London, with its +many departments and its roof restaurant. It was surprising after our +memories of England to note how good and abundant was the food. It is a +charming little town, and it was strange, after viewing its settled +order, to see the mill where the early settlers not so very long ago had +to fight for their lives with the black fellows. Those poor black +fellows! Their fate is a dark stain upon Australia. And yet it must in +justice to our settlers be admitted that the question was a very +difficult one. Was colonisation to be abandoned, or were these brave +savages to be overcome? That was really the issue. When they speared the +cattle of the settlers what were the settlers to do? Of course, if a +reservation could have been opened up, as in the case of the Maoris, +that would have been ideal. But the noble Maori is a man with whom one +could treat on equal terms and he belonged to a solid race. The +Aborigines of Australia were broken wandering tribes, each at war with +its neighbours. In a single reservation they would have exterminated +each other. It was a piteous tragedy, and yet, even now in retrospect, +how difficult it is to point out what could have been done. + +The Spiritualists of Perth seem to be a small body, but as earnest as +their fellows elsewhere. A masterful looking lady, Mrs. McIlwraith, +rules them, and seems fit for the part. They have several mediums +developing, but I had no chance of testing their powers. Altogether our +encounter with them cheered us on our way. We had the first taste of +Australian labour conditions at Fremantle, for the men knocked off at +the given hour, refusing to work overtime, with the result that we +carried a consignment of tea, meant for their own tea-pots, another +thousand miles to Adelaide, and so back by train which must have been +paid for out of their own pockets and those of their fellow citizens. +Verily, you cannot get past the golden rule, and any breach of it brings +its own punishment somehow, somewhere, be the sinner a master or a man. + +And now we had to cross the dreaded Bight, where the great waves from +the southern ice come rolling up, but our luck was still in, and we went +through it without a qualm. Up to Albany one sees the barren irregular +coast, and then there were two days of blue water, which brought us at +last to Adelaide, our port of debarkation. The hour and the place at +last! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.--Challenges.--Mr. Carlyle + Smythe.--The Adelaide Press.--The great drought.--The wine + industry.--Clairvoyance.--Meeting with Bellchambers.--The first + lecture.--The effect.--The Religious lecture.--The illustrated + lecture.--Premonitions.--The spot light.--Mr. Thomas' account of + the incident.--Correspondence.--Adelaide doctors.--A day in the + Bush.--The Mallee fowl.--Sussex in Australia.--Farewell to + Adelaide. + + +I was welcomed to Australia by a hospitable letter from the Premier, Mr. +Hughes, who assured me that he would do what he could to make our visit +a pleasant one, and added, "I hope you will see Australia as it is, for +I want you to tell the world about us. We are a very young country, we +have a very big and very rich heritage, and the great war has made us +realise that we are Australians, proud to belong to the Empire, but +proud too of our own country." + +Apart from Mr. Hughes's kind message, my chief welcome to the new land +came from Sydney, and took the queer form of two independant challenges +to public debate, one from the Christian Evidence Society, and the other +from the local leader of the materialists. As the two positions are +mutually destructive, one felt inclined to tell them to fight it out +between themselves and that I would fight the winner. The Christian +Evidence Society, is, of course, out of the question, since they regard +a text as an argument, which I can only accept with many qualifications, +so that there is no common basis. The materialist is a more worthy +antagonist, for though he is often as bigotted and inaccessible to +reason as the worst type of Christian, there is always a leaven of +honest, open-minded doubters on whom a debate might make an impression. +A debate with them, as I experienced when I met Mr. MacCabe, can only +follow one line, they quoting all the real or alleged scandals which +have ever been connected with the lowest forms of mediumship, and +claiming that the whole cult is comprised therein, to which you counter +with your own personal experiences, and with the evidence of the cloud +of witnesses who have found the deepest comfort and enlarged knowledge. +It is like two boxers each hitting the air, and both returning to their +respective corners amid the plaudits of their backers, while the general +public is none the better. + +Three correspondents headed me off on the ship, and as I gave each of +them a long separate interview, I was a tired man before I got ashore. +Mr. Carlyle Smythe, my impresario, had also arrived, a small alert +competent gentleman, with whom I at once got on pleasant terms, which +were never once clouded during our long travels together upon our tour. +I was fortunate indeed to have so useful and so entertaining a +companion, a musician, a scholar, and a man of many varied experiences. +With his help we soon got our stuff through the customs, and made the +short train journey which separates the Port of Adelaide from the +charming city of that name. By one o'clock we were safely housed in the +Grand Central Hotel, with windows in place of port holes, and the roar +of the trams to take the place of the murmurs of the great ocean. + +The good genius of Adelaide was a figure, already almost legendary, one +Colonel Light, who played the part of Romulus and Remus to the infant +city. Somewhere in the thirties of last century he chose the site, +against strong opposition, and laid out the plan with such skill that in +all British and American lands I have seen few such cities, so pretty, +so orderly and so self-sufficing. When one sees all the amenities of the +place, botanical gardens, zoological gardens, art gallery, museum, +university, public library and the rest, it is hard to realise that the +whole population is still under three hundred thousand. I do not know +whether the press sets the tone to the community or the community to the +press, but in any case Adelaide is greatly blessed in this respect, for +its two chief papers the _Register_ and the _Advertiser_, under Sir +William Sowden and Sir Langdon Bonython respectively, are really +excellent, with a worldwide Metropolitan tone. + +Their articles upon the subject in which I am particularly interested, +though by no means one-sided, were at least informed with knowledge and +breadth of mind. + +In Adelaide I appreciated, for the first time, the crisis which +Australia has been passing through in the shape of a two-years drought, +only recently broken. It seems to have involved all the States and to +have caused great losses, amounting to millions of sheep and cattle. The +result was that the price of those cattle which survived has risen +enormously, and at the time of our visit an absolute record had been +established, a bullock having been sold for £41. The normal price would +be about £13. Sheep were about £3 each, the normal being fifteen +shillings. This had, of course, sent the price of meat soaring with the +usual popular unrest and agitation as a result. It was clear, however, +that with the heavy rains the prices would fall. These Australian +droughts are really terrible things, especially when they come upon +newly-opened country and in the hotter regions of Queensland and the +North. One lady told us that she had endured a drought in Queensland +which lasted so long that children of five had never seen a drop of +rain. You could travel a hundred miles and find the brown earth the +whole way, with no sign of green anywhere, the sheep eating twigs or +gnawing bark until they died. Her brother sold his surviving sheep for +one shilling each, and when the drought broke had to restock at 50s. a +head. This is a common experience, and all but the man with savings have +to take to some subordinate work, ruined men. No doubt, with +afforestation, artesian wells, irrigation and water storage things may +be modified, but all these things need capital, and capital in these +days is hard to seek, nor can it be expected that capitalists will pour +their money into States which have wild politicians who talk lightly of +past obligations. You cannot tell the investor that he is a bloated +incubus one moment, and go hat in hand for further incubation the next. +I fear that this grand country as a whole may suffer from the wild ideas +of some of its representatives. But under it all lies the solid +self-respecting British stuff, which will never repudiate a just debt, +however heavily it may press. Australians may groan under the burden, +but they should remember that for every pound of taxation they carry the +home Briton carries nearly three. + +But to return for a moment to the droughts; has any writer of fiction +invented or described a more long-drawn agony than that of the man, his +nerves the more tired and sensitive from the constant unbroken heat, +waiting day after day for the cloud that never comes, while under the +glaring sun from the unchanging blue above him, his sheep, which +represent all his life's work and his hopes, perish before his eyes? A +revolver shot has often ended the long vigil and the pioneer has joined +his vanished flocks. I have just come in contact with a case where two +young returned soldiers, demobilised from the war and planted on the +land had forty-two cattle given them by the State to stock their little +farm. Not a drop of water fell for over a year, the feed failed, and +these two warriors of Palestine and Flanders wept at their own +helplessness while their little herd died before their eyes. Such are +the trials which the Australian farmer has to bear. + +While waiting for my first lecture I do what I can to understand the +country and its problems. To this end I visited the vineyards and wine +plant of a local firm which possesses every factor for success, save the +capacity to answer letters. The originator started grape culture as a +private hobby about 60 years ago, and now such an industry has risen +that this firm alone has £700,000 sunk in the business, and yet it is +only one of several. The product can be most excellent, but little or +any ever reaches Europe, for it cannot overtake the local demand. The +quality was good and purer than the corresponding wines in +Europe--especially the champagnes, which seem to be devoid of that +poison, whatever it may be, which has for a symptom a dry tongue with +internal acidity, driving elderly gentlemen to whisky and soda. The +Australian product, taken in moderate doses, seems to have no poisonous +quality, and is without that lime-like dryness which appears to be the +cause of it. If temperance reform takes the sane course of insisting +upon a lowering of the alcohol in our drinks, so that one may be +surfeited before one could be drunken, then this question of good mild +wines will bulk very largely in the future, and Australia may supply one +of the answers. With all my sympathy for the reformers I feel that wine +is so useful a social agent that we should not abolish it until we are +certain that there is no _via media_. The most pregnant argument upon +the subject was the cartoon which showed the husband saying "My dear, it +is the anniversary of our wedding. Let us have a second bottle of ginger +beer." + +We went over the vineyards, ourselves mildly interested in the vines, +and the children wildly excited over the possibility of concealed +snakes. Then we did the vats and the cellars with their countless +bottles. We were taught the secrets of fermentation, how the wonderful +Pasteur had discovered that the best and quickest was produced not by +the grape itself, as of old, but by the scraped bloom of the grape +inserted in the bottle. After viewing the number of times a bottle must +be turned, a hundred at least, and the complex processes which lead up +to the finished article, I will pay my wine bills in future with a +better grace. The place was all polished wood and shining brass, like +the fittings of a man-of-war, and a great impression of cleanliness and +efficiency was left upon our minds. We only know the Australian wines at +present by the rough article sold in flasks, but when the supply has +increased the world will learn that this country has some very different +stuff in its cellars, and will try to transport it to their tables. + +We had a small meeting of spiritualists in our hotel sitting-room, under +the direction of Mr. Victor Cromer, a local student of the occult, who +seems to have considerable psychic power. He has a small circle for +psychic development which is on new lines, for the neophytes who are +learning clairvoyance sit around in a circle in silence, while Mr. +Cromer endeavours by mental effort to build up the thought form of some +object, say a tree, in the centre of the room. After a time he asks each +of the circle what he or she can see, and has many correct answers. +With colours in the same way he can convey impressions to his pupils. It +is clear that telepathy is not excluded as an explanation, but the +actual effect upon the participants is according to their own account, +visual rather than mental. We had an interesting sitting with a number +of these developing mediums present, and much information was given, but +little of it could be said to be truly evidential. After seeing such +clairvoyance as that of Mr. Tom Tyrell or others at home, when a dozen +names and addresses will be given together with the descriptions of +those who once owned them, one is spoiled for any lesser display. + +There was one man whom I had particularly determined to meet when I came +to Australia. This was Mr. T. P. Bellchambers, about whom I had read an +article in some magazine which showed that he was a sort of humble +Jeffries or Thoreau, more lonely than the former, less learned than the +latter, who lived among the wild creatures in the back country, and was +on such terms with our humble brothers as few men are ever privileged to +attain. I had read how the eagle with the broken wing had come to him +for succour, and how little birds would sit on the edge of his pannikin +while he drank. Him at all cost would we see. Like the proverbial +prophet, no one I met had ever heard of him, but on the third day of our +residence there came a journalist bearing with him a rudely dressed, +tangle-haired man, collarless and unkempt, with kind, irregular features +and clear blue eyes--the eyes of a child. It was the man himself. "He +brought me," said he, nodding towards the journalist. "He had to, for I +always get bushed in a town." + +This rude figure fingering his frayed cap was clearly out of his true +picture, and we should have to visit him in his own little clearing to +see him as he really was. Meanwhile I wondered whether one who was so +near nature might know something of nature's more occult secrets. The +dialogue ran like this: + +"You who are so near nature must have psychic experiences." + +"What's psychic? I live so much in the wild that I don't know much." + +"I expect you know plenty we don't know. But I meant spiritual." + +"Supernatural?" + +"Well, we think it is natural, but little understood." + +"You mean fairies and things?" + +"Yes, and the dead." + +"Well, I guess our fairies would be black fairies." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, I never saw any." + +"I hoped you might." + +"No, but I know one thing. The night my mother died I woke to find her +hand upon my brow. Oh, there's no doubt. Her hand was heavy on my brow." + +"At the time?" + +"Yes, at the very hour." + +"Well, that was good." + +"Animals know more about such things." + +"Yes." + +"They see something. My dog gets terrified when I see nothing, and +there's a place in the bush where my horse shies and sweats, he does, +but there's nothing to see." + +"Something evil has been done there. I've known many cases." + +"I expect that's it." + +So ran our dialogue. At the end of it he took a cigar, lighted it at the +wrong end, and took himself with his strong simple backwoods atmosphere +out of the room. Assuredly I must follow him to the wilds. + +Now came the night of my first lecture. It was in the city hall, and +every seat was occupied. It was a really magnificent audience of two +thousand people, the most representative of the town. I am an +embarrassed and an interested witness, so let me for this occasion quote +the sympathetic, not to say flattering account of the _Register_. + + "There could not have been a more impressive set of circumstances + than those which attended the first Australian lecture by Sir + Arthur Conan Doyle at the Adelaide Town Hall on Saturday night, + September 25th. The audience, large, representative and thoughtful, + was in its calibre and proportions a fitting compliment to a world + celebrity and his mission. Many of the intellectual leaders of the + city were present--University professors, pulpit personalities, + men eminent in business, legislators, every section of the + community contributed a quota. It cannot be doubted, of course, + that the brilliant literary fame of the lecturer was an attraction + added to that strange subject which explored the 'unknown drama of + the soul.' Over all Sir Arthur dominated by his big arresting + presence. His face has a rugged, kindly strength, tense and earnest + in its grave moments, and full of winning animation when the sun of + his rich humour plays on the powerful features." + + "It is not altogether a sombre journey he makes among the shadows, + but apparently one of happy, as well as tender experiences, so that + laughter is not necessarily excluded from the exposition. Do not + let that be misunderstood. There was no intrusion of the slightest + flippancy--Sir Arthur, the whole time, exhibited that attitude of + reverence and humility demanded of one traversing a domain on the + borderland of the tremendous. Nothing approaching a theatrical + presentation of the case for Spiritualism marred the discourse. It + was for the most part a plain statement. First things had to be + said, and the explanatory groundwork laid for future development. + It was a lucid, illuminating introduction." + + "Sir Arthur had a budget of notes, but after he had turned over a + few pages he sallied forth with fluent independence under the + inspiration of a vast mental store of material. A finger jutted out + now and again with a thrust of passionate emphasis, or his big + glasses twirled during moments of descriptive ease, and + occasionally both hands were held forward as though delivering + settled points to the audience for its examination. A clear, + well-disciplined voice, excellent diction, and conspicuous + sincerity of manner marked the lecture, and no one could have found + fault with the way in which Sir Arthur presented his case." + + "The lecturer approached the audience in no spirit of impatient + dogmatism, but in the capacity of an understanding mind seeking to + illumine the darkness of doubt in those who had not shared his + great experiences. He did not dictate, but reasoned and pleaded, + taking the people into his confidence with strong conviction and a + consoling faith. 'I want to speak to you to-night on a subject + which concerns the destiny of every man and woman in this room,' + began Sir Arthur, bringing everybody at once into an intimate + personal circle. 'No doubt the Almighty, by putting an angel in + King William Street, could convert every one of you to + Spiritualism, but the Almighty law is that we must use our own + brains, and find out our own salvation, and it is not made too easy + for us.'" + +It is awkward to include this kindly picture, and yet I do not know how +else to give an idea of how the matter seemed to a friendly observer. I +had chosen for my theme the scientific aspect of the matter, and I +marshalled my witnesses and showed how Professor Mayo corroborated +Professor Hare, and Professor Challis Professor Mayo, and Sir William +Crookes all his predecessors, while Russell Wallace and Lombroso and +Zollner and Barrett, and Lodge, and many more had all after long study +assented, and I read the very words of these great men, and showed how +bravely they had risked their reputations and careers for what they knew +to be the truth. I then showed how the opposition who dared to +contradict them were men with no practical experience of it at all. It +was wonderful to hear the shout of assent when I said that what struck +me most in such a position was its colossal impertinence. That shout +told me that my cause was won, and from then onwards the deep silence +was only broken by the occasional deep murmur of heart-felt agreement. I +told them the evidence that had been granted to me, the coming of my +son, the coming of my brother, and their message. "Plough! Plough! +others will cast the seed." It is hard to talk of such intimate matters, +but they were not given to me for my private comfort alone, but for that +of humanity. Nothing could have gone better than this first evening, and +though I had no chairman and spoke for ninety minutes without a pause, I +was so upheld--there is no other word for the sensation--that I was +stronger at the end than when I began. A leading materialist was among +my audience. "I am profoundly impressed," said he to Mr. Smythe, as he +passed him in the corridor. That stood out among many kind messages +which reached me that night. + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ THE WANDERERS, 1920-21. + +My second lecture, two nights later, was on the Religious aspect of the +matter. I had shown that the phenomena were nothing, mere material +signals to arrest the attention of a material world. I had shown also +that the personal benefit, the conquest of death, the Communion of +Saints, was a high, but not the highest boon. The real full flower of +Spiritualism was what the wisdom of the dead could tell us about their +own conditions, their present experiences, their outlook upon the secret +of the universe, and the testing of religious truth from the viewpoint +of two worlds instead of one. The audience was more silent than before, +but the silence was that of suspense, not of dissent, as I showed them +from message after message what it was exactly which awaited them in the +beyond. Even I, who am oblivious as a rule to my audience, became aware +that they were tense with feeling and throbbing with emotion. I showed +how there was no conflict with religion, in spite of the +misunderstanding of the churches, and that the revelation had come to +extend and explain the old, even as the Christ had said that he had much +more to tell but could not do it now. "Entirely new ground was +traversed," says my kindly chronicler, "and the audience listened +throughout with rapt attention. They were obviously impressed by the +earnestness of the speaker and his masterly presentation of the theme." +I cannot answer for the latter but at least I can for the former, since +I speak not of what I think but of what I know. How can a man fail to be +earnest then? + +A few days later I followed up the lectures by two exhibitions of +psychic pictures and photographs upon a screen. It was certainly an +amazing experience for those who imagined that the whole subject was +dreamland, and they freely admitted that it staggered them. They might +well be surprised, for such a series has never been seen, I believe, +before, including as it does choice samples from the very best +collections. I showed them the record of miracle after miracle, some of +them done under my very eyes, one guaranteed by Russell Wallace, three +by Sir William Crookes, one of the Geley series from Paris, two of Dr. +Crawford's medium with the ecto-plasm pouring from her, four +illustrating the absolutely final Lydia Haig case on the island of +Rothesay, several of Mr. Jeffrey's collection and several also of our +own Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, with the fine +photograph of the face within a crystal. No wonder that the audience sat +spellbound, while the local press declared that no such exhibition had +ever been seen before in Australia. It is almost too overwhelming for +immediate propaganda purposes. It has a stunning, dazing effect upon the +spectators. Only afterwards, I think, when they come to turn it all over +in their minds, do they see that the final proof has been laid before +them, which no one with the least sense for evidence could reject. But +the sense for evidence is not, alas, a universal human quality. + +I am continually aware of direct spirit intervention in my own life. I +have put it on record in my "New Revelation" that I was able to say that +the turn of the great war would come upon the Piave months before that +river was on the Italian war map. This was recorded at the time, before +the fulfilment which occurred more than a year later--so it does not +depend upon my assertion. Again, I dreamed the name of the ship which +was to take us to Australia, rising in the middle of the night and +writing it down in pencil on my cheque-book. I wrote _Nadera_, but it +was actually _Naldera_. I had never heard that such a ship existed until +I visited the P. & O. office, when they told me we should go by the +_Osterley_, while I, seeing the _Naldera_ upon the list, thought "No, +that will be our ship!" So it proved, through no action of our own, and +thereby we were saved from quarantine and all manner of annoyance. + +Never before have I experienced such direct visible intervention as +occurred during my first photographic lecture at Adelaide. I had shown a +slide the effect of which depended upon a single spirit face appearing +amid a crowd of others. The slide was damp, and as photos under these +circumstances always clear from the edges when placed in the lantern, +the whole centre was so thickly fogged that I was compelled to admit +that I could not myself see the spirit face. Suddenly, as I turned away, +rather abashed by my failure, I heard cries of "There it is," and +looking up again I saw this single face shining out from the general +darkness with so bright and vivid an effect that I never doubted for a +moment that the operator was throwing a spot light upon it, my wife +sharing my impression. I thought how extraordinarily clever it was that +he should pick it out so accurately at the distance. So the matter +passed, but next morning Mr. Thomas, the operator, who is not a +Spiritualist, came in great excitement to say that a palpable miracle +had been wrought, and that in his great experience of thirty years he +had never known a photo dry from the centre, nor, as I understood him, +become illuminated in such a fashion. Both my wife and I were surprised +to learn that he had thrown no ray upon it. Mr. Thomas told us that +several experts among the audience had commented upon the strangeness of +the incident. I, therefore, asked Mr. Thomas if he would give me a note +as to his own impression, so as to furnish an independant account. This +is what he wrote:-- + + _"Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide._ + + "_In Adelaide, on September 28th, I projected a lantern slide + containing a group of ladies and gentlemen, and in the centre of + the picture, when the slide was reversed, appeared a human face. On + the appearance of the picture showing the group the fog incidental + to a damp or new slide gradually appeared covering the whole slide, + and only after some minutes cleared, and then quite contrary to + usual practice did so from a central point just over the face that + appeared in the centre, and refused even after that to clear right + off to the edge. The general experience is for a slide to clear + from the outside edges to a common centre. Your slide cleared only + sufficiently in the centre to show the face, and did not, while the + slide was on view, clear any more than sufficient to show that + face. Thinking that perhaps there might be a scientific + explanation to this phenomenon, I hesitated before writing you, and + in the meantime I have made several experiments but have not in any + one particular experiment obtained the same result. I am very much + interested--as are hundreds of others who personally witnessed the + phenomenon._" + +Mr. Thomas, in his account, has missed the self-illuminated appearance +of the face, but otherwise he brings out the points. I never gave +occasion for the repetition of the phenomenon, for in every case I was +careful that the slides were carefully dried beforehand. + +So much for the lectures at Adelaide, which were five in all, and left, +as I heard from all sides, a deep impression upon the town. Of course, +the usual abusive messages poured in, including one which wound up with +the hearty words: "May you be struck dead before you leave this +Commonwealth." From Melbourne I had news that before our arrival in +Australia at a public prayer meeting at the Assembly Hall, Collins +Street, a Presbyterian prayed that we might never reach Australia's +shores. As we were on the high seas at the time this was clearly a +murderous petition, nor could I have believed it if a friend of mine had +not actually been present and heard it. On the other hand, we received +many letters of sympathy and thanks, which amply atoned. "I feel sure +that many mothers, who have lost their sons in the war, will, wherever +you go, bless you, as I do, for the help you have given." As this was +the object of our journey it could not be denied that we had attained +our end. When I say "we," I mean that such letters with inquiries came +continually to my wife as well as myself, though she answered them with +far greater fullness and clearness than I had time to do. + +Hotel life began to tell upon the children, who are like horses with a +profusion of oats and no exercise. On the whole they were wonderfully +good. When some domestic crisis was passed the small voice of Malcolm, +once "Dimples," was heard from the darkness of his bed, saying, "Well, +if I am to be good I must have a proper start. Please mammie, say one, +two, three, and away!" When this ceremony had been performed a still +smaller voice of Baby asked the same favour, so once more there was a +formal start. The result was intermittent, and it is as well. I don't +believe in angelic children. + +The Adelaide doctors entertained me to dinner, and I was pleased to meet +more than one who had been of my time at Edinburgh. They seemed to be a +very prosperous body of men. There was much interesting conversation, +especially from one elderly professor named Watson, who had known Bully +Hayes and other South Sea celebrities in the semi-piratical, +black-birding days. He told me one pretty story. They landed upon some +outlying island in Carpentaria, peopled by real primitive blacks, who +were rounded up by the ships crew on one of the peninsulas which formed +the end of the island. These creatures, the lowest of the human race, +huddled together in consternation while the white men trained a large +camera upon them. Suddenly three males advanced and made a speech in +their own tongue which, when interpreted, proved to be an offer that +those three should die in exchange for the lives of the tribe. What +could the very highest do more than this, and yet it came from the +lowest savages. Truly, we all have something of the divine, and it is +the very part which will grow and spread until it has burned out all the +rest. "Be a Christ!" said brave old Stead. At the end of countless æons +we may all reach that point which not only Stead but St. Paul also has +foreshadowed. + +I refreshed myself between lectures by going out to Nature and to +Bellchambers. As it was twenty-five miles out in the bush, inaccessible +by rail, and only to be approached by motor roads which were in parts +like the bed of a torrent, I could not take my wife, though the boys, +after the nature of boys, enjoy a journey the more for its roughness. It +was a day to remember. I saw lovely South Australia in the full beauty +of the spring, the budding girlhood of the year, with all her winsome +growing graces upon her. The brilliant yellow wattle was just fading +upon the trees, but the sward was covered with star-shaped purple +flowers of the knot-grass, and with familiar home flowers, each subtly +altered by their transportation. It was wild bush for part of the way, +but mostly of the second growth on account of forest fires as much as +the woodman's axe. Bellchambers came in to guide us, for there is no one +to ask upon these desolate tracks, and it is easy to get bushed. Mr. +Waite, the very capable zoologist of the museum, joined the party, and +with two such men the conversation soon got to that high nature talk +which represents the really permanent things of material life--more +lasting than thrones and dynasties. I learned of the strange storks, the +"native companions" who meet, 500 at a time, for their stately balls, +where in the hush of the bush they advance, retreat, and pirouette in +their dignified minuets. I heard of the bower birds, who decorate their +homes with devices of glass and pebbles. There was talk, too, of the +little red beetles who have such cunning ways that they can fertilise +the insectivorous plants without being eaten, and of the great ants who +get through galvanised iron by the aid of some acid-squirting insect +which they bring with them to the scene of their assault. I heard also +of the shark's egg which Mr. Waite had raped from sixty feet deep in +Sydney Harbour, descending for the purpose in a diver's suit, for which +I raised my hat to him. Deep things came also from Bellchambers' store +of knowledge and little glimpses of beautiful humanity from this true +gentleman. + +"Yes," he said, "I am mostly vegetarian. You see, I know the beasts too +well to bring myself to pick their bones. Yes, I'm friends with most of +them. Birds have more sense than animals to my mind. They understand you +like. They know what you mean. Snakes have least of any. They don't get +friendly-like in the same way. But Nature helps the snakes in queer +ways. Some of them hatch their own eggs, and when they do Nature +raises the temperature of their bodies. That's queer." + + Illustration: _Photo: W. G. Smith, Adelaide._ BELLCHAMBERS AND THE + MALLEE FOWL. "GET ALONG WITH YOU, DO!" + +I carried away a mixed memory of the things I had seen. A blue-headed +wren, an eagle soaring in the distance; a hideous lizard with a huge +open mouth; a laughing jackass which refused to laugh; many more or less +tame wallabies and kangaroos; a dear little 'possum which got under the +back of my coat, and would not come out; noisy mynah birds which fly +ahead and warn the game against the hunter. Good little noisy mynah! All +my sympathies are with you! I would do the same if I could. This +senseless lust for killing is a disgrace to the race. We, of England, +cannot preach, for a pheasant battue is about the worst example of it. +But do let the creatures alone unless they are surely noxious! When Mr. +Bellchambers told us how he had trained two ibises--the old religious +variety--and how both had been picked off by some unknown local +"sportsman" it made one sad. + +We had a touch of comedy, however, when Mr. Bellchambers attempted to +expose the egg of the Mallee fowl, which is covered a foot deep in +mould. He scraped into the mound with his hands. The cock watched him +with an expression which clearly said: "Confound the fellow! What is he +up to now?" He then got on the mound, and as quickly as Bellchambers +shovelled the earth out he kicked it back again, Bellchambers in his +good-humoured way crying "Get along with you, do!" A good husband is the +Mallee cock, and looks after the family interests. But what we humans +would think if we were born deep underground and had to begin our career +by digging our way to the surface, is beyond imagination. + +There are quite a clan of Bellchambers living in or near the little +pioneer's hut built in a clearing of the bush. Mrs. Bellchambers is of +Sussex, as is her husband, and when they heard that we were fresh from +Sussex also it was wonderful to see the eager look that came upon their +faces, while the bush-born children could scarce understand what it was +that shook the solid old folk to their marrow. On the walls were old +prints of the Devil's Dyke and Firle Beacon. How strange that old Sussex +should be wearing out its very life in its care for the fauna of young +Australia. This remarkable man is unpaid with only his scanty holding +upon which to depend, and many dumb mouths dependent upon him. I shall +rejoice if my efforts in the local press serve to put his affairs upon a +more worthy foundation, and to make South Australia realise what a +valuable instrument lies to her hand. + +Before I left Adelaide I learned many pleasing things about the +lectures, which did away with any shadow cast by those numerous +correspondents who seemed to think that we were still living under the +Mosaic dispensation, and who were so absent-minded that they usually +forgot to sign their names. It is a curious difference between the +Christian letters of abuse and those of materialists, that the former +are usually anonymous and the latter signed. I heard of one man, a lame +stockman, who had come 300 miles from the other side of Streaky Bay to +attend the whole course, and who declared that he could listen all +night. Another seized my hand and cried, "You will never know the good +you have done in this town." Well, I hope it was so, but I only regard +myself as the plough. Others must follow with the seed. Knowledge, +perseverance, sanity, judgment, courage--we ask some qualities from our +disciples if they are to do real good. Talking of moral courage I would +say that the Governor of South Australia, Sir Archibald Weigall with +Lady Weigall, had no hesitation in coming to support me with their +presence. By the end of September this most successful mission in +Adelaide was accomplished, and early in October we were on our way to +Melbourne, which meant a long night in the train and a few hours of the +next morning during which we saw the surface diggings of Ballarat on +every side of the railway line, the sandy soil pitted in every direction +with the shallow claims of the miners. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + Speculations on Paul and his Master.--Arrival at Melbourne.--Attack + in the Argus.--Partial press boycott.--Strength of the + movement.--The Prince of Wales.--Victorian football.--Rescue Circle + in Melbourne.--Burke and Wills' statue.--Success of the + lectures.--Reception at the Auditorium.--Luncheon of the British + Empire League.--Mr. Ryan's experience.--The Federal + Government.--Mr. Hughes' personality.--The mediumship of Charles + Bailey.--His alleged exposure.--His remarkable record.--A second + sitting.--The Indian nest.--A remarkable lecture.--Arrival of Lord + Forster.--The future of the Empire.--Kindness of + Australians.--Prohibition.--Horse-racing.--Roman Catholic policy. + + +One cannot help speculating about those great ones who first carried to +the world the Christian revelation. What were their domestic ties! There +is little said about them, but we should never have known that Peter had +a wife were it not for a chance allusion to his mother-in-law, just as +another chance allusion shows us that Jesus was one of a numerous +family. One thing can safely be said of Paul, that he was either a +bachelor or else was a domestic bully with a very submissive wife, or he +would never have dared to express his well known views about women. As +to his preaching, he had a genius for making a clear thing obscure, even +as Jesus had a genius for making an obscure thing clear. Read the +Sermon on the Mount and then a chapter of Paul as a contrast in styles. +Apart from his style one can reconstruct him as a preacher to the extent +that he had a powerful voice--no one without one could speak from the +historic rocky pulpit on the hill of Mars at Athens, as I ascertained +for myself. The slope is downwards, sound ascends, and the whole +conditions are abominable. He was certainly long-winded and probably +monotonous in his diction, or he could hardly have reduced one of his +audience to such a deep sleep that he fell out of the window. We may add +that he was a man of brisk courage in an emergency, that he was subject +to such sudden trances that he was occasionally unaware himself whether +he was normal or not, and that he was probably short-sighted, as he +mistook the person who addressed him, and had his letters usually +written for him. At least three languages were at his command, he had an +intimate and practical knowledge of the occult, and was an authority +upon Jewish law--a good array of accomplishments for one man. + +There are some points about Paul's august Master which also help in a +reconstruction of Himself and His surroundings. That His mother was +opposed to His mission is, I think, very probable. Women are dubious +about spiritual novelties, and one can well believe that her heart ached +to see her noble elder son turn from the sure competence of His father's +business at Nazareth to the precarious existence of a wandering +preacher. This domestic opposition clouded Him as one can see in the +somewhat cold, harsh words which He used to her, and his mode of address +which began simply as "Woman." His assertion to the disciples that one +who followed His path had to give up his family points to the same +thing. No doubt Mary remained with the younger branches at Nazareth +while Jesus pursued His ministry, though she came, as any mother would, +to be near Him at the end. + +Of His own personality we know extraordinarily little, considering the +supreme part that He played in the world. That He was a highly trained +psychic, or as we should say, medium, is obvious to anyone who studies +the miracles, and it is certainly not derogatory to say that they were +done along the line of God's law rather than that they were inversions +of it. I cannot doubt also that he chose his apostles for their psychic +powers--if not, on what possible principle were they selected, since +they were neither staunch nor learned? It is clear that Peter and James +and John were the inner circle of psychics, since they were assembled +both at the transfiguration and at the raising of Jairus' daughter. It +is from unlearned open-air men who are near Nature that the highest +psychic powers are obtained. It has been argued that the Christ was an +Essene, but this seems hard to believe, as the Essenes were not only +secluded from the world, but were certainly vegetarians and total +abstainers, while Jesus was neither. On the other hand baptism was not a +Jewish rite, and his undergoing it--if He did, indeed, undergo it--marks +Him as belonging to some dissenting sect. I say "if He did" because it +is perfectly certain that there were forgeries and interpolations +introduced into the Gospels in order to square their teaching with the +practice of the Church some centuries later. One would look for those +forgeries not in the ordinary narrative, which in the adult years bears +every mark of truth, but in the passages which support ceremonial or +tributes to the Church--such as the allusions to baptism, "Unless a man +be born again," to the sacrament, "This is my body, etc.," and the whole +story of Ananias and Sapphira, the moral of which is that it is +dangerous to hold anything back from the Church. + +Physically I picture the Christ as an extremely powerful man. I have +known several famous healers and they were all men who looked as if they +had redundant health and strength to give to others. His words to the +sick woman, "Who has touched me? Much power" (_dunamis_ is the word in +the original Greek) "has gone out of me," show that His system depended +upon His losing what He gave to others. Therefore He was a very strong +man. The mere feat of carrying a wooden cross strong enough to bear a +man from Jerusalem to Calvary, up a hill, is no light one. It is the +details which convince me that the gospel narrative is correct and +really represents an actual event. Take the incident during that sad +journey of Simon of Cyrene having helped for a time with the cross. Why +should anyone invent such a thing, putting an actual name to the person? +It is touches of this kind which place the narrative beyond all +suspicion of being a pure invention. Again and again in the New +Testament one is confronted with incidents which a writer of fiction +recognises as being beyond the reach of invention, because the inventor +does not put in things which have no direct bearing upon the matter in +hand. Take as an example how the maid, seeing Peter outside the door +after his escape from prison, ran back to the guests and said that it +was his angel (or etheric body) which was outside. Such an episode could +only have been recorded because it actually occurred. + +But these be deep waters. Let me get back to my own humble experiences, +these interpolated thoughts being but things which have been found upon +the wayside of our journey. On reaching Melbourne we were greeted at the +station by a few devoted souls who had waited for two trains before they +found us. Covered with the flowers which they had brought we drove to +Menzies Hotel, whence we moved a few days later to a flat in the Grand, +where we were destined to spend five eventful weeks. We found the +atmosphere and general psychic conditions of Melbourne by no means as +pleasant or receptive as those of Adelaide, but this of course was very +welcome as the greater the darkness the more need of the light. If +Spiritualism had been a popular cult in Australia there would have been +no object in my visit. I was welcome enough as an individual, but by no +means so as an emissary, and both the Churches and the Materialists, in +most unnatural combination, had done their best to make the soil stony +for me. Their chief agent had been the _Argus_, a solid, stodgy paper, +which amply fulfilled the material needs of the public, but was not +given to spiritual vision. This paper before my arrival had a very +violent and abusive leader which attracted much attention, full of such +terms as "black magic," "Shamanism," "witchcraft," "freak religion," +"cranky faith," "cruelty," "black evil," "poison," finishing up with the +assertion that I represented "a force which we believe to be purely +evil." This was from a paper which whole-heartedly supports the liquor +interest, and has endless columns of betting and racing news, nor did +its principles cause it to refuse substantial sums for the advertising +of my lectures. Still, however arrogant or illogical, I hold that a +paper has a perfect right to publish and uphold its own view, nor would +I say that the subsequent refusal of the _Argus_ to print any answer to +its tirade was a real breach of the ethics of journalism. Where its +conduct became outrageous, however, and where it put itself beyond the +pale of all literary decency, was when it reported my first lecture by +describing my wife's dress, my own voice, the colour of my spectacles, +and not a word of what I said. It capped this by publishing so-called +answers to me by Canon Hughes, and by Bishop Phelan--critics whose +knowledge of the subject seemed to begin and end with the witch of +Endor--while omitting the statements to which these answers applied. +Never in any British town have I found such reactionary intolerance as +in this great city, for though the _Argus_ was the chief offender, the +other papers were as timid as rabbits in the matter. My psychic +photographs which, as I have said, are the most wonderful collection +ever shown in the world, were received in absolute silence by the whole +press, though it is notorious that if I had come there with a comic +opera or bedroom comedy instead of with the evidence of a series of +miracles, I should have had a column. This seems to have been really due +to moral cowardice, and not to ignorance, for I saw a private letter +afterwards in which a sub-editor remarked that he and the chief +leader-writer had both seen the photographs and that they could see no +possible answer to them. + +There was another and more pleasing side to the local conditions, and +that lay in the numbers who had already mastered the principles of +Spiritualism, the richer classes as individuals, the poorer as organised +churches. They were so numerous that when we received an address of +welcome in the auditorium to which only Spiritualists were invited by +ticket, the Hall, which holds two thousand, was easily filled. This +would mean on the same scale that the Spiritualists of London could fill +the Albert Hall several times over--as no doubt they could. Their +numbers were in a sense an embarrassment, as I always had the fear that +I was addressing the faithful instead of those whom I had come so far to +instruct. On the whole their quality and organisation were +disappointing. They had a splendid spiritual paper in their midst, the +_Harbinger of Light_, which has run for fifty years, and is most ably +edited by Mr. Britton Harvey. When I think of David Gow, Ernest Oaten, +John Lewis and Britton Harvey I feel that our cause is indeed well +represented by its press. They have also some splendid local workers, +like Bloomfield and Tozer, whole-hearted and apostolic. But elsewhere +there is the usual tendency to divide and to run into vulgarities and +extravagances in which the Spiritual has small share. Discipline is +needed, which involves central powers, and that in turn means command of +the purse. It would be far better to have no Spiritual churches than +some I have seen. + +However, I seem to have got to some of my final conclusions at Melbourne +before I have begun our actual experience there. We found the place +still full of rumours and talk about the recent visit of the Prince of +Wales, who seems to have a perfect genius for making himself popular and +beloved. May he remain unspoiled and retain the fresh kindliness of his +youth. His success is due not to any ordered rule of conduct but to a +perfectly natural courtesy which is his essential self and needs no +effort. Our waiter at the hotel who had waited upon him remarked: "God +never made anything nearer to Nature than that boy. He spoke to me as he +might have spoken to the Governor." It was a fine tribute, and +characteristic of the humbler classes in this country, who have a vigour +of speech and an independence of view which is very refreshing. Once as +I passed a public house, a broken old fellow who had been leaning +against the wall with a short pipe in his mouth, stepped forward to me +and said: "I am all for civil and religious liberty. There is plenty of +room for your cult here, sir, and I wish you well against the bigots." I +wonder from what heights that old fellow had fallen before he brought up +against the public house wall? + +One of my first afternoons in Melbourne was spent in seeing the final +tie of the Victorian football cup. I have played both Rugby and Soccer, +and I have seen the American game at its best, but I consider that the +Victorian system has some points which make it the best of +all--certainly from the spectacular point of view. There is no off-side, +and you get a free kick if you catch the ball. Otherwise you can run as +in ordinary Rugby, though there is a law about bouncing the ball as you +run, which might, as it seemed to me, be cut out without harming the +game. This bouncing rule was put in by Mr. Harrison who drew up the +original rules, for the chivalrous reason that he was himself the +fastest runner in the Colony, and he did not wish to give himself any +advantage. There is not so much man-handling in the Victorian game, and +to that extent it is less dramatic, but it is extraordinarily open and +fast, with none of the packed scrums which become so wearisome, and with +linesmen who throw in the ball the instant it goes out. There were +several points in which the players seemed better than our best--one was +the accurate passing by low drop kicking, very much quicker and faster +than a pass by hand. Another was the great accuracy of the place kicking +and of the screw kicking when a runner would kick at right angles to his +course. There were four long quarters, and yet the men were in such +condition that they were going hard at the end. They are all, I +understand, semi-professionals. Altogether it was a very fine display, +and the crowd was much excited. It was suggestive that the instant the +last whistle blew a troop of mounted police cantered over the ground and +escorted the referees to the safety of the pavilion. + +I began at once to endeavour to find out the conditions of local +Spiritualism, and had a long conversation with Mr. Tozer, the chairman +of the movement, a slow-talking, steady-eyed man, of the type that gets +a grip and does not easily let go. After explaining the general +situation, which needs some explanation as it is full of currents and +cross-currents caused by individual schisms and secessions, he told me +in his gentle, earnest way some of his own experiences in his home +circle which corroborate much which I have heard elsewhere. He has run a +rescue circle for the instruction of the lower spirits who are so +material that they can be reached more easily by humanity than by the +higher angels. The details he gave me were almost the same as those +given by Mr. MacFarlane of Southsea who had a similar circle of which +Mr. Tozer had certainly never heard. A wise spirit control dominates the +proceedings. The medium goes into trance. The spirit control then +explains what it is about to do, and who the spirit is who is about to +be reformed. The next scene is often very violent, the medium having to +be held down and using rough language. This comes from some low spirit +who has suddenly found this means of expressing himself. At other times +the language is not violent but only melancholy, the spirit declaring +that he is abandoned and has not a friend in the universe. Some do not +realise that they are dead, but only that they wander all alone, under +conditions they could not understand, in a cloud of darkness. + +Then comes the work of regeneration. They are reasoned with and +consoled. Gradually they become more gentle. Finally, they accept the +fact that they are spirits, that their condition is their own making, +and that by aspiration and repentance they can win their way to the +light. When one has found the path and has returned thanks for it, +another case is treated. As a rule these errant souls are unknown to +fame. Often they are clergymen whose bigotry has hindered development. +Occasionally some great sinner of the past may come into view. I have +before me a written lament professing to come from Alva, the bigoted +governor of the Lowlands. It is gruesome enough. "Picture to yourself +the hell I was in. Blood, blood everywhere, corpses on all sides, +gashed, maimed, mutilated, quivering with agony and bleeding at every +pore! At the same time thousands of voices were raised in bitter +reproaches, in curses and execrations! Imagine the appalling spectacle +of this multitude of the dead and dying, fresh from the flames, from the +sword, the rack, the torture chambers and the gibbet; and the +pandemonium of voices shrieking out the most terrible maledictions! +Imagine never being able to get away from these sights and sounds, and +then tell me, was I not in hell?--a hell of greater torment than that to +which I believed all heretics were consigned. Such was the hell of the +'bloody Alva,' from which I have been rescued by what seems to me a +great merciful dispensation of Almighty God." + +Sometimes in Mr. Tozer's circle the souls of ancient clerics who have +slumbered long show their first signs of resuscitation, still bearing +their old-world intolerance with them. The spirit control purports to be +a well-educated Chinaman, whose presence and air of authority annoy the +ecclesiastics greatly. The petrified mind leads to a long period of +insensibility which means loss of ground and of time in the journey +towards happiness. I was present at the return of one alleged Anglican +Bishop of the eighteenth century, who spoke with great intolerance. When +asked if he had seen the Christ he answered that he had not and that he +could not understand it. When asked if he still considered the Christ to +be God he threw up his hand and shouted violently, "Stop! That is +blasphemy!" The Chinese control said, "He stupid man. Let him wait. He +learn better"--and removed him. He was succeeded by a very noisy and +bigoted Puritan divine who declared that no one but devils would come to +a séance. On being asked whether that meant that he was himself a devil +he became so abusive that the Chinaman once more had to intervene. I +quote all this as a curious sidelight into some developments of the +subject which are familiar enough to students, but not to the general +public. It is easy at a distance to sneer at such things and to ask for +their evidential value, but they are very impressive to those who view +them at closer quarters. As to evidence, I am informed that several of +the unfortunates have been identified in this world through the +information which they gave of their own careers. + +Melbourne is a remarkable city, far more solid and old-established than +the European visitor would expect. We spent some days in exploring it. +There are few cities which have the same natural advantages, for it is +near the sea, with many charming watering places close at hand, while +inland it has some beautiful hills for the week-end villas of the +citizens. Edinburgh is the nearest analogy which I can recall. Parks and +gardens are beautiful, but, as in most British cities, the public +statues are more solid than impressive. The best of them, that to Burke +and Wills, the heroic explorers, has no name upon it to signify who the +two figures are, so that they mean nothing at all to the casual +observer, in spite of some excellent bas-reliefs, round the base, which +show the triumphant start and the terrible end of that tragic but +successful journey, which first penetrated the Continent from south to +north. Before our departure I appealed in the press to have this +omission rectified and it was, I believe, done. + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ MELBOURNE, NOVEMBER, + 1920. + +Mr. Smythe, my agent, had been unfortunate in being unable to secure one +of the very few large halls in Melbourne, so we had to confine ourselves +to the Playhouse which has only seating for about 1,200. Here I +opened on October 5th, following my lectures up in the same order as in +Adelaide. The press was very shy, but nothing could have exceeded the +warmth and receptivity of my hearers. Yet on account of the inadequate +reports of the press, with occasional total suppression, no one who was +not present could have imagined how packed was the house, or how +unanimous the audience. + +On October 14th the Spiritualists filled the Auditorium and had a +special service of welcome for ourselves. When I went down to it in the +tram, the conductor, unaware of my identity, said, when I asked to be +put down at the Auditorium, "It's no use, sir; it's jam full an hour +ago." "The Pilgrims," as they called us, were in special seats, the +seven of us all in a line upon the right of the chair. Many kind things +were said, and I replied as best I might. The children will carry the +remembrance of that warm-hearted reception through their lives, and they +are not likely to forget how they staggered home, laden with the flowers +which were literally heaped upon them. + +The British Empire League also entertained my wife and myself to lunch, +a very select company assembling who packed the room. Sir Joseph Cook, +Federal Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a pleasant speech, recalling +our adventures upon the Somme, when he had his baptism of fire. In my +reply I pulled the leg of my audience with some success, for I wound up +by saying, very solemnly, that I was something greater than Governments +and the master of Cabinet Ministers. By the time I had finished my +tremendous claims I am convinced that they expected some extravagant +occult pretension, whereas I actually wound up with the words, "for I am +the man in the street." There was a good deal of amusement caused. + +Mr. Thomas Ryan, a very genial and capable member of the State +Legislature, took the chair at this function. He had no particular +psychic knowledge, but he was deeply impressed by an experience in +London in the presence of that remarkable little lady, Miss Scatcherd. +Mr. Ryan had said that he wanted some evidence before he could accept +psychic philosophy, upon which Miss Scatcherd said: "There is a spirit +beside you now. He conveys to me that his name is Roberts. He says he is +worried in his mind because the home which you prepared for his widow +has not been legally made over to her." All this applied to a matter in +Adelaide. In that city, according to Mr. Ryan, a séance was held that +night, Mr. Victor Cromer being the medium, at which a message came +through from Roberts saying that he was now easy in his mind as he had +managed to convey his trouble to Mr. Ryan who could set it right. When +these psychic laws are understood the dead as well as the living will be +relieved from a load of unnecessary care; but how can these laws be +ignored or pooh-poohed in the face of such instances as this which I +have quoted? They are so numerous now that it is hardly an exaggeration +to say that every circle of human beings which meets can supply one. + +Mr. Hughes was good enough to ask me to meet the members of the Federal +Government at lunch, and the experience was an interesting one, for here +round one small table were those who were shaping the course of this +young giant among the nations. They struck me as a practical hard-worked +rough-and-ready lot of men. Mr. Hughes dominated the conversation, which +necessarily becomes one-sided as he is very deaf, though his opponents +say that he has an extraordinary knack of hearing what he is not meant +to hear. He told us a series of anecdotes of his stormy political youth +with a great deal of vivacity, the whole company listening in silence. +He is a hard, wiry man, with a high-nosed Red Indian face, and a good +deal of healthy devilry in his composition--a great force for good +during the war. + +After lunch he conducted me through the library, and coming to a +portrait of Clemenceau he cried: "That's the man I learned to admire in +Europe." Then, turning to one of Wilson, he added, "And that's the man I +learned to dislike." He added a number of instances of Wilson's +ignorance of actual conditions, and of his ungenial coldness of heart. +"If he had not been so wrapped in himself, and if he had taken Lodge or +some other Republican with him, all could have easily been arranged." I +feel that I am not indiscreet in repeating this, for Hughes is not a man +who conceals his opinions from the world. + +I have been interested in the medium Bailey, who was said to have been +exposed in France in 1910. The curious will find the alleged exposure +in "Annals of Psychical Science," Vol. IX. Bailey is an apport +medium--that is to say, that among his phenomena is the bringing of +objects which are said to come from a distance, passing through the +walls and being precipitated down upon the table. These objects are of +the strangest description--Assyrian tablets (real or forged), tortoises, +live birds, snakes, precious stones, &c. In this case, after being +searched by the committee, he was able to produce two live birds in the +séance room. At the next sitting the committee proposed an obscene and +absurd examination of the medium, which he very rightly resented and +refused. They then confidently declared that on the first occasion the +two live birds were in his intestines, a theory so absurd that it shakes +one's confidence in their judgment. They had, however, some more solid +grounds for a charge against him, for they produced a married couple who +swore that they had sold three such birds with a cage to Bailey some +days before. This Bailey denied, pointing out that he could neither +speak French, nor had he ever had any French money, which Professor +Reichel, who brought him from Australia, corroborated. However, the +committee considered the evidence to be final, and the séances came to +an end, though Colonel de Rochas, the leading member, wound up the +incident by writing: "Are we to conclude from the fraud that we have +witnessed that all Bailey's apports may have been fraudulent? I do not +think so, and this is also the opinion of the members of the committee, +who have had much experience with mediums and are conversant with the +literature of the subject." + +Reading the alleged exposure, one is struck, as so often in such cases, +with its unsatisfactory nature. There is the difficulty of the language +and the money. There is the disappearance of the third bird and the +cage. Above all, how did the birds get into the carefully-guarded seance +room, especially as Bailey was put in a bag during the proceedings? The +committee say the bag may not have been efficient, but they also state +that Bailey desired the control to be made more effective. Altogether it +is a puzzling case. On my applying to Bailey himself for information, he +declared roundly that he had been the victim of a theological plot with +suborned evidence. The only slight support which I can find for that +view is that there was a Rev. Doctor among his accusers. I was told +independently that Professor Reichel, before his death in 1918, came +also to the conclusion that there had been a plot. But in any case most +of us will agree with Mr. Stanford, Bailey's Australian patron, that the +committee would have been wise to say nothing, continue the sittings, +and use their knowledge to get at some more complete conclusion. + +With such a record one had to be on one's guard with Mr. Bailey. I had a +sitting in my room at the hotel to which I invited ten guests, but the +results were not impressive. We saw so-called spirit hands, which were +faintly luminous, but I was not allowed to grasp them, and they were +never further from the medium than he could have reached. All this was +suspicious but not conclusive. On the other hand, there was an attempt +at a materialisation of a head, which took the form of a luminous patch, +and seemed to some of the sitters to be further from the cabinet than +could be reached. We had an address purporting to come from the control, +Dr. Whitcombe, and we also had a message written in bad Italian. On the +whole it was one of those baffling sittings which leave a vague +unpleasant impression, and there was a disturbing suggestion of cuffs +about those luminous hands. + +I have been reading Bailey's record, however, and I cannot doubt that he +has been a great apport medium. The results were far above all possible +fraud, both in the conditions and in the articles brought into the room +by spirit power. For example, I have a detailed account published by Dr. +C. W. McCarthy, of Sydney, under the title, "Rigid Tests of the Occult." +During these tests Bailey was sealed up in a bag, and in one case was +inside a cage of mosquito curtain. The door and windows were secured and +the fire-place blocked. The sitters were all personal friends, but they +mutually searched each other. The medium was stripped naked before the +séance. Under these stringent conditions during a series of six sittings +138 articles were brought into the room, which included eighty-seven +ancient coins (mostly of Ptolemy), eight live birds, eighteen precious +stones of modest value and varied character, two live turtles, seven +inscribed Babylonian tablets, one Egyptian Scarabæus, an Arabic +newspaper, a leopard skin, four nests and many other things. It seems +to me perfect nonsense to talk about these things being the results of +trickery. I may add that at a previous test meeting they had a young +live shark about 1-1/2 feet long, which was tangled with wet seaweed and +flopped about on the table. Dr. McCarthy gives a photograph of the +creature. + +My second sitting with Bailey was more successful than the first. On his +arrival I and others searched him and satisfied ourselves he carried +nothing upon him. I then suddenly switched out all the lights, for it +seemed to me that the luminous hands of the first sitting might be the +result of phosphorised oil put on before the meeting and only visible in +complete darkness, so that it could defy all search. I was wrong, +however, for there was no luminosity at all. We then placed Mr. Bailey +in the corner of the room, lowered the lights without turning them out, +and waited. Almost at once he breathed very heavily, as one in trance, +and soon said something in a foreign tongue which was unintelligible to +me. One of our friends, Mr. Cochrane, recognised it as Indian, and at +once answered, a few sentences being interchanged. In English the voice +then said that he was a Hindoo control who was used to bring apports for +the medium, and that he would, he hoped, be able to bring one for us. +"Here it is," he said a moment later, and the medium's hand was extended +with something in it. The light was turned full on and we found it was a +very perfect bird's nest, beautifully constructed of some very fine +fibre mixed with moss. It stood about two inches high and had no sign of +any flattening which would have come with concealment. The size would be +nearly three inches across. In it lay a small egg, white, with tiny +brown speckles. The medium, or rather the Hindoo control acting through +the medium, placed the egg on his palm and broke it, some fine albumen +squirting out. There was no trace of yolk. "We are not allowed to +interfere with life," said he. "If it had been fertilised we could not +have taken it." These words were said before he broke it, so that he was +aware of the condition of the egg, which certainly seems remarkable. + +"Where did it come from?" I asked. + +"From India." + +"What bird is it?" + +"They call it the jungle sparrow." + +The nest remained in my possession, and I spent a morning with Mr. +Chubb, of the local museum, to ascertain if it was really the nest of +such a bird. It seemed too small for an Indian sparrow, and yet we could +not match either nest or egg among the Australian types. Some of Mr. +Bailey's other nests and eggs have been actually identified. Surely it +is a fair argument that while it is conceivable that such birds might be +imported and purchased here, it is really an insult to one's reason to +suppose that nests with fresh eggs in them could also be in the market. +Therefore I can only support the far more extended experience and +elaborate tests of Dr. McCarthy of Sydney, and affirm that I believe Mr. +Charles Bailey to be upon occasion a true medium, with a very +remarkable gift for apports. + +It is only right to state that when I returned to London I took one of +Bailey's Assyrian tablets to the British Museum and that it was +pronounced to be a forgery. Upon further inquiry it proved that these +forgeries are made by certain Jews in a suburb of Bagdad--and, so far as +is known, only there. Therefore the matter is not much further advanced. +To the transporting agency it is at least possible that the forgery, +steeped in recent human magnetism, is more capable of being handled than +the original taken from a mound. Bailey has produced at least a hundred +of these things, and no Custom House officer has deposed how they could +have entered the country. On the other hand, Bailey told me clearly that +the tablets had been passed by the British Museum, so that I fear that I +cannot acquit him of tampering with truth--and just there lies the great +difficulty of deciding upon his case. But one has always to remember +that physical mediumship has no connection one way or the other with +personal character, any more than the gift of poetry. + +To return to this particular séance, it was unequal. We had luminous +hands, but they were again within reach of the cabinet in which the +medium was seated. We had also a long address from Dr. Whitcombe, the +learned control, in which he discoursed like an absolute master upon +Assyrian and Roman antiquities and psychic science. It was really an +amazing address, and if Bailey were the author of it I should hail him +as a master mind. He chatted about the Kings of Babylon as if he had +known them all, remarked that the Bible was wrong in calling Belthazar +King as he was only Crown Prince, and put in all those easy side +allusions which a man uses when he is absolutely full of his subject. +Upon his asking for questions, I said: "Please give me some light as to +the dematerialisation and subsequent reassembly of an object such as a +bird's nest." "It involves," he answered, "some factors which are beyond +your human science and which could not be made clear to you. At the same +time you may take as a rough analogy the case of water which is turned +into steam, and then this steam which is invisible, is conducted +elsewhere to be reassembled as visible water." I thought this +explanation was exceedingly apt, though of course I agree that it is +only a rough analogy. On my asking if there were libraries and +facilities for special study in the next world, he said that there +certainly were, but that instead of studying books they usually studied +the actual objects themselves. All he said was full of dignity and +wisdom. It was curious to notice that, learned as he was, Dr. Whitcombe +always referred back with reverence to Dr. Robinson, another control not +present at the moment, as being the real expert. I am told that some of +Dr. Robinson's addresses have fairly amazed the specialists. I notice +that Col. de Rochas in his report was equally impressed by Bailey's +controls. + +I fear that my psychic experiences are pushing my travels into the +background, but I warned the reader that it might be so when first we +joined hands. To get back to the earth, let me say that I saw the +procession when the new Governor-General, Lord Forster, with his +charming wife, made their ceremonial entry into Melbourne, with many +workman-like Commonwealth troops before and behind their carriage. I +knew Lord Forster of old, for we both served upon a committee over the +Olympic Games, so that he gave quite a start of surprised recognition +when his quick eye fell upon my face in the line of spectators. He is a +man who cannot fail to be popular here, for he has the physical as well +as the mental qualities. Our stay in Melbourne was afterwards made more +pleasant by the gracious courtesy of Government House for, apart from +attending several functions, we were invited to a special dinner, after +which I exhibited upon a screen my fairy portraits and a few of my other +very wonderful psychic photographs. It was not an occasion when I could +preach, but no quick intelligence could be brought in contact with such +phenomena without asking itself very seriously what lay behind them. +When that question is earnestly asked the battle is won. + +One asks oneself what will be the end of this system of little viceroys +in each State and a big viceroy in the Capital--however capable and +excellent in themselves such viceroys may be. The smaller courts are, I +understand, already doomed, and rightly so, since there is no need for +them and nothing like them elsewhere. There is no possible purpose that +they serve save to impose a nominal check, which is never used, upon +the legislation. The Governor-Generalship will last no doubt until +Australia cuts the painter, or we let go our end of it, whichever may +come first. + +Personally, I have no fear of Britain's power being weakened by a +separation of her dominions. Close allies which were independent might +be a greater source of moral strength than actual dependencies. When the +sons leave the father's house and rule their own homes, becoming fathers +in turn, the old man is not weakened thereby. Certainly I desire no such +change, but if it came I would bear it with philosophy. I hope that the +era of great military crises is for ever past, but, if it should recur, +I am sure that the point of view would be the same, and that the starry +Union Jack of the great Australian nation would still fly beside the old +flag which was its model. + +If one took a Machiavelian view of British interests one would say that +to retain a colony the surest way is not to remove any danger which may +threaten her. We conquered Canada from the French, removing in +successive campaigns the danger from the north and from the west which +threatened our American colonies. When we had expended our blood and +money to that end, so that the colonies had nothing to fear, they took +the first opportunity to force an unnecessary quarrel and to leave us. +So I have fears for South Africa now that the German menace has been +removed. Australia is, I think, loyal to the core, and yet self-interest +is with every nation the basis of all policy, and so long as the British +fleet can guard the shores of the great empty northern territories, a +region as big as Britain, Germany, France and Austria put together, they +have need of us. There can be no doubt that if they were alone in the +world in the face of the teeming millions of the East, they might, like +the Siberian travellers, have to throw a good deal to the wolves in +order to save the remainder. Brave and capable as they are, neither +their numbers nor their resources could carry them through a long +struggle if the enemy held the sea. They are natural shots and soldiers, +so that they might be wiser to spend their money in a strategic railway +right across their northern coast, rather than in direct military +preparations. To concentrate rapidly before the enemy was firmly +established might under some circumstances be a very vital need. + +But so long as the British Empire lasts Australia is safe, and in twenty +years' time her own enlarged population will probably make her safe +without help from anyone. But her empty places are a danger. History +abhors a vacuum and finds some one to fill it up. I have never yet +understood why the Commonwealth has not made a serious effort to attract +to the northern territories those Italians who are flooding the +Argentine. It is great blood and no race is the poorer for it--the blood +of ancient Rome. They are used to semitropical heat and to hard work in +bad conditions if there be only hope ahead. Perhaps the policy of the +future may turn in that direction. If that one weak spot be guarded then +it seems to me that in the whole world there is no community, save only +the United States, which is so safe from outside attack as Australia. +Internal division is another matter, but there Australia is in some ways +stronger than the States. She has no negro question, and the strife +between Capital and Labour is not likely to be so formidable. I wonder, +by the way, how many people in the United States realise that this small +community lost as many men as America did in the great war. We were +struck also by the dignified resignation with which this fact was faced, +and by the sense of proportion which was shown in estimating the +sacrifices of various nations. + +We like the people here very much more than we had expected to, for one +hears in England exaggerated stories of their democratic bearing. When +democracy takes the form of equality one can get along with it, but when +it becomes rude and aggressive one would avoid it. Here one finds a very +pleasing good fellowship which no one would object to. Again and again +we have met with little acts of kindness from people in shops or in the +street, which were not personal to ourselves, but part of their normal +good manners. If you ask the way or any other information, strangers +will take trouble to put you right. They are kindly, domestic and +straight in speech and in dealings. Materialism and want of vision in +the broader affairs of life seem to be the national weakness, but that +may be only a passing phase, for when a nation has such a gigantic +material proposition as this continent to handle it is natural that +their thoughts should run on the wool and the wheat and the gold by +which it can be accomplished. I am bound to say, however, that I think +every patriotic Australian should vote, if not for prohibition, at least +for the solution which is most dear to myself, and that is the lowering +of the legal standard of alcohol in any drink. We have been shocked and +astonished by the number of young men of decent exterior whom we have +seen staggering down the street, often quite early in the day. The +Biblical test for drunkenness, that it was not yet the third hour, would +not apply to them. I hear that bad as it is in the big towns it is worse +in the small ones, and worst of all in the northern territories and +other waste places where work is particularly needed. It must greatly +decrease the national efficiency. A recent vote upon the question in +Victoria only carried total abstinence in four districts out of about +200, but a two-third majority was needed to do it. On the other hand a +trial of strength in Queensland, generally supposed to be rather a rowdy +State, has shown that the temperance men all combined can out-vote the +others. Therefore it is certain that reform will not be long delayed. + +The other curse of the country, which is a real drag upon its progress, +is the eternal horse-racing. It goes on all the year round, though it +has its more virulent bouts, as for example during our visit to this +town when the Derby, the Melbourne Cup, and Oaks succeeded each other. +They call it sport, but I fear that in that case I am no sportsman. I +would as soon call the roulette-table a sport. The whole population is +unsettled and bent upon winning easy money, which dissatisfies them +with the money that has to be worked for. Every shop is closed when the +Cup is run, and you have lift-boys, waiters and maids all backing their +fancies, not with half-crowns but with substantial sums. The danger to +honesty is obvious, and it came under our own notice that it is not +imaginary. Of course we are by no means blameless in England, but it +only attacks a limited class, while here it seems to the stranger to be +almost universal. In fact it is so bad that it is sure to get better, +for I cannot conceive that any sane nation will allow it to continue. +The book-makers, however, are a powerful guild, and will fight tooth and +nail. The Catholic Church, I am sorry to say, uses its considerable +influence to prevent drink reform by legislation, and I fear that it +will not support the anti-gamblers either. I wonder from what hidden +spring, from what ignorant Italian camarilla, this venerable and in some +ways admirable Church gets its secular policy, which must have central +direction, since it is so consistent! When I remember the recent +sequence of world events and the part played by that Church, the attack +upon the innocent Dreyfus, the refusal to support reform in the Congo, +and finally the obvious leaning towards the Central Powers who were +clearly doomed to lose, one would think that it was ruled by a Council +of lunatics. These matters bear no relation to faith or dogma, so that +one wonders that the sane Catholics have not risen in protest. No doubt +the better class laymen are ahead of the clergy in this as in other +religious organisations. I cannot forget how the Duke of Norfolk sent me +a cheque for the Congo Reform Movement at the very time when we could +not get the Catholic Church to line up with the other sects at a Reform +Demonstration at the Albert Hall. In this country also there were many +brave and loyal Catholics who took their own line against Cardinal +Mannix upon the question of conscription, when that Cardinal did all +that one man could do to bring about the defeat of the free nations in +the great war. How he could face an American audience afterwards, or how +such an audience could tolerate him, is hard to understand. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + More English than the English.--A day in the Bush.--Immigration.--A + case of spirit return.--A Séance.--Geelong.--The lava + plain.--Good-nature of General Ryrie.--Bendigo.--Down a gold + mine.--Prohibition v. Continuance.--Mrs. Knight + MacLellan.--Nerrin.--A wild drive.--Electric shearing.--Rich sheep + stations.--Cockatoo farmers.--Spinnifex and Mallee.--Rabbits.--The + great marsh. + + +In some ways the Australians are more English than the English. We have +been imperceptibly Americanised, while our brethren over the sea have +kept the old type. The Australian is less ready to show emotion, cooler +in his bearing, more restrained in applause, more devoted to personal +liberty, keener on sport, and quieter in expression (as witness the +absence of scare lines in the papers) than our people are. Indeed, they +remind me more of the Scotch than the English, and Melbourne on a +Sunday, without posts, or Sunday papers, or any amenity whatever, is +like the Edinburgh of my boyhood. Sydney is more advanced. There are +curious anomalies in both towns. Their telephone systems are so bad that +they can only be balanced against each other, for they are in a class by +themselves. One smiles when one recollects that one used to grumble at +the London lines. On the other hand the tramway services in both towns +are wonderful, and so continuous that one never hastens one's step to +catch a tram since another comes within a minute. The Melbourne trams +have open bogey cars in front, which make a drive a real pleasure. + +One of our pleasant recollections in the early days of our Melbourne +visit was a day in the bush with Mr. Henry Stead and his wife. My +intense admiration for the moral courage and energy of the father made +it easy for me to form a friendship with his son, who has shown the +family qualities by the able way in which he has founded and conducted +an excellent journal, _Stead's Monthly_. Australia was lucky ever to get +such an immigrant as that, for surely an honest, fearless and +clear-headed publicist is the most valuable man that a young country, +whose future is one long problem play, could import. We spent our day in +the Dandenong Hills, twenty miles from Melbourne, in a little hostel +built in a bush clearing and run by one Lucas, of good English cricket +stock, his father having played for Sussex. On the way we passed Madame +Melba's place at Lilydale, and the wonderful woods with their strange +tree-ferns seemed fit cover for such a singing bird. Coming back in +Stead's light American car we tried a short cut down roads which proved +to be almost impossible. A rather heavier car ahead of us, with two +youths in it, got embedded in the mud, and we all dismounted to heave it +out. There suddenly appeared on the lonely road an enormous coloured +man; he looked like a cross between negro and black fellow. He must +have lived in some hut in the woods, but the way his huge form suddenly +rose beside us was quite surprising. He stood in gloomy majesty +surveying our efforts, and repeating a series of sentences which +reminded one of German exercises. "I have no jack. I had a jack. Some +one has taken my jack. This is called a road. It is not a road. There is +no road." We finally levered out the Australian car, for which, by the +way, neither occupant said a word of thanks, and then gave the black +giant a shilling, which he received as a keeper takes his toll. On +looking back I am not sure that this slough of despond is not carefully +prepared by this negro, who makes a modest income by the tips which he +gets from the unfortunates who get bogged in it. No keeper ever darted +out to a trap quicker than he did when the car got stuck. + +Stead agreed with me that the Australians do not take a big enough view +of their own destiny. They--or the labour party, to be more exact--are +inclined to buy the ease of the moment at the cost of the greatness of +their continental future. They fear immigration lest it induce +competition and pull down prices. It is a natural attitude. And yet that +little fringe of people on the edge of that huge island can never +adequately handle it. It is like an enormous machine with a six +horsepower engine to drive it. I have a great sympathy with their desire +to keep the British stock as pure as possible. But the land needs the +men, and somewhere they must be found. I cannot doubt that they would +become loyal subjects of the Empire which had adopted them. I have +wondered sometimes whether in Lower California and the warmer States of +the Union there may not be human material for Australia. Canada has +received no more valuable stock than from the American States, so it +might be that another portion of the Union would find the very stamp of +man that Queensland and the north require. The American likes a big +gamble and a broad life with plenty of elbow-room. Let him bring his +cotton seeds over to semi-tropical Australia and see what he can make of +it there. + +To pass suddenly to other-worldly things, which are my mission. People +never seem to realise the plain fact that one positive result must +always outweigh a hundred negative ones. It only needs one single case +of spirit return to be established, and there is no more to be said. +Incidentally, how absurd is the position of those wiseacres who say +"nine-tenths of the phenomena are fraud." Can they not see that if they +grant us one-tenth, they grant us our whole contention? + +These remarks are elicited by a case which occurred in 1883 in +Melbourne, and which should have converted the city as surely as if an +angel had walked down Collins Street. Yet nearly forty years later I +find it as stagnant and material as any city I have ever visited. The +facts are these, well substantiated by documentary and official +evidence. Mr. Junor Browne, a well-known citizen, whose daughter +afterwards married Mr. Alfred Deakin, subsequently Premier, had two +sons, Frank and Hugh. Together with a seaman named Murray they went out +into the bay in their yacht the "Iolanthe," and they never returned. The +father was fortunately a Spiritualist and upon the second day of their +absence, after making all normal inquiries, he asked a sensitive, Mr. +George Spriggs, formerly of Cardiff, if he would trace them. Mr. Spriggs +collected some of the young men's belongings, so as to get their +atmosphere, and then he was able by psychometry to give an account of +their movements, the last which he could see of them being that they +were in trouble upon the yacht and that confusion seemed to reign aboard +her. Two days later, as no further news was brought in, the Browne +family held a séance, Mr. Spriggs being the medium. He fell into trance +and the two lads, who had been trained in spiritual knowledge and knew +the possibilities, at once came through. They expressed their contrition +to their mother, who had desired them not to go, and they then gave a +clear account of the capsizing of the yacht, and how they had met their +death, adding that they had found themselves after death in the exact +physical conditions of happiness and brightness which their father's +teaching had led them to expect. They brought with them the seaman +Murray, who also said a few words. Finally Hugh, speaking through the +medium, informed Mr. Browne that Frank's arm and part of his clothing +had been torn off by a fish. + +"A shark?" asked Mr. Browne. + +"Well, it was not like any shark I have seen." + +Mark the sequel. Some weeks later a large shark of a rare deep-sea +species, unknown to the fishermen, and quite unlike the ordinary blue +shark with which the Brownes were familiar, was taken at Frankston, +about twenty-seven miles from Melbourne. Inside it was found the bone of +a human arm, and also a watch, some coins, and other articles which had +belonged to Frank Browne. These facts were all brought out in the papers +at the time, and Mr. Browne put much of it on record in print before the +shark was taken, or any word of the missing men had come by normal +means. The facts are all set forth in a little book by Mr. Browne +himself, called "A Rational Faith." What have fraudulent mediums and all +the other decoys to do with such a case as that, and is it not perfectly +convincing to any man who is not perverse? Personally, I value it not so +much for the evidence of survival, since we have that so complete +already, but for the detailed account given by the young men of their +new conditions, so completely corroborating what so many young officers, +cut off suddenly in the war, have said of their experience. "Mother, if +you could see how happy we are, and the beautiful home we are in, you +would not weep except for joy. I feel so light in my spiritual body and +have no pain, I would not exchange this life for earth life even it were +in my power. Poor spirits without number are waiting anxiously to +communicate with their friends when an opportunity is offered." The +young Brownes had the enormous advantage of the education they had +received from their father, so that they instantly understood and +appreciated the new conditions. + +On October 8th we had a séance with Mrs. Hunter, a pleasant middle-aged +woman, with a soft South of England accent. Like so many of our mediums +she had little sign of education in her talk. It does not matter in +spiritual things, though it is a stumbling block to some inquirers. +After all, how much education had the apostles? I have no doubt they +were very vulgar provincial people from the average Roman point of view. +But they shook the world none the less. Most of our educated people have +got their heads so crammed with things that don't matter that they have +no room for the things that do matter. There was no particular success +at our sitting, but I have heard that the medium is capable of better +things. + +On October 13th I had my first experience of a small town, for I went to +Geelong and lectured there. It was an attentive and cultured audience, +but the hall was small and the receipts could hardly have covered the +expenses. However, it is the press report and the local discussion which +really matter. I had little time to inspect Geelong, which is a +prosperous port with 35,000 inhabitants. What interested me more was the +huge plain of lava which stretches around it and connects it with +Melbourne. This plain is a good hundred miles across, and as it is of +great depth one can only imagine that there must be monstrous cavities +inside the earth to correspond with the huge amount extruded. Here and +there one sees stunted green cones which are the remains of the +volcanoes which spewed up all this stuff. The lava has disintegrated on +the surface to the extent of making good arable soil, but the harder +bits remain unbroken, so that the surface is covered with rocks, which +are used to build up walls for the fields after the Irish fashion. Every +here and there a peak of granite has remained as an island amid the +lava, to show what was there before the great outflow. Eruptions appear +to be caused by water pouring in through some crack and reaching the +heated inside of the earth where the water is turned to steam, expands, +and so gains the force to spread destruction. If this process went on it +is clear that the whole sea might continue to pour down the crack until +the heat had been all absorbed by the water. I have wondered whether the +lava may not be a clever healing process of nature, by which this soft +plastic material is sent oozing out in every direction with the idea +that it may find the crack and then set hard and stop it up. Wild +speculation no doubt, but the guess must always precede the proof. + +The Australians are really a very good-natured people. It runs through +the whole race, high and low. A very exalted person, the Minister of +War, shares our flat in the hotel, his bedroom being imbedded among our +rooms. This is General Sir Granville Ryrie, a famous hero of Palestine, +covered with wounds and medals--a man, too, of great dignity of bearing. +As I was dressing one morning I heard some rather monotonous whistling +and, forgetting the very existence of the General, and taking it for +granted that it was my eldest boy Denis, I put my head out and said, +"Look here, old chap, consider other people's nerves and give up that +rotten habit of whistling before breakfast." Imagine my feelings when +the deep voice of the General answered, "All right, Sir Arthur, I will!" +We laughed together over the incident afterwards, and I told him that he +had furnished me with one more example of Australian good humour for my +notes. + +On October 13th I was at the prosperous 50,000 population town of +Bendigo, which every one, except the people on the spot, believes to +have been named after the famous boxer. This must surely be a world +record, for so far as my memory serves, neither a Grecian Olympic +athletic, nor a Roman Gladiator, nor a Byzantine Charioteer, has ever +had a city for a monument. Borrow, who looked upon a good honest +pugilist as the pick of humanity, must have rejoiced in it. Is not +valour the basis of all character, and where shall we find greater +valour than theirs? Alas, that most of them began and ended there! It is +when the sage and the saint build on the basis of the fighter that you +have the highest to which humanity can attain. + +I had a full hall at Bendigo, and it was packed, I am told, by real +old-time miners, for, of course, Bendigo is still the centre of the gold +mining industry. Mr. Smythe told me that it was quite a sight to see +those rows of deeply-lined, bearded faces listening so intently to what +I said of that destiny which is theirs as well as mine. I never had a +better audience, and it was their sympathy which helped me through, for +I was very weary that night. But however weary you may be, when you +climb upon the platform to talk about this subject, you may be certain +that you will be less weary when you come off. That is my settled +conviction after a hundred trials. + +On the morning after my lecture I found myself half a mile nearer to +dear Old England, for I descended the Unity mine, and they say that the +workings extend to that depth. Perhaps I was not at the lowest level, +but certainly it was a long journey in the cage, and reminded me of my +friend Bang's description of the New York elevator, when he said that +the distance to his suburban villa and his town flat was the same, but +the one was horizontal and the other perpendicular. + +It was a weird experience that peep into the profound depths of the +great gold mine. Time was when the quartz veins were on the surface for +the poor adventurer to handle. Now they have been followed underground, +and only great companies and costly machinery can win it. Always it is +the same white quartz vein with the little yellow specks and threads +running through it. We were rattled down in pitch darkness until we came +to a stop at the end of a long passage dimly lit by an occasional +guttering candle. Carrying our own candles, and clad in miner's costume +we crept along with bent heads until we came suddenly out into a huge +circular hall which might have sprung from Doré's imagination. The +place was draped with heavy black shadows, but every here and there was +a dim light. Each light showed where a man was squatting toad-like, a +heap of broken debris in front of him, turning it over, and throwing +aside the pieces with clear traces of gold. These were kept for special +treatment, while the rest of the quartz was passed in ordinary course +through the mill. These scattered heaps represented the broken stuff +after a charge of dynamite had been exploded in the quartz vein. It was +strange indeed to see these squatting figures deep in the bowels of the +earth, their candles shining upon their earnest faces and piercing eyes, +and to reflect that they were striving that the great exchanges of +London and New York might be able to balance with bullion their output +of paper. This dim troglodyte industry was in truth the centre and +mainspring of all industries, without which trade would stop. Many of +the men were from Cornwall, the troll among the nations, where the tools +of the miner are still, as for two thousand years, the natural heritage +of the man. Dr. Stillwell, the geologist of the company, and I had a +long discussion as to where the gold came from, but the only possible +conclusion was that nobody knew. We know now that the old alchemists +were perfectly right and that one metal may change into another. Is it +possible that under some conditions a mineral may change into a metal? +Why should quartz always be the matrix? Some geological Darwin will come +along some day and we shall get a great awakening, for at present we +are only disguising our own ignorance in this department of knowledge. I +had always understood that quartz was one of the old igneous primeval +rocks, and yet here I saw it in thin bands, sandwiched in between clays +and slates and other water-borne deposits. The books and the strata +don't agree. + +These smaller towns, like the Metropolis itself, are convulsed with the +great controversy between Prohibition and Continuance, no reasonable +compromise between the two being suggested. Every wall displays posters, +on one side those very prosperous-looking children who demand that some +restraint be placed upon their daddy, and on the other hair-raising +statements as to the financial results of restricting the publicans. To +the great disgust of every decent man they have run the Prince into it, +and some remark of his after his return to England has been used by the +liquor party. It is dangerous for royalty to be jocose in these days, +but this was a particularly cruel example of the exploitation of a +harmless little joke. If others felt as I did I expect it cost the +liquor interest many a vote. + +We had another séance, this time with Mrs. Knight MacLellan, after my +return from Bendigo. She is a lady who has grown grey in the service of +the cult, and who made a name in London when she was still a child by +her mediumistic powers. We had nothing of an evidential character that +evening save that one lady who had recently lost her son had his +description and an apposite message given. It was the first of several +tests which we were able to give this lady, and before we left Melbourne +she assured us that she was a changed woman and her sorrow for ever +gone. + +On October 18th began a very delightful experience, for my wife and I, +leaving our party safe in Melbourne, travelled up country to be the +guests of the Hon. Agar Wynne and his charming wife at their station of +Nerrin-Nerrin in Western Victoria. It is about 140 miles from Melbourne, +and as the trains are very slow, the journey was not a pleasant one. But +that was soon compensated for in the warmth of the welcome which awaited +us. Mr. Agar Wynne was Postmaster-General of the Federal Government, and +author of several improvements, one of which, the power of sending long +letter-telegrams at low rates during certain hours was a triumph of +common sense. For a shilling one could send quite a long communication +to the other end of the Continent, but it must go through at the time +when the telegraph clerk had nothing else to do. + +It was interesting to us to find ourselves upon an old-established +station, typical of the real life of Australia, for cities are much the +same the world over. Nerrin had been a sheep station for eighty years, +but the comfortable verandahed bungalow house, with every convenience +within it, was comparatively modern. What charmed us most, apart from +the kindness of our hosts, was a huge marsh or lagoon which extended for +many miles immediately behind the house, and which was a bird +sanctuary, so that it was crowded with ibises, wild black swans, geese, +ducks, herons and all sorts of fowl. We crept out of our bedroom in the +dead of the night and stood under the cloud-swept moon listening to the +chorus of screams, hoots, croaks and whistles coming out of the vast +expanse of reeds. It would make a most wonderful hunting ground for a +naturalist who was content to observe and not to slay. The great morass +of Nerrin will ever stand out in our memories. + +Next day we were driven round the borders of this wonderful marsh, Mr. +Wynne, after the Australian fashion, taking no note of roads, and going +right across country with alarming results to anyone not used to it. +Finally, the swaying and rolling became so terrific that he was himself +thrown off the box seat and fell down between the buggy and the front +wheel, narrowly escaping a very serious accident. He was able to show us +the nests and eggs which filled the reed-beds, and even offered to drive +us out into the morass to inspect them, a proposal which was rejected by +the unanimous vote of a full buggy. I never knew an answer more +decidedly in the negative. As we drove home we passed a great gum tree, +and half-way up the trunk was a deep incision where the bark had been +stripped in an oval shape some four foot by two. It was where some +savage in days of old had cut his shield. Such a mark outside a modern +house with every amenity of cultured life is an object lesson of how two +systems have over-lapped, and how short a time it is since this great +continent was washed by a receding wave, ere the great Anglo-Saxon tide +came creeping forward. + +Apart from the constant charm of the wild life of the marsh there did +not seem to be much for the naturalist around Nerrin. Opossums bounded +upon the roof at night and snakes were not uncommon. A dangerous +tiger-snake was killed on the day of our arrival. I was amazed also at +the size of the Australian eels. A returned soldier had taken up fishing +as a trade, renting a water for a certain time and putting the contents, +so far as he could realise them, upon the market. It struck me that +after this wily digger had passed that way there would not be much for +the sportsman who followed him. But the eels were enormous. He took a +dozen at a time from his cunning eel-pots, and not one under six pounds. +I should have said that they were certainly congers had I seen them in +England. + +I wonder whether all this part of the country has not been swept by a +tidal wave at some not very remote period. It is a low coastline with +this great lava plain as a hinterland, and I can see nothing to prevent +a big wave even now from sweeping the civilisation of Victoria off the +planet, should there be any really great disturbance under the Pacific. +At any rate, it is my impression that it has actually occurred once +already, for I cannot otherwise understand the existence of great +shallow lakes of salt water in these inland parts. Are they not the +pools left behind by that terrible tide? There are great banks of sand, +too, here and there on the top of the lava which I can in no way +account for unless they were swept here in some tremendous world-shaking +catastrophe which took the beach from St. Kilda and threw it up at +Nerrin. God save Australia from such a night as that must have been if +my reading of the signs be correct. + + Illustration: A TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN BACK-COUNTRY SCENE. By H. J. + Johnstone, a great painter who died unknown. (Painting in Adelaide + National Gallery.) + +One of the sights of Nerrin is the shearing of the sheep by electric +machinery. These sheep are merinos, which have been bred as +wool-producers to such an extent that they can hardly see, and the wool +grows thick right down to their hoofs. The large stately creature is a +poor little shadow when his wonderful fleece has been taken from him. +The electric clips with which the operation is performed, are, I am +told, the invention of a brother of Garnet Wolseley, who worked away at +the idea, earning the name of being a half-crazy crank, until at last +the invention materialised and did away with the whole slow and clumsy +process of the hand-shearer. It is not, however, a pleasant process to +watch even for a man, far less a sensitive woman, for the poor creatures +get cut about a good deal in the process. The shearer seizes a sheep, +fixes him head up between his knees, and then plunges the swiftly-moving +clippers into the thick wool which covers the stomach. With wonderful +speed he runs it along and the creature is turned out of its covering, +and left as bare as a turkey in a poulterer's window, but, alas, its +white and tender skin is too often gashed and ripped with vivid lines of +crimson by the haste and clumsiness of the shearer. It was worse, they +say, in the days of the hand-shearer. I am bound to say, however, that +the creature makes no fuss about it, remains perfectly still, and does +not appear to suffer any pain. Nature is often kinder than we know, even +to her most humble children, and some soothing and healing process seems +to be at work. + +The shearers appear to be a rough set of men, and spend their whole time +moving in gangs from station to station, beginning up in the far north +and winding up on the plains of South Australia. They are complete +masters of the situation, having a powerful union at their back. They +not only demand and receive some two pounds a day in wages, but they +work or not by vote, the majority being able to grant a complete +holiday. It is impossible to clip a wet sheep, so that after rain there +is an interval of forced idleness, which may be prolonged by the vote of +the men. They work very rapidly, however, when they are actually at it, +and the man who tallies most fleeces, called "the ringer," receives a +substantial bonus. When the great shed is in full activity it is a +splendid sight with the row of stooping figures, each embracing his +sheep, the buzz of the shears, the rush of the messengers who carry the +clip to the table, the swift movements of the sorters who separate the +perfect from the imperfect wool, and the levering and straining of the +packers who compress it all into square bundles as hard as iron with 240 +pounds in each. With fine wool at the present price of ninety-six pence +a pound it is clear that each of these cubes stands for nearly a hundred +pounds. + +They are rich men these sheep owners--and I am speaking here of my +general inquiry and not at all of Nerrin. On a rough average, with many +local exceptions, one may say that an estate bears one sheep to an acre, +and that the sheep may show a clear profit of one pound in the year. +Thus, after the first initial expense is passed, and when the flock has +reached its full, one may easily make an assessment of the owner's +income. Estates of 10,000 acres are common, and they run up to 50,000 +and 60,000 acres. They can be run so cheaply that the greater part of +income is clear profit, for when the land is barb-wired into great +enclosures no shepherds are needed, and only a boundary rider or two to +see that all is in order. These, with a few hands at lambing time, and +two or three odd-job men at the central station, make up the whole +staff. It is certainly the short cut to a fortune if one can only get +the plant running. + +Can a man with a moderate capital get a share of these good things? +Certainly he can if he have grit and a reasonable share of that luck +which must always be a factor in Nature's processes. Droughts, floods, +cyclones, etc., are like the zero at Monte Carlo, which always may turn +up to defeat the struggling gamester. I followed several cases where +small men had managed to make good. It is reckoned that the man who gets +a holding of from 300 to 500 acres is able on an average in three years +to pay off all his initial expenses and to have laid the foundations of +a career which may lead to fortune. One case was a London baker who knew +nothing of the work. He had 300 acres and had laid it out in wheat, +cows, sheep and mixed farming. He worked from morning to night, his wife +was up at four, and his child of ten was picking up stones behind the +furrow. But he was already making his £500 a year. The personal equation +was everything. One demobilised soldier was doing well. Another had come +to smash. Very often a deal is made between the small man and the large +holder, by which the latter lets the former a corner of his estate, +taking a share, say one-third, of his profits as rent. That is a plan +which suits everyone, and the landlord can gradually be bought out by +the "cockatoo farmer," as he is styled. + +There is a great wool-clip this year, and prices in London are at record +figures, so that Australia, which only retains 17 per cent. of her own +wool, should have a very large sum to her credit. But she needs it. When +one considers that the debt of this small community is heavier now than +that of Great Britain before the war, one wonders how she can ever win +through. But how can anyone win through? I don't think we have fairly +realised the financial problem yet, and I believe that within a very few +years there will be an International Council which will be compelled to +adopt some such scheme as the one put forward by my friend, Mr. +Stilwell, under the name of "The Great Plan." This excellent idea was +that every nation should reduce its warlike expenditure to an absolute +minimum, that the difference between this minimum and the 1914 pre-war +standard should be paid every year to a central fund, and that +international bonds be now drawn upon the security of that fund, +anticipating not its present amount but what it will represent in fifty +years' time. It is, in fact, making the future help the present, exactly +as an estate which has some sudden great call upon it might reasonably +anticipate or mortgage its own development. I believe that the salvation +of the world may depend upon some such plan, and that the Council of the +League of Nations is the agency by which it could be made operative. + +Australia has had two plants which have been a perfect curse to her as +covering the land and offering every impediment to agriculture. They are +the Spinnifex in the West and the Mallee scrub in the East. The latter +was considered a hopeless proposition, and the only good which could be +extracted from it was that the root made an ideal fire, smouldering long +and retaining heat. Suddenly, however, a genius named Lascelles +discovered that this hopeless Mallee land was simply unrivalled for +wheat, and his schemes have now brought seven million acres under the +plough. This could hardly have been done if another genius, unnamed, had +not invented a peculiar and ingenious plough, the "stump-jump plough," +which can get round obstacles without breaking itself. It is not +generally known that Australia really heads the world for the ingenuity +and efficiency of her agricultural machinery. There is an inventor and +manufacturer, MacKay, of Sunshine, who represents the last word in +automatic reapers, etc. He exports them, a shipload at a time, to the +United States, which, if one considers the tariff which they have to +surmount, is proof in itself of the supremacy of the article. With this +wealth of machinery the real power of Australia in the world is greater +than her population would indicate, for a five-million nation, which, by +artificial aid, does the work normally done by ten million people, +becomes a ten-million nation so far as economic and financial strength +is concerned. + +On the other hand, Australia has her hindrances as well as her helps. +Certainly the rabbits have done her no good, though the evil is for the +moment under control. An efficient rabbiter gets a pound a day, and he +is a wise insurance upon any estate, for the creatures, if they get the +upper-hand, can do thousands of pounds' worth of damage. This damage +takes two shapes. First, they eat on all the grass and leave nothing at +all for the sheep. Secondly, they burrow under walls, etc., and leave +the whole place an untidy ruin. Little did the man who introduced the +creature into Australia dream how the imprecations of a continent would +descend upon him. + +Alas! that we could not linger at Nerrin; but duty was calling at +Melbourne. Besides, the days of the Melbourne Cup were at hand, and not +only was Mr. Wynne a great pillar of the turf, but Mr. Osborne, owner of +one of the most likely horses in the race, was one of the house-party. +To Melbourne therefore we went. We shall always, however, be able in our +dreams to revisit that broad verandah, the low hospitable façade, the +lovely lawn with its profusion of scented shrubs, the grove of towering +gum trees, where the opossums lurked, and above all the great marsh +where with dark clouds drifting across the moon we had stolen out at +night to hear the crying of innumerable birds. That to us will always be +the real Australia. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + The Melbourne Cup.--Psychic healing.--M. J. Bloomfield.--My own + experience.--Direct healing.--Chaos and Ritual.--Government House + Ball.--The Rescue Circle again.--Sitting with Mrs. Harris.--A good + test case.--Australian botany.--The land of myrtles.--English + cricket team.--Great final meeting in Melbourne. + + +It was the week of weeks in Melbourne when we returned from Nerrin, and +everything connected with my mission was out of the question. When the +whole world is living vividly here and now there is no room for the +hereafter. Personally, I fear I was out of sympathy with it all, though +we went to the Derby, where the whole male and a good part of the female +population of Melbourne seemed to be assembled, reinforced by +contingents from every State in the Federation. A fine handsome body of +people they are when you see them _en masse_, strong, solid and capable, +if perhaps a little lacking in those finer and more spiritual graces +which come with a more matured society. The great supply of animal food +must have its effect upon the mind as well as the body of a nation. Lord +Forster appeared at the races, and probably, as an all round sportsman, +took a genuine interest, but the fate of the Governor who did not take +an interest would be a rather weary one--like that kind-hearted Roman +Emperor, Claudius, if I remember right, who had to attend the +gladiatorial shows, but did his business there so as to distract his +attention from the arena. We managed to get out of attending the famous +Melbourne Cup, and thereby found the St. Kilda Beach deserted for once, +and I was able to spend a quiet day with my wife watching the children +bathe and preparing for the more strenuous times ahead. + +One psychic subject which has puzzled me more than any other, is that of +magnetic healing. All my instincts as a doctor, and all the traditional +teaching of the profession, cry out against unexplained effects, and the +opening which their acceptance must give to the quack. The man who has +paid a thousand pounds for his special knowledge has a natural distaste +when he sees a man who does not know the subclavian artery from the +pineal gland, effecting or claiming to effect cures on some quite +unconventional line. And yet ... and yet! + +The ancients knew a great deal which we have forgotten, especially about +the relation of one body to another. What did Hippocrates mean when he +said, "The affections suffered by the body the soul sees with shut +eyes?" I will show you exactly what he means. My friend, M. J. +Bloomfield, as unselfish a worker for truth as the world can show, tried +for nearly two years to develop the medical powers of a clairvoyant. +Suddenly the result was attained, without warning. He was walking with a +friend in Collins Street laughing over some joke. In an instant the +laugh was struck from his lips. A man and woman were walking in front, +their backs towards Bloomfield. To his amazement he saw the woman's +inner anatomy mapped out before him, and especially marked a rounded +mass near the liver which he felt intuitively should not be there. His +companion rallied him on his sudden gravity, and still more upon the +cause of it, when it was explained. Bloomfield was so certain, however, +that the vision was for a purpose, that he accosted the couple, and +learned that the woman was actually about to be operated on for cancer. +He reassured them, saying that the object seemed clearly defined and not +to have widespread roots as a cancer might have. He was asked to be +present at the operation, pointed out the exact place where he had seen +the growth, and saw it extracted. It was, as he had said, innocuous. +With this example in one's mind the words of Hippocrates begin to assume +a very definite meaning. I believe that the surgeon was so struck by the +incident that he was most anxious that Bloomfield should aid him +permanently in his diagnoses. + +I will now give my own experience with Mr. Bloomfield. Denis had been +suffering from certain pains, so I took him round as a test case. +Bloomfield, without asking the boy any questions, gazed at him for a +couple of minutes. He then said that the pains were in the stomach and +head, pointing out the exact places. The cause, he said, was some slight +stricture in the intestine and he proceeded to tell me several facts of +Denis's early history which were quite correct, and entirely beyond his +normal knowledge. I have never in all my experience of medicine known so +accurate a diagnosis. + +Another lady, whom I knew, consulted him for what she called a "medical +reading." Without examining her in any way he said: "What a peculiar +throat you have! It is all pouched inside." She admitted that this was +so, and that doctors in London had commented upon it. By his clairvoyant +gift he could see as much as they with their laryngoscopes. + +Mr. Bloomfield has never accepted any fees for his remarkable gifts. +Last year he gave 3,000 consultations. I have heard of mediums with +similar powers in England, but I had never before been in actual contact +with one. With all my professional prejudices I am bound to admit that +they have powers, just as Braid and Esdaile, the pioneers of hypnotism, +had powers, which must sooner or later be acknowledged. + +There are, as I understand it, at least two quite different forms of +psychic healing. In such cases as those quoted the result may be due +only to subtle powers of the human organism which some have developed +and others have not. The clairvoyance and the instinctive knowledge may +both belong to the individual. In the other cases, however, there are +the direct action and advice of a wise spirit control, a deceased +physician usually, who has added to his worldly stock of knowledge. He +can, of course, only act through a medium--and just there, alas, is the +dangerous opening for fraud and quackery. But if anyone wishes to study +the operation at its best let him read a tiny book called "One thing I +know," which records the cure of the writer, the sister of an Anglican +canon, when she had practically been given up by doctors of this world +after fifteen years of bed, but was rescued by the ministrations of Dr. +Beale, a physician on the other side. Dr. Beale received promotion to a +higher sphere in the course of the treatment, which was completed by his +assistant and successor. It is a very interesting and convincing +narrative. + +We were invited to another spiritual meeting at the Auditorium. +Individuality runs riot sometimes in our movement. On this occasion a +concert had been mixed up with a religious service and the effect was +not good, though the musical part of the proceedings disclosed one young +violinist, Master Hames, who should, I think, make a name in the world. +I have always been against ritual, and yet now that I see the effect of +being without it I begin to understand that some form of it, however +elastic, is necessary. The clairvoyance was good, if genuine, but it +offends me to see it turned off and on like a turn at a music hall. It +is either nonsense or the holy of holies and mystery of mysteries. +Perhaps it was just this conflict between the priest with his ritual and +the medium without any, which split the early Christian Church, and +ended in the complete victory of the ritual, which meant the extinction +not only of the medium but of the living, visible, spiritual forces +which he represented. Flowers, music, incense, architecture, all tried +to fill the gap, but the soul of the thing had gone out of it. It must, +I suppose, have been about the end of the third century that the process +was completed, and the living thing had set into a petrifaction. That +would be the time no doubt when, as already mentioned, special +correctors were appointed to make the gospel texts square with the +elaborate machinery of the Church. Only now does the central fire begin +to glow once more through the ashes which have been heaped above it. + +We attended the great annual ball at the Government House, where the +Governor-General and his wife were supported by the Governors of the +various States, the vice-regal party performing their own stately +quadrille with a dense hedge of spectators around them. There were few +chaperons, and nearly every one ended by dancing, so that it was a +cheerful and festive scene. My friend Major Wood had played with the +Governor-General in the same Hampshire eleven, and it was singular to +think that after many years they should meet again like this. + +Social gaieties are somewhat out of key with my present train of +thought, and I was more in my element next evening at a meeting of the +Rescue Circle under Mr. Tozer. Mr. Love was the medium and it was +certainly a very remarkable and consistent performance. Even those who +might imagine that the different characters depicted were in fact +various strands of Mr. Love's subconscious self, each dramatising its +own peculiarities, must admit that it was a very absorbing exhibition. +The circle sits round with prayer and hymns while Mr. Love falls into a +trance state. He is then controlled by the Chinaman Quong, who is a +person of such standing and wisdom in the other world, that other lower +spirits have to obey him. The light is dim, but even so the +characteristics of this Chinaman get across very clearly, the rolling +head, the sidelong, humorous glance the sly smile, the hands crossed and +buried in what should be the voluminous folds of a mandarin's gown. He +greets the company in somewhat laboured English and says he has many who +would be the better for our ministrations. "Send them along, please!" +says Mr. Tozer. The medium suddenly sits straight and his whole face +changes into an austere harshness. "What is this ribald nonsense?" he +cries. "Who are you, friend?" says Tozer. "My name is Mathew Barret. I +testified in my life to the Lamb and to Him crucified. I ask again: What +is this ribald nonsense?" "It is not nonsense, friend. We are here to +help you and to teach you that you are held down and punished for your +narrow ideas, and that you cannot progress until they are more +charitable." "What I preached in life I still believe." "Tell us, +friend, did you find it on the other side as you had preached?" "What do +you mean?" "Well, did you, for example, see Christ?" There was an +embarrassed silence. "No, I did not." "Have you seen the devil?" "No, I +have not." "Then, bethink you, friend, that there may be truth in what +we teach." "It is against all that I have preached." A moment later the +Chinaman was back with his rolling head and his wise smile. "He good +man--stupid man. He learn in time. Plenty time before him." + +We had a wonderful succession of "revenants." One was a very dignified +Anglican, who always referred to the Control as "this yellow person." +Another was an Australian soldier. "I never thought I'd take my orders +from a 'Chink,'" said he, "but he says 'hist!' and by gum you've got to +'hist' and no bloomin' error." Yet another said he had gone down in the +_Monmouth_. "Can you tell me anything of the action?" I asked. "We never +had a chance. It was just hell." There was a world of feeling in his +voice. He was greatly amused at their "sky-pilot," as he called the +chaplain, and at his confusion when he found the other world quite +different to what he had depicted. A terrifying Ghurkha came along, who +still thought he was in action and charged about the circle, upsetting +the medium's chair, and only yielding to a mixture of force and +persuasion. There were many others, most of whom returned thanks for the +benefit derived from previous meetings. "You've helped us quite a lot," +they said. Between each the old Chinese sage made comments upon the +various cases, a kindly, wise old soul, with just a touch of mischievous +humour running through him. We had an exhibition of the useless +apostolic gift of tongues during the evening, for two of the ladies +present broke out into what I was informed was the Maori language, +keeping up a long and loud conversation. I was not able to check it, but +it was certainly a coherent language of some sort. In all this there +was nothing which one could take hold of and quote as absolutely and +finally evidential, and yet the total effect was most convincing. I have +been in touch with some Rescue Circles, however, where the identity of +the "patients," as we may call them, was absolutely traced. + +As I am on the subject of psychic experiences I may as well carry on, so +that the reader who is out of sympathy may make a single skip of the +lot. Mrs. Susanna Harris, the American voice-medium, who is well known +in London, had arrived here shortly after ourselves, and gave us a +sitting. Mrs. Harris's powers have been much discussed, for while on the +one hand she passed a most difficult test in London, where, with her +mouth full of coloured water, she produced the same voice effects as on +other occasions, she had no success in Norway when she was examined by +their Psychic Research Committee; but I know how often these +intellectuals ruin their own effects by their mental attitude, which +acts like those anti-ferments which prevent a chemical effervescence. We +must always get back to the principle, however, that one positive result +is more important than a hundred negative ones--just as one successful +demonstration in chemistry makes up for any number of failures. We +cannot command spirit action, and we can only commiserate with, not +blame, the medium who does not receive it when it is most desired. +Personally I have sat four times with Mrs. Harris and I have not the +faintest doubt that on each of these occasions I got true psychic +results, though I cannot answer for what happens in Norway or +elsewhere. + + Illustration: AT MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, NOVEMBER 12TH, 1920. + + +Shortly after her arrival in Melbourne she gave us a séance in our +private room at the hotel, no one being present save at my invitation. +There were about twelve guests, some of whom had no psychic experience, +and I do not think there was one of them who did not depart convinced +that they had been in touch with preternatural forces. There were two +controls, Harmony, with a high girlish treble voice, and a male control +with a strong decisive bass. I sat next to Mrs. Harris, holding her hand +in mine, and I can swear to it that again and again she spoke to me +while the other voices were conversing with the audience. Harmony is a +charming little creature, witty, friendly and innocent. I am quite ready +to consider the opinion expressed by the Theosophists that such controls +as Harmony with Mrs. Harris, Bella with Mrs. Brittain, Feda with Mrs. +Leonard, and others are in reality nature-spirits who have never lived +in the flesh but take an intelligent interest in our affairs and are +anxious to help us. The male control, however, who always broke in with +some final clinching remark in a deep voice, seemed altogether human. + +Whilst these two controls formed, and were the chorus of the play, the +real drama rested with the spirit voices, the same here as I have heard +them under Mrs. Wriedt, Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Powell in England, intense, +low, vibrating with emotion and with anxiety to get through. Nearly +everyone in the circle had communications which satisfied them. One +lady who had mourned her husband very deeply had the inexpressible +satisfaction of hearing his voice thanking her for putting flowers +before his photograph, a fact which no one else could know. A voice +claiming to be "Moore-Usborne Moore," came in front of me. I said, +"Well, Admiral, we never met, but we corresponded in life." He said, +"Yes, and we disagreed," which was true. Then there came a voice which +claimed to be Mr. J. Morse, the eminent pioneer of Spiritualism. I said, +"Mr. Morse, if that is you, you can tell me where we met last." He +answered, "Was it not in '_Light_' office in London?" I said, "No, +surely it was when you took the chair for me at that great meeting at +Sheffield." He answered, "Well, we lose some of our memory in passing." +As a matter of fact he was perfectly right, for after the sitting both +my wife and I remembered that I had exchanged a word or two with him as +I was coming out of _Light_ office at least a year after the Sheffield +meeting. This was a good test as telepathy was excluded. General Sir +Alfred Turner also came and said that he remembered our conversations on +earth. When I asked him whether he had found the conditions beyond the +grave as happy as he expected he answered, "infinitely more so." +Altogether I should think that not less than twenty spirits manifested +during this remarkable séance. The result may have been the better +because Mrs. Harris had been laid up in bed for a week beforehand, and +so we had her full force. I fancy that like most mediums, she habitually +overworks her wonderful powers. Such séances have been going on now for +seventy years, with innumerable witnesses of credit who will testify, as +I have done here, that all fraud or mistake was out of the question. And +still the men of no experience shake their heads. I wonder how long they +will succeed in standing between the world and the consolation which God +has sent us. + +There is one thing very clear about mediumship and that is that it bears +no relation to physical form. Mrs. Harris is a very large lady, tall and +Junoesque, a figure which would catch the eye in any assembly. She has, +I believe, a dash of the mystic Red Indian blood in her, which may be +connected with her powers. Bailey, on the other hand, is a little, +ginger-coloured man, while Campbell of Sydney, who is said to have +apport powers which equal Bailey, is a stout man, rather like the late +Corney Grain. Every shape and every quality of vessel may hold the +psychic essence. + +I spend such spare time as I have in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, +which is, I think, absolutely the most beautiful place that I have ever +seen. I do not know what genius laid them out, but the effect is a +succession of the most lovely vistas, where flowers, shrubs, large trees +and stretches of water, are combined in an extraordinary harmony. Green +swards slope down to many tinted groves, and they in turn droop over +still ponds mottled with lovely water plants. It is an instructive as +well as a beautiful place, for every tree has its visiting card attached +and one soon comes to know them. Australia is preeminently the Land of +the Myrtles, for a large proportion of its vegetation comes under this +one order, which includes the gum trees, of which there are 170 +varieties. They all shed their bark instead of their leaves, and have a +generally untidy, not to say indecent appearance, as they stand with +their covering in tatters and their white underbark shining through the +rents. There is not the same variety of species in Australia as in +England, and it greatly helps a superficial botanist like myself, for +when you have learned the ti-tree, the wild fig tree and the gum trees, +you will be on terms with nature wherever you go. New Zealand however +offers quite a fresh lot of problems. + +The Melbourne Cricket Club has made me an honorary member, so Denis and +I went down there, where we met the giant bowler, Hugh Trumble, who left +so redoubtable a name in England. As the Chela may look at the Yogi so +did Denis, with adoring eyes, gaze upon Trumble, which so touched his +kind heart that he produced a cricket ball, used in some famous match, +which he gave to the boy--a treasure which will be reverently brought +back to England. I fancy Denis slept with it that night, as he certainly +did in his pads and gloves the first time that he owned them. + +We saw the English team play Victoria, and it was pleasant to see the +well-known faces once more. The luck was all one way, for Armstrong was +on the sick list, and Armstrong is the mainstay of Victorian cricket. +Rain came at a critical moment also, and gave Woolley and Rhodes a +wicket which was impossible for a batsman. However, it was all good +practice for the more exacting games of the future. It should be a fine +eleven which contains a genius like Hobbs, backed by such men as the +bustling bulldog, Hendren, a great out-field as well as a grand bat, or +the wily, dangerous Hearne, or Douglas, cricketer, boxer, above all +warrior, a worthy leader of Englishmen. Hearne I remember as little more +than a boy, when he promised to carry on the glories of that remarkable +family, of which George and Alec were my own playmates. He has ended by +proving himself the greatest of them all. + +My long interval of enforced rest came at last to an end, when the race +fever had spent itself, and I was able to have my last great meeting at +the Town Hall. It really was a great meeting, as the photograph of it +will show. I spoke for over two hours, ending up by showing a selection +of the photographs. I dealt faithfully with the treatment given to me by +the _Argus_. I take the extract from the published account. "On this, +the last time in my life that I shall address a Melbourne audience, I +wish to thank the people for the courtesy with which we have been +received. It would, however, be hypocritical upon my part if I were to +thank the Press. A week before I entered Melbourne the _Argus_ declared +that I was an emissary of the devil (laughter). I care nothing for that. +I am out for a fight and can take any knocks that come. But the _Argus_ +refused to publish a word I said. I came 12,000 miles to give you a +message of hope and comfort, and I appeal to you to say whether three or +four gentlemen sitting in a board-room have a right to say to the people +of Melbourne, 'You shall not listen to that man nor read one word of +what he has to say.' (Cries of 'Shame!') You, I am sure, resent being +spoon-fed in such a manner." The audience showed in the most hearty +fashion that they did resent it, and they cheered loudly when I pointed +out that my remarks did not arise, as anyone could see by looking round, +from any feeling on my part that my mission had failed to gain popular +support. It was a great evening, and I have never addressed a more +sympathetic audience. The difficulty always is for my wife and myself to +escape from our kind well-wishers, and it is touching and heartening to +hear the sincere "God bless you!" which they shower upon us as we pass. + +This then was the climax of our mission in Melbourne. It was marred by +the long but unavoidable delay in the middle, but it began well and +ended splendidly. On November 13th we left the beautiful town behind us, +and embarked upon what we felt would be a much more adventurous period +at Sydney, for all we had heard showed that both our friends and our +enemies were more active in the great seaport of New South Wales. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + Great reception at Sydney.--Importance of Sydney.--Journalistic + luncheon.--A psychic epidemic.--Gregory.--Barracking.--Town Hall + reception.--Regulation of Spiritualism.--An ether apport.--Surfing + at Manly.--A challenge.--Bigoted opponents.--A disgruntled + photographer.--Outing in the Harbour.--Dr. Mildred Creed.--Leon + Gellert.--Norman Lindsay.--Bishop Leadbeater.--Our relations with + Theosophy.--Incongruities of H.P.B.--Of D.D. Home. + + +We had a wonderful reception at Sydney. I have a great shrinking from +such deputations as they catch you at the moment when you are exhausted +and unkempt after a long journey, and when you need all your energies to +collect your baggage and belongings so as to make your way to your +hotel. But on this occasion it was so hearty, and the crowd of faces +beamed such good wishes upon us that it was quite a pick-me-up to all of +us. "God bless you!" and "Thank God you have come!" reached us from all +sides. My wife, covered with flowers, was hustled off in one direction, +while I was borne away in another, and each of the children was the +centre of a separate group. Major Wood had gone off to see to the +luggage, and Jakeman was herself embedded somewhere in the crowd, so at +last I had to shout, "Where's that little girl? Where's that little +boy?" until we reassembled and were able, laden with bouquets, to reach +our carriage. The evening paper spread itself over the scene. + +"When Sir Conan Doyle, his wife and their three children arrived from +Melbourne by the express this morning, an assembly of Spiritualists +accorded them a splendid greeting. Men swung their hats high and +cheered, women danced in their excitement, and many of their number +rushed the party with rare bouquets. The excitement was at its highest, +and Sir Conan being literally carried along the platform by the pressing +crowds, when a digger arrived on the outskirts. 'Who's that?' he asked +of nobody in particular. Almost immediately an urchin replied, 'The +bloke that wrote "Sherlock Holmes."' When asked if the latter gentleman +was really and irretrievably dead the author of his being remarked, +'Well, you can say that a coroner has never sat upon him.'" + +It was a grand start, and we felt at once in a larger and more vigorous +world, where, if we had fiercer foes, we at least had warm and +well-organised friends. Better friends than those of Melbourne do not +exist, but there was a method and cohesion about Sydney which impressed +us from the first day to the last. There seemed, also, to be fewer of +those schisms which are the bane of our movement. If Wells' dictum that +organisation is death has truth in it, then we are very much alive. + +We had rooms in Petty's Hotel, which is an old-world hostel with a very +quiet, soothing atmosphere. There I was at once engaged with the usual +succession of journalists with a long list of questions which ranged +from the destiny of the human soul to the chances of the test match. +What with the constant visitors, the unpacking of our trunks, and the +settling down of the children, we were a very weary band before evening. + +I had no idea that Sydney was so great a place. The population is now +very nearly a million, which represents more than one-sixth of the whole +vast Continent. It seems a weak point of the Australian system that 41 +per cent. of the whole population dwell in the six capital cities. The +vital statistics of Sydney are extraordinarily good, for the death rate +is now only twelve per thousand per annum. Our standard in such matters +is continually rising, for I can remember the days when twenty per +thousand was reckoned to be a very good result. In every civic amenity +Sydney stands very high. Her Botanical Gardens are not so supremely good +as those of Melbourne, but her Zoo is among the very best in the world. +The animals seem to be confined by trenches rather than by bars, so that +they have the appearance of being at large. It was only after Jakeman +had done a level hundred with a child under each arm that she realised +that a bear, which she saw approaching, was not really in a state of +freedom. + +As to the natural situation of Sydney, especially its harbour, it is so +world-renowned that it is hardly necessary to allude to it. I can well +imagine that a Sydney man would grow homesick elsewhere, for he could +never find the same surroundings. The splendid landlocked bay with its +numerous side estuaries and its narrow entrance is a grand playground +for a sea-loving race. On a Saturday it is covered with every kind of +craft, from canoe to hundred-tonner. The fact that the water swarms with +sharks seems to present no fears to these strong-nerved people, and I +have found myself horrified as I watched little craft, manned by boys, +heeling over in a fresh breeze until the water was up to their gunwales. +At very long intervals some one gets eaten, but the fun goes on all the +same. + +The people of Sydney have their residences (bungalows with verandahs) +all round this beautiful bay, forming dozens of little townlets. The +system of ferry steamers becomes as important as the trams, and is +extraordinarily cheap and convenient. To Manly, for example, which lies +some eight miles out, and is a favourite watering place, the fare is +fivepence for adults and twopence for children. So frequent are the +boats that you never worry about catching them, for if one is gone +another will presently start. Thus, the whole life of Sydney seems to +converge into the Circular Quay, from which as many as half a dozen of +these busy little steamers may be seen casting off simultaneously for +one or another of the oversea suburbs. Now and then, in a real cyclone, +the service gets suspended, but it is a rare event, and there is a +supplementary, but roundabout, service of trams. + +The journalists of New South Wales gave a lunch to my wife and myself, +which was a very pleasant function. One leading journalist announced, +amid laughter, that he had actually consulted me professionally in my +doctoring days, and had lived to tell the tale, which contradicts the +base insinuation of some orator who remarked once that though I was +known to have practised, no _living_ patient of mine had ever yet been +seen. + +Nothing could have been more successful than my first lecture, which +filled the Town Hall. There were evidently a few people who had come +with intent to make a scene, but I had my audience so entirely with me, +that it was impossible to cause real trouble. One fanatic near the door +cried out, "Anti-Christ!" several times, and was then bundled out. +Another, when I described how my son had come back to me, cried out that +it was the devil, but on my saying with a laugh that such a remark +showed the queer workings of some people's minds, the people cheered +loudly in assent. Altogether it was a great success, which was repeated +in the second, and culminated in the third, when, with a hot summer day, +and the English cricketers making their debut, I still broke the record +for a Town Hall matinée. The rush was more than the officials could cope +with, and I had to stand for ten long minutes looking at the audience +before it was settled enough for me to begin. Some spiritualists in the +audience struck up "Lead, Kindly Light!" which gave the right note to +the assemblage. Mr. Smythe, with all his experience, was amazed at our +results. "This is no longer a mere success," he cried. "It is a triumph. +It is an epidemic!" Surely, it will leave some permanent good behind it +and turn the public mind from religious shadows to realities. + +We spent one restful day seeing our cricketers play New South Wales. +After a promising start they were beaten owing to a phenomenal +first-wicket stand in the second innings by Macartney and Collins, both +batsmen topping the hundred. Gregory seemed a dangerous bowler, making +the ball rise shoulder high even on that Bulli wicket, where midstump is +as much as an ordinary bowler can attain. He is a tiger of a man, +putting every ounce of his strength and inch of his great height into +every ball, with none of the artistic finesse of a Spofforth, but very +effective all the same. We have no one of the same class; and that will +win Australia the rubber unless I am--as I hope I am--a false prophet. I +was not much impressed either by the manners or by the knowledge of the +game shown by the barrackers. Every now and then, out of the mass of +people who darken the grass slopes round the ground, you hear a raucous +voice giving advice to the captain, or, perhaps, conjuring a fast bowler +to bowl at the wicket when the man is keeping a perfect length outside +the off stump and trying to serve his three slips. When Mailey went on, +because he was slow and seemed easy, they began to jeer, and, yet, you +had only to watch the batsman to see that the ball was doing a lot and +kept him guessing. One wonders why the neighbours of these bawlers +tolerate it. In England such men would soon be made to feel that they +were ill-mannered nuisances, I am bound to testify, however, that they +seem quite impartial, and that the English team had no special cause for +complaint. I may also add that, apart from this cricketing peculiarity, +which is common to all the States, the Sydney crowd is said to be one of +the most good-humoured and orderly in the world. My own observation +confirms this, and I should say that there was a good deal less +drunkenness than in Melbourne, but, perhaps the races gave me an +exaggerated impression of the latter. + +On Sunday, 28th, the spiritualists gave the pilgrims (as they called us) +a reception at the Town Hall. There was not a seat vacant, and the sight +of these 3,500 well-dressed, intelligent people must have taught the +press that the movement is not to be despised. There are at least 10,000 +professed spiritualists in Sydney, and even as a political force they +demand consideration. The seven of us were placed in the front of the +platform, and the service was very dignified and impressive. When the +great audience sang, "God hold you safely till we meet once more," it +was almost overpowering, for it is a beautiful tune, and was sung with +real feeling. In my remarks I covered a good deal of ground, but very +particularly I warned them against all worldly use of this great +knowledge, whether it be fortune telling, prophecies about races and +stocks, or any other prostitution of our subject. I also exhorted them +when they found fraud to expose it at once, as their British brethren +do, and never to trifle with truth. When I had finished, the whole +3,500 people stood up, and everyone waved a handkerchief, producing a +really wonderful scene. We can never forget it. + +Once more I must take refuge behind the local Observer. "The scene as +Sir Arthur rose will be long remembered by those who were privileged to +witness it. A sea of waving handkerchiefs confronted the speaker, +acclaiming silently and reverently the deep esteem in which he was held +by all present. Never has Sir Arthur's earnestness in his mission been +more apparent than on this occasion as he proceeded with a heart to +heart talk with the spiritualists present, offering friendly criticisms, +sound advice, and encouragement to the adherents of the great movement. + +"'He had got,' he said, 'so much into the habit of lecturing that he was +going to lecture the spiritualists.' With a flash of humour Sir Arthur +added: 'It does none of us any harm to be lectured occasionally. I am a +married man myself' (laughter). 'I would say to the spiritualists', "For +Heaven's sake keep this thing high and unspotted. Don't let it drop into +the regions of fortune telling and other things which leave such an ugly +impression on the public mind, and which we find it so difficult to +justify. Keep it in its most religious and purest aspect." At the same +time, I expressed my view that there was no reason at all why a medium +should not receive moderate payment for work done, since it is +impossible, otherwise, that he can live. + +Every solid spiritualist would, I am sure, agree with me that our whole +subject needs regulating, and is in an unsatisfactory condition. We +cannot approve of the sensation mongers who run from medium to medium +(or possibly pretended medium) with no object but excitement or +curiosity. The trouble is that you have to recognise a thing before you +can regulate it, and the public has not properly recognised us. Let them +frankly do so, and take us into counsel, and then we shall get things on +a solid basis. Personally, I would be ready to go so far as to agree +that an inquirer should take out a formal permit to consult a medium, +showing that it was done for some definite object, if in return we could +get State recognition for those mediums who were recommended as genuine +by valid spiritual authorities. My friends will think this a reactionary +proposition, but none the less I feel the need of regulation almost as +much as I do that of recognition. + +One event which occurred to me at Sydney I shall always regard as an +instance of that fostering care of which I have been conscious ever +since we set forth upon our journey. I had been over-tired, had slept +badly and had a large meeting in the evening, so that it was imperative +that I should have a nap in the afternoon. My brain was racing, however, +and I could get no rest or prospect of any. The second floor window was +slightly open behind me, and outside was a broad open space, shimmering +in the heat of a summer day. Suddenly, as I lay there, I was aware of a +very distinct pungent smell of ether, coming in waves from outside. With +each fresh wave I felt my over-excited nerves calming down as the sea +does when oil is poured upon it. Within a few minutes I was in a deep +sleep, and woke all ready for my evening's work. I looked out of the +window and tried to picture where the ether could have come from; then I +returned thanks for one more benefit received. I do not suppose that I +am alone in such interpositions, but I think that our minds are so +centred on this tiny mud patch, that we are deaf and blind to all that +impinges on us from beyond. + +Having finished in Sydney, and my New Zealand date having not yet +arrived, we shifted our quarters to Manly, upon the sea coast, about +eight miles from the town. Here we all devoted ourselves to +surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water, as is the +custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great +Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on +the sand if they catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our +restless lives. There were surf boards, and I am told that there were +men competent to ride them, but I saw none of Jack London's Sun Gods +riding in erect upon the crest of the great rollers. Alas, poor Jack +London! What right had such a man to die, he who had more vim and +passion, and knowledge of varied life than the very best of us? Apart +from all his splendid exuberance and exaggeration he had very real roots +of grand literature within him. I remember, particularly, the little +episodes of bygone days in "The Jacket." The man who wrote those could +do anything. Those whom the American public love die young. Frank +Norris, Harold Frederic, Stephen Crane, the author of "David Harum," and +now Jack London--but the greatest of these was Jack London. + +There is a grand beach at Manly, and the thundering rollers carry in +some flotsam from the great ocean. One morning the place was covered +with beautiful blue jelly-fish, like little Roman lamps with tendrils +hanging down. I picked up one of these pretty things, and was just +marvelling at its complete construction when I discovered that it was +even more complete than I supposed, for it gave me a violent sting. For +a day or two I had reason to remember my little blue castaway, with his +up-to-date fittings for keeping the stranger at a distance. + +I was baited at Sydney by a person of the name of Simpson, representing +Christianity, though I was never clear what particular branch of +religion he represented, and he was disowned by some leaders of +Christian Thought. I believe he was president of the Christian Evidence +Society. His opposition, though vigorous, and occasionally personal, was +perfectly legitimate, but his well-advertised meeting at the Town Hall +(though no charge was made for admission) was not a success. His +constant demand was that I should meet him in debate, which was, of +course, out of the question, since no debate is possible between a man +who considers a text to be final, and one who cannot take this view. My +whole energies, so much needed for my obvious work, would have been +frittered away in barren controversies had I allowed my hand to be +forced. I had learned my lesson, however, at the M'Cabe debate in +London, when I saw clearly that nothing could come from such +proceedings. On the other hand, I conceived the idea of what would be a +real test, and I issued it as a challenge in the public press. "It is +clear," I said, "that one single case of spirit return proves our whole +contention. Therefore, let the question be concentrated upon one, or, if +necessary, upon three cases. These I would undertake to prove, producing +my witnesses in the usual way. My opponent would act the part of hostile +counsel, cross-examining and criticising my facts. The case would be +decided by a majority vote of a jury of twelve, chosen from men of +standing, who pledged themselves as open-minded on the question. Such a +test could obviously only take place in a room of limited dimensions, so +that no money would be involved and truth only be at stake. That is all +that I seek. If such a test can be arranged I am ready for it, either +before I leave, or after I return from New Zealand." This challenge was +not taken up by my opponents. + +Mr. Simpson had a long tirade in the Sydney papers about the evil +religious effects of my mission, which caused me to write a reply in +which I defined our position in a way which may be instructive to +others. I said:-- + +"The tenets which we spiritualists preach and which I uphold upon the +platform are that any man who is deriving spirituality from his creed, +be that creed what it may, is learning the lesson of life. For this +reason we would not attack your creed, however repulsive it might seem +to us, so long as you and your colleagues might be getting any benefit +from it. We desire to go our own way, saying what we know to be true, +and claiming from others the same liberty of conscience and of +expression which we freely grant to them. + +"You, on the other hand, go out of your way to attack us, to call us +evil names, and to pretend that those loved ones who return to us are in +truth devils, and that our phenomena, though they are obviously of the +same sort as those which are associated with early Christianity, are +diabolical in their nature. This absurd view is put forward without a +shadow of proof, and entirely upon the supposed meaning of certain +ancient texts which refer in reality to a very different matter, but +which are strained and twisted to suit your purpose. + +"It is men like you and your colleagues who, by your parody of +Christianity and your constant exhibition of those very qualities which +Christ denounced in the Pharisees, have driven many reasonable people +away from religion and left the churches half empty. Your predecessors, +who took the same narrow view of the literal interpretation of the +Bible, were guilty of the murder of many thousands of defenceless old +women who were burned in deference to the text, 'Suffer no witch to +live.' Undeterred by this terrible result of the literal reading, you +still advocate it, although you must be well aware that polygamy, +slavery and murder can all be justified by such a course. + +"In conclusion, let me give you the advice to reconsider your position, +to be more charitable to your neighbours, and to devote your redundant +energies to combating the utter materialism which is all round you, +instead of railing so bitterly at those who are proving immortality and +the need for good living in a way which meets their spiritual wants, +even though it is foreign to yours." + +A photographer, named Mark Blow, also caused me annoyance by announcing +that my photographs were fakes, and that he was prepared to give £25 to +any charity if he could not reproduce them. I at once offered the same +sum if he could do so, and I met him by appointment at the office of the +evening paper, the editor being present to see fair play. I placed my +money on the table, but Mr. Blow did not cover it. I then produced a +packet of plates from my pocket and suggested that we go straight across +to Mr. Blow's studio and produce the photographs. He replied by asking +me a long string of questions as to the conditions under which the Crewe +photographs were produced, noting down all my answers. I then renewed my +proposition. He answered that it was absurd to expect him to produce a +spirit photograph since he did not believe in such foolish things. I +answered that I did not ask him to produce a spirit photograph, but to +fulfil his promise which was to produce a similar result upon the plate +under similar conditions. He held out that they should be his own +conditions. I pointed out that any school boy could make a half-exposed +impression upon a plate, and that the whole test lay in the conditions. +As he refused to submit to test conditions the matter fell through, as +all such foolish challenges fall through. It was equally foolish on my +part to have taken any notice of it. + +I had a conversation with Mr. Maskell, the capable Secretary of the +Sydney spiritualists, in which he described how he came out originally +from Leicester to Australia. He had at that time developed some power of +clairvoyance, but it was very intermittent. He had hesitated in his mind +whether he should emigrate to Australia, and sat one night debating it +within himself, while his little son sat at the table cutting patterns +out of paper. Maskell said to his spirit guides, mentally, "If it is +good that I go abroad give me the vision of a star. If not, let it be a +circle." He waited for half an hour or so, but no vision came, and he +was rising in disappointment when the little boy turned round and said, +"Daddy, here is a star for you," handing over one which he had just cut. +He has had no reason to regret the subsequent decision. + +We had a very quiet, comfortable, and healthy ten days at the Pacific +Hotel at Manly, which was broken only by an excursion which the Sydney +spiritualists had organised for us in a special steamer, with the +intention of showing us the glories of the harbour. Our party assembled +on Manly Pier, and the steamer was still far away when we saw the +fluttering handkerchiefs which announced that they had sighted us. It +was a long programme, including a picnic lunch, but it all went off with +great success and good feeling. It was fairly rough within the harbour, +and some of the party were sea sick, but the general good spirits rose +above such trifles, and we spent the day in goodly fellowship. On Sunday +I was asked to speak to his congregation by Mr. Sanders, a very +intelligent young Congregational Minister of Manly, far above the level +of Australasian or, indeed, British clerics. It was a novel experience +for me to be in a Nonconformist pulpit, but I found an excellent +audience, and I hope that they in turn found something comforting and +new. + +One of the most interesting men whom I met in Australia was Dr. Creed, +of the New South Wales Parliament, an elderly medical man who has held +high posts in the Government. He is blessed with that supreme gift, a +mind which takes a keen interest in everything which he meets in life. +His researches vary from the cure of diabetes and of alcoholism (both of +which he thinks that he has attained) down to the study of Australian +Aborigines and of the palæontology of his country. I was interested to +find the very high opinion which he has of the brains of the black +fellows, and he asserts that their results at the school which is +devoted to their education are as high as with the white Australians. +They train into excellent telegraphic operators and other employments +needing quick intelligence. The increasing brain power of the human race +seems to be in the direction of originating rather than of merely +accomplishing. Many can do the latter, but only the very highest can do +the former. Dr. Creed is clear upon the fact that no very ancient +remains of any sort are to be found anywhere in Australia, which would +seem to be against the view of a Lemurian civilisation, unless the main +seat of it lay to the north where the scattered islands represent the +mountain tops of the ancient continent. Dr. Creed was one of the very +few public men who had the intelligence or the courage to admit the +strength of the spiritual position, and he assured me that he would help +in any way. + +Another man whom I was fortunate to meet was Leon Gellert, a very young +poet, who promises to be the rising man in Australia in this, the +supreme branch of literature. He served in the war, and his verses from +the front attain a very high level. His volume of war poems represents +the most notable literary achievement of recent years, and its value is +enhanced by being illustrated by Norman Lindsay, whom I look upon as one +of the greatest artists of our time. I have seen three pictures of his, +"The Goths," "Who Comes?" and "The Crucifixion of Venus," each of which, +in widely different ways, seemed very remarkable. Indeed, it is the +versatility of the man that is his charm, and now that he is turning +more and more from the material to the spiritual it is impossible to say +how high a level he may attain. Another Australian whose works I have +greatly admired is Henry Lawson, whose sketches of bush life in "Joe +Wilson" and other of his studies, remind one of a subdued Bret Harte. He +is a considerable poet also, and his war poem, "England Yet," could +hardly be matched. + +Yet another interesting figure whom I met in Sydney was Bishop +Leadbeater, formerly a close colleague of Mrs. Besant in the +Theosophical movement, and now a prelate of the so-called Liberal +Catholic Church, which aims at preserving the traditions and forms of +the old Roman Church, but supplementing them with all modern spiritual +knowledge. I fear I am utterly out of sympathy with elaborate forms, +which always in the end seem to me to take the place of facts, and to +become a husk without a kernel, but none the less I can see a definite +mission for such a church as appealing to a certain class of mind. +Leadbeater, who has suffered from unjust aspersion in the past, is a +venerable and striking figure. His claims to clairvoyant and other +occult powers are very definite, and so far as I had the opportunity of +observing him, he certainly lives the ascetic life, which the +maintenance of such power demands. His books, especially the little one +upon the Astral Plane, seem to me among the best of the sort. + +But the whole subject of Theosophy is to me a perpetual puzzle. I asked +for proofs and spiritualism has given them to me. But why should I +abandon one faith in order to embrace another one? I have done with +faith. It is a golden mist in which human beings wander in devious +tracks with many a collision. I need the white clear light of knowledge. +For that we build from below, brick upon brick, never getting beyond +the provable fact. There is the building which will last. But these +others seem to build from above downwards, beginning by the assumption +that there is supreme human wisdom at the apex. It may be so. But it is +a dangerous habit of thought which has led the race astray before, and +may again. Yet, I am struck by the fact that this ancient wisdom does +describe the etheric body, the astral world, and the general scheme +which we have proved for ourselves. But when the high priestess of the +cult wrote of this she said so much that was against all our own +spiritual experience, that we feel she was in touch with something very +different from our angels of light. Her followers appreciate that now, +and are more charitable than she, but what is the worth of her occult +knowledge if she so completely misread that which lies nearest to us, +and how can we hope that she is more correct when she speaks of that +which is at a distance? + +I was deeply attracted by the subject once, but Madame Blavatsky's +personality and record repelled me. I have read the defence, and yet +Hodgson and the Coulombs seem to me to hold the field. Could any +conspiracy be so broad that it included numerous forged letters, trap +doors cut in floors, and actually corroborative accounts in the books of +a flower seller in the bazaar? On the other hand, there is ample +evidence of real psychic powers, and of the permanent esteem of men like +Sinnett and Olcott, whom none could fail to respect. It is the attitude +of these honourable men which commends and upholds her, but sometimes +it seems hard to justify it. As an example, in the latter years of her +life she wrote a book, "The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan," in which +she describes the fearsome adventures which she and Olcott had in +certain expeditions, falling down precipices and other such escapes. +Olcott, like the honest gentleman he was, writes in his diary that there +is not a word of truth in this, and that it is pure fiction. And yet, +after this very damaging admission, in the same page he winds up, "Ah, +if the world ever comes to know who was the mighty entity, who laboured +sixty years under that quivering mask of flesh, it will repent its cruel +treatment of H. P. B., and be amazed at the depth of its ignorance." +These are the things which make it so difficult to understand either her +or the cult with which she was associated. Had she never lived these men +and women would, as it seems to me, have been the natural leaders of the +spiritualist movement, and instead of living in the intellectual +enjoyment of far-off systems they would have concentrated upon the +all-important work of teaching poor suffering humanity what is the +meaning of the dark shadow which looms upon their path. Even now I see +no reason why they should not come back to those who need them, and help +them forward upon their rocky road. + +Of course, we spiritualists are ourselves vulnerable upon the subject of +the lives of some of our mediums, but we carefully dissociate those +lives from the powers which use the physical frame of the medium for +their own purposes, just as the religious and inspired poetry of a +Verlaine may be held separate from his dissipated life. Whilst upon this +subject I may say that whilst in Australia I had some interesting +letters from a solicitor named Rymer. All students of spiritualism will +remember that when Daniel Home first came to England in the early +fifties he received great kindness from the Rymer family, who then lived +at Ealing. Old Rymer treated him entirely as one of the family. This +Bendigo Rymer was the grandson of Home's benefactor, and he had no love +for the great medium because he considered that he had acted with +ingratitude towards his people. The actual letters of his father, which +he permitted me to read, bore out this statement, and I put it on record +because I have said much in praise of Home, and the balance should be +held true. These letters, dating from about '57, show that one of the +sons of old Rymer was sent to travel upon the Continent to study art, +and that Home was his companion. They were as close as brothers, but +when they reached Florence, and Home became a personage in society +there, he drifted away from Rymer, whose letters are those of a splendid +young man. Home's health was already indifferent, and while he was laid +up in his hotel he seems to have been fairly kidnapped by a +strong-minded society lady of title, an Englishwoman living apart from +her husband. For weeks he lived at her villa, though the state of his +health would suggest that it was rather as patient than lover. What was +more culpable was that he answered the letters of his comrade very +rudely and showed no sense of gratitude for all that the family had done +for him. I have read the actual letters and confess that I was chilled +and disappointed. Home was an artist as well as a medium, the most +unstable combination possible, full of emotions, flying quickly to +extremes, capable of heroisms and self-denials, but also of vanities and +ill-humour. On this occasion the latter side of his character was too +apparent. To counteract the effect produced upon one's mind one should +read in Home's Life the letter of the Bavarian captain whom he rescued +upon the field of battle, or of the many unfortunates whom he aided with +unobtrusive charity. It cannot, however, be too often repeated--since it +is never grasped by our critics--that the actual character of a man is +as much separate from his mediumistic powers, as it would be from his +musical powers. Both are inborn gifts beyond the control of their +possessor. The medium is the telegraph instrument and the telegraph boy +united in one, but the real power is that which transmits the message, +which he only receives and delivers. The remark applies to the Fox +sisters as much as it does to Home. + +Talking about Home, it is astonishing how the adverse judgment of the +Vice-Chancellor Gifford, a materialist, absolutely ignorant of psychic +matters, has influenced the minds of men. The very materialists who +quote it, would not attach the slightest importance to the opinion of an +orthodox judge upon the views of Hume, Payne, or any free-thinker. It is +like quoting a Roman tribune against a Christian. The real facts of the +case are perfectly clear to anyone who reads the documents with care. +The best proof of how blameless Home was in the matter is that of all +the men of honour with whom he was on intimate terms--men like Robert +Chambers, Carter Hall, Lord Seaton, Lord Adare and others--not one +relaxed in their friendship after the trial. This was in 1866, but in +1868 we find these young noblemen on Christian-name terms with the man +who would have been outside the pale of society had the accusations of +his enemies been true. + +Whilst we were in Sydney, a peculiar ship, now called the "Marella," was +brought into the harbour as part of the German ship surrender. It is +commonly reported that this vessel, of very grandiose construction, was +built to conduct the Kaiser upon a triumphal progress round the world +after he had won his war. It is, however, only of 8,000 tons, and, +personally, I cannot believe that this would have had room for his +swollen head, had he indeed been the victor. All the fittings, even to +the carpet holders, are of German silver. The saloon is of pure marble, +eighty by fifty, with beautiful hand-painted landscapes. The smoke-room +is the reproduction of one in Potsdam Palace. There is a great swimming +bath which can be warmed. Altogether a very notable ship, and an index, +not only of the danger escaped, but of the danger to come, in the form +of the super-excellence of German design and manufacture. + +Our post-bag is very full, and it takes Major Wood and myself all our +time to keep up with the letters. Many of them are so wonderful that I +wish I had preserved them all, but it would have meant adding another +trunk to our baggage. There are a few samples which have been rescued. +Many people seemed to think that I was myself a wandering medium, and I +got this sort of missive: + + "DEAR SIR,--_I am very anxious to ask you a question, trusting you + will answer me. What I wish to know I have been corresponding with + a gentleman for nearly three years. From this letter can you tell + me if I will marry him. I want you to answer this as I am keeping + it strictly private and would dearly love you to answer this + message if possible, and if I will do quite right if I marry him. + Trusting to hear from you soon. Yours faithfully----._ + + _P.S.--I thoroughly believe in Spirit-ualism._" + +Here is another. + + "HONORED SIR,--_Just a few lines in limited time to ask you if you + tell the future. If so, what is your charges? Please excuse no + stamped and ad. envelope--out of stamps and in haste to catch mail. + Please excuse._" + +On the other hand, I had many which were splendidly instructive and +helpful. I was particularly struck by one series of spirit messages +which were received in automatic writing by a man living in the Bush in +North Queensland and thrown upon his own resources. They were +descriptive of life in the beyond, and were in parts extremely +corroborative of the Vale Owen messages, though they had been taken long +prior to that date. Some of the points of resemblance were so marked and +so unusual that they seem clearly to come from a common inspiration. As +an example, this script spoke of the creative power of thought in the +beyond, but added the detail that when the object to be created was +large and important a band of thinkers was required, just as a band of +workers would be here. This exactly corresponds to the teaching of Vale +Owen's guide. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + Dangerous fog.--The six photographers.--Comic + advertisements.--Beauties of Auckland.--A Christian + clergyman.--Shadows in our American relations.--The Gallipoli + Stone.--Stevenson and the Germans.--Position of De Rougemont.--Mr. + Clement Wragge.--Atlantean theories.--A strange + psychic.--Wellington the windy.--A literary Oasis.--A Maori + Séance.--Presentation. + + +My voyage to New Zealand in the _Maheno_ was pleasant and uneventful, +giving me four days in which to arrange my papers and look over the many +manuscripts which mediums, or, more often, would-be mediums, had +discharged at me as I passed. Dr. Bean, my Theosophic friend, who had +been somewhat perturbed by my view that his people were really the +officers of our movement who had deserted their army, formed an +officers' corps, and so taken the money and brains and leadership away +from the struggling masses, was waiting on the Sydney Quay, and gave me +twelve books upon his subject to mend my wicked ways, so that I was +equipped for a voyage round the world. I needed something, since I had +left my wife and family behind me in Manly, feeling that the rapid +journey through New Zealand would be too severe for them. In Mr. Carlyle +Smythe, however, I had an admirable "cobber," to use the pal phrase of +the Australian soldier. + +Mr. Smythe had only one defect as a comrade, and that was his +conversation in a fog. It was of a distinctly depressing character, as I +had occasion to learn when we ran into very thick weather among the +rocky islands which make navigation so difficult to the north of +Auckland. Between the screams of the siren I would hear a still small +voice in the bunk above me. + +"We are now somewhere near the Three Kings. It is an isolated group of +rocks celebrated for the wreck of the _Elingamite_, which went ashore on +just such a morning as this." (Whoo-ee! remarked the foghorn). "They +were nearly starved, but kept themselves alive by fish which were caught +by improvised lines made from the ladies' stay-laces. Many of them +died." + +I lay digesting this and staring at the fog which crawled all round the +port hole. Presently he was off again. + +"You can't anchor here, and there is no use stopping her, for the +currents run hard and she would drift on to one of the ledges which +would rip the side out of her." (Whoo-ee! repeated the foghorn). "The +islands are perpendicular with deep water up to the rocks, so you never +know they are there until you hit them, and then, of course, there is no +reef to hold you up." (Whoo-ee!) "Close by here is the place where the +_Wairarapa_ went down with all hands a few years ago. It was just such a +day as this when she struck the Great Barrier----" + +It was about this time that I decided to go on deck. Captain Brown had +made me free of the bridge, so I climbed up and joined him there, +peering out into the slow-drifting scud. + +I spent the morning there, and learned something of the anxieties of a +sailor's life. Captain Brown had in his keeping, not only his own career +and reputation, but what was far more to him, the lives of more than +three hundred people. We had lost all our bearings, for we had drifted +in the fog during those hours when it was too thick to move. Now the +scud was coming in clouds, the horizon lifting to a couple of miles, and +then sinking to a few hundred yards. On each side of us and ahead were +known to be rocky islands or promontories. Yet we must push on to our +destination. It was fine to see this typical British sailor working his +ship as a huntsman might take his horse over difficult country, now +speeding ahead when he saw an opening, now waiting for a fogbank to get +ahead, now pushing in between two clouds. For hours we worked along with +the circle of oily lead-coloured sea around us, and then the grey veil, +rising and falling, drifting and waving, with danger lurking always in +its shadow. There are strange results when one stares intently over such +a sea, for after a time one feels that it all slopes upwards, and that +one is standing deep in a saucer with the rim far above one. Once in the +rifts we saw a great ship feeling her way southwards, in the same +difficulties as ourselves. She was the _Niagara_, from Vancouver to +Auckland. Then, as suddenly as the raising of a drop-curtain, up came +the fog, and there ahead of us was the narrow path which led to safety. +The _Niagara_ was into it first, which seemed to matter little, but +really mattered a good deal, for her big business occupied the Port +Authorities all the evening, while our little business was not even +allowed to come alongside until such an hour that we could not get +ashore, to the disappointment of all, and very especially of me, for I +knew that some of our faithful had been waiting for twelve hours upon +the quay to give me a welcoming hand. It was breakfast time on the very +morning that I was advertised to lecture before we at last reached our +hotel. + +Here I received that counter-demonstration which always helped to keep +my head within the limits of my hat. This was a peremptory demand from +six gentlemen, who modestly described themselves as the leading +photographers of the city, to see the negatives of the photographs which +I was to throw upon the screen. I was assured at the same time by other +photographers that they had no sympathy with such a demand, and that the +others were self-advertising busybodies who had no mandate at all for +such a request. My experience at Sydney had shown me that such +challenges came from people who had no knowledge of psychic conditions, +and who did not realise that it is the circumstances under which a +photograph is taken, and the witnesses who guarantee such circumstances, +which are the real factors that matter, and not the negative which may +be so easily misunderstood by those who have not studied the processes +by which such things are produced. I therefore refused to allow my +photographs to pass into ignorant hands, explaining at the same time +that I had no negatives, since the photographs in most cases were not +mine at all, so that the negatives would, naturally, be with Dr. +Crawford, Dr. Geley, Lady Glenconnor, the representatives of Sir William +Crookes, or whoever else had originally taken the photograph. Their +challenge thereupon appeared in the Press with a long tirade of abuse +attached to it, founded upon the absurd theory that all the photos had +been taken by me, and that there was no proof of their truth save in my +word. One gets used to being indirectly called a liar, and I can answer +arguments with self-restraint which once I would have met with the toe +of my boot. However, a little breeze of this sort does no harm, but +rather puts ginger into one's work, and my audience were very soon +convinced of the absurdity of the position of the six dissenting +photographers who had judged that which they had not seen. + +Auckland is the port of call of the American steamers, and had some of +that air of activity and progress which America brings with her. The +spirit of enterprise, however, took curious shapes, as in the case of +one man who was a local miller, and pushed his trade by long +advertisements at the head of the newspapers, which began with abuse of +me and my ways, and ended by a recommendation to eat dessicated corn, or +whatever his particular commodity may have been. The result was a comic +jumble which was too funny to be offensive, though Auckland should +discourage such pleasantries, as they naturally mar the beautiful +impression which her fair city and surroundings make upon the visitor. I +hope I was the only victim, and that every stranger within her gates is +not held up to ridicule for the purpose of calling attention to Mr. +Blank's dessicated corn. + +I seemed destined to have strange people mixed up with my affairs in +Auckland, for there was a conjuror in the town, who, after the fashion +of that rather blatant fraternity, was offering £1,000 that he could do +anything I could do. As I could do nothing, it seemed easy money. In any +case, the argument that because you can imitate a thing therefore the +thing does not exist, is one which it takes the ingenuity of Mr. +Maskelyne to explain. There was also an ex-spiritualist medium +(so-called) who covered the papers with his advertisements, so that my +little announcement was quite overshadowed. He was to lecture the night +after me in the Town Hall, with most terrifying revelations. I was +fascinated by his paragraphs, and should have liked greatly to be +present, but that was the date of my exodus. Among other remarkable +advertisements was one "What has become of 'Pelorus Jack'? Was he a lost +soul?" Now, "Pelorus Jack" was a white dolphin, who at one time used to +pilot vessels into a New Zealand harbour, gambolling under the bows, so +that the question really did raise curiosity. However, I learned +afterwards that my successor did not reap the harvest which his +ingenuity deserved, and that the audience was scanty and derisive. What +the real psychic meaning of "Pelorus Jack" may have been was not +recorded by the press. + +From the hour I landed upon the quay at Auckland until I waved my last +farewell my visit was made pleasant, and every wish anticipated by the +Rev. Jasper Calder, a clergyman who has a future before him, though +whether it will be in the Church of England or not, time and the Bishop +will decide. Whatever he may do, he will remain to me and to many more +the nearest approach we are likely to see to the ideal Christian--much +as he will dislike my saying so. After all, if enemies are given full +play, why should not friends redress the balance? I will always carry +away the remembrance of him, alert as a boy, rushing about to serve +anyone, mixing on equal terms with scallywags on the pier, reclaiming +criminals whom he called his brothers, winning a prize for breaking-in a +buckjumper, which he did in order that he might gain the respect of the +stockmen; a fiery man of God in the pulpit, but with a mind too broad +for special dispensations, he was like one of those wonderfully virile +creatures of Charles Reade. The clergy of Australasia are stagnant and +narrow, but on the other hand, I have found men like the Dean of Sydney, +Strong of Melbourne, Sanders of Manly, Calder of Auckland, and others +whom it is worth crossing this world to meet. + +Of my psychic work at Auckland there is little to be said, save that I +began my New Zealand tour under the most splendid auspices. Even Sydney +had not furnished greater or more sympathetic audiences than those +which crowded the great Town Hall upon two successive nights. I could +not possibly have had a better reception, or got my message across more +successfully. All the newspaper ragging and offensive advertisements had +produced (as is natural among a generous people) a more kindly feeling +for the stranger, and I had a reception I can never forget. + +This town is very wonderfully situated, and I have never seen a more +magnificent view than that from Mount Eden, an extinct volcano about 900 +feet high, at the back of it. The only one which I could class with it +is that from Arthur's Seat, also an extinct volcano about 900 feet high, +as one looks on Edinburgh and its environs. Edinburgh, however, is for +ever shrouded in smoke, while here the air is crystal clear, and I could +clearly see Great Barrier Island, which is a good eighty miles to the +north. Below lay the most marvellous medley of light blue water and +light green land mottled with darker foliage. We could see not only the +whole vista of the wonderful winding harbour, and the seas upon the east +of the island, but we could look across and see the firths which +connected with the seas of the west. Only a seven-mile canal is needed +to link the two up, and to save at least two hundred miles of dangerous +navigation amid those rock-strewn waters from which we had so happily +emerged. Of course it will be done, and when it is done it should easily +pay its way, for what ship coming from Australia--or going to it--but +would gladly pay the fees? The real difficulty lies not in cutting the +canal, but in dredging the western opening, where shifting sandbanks +and ocean currents combine to make a dangerous approach. I see in my +mind's eye two great breakwaters, stretching like nippers into the +Pacific at that point, while, between the points of the nippers, the +dredgers will for ever be at work. It will be difficult, but it is +needed and it will be done. + +The Australian Davis Cup quartette--Norman Brooks, Patterson, O'Hara +Wood and another--had come across in the _Maheno_ with us and were now +at the Grand Hotel. There also was the American team, including the +formidable Tilden, now world's champion. The general feeling of +Australasia is not as cordial as one would wish to the United States for +the moment. I have met several men back from that country who rather +bitterly resent the anti-British agitation which plays such a prominent +part in the American press. This continual nagging is, I am sorry to +say, wearing down the stolid patience of the Britisher more than I can +ever remember, and it is a subject on which I have always been sensitive +as I have been a life-long advocate of Anglo-American friendship, +leading in the fullness of time to some loose form of Anglo-American +Union. At present it almost looks as if these racial traitors who make +the artificial dissensions were succeeding for a time in their work of +driving a wedge between the two great sections of the English-speaking +peoples. My fear is that when some world crisis comes, and everything +depends upon us all pulling together, the English-speakers may +neutralise each other. There lies the deadly danger. It is for us on +both sides to endeavour to avoid it. + +Everyone who is in touch with the sentiment of the British officers in +Flanders knows that they found men of their own heart in the brave, +unassuming American officers who were their comrades, and often their +pupils. It is some of the stay-at-home Americans who appear to have such +a false perspective, and who fail to realise that even British +Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, lost nearly as many men as the +United States in the war, while Britain herself laid down ten lives for +every one spent by America. This is not America's fault, but when we see +apparent forgetfulness of it on the part of a section of the American +people when our wounds are still fresh, it cannot be wondered at that we +feel sore. We do not advertise, and as a result there are few who know +that we lost more men and made larger captures during the last two years +of the war than our gallant ally of France. When we hear that others won +the war we smile--but it is a bitter smile. + +Strange, indeed, are some of the episodes of psychic experience. There +came to me at my hotel in Auckland two middle-aged hard-working women, +who had come down a hundred miles from the back country to my lecture. +One had lost her boy at Gallipoli. She gave me a long post-mortem +account from him as to the circumstances of his own death, including the +military operations which led up to it. I read it afterwards, and it +was certainly a very coherent account of the events both before and +after the shell struck him. Having handed me the pamphlet the country +woman then, with quivering fingers, produced from her bosom a little +silver box. Out of this she took an object, wrapped in white silk. It +was a small cube of what looked to me like sandstone, about an inch each +way. She told me it was an apport, that it had been thrown down on her +table while she and her family, including, as I understood, the friend +then present, were holding a séance. A message came with it to say that +it was from the boy's grave at Gallipoli. What are we to say to that? +Was it fraud? Then why were they playing tricks upon themselves? If it +was, indeed, an apport, it is surely one of the most remarkable for +distance and for purpose recorded of any private circle. + +A gentleman named Moors was staying at the same hotel in Auckland, and +we formed an acquaintance. I find that he was closely connected with +Stevenson, and had actually written a very excellent book upon his +comradeship with him at Samoa. Stevenson dabbled in the politics of +Samoa, and always with the best motives and on the right side, but he +was of so frank and impetuous a nature that he was not trusted with any +inside knowledge. Of the German rule Mr. Moors says that for the first +twelve years Dr. Solf was as good as he could be, and did fair justice +to all. Then he went on a visit to Berlin, and returned "bitten by the +military bug," with his whole nature changed, and began to "imponieren" +in true Prussian fashion. It is surely extraordinary how all the +scattered atoms of a race can share the diseases of the central organism +from which they sprang. I verily believe that if a German had been alone +on a desert island in 1914 he would have begun to dance and brandish a +club. How many cases are on record of the strange changes and wild deeds +of individuals? + +Mr. Moors told me that he dropped into a developing circle of +spiritualists at Sydney, none of whom could have known him. One of them +said, "Above your head I see a man, an artist, long hair, brown eyes, +and I get the name of Stephens." If he was indeed unknown, this would +seem fairly evidential. + +I was struck by one remark of Mr. Moors, which was that he had not only +seen the natives ride turtles in the South Sea lagoons, but that he had +actually done so himself, and that it was by no means difficult. This +was the feat which was supposed to be so absurd when De Rougemont +claimed to have done it. There are, of course, some gross errors which +are probably pure misuse of words in that writer's narrative, but he +places the critic in a dilemma which has never been fairly faced. Either +he is a liar, in which case he is, beyond all doubt, the most realistic +writer of adventure since Defoe, or else he speaks the truth, in which +case he is a great explorer. I see no possible avoidance of this +dilemma, so that which ever way you look at it the man deserves credit +which he has never received. + +We set off, four of us, to visit Mr. Clement Wragge, who is the most +remarkable personality in Auckland--dreamer, mystic, and yet very +practical adviser on all matters of ocean and of air. + +On arriving at the charming bungalow, buried among all sorts of +broad-leaved shrubs and trees, I was confronted by a tall, thin figure, +clad in black, with a face like a sadder and thinner Bernard Shaw, dim, +dreamy eyes, heavily pouched, with a blue turban surmounting all. On +repeating my desire he led me apart into his study. I had been warned +that with his active brain and copious knowledge I would never be able +to hold him to the point, so, in the dialogue which followed, I +perpetually headed him off as he turned down bye paths, until the +conversation almost took the form of a game. + +"Mr. Wragge, you are, I know, one of the greatest authorities upon winds +and currents." + +"Well, that is one of my pursuits. When I was young I ran the Ben Nevis +Observatory in Scotland and----" + +"It was only a small matter I wished to ask you. You'll excuse my +directness as I have so little time." + +"Certainly. What is it?" + +"If the Maoris came, originally, from Hawaii, what prevailing winds +would their canoes meet in the 2,000 miles which they crossed to reach +New Zealand?" + +The dim eyes lit up with the joy of the problem, and the nervous fingers +unrolled a chart of the Pacific. He flourished a pair of compasses. + +"Here is Hawaii. They would start with a north-westerly trade wind. That +would be a fair wind. I may say that the whole affair took place far +further back than is usually supposed. We have to get back to astronomy +for our fixed date. Don't imagine that the obliquity of the ecliptic was +always 23 degrees." + +"The Maoris had a fair wind then?" + +The compasses stabbed at the map. + +"Only down to this point. Then they would come on the Doldrums--the calm +patch of the equator. They could paddle their canoes across that. Of +course, the remains at Easter Island prove----" + +"But they could not paddle all the way." + +"No; they would run into the south-easterly trades. Then they made their +way to Rarotonga in Tahiti. It was from here that they made for New +Zealand." + +"But how could they know New Zealand was there?" + +"Ah, yes, how did they know?" + +"Had they compasses?" + +"They steered by the stars. We have a poem of theirs which numbers the +star-gazer as one of the crew. We have a chart, also, cut in the rocks +at Hawaii, which seems to be the plot of a voyage. Here is a slide of +it." He fished out a photo of lines and scratches upon a rock. + +"Of course," said he, "the root of the matter is that missionaries from +Atlantis permeated the Pacific, coming across Central America, and left +their traces everywhere." + +Ah, Atlantis! I am a bit of an Atlantean myself, so off we went at +scratch and both enjoyed ourselves greatly until time had come to rejoin +the party and meet Mr. Wragge's wife, a charming Brahmin lady from +India, who was one of the most gracious personalities I have met in my +wanderings. The blue-turbaned, eager man, half western science, half +eastern mystic, and his dark-eyed wife amid their profusion of flowers +will linger in my memory. Mrs. Wragge was eager that I go and lecture in +India. Well, who knows? + +I was so busy listening to Mr. Wragge's Atlantean theories that I had no +chance of laying before him my own contribution to the subject, which +is, I think, both original and valid. If the huge bulk of Atlantis sank +beneath the ocean, then, assuredly, it raised such a tidal wave as has +never been known in the world's history. This tidal wave, since all sea +water connects, would be felt equally all over the world, as the wave of +Krakatoa was in 1883 felt in Europe. The wave must have rushed over all +flat coasts and drowned every living thing, as narrated in the biblical +narrative. Therefore, since this catastrophe was, according to Plato's +account, not very much more than 10,000 years ago there should exist +ample evidence of a wholesale destruction of life, especially in the +flatter lands of the globe. Is there such evidence? Think of Darwin's +account of how the pampas of South America are in places one huge +grave-yard. Think, also, of the mammoth remains which strew the Tundras +of Siberia, and which are so numerous that some of the Arctic islands +are really covered with bones. There is ample evidence of some great +flood which would exactly correspond with the effect produced by the +sinking of Atlantis. The tragedy broadens as one thinks of it. Everyone +everywhere must have been drowned save only the hill-dwellers. The +object of the catastrophe was, according to some occult information, to +remove the Atlantean race and make room for the Aryan, even as the +Lemurian had been removed to make room for the Atlantean. How long has +the Aryan race to run? The answer may depend upon themselves. The great +war is a warning bell perhaps. + +I had a talk with a curious type of psychic while I was in Auckland. He +claimed to be a psychologist who did not need to be put _en rapport_ +with his object by any material starting point. A piece of clothing is, +as a rule, to a psychometrist what it would be to a bloodhound, the +starting point of a chase which runs down the victim. Thus Van Bourg, +when he discovered by crystal gazing the body of Mr. Foxhall (I quote +the name from memory) floating in the Thames, began by covering the +table with the missing man's garments. This is the usual procedure which +will become more familiar as the public learn the full utility of a +psychic. + +This gentlemen, Mr. Pearman, was a builder by trade, a heavy, rather +uneducated man with the misty eye of a seer. He told me that if he +desired to turn his powers upon anything he had only to sit in a dim +room and concentrate his thought upon the matter, without any material +nexus. For example, a murder had been done in Western Australia. The +police asked his help. Using his power, he saw the man, a stranger, and +yet he _knew_ that it was the man, descending the Swan River in a boat. +He saw him mix with the dockmen of Fremantle. Then he saw him return to +Perth. Finally, he saw him take train on the Transcontinental Railway. +The police at once acted, and intercepted the man, who was duly +convicted and hanged. This was one of several cases which this man told +me, and his stories carried conviction with them. All this, although +psychic, has, of course, nothing to do with spiritualism, but is an +extension of the normal, though undefined, powers of the human mind and +soul. + +The reader will be relieved to hear that I did not visit Rotorua. An +itinerant lecturer upon an unpopular cause has enough hot water without +seeking out a geyser. My travels would make but an indifferent guide +book, but I am bound to put it upon record that Wellington is a very +singular city plastered upon the side of a very steep hill. It is said +that the plan of the city was entirely drawn up in England under the +impression that the site was a flat one, and that it was duly carried +out on the perpendicular instead of the horizontal. It is a town of fine +buildings, however, in a splendid winding estuary ringed with hills. It +is, of course, the capital, and the centre of all officialdom in New +Zealand, but Auckland, in the north, is already the greater city. + +I had the opportunity of spending the day after my arrival with Dr. +Morrice, who married the daughter of the late Premier, Sir R. Seddon, +whom I had known in years gone by. Their summer house was down the Bay, +and so I had a long drive which gave me an admirable chance of seeing +the wonderful panorama. It was blowing a full gale, and the road is so +exposed that even motors are sometimes upset by the force of the wind. +On this occasion nothing more serious befell us than the loss of Mr. +Smythe's hat, which disappeared with such velocity that no one was able +to say what had become of it. It simply was, and then it was not. The +yellow of the foreshore, the green of the shallows, the blue mottled +with purple of the deep, all fretted with lines of foam, made an +exhilarating sight. The whole excursion was a brief but very pleasant +break in our round of work. Another pleasant experience was that I met +Dr. Purdey, who had once played cricket with me, when we were very +young, at Edinburgh University. _Eheu fugaces!_ I had also the pleasure +of meeting Mr. Massey, the Premier, a bluff, strong, downright man who +impresses one with his force and sincerity. + +I had the privilege when I was at Wellington of seeing the first edition +of "Robinson Crusoe," which came out originally in three volumes. I had +no idea that the three-decker dated back to 1719. It had a delightful +map of the island which would charm any boy, and must have been drawn up +under the personal guidance of Defoe himself. I wonder that map has not +been taken as an integral part of the book, and reproduced in every +edition, for it is a fascinating and a helpful document. + +I saw this rare book in the Turnbull Library, which, under the loving +care of Mr. Anderson (himself no mean poet), is a fine little collection +of books got together by a Wellington man of business. In a raw young +land such a literary oasis is like a Gothic Cathedral in the midst of a +suburb of modern villas. Anyone can come in to consult the books, and if +I were a Wellingtonian I would certainly spend a good deal of time +there. I handled with fitting reverence a first edition of "Lyrical +Ballads," where, in 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth made their entry hand +in hand into poetical literature. I saw an original Hakluyt, the book +which has sent so many brave hearts a-roving. There, too, was a precious +Kelmscott "Chaucer," a Plutarch and Montaigne, out of which Shakespeare +might have done his cribbing; Capt. Cook's manuscript "Diary," written +in the stiff hand of a very methodical man; a copy of Swinburne's "Poems +and Ballads," which is one of twenty from a recalled edition, and many +other very rare and worthy volumes carefully housed and clad. I spent a +mellow hour among them. + +I have been looking up all the old books upon the Maoris which I could +find, with the special intent of clearing up their history, but while +doing so I found in one rather rare volume "Old New Zealand," an account +of a Maori séance, which seems to have been in the early forties, and, +therefore, older than the Hydesville knockings. I only wish every honest +materialist could read it and compare it with the experiences which we +have, ourselves, independently reported. Surely they cannot persist in +holding that such identical results are obtained by coincidence, or that +fraud would work in exactly the same fashion in two different +hemispheres. + +A popular young chief had been killed in battle. The white man was +invited to join the solemn circle who hoped to regain touch with him. +The séance was in the dark of a large hut, lit only by the ruddy glow of +a low fire. The white man, a complete unbeliever, gives his evidence in +grudging fashion, but cannot get past the facts. The voice came, a +strange melancholy sound, like the wind blowing into a hollow vessel. +"Salutation! Salutation to you all! To you, my tribe! Family, I salute +you! Friends, I salute you!" When the power waned the voice cried, +"Speak to me, the family! Speak to me!" In the published dialogue +between Dr. Hodgson after his death and Professor Hyslop, Hodgson cries, +"Speak, Hyslop!" when the power seemed to wane. For some reason it would +appear either by vibrations or by concentrating attention to help the +communicator. "It is well with me," said the chief. "This place is a +good place." He was with the dead of the tribe and described them, and +offered to take messages to them. The incredulous white man asked where +a book had been concealed which only the dead man knew about. The place +was named and the book found. The white man himself did not know, so +there was no telepathy. Finally, with a "Farewell!" which came from high +in the air, the spirit passed back to immaterial conditions. + +This is, I think, a very remarkable narrative. If you take it as +literally true, which I most certainly do, since our experience +corroborates it, it gives us some points for reflection. One is that the +process is one known in all the ages, as our Biblical reading has +already told us. A second is that a young barbarian chief with no +advantages of religion finds the next world a very pleasant place, just +as our dead do, and that they love to come back and salute those whom +they have left, showing a keen memory of their earth life. Finally, we +must face the conclusion that the mere power of communication has no +elevating effect in itself, otherwise these tribes could not have +continued to be ferocious savages. It has to be united with the Christ +message from beyond before it will really help us upon the upward path. + +Before I left Wellington the spiritualists made me a graceful +presentation of a travelling rug, and I was able to assure them that if +they found the rug I would find the travelling. It is made of the +beautiful woollen material in which New Zealand is supreme. The +presentation was made by Mrs. Stables, the President of the New Zealand +Association, an energetic lady to whom the cause owes much. A greenstone +penholder was given to me for my wife, and a little charm for my small +daughter, the whole proceedings being marked with great cordiality and +good feeling. The faithful are strong in Wellington, but are much +divided among themselves, which, I hope, may be alleviated as a +consequence of my visit. Nothing could have been more successful than my +two meetings. The Press was splendidly sympathetic, and I left by a +night boat in high heart for my campaign in the South Island. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + The Anglican Colony.--Psychic dangers.--The learned dog.--Absurd + newspaper controversy.--A backward community.--The Maori + tongue.--Their origin.--Their treatment by the Empire.--A + fiasco.--The Pa of Kaiopoi.--Dr. Thacker.--Sir Joseph Kinsey.--A + generous collector.--Scott and Amundsen.--Dunedin.--A genuine + medium.--Evidence.--The shipping strike.--Sir Oliver.--Farewell. + + +I am afraid that the average Britisher looks upon New Zealand as one +solid island. If he had to cross Cook's Strait to get from the northern +to the southern half, he would never forget his lesson in geography, for +it can be as nasty a bit of water as is to be found in the world, with +ocean waves, mountain winds and marine currents all combining into a +horrible chaos. Twelve good hours separate Wellington in the north from +Lyttelton, which is the port of Christchurch in the south. A very short +railway joins the two latter places. My luck held good, and I had an +excellent passage, dining in Wellington and breakfasting in +Christchurch. It is a fine city, the centre of the famous Canterbury +grazing country. Four shiploads of people calling themselves the +Canterbury Pilgrims arrived here in 1852, built a cathedral, were +practically ruled over by Bishop Selwyn, and tried the successful +experiment of establishing a community which should be as Anglican as +New England is Nonconformist. The distinctive character has now largely +disappeared, but a splendid and very English city remains as a memorial +of their efforts. When you are on the green, sloping banks of the river +Avon, with the low, artistic bridges, it would not be hard to imagine +that you were in the Backs at Cambridge. + +At Christchurch I came across one of those little bits of psychic +evidence which may be taken as certainly true, and which can be +regarded, therefore, as pieces which have to be fitted into the jig-saw +puzzle in order to make the completed whole, at that far off date when a +completed whole is within the reach of man's brain. It concerns Mr. +Michie, a local Spiritualist of wide experience. On one occasion some +years ago, he practised a short cut to psychic power, acquired through a +certain method of breathing and of action, which amounts, in my opinion, +to something in the nature of self-hypnotisation. I will not give +details, as I think all such exercises are dangerous save for very +experienced students of these matters, who know the risk and are +prepared to take it. The result upon Mr. Michie, through some disregard +upon his part of the conditions which he was directed to observe, was +disastrous. He fell into an insidious illness with certain psychic +symptoms, and within a few months was reduced to skin and bone. Mr. +Michie's wife is mediumistic and liable to be controlled. One day an +entity came to her and spoke through her to her husband, claiming to be +the spirit of one, Gordon Stanley. He said: "I can sympathise with your +case, because my own death was brought about in exactly the same way. I +will help you, however, to fight against it and to recover." The spirit +then gave an account of his own life, described himself as a clerk in +Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne, and said that his widow was living at +an address in Melbourne, which was duly given. Mr. Michie at once wrote +to this address and received this reply, the original of which I have +seen: + + _"Park Street, + "Melbourne._ + + "DEAR SIR,--_I have just received your strange--I must say, your + very strange letter. Yes, I am Mrs. Stanley. My husband did die two + years ago from consumption. He was a clerk in Cole's Arcade. I must + say your letter gave me a great shock. But I cannot doubt after + what you have said, for I know you are a complete stranger to me._" + +Shortly afterwards Mr. Stanley returned again through the medium, said +that his widow was going to marry again, and that it was with his full +approbation. The incident may be taken by our enemies as illustrating +the danger of psychic research, and we admit that there are forms of it +which should be approached with caution, but I do not think that mankind +will ever be warned off by putting a danger label upon it, so long as +they think there is real knowledge to be gained. How could the motor-car +or the aeroplane have been developed if hundreds had not been ready to +give their lives to pay the price? Here the price has been far less, and +the goal far higher, but if in gaining it a man were assured that he +would lose his health, his reason, or his life, it is none the less his +duty to go forward if he clearly sees that there is something to be won. +To meet death in conquering death is to die in victory--the ideal death. + +Whilst I was at Auckland Mr. Poynton, a stipendiary magistrate there, +told me of a dog in Christchurch which had a power of thought +comparable, not merely to a human being, but even, as I understood him, +to a clairvoyant, as it would bark out the number of coins in your +pocket and other such questions. The alternative to clairvoyance was +that he was a very quick and accurate thought-reader, but in some cases +the power seemed to go beyond this. Mr. Poynton, who had studied the +subject, mentioned four learned beasts in history: a marvellous horse in +Shakespeare's time, which was burned with its master in Florence; the +Boston skipper's dog; Hans, the Russian horse, and Darkie of +Christchurch. He investigated the latter himself, as one of a committee +of three. On the first occasion they got no results. On the second, +ninety per cent. of the questions were right, and they included sums of +addition, subtraction, etc. "It was uncanny," he wrote. + +I called, therefore, upon Mrs. McGibbon, the owner, who allowed me to +see the dog. He was a dark, vivacious fox terrier, sixteen years old, +blind and deaf, which obviously impaired his powers. In spite of his +blindness he dashed at me the moment he was allowed into the room, +pawing at me and trembling all over with excitement. He was, in fact so +excited that he was of little use for demonstration, as when once he +began to bark he could not be induced to stop. Occasionally he steadied +down, and gave us a touch of his true quality. When a half-crown was +placed before him and he was asked how many sixpences were in it, he +gave five barks, and four for a florin, but when a shilling was +substituted he gave twelve, which looked as if he had pennies in his +mind. On the whole the performance was a failure, but as he had raised +by exhibiting his gifts, £138 for war charities, I took my hat off to +him all the same. I will not imitate those psychic researchers who +imagine that because they do not get a result, therefore, every one else +who has reported it is a cheat or a fool. On the contrary, I have no +doubt that the dog had these powers, though age and excitement have now +impaired them. + +The creature's powers were first discovered when the son of the house +remarked one day: "I will give you a biscuit if you bark three times." +He at once did it. "Now, six times." He did so. "Now, take three off." +He barked three times once again. Since then they have hardly found any +problem he could not tackle. When asked how many males in the room he +always included himself in the number, but omitted himself when asked +how many human beings. One wonders how many other dogs have human brains +without the humans being clever enough to detect it. + +I had an amusing controversy in Christchurch with one of the local +papers, _The Press_, which represents the clerical interest, and, also, +the clerical intolerance of a cathedral city. It issued an article upon +me and my beliefs, severe, but quite within the limits of legitimate +criticism, quoting against me Professor Hyslop, "who," it said, "is +Professor of Logic at Columbia, etc." To this I made the mild and +obvious retort in the course of my lecture that as Professor Hyslop was +dead, _The Press_ went even further than I in saying that he "_is_ +Professor at Columbia." Instead of accepting this correction, _The +Press_ made the tactical error of standing by their assertion, and +aggravated it by head-lines which challenged me, and quoted my statement +as "typical of the inaccuracy of a Spiritualist." As I rather pride +myself on my accuracy, which has seldom been challenged, I answered +shortly but politely, as follows: + + "SIR,--_I am surprised that the news of the death of Professor + Hyslop has not reached New Zealand, and even more surprised that it + could be imagined that I would make such a statement on a matter so + intimately connected with the subject upon which I lecture without + being sure of my fact. I am reported as saying 'some years,' but, + if so, it was a slip of the tongue for 'some time.' The Professor + died either late last year or early in the present one._" + +I should have thought that my answer was conclusive, and would have +elicited some sort of apology; but instead of this, _The Press_ called +loudly upon me in a leading article to apologise, though for what I know +not, save that they asserted I had said "some years," whereas I claim +that I actually said "some time." This drew the following rather more +severe letter from me: + + "SIR,--_I am collecting New Zealand curiosities, so I will take + your leading article home with me. To get the full humour of it one + has to remember the sequence of events. In a leading article you + remarked that Professor Hyslop is Professor of Logic. I answered + with mild irony that he certainly is not, as he had been dead 'some + years' or 'some time'--which of the two is perfectly immaterial, + since I presume that in either case you would agree that he has + ceased to be Professor of Logic. To this you were rash enough to + reply with a challenging article with large head-lines, declaring + that I had blundered, and that this was typical of the inaccuracy + of Spiritualists. I wrote a gentle remonstrance to show that I had + not blundered, and that my assertion was essentially true, since + the man was dead. This you now tacitly admit, but instead of + expressing regret you ask for an apology from me. I have engaged + in much newspaper controversy, but I can truly say that I can + recall no such instance of effrontery as this._" + +This led to another leader and considerable abuse. + +The controversy was, however, by no means one-sided, in spite of the +shadow of the Cathedral. Mr. Peter Trolove is a man of wit as well as +knowledge, and wields a pretty pen. A strong man, also, is Dr. John +Guthrie, whose letter contains words so kindly that I must quote them: + + "_Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stands above it all, not only as a + courteous gentleman, but as a fair controversialist throughout. He + is, anyhow, a chivalrous and magnanimous personality, whether or + not his beliefs have any truth. Fancy quoting authorities against a + man who has spent great part of his life studying the subject, and + who knows the authorities better than all his opponents put + together--a man who has deliberately used his great gifts in an + honest attempt to get at truth. I do think that Christchurch has + some need to apologise for its controversialists--much more need + than our distinguished visitor has to apologise for what we all + know to be his honest convictions._" + +I have never met Dr. John Guthrie in the flesh, but I would thank him +here, should this ever meet his eye, for this kindly protest. + +It will be gathered that I succeeded at Christchurch in performing the +feat of waking up a Cathedral City, and all the ex-sleepers were +protesting loudly against such a disturbing inrush from the outer world. +Glancing at the head-lines I see that Bishop Brodie declared it to be "A +blasphemy nurtured in fraud," the Dean of Christchurch writes it down as +"Spiritism, the abrogation of Reason," the Rev. John Patterson calls it +"an ancient delusion," the Rev. Mr. North says it is "a foolish +Paganism," and the Rev. Mr. Ready opines that it is "a gospel of +uncertainty and conjecture." Such are the clerical leaders of thought in +Christchurch in the year 1920. I think of what the wise old Chinese +Control said of similar types at the Melbourne Rescue Circle. "He good +man but foolish man. He learn better. Never rise till he learn better. +Plenty time yet." Who loses except themselves? + +The enormous number of letters which I get upon psychic subjects--which +I do my best to answer--give me some curious sidelights, but they are +often confidential, and would not bear publication. Some of them are +from devout, but narrow Christians, who narrate psychic and prophetic +gifts which they possess, and at the same time almost resent them on the +ground that they are condemned by the Bible. As if the whole Bible was +not psychic and prophetic! One very long letter detailed a whole +succession of previsions of the most exact character, and wound up by +the conviction that we were on the edge of some great discovery. This +was illustrated by a simile which seemed very happy. "Have you noticed +a tree covered in spider webs during a fog? Well, it was only through +the law of the fog that we saw them. They were there all the time, but +only when the moisture came could we see them." It was a good +illustration. Many amazing experiences are detailed to me in every town +I visit, and though I have no time to verify them and go into details, +none the less they fit so accurately with the various types of psychic +cases with which I am familiar that I cannot doubt that such occurrences +are really very common. It is the injudicious levity with which they are +met which prevents their being published by those who experience them. + +As an amateur philologist of a superficial type, I am greatly interested +in studying the Maori language, and trying to learn whence these +wonderful savages came before their twenty-two terrible canoes came down +upon the unhappy land which would have been safer had as many shiploads +of tigers been discharged upon its beach. The world is very old, and +these folk have wandered from afar, and by many devious paths. Surely +there are Celtic traces both in their appearance, their character and +their language. An old Maori woman smoking her pipe is the very image of +an old Celtic woman occupied the same way. Their word for water is +_wei_, and England is full of Wye and Way river names, dating from the +days before the Germans arrived. Strangest of all is their name for the +supreme God. A name never mentioned and taboo among them, is Io. "J" +is, of course, interchangeable with "I," so that we get the first two +letters of Jove and an approximation of Jehovah. Papa is parent. +Altogether there is good evidence that they are from the same root as +some European races, preferably the Celts. But on the top of this comes +a whole series of Japanese combinations of letters, Rangi, Muru, Tiki, +and so forth, so that many of the place names seem pure Japanese. What +are we to make of such a mixture? Is it possible that one Celtic branch, +far away in the mists of time, wandered east while their racial brethren +wandered west, so that part reached far Corea while the others reached +Ireland? Then, after getting a tincture of Japanese terms and word +endings, they continued their migration, taking to the seas, and finally +subduing the darker races who inhabited the Polynesian Islands, so +making their way to New Zealand. This wild imagining would at least +cover the observed facts. It is impossible to look at some of the Maori +faces without realising that they are of European stock. + +I must interpolate a paragraph here to say that I was pleased, after +writing the above, to find that in my blind gropings I had come upon the +main conclusions which have been put forward with very full knowledge by +the well-known authority, Dr. McMillan Brown. He has worked out the very +fact which I surmised, that the Maoris are practically of the same stock +as Europeans, that they had wandered Japan-wards, and had finally taken +to the sea. There are two points of interest which show the date of +their exodus was a very ancient one. The first is that they have not +the use of the bow. The second is that they have no knowledge of metals. +Such knowledge once possessed would never have been lost, so it is safe +to say that they left Asia a thousand years (as a minimum) before +Christ, for at that date the use of bronze, at any rate, was widespread. +What adventures and vicissitudes this remarkable race, so ignorant in +some directions and so advanced in others, must have endured during +those long centuries. If you look at the wonderful ornaments of their +old war canoes, which carry a hundred men, and can traverse the whole +Pacific, it seems almost incredible that human patience and ingenuity +could construct the whole fabric with instruments of stone. They valued +them greatly when once they were made, and the actual names of the +twenty-two original invading canoes are still recorded. + + Illustration: THE PEOPLE OF TURI'S CANOE, AFTER A VOYAGE OF GREAT + HARDSHIP, AT LAST SIGHT THE SHORES OF NEW ZEALAND. From a painting + in the Auckland Art Gallery by C. F. Goldie and L. J. Steele. + +In the public gallery of Auckland they have a duplicate of one of these +enormous canoes. It is 87 feet in length and the thwarts are broad +enough to hold three or four men. When it was filled with its hundred +warriors, with the chief standing in the centre to give time to the +rowers, it must, as it dashed through the waves, have been a truly +terrific object. I should think that it represented the supreme +achievement of neolithic man. There are a series of wonderful pictures +of Maori life in the same gallery by Goldie and Steele. Of these I +reproduce, by permission, one which represents the starving crew of one +canoe sighting the distant shore. The engraving only gives a faint +indication of the effect of the vividly-coloured original. + +Reference has been made to the patient industry of the Maori race. A +supreme example of this is that every man had his tikki, or image of a +little idol made of greenstone, which was hung round his neck. Now, this +New Zealand greenstone is one of the hardest objects in nature, and yet +it is worn down without metals into these quaint figures. On an average +it took ten years to make one, and it was rubbed down from a chunk of +stone into an image by the constant friction of a woman's foot. + +It is said that the Tahungas, or priests, have much hereditary knowledge +of an occult sort. Their oracles were famous, and I have already quoted +an example of their séances. A student of Maori lore told me the +following interesting story. He was a student of Maori words, and on one +occasion a Maori chief let slip an unusual word, let us say "buru," and +then seemed confused and refused to answer when the Englishman asked the +meaning. The latter took it to a friend, a Tohunga, who seemed much +surprised and disturbed, and said it was a word of which a paheka or +white man should know nothing. Not to be beaten, my informant took it to +an old and wise chief who owed him a return for some favours. This chief +was also much exercised in mind when he heard the word, and walked up +and down in agitation. Finally he said, "Friend, we are both Christians. +You remember the chapter in the Bible where Jacob wrestled with an +angel. Well, this word 'buru' represents that for which they were +wrestling." He would say no more and there it had perforce to be left. + +The British Empire may be proud of their treatment of the Maoris. Like +the Jews, they object to a census, but their number cannot be more than +50,000 in a population of over a million. There is no question, +therefore, of our being constrained to treat them well. Yet they own +vast tracts of the best land in the country, and so unquestioned are +their rights that when they forbade a railway to pass down the centre of +the North Island, the traffic had to go by sea from Auckland until, at +last, after many years, it was shown to the chiefs that their financial +interests would be greatly aided by letting the railway through. These +financial interests are very large, and many Maoris are wealthy men, +buying expensive motor cars and other luxuries. Some of the more +educated take part in legislative work, and are distinguished for their +eloquence. The half-castes make a particularly fine breed, especially in +their youth, for they tend as they grow older to revert to the pure +Maori type. New Zealand has no national sin upon its conscience as +regards the natives, which is more, I fear, than can be said +whole-heartedly for Australia, and even less for Tasmania. Our people +never descended to the level of the old Congo, but they have something +on their conscience none the less. + +On December 18th there was some arrangement by which I should meet the +Maoris and see the historic Pa of Kaiopoi. The affair, however, was, I +am sorry to say, a fiasco. As we approached the building, which was the +village school room, there emerged an old lady--a very old lady--who +uttered a series of shrill cries, which I was told meant welcome, +though they sounded more like the other thing. I can only trust that my +informants were right. Inside was a very fine assemblage of atmospheric +air, and of nothing else. The explanation was that there had been a +wedding the night before, and that the whole community had been--well, +tired. Presently a large man in tweeds of the reach-me-down variety +appeared upon the scene, and several furtive figures, including a row of +children, materialised in corners of the big empty room. The visitors, +who were more numerous than the visited, sat on a long bench and waited +developments which refused to develop. My dreams of the dignified and +befeathered savage were drifting away. Finally, the large man, with his +hands in his pockets, and looking hard at a corner of the rafters, made +a speech of welcome, punctuated by long stops and gaps. He then, at our +request, repeated it in Maori, and the children were asked to give a +Maori shout, which they sternly refused to do. I then made a few feeble +bleats, uncertain whether to address my remarks to the level of the +large man or to that of the row of children. I ended by handing over +some books for their library, and we then escaped from this rather +depressing scene. + +But it was a very different matter with the Pa. I found it intensely +interesting. You could still trace quite clearly the main lines of the +battle which destroyed it. It lay on about five acres of ground, with +deep swamp all round save for one frontage of some hundreds of yards. +That was all which really needed defence. The North Island natives, who +were of a sterner breed than those of the South, came down under the +famous Rauparaha (these Maori names are sad snags in a story) and +besieged the place. One can see the saps and follow his tactics, which +ended by piling brushwood against the palings--please observe the root +"pa" in palings--with the result that he carried the place. Massacre +Hill stands close by, and so many of the defenders were eaten that their +gnawed bones covered the ground within the memory of living men. Such +things may have been done by the father of the elderly gentleman who +passes you in his motor car with his race glasses slung across his +chest. The siege of Kaiopoi was about 1831. Even on a fine sunlit day I +was conscious of that heavy atmosphere within the enclosure which +impresses itself upon me when I am on the scene of ancient violence. So +frightful an episode within so limited a space, where for months the +garrison saw its horrible fate drawing nearer day by day, must surely +have left some etheric record even to our blunt senses. + +I was indebted to Dr. Thacker, the mayor, for much kind attention whilst +in Christchurch. He is a giant man, but a crippled giant, alas, for he +still bears the traces of an injury received in a historic football +match, which left his and my old University of Edinburgh at the top of +the tree in Scotland. He showed me some curious, if ghastly, relics of +his practice. One of these was a tumour of the exact size and shape of a +boxing glove, thumb and all, which he cut out of the back of a boxer +who had lost a glove fight and taken it greatly to heart. Always on many +converging lines we come back to the influence of mind over matter. + +Another most pleasant friendship which I made in Christchurch was with +Sir Joseph Kinsey, who has acted as father to several successive British +Arctic expeditions. Scott and Shackleton have both owed much to him, +their constant agent, adviser and friend. Scott's dying hand traced a +letter to him, so unselfish and so noble that it alone would put Scott +high in the gallery of British worthies. Of all modern men of action +Scott seems to me the most lofty. To me he was only an acquaintance, but +Kinsey, who knew him well as a friend, and Lady Kinsey, who had all +Arctic exploration at her finger ends, were of the same opinion. + +Sir Joseph discussed the action of Amundsen in making for the pole. When +it was known that Amundsen was heading south instead of pursuing his +advertised intentions, Kinsey smelled danger and warned Scott, who, +speaking from his own noble loyalty, said, "He would never do so +dishonourable a thing. My plans are published and are known to all the +world." However, when he reached the ice, and when Pennell located the +"Fram," he had to write and admit that Kinsey was right. It was a sad +blow, that forestalling, though he took it like the man that he was. +None the less, it must have preyed upon the spirits of all his party and +weakened their resistance in that cruel return journey. On the other +hand Amundsen's expedition, which was conducted on rather less than a +sixth of the cost of the British, was a triumph of organisation, and he +had the good luck or deep wisdom to strike a route which was clear of +those great blizzards which overwhelmed Scott. The scurvy was surely a +slur upon our medical preparations. According to Stefansson, who knows +more of the matter than any living man, lime juice is useless, +vegetables are of secondary importance, but fresh animal food, be it +seal, penguin, or what you will, is the final preventive. + +Sir Joseph is a passionate and discriminating collector, and has but one +fault in collecting, which is a wide generosity. You have but to visit +him often enough and express sufficient interest to absorb all his +treasures. Perhaps my protests were half-hearted, but I emerged from his +house with a didrachm of Alexander, a tetradrachm of some Armenian +monarch, a sheet of rare Arctic stamps for Denis, a lump of native +greenstone, and a small nugget of gold. No wonder when I signed some +books for him I entered the date as that of "The Sacking of Woomeroo," +that being the name of his dwelling. The mayor, in the same spirit of +hospitality, pressed upon me a huge bone of the extinct Moa, but as I +had never failed to impress upon my wife the extreme importance of +cutting down our luggage, I could not face the scandal of appearing with +this monstrous impedimentum. + +Leaving Christchurch in the journalistic uproar to which allusion has +been made, our engagements took us on to Dunedin, which is reached by +rail in a rather tiring day's journey. A New Zealand train is excellent +while it is running, but it has a way of starting with an epileptic +leap, and stopping with a bang, which becomes wearisome after a while. +On the other hand this particular journey is beguiled by the fact that +the line runs high for two hours round the curve of the hills with the +Pacific below, so that a succession of marvellous views opens out before +you as you round each spur. There can be few more beautiful lines. + +Dunedin was founded in 1848 by a group of Scotsmen, and it is modelled +so closely upon Edinburgh that the familiar street names all reappear, +and even Portobello has its duplicate outside the town. The climate, +also, I should judge to be about the same. The prevailing tone of the +community is still Scottish, which should mean that they are sympathetic +with my mission, for nowhere is Spiritualism more firmly established now +than in Scotland, especially in Glasgow, where a succession of great +mediums and of earnest workers have built up a considerable +organisation. I soon found that it was so, for nowhere had I more +private assurances of support, nor a better public reception, the +theatre being filled at each lecture. In the intervals kind friends put +their motors at my disposal and I had some splendid drives over the +hills, which look down upon the winding estuary at the head of which the +town is situated. + +At the house of Mr. Reynolds, of Dunedin, I met one of the most powerful +clairvoyants and trance mediums whom I have tested. Her name is Mrs. +Roberts, and though her worldly circumstances are modest, she has never +accepted any money for her wonderful psychic gifts. For this I honour +her, but, as I told her, we all sell the gifts which God has given us, +and I cannot see why, and within reason, psychic gifts should not also +be placed within the reach of the public, instead of being confined to a +favoured few. How can the bulk of the people ever get into touch with a +good medium if they are debarred from doing so in the ordinary way of +business? + +Mrs. Roberts is a stout, kindly woman, with a motherly manner, and a +sensitive, expressive face. When in touch with my conditions she at once +gave the names of several relatives and friends who have passed over, +without any slurring or mistakes. She then cried, "I see an elderly lady +here--she is a beautifully high spirit--her name is Selina." This rather +unusual name belonged to my wife's mother, who died nearly two years +ago. Then, suddenly, becoming slightly convulsed, as a medium does when +her mechanism is controlled by another, she cried with an indescribable +intensity of feeling, "Thank God! Thank God to get in touch again! Jean! +Jean! Give my dear love to Jean!" Both names, therefore, had been got +correctly, that of the mother and the daughter. Is it not an affront to +reason to explain away such results by wild theories of telepathy, or by +anything save the perfectly plain and obvious fact that spirit communion +is indeed true, and that I was really in touch with that dead lady who +was, even upon earth, a beautifully high and unselfish spirit. I had a +number of other communications through Mrs. Roberts that night, and at a +second interview two days later, not one of which erred so far as names +were concerned. Among others was one who professed to be Dr. Russell +Wallace. I should be honoured, indeed, to think that it was so, but I +was unable to hit on anything which would be evidential. I asked him if +his further experience had taught him anything more about reincarnation, +which he disputed in his lifetime. He answered that he now accepted it, +though I am not clear whether he meant for all cases. I thanked him for +any spiritual help I had from him. His answer was "Me! Don't thank me! +You would be surprised if you knew who your real helpers are." He added, +"By your work I rise. We are co-workers!" I pray that it be so, for few +men have lived for whom I have greater respect; wise and brave, and +mellow and good. His biography was a favourite book of mine long before +I understood the full significance of Spiritualism, which was to him an +evolution of the spirit on parallel lines to that evolution of the body +which he did so much to establish. + +Now that my work in New Zealand was drawing to a close a very grave +problem presented itself to Mr. Smythe and myself, and that was how we +were to get back to our families in Australia. A strike had broken out, +which at first seemed a small matter, but it was accentuated by the +approach of Christmas and the fact that many of the men were rather +looking for an excuse for a holiday. Every day things became blacker. +Once before Mr. Smythe had been held up for four months by a similar +cause, and, indeed, it has become a very serious consideration for all +who visit New Zealand. We made a forced march for the north amid +constant rumours that far from reaching Australia we could not even get +to the North Island, as the twelve-hour ferry boats were involved in the +strike. I had every trust in my luck, or, as I should prefer to say, in +my helpers, and we got the _Maori_ on the last ferry trip which she was +sure to take. Up to the last moment the firemen wavered, and we had no +stewards on board, but none the less, to our inexpressible relief we got +off. There was no food on the ship and no one to serve it, so we went +into a small hostel at Lyttleton before we started, to see what we could +pick up. There was a man seated opposite to me who assumed the air of +laboured courtesy and extreme dignity, which is one phase of alcoholism. + +"'Scuse me, sir!" said he, looking at me with a glassy stare, "but you +bear most 'straordinary resemblance Olver Lodge." + +I said something amiable. + +"Yes, sir--'straordinary! Have you ever seen Olver Lodge, sir?" + +"Yes, I have." + +"Well, did you perceive resemblance?" + +"Sir Oliver, as I remember him, was a tall man with a grey beard." + +He shook his head at me sadly. + +"No, sir--I heard him at Wellington last week. No beard. A moustache, +sir, same as your own." + +"You're sure it was Sir Oliver?" + +A slow smile came over his face. + +"Blesh my soul--Conan Doyle--that's the name. Yes, sir, you bear truly +remarkable resemblance Conan Doyle." + +I did not say anything further so I daresay he has not discovered yet +the true cause of the resemblance. + +All the nerve-wracking fears of being held up which we endured at +Lyttleton were repeated at Wellington, where we had taken our passages +in the little steamer _Paloona_. In any case we had to wait for a day, +which I spent in clearing up my New Zealand affairs while Mr. Smythe +interviewed the authorities and paid no less than £141 war tax upon the +receipts of our lectures--a heavy impost upon a fortnight's work. Next +morning, with our affairs and papers all in order, we boarded our little +craft. + +Up to the last moment we had no certainty of starting. Not only was the +strike in the air, but it was Christmas Eve, and it was natural enough +that the men should prefer their own homes to the stokehole of the +_Paloona_. Agents with offers of increased pay were scouring the docks. +Finally our complement was completed, and it was a glad moment when the +hawsers were thrown off, and after the usual uncomfortable preliminaries +we found ourselves steaming in a sharp wind down the very turbulent +waters of Cook's Strait. + +The place is full of Cook's memory. Everywhere the great man has left +his traces. We passed Cook's Island where the _Endeavour_ actually +struck and had to be careened and patched. What a nerve the fellow had! +So coolly and deliberately did he do his work that even now his charting +holds good, I understand, in many long stretches of coast. Tacking and +wearing, he poked and pried into every estuary, naming capes, defining +bays, plotting out positions, and yet all the while at the mercy of the +winds, with a possible lee shore always before him, with no comrade +within hail, and with swarms of cannibals eyeing his little ship from +the beach. After I have seen his work I shall feel full of reverence +every time I pass that fine statue which adorns the mall side of the +great Admiralty building. + +And now we are out in the open sea, with Melbourne, Sydney and love in +front of our prow. Behind the sun sets in a slur of scarlet above the +olive green hills, while the heavy night fog, crawling up the valleys, +turns each of them into a glacier. A bright star twinkles above. Below a +light shines out from the gloom. Farewell, New Zealand! I shall never +see you again, but perhaps some memory of my visit may remain--or not, +as God pleases. + +Anyhow, my own memory will remain. Every man looks on his own country as +God's own country if it be a free land, but the New Zealander has more +reason than most. It is a lovely place, and contains within its moderate +limits the agricultural plains of England, the lakes and hills of +Scotland, the glaciers of Switzerland, and the fiords of Norway, with a +fine hearty people, who do not treat the British newcomer with ignorant +contempt or hostility. There are so many interests and so many openings +that it is hard to think that a man will not find a career in New +Zealand. Canada, Australia and South Africa seem to me to be closely +balanced so far as their attractions for the emigrant goes, but when one +considers that New Zealand has neither the winter of Canada, the +droughts of Australia, nor the racial problems of Africa, it does surely +stand supreme, though it demands, as all of them do, both labour and +capital from the newcomer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + Christian origins.--Mithraism.--Astronomy.--Exercising boats.--Bad + news from home.--Futile strikes.--Labour Party.--The blue + wilderness.--Journey to Brisbane.--Warm reception.--Friends and + foes.--Psychic experience of Dr. Doyle.--Birds.--Criticism on + Melbourne.--Spiritualist Church.--Ceremony.--Sir Matthew + Nathan.--Alleged repudiation of Queensland.--Billy tea.--The bee + farm.--Domestic service in Australia.--Hon. John Fihilly.--Curious + photograph by the state photographer.--The "Orsova." + + +The voyage back from New Zealand to Melbourne was pleasant and +uneventful, though the boat was small and there was a sea rough enough +to upset many of the passengers. We were fortunate in our Captain, +Doorby, who, I found, was a literary confrère with two books to his +credit, one of them a record of the relief ship _Morning_, in which he +had served at the time of Scott's first expedition, the other a little +book, "The Handmaiden of the Navy," which gave some of his adventures +and experiences in the merchant service during the great war. He had +been torpedoed once, and had lost, on another occasion, nearly all his +crew with plague, so that he had much that was interesting to talk +about. Mr. Blake, of the _Strand Magazine_, was also on board. A +Unitarian Minister, Mr. Hale, was also a valuable companion, and we had +much discussion over the origins of Christianity, which was the more +interesting to me as I had taken advantage of the voyage to re-read the +Acts and Paul's Epistles. There are no documents which can be read so +often and yet reveal something new, the more so when you have that +occult clue which is needful before Paul can be understood. It is +necessary also to know something of Mythra worship and the other +philosophies which Paul had learned, and woven into his Christianity. I +have stated elsewhere my belief that all expressions about redemption by +blood, the blood of the lamb, etc., are founded upon the parallel of the +blood of the bull which was shed by the Mythra-worshippers, and in which +they were actually baptised. Enlarging upon this, Mr. Hale pointed out +on the authority, if I remember right, of Pfleiderer's "Christian +Origins," that in the Mythra service something is placed over the +candidate, a hide probably, which is called "putting on Mythra," and +corresponds with Paul's expression about "putting on Christ." Paul, with +his tremendous energy and earnestness, fixed Christianity upon the +world, but I wonder what Peter and those who had actually heard Christ's +words thought about it all. We have had Paul's views about Christ, but +we do not know Christ's views about Paul. He had been, as we are told by +himself, a Jewish Pharisee of the strictest type in his youth at +Jerusalem, but was a Roman citizen, had lived long at Tarsus, which was +a centre of Mithraism, and was clearly famous for his learning, since +Festus twitted him with it. The simple tenets of the carpenter and the +fishermen would take strange involved forms in such a brain as that. His +epistles are presumably older than the gospels, which may, in their +simplicity, represent a protest against his confused theology. + +It was an enjoyable voyage in the little _Paloona_, and rested me after +the whirlwind campaign of New Zealand. In large liners one loses in +romance what one gains in comfort. On a small ship one feels nearer to +Nature, to the water and even to the stars. On clear nights we had +magnificent displays of the Southern heaven. I profited by the +astronomical knowledge of Mr. Smythe. Here first I was introduced to +Alpha Centauri, which is the nearest fixed star, and, therefore, the +cobber to the sun. It is true that it is distant 3-1/2 years of light +travel, and light travels at about 182,000 miles a second, but when one +considers that it takes centuries for average starlight to reach us, we +may consider Alpha as snuggling close up to us for companionship in the +lonely wastes of space. The diamond belt of Orion looks homely enough +with the bright solitaire Sirius sparkling beside it, but there are the +Magellanic clouds, the scattered wisps torn from the Milky Way, and +there is the strange black space called the Coalsack, where one seems to +look right past all created things into a bottomless void. What would +not Galileo and all the old untravelled astronomers have given to have +one glimpse of this wondrous Southern display? + +Captain Doorby, finding that he had time in hand, ran the ship into a +small deserted bay upon the coast, and, after anchoring, ordered out +all the boats for the sake of practice. It was very well done, and yet +what I saw convinced me that it should be a Board of Trade regulation, +if it is not one already, that once, at least, near the beginning of +every long voyage, this should be compulsory. It is only when you come +to launch them that you really realise which of the davits is rusted up, +and which block is tangled, or which boat is without a plug. I was much +impressed by this idea as I watched the difficulties which were +encountered even in that secluded anchorage. + +The end of my journey was uneventful, but my joy at being reunited with +my family was clouded by the news of the death of my mother. She was +eighty-three years of age, and had for some years been almost totally +blind, so that her change was altogether a release, but it was sad to +think that we should never see the kind face and gracious presence again +in its old material form. Denis summed up our feelings when he cried, +"What a reception Grannie must have had!" There was never any one who +had so broad and sympathetic a heart, a world-mother mourning over +everything which was weak or oppressed, and thinking nothing of her own +time and comfort in her efforts to help the sufferers. Even when blind +and infirm she would plot and plan for the benefit of others, thinking +out their needs, and bringing about surprising results by her +intervention. For my own psychic work she had, I fear, neither sympathy +nor understanding, but she had an innate faith and spirituality which +were so natural to her that she could not conceive the needs of others +in that direction. She understands now. + +Whilst in the Blue Mountains I was forced to reconsider my plans on +account of the strike which has paralysed all coastal trade. If I should +be able to reach Tasmania I might be unable to return, and it would, +indeed, be a tragic situation if my family were ready to start for +England in the _Naldera_, and I was unable to join them. I felt, +therefore, that I was not justified in going to Tasmania, even if I were +able, which is very doubtful. It was sad, as it spoiled the absolute +completeness of my tour, but on the other hand I felt sure that I should +find plenty of work to do on the mainland, without taking so serious a +risk. + +It is a terrible thing to see this young country, which needs every hour +of time and every ounce of energy for its speedy development frittering +itself away in these absurd conflicts, which never give any result to +compare with the loss. One feels that in the stern contests of nations +one will arise which has economic discipline, and that none other could +stand against it. If the training of reorganised Germany should take +this shape she will conquer and she will deserve to conquer. It is a +monstrous abuse that Compulsory Arbitration Courts should be +established, as is the case in Australia, and that Unions should either +strike against their decisions, or should anticipate their decisions, as +in the case of these stewards, by forcing a strike. In such a case I +hold that the secretary and every other official of the Union should be +prosecuted and heavily fined, if not imprisoned. It is the only way by +which the community can be saved from a tyranny which is quite as real +as that of any autocrat. What would be said, for example, of a king who +cut off the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand from communication with +the outer world, deranging the whole Christmas arrangements of countless +families who had hoped to reunite? Yet this is what has been done by a +handful of stewards with some trivial grievance. A fireman who objects +to the cooking can hold up a great vessel. There is nothing but chaos in +front of a nation unless it insists upon being master in its own house, +and forbids either employed or employer to do that which is for the +common scathe. The time seems to be coming when Britons, the world over, +will have to fight for liberty against licence just as hard as ever they +fought for her against tyranny. This I say with full sympathy for the +Labour Party, which I have often been tempted to join, but have always +been repelled by their attempt to bully the rest of the State instead of +using those means which would certainly ensure their legitimate success, +even if it took some years to accomplish. There are many anomalies and +injustices, and it is only a people's party which can set them right. +Hereditary honours are an injustice, lands owned by feudal or royal gift +are an injustice, increased private wealth through the growth of towns +is an injustice, coal royalties are an injustice, the expense of the law +is a glaring injustice, the support of any single religion by the State +is an injustice, our divorce laws are an injustice--with such a list a +real honest Labour Party would be a sure winner if it could persuade us +all that it would not commit injustices itself, and bolster up labour +artificially at the expense of every one else. It is not organised +labour which moves me, for it can take care of itself, but it is the +indigent governesses with thirty pounds a year, the broken people, the +people with tiny pensions, the struggling widows with children--when I +think of all these and then of the man who owns a county I feel that +there is something deeply, deeply wrong which nothing but some great +strong new force can set right. + +One finds in the Blue Mountains that opportunity of getting alone with +real Nature, which is so healing and soothing a thing. The wild scrub +flows up the hillsides to the very grounds of the hotels, and in a very +few minutes one may find oneself in the wilderness of ferns and gum +trees unchanged from immemorial ages. It is a very real danger to the +young or to those who have no sense of direction, for many people have +wandered off and never come back alive--in fact, there is a specially +enrolled body of searchers who hunt for the missing visitor. I have +never in all my travels seen anything more spacious and wonderful than +the view from the different sandstone bluffs, looking down into the huge +gullies beneath, a thousand feet deep, where the great gum trees look +like rows of cabbages. I suppose that in water lies the force which, in +the course of ages, has worn down the soft, sandy rock and formed these +colossal clefts, but the effects are so enormous that one is inclined to +think some great earth convulsion must also have been concerned in their +production. Some of the cliffs have a sheer drop of over one thousand +feet, which is said to be unequalled in the world. + +These mountains are so precipitous and tortuous, presenting such a maze +to the explorer, that for many years they were a formidable barrier to +the extension of the young Colony. There were only about forty miles of +arable land from the coast to the great Hawkesbury River, which winds +round the base of the mountains. Then came this rocky labyrinth. At +last, in 1812, four brave and persevering men--Blaxland, Evans, +Wentworth and Lawson--took the matter in hand, and after many +adventures, blazed a trail across, by which all the splendid hinterland +was opened up, including the gold fields, which found their centre in +the new town of Bathurst. When one reflects that all the gold had to be +brought across this wilderness, with unexplored woodlands fringing the +road, it is no wonder that a race of bushrangers sprang into existence, +and the marvel is that the police should ever have been able to hunt +them down. So fresh is all this very vital history in the development of +a nation, that one can still see upon the trees the marks of the +explorers' axes, as they endeavoured to find a straight trail among the +countless winding gullies. At Mount York, the highest view-point, a +monument has been erected to them, at the place from which they got the +first glimpse of the promised land beyond. + +We had been told that in the tropical weather now prevailing, it was +quite vain for us to go to Queensland, for no one would come to listen +to lectures. My own belief was, however, that this subject has stirred +people very deeply, and that they will suffer any inconvenience to learn +about it. Mr. Smythe was of opinion, at first, that my audiences were +drawn from those who came from curiosity because they had read my +writings, but when he found that the second and the third meetings were +as full as the first, he was forced to admit that the credit of success +lay with the matter rather than with the man. In any case I reflected +that my presence in Brisbane would certainly bring about the usual Press +controversy, with a free ventilation of the subject, so we determined to +go. Mr. Smythe, for once, did not accompany us, but the very capable +lady who assists him, Miss Sternberg, looked after all arrangements. + +It was a very wearisome train journey of twenty-eight hours; tropically +hot, rather dusty, with a change in the middle, and the usual stuffiness +of a sleeper, which was superior to the ordinary American one, but below +the British standard. How the Americans, with their nice sense of +decency, can stand the awful accommodation their railway companies give +them, or at any rate, used to give them, is incomprehensible, but public +opinion in all matters asserts itself far less directly in America than +in Britain. Australia is half-way between, and, certainly, I have seen +abuses there in the management of trains, posts, telegrams and +telephones, which would have evoked loud protests at home. I think that +there is more initiative at home. For example, when the railway strike +threatened to throttle the country, the public rose to the occasion and +improvised methods which met the difficulty. I have not heard of +anything of the kind in the numerous strikes with which this community +is harassed. Any individual action arouses attention. I remember the +amusement of the Hon. Agar Wynne when, on arriving late at Melbourne, in +the absence of porters, I got a trolley, placed my own luggage on it, +and wheeled it to a cab. Yet we thought nothing of that when labour was +short in London. + +The country north of Sydney is exactly like the Blue Mountains, on a +lesser scale--riven ranges of sandstone covered with gum trees. I cannot +understand those who say there is nothing worth seeing in Australia, for +I know no big city which has glorious scenery so near it as Sydney. +After crossing the Queensland border, one comes to the Darling Downs, +unsurpassed for cattle and wheat. Our first impressions of the new State +were that it was the most naturally rich of any Australian Colony, and +the longer we were in it, the more did we realise that this was indeed +so. It is so enormous, however, that it is certain, sooner or later, to +be divided into a South, Middle, and North, each of which will be a +large and flourishing community. We observed from the railway all sorts +of new vegetable life, and I was especially interested to notice that +our English Yellow Mullein was lining the track, making its way +gradually up country. + +Even Sydney did not provide a warmer and more personal welcome than that +which we both received when we at last reached Brisbane. At Toowoomba, +and other stations on the way, small deputations of Spiritualists had +met the train, but at Brisbane the platform was crowded. My wife was +covered with flowers, and we were soon made to realise that we had been +misinformed in the south, when we were told that the movement was +confined to a small circle. + +We were tired, but my wife rose splendidly to the occasion. The local +paper says: "Carefully concealing all feelings of fatigue and tiredness +after the long and wearisome train journey from Sydney, Lady Doyle +charmed the large gathering of Spiritualists assembled at the Central +Railway Station on Saturday night, to meet her and her husband. In +vivacious fashion, Lady Doyle responded to the many enthusiastic +greetings, and she was obviously delighted with the floral gifts +presented to her on her arrival. To a press representative, Lady Doyle +expressed her admiration of the Australian scenery, and she referred +enthusiastically to the Darling Downs district and to the Toowoomba +Range. During her husband's absence in New Zealand, Lady Doyle and her +children spent a holiday in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), and +were delighted with the innumerable gorgeous beauty spots there." + +After a short experience, when we were far from comfortable, we found +our way to the Bellevue Hotel, where a kindly old Irish proprietress, +Mrs. Finegan, gave us greater attention and luxury than we had found +anywhere up to then on the Australian continent. + +The usual press discussion was in full swing. The more bigoted clergy in +Brisbane, as elsewhere, were very vituperative, but so unreasonable and +behind their own congregations in knowledge and intelligence, that they +must have alienated many who heard them. Father Lane, for example, +preaching in the cathedral, declared that the whole subject was "an +abomination to the Lord." He does not seem to have asked himself why the +Lord gave us these powers if they are an abomination. He also declared +that we denied our moral responsibility to God in this life, a +responsibility which must have weighed rather lightly upon Father Lane +when he made so false a statement. The Rev. L. H. Jaggers, not to be +outdone in absurdity by Father Lane, described all our fellow-mortals of +India, China and Japan as "demoniacal races." Dr. Cosh put forward the +Presbyterian sentiment that I was Anti-Christ, and a serious menace to +the spiritual life of Australia. Really, when I see the want of all +truth and charity shown by these gentlemen, it does begin to convince me +of the reality of diabolical interference in the affairs of mankind, for +I cannot understand why, otherwise, such efforts should be made to +obscure, by falsehood and abuse, the great revelation and comfort which +God has sent us. The opposition culminated in an open letter from Dr. +Cosh in the _Mail_, demanding that I should define my exact views as to +the Trinity, the Atonement, and other such mysteries. I answered by +pointing out that all the religious troubles of the past had come from +the attempt to give exact definitions of things which were entirely +beyond the human power of thought, and that I refused to be led along so +dangerous a path. One Baptist clergyman, named Rowe, had the courage to +say that he was on my side, but with that exception I fear that I had a +solid phalanx against me. + +On the other hand, the general public were amazingly friendly. It was +the more wonderful as it was tropical weather, even for Brisbane. In +that awful heat the great theatre could not hold the people, and they +stood in the upper galleries, packed tightly, for an hour and a half +without a movement or a murmur. It was a really wonderful sight. Twice +the house was packed this way, so (as the Tasmanian venture was now +hopeless, owing to the shipping strike) I determined to remain in our +very comfortable quarters at the Bellevue Hotel, and give one more +lecture, covering fresh ground. The subject opens up so that I am sure I +could lecture for a week without repeating myself. On this occasion the +house was crowded once more. The theatrical manager said, "Well, if it +was comic opera in the season, it could not have succeeded better!" I +was rather exhausted at the end, for I spoke, as usual, with no +chairman, and gave them a full ninety minutes, but it was nearing the +end of my work, and the prospect of the quiet time ahead of us helped +me on. + +I met a kinsman, Dr. A. A. Doyle, who is a distinguished skin +specialist, in Brisbane. He knew little of psychic matters, but he had +met with a remarkable experience. His son, a splendid young fellow, died +at the front. At that moment his father woke to find the young soldier +stooping over him, his face quite close. He at once woke his wife and +told her that their son, he feared, was dead. But here comes a fine +point. He said to the wife, "Eric has had a return of the acne of the +face, for which I treated him years ago. I saw the spots." The next post +brought a letter, written before Eric's death, asking that some special +ointment should be sent, as his acne had returned. This is a very +instructive case, as showing that even an abnormal thing is reproduced +at first upon the etheric body. But what has a materialist to say to the +whole story? He can only evade it, or fall back upon his usual theory, +that every one who reports such occurrences is either a fool or a liar. + +We had a pleasant Sunday among the birds of Queensland. Mr. Chisholm, an +enthusiastic bird-lover, took us round to see two very large aviaries, +since the haunt of the wild birds was beyond our reach. Birds in +captivity have always saddened me, but here I found them housed in such +great structures, with every comfort included, and every natural enemy +excluded, that really one could not pity them. One golden pheasant +amused us, for he is a very conceited bird when all is well with him, +and likes to occupy the very centre of the stage, with the spot light +upon him, and a chorus of drab hens admiring him from the rear. We had +caught him, however, when he was moulting, and he was so conscious of +his bedraggled glories that he dodged about behind a barrel, and +scuttled under cover every time we tried to put him out. A fearful thing +happened one day, for a careless maid left the door ajar, and in the +morning seventy of the inmates were gone. It must have been a cruel blow +to Mr. Baldwin, who is devoted to his collection. However, he very +wisely left the door open, after securing the remaining birds, and no +less than thirty-four of the refugees returned. The fate of the others +was probably tragic, for they were far from the mountains which are +their home. + +Mr. Farmer Whyte, the very progressive editor of the _Daily Mail_, who +is miles ahead of most journalists in psychic knowledge, took us for an +interesting drive through the dense woods of One Tree Hill. Here we were +courteously met by two of the original owners, one of them an iguana, a +great, heavy lizard, which bolted up a tree, and the other a kangaroo, +who stood among the brushwood, his ears rotating with emotion, while he +gazed upon our halted car. From the summit of the hill one has a +wonderful view of the ranges stretching away to the horizon in all +directions, while at one's feet lies the very wide spread city. As +nearly every dwelling house is a bungalow, with its own little ground, +the Australian cities take up great space, which is nullified by their +very excellent tram services. A beautiful river, the Brisbane, rather +wider than the Thames, winds through the town, and has sufficient depth +to allow ocean steamers to come within cab-drive of the hotels. + +About this time I had the usual experience which every visitor to the +States or to the Dominions is liable to, in that his own utterances in +his letters home get into print, and boomerang back upon him. My own +feelings, both to the Australian people and their country, have been so +uniformly whole-hearted that I should have thought no mischief could be +made, but at the same time, I have always written freely that which I +was prepared to stand by. In this case, the extract, from a private +letter, removed from all modifying context, came through as follows: + + "Sir Conan Doyle, quoted in the _International Psychic Gazette_, in + referring to his 'ups and downs' in Australia, says: 'Amid the + "downs" is the Press boycott, caused partly by ignorance and want + of proportion, partly by moral cowardice and fear of finding out + later that they had backed the wrong horse, or had given the wrong + horse fair play. They are very backward, and far behind countries + like Iceland and Denmark in the knowledge of what has been done in + Spiritualism. They are dear folk, these Australians, but, Lord, + they want Spirituality, and dynamiting out of their grooves! The + Presbyterians actually prayed that I might not reach the country. + This is rather near murder, if they thought their rotten prayers + would avail. The result was an excellent voyage, but it is the + spiritual deadness of this place which gets on my nerves.'" + +This was copied into every paper in Australia, but it was soon +recognised that "this place" was not Australia, but Melbourne, from +which the letter was dated. I have already recorded how I was treated by +the leading paper in that city, and my general experience there was +faithfully reflected in my remarks. Therefore, I had nothing to +withdraw. My more extended experience taught me that the general level +of intelligence and of spirituality in the Australasian towns is as high +as in the average towns of Great Britain, though none are so far +advanced as towns like Manchester or Glasgow, nor are there the same +number of professional and educated men who have come forward and given +testimony. The thirst for information was great, however, and that +proved an open mind, which must now lead to a considerable extension of +knowledge within the churches as well as without. + +My remarks had been caused by the action of the _Argus_, but the _Age_, +the other leading Melbourne paper, seemed to think that its honour was +also touched, and had a very severe leading article upon my +delinquencies, and my alleged views, which was, as usual, a wild +travesty of my real ones. It began this article by the assertion that, +apparently, I still thought that Australia was inhabited by the +aborigines, before I ventured to bring forward such theories. Such a +remark, applied to a subject which has won the assent in varying degrees +of every one who has seriously examined it, and which has its foundation +resting upon the labours of some of the greatest minds in the world, did +not help me to recover my respect for the mentality and breadth of view +of the journals of Melbourne. I answered, pointing out that David Syme, +the very distinguished founder of the paper, by no means shared this +contempt to Spiritualism, as is shown by two long letters included in +his published Life. + +This attitude, and that of so many other objectors, is absolutely +unintelligible to me. They must know that this cult is spreading and +that many capable minds have examined and endorsed it. They must know, +also, that the views we proclaim, the continuance of happy life and the +practical abolition of death are, if true, the grandest advance that the +human race has ever made. And yet, so often, instead of saying, "Well, +here is some one who is supposed to know something about the matter. Let +us see if this grand claim can possibly be established by evidence and +argument," they break into insults and revilings as if something +offensive had been laid before them. This attitude can only arise from +the sluggish conservatism of the human brain, which runs easily in +certain well-worn grooves, and is horrified by the idea that something +may come to cause mental exertion and readjustment. + + Illustration: LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF SPIRITUALIST CHURCH AT + BRISBANE. + +I am bound to add that the general public went out of their way to +show that their Press did not represent their views. The following +passage is typical of many: "The criticism which you have so justly +resented is, I am sure, not in keeping with the views of the majority of +the Australian people. In my own small sphere many of my friends have +been stirred deeply by your theories, and the inspiration in some cases +has been so marked that the fact should afford you satisfaction. We are +not all spiritually defunct. Many are quite satisfied that you are +giving your best for humanity, and believe that there is a tremendous +revelation coming to this weary old world." + +The Spiritualists of Brisbane, greatly daring, have planned out a church +which is to cost £10,000, trusting to those who work with us on the +other side to see the enterprise through. The possible fallacy lies in +the chance that those on the other side do not desire to see this +immense movement become a separate sect, but are in favour of the +peaceful penetration of all creeds by our new knowledge. It is on record +that early in the movement Senator Talmadge asked two different spirit +controls, in different States of the Union, what the ultimate goal of +this spiritual outburst might be, and received exactly the same answer +from each, namely, that it was to prove immortality and to unify the +Churches. The first half has been done, so far as survival implies +immortality, and the second may well come to pass, by giving such a +large common platform to each Church that they will learn to disregard +the smaller differences. + +Be this as it may, one could not but admire the faith and energy of Mr. +Reinhold and the others who were determined to have a temple of their +own. I laid the foundation stone at three in the afternoon under so +tropical a sun that I felt as if the ceremony was going to have its +immemorial accompaniment of a human sacrifice and even of a whole-burned +offering. The crowd made matters worse, but a friendly bystander with an +umbrella saved me from heat apoplexy. I felt the occasion was a solemn +one, for it was certainly the first Spiritual Church in the whole of +Queensland, and I doubt if we have many anywhere in Australia, for among +our apostolic gifts poverty is conspicuous. It has always amazed me how +Theosophists and Christian Scientists get their fine halls and +libraries, while we, with our zeal and our knowledge, have some bare +schoolroom or worse as our only meeting place. It reflects little credit +upon the rich people who accept the comforts we bring, but share none of +the burdens we bear. There is a kink in their souls. + +I spoke at some length, and the people listened with patience in spite +of the great heat. It was an occasion when I could, with propriety, lay +emphasis upon the restraint and charity with which such a church should +be run. The Brisbane paper reports me as follows: "I would emphasise +three things. Mind your own business; go on quietly in your own way; you +know the truth, and do not need to quarrel with other people. There are +many roads to salvation. The second point I would urge is that you +should live up to your knowledge. We know for certain that we live on +after death, that everything we do in this world influences what comes +after; therefore, we can afford to be unselfish and friendly to other +religions. Some Spiritualists run down the Bible, whereas it is from +cover to cover a spiritual book. I would like to see the Bible read in +every Spiritualistic Church with particular attention paid to the +passages dealing with occultism. The third point I would emphasise is +that you should have nothing to do with fortune-telling or anything of +that kind. All fortune-telling is really a feeling out in the dark. If +good things are going to happen to you be content to wait for them, and +if evil is to come nothing is to be gained by attempting to anticipate +it. My sympathies are with the police in their attitude to +fortune-tellers, whose black magic is far removed from the services of +our mediums in striving to bring comfort to those whose loved ones have +gone before. If these three things are lived up to, this church will be +a source of great brightness and happiness." + +Our work was pleasantly broken by an invitation to lunch with Sir +Matthew Nathan, at Government House. Sir Matthew impresses one as a man +of character, and as he is a financial authority he is in a position to +help by his advice in restoring the credit of Queensland. The matter in +dispute, which has been called repudiation, does not, as it seems to me, +deserve so harsh a term, as it is one of those cases where there are two +sides to the question, so equally balanced that it is difficult for an +outsider to pronounce a judgment. On the one hand the great squatters +who hold millions of acres in the State had received the land on +considerable leases which charged them with a very low rent--almost a +nominal one--on condition of their taking up and developing the country. +On the other hand, the Government say these leases were granted under +very different circumstances, the lessees have already done very well +out of them, the war has made it imperative that the State raise funds, +and the assets upon which the funds can be raised are all in the hands +of these lessees, who should consent to a revision of their agreements. +So stands the quarrel, so far as I could understand it, and the State +has actually imposed the increased rates. Hence the cry that they have +repudiated their own contract. The result of the squatters' grievance +was that Mr. Theodore, the Premier, was unable to raise money in the +London market, and returned home with the alternative of getting a +voluntary loan in the Colony, or of raising a compulsory loan from those +who had the money. The latter has an ugly sound, and yet the need is +great, and if some may be compelled to serve with their bodies I do not +see why some may not also be compelled to serve with their purses. The +assets of the Colony compare very favourably, I believe, with others, +for while these others have sold their lands, the Government of +Queensland has still the ownership of the main tracts of the gloriously +fertile country. Therefore, with an issue at 6-1/2 per cent., without +tax, one would think that they should have no difficulty in getting any +reasonable sum. I was cinemaed in the act of applying for a small share +in the issue, but I think the advertisement would have been of more +value to the loan, had they captured some one of greater financial +stability. + +The more one examines this alleged "repudiation" the less reason appears +in the charge, and as it has assuredly injured Queensland's credit, it +is well that an impartial traveller should touch upon it. The squatters +are the richer folk and in a position to influence the public opinion of +the world, and in their anxiety to exploit their own grievance they seem +to have had little regard for the reputation of their country. It is +like a man burning down his house in the hope of roasting some other +inmate of whom he disapproves. A conservative paper (the _Producer's +Review_, January 10th, 1921), says: "No living man can say how much +Queensland has been damaged by the foolish partisan statements that have +been uttered and published." The article proceeds to show in very +convincing style, with chapter and verse, that the Government has always +been well within its rights, and that a Conservative Government on a +previous occasion did the same thing, framing a Bill on identical lines. + +On January 12th my kinsman, Dr. Doyle, with his charming wife, took us +out into the bush for a billy tea--that is, to drink tea which is +prepared as the bushmen prepare it in their tin cans. It was certainly +excellent, and we enjoyed the drive and the whole experience, though +uninvited guests of the mosquito tribe made things rather lively for +us. I prayed that my face would be spared, as I did not wish to turn up +at my lecture as if I had been having a round with Dr. Cosh, and I react +in a most whole-hearted way to any attentions from an insect. The result +was certainly remarkable, be it coincidence or not, for though my hands +were like boxing-gloves, and my neck all swollen, there was not a mark +upon my face. I fancy that the hardened inhabitants hardly realise what +new chums endure after they are bitten by these pests. It means to me +not only disfigurement, but often a sleepless night. My wife and the +children seem to escape more lightly. I found many objects of interest +in the bush--among others a spider's web so strong that full-sized +dragon flies were enmeshed in it. I could not see the creature itself, +but it must have been as big as a tarantula. Our host was a large +landowner as well as a specialist, and he talked seriously of leaving +the country, so embittered was he by the land-policy of the Government. +At the same time, the fact that he could sell his estate at a fair price +seemed to imply that others took a less grave view of the situation. +Many of the richer classes think that Labour is adopting a policy of +deliberate petty irritation in order to drive them out of the country, +but perhaps they are over-sensitive. + +So full was our life in Brisbane that there was hardly a day that we had +not some memorable experience, even when I had to lecture in the +evening. Often we were going fourteen and fifteen hours a day, and a +tropical day at that. On January 14th we were taken to see the largest +bee-farm in Australia, run by Mr. H. L. Jones. Ever since I consigned +Mr. Sherlock Holmes to a bee farm for his old age, I have been supposed +to know something of the subject, but really I am so ignorant that when +a woman wrote to me and said she would be a suitable housekeeper to the +retired detective because she could "segregate the queen," I did not +know what she meant. On this occasion I saw the operation and many other +wonderful things which make me appreciate Maeterlinck's prose-poem upon +the subject. There is little poetry about Mr. Jones however, and he is +severely practical. He has numbers of little boxes with a store of +bee-food compressed into one end of them. Into each he thrusts a queen +with eight attendants to look after her. The food is enough to last two +months, so he simply puts on a postage stamp and sends it off to any one +in California or South Africa who is starting an apiary. Several hives +were opened for our inspection with the precaution of blowing in some +smoke to pacify the bees. We were told that this sudden inrush of smoke +gives the bees the idea that some great cataclysm has occurred, and +their first action is to lay in a store of honey, each of them, as a man +might seize provisions in an earthquake so as to be ready for whatever +the future might bring. He showed us that the queen, fed with some +special food by the workers, can lay twice her own weight of eggs in a +day, and that if we could find something similar for hens we could hope +for an unbroken stream of eggs. Clever as the bee is it is clearly an +instinctive hereditary cleverness, for man has been able to make many +improvements in its methods, making artificial comb which is better than +the original, in that it has cells for more workers and fewer drones. +Altogether it was a wonderful demonstration, which could be viewed with +comfort under a veil with one's hands in one's pockets, for though we +were assured they would not sting if they knew we would not hurt them, a +misunderstanding was possible. One lady spectator seemed to have a +sudden ambition to break the standing jump record, and we found that she +had received two stings, but Mr. Jones and his assistants covered their +hands with the creatures and were quite immune. A half-wild wallaby +appeared during our visit, and after some coyness yielded to the +fascination which my wife exercises over all animals, and fed out of her +hand. We were assured that this had never before occurred in the case of +any visitor. + +We found in Brisbane, as in every other town, that the question of +domestic service, the most important of all questions to a householder, +was very acute. Ladies who occupied leading positions in the town +assured us that it was impossible to keep maids, and that they were +compelled now to give it up in despair, and to do all their own house +work with such casual daily assistance as they could get. A pound a week +is a common wage for very inefficient service. It is a serious matter +and no solution is in sight. English maids are, I am sorry to say, +looked upon as the worst of all, for to all the other faults they add +constant criticism of their employers, whom they pronounce to be "no +ladies" because they are forced to do many things which are not done at +home. Inefficiency plus snobbishness is a dreadful mixture. Altogether +the lot of the Australian lady is not an easy one, and we admired the +brave spirit with which they rose above their troubles. + +This servant question bears very directly upon the Imperial puzzle of +the northern territory. A white man may live and even work there, but a +white woman cannot possibly run a household unless domestic labour is +plentiful. In that climate it simply means absolute breakdown in a year. +Therefore it is a mad policy which at present excludes so rigorously the +Chinese, Indians or others who alone can make white households possible. +White labour assumes a dog in the manger policy, for it will not, or +cannot, do the work itself, and yet it shuts out those who could do it. +It is an impossible position and must be changed. How severe and +unreasonable are the coloured immigrant laws is shown by the fact that +the experienced and popular Commander of the _Naldera_, Captain +Lewellin, was fined at Sydney a large sum of money because three Goa +Indians deserted from his ship. There is a great demand for Indian camel +drivers in the north, and this no doubt was the reason for the +desertion, but what a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the law which comes +between the demand and the supply, besides punishing an innocent victim. + +As usual a large number of psychic confidences reached us, some of +which were very interesting. One lady is a clairaudient, and on the +occasion of her mother falling ill she heard the words "Wednesday--the +fifteenth." Death seemed a matter of hours, and the date far distant, +but the patient, to the surprise of the doctors, still lingered. Then +came the audible message "She will tell you where she is going." The +mother had lain for two days helpless and comatose. Suddenly she opened +her eyes and said in a clear strong voice, "I have seen the mansions in +my father's house. My husband and children await me there. I could not +have imagined anything so exquisitely lovely." Then she breathed her +last, the date being the 15th. + +We were entertained to dinner on the last evening by the Hon. John +Fihilly, acting Premier of the Colony, and his wife. He is an Irish +labour leader with a remarkable resemblance to Dan O'Connell in his +younger days. I was pleased to see that the toast of the King was given +though it was not called for at a private dinner. Fihilly is a member of +the Government, and I tackled him upon the question of British emigrants +being enticed out by specious promises on the part of Colonial Agents in +London, only to find that no work awaited them. Some deplorable cases +had come within my own observation, one, an old Lancashire Fusilier, +having walked the streets for six months. He assured me that the +arrangements were now in perfect order, and that emigrants were held +back in the old country until they could be sure that there was a place +for them. There are so many out of work in Australia that one feels some +sympathy with those labour men who are against fresh arrivals. + +And there lies the great problem which we have not, with all our +experience, managed to master. On the one side illimitable land calling +for work. On the other innumerable workers calling for land. And yet the +two cannot be joined. I remember how it jarred me when I saw Edmonton, +in Western Canada, filled with out-of-workers while the great land lay +uninhabited. The same strange paradox meets one here. It is just the +connecting link that is missing, and that link lies in wise prevision. +The helpless newcomer can do nothing if he and his family are dumped +down upon a hundred acres of gum trees. Put yourself in their position. +How can they hope with their feeble hands to clear the ground? All this +early work must be done for them by the State, the owner repaying after +he has made good. Let the emigrant move straight on to a cleared farm, +with a shack-house already prepared, and clear instructions as to the +best crops, and how to get them. Then it seems to me that emigration +would bring no want of employment in its train. But the State must blaze +the trail and the public follow after. Such arrangements may even now +exist, but if so they need expansion and improvement, for they do not +seem to work. + +Before leaving Brisbane my attention was drawn to the fact that the +State photographer, when he took the scene of the opening of the loan, +had produced to all appearance a psychic effect. The Brisbane papers +recorded it as follows: -- + +"'It is a remarkable result, and I cannot offer any opinion as to what +caused it. It is absolutely mystifying.' Such was the declaration made +yesterday by the Government photographer, Mr. W. Mobsby, in regard to +the unique effect associated with a photograph he took on Thursday last +of Sir A. Conan Doyle. Mr. Mobsby, who has been connected with +photography since boyhood, explained that he was instructed to take an +official photograph of the function at which Sir A. Conan Doyle handed +over his subscription to the State Loan organiser. When he arrived, the +entrance to the building was thronged by a large crowd, and he had to +mount a stepladder, which was being used by the _Daily Mail_ +photographer, in order to get a good view of the proceedings. Mr. Mobsby +took only one picture, just at the moment Sir A. Conan Doyle was +mounting the steps at the Government Tourist Bureau to meet the Acting +Premier, Mr. J. Fihilly. Mr. Mobsby developed the film himself, and was +amazed to find that while all the other figures in the picture were +distinct the form of Sir A. Conan Doyle appeared enveloped in mist and +could only be dimly seen. The photograph was taken on an ordinary film +with a No. 3a Kodak, and careful examination does not in any way +indicate the cause of the sensational result." I have had so many +personal proofs of the intervention of supernormal agencies during +the time that I have been engaged upon this task that I am prepared to +accept the appearance of this aura as being an assurance of the presence +of those great forces for whom I act as a humble interpreter. At the +same time, the sceptic is very welcome to explain it as a flawed film +and a coincidence. + + Illustration: CURIOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECT REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT. + Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane, "Absolutely + mystifying" is his description. + +We returned from Brisbane to Sydney in the Orient Liner "Orsova," which +is a delightful alternative to the stuffy train. The sea has always been +a nursing mother to me, and I suppose I have spent a clear two years of +my life upon the waves. We had a restful Sunday aboard the boat, +disturbed only by the Sunday service, which left its usual effect upon +my mind. The Psalms were set to some unhappy tune, very different from +the grand Gregorian rhythm, so that with its sudden rise to a higher +level it sounded more like the neighing of horses than the singing of +mortals. The words must surely offend anyone who considers what it is +that he is saying--a mixture of most unmanly wailing and spiteful +threats. How such literature has been perpetuated three thousand years, +and how it can ever have been sacred, is very strange. Altogether from +first to last there was nothing, save only the Lord's Prayer, which +could have any spiritual effect. These old observances are like an iron +ball tied to the leg of humanity, for ever hampering spiritual progress. +If now, after the warning of the great war, we have not the mental +energy and the moral courage to get back to realities, we shall deserve +what is coming to us. + +On January 17th we were back, tired but contented, in the Medlow Bath +Hotel in the heart of the Blue Mountains--an establishment which I can +heartily recommend to any who desire a change from the summer heats of +Sydney. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + Medlow Bath.--Jenolan Caves.--Giant skeleton.--Mrs. Foster Turner's + mediumship.--A wonderful prophecy.--Final results.--Third sitting + with Bailey.--Failure of State Control.--Retrospection.--Melbourne + presentation.--Crooks.--Lecture at Perth.--West + Australia.--Rabbits, sparrows and sharks. + + +We recuperated after our Brisbane tour by spending the next week at +Medlow Bath, that little earthly paradise, which is the most restful +spot we have found in our wanderings. It was built originally by Mr. +Mark Foy, a successful draper of Sydney, and he is certainly a man of +taste, for he has adorned it with a collection of prints and of +paintings--hundreds of each--which would attract attention in any city, +but which on a mountain top amid the wildest scenery give one the idea +of an Arabian Nights palace. There was a passage some hundreds of yards +long, which one has to traverse on the way to each meal, and there was a +certain series of French prints, representing events of Byzantine +history, which I found it difficult to pass, so that I was often a late +comer. A very fair library is among the other attractions of this +remarkable place. + +Before leaving we spent one long day at the famous Jenolan Caves, which +are distant about forty-five miles. As the said miles are very +up-and-down, and as the cave exploration involves several hours of +climbing, it makes a fairly hard day's work. We started all seven in a +motor, as depicted by the wayside photographers, but Baby got sick and +had to be left with Jakeman at the half-way house, where we picked her +up, quite recovered, on our return. It was as well, for the walk would +have been quite beyond her, and yet having once started there is no +return, so we should have ended by carrying her through all the +subterranean labyrinths. The road is a remarkably good one, and +represents a considerable engineering feat. It passes at last through an +enormous archway of rock which marks the entrance to the cave +formations. These caves are hollowed out of what was once a coral reef +in a tropical sea, but is now sixty miles inland with a mountain upon +the top of it--such changes this old world has seen. If the world were +formed only that man might play his drama upon it, then mankind must be +in the very earliest days of his history, for who would build so +elaborate a stage if the play were to be so short and insignificant? + + Illustration: OUR PARTY EN ROUTE TO THE JENOLAN CAVES, JANUARY + 20TH, 1921, IN FRONT OF OLD COURT HOUSE IN WHICH BUSHRANGERS WERE + TRIED. + +The caves are truly prodigious. They were discovered first in the +pursuit of some poor devil of a bushranger who must have been hard put +to it before he took up his residence in this damp and dreary retreat. A +brave man, Wilson, did most of the actual exploring, lowering himself by +a thin rope into noisome abysses of unknown depth and charting out +the whole of this devil's warren. It is so vast that many weeks would be +needed to go through it, and it is usual at one visit to take only a +single sample. On this occasion it was the River Cave, so named because +after many wanderings you come on a river about twenty feet across and +forty-five feet deep which has to be navigated for some distance in a +punt. The stalactite effects, though very wonderful, are not, I think, +superior to those which I have seen in Derbyshire, and the caves have +none of that historical glamour which is needed in order to link some +large natural object to our own comprehension. I can remember in +Derbyshire how my imagination and sympathy were stirred by a Roman +lady's brooch which had been found among the rubble. Either a wild beast +or a bandit knew best how it got there. Jenolan has few visible links +with the past, but one of them is a tremendous one. It is the complete, +though fractured, skeleton of a very large man--seven foot four said the +guide, but he may have put it on a little--who was found partly imbedded +in the lime. Many ages ago he seems to have fallen through the roof of +the cavern, and the bones of a wallaby hard by give some indication that +he was hunting at the time, and that his quarry shared his fate. He was +of the Black fellow type, with a low-class cranium. It is remarkable the +proportion of very tall men who are dug up in ancient tombs. Again and +again the bogs of Ireland have yielded skeletons of seven and eight +feet. Some years ago a Scythian chief was dug up on the Southern +Steppes of Russia who was eight feet six. What a figure of a man with +his winged helmet and his battle axe! All over the world one comes upon +these giants of old, and one wonders whether they represented some race, +further back still, who were all gigantic. The Babylonian tradition in +our Bible says: "And there were giants in those days." The big primeval +kangaroo has grown down to the smaller modern one, the wombat, which was +an animal as big as a tapir, is now as small as a badger, the great +saurians have become little lizards, and so it would seem not +unreasonable to suppose that man may have run to great size at some +unexplored period in his evolution. + +We all emerged rather exhausted from the bowels of the earth, dazed with +the endless succession of strange gypsum formations which we had seen, +minarets, thrones, shawls, coronets, some of them so made that one could +imagine that the old kobolds had employed their leisure hours in +fashioning their freakish outlines. It was a memorable drive home in the +evening. Once as a bird flew above my head, the slanting ray of the +declining sun struck it and turned it suddenly to a vivid scarlet and +green. It was the first of many parrots. Once also a couple of kangaroos +bounded across the road, amid wild cries of delight from the children. +Once, too, a long snake writhed across and was caught by one of the +wheels of the motor. Rabbits, I am sorry to say, abounded. If they would +confine themselves to these primeval woods, Australia would be content. + +This was the last of our pleasant Australian excursions, and we left +Medlow Bath refreshed not only by its charming atmosphere, but by +feeling that we had gained new friends. We made our way on January 26th +to Sydney, where all business had to be settled up and preparations made +for our homeward voyage. + +Whilst in Sydney I had an opportunity of examining several phases of +mediumship which will be of interest to the psychic reader. I called +upon Mrs. Foster Turner, who is perhaps the greatest all-round medium +with the highest general level of any sensitive in Australia. I found a +middle-aged lady of commanding and pleasing appearance with a dignified +manner and a beautifully modulated voice, which must be invaluable to +her in platform work. Her gifts are so many that it must have been +difficult for her to know which to cultivate, but she finally settled +upon medical diagnosis, in which she has, I understand, done good work. +Her practice is considerable, and her help is not despised by some of +the leading practitioners. This gift is, as I have explained previously +in the case of Mr. Bloomfield, a form of clairvoyance, and Mrs. Foster +Turner enjoys all the other phases of that wonderful power, including +psychometry, with its application to detective work, the discerning of +spirits, and to a very marked degree the gift of prophecy, which she has +carried upon certain occasions to a length which I have never known +equalled in any reliable record of the past. + +Here is an example for which, I am told, a hundred witnesses could be +cited. At a meeting at the Little Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, +on a Sunday evening of February, 1914, Mrs. Turner addressed the +audience under an inspiration which claimed to be W. T. Stead. He ended +his address by saying that in order to prove that he spoke with a power +beyond mortal, he would, on the next Sunday, give a prophecy as to the +future of the world. + +Next Sunday some 900 people assembled, when Mrs. Turner, once more under +control, spoke as follows. I quote from notes taken at the time. "Now, +although there is not at present a whisper of a great European war at +hand, yet I want to warn you that before this year, 1914, has run its +course, Europe will be deluged in blood. Great Britain, our beloved +nation, will be drawn into the most awful war the world has ever known. +Germany will be the great antagonist, and will draw other nations in her +train. Austria will totter to its ruin. Kings and kingdoms will fall. +Millions of precious lives will be slaughtered, but Britain will finally +triumph and emerge victorious. During the year, also, the Pope of Rome +will pass away, and a bomb will be placed in St. Paul's Church, but will +be discovered in time and removed before damage is done." + +Can any prophecy be more accurate or better authenticated than that? The +only equally exact prophecy on public events which I can recall is when +Emma Hardinge Britten, having been refused permission in 1860 to deliver +a lecture on Spiritualism in the Town Hall of Atlanta, declared that, +before many years had passed, that very Town Hall would be choked up +with the dead and the dying, drawn from the State which persecuted her. +This came literally true in the Civil War a few years later, when +Sherman's army passed that way. + +Mrs. Foster Turner's gift of psychometry is one which will be freely +used by the community when we become more civilised and less ignorant. +As an example of how it works, some years ago a Melbourne man named +Cutler disappeared, and there was a considerable debate as to his fate. +His wife, without giving a name, brought Cutler's boot to Mrs. Turner. +She placed it near her forehead and at once got _en rapport_ with the +missing man. She described how he left his home, how he kissed his wife +good-bye, all the succession of his movements during that morning, and +finally how he had fallen or jumped over a bridge into the river, where +he had been caught under some snag. A search at the place named revealed +the dead body. If this case be compared with that of Mr. Foxhall, +already quoted, one can clearly see that the same law underlies each. +But what an ally for our C.I.D.! + +There was one pleasant incident in connection with my visit to Mrs. +Foster Turner. Upon my asking her whether she had any psychic impression +when she saw me lecturing, she said that I was accompanied on the +platform by a man in spirit life, about 70 years of age, grey-bearded, +with rugged eyebrows. She searched her mind for a name, and then said, +"Alfred Russell Wallace." Doctor Abbott, who was present, confirmed +that she had given that name at the time. It will be remembered that +Mrs. Roberts, of Dunedin, had also given the name of the great +Spiritualistic Scientist as being my coadjutor. There was no possible +connection between Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Roberts. Indeed, the +intervention of the strike had made it almost impossible for them to +communicate, even if they had known each other--which they did not. It +was very helpful to me to think that so great a soul was at my side in +the endeavour to stimulate the attention of the world. + +Two days before our departure we attended the ordinary Sunday service of +the Spiritualists at Stanmore Road, which appeared to be most reverently +and beautifully conducted. It is indeed pleasant to be present at a +religious service which in no way offends one's taste or one's +reason--which cannot always be said, even of Spiritualistic ones. At the +end I was presented with a beautifully illuminated address from the +faithful of Sydney, thanking me for what they were pleased to call "the +splendidly successful mission on behalf of Spiritualism in Sydney." "You +are a specially chosen leader," it went on, "endowed with power to +command attention from obdurate minds. We rejoice that you are ready to +consecrate your life to the spread of our glorious gospel, which +contains more proof of the eternal love of God than any other truth yet +revealed to man." So ran this kindly document. It was decorated with +Australian emblems, and as there was a laughing jackass in the corner, +I was able to raise a smile by suggesting that they had adorned it with +the picture of a type of opponent with whom we were very familiar, the +more so as some choice specimens had been observed in Sydney. There are +some gentle souls in our ranks who refrain from all retort--and morally, +they are no doubt the higher--but personally, when I am moved by the +malevolence and ignorance of our opponents, I cannot help hitting back +at them. It was Mark Twain, I think, who said that, instead of turning +the other cheek, he returned the other's cheek. That is my unregenerate +instinct. + +I was able, for the first time, to give a bird's-eye view of my tour and +its final results. I had, in all, addressed twenty-five meetings, +averaging 2,000 people in each, or 50,000 people in all. I read aloud a +letter from Mr. Carlyle Smythe, who, with his father, had managed the +tours of every lecturer of repute who had come to Australia during the +past thirty years. Mr. Smythe knew what success and failure were, and he +said: "For an equal number of lectures, yours has proved the most +prosperous tour in my experience. No previous tour has won such +consistent success. From the push-off at Adelaide to the great boom in +New Zealand and Brisbane, it has been a great dynamic progression of +enthusiasm. I have known in my career nothing parallel to it." + +The enemies of our cause were longing for my failure, and had, indeed, +in some cases most unscrupulously announced it, so it was necessary +that I should give precise details as to this great success, and to the +proof which it afforded that the public mind was open to the new +revelation. But, after all, the money test was the acid one. I had taken +a party of seven people at a time when all expenses were doubled or +trebled by the unnatural costs of travel and of living, which could not +be made up for by increasing the price of admission. It would seem a +miracle that I could clear this great bill of expenses in a country like +Australia, where the large towns are few. And yet I was able to show +that I had not only done so, after paying large sums in taxation, but +that I actually had seven hundred pounds over. This I divided among +Spiritual funds in Australia, the bulk of it, five hundred pounds, being +devoted to a guarantee of expenses for the next lecturer who should +follow me. It seemed to me that such a lecturer, if well chosen, and +properly guaranteed against loss, might devote a longer time than I, and +visit the smaller towns, from which I had often the most touching +appeals. If he were successful, he need not touch the guarantee fund, +and so it would remain as a perpetual source of active propaganda. Such +was the scheme which I outlined that night, and which was eventually +adopted by the Spiritualists of both Australia and New Zealand. + + Illustration: DENIS WITH A BLACK SNAKE AT MEDLOW BATH. + +On my last evening at Sydney, I attended a third séance with Charles +Bailey, the apport medium. It was not under test conditions, so that it +can claim no strict scientific value, and yet the results are worth +recording. It had struck me that a critic might claim that there was +phosphorescent matter inside the spectacle case, which seemed to be the +only object which Bailey took inside the cabinet, so I insisted on +examining it, but found it quite innocent. The usual inconclusive +shadowy appearance of luminous vapour was evident almost at once, but +never, so far as I could judge, out of reach of the cabinet, which was +simply a blanket drawn across the corner of the room. The Hindoo control +then announced that an apport would be brought, and asked that water be +placed in a tin basin. He (that is, Bailey himself, under alleged +control) then emerged, the lights being half up, carrying the basin over +his head. On putting it down, we all saw two strange little young +tortoises swimming about in it. I say "strange," because I have seen +none like them. They were about the size of a half-crown, and the head, +instead of being close to the shell, was at the end of a thin neck half +as long as the body. There were a dozen Australians present, and they +all said they had never seen any similar ones. The control claimed that +he had just brought them from a tank in Benares. The basin was left on +the table, and while the lights were down, the creatures disappeared. It +is only fair to say that they could have been removed by hand in the +dark, but on examining the table, I was unable to see any of those +sloppings of water which might be expected to follow such an operation. + +Shortly afterwards there was a great crash in the dark, and a number of +coins fell on to the table, and were handed to me by the presiding +control as a parting present. They did not, I fear, help me much with my +hotel bill, for they were fifty-six Turkish copper pennies, taken "from +a well," according to our informant. These two apports were all the +phenomena, and the medium, who has been working very hard of late, +showed every sign of physical collapse at the close. + +Apart from the actual production in the séance room, which may be +disputed, I should like to confront the honest sceptic with the +extraordinary nature of the objects which Bailey produces on these +occasions. They cannot be disputed, for hundreds have handled them, +collections of them have been photographed, there are cases full at the +Stanford University at California, and I am bringing a few samples back +to England with me. If the whole transaction is normal, then where does +he get them? I had an Indian nest. Does anyone import Indian nests? Does +anyone import queer little tortoises with long, thin necks? Is there a +depot for Turkish copper coins in Australia? On the previous sitting, he +got 100 Chinese ones. Those might be explained, since the Chinaman is +not uncommon in Sydney, but surely he exports coins, rather than imports +them. Then what about 100 Babylonian tablets, with legible inscriptions +in Assyrian, some of them cylindrical, with long histories upon them? +Granting that they are Jewish forgeries, how do they get into the +country? Bailey's house was searched once by the police, but nothing was +found. Arabic papers, Chinese schoolbooks, mandarins' buttons, tropical +birds--all sorts of odd things arrive. If they are not genuine, where do +they come from? The matter is ventilated in papers, and no one comes +forward to damn Bailey for ever by proving that he supplied them. It is +no use passing the question by. It calls for an answer. If these +articles can be got in any normal way, then what is the way? If not, +then Bailey has been a most ill-used man, and miracles are of daily +occurrence in Australia. This man should be under the strict, but +patient and sympathetic, control of the greatest scientific observers in +the world, instead of being allowed to wear himself out by promiscuous +séances, given in order to earn a living. Imagine our scientists +expending themselves in the examination of shells, or the classification +of worms, when such a subject as this awaits them. And it cannot await +them long. The man dies, and then where are these experiments? But if +such scientific investigation be made, it must be thorough and +prolonged, directed by those who have real experience of occult matters, +otherwise it will wreck itself upon some theological or other snag, as +did Colonel de Rochas' attempt at Grenoble. + +The longer one remains in Australia, the more one is struck by the +failure of State control. Whenever you test it, in the telephones, the +telegraphs and the post, it stands for inefficiency, with no possibility +that I can see of remedy. The train service is better, but still far +from good. As to the State ventures in steamboat lines and in banking, I +have not enough information to guide me. On the face of it, it is +evident that in each case there is no direct responsible master, and +that there is no real means of enforcing discipline. I have talked to +the heads of large institutions, who have assured me that the conduct of +business is becoming almost impossible. When they send an urgent +telegram, with a letter confirming it, it is no unusual thing for the +letter to arrive first. No complaint produces any redress. The maximum +compensation for sums lost in the post is, I am told, two pounds, so +that the banks, whose registered letters continually disappear, suffer +heavy losses. On the other hand, if they send a messenger with the +money, there is a law by which all bullion carried by train has to be +declared, and has to pay a commission. Yet the public generally, having +no standard of comparison, are so satisfied with the wretched public +services, that there is a continued agitation to extend public control, +and so ruin the well conducted private concerns. The particular instance +which came under my notice was the ferry service of Sydney harbour, +which is admirably and cheaply conducted, and yet there is a clamour +that it also should be dragged into this morass of slovenly +inefficiency. I hope, however, that the tide will soon set the other +way. I fear, from what I have seen of the actual working, that it is +only under exceptional conditions, and with very rigorous and +high-principled direction, that the State control of industries can be +carried out. I cannot see that it is a political question, or that the +democracy has any interest, save to have the public work done as well +and as economically as possible. When the capitalist has a monopoly, and +is exacting an undue return, it is another matter. + +As I look back at Australia my prayers--if deep good wishes form a +prayer--go out to it. Save for that great vacuum upon the north, which a +wise Government would strive hard to fill, I see no other external +danger which can threaten her people. But internally I am shadowed by +the feeling that trouble may be hanging over them, though I am assured +that the cool stability of their race will at last pull them through it. +There are some dangerous factors there which make their position more +precarious than our own, and behind a surface of civilisation there lie +possible forces which might make for disruption. As a people they are +rather less disciplined than a European nation. There is no large middle +or leisured class who would represent moderation. Labour has tried a +Labour Government, and finding that politics will not really alter +economic facts is now seeking some fresh solution. The land is held in +many cases by large proprietors who work great tracts with few hands, so +there is not the conservative element which makes the strength of the +United States with its six million farmers, each with his stake in the +land. Above all, there is no standing military force, and nothing but a +small, though very efficient, police force to stand between organised +government and some wild attempt of the extremists. There are plenty of +soldiers, it is true, and they have been treated with extreme +generosity by the State, but they have been reabsorbed into the civil +population. If they stand for law and order then all is well. On the +other hand, there are the Irish, who are fairly numerous, well organised +and disaffected. There is no Imperial question, so far as I can see, +save with the Irish, but there is this disquieting internal situation +which, with the coming drop of wages, may suddenly become acute. An +Australian should be a sober-minded man for he has his difficulties +before him. We of the old country should never forget that these +difficulties have been partly caused by his splendid participation in +the great war, and so strain every nerve to help, both by an enlightened +sympathy and by such material means as are possible. + +Personally, I have every sympathy with all reasonable and practical +efforts to uphold the standard of living in the working classes. At +present there is an almost universal opinion among thoughtful and +patriotic Australians that the progress of the country is woefully +hampered by the constant strikes, which are declared in defiance of all +agreements and all arbitration courts. The existence of Labour +Governments, or the State control of industries, does not seem to +alleviate these evil conditions, but may rather increase them, for in +some cases such pressure has been put upon the Government that they have +been forced to subsidise the strikers--or at least those sufferers who +have come out in sympathy with the original strikers. Such tactics must +demoralise a country and encourage labour to make claims upon capital +which the latter cannot possibly grant, since in many cases the margin +of profit is so small and precarious that it would be better for the +capitalist to withdraw his money and invest it with no anxieties. It is +clear that the tendency is to destroy the very means by which the worker +earns his bread, and that the position will become intolerable unless +the older, more level-headed men gain control of the unions and keep the +ignorant hot-heads in order. It is the young unmarried men without +responsibilities who create the situations, and it is the married men +with their women and children who suffer. A table of strikes prepared +recently by the _Manchester Guardian_ shows that more hours were lost in +Australia with her five or six million inhabitants than in the United +Kingdom with nearly fifty million. Surely this must make the Labour +leaders reconsider their tactics. As I write the stewards' strike, which +caused such extended misery, has collapsed, the sole result being a loss +of nearly a million pounds in wages to the working classes, and great +inconvenience to the public. The shipowners seem now in no hurry to +resume the services, and if their delay will make the strikers more +thoughtful it is surely to be defended. + +On February 1st we started from Sydney in our good old "Naldera" upon +our homeward voyage, but the work was not yet finished. On reaching +Melbourne, where the ship was delayed two days, we found that a Town +Hall demonstration had been arranged to give us an address from the +Victorian Spiritualists, and wish us farewell. It was very short notice +and there was a tram strike which prevented people from getting about, +so the hall was not more than half full. None the less, we had a fine +chance of getting in touch with our friends, and the proceedings were +very hearty. The inscription was encased in Australian wood with a +silver kangaroo outside and beautiful illuminations within. It ran as +follows: + +"We desire to place on permanent record our intense appreciation of your +zealous and self-sacrificing efforts, and our deep gratitude for the +great help you have given to the cause to which you have consecrated +your life. The over-flowing meetings addressed by you bear evidence of +the unqualified success of your mission, and many thousands bless the +day when you determined to enter this great crusade beneath the Southern +Cross.... In all these sentiments we desire to include your loyal and +most devoted partner, Lady Doyle, whose self-sacrifice equals or exceeds +your own." + +Personally, I have never been conscious of any self-sacrifice, but the +words about my wife were in no way an over-statement. I spoke in reply +for about forty minutes, and gave a synopsis of the state of the faith +in other centres, for each Australian State is curiously self-centred +and realises very little beyond its own borders. It was good for +Melbourne to know that Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and New Zealand were +quite as alive and zealous as themselves. + +At the end of the function I gave an account of the financial results +of my tour and handed over £500 as a guarantee fund for future British +lecturers, and £100 to Mr. Britton Harvey to assist his admirable paper, +_The Harbinger of Light_. I had already expended about £100 upon +spiritual causes, so that my whole balance came to £700, which is all +now invested in the Cause and should bring some good spiritual interest +in time to come. We badly need money in order to be able to lay our case +more fully before the world. + +I have already given the written evidence of Mr. Smythe that my tour was +the most successful ever conducted in his time in Australia. To this I +may add the financial result recorded above. In view of this it is worth +recording that _Life_, a paper entirely under clerical management, said: +"The one thing clear is that Sir Conan Doyle's mission to Australia was +a mournful and complete failure, and it has left him in a very +exasperated state of mind." This is typical of the perverse and +unscrupulous opposition which we have continually to face, which +hesitates at no lie in order to try and discredit the movement. + +One small incident broke the monotony of the voyage between Adelaide and +Fremantle, across the dreaded Bight. + +There have been considerable depredations in the coastal passenger trade +of Australia, and since the State boats were all laid up by the strike +it was to be expected that the crooks would appear upon the big liners. +A band of them came on board the _Naldera_ at Adelaide, but their +methods were crude, and they were up against a discipline and an +organisation against which they were helpless. One ruffian entered a +number of cabins and got away with some booty, but was very gallantly +arrested by Captain Lewellin himself, after a short hand-to-hand +struggle. This fellow was recognised by the detectives at Fremantle and +was pronounced to be an old hand. In the general vigilance and search +for accomplices which followed, another passenger was judged to be +suspicious and he was also carried away by the detectives on a charge of +previous forgery. Altogether the crooks came out very badly in their +encounter with the _Naldera_, whose officers deserve some special +recognition from the Company for the able way in which the matter was +handled. + +Although my formal tour was now over, I had quite determined to speak at +Perth if it were humanly possible, for I could not consider my work as +complete if the capital of one State had been untouched. I therefore +sent the message ahead that I would fit in with any arrangements which +they might make, be it by day or night, but that the ship would only be +in port for a few hours. As matters turned out the _Naldera_ arrived in +the early morning and was announced to sail again at 3 p.m., so that the +hours were awkward. They took the great theatre, however, for 1 p.m., +which alarmed me as I reflected that my audience must either be starving +or else in a state of repletion. Everything went splendidly, however. +The house was full, and I have never had a more delightfully keen set of +people in front of me. Of all my experiences there was none which was +more entirely and completely satisfactory, and I hope that it brought a +very substantial sum into the local spiritual treasury. There was quite +a scene in the street afterwards, and the motor could not start for the +crowds who surrounded it and stretched their kind hands and eager faces +towards us. It was a wonderful last impression to bear away from +Australia. + +It is worth recording that upon a clairvoyante being asked upon this +occasion whether she saw any one beside me on the platform she at once +answered "an elderly man with very tufted eyebrows." This was the marked +characteristic of the face of Russell Wallace. I was told before I left +England that Wallace was my guide. I have already shown that Mrs. +Roberts, of Dunedin, gave me a message direct from him to the same +effect. Mrs. Foster Turner, in Sydney, said she saw him, described him +and gave the name. Three others have described him. Each of these has +been quite independent of the others. I think that the most sceptical +person must admit that the evidence is rather strong. It is naturally +more strong to me since I am personally conscious of his intervention +and assistance. + +Apart from my spiritual mission, I was very sorry that I could not +devote some time to exploring West Australia, which is in some ways the +most interesting, as it is the least developed, of the States in the +Federation. One or two points which I gathered about it are worth +recording, especially its relation to the rabbits and to the sparrows, +the only hostile invaders which it has known. Long may they remain so! + +The battle between the West Australians and the rabbits was historical +and wonderful. After the creatures had become a perfect pest in the East +it was hoped that the great central desert would prevent them from ever +reaching the West. There was no water for a thousand miles. None the +less, the rabbits got across. It was a notable day when the West +Australian outrider, loping from west to east, met the pioneer rabbit +loping from east to west. Then West Australia made a great effort. She +built a rabbit-proof wire screen from north to south for hundreds of +miles from sea to sea, with such thoroughness that the northern end +projected over a rock which fringed deep water. With such thoroughness, +too, did the rabbits reconnoitre this obstacle that their droppings were +seen upon the far side of that very rock. There came another day of doom +when two rabbits were seen on the wrong side of the wire. Two dragons of +the slime would not have alarmed the farmer more. A second line was +built, but this also was, as I understand, carried by the attack, which +is now consolidating, upon the ground it has won. However, the whole +situation has been changed by the discovery elsewhere that the rabbit +can be made a paying proposition, so all may end well in this curious +story. + +A similar fight, with more success, has been made by West Australia +against the sparrow, which has proved an unmitigated nuisance +elsewhere. The birds are slowly advancing down the line of the +Continental Railway and their forward scouts are continually cut off. +Captain White, the distinguished ornithologist, has the matter in hand, +and received, as I am told, a wire a few weeks ago, he being in +Melbourne, to the effect that two sparrows had been observed a thousand +miles west of where they had any rights. He set off, or sent off, +instantly to this way-side desert station in the hope of destroying +them, with what luck I know not. I should be inclined to back the +sparrows. + +This Captain White is a man of energy and brains, whose name comes up +always when one enquires into any question of bird or beast. He has made +a remarkable expedition lately to those lonely Everard Ranges, which lie +some distance to the north of the desolate Nularbor Plain, through which +the Continental Railway passes. It must form one of the most dreadful +wastes in the world, for there are a thousand miles of coast line, +without one single stream emerging. Afforestation may alter all that. In +the Everard Ranges Captain White found untouched savages of the stone +age, who had never seen a white man before, and who treated him with +absolute courtesy and hospitality. They were a fine race physically, +though they lived under such conditions that there was little solid food +save slugs, lizards and the like. One can but pray that the Australian +Government will take steps to save these poor people from the sad fate +which usually follows the contact between the higher and the lower. + +From what I heard, West Australian immigrants are better looked after +than in the other States. I was told in Perth that nine hundred +ex-service men with their families had arrived, and that all had been +fitted into places, permanent or temporary, within a fortnight. This is +not due to Government, but to the exertions of a peculiar local Society, +with the strange title of "The Ugly Men." "Handsome is as handsome +does," and they seem to be great citizens. West Australia calls itself +the Cinderella State, for, although it covers a third of the Continent, +it is isolated from the great centres of population. It has a very +individual life of its own, however, with its gold fields, its shark +fisheries, its pearlers, and the great stock-raising plain in the north. +Among other remarkable achievements is its great water pipe, which +extends for four hundred miles across the desert, and supplies the +pressure for the electric machinery at Kalgurli. + +By a coincidence, the _Narkunda_, which is the sister ship of the +_Naldera_, lay alongside the same quay at Fremantle, and it was an +impressive sight to see these two great shuttles of Empire lying for a +few hours at rest. In their vastness and majesty they made me think of a +daring saying of my mother's, when she exclaimed that if some works of +man, such as an ocean-going steamer, were compared with some works of +God, such as a hill, man could sustain the comparison. It is the divine +spark within us which gives us the creative power, and what may we not +be when that is fully developed! + +The children were fishing for sharks, with a line warranted to hold +eighteen pounds, with the result that Malcolm's bait, lead, and +everything else was carried away. But they were amply repaid by actually +seeing the shark, which played about for some time in the turbid water, +a brown, ugly, varminty creature, with fine lines of speed in its +tapering body. "It was in Adelaide, daddy, not Fremantle," they protest +in chorus, and no doubt they are right. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + Pleasing letters.--Visit to Candy.--Snake and Flying Fox.--Buddha's + shrine.--The Malaya.--Naval digression.--Indian + trader.--Elephanta.--Sea snakes.--Chained to a tombstone.--Berlin's + escape.--Lord Chetwynd.--Lecture in the Red Sea.--Marseilles. + + +It was on Friday, February 11th, that we drew away from the Fremantle +wharf, and started forth upon our long, lonely trek for Colombo--a huge +stretch of sea, in which it is unusual to see a single sail. As night +fell I saw the last twinkling lights of Australia fade away upon our +starboard quarter. Well, my job is done. I have nothing to add, nor have +I said anything which I would wish withdrawn. My furrow gapes across two +young Continents. I feel, deep in my soul, that the seed will fall in +due season, and that the reaping will follow the seed. Only the work +concerns ourselves--the results lie with those whose instruments we are. + +Of the many kindly letters which bade us farewell, and which assured us +that our work was not in vain, none was more eloquent and thoughtful +than that of Mr. Thomas Ryan, a member of the Federal Legislature. "Long +after you leave us your message will linger. This great truth, which we +had long thought of as the plaything of the charlatan and crank, into +this you breathed the breath of life, and, as of old, we were forced to +say, 'We shall think of this again. We shall examine it more fully.' +Give us time--for the present only this, we are sure that this thing was +not done in a corner. Let me say in the few moments I am able to snatch +from an over-crowded life, that we realise throughout the land how deep +and far-reaching were the things of which you spoke to us. We want time, +and even more time, to make them part of ourselves. We are glad you have +come and raised our thoughts from the market-place to the altar." + +Bishop Leadbeater, of Sydney, one of the most venerable and picturesque +figures whom I met in my travels, wrote, "Now that you are leaving our +shores, let me express my conviction that your visit has done great good +in stirring up the thought of the people, and, I hope, in convincing +many of them of the reality of the other life." Among very many other +letters there was none I valued more than one from the Rev. Jasper +Calder, of Auckland. "Rest assured, Sir Arthur, the plough has gone +deep, and the daylight will now reach the soil that has so long been in +the darkness of ignorance. I somehow feel as if this is the beginning of +new things for us all." + +It is a long and weary stretch from Australia to Ceylon, but it was +saved from absolute monotony by the weather, which was unusually +boisterous for so genial a region. Two days before crossing the line we +ran into a north-western monsoon, a rather rare experience, so that the +doldrums became quite a lively place. Even our high decks were wet with +spindrift and the edge of an occasional comber, and some of the cabins +were washed out. A smaller ship would have been taking heavy seas. In +all that great stretch of ocean we never saw a sail or a fish, and very +few birds. The loneliness of the surface of the sea is surely a very +strange fact in nature. One would imagine, if the sea is really so +populous as we imagine, that the surface, which is the only fixed point +in very deep water, would be the gathering ground and trysting place for +all life. Save for the flying fish, there was not a trace in all those +thousands of miles. + +I suppose that on such a voyage one should rest and do nothing, but how +difficult it is to do nothing, and can it be restful to do what is +difficult? To me it is almost impossible. I was helped through a weary +time by many charming companions on board, particularly the Rev. Henry +Howard, reputed to be the best preacher in Australia. Some of his +sermons which I read are, indeed, splendid, depending for their effect +upon real thought and knowledge, without any theological emotion. He is +ignorant of psychic philosophy, though, like so many men who profess +themselves hostile to Spiritualism, he is full of good stories which +conclusively prove the very thing he denies. However, he has reached +full spirituality, which is more important than Spiritualism, and he +must be a great influence for good wherever he goes. The rest he will +learn later, either upon this side, or the other. + +At Colombo I was interested to receive a _Westminster Gazette_, which +contained an article by their special commissioner upon the Yorkshire +fairies. Some correspondent has given the full name of the people +concerned, with their address, which means that their little village +will be crammed with chars-à-banc, and the peace of their life ruined. +It was a rotten thing to do. For the rest, the _Westminster_ inquiries +seem to have confirmed Gardner and me in every particular, and brought +out the further fact that the girls had never before taken a photo in +their life. One of them had, it seems, been for a short time in the +employ of a photographer, but as she was only a child, and her duties +consisted in running on errands, the fact would hardly qualify her, as +_Truth_ suggests, for making faked negatives which could deceive the +greatest experts in London. There may be some loophole in the direction +of thought forms, but otherwise the case is as complete as possible. + +We have just returned from a dream journey to Candy. The old capital is +in the very centre of the island, and seventy-two miles from Colombo, +but, finding that we had one clear night, we all crammed ourselves (my +wife, the children and self) into a motor car, and made for it, while +Major Wood and Jakeman did the same by train. It was a wonderful +experience, a hundred and forty miles of the most lovely coloured +cinema reel that God ever released. I carry away the confused but +beautiful impression of a good broad red-tinted road, winding amid all +shades of green, from the dark foliage of overhanging trees, to the +light stretches of the half-grown rice fields. Tea groves, rubber +plantations, banana gardens, and everywhere the coconut palms, with +their graceful, drooping fronds. Along this great road streamed the +people, and their houses lined the way, so that it was seldom that one +was out of sight of human life. They were of all types and colours, from +the light brown of the real Singalese to the negroid black of the +Tamils, but all shared the love of bright tints, and we were delighted +by the succession of mauves, purples, crimsons, ambers and greens. Water +buffaloes, with the resigned and half-comic air of the London landlady +who has seen better days, looked up at us from their mudholes, and +jackal-like dogs lay thick on the path, hardly moving to let our motor +pass. Once, my lord the elephant came round a corner, with his soft, +easy-going stride, and surveyed us with inscrutable little eyes. It was +the unchanged East, even as it had always been, save for the neat little +police stations and their smart occupants, who represented the gentle, +but very efficient, British Raj. It may have been the merit of that Raj, +or it may have been the inherent virtue of the people, but in all that +journey we were never conscious of an unhappy or of a wicked face. They +were very sensitive, speaking faces, too, and it was not hard to read +the thoughts within. + +As we approached Candy, our road ran through the wonderful Botanical +Gardens, unmatched for beauty in the world, though I still give +Melbourne pride of place for charm. As we sped down one avenue an +elderly keeper in front of us raised his gun and fired into the thick +foliage of a high tree. An instant later something fell heavily to the +ground. A swarm of crows had risen, so that we had imagined it was one +of these, but when we stopped the car a boy came running up with the +victim, which was a great bat, or flying fox, with a two-foot span of +leathery wing. It had the appealing face of a mouse, and two black, +round eyes, as bright as polished shoe buttons. It was wounded, so the +boy struck it hard upon the ground, and held it up once more, the dark +eyes glazed, and the graceful head bubbling blood from either nostril. +"Horrible! horrible!" cried poor Denis, and we all echoed it in our +hearts. This intrusion of tragedy into that paradise of a garden +reminded us of the shadows of life. There is something very intimately +moving in the evil fate of the animals. I have seen a man's hand blown +off in warfare, and have not been conscious of the same haunting horror +which the pains of animals have caused me. + +And here I may give another incident from our Candy excursion. The boys +are wild over snakes, and I, since I sat in the front of the motor, was +implored to keep a look-out. We were passing through a village, where a +large lump of concrete, or stone, was lying by the road. A stick, about +five feet long, was resting against it. As we flew past, I saw, to my +amazement, the top of the stick bend back a little. I shouted to the +driver, and we first halted, and then ran back to the spot. Sure enough, +it was a long, yellow snake, basking in this peculiar position. The +village was alarmed, and peasants came running, while the boys, wildly +excited, tumbled out of the motor. "Kill it!" they cried. "No, no!" +cried the chauffeur. "There is the voice of the Buddhist," I thought, so +I cried, "No! no!" also. The snake, meanwhile, squirmed over the stone, +and we saw it lashing about among the bushes. Perhaps we were wrong to +spare it, for I fear it was full of venom. However, the villagers +remained round the spot, and they had sticks, so perhaps the story was +not ended. + +Candy, the old capital, is indeed a dream city, and we spent a long, +wonderful evening beside the lovely lake, where the lazy tortoises +paddled about, and the fireflies gleamed upon the margin. We visited +also the old Buddhist temple, where, as in all those places, the +atmosphere is ruined by the perpetual demand for small coins. The few +mosques which I have visited were not desecrated in this fashion, and it +seems to be an unenviable peculiarity of the Buddhists, whose +yellow-robed shaven priests have a keen eye for money. Beside the +temple, but in ruins, lay the old palace of the native kings. + +I wish we could have seen the temple under better conditions, for it is +really the chief shrine of the most numerous religion upon earth, +serving the Buddhist as the Kaaba serves the Moslem, or St. Peter's the +Catholic. It is strange how the mind of man drags high things down to +its own wretched level, the priests in each creed being the chief +culprits. Buddha under his boh tree was a beautiful example of sweet, +unselfish benevolence and spirituality. And the upshot, after two +thousand years, is that his followers come to adore a horse's tooth +(proclaimed to be Buddha's, and three inches long), at Candy, and to +crawl up Adam's Peak, in order to worship at a hole in the ground which +is supposed to be his yard-long footstep. It is not more senseless than +some Christian observances, but that does not make it less deplorable. + +I was very anxious to visit one of the buried cities further inland, and +especially to see the ancient Boh tree, which must surely be the doyen +of the whole vegetable kingdom, since it is undoubtedly a slip taken +from Buddha's original Boh tree, transplanted into Ceylon about two +hundred years before Christ. Its history is certain and unbroken. Now, I +understand, it is a very doddering old trunk, with withered limbs which +are supported by crutches, but may yet hang on for some centuries to +come. On the whole, we employed our time very well, but Ceylon will +always remain to each of us as an earthly paradise, and I could imagine +no greater pleasure than to have a clear month to wander over its +beauties. Monsieur Clemenceau was clearly of the same opinion, for he +was doing it very thoroughly whilst we were there. + +From Colombo to Bombay was a dream of blue skies and blue seas. Half +way up the Malabar coast, we saw the old Portuguese settlement of Goa, +glimmering white on a distant hillside. Even more interesting to us was +a squat battleship making its way up the coast. As we came abreast of it +we recognised the _Malaya_, one of that famous little squadron of Evan +Thomas', which staved off the annihilation of Beatty's cruisers upon +that day of doom on the Jutland coast. We gazed upon it with the +reverence that it deserved. We had, in my opinion, a mighty close shave +upon that occasion. If Jellicoe had gambled with the British fleet he +might have won a shattering victory, but surely he was wise to play +safety with such tremendous interests at stake. There is an account of +the action, given by a German officer, at the end of Freeman's book +"With the _Hercules_ to Kiel," which shows clearly that the enemy +desired Jellicoe to close with them, as giving them their only chance +for that torpedo barrage which they had thoroughly practised, and on +which they relied to cripple a number of our vessels. In every form of +foresight and preparation, the brains seem to have been with them--but +that was not the fault of the fighting seamen. Surely an amateur could +have foreseen that, in a night action, a star shell is better than a +searchlight, that a dropping shell at a high trajectory is far more +likely to hit the deck than the side, and that the powder magazine +should be cut off from the turret, as, otherwise, a shell crushing the +one will explode the other. This last error in construction seems to +have been the cause of half our losses, and the _Lion_ herself would +have been a victim, but for the self-sacrifice of brave Major Harvey of +the Marines. All's well that ends well, but it was stout hearts, and not +clear heads, which pulled us through. + +It is all very well to say let bygones be bygones, but we have no +guarantee that the old faults are corrected, and certainly no one has +been censured. It looks as if the younger officers had no means of +bringing their views before those in authority, while the seniors were +so occupied with actual administration that they had no time for +thinking outside their routine. Take the really monstrous fact that, at +the outset of a war of torpedoes and mines, when ships might be expected +to sink like kettles with a hole in them, no least provision had been +made for saving the crew! Boats were discarded before action, nothing +wooden or inflammable was permitted, and the consideration that +life-saving apparatus might be non-inflammable does not seem to have +presented itself. When I wrote to the Press, pointing this out with all +the emphasis of which I was capable--I was ready to face the charge of +hysteria in such a cause--I was gravely rebuked by a leading naval +authority, and cautioned not to meddle with mysteries of which I knew +nothing. None the less, within a week there was a rush order for +swimming collars of india rubber. _Post hoc non propter_, perhaps, but +at least it verified the view of the layman. That was in the days when +not one harbour had been boomed and netted, though surely a shark in a +bathing pool would be innocuous compared to a submarine in an anchorage. +The swimmers could get out, but the ships could not. + +But all this comes of seeing the white _Malaya_, steaming slowly upon +deep blue summer seas, with the olive-green coast of Malabar on the +horizon behind her. + +I had an interesting conversation on psychic matters with Lady Dyer, +whose husband was killed in the war. It has been urged that it is +singular and unnatural that our friends from the other side so seldom +allude to the former occasions on which they have manifested. There is, +I think, force in the objection. Lady Dyer had an excellent case to the +contrary--and, indeed, they are not rare when one makes inquiry. She was +most anxious to clear up some point which was left open between her +husband and herself, and for this purpose consulted three mediums in +London, Mr. Vout Peters, Mrs. Brittain, and another. In each case she +had some success. Finally, she consulted Mrs. Leonard, and her husband, +speaking through Feda, under control, began a long conversation by +saying, "I have already spoken to you through three mediums, two women +and a man." Lady Dyer had not given her name upon any occasion, so there +was no question of passing on information. I may add that the intimate +point at issue was entirely cleared up by the husband, who rejoiced +greatly that he had the chance to do so. + +Bombay is not an interesting place for the casual visitor, and was in a +state of uproar and decoration on account of the visit of the Duke of +Connaught. My wife and I did a little shopping, which gave us a glimpse +of the patient pertinacity of the Oriental. The sum being 150 rupees, I +asked the Indian's leave to pay by cheque, as money was running low. He +consented. When we reached the ship by steam-launch, we found that he, +in some strange way, had got there already, and was squatting with the +goods outside our cabin door. He looked askance at Lloyd's Bank, of +which he had never heard, but none the less he took the cheque under +protest. Next evening he was back at our cabin door, squatting as +before, with a sweat-stained cheque in his hand which, he declared, that +he was unable to cash. This time I paid in English pound notes, but he +looked upon them with considerable suspicion. As our ship was lying a +good three miles from the shore, the poor chap had certainly earned his +money, for his goods, in the first instance, were both good and cheap. + +We have seen the Island of Elephanta, and may the curse of Ernulphus, +which comprises all other curses, be upon that old Portuguese Governor +who desecrated it, and turned his guns upon the wonderful stone +carvings. It reminds me of Abou Simbel in Nubia, and the whole place has +an Egyptian flavour. In a vast hollow in the hill, a series of very +elaborate bas reliefs have been carved, showing Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, +the old Hindoo trinity, with all those strange satellites, the bulls, +the kites, the dwarfs, the elephant-headed giants with which Hindoo +mythology has so grotesquely endowed them. Surely a visitor from some +wiser planet, examining our traces, would judge that the human race, +though sane in all else, was mad the moment that it touched religion, +whether he judged it by such examples as these, or by the wearisome +iteration of expressionless Buddhas, the sacred crocodiles and +hawk-headed gods of Egypt, the monstrosities of Central America, or the +lambs and doves which adorn our own churches. It is only in the +Mohammedan faith that such an observer would find nothing which could +offend, since all mortal symbolism is there forbidden. And yet if these +strange conceptions did indeed help these poor people through their +journey of life--and even now they come from far with their +offerings--then we should morally be as the Portuguese governor, if we +were to say or do that which might leave them prostrate and mutilated in +their minds. It was a pleasant break to our long voyage, and we were +grateful to our commander, who made everything easy for us. He takes the +humane view that a passenger is not merely an article of cargo, to be +conveyed from port to port, but that his recreation should, in reason, +be considered as well. + +Elephanta was a little bit of the old India, but the men who conveyed us +there from the launch to the shore in their ancient dhows were of a far +greater antiquity. These were Kolis, small, dark men, who held the +country before the original Aryan invasion, and may still be plying +their boats when India has become Turanian or Slavonic, or whatever its +next avatar may be. They seem to have the art of commerce well +developed, for they held us up cleverly until they had extracted a rupee +each, counting us over and over with great care and assiduity. + +At Bombay we took over 200 more travellers. + +We had expected that the new-comers, who were mostly Anglo-Indians whose +leave had been long overdue, would show signs of strain and climate, but +we were agreeably surprised to find that they were a remarkably healthy +and alert set of people. This may be due to the fact that it is now the +end of the cold weather. Our new companions included many native +gentlemen, one of whom, the Rajah of Kapurthala, brought with him his +Spanish wife, a regal-looking lady, whose position must be a difficult +one. Hearne and Murrell, the cricketers, old playmates and friends, were +also among the new-comers. All of them seemed perturbed as to the unrest +in India, though some were inclined to think that the worst was past, +and that the situation was well in hand. When we think how splendidly +India helped us in the war, it would indeed be sad if a serious rift +came between us now. One thing I am very sure of, that if Great Britain +should ever be forced to separate from India, it is India, and not +Britain, which will be the chief sufferer. + +We passed over hundreds of miles of absolute calm in the Indian Ocean. +There is a wonderful passage in Frank Bullen's "Sea Idylls," in which +he describes how, after a long-continued tropical calm, all manner of +noxious scum and vague evil shapes come flickering to the surface. +Coleridge has done the same idea, for all time, in "The Ancient +Mariner," when "the very sea did rot." In our case we saw nothing so +dramatic, but the ship passed through one area where there was a great +number of what appeared to be sea-snakes, creatures of various hues, +from two to ten feet long, festooned or slowly writhing some feet below +the surface. I cannot recollect seeing anything of the kind in any +museum. These, and a couple of Arab dhows, furnished our only break in a +thousand miles. Certainly, as an entertainment the ocean needs cutting. + +In the extreme south, like a cloud upon the water, we caught a glimpse +of the Island of Socotra, one of the least visited places upon earth, +though so near to the main line of commerce. What a base for submarines, +should it fall into wrong hands! It has a comic-opera Sultan of its own, +with 15,000 subjects, and a subsidy from the British Government of 200 +dollars a year, which has been increased lately to 360, presumably on +account of the higher cost of living. It is a curious fact that, though +it is a great place of hill and plain, seventy miles by eighteen, there +is only one wild animal known, namely the civet cat. A traveller, Mr. +Jacob, who examined the place, put forward the theory that one of +Alexander the Great's ships was wrecked there, the crew remaining, for +he found certain Greek vestiges, but what they were I have been unable +to find out. + +As we approached Aden, we met the _China_ on her way out. Her +misadventure some years ago at the Island of Perim, has become one of +the legends of the sea. In those days, the discipline aboard P. & O. +ships was less firm than at present, and on the occasion of the birthday +of one of the leading passengers, the officers of the ship had been +invited to the festivity. The result was that, in the middle of dinner, +the ship crashed, no great distance from the lighthouse, and, it is +said, though this is probably an exaggeration, that the revellers were +able to get ashore over the bows without wetting their dress shoes. No +harm was done, save that one unlucky rock projected, like a huge spike, +through the ship's bottom, and it cost the company a good half-million +before they were able to get her afloat and in service once more. +However, there she was, doing her fifteen knots, and looking so saucy +and new that no one would credit such an unsavoury incident in her past. + +Early in February I gave a lantern lecture upon psychic phenomena to +passengers of both classes. The Red Sea has become quite a favourite +stamping ground of mine, but it was much more tolerable now than on that +terrible night in August when I discharged arguments and perspiration to +a sweltering audience. On this occasion it was a wonderful gathering, a +microcosm of the world, with an English peer, an Indian Maharajah, many +native gentlemen, whites of every type from four great countries, and a +fringe of stewards, stewardesses, and nondescripts of all sorts, +including the ship's barber, who is one of the most active men on the +ship in an intellectual sense. All went well, and if they were not +convinced they were deeply interested, which is the first stage. +Somewhere there are great forces which are going to carry on this work, +and I never address an audience without the feeling that among them +there may be some latent Paul or Luther whom my words may call into +activity. + +I heard an anecdote yesterday which is worth recording. We have a +boatswain who is a fine, burly specimen of a British seaman. In one of +his short holidays while in mufti, in Norfolk, he had an argument with a +Norfolk farmer, a stranger to him, who wound up the discussion by +saying: "My lad, what you need is a little travel to broaden your mind." + +The boatswain does his 70,000 miles a year. It reminded me of the doctor +who advised his patient to take a brisk walk every morning before +breakfast, and then found out that he was talking to the village +postman. + +A gentleman connected with the cinema trade told me a curious story +within his own experience. Last year a psychic cinema story was shown in +Australia, and to advertise it a man was hired who would consent to be +chained to a tombstone all night. This was done in Melbourne and Sydney +without the person concerned suffering in any way. It was very different +in Launceston. The man was found to be nearly mad from terror in the +morning, though he was a stout fellow of the dock labourer type. His +story was that in the middle of the night he had heard to his horror the +sound of dripping water approaching him. On looking up he saw an +evil-looking shape with water streaming from him, who stood before him +and abused him a long time, frightening him almost to death. The man was +so shaken that the cinema company had to send him for a voyage. Of +course, it was an unfair test for any one's nerves, and imagination may +have played its part, but it is noticeable that a neighbouring grave +contained a man who had been drowned in the Esk many years before. In +any case, it makes a true and interesting story, whatever the +explanation. + +I have said that there was an English peer on board. This was Lord +Chetwynd, a man who did much towards winning the war. Now that the storm +is over the public knows nothing, and apparently cares little, about the +men who brought the ship of State through in safety. Some day we shall +get a more exact sense of proportion, but it is all out of focus at +present. Lord Chetwynd, in the year 1915, discovered by his own personal +experiments how to make an explosive far more effective than the one we +were using, which was very unreliable. This he effected by a particular +combination and treatment of T.N.T. and ammonia nitrate. Having +convinced the authorities by actual demonstration, he was given a free +hand, which he used to such effect that within a year he was furnishing +the main shell supply of the army. His own installation was at +Chilwell, near Nottingham, and it turned out 19,000,000 shells, while +six other establishments were erected elsewhere on the same system. +Within his own works Lord Chetwynd was so complete an autocrat that it +was generally believed that he shot three spies with his own hand. +Thinking the rumour a useful one, he encouraged it by creating three +dummy graves, which may, perhaps, be visited to this day by pious +pro-Germans. It should be added that Lord Chetwynd's explosive was not +only stronger, but cheaper, than that in previous use, so that his +labours saved the country some millions of pounds. + +It was at Chilwell that the huge bombs were filled which were destined +for Berlin. There were 100 of them to be carried in twenty-five Handley +Page machines. Each bomb was capable of excavating 350 tons at the spot +where it fell, and in a trial trip one which was dropped in the central +courtyard of a large square building left not a stone standing around +it. Berlin was saved by a miracle, which she hardly deserved after the +irresponsible glee with which she had hailed the devilish work of her +own Zeppelins. The original hundred bombs sent to be charged had the +tails removed before being sent, and when they were returned it was +found to be such a job finding the right tail for the right bomb, the +permutations being endless, that it was quicker and easier to charge +another hundred bombs with tails attached. This and other fortuitous +matters consumed several weeks. Finally, the bombs were ready and were +actually on the machines in England, whence the start was to be made, +when the Armistice was declared. Possibly a knowledge of this increased +the extreme haste of the German delegates. Personally, I am glad it was +so, for we have enough cause for hatred in the world without adding the +death of 10,000 German civilians. There is some weight, however, in the +contention of those who complain that Germans have devastated Belgium +and France, but have never been allowed to experience in their own +persons what the horrors of war really are. Still, if Christianity and +religion are to be more than mere words, we must be content that Berlin +was not laid in ruins at a time when the issue of the war was already +decided. + +Here we are at Suez once again. It would take Loti or Robert Hichens to +describe the wonderful shades peculiar to the outskirts of Egypt. Deep +blue sea turns to dark green, which in turn becomes the very purest, +clearest emerald as it shallows into a snow-white frill of foam. Thence +extends the golden desert with deep honey-coloured shadows, stretching +away until it slopes upwards into melon-tinted hills, dry and bare and +wrinkled. At one point a few white dwellings with a group of acacias +mark the spot which they call Moses Well. They say that a Jew can pick +up a living in any country, but when one surveys these terrible wastes +one can only imagine that the climate has greatly changed since a whole +nomad people were able to cross them. + +In the Mediterranean we had a snap of real cold which laid many of us +out, myself included. I recall the Lancastrian who complained that he +had swallowed a dog fight. The level of our lives had been disturbed for +an instant by a feud between the children and one of the passengers who +had, probably quite justly, given one of them a box on the ear. In +return, they had fixed an abusive document in his cabin which they had +ended by the words, "With our warmest despisings," all signing their +names to it. The passenger was sportsman enough to show this document +around, or we should not have known of its existence. Strange little +souls with their vivid hopes and fears, a parody of our own. I gave baby +a daily task and had ordered her to do a map of Australia. I found her +weeping in the evening. "I did the map," she cried, between her sobs, +"but they all said it was a pig!" She was shaken to the soul at the +slight upon her handiwork. + +It was indeed wonderful to find ourselves at Marseilles once more, and, +after the usual unpleasant _douane_ formalities, which are greatly +ameliorated in France as compared to our own free trade country, to be +at temporary rest at the Hôtel du Louvre. + +A great funeral, that of Frederic Chevillon and his brother, was +occupying the attention of the town. Both were public officials and both +were killed in the war, their bodies being now exhumed for local honour. +A great crowd filed past with many banners, due decorum being observed +save that some of the mourners were smoking cigarettes, which "was not +handsome," as Mr. Pepys would observe. There was no sign of any +religious symbol anywhere. It was a Sunday and yet the people in the +procession seemed very badly dressed and generally down-at-heel and +slovenly. I think we should have done the thing better in England. The +simplicity of the flag-wrapped coffins was however dignified and +pleasing. The inscriptions, too, were full of simple patriotism. + +I never take a stroll through a French town without appreciating the +gulf which lies between us and them. They have the old Roman +civilisation, with its ripe mellow traits, which have never touched the +Anglo-Saxon, who, on the other hand, has his raw Northern virtues which +make life angular but effective. I watched a scene to-day inconceivable +under our rule. Four very smart officers, captains or majors, were +seated outside a café. The place was crowded, but there was room for +four more at this table on the sidewalk, so presently that number of +negro privates came along and occupied the vacant seats. The officers +smiled most good humouredly, and remarks were exchanged between the two +parties, which ended in the high falsetto laugh of a negro. These black +troops seemed perfectly self-respecting, and I never saw a drunken man, +soldier or civilian, during two days. + +I have received English letters which announce that I am to repeat my +Australian lectures at the Queen's Hall, from April 11th onwards. I +seem to be returning with shotted guns and going straight into action. +They say that the most dangerous course is to switch suddenly off when +you have been working hard. I am little likely to suffer from that. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + The Institut Metaphysique.--Lecture in French.--Wonderful musical + improviser.--Camille Flammarion.--Test of materialised hand.--Last + ditch of materialism.--Sitting with Mrs. Bisson's medium, + Eva.--Round the Aisne battlefields.--A tragic + intermezzo.--Anglo-French Rugby match.--Madame Blifaud's + clairvoyance. + + +One long stride took us to Paris, where, under the friendly and +comfortable roof of the Hôtel du Louvre, we were able at last to unpack +our trunks and to steady down after this incessant movement. The first +visit which I paid in Paris was to Dr. Geley, head of the Institut +Metaphysique, at 89, Avenue Niel. Now that poor Crawford has gone, +leaving an imperishable name behind him, Geley promises to be the +greatest male practical psychic researcher, and he has advantages of +which Crawford could never boast, since the liberality of Monsieur Jean +Meyer has placed him at the head of a splendid establishment with +laboratory, photographic room, lecture room, séance room and library, +all done in the most splendid style. Unless some British patron has the +generosity and intelligence to do the same, this installation, with a +man like Geley to run it, will take the supremacy in psychic advance +from Britain, where it now lies, and transfer it to France. Our nearest +approach to something similar depends at present upon the splendid +private efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hewat MacKenzie, in the Psychic College +at 59, Holland Park, which deserve the support of everyone who realises +the importance of the subject. + +I made a _faux pas_ with the Geleys, for I volunteered to give an +exhibition of my Australian slides, and they invited a distinguished +audience of men of science to see them. Imagine my horror when I found +that my box of slides was in the luggage which Major Wood had taken on +with him in the "Naldera" to England. They were rushed over by +aeroplane, however, in response to my telegram, and so the situation was +saved. + +The lecture was a private one and was attended by Mr. Charles Richet, +Mr. Gabrielle Delanne, and a number of other men of science. Nothing +could have gone better, though I fear that my French, which is +execrable, must have been a sore trial to my audience. I gave them +warning at the beginning by quoting a remark which Bernard Shaw made to +me once, that when he spoke French he did not say what he wanted to say, +but what he could say. Richet told me afterwards that he was deeply +interested by the photographs, and when I noted the wonder and awe with +which he treated them--he, the best known physiologist in the world--and +compared it with the attitude of the ordinary lay Press, it seemed a +good example of the humility of wisdom and the arrogance of ignorance. +After my lecture, which covered an hour and a quarter, we were favoured +by an extraordinary exhibition from a medium named Aubert. This +gentleman has had no musical education whatever, but he sits down in a +state of semi-trance and he handles a piano as I, for one, have never +heard one handled before. It is a most amazing performance. He sits with +his eyes closed while some one calls the alphabet, striking one note +when the right letter sounds. In this way he spells out the name of the +particular composer whom he will represent. He then dashes off, with +tremendous verve and execution, upon a piece which is not a known +composition of that author, but is an improvisation after his manner. We +had Grieg, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and others in quick succession, each of +them masterly and characteristic. His technique seemed to my wife and me +to be not inferior to that of Paderewski. Needles can be driven through +him as he plays, and sums can be set before him which he will work out +without ceasing the wonderful music which appears to flow through him, +but quite independently of his own powers or volition. He would +certainly cause a sensation in London. + +I had the honour next day of meeting Camille Flammarion, the famous +astronomer, who is deeply engaged in psychic study, and was so +interested in the photos which I snowed him that I was compelled to +leave them in his hands that he might get copies done. Flammarion is a +dear, cordial, homely old gentleman with a beautiful bearded head which +would delight a sculptor. He entertained us with psychic stories all +lunch time. Madame Bisson was there and amused me with her opinion upon +psychic researchers, their density, their arrogance, their preposterous +theories to account for obvious effects. If she had not been a great +pioneer in Science, she might have been a remarkable actress, for it was +wonderful how her face took off the various types. Certainly, as +described by her, their far-fetched precautions, which irritate the +medium and ruin the harmony of the conditions, do appear very +ridiculous, and the parrot cry of "Fraud!" and "Fake!" has been sadly +overdone. All are agreed here that spiritualism has a far greater chance +in England than in France, because the French temperament is essentially +a mocking one, and also because the Catholic Church is in absolute +opposition. Three of their bishops, Beauvais, Lisieux and Coutances, +helped to burn a great medium, Joan of Arc, six hundred years ago, +asserting at the trial the very accusations of necromancy which are +asserted to-day. Now they have had to canonise her. One would have hoped +that they had learned something from the incident. + +Dr. Geley has recently been experimenting with Mr. Franek Kluski, a +Polish amateur of weak health, but with great mediumistic powers. These +took the form of materialisations. Dr. Geley had prepared a bucket of +warm paraffin, and upon the appearance of the materialised figure, which +was that of a smallish man, the request was made that the apparition +should plunge its hand into the bucket and then withdraw it, so that +when it dematerialised a cast of the hand would be left, like a glove +of solidified paraffin, so narrow at the wrist that the hands could not +have been withdrawn by any possible normal means without breaking the +moulds. These hands I was able to inspect, and also the plaster cast +which had been taken from the inside of one of them. The latter showed a +small hand, not larger than a boy's, but presenting the characteristics +of age, for the skin was loose and formed transverse folds. The +materialised figure had also, unasked, left an impression of its own +mouth and chin, which was, I think, done for evidential purposes, for a +curious wart hung from the lower lip, which would mark the owner among a +million. So far as I could learn, however, no identification had +actually been effected. The mouth itself was thick-lipped and coarse, +and also gave an impression of age. + +To show the thoroughness of Dr. Geley's work, he had foreseen that the +only answer which any critic, however exacting, could make to the +evidence, was that the paraffin hand had been brought in the medium's +pocket. Therefore he had treated with cholesterin the paraffin in his +bucket, and this same cholesterin reappeared in the resulting glove. +What can any sceptic have to say to an experiment like that save to +ignore it, and drag us back with wearisome iteration to some real or +imaginary scandal of the past? The fact is that the position of the +materialists could only be sustained so long as there was a general +agreement among all the newspapers to regard this subject as a comic +proposition. Now that there is a growing tendency towards recognising +its overwhelming gravity, the evidence is getting slowly across to the +public, and the old attitude of negation and derision has become +puerile. I can clearly see, however, that the materialists will fall +back upon their second line of trenches, which will be to admit the +phenomena, but to put them down to material causes in the unexplored +realms of nature with no real connection with human survival. This +change of front is now due, but it will fare no better than the old one. +Before quitting the subject I should have added that these conclusions +of Dr. Geley concerning the paraffin moulds taken from Kluski's +materialisation are shared by Charles Richet and Count de Gramont of the +Institute of France, who took part in the experiments. How absurd are +the efforts of those who were not present to contradict the experiences +of men like these. + +I was disappointed to hear from Dr. Geley that the experiments in +England with the medium Eva had been largely negative, though once or +twice the ectoplasmic flow was, as I understand, observed. Dr. Geley put +this comparative failure down to the fantastic precautions taken by the +committee, which had produced a strained and unnatural atmosphere. It +seems to me that if a medium is searched, and has all her clothes +changed before entering the seance room, that is ample, but when in +addition to this you put her head in a net-bag and restrict her in other +ways, you are producing an abnormal self-conscious state of mind which +stops that passive mood of receptivity which is essential. Professor +Hyslop has left it on record that after a long series of rigid tests +with Mrs. Piper he tried one sitting under purely natural conditions, +and received more convincing and evidential results than in all the +others put together. Surely this should suggest freer methods in our +research. + +I have just had a sitting with Eva, whom I cannot even say that I have +seen, for she was under her cloth cabinet when I arrived and still under +it when I left, being in trance the whole time. Professor Jules Courtier +of the Sorbonne and a few other men of science were present. Madame +Bisson experiments now in the full light of the afternoon. Only the +medium is in darkness, but her two hands protrude through the cloth and +are controlled by the sitters. There is a flap in the cloth which can be +opened to show anything which forms beneath. After sitting about an hour +this flap was opened, and Madame Bisson pointed out to me a streak of +ectoplasm upon the outside of the medium's bodice. It was about six +inches long and as thick as a finger. I was allowed to touch it, and +felt it shrink and contract under my hand. It is this substance which +can, under good conditions, be poured out in great quantities and can be +built up into forms and shapes, first flat and finally rounded, by +powers which are beyond our science. We sometimes call it Psychoplasm in +England, Richet named it Ectoplasm, Geley calls it Ideoplasm; but call +it what you will, Crawford has shown for all time that it is the +substance which is at the base of psychic physical phenomena. + +Madame Bisson, whose experience after twelve years' work is unique, has +an interesting theory. She disagrees entirely with Dr. Geley's view, +that the shapes are thought forms, and she resents the name ideoplasm, +since it represents that view. Her conclusion is that Eva acts the part +which a "detector" plays, when it turns the Hertzian waves, which are +too short for our observation, into slower ones which can become +audible. Thus Eva breaks up certain currents and renders them visible. +According to her, what we see is never the thing itself but always the +reflection of the thing which exists in another plane and is made +visible in ours by Eva's strange material organisation. It was for this +reason that the word Miroir appeared in one of the photographs, and +excited much adverse criticism. One dimly sees a new explanation of +mediumship. The light seems a colourless thing until it passes through a +prism and suddenly reveals every colour in the world. + +A picture of Madame Bisson's father hung upon the wall, and I at once +recognised him as the phantom which appears in the photographs of her +famous book, and which formed the culminating point of Eva's mediumship. +He has a long and rather striking face which was clearly indicated in +the ectoplasmic image. Only on one occasion was this image so developed +that it could speak, and then only one word. The word was "Esperez." + +We have just returned, my wife, Denis and I, from a round of the Aisne +battlefields, paying our respects incidentally to Bossuet at Meaux, +Fenelon at Château Thierry, and Racine at La Ferté Millon. It is indeed +a frightful cicatrix which lies across the brow of France--a scar which +still gapes in many places as an open wound. I could not have believed +that the ruins were still so untouched. The land is mostly under +cultivation, but the houses are mere shells, and I cannot think where +the cultivators live. When you drive for sixty miles and see nothing but +ruin on either side of the road, and when you know that the same thing +extends from the sea to the Alps, and that in places it is thirty miles +broad, it helps one to realise the debt that Germany owes to her +victims. If it had been in the Versailles terms that all her members of +parliament and journalists should be personally conducted, as we have +been, through a sample section, their tone would be more reasonable. + +It has been a wonderful panorama. We followed the route of the thousand +taxi-cabs which helped to save Europe up to the place where Gallieni's +men dismounted and walked straight up against Klück's rearguard. We saw +Belleau Wood, where the 2nd and 46th American divisions made their fine +debut and showed Ludendorff that they were not the useless soldiers he +had so vainly imagined. Thence we passed all round that great heavy sack +of Germans which had formed in June, 1918, with its tip at Dormans and +Château Thierry. We noted Bligny, sacred to the sacrifices of Carter +Campbell's 51st Highlanders, and Braithwaite's 62nd Yorkshire division, +who lost between them seven thousand men in these woods. These British +episodes seem quite unknown to the French, while the Americans have very +properly laid out fine graveyards with their flag flying, and placed +engraved tablets of granite where they played their part, so that in +time I really think that the average Frenchman will hardly remember that +we were in the war at all, while if you were to tell him that in the +critical year we took about as many prisoners and guns as all the other +nations put together, he would stare at you with amazement. Well, what +matter! With a man or a nation it is the duty done for its own sake and +the sake of its own conscience and self-respect that really counts. All +the rest is swank. + +We slept at Rheims. We had stayed at the chief hotel, the Golden Lion, +in 1912, when we were en route to take part in the Anglo-German +motor-car competition, organised by Prince Henry. We searched round, but +not one stone of the hotel was standing. Out of 14,000 houses in the +town, only twenty had entirely escaped. As to the Cathedral, either a +miracle has been wrought or the German gunners have been extraordinary +masters of their craft, for there are acres of absolute ruin up to its +very walls, and yet it stands erect with no very vital damage. The same +applies to the venerable church of St. Remy. On the whole I am prepared +to think that save in one fit of temper upon September 19th, 1914, the +guns were never purposely turned upon this venerable building. Hitting +the proverbial haystack would be a difficult feat compared to getting +home on to this monstrous pile which dominates the town. It is against +reason to suppose that both here and at Soissons they could not have +left the cathedrals as they left the buildings around them. + +Next day, we passed down the Vesle and Aisne, seeing the spot where +French fought his brave but barren action on September 13th, 1914, and +finally we reached the Chemin des Dames--a good name had the war been +fought in the knightly spirit of old, but horribly out of place amid the +ferocities with which Germany took all chivalry from warfare. The huge +barren countryside, swept with rainstorms and curtained in clouds, +looked like some evil landscape out of Vale Owen's revelations. It was +sown from end to end with shattered trenches, huge coils of wire and +rusted weapons, including thousands of bombs which are still capable of +exploding should you tread upon them too heavily. Denis ran wildly +about, like a terrier in a barn, and returned loaded with all sorts of +trophies, most of which had to be discarded as overweight. He succeeded, +however, in bringing away a Prussian helmet and a few other of the more +portable of his treasures. We returned by Soissons, which interested me +greatly, as I had seen it under war conditions in 1916. Finally we +reached Paris after a really wonderful two days in which, owing to Mr. +Cook's organisation and his guide, we saw more and understood more, +than in a week if left to ourselves. They run similar excursions to +Verdun and other points. I only wish we had the time to avail ourselves +of them. + +A tragic intermezzo here occurred in our Paris experience. I suddenly +heard that my brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung, the author of "Raffles" and +many another splendid story, was dying at St. Jean de Luz in the +Pyrenees. I started off at once, but was only in time to be present at +his funeral. Our little family group has been thinned down these last +two years until we feel like a company under hot fire with half on the +ground. We can but close our ranks the tighter. Hornung lies within +three paces of George Gissing, an author for whom both of us had an +affection. It is good to think that one of his own race and calling +keeps him company in his Pyrennean grave. + +Hornung, apart from his literary powers, was one of the wits of our +time. I could brighten this dull chronicle if I could insert a page of +his sayings. Like Charles Lamb, he could find humour in his own physical +disabilities--disabilities which did not prevent him, when over fifty, +from volunteering for such service as he could do in Flanders. When +pressed to have a medical examination, his answer was, "My body is like +a sausage. The less I know of its interior, the easier will be my mind." +It was a characteristic mixture of wit and courage. + +During our stay in Paris we went to see the Anglo-French Rugby match at +Coulombes. The French have not quite got the sporting spirit, and there +was some tendency to hoot whenever a decision was given for the English, +but the play of their team was most excellent, and England only won by +the narrow margin of 10 to 6. I can remember the time when French Rugby +was the joke of the sporting world. They are certainly a most adaptive +people. The tactics of the game have changed considerably since the days +when I was more familiar with it, and it has become less dramatic, since +ground is gained more frequently by kicking into touch than by the +individual run, or even by the combined movement. But it is still the +king of games. It was like the old lists, where the pick of these two +knightly nations bore themselves so bravely of old, and it was an object +lesson to see Clement, the French back, playing on manfully, with the +blood pouring from a gash in the head. Marshal Foch was there, and I +have no doubt that he noted the incident with approval. + +I had a good look at the famous soldier, who was close behind me. He +looks very worn, and sadly in need of a rest. His face and head are +larger than his pictures indicate, but it is not a face with any marked +feature or character. His eyes, however, are grey, and inexorable. His +kepi was drawn down, and I could not see the upper part of the head, but +just there lay the ruin of Germany. It must be a very fine brain, for in +political, as well as in military matters, his judgment has always been +justified. + +There is an excellent clairvoyante in Paris, Madame Blifaud, and I look +forward, at some later date, to a personal proof of her powers, though +if it fails I shall not be so absurd as to imagine that that disproves +them. The particular case which came immediately under my notice was +that of a mother whose son had been killed from an aeroplane, in the +war. She had no details of his death. On asking Madame B., the latter +replied, "Yes, he is here, and gives me a vision of his fall. As a proof +that it is really he, he depicts the scene, which was amid songs, flags +and music." As this corresponded with no episode of the war, the mother +was discouraged and incredulous. Within a short time, however, she +received a message from a young officer who had been with her son when +the accident occurred. It was on the Armistice day, at Salonica. The +young fellow had flown just above the flags, one of the flags got +entangled with his rudder, and the end was disaster. But bands, songs +and flags all justified the clairvoyante. + +Now, at last, our long journey drew to its close. Greatly guarded by the +high forces which have, by the goodness of Providence, been deputed to +help us, we are back in dear old London once more. When we look back at +the 30,000 miles which we have traversed, at the complete absence of +illness which spared any one of seven a single day in bed, the +excellence of our long voyages, the freedom from all accidents, the +undisturbed and entirely successful series of lectures, the financial +success won for the cause, the double escape from shipping strikes, and, +finally, the several inexplicable instances of supernormal, personal +happenings, together with the three-fold revelation of the name of our +immediate guide, we should be stocks and stones if we did not realise +that we have been the direct instruments of God in a cause upon which He +has set His visible seal. There let it rest. If He be with us, who is +against us? To give religion a foundation of rock instead of quicksand, +to remove the legitimate doubts of earnest minds, to make the invisible +forces, with their moral sanctions, a real thing, instead of mere words +upon our lips, and, incidentally, to reassure the human race as to the +future which awaits it, and to broaden its appreciation of the +possibilities of the present life, surely no more glorious message was +ever heralded to mankind. And it begins visibly to hearken. The human +race is on the very eve of a tremendous revolution of thought, marking a +final revulsion from materialism, and it is part of our glorious and +assured philosophy, that, though we may not be here to see the final +triumph of our labours, we shall, none the less, be as much engaged in +the struggle and the victory from the day when we join those who are our +comrades in battle upon the further side. + +_Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London, Reading and Fakenham_ + + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has given us a classic."--Sir W. Robertson +Nicoll + + * * * * * + +_The First Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1914= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. FOURTH EDITION= + +"After reading every word of this most fascinating book, the writer of +this notice ventures, as a professional soldier, to endorse the author's +claim, and even to suggest that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has understated +the value of a book which will be of enormous help to the student of +this wondrous war as a reliable framework for his further +investigations."--Colonel A. M. Murray, C.B., in the _Observer_. + +"A book which should appeal to every Briton and should shame those who +wish to make of none effect the deeds and sacrifices recounted in its +pages."--Professor A. F. Pollard in the _Daily Chronicle_ + + * * * * * + +_The Second Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1915= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. SECOND EDITION= + +"If any student of the war is in search of a plain statement, accurate +and chronological, of what took place in these dynamic sequences of +onslaughts which have strewn the plain of Ypres with unnumbered dead, +and which won for the Canadians, the Indians, and our own Territorial +divisions immortal fame, let him go to this volume. He will find in it +few dramatic episodes, no unbridled panegyric, no purple patches. But he +will own himself a much enlightened man, and, with greater knowledge, +will be filled with much greater pride and much surer +confidence."--_Daily Telegraph_ + + * * * * * + +_The Third Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1916= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"We gave praise, and it was high, to the first and second volumes of +'The British Campaign in France and Flanders.' We can give the same to +the third, and more, too. For the whole of this volume is devoted to the +preliminaries and the full grapple of the Battle of the Somme--a theme +far surpassing everything that went before in magnitude and +dreadfulness, but also in inspiration for our own race and in profound +human import of every kind."--_Observer_ + + + +_The Fourth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1917= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"If Sir Arthur can complete the remaining two volumes with the same zest +and truth as is exhibited here, it will indeed be a work which every +student who fought in France in the Great War will be proud to possess +on his shelves."--_Sunday Times_ + +"It will find with others of the series a permanent place in all +military libraries as a reliable work of reference for future students +of the war."--_Observer_ + + * * * * * + +_The Fifth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS January to July, 1918= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"The history shows no abatement in vigour and readableness, but rather +the opposite, and a final volume describing the great counter-attack of +the Allies, leading to their final victory, will bring to a close a +series which, on its own lines, is unsurpassable."--_Scotsman_ + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has stuck to his great work with admirable +assiduity.... He has produced an accurate and concise record of a +campaign the most glorious and the most deadly in all the history of the +British race, and a record well qualified to live among the notable +books of the language."--_Edinburgh Evening Dispatch_ + + * * * * * + +_The Sixth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS July to November, 1918= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's concluding volume of the interim history of +the British Campaign on the West Front is as good as any of its +predecessors."--_Morning Post_ + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'History of the British Campaign in France and +Flanders' is an authoritative work, which is destined for +immortality.... With full confidence in the historian, with +congratulations on a noble task accomplished, we open the sixth and +final volume."--_British Weekly_ + +HODDER & STOUGHTON LTD., Warwick Square, London, E.C.4 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + +***** This file should be named 39718-8.txt or 39718-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/1/39718/ + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wanderings of a Spiritualist + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [EBook #39718] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter extraspacebot"> +<img src="images/002.png" width="300" height="514" alt="Cover" title="Front Cover" /> +</div> + +<hr class="r65" /> + +<p class="caption center"> Transcriber's Notes</p> +<p class="blockquotetn">Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn">Some illustrations have been repositioned to provide the best relationship to the text; +the page numbers listed in the table of illustrations in the front matter will link you directly to the illustration in this text.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop"><span class='imgnum'><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece">[Frontispiece]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="250" height="364" alt="Photo: Stirling, Melbourne." title="" /> + +<p class="center extraspacetop caption"><br /> +<i>Frontispiece.</i> <br /> + +ON THE WARPATH IN AUSTRALIA, 1920-21. <br /> +<i>Photo: Stirling, Melbourne.</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r15" /> + + + + +<h1> +<i>THE<br /> +WANDERINGS OF A<br /> +SPIRITUALIST</i><br /></h1> + +<h2><small>BY</small><br /> +SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE</h2> + +<p class="center extraspace3top">AUTHOR OF<br /> +"THE NEW REVELATION," "THE VITAL MESSAGE," ETC.<br /></p> +<hr class="r65" /> +<p class="center extraspacetop">"Aggressive fighting for the right is<br /> +the noblest sport the world affords." +</p> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright extraspace4bot"><i>Theodore Roosevelt.</i></p> +<hr class="r65" /> +<p class="center">HODDER AND STOUGHTON<br /> +LIMITED LONDON<br /> +</p> + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<h2><i>By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE</i></h2> + + +<p class="extraspacetop">THE NEW REVELATION</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> + +<p class="right">Ninth Edition. Cloth, 5/. net.. Paper, 2/6 net.</p> + +<p>"This book is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's confession +of faith, very frank, very courageous and very +resolute ... the courage and large-mindedness of +this book deserve cordial recognition."—<span class="smcap">Daily +Chronicle.</span> "It is a book that demands our +respect and commands our interest.... Much more +likely to influence the opinion of the general public +than 'Raymond' or the long reports of the Society +for Psychical Research."—<span class="smcap">Daily News.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="extraspacetop">THE VITAL MESSAGE</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="right"> +Tenth Thousand. Cloth, 5/. +</p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The New Revelation' +was his confession of faith. 'The Vital Message' +seeks to show our future relations with the Unseen +World."—<span class="smcap">Daily Chronicle.</span> "... it is a clear, +earnest presentation of the case, and will serve as a +useful introduction to the subject to anyone anxious +to learn what the new Spiritualists claim for their +researches and their faith.... Sir Arthur writes +with evident sincerity, and, within the limits of his +system, with much broad-mindedness and toleration."—<span class="smcap">Daily +Telegraph.</span> "A splendid propaganda +book, written in the author's telling and racy style, +and one that will add to his prestige and renown."—<span class="smcap">Two +Worlds.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="extraspacetop">SPIRITUALISM AND RATIONALISM</p> + + +<div class="blockquotetn"> +<p><span class="smcap center">With a Drastic Examination +of Mr. Joseph M'Cabe</span> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's trenchant reply to +the criticisms of Spiritualism as formulated by +Mr. Joseph M'Cabe.</p> + +<p class="right"> +Paper, 1/. net.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="r15" /> + +<p class="center"><i>HODDER & STOUGHTON, Ltd., London, E.C.4</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="r65" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table width="500" border="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td align="right">PAGE +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_9">CHAPTER I</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +The inception of the enterprise.—The Merthyr +Séance.—Experience of British lectures.—Call from +Australia.—The Holborn luncheon.—Remarkable testimony to +communication.—Is individual proof necessary?—Excursion +to Exeter.—Can Spiritualists continue to be +Christians?—Their views on Atonement.—The party on the +"Naldera."</p> +</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_24">CHAPTER II</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc left"> +Gibraltar.—Spanish right versus British might.—Relics of +Barbary Rovers, and of German militarists.—Ichabod!—Senegal +Infantry.—No peace for the world.—Religion +on a liner.—Differences of vibration.—The Bishop of +Kwang-Si.—Religion in China.—Whisky in excelsis.—France's +masterpiece.—British errors.—A procession +of giants.—The invasion of Egypt.—Tropical weather.—The +Russian Horror.—An Indian experiment.—Aden.—Bombay.—The +Lambeth encyclical. A great; Snakes.—The Catamarans.—The +Robber Castles of Ceylon.—Doctrine of +Reincarnation.—Whales and Whalers.—Perth.—The +Bight.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_60">CHAPTER III</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc left"> +Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.—Challenges.—Mr. Carlyle +Smythe.—The Adelaide Press.—The great drought.—The +wine industry.—Clairvoyance.—Meeting with Bellchambers.—The +first lecture.—The effect.—The Religious +lecture.—The illustrated lecture.—Premonitions.—The +spot light.—Mr. Thomas' account of the incident.—Correspondence.—Adelaide +doctors.—A day in the Bush,—The +Mallee fowl.—Sussex in Australia.—Farewell +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span>to Adelaide. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_84">CHAPTER IV</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Speculations on Paul and his Master.—Arrival at Melbourne.—Attack +in the Argus.—Partial press boycott.—Strength +of the movement.—The Prince of Wales.—Victorian +football. Rescue Circle in Melbourne.—Burke and +Wills' statue.—Success of the lectures.—Reception at +the Auditorium.—Luncheon of the British Empire +League.—Mr. Ryan's experience.—The Federal Government.—Mr. +Hughes' personality.—The mediumship +of Charles Bailey.—His alleged exposure.—His remarkable +record.—A test sitting.—The Indian nest.—A +remarkable lecture.—Arrival of Lord Forster.—The +future of the Empire.—Kindness of Australians.—Prohibition.—Horse-racing.—Roman +Catholic policy. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_114">CHAPTER V</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +More English than the English.—A day in the Bush.—Immigration.—A +case of spirit return.—A séance.—Geelong.—The +lava plain.—Good-nature of General +Ryrie.—Bendigo.—Down a gold mine.—Prohibition +v. Continuance.—Mrs. Knight MacLellan.—Nerrin.—A +wild drive.—Electric shearing.—Rich sheep stations.—Cockatoo +farmers.—Spinnifex and Mallee.—Rabbits.—The +great marsh. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_136">CHAPTER VI</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> +</tr> + + + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +The Melbourne Cup.—Psychic healing.—M. J. Bloomfield.—My +own experience.—Direct healing.—Chaos and +Ritual.—Government House Ball.—The Rescue Circle +again.—Sitting with Mrs. Harris.—A good test case.—Australian +botany.—The land of myrtles.—English +cricket team.—Great final meeting in Melbourne. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_151">CHAPTER VII</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Great reception at Sydney.—Importance of Sydney.—Journalistic +luncheon.—A psychic epidemic.—Gregory.—Barracking.—Town +Hall reception.—Regulation of +Spiritualism.—An ether apport.—Surfing at Manly.—A +challenge.—Bigoted opponents.—A disgruntled +photographer.—Outing in the harbour.—Dr. Mildred +Creed.—Leon Gellert.—Norman Lindsay.—Bishop +Leadbeater.—Our relations with Theosophy.—Incongruities +of H.P.B.—Of D.D. Home. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_176">CHAPTER VIII</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Dangerous fog.—The six photographers.—Comic Advertisements.—Beauties +of Auckland.—A Christian clergyman.—Shadows +in our American relations.—The Gallipoli +Stone.—Stevenson and the Germans.—Position of +De Rougemont.—Mr. Clement Wragge.—Atlantean +theories.—A strange psychic.—Wellington the windy.—A +literary oasis.—A Maori séance.—Presentation. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_198">CHAPTER IX</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +The Anglican Colony.—Psychic dangers.—The learned dog.—Absurd +newspaper controversy.—A backward community.—The +Maori tongue.—Their origin.—Their +treatment by the Empire.—A fiasco.—The Pa of +Kaiopoi.—Dr. Thacker.—Sir Joseph Kinsey.—A generous +collector.—Scott and Amundsen.—Dunedin.—A +genuine medium.—Evidence.—The Shipping strike.—Sir +Oliver.—Farewell. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_223">CHAPTER X</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Christian origins.—Mithraism.—Astronomy.—Exercising +boats.—Bad news from home.—Futile strikes.—Labour +Party.—The blue wilderness.—Journey to Brisbane.—Warm +reception.—Friends and Foes.—Psychic experience +of Dr. Doyle.—Birds.—Criticism on Melbourne—Spiritualist +Church.—Ceremony.—Sir Matthew +Nathan.—Alleged repudiation of Queensland.—Billy +tea.—The bee farm.—Domestic service in Australia.—Hon. +John Fihilly.—Curious photograph by the State +photographer.—The "Orsova." +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_255">CHAPTER XI</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Medlow Bath.—Jenolan Caves.—Giant skeleton.—Mrs. +Foster Turner's mediumship.—A wonderful prophecy.—Final +results.—Third sitting with Bailey.—Failure +of State Control.—Retrospection.—Melbourne presentation.—Crooks.—Lecture +at Perth.—West Australia.—Rabbits, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>sparrows and sharks. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_280">CHAPTER XII</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +Pleasing letters.—Visit to Candy.—Snake and Flying Fox.—Buddha's +shrine.—The Malaya.—Naval digression.—Indian +trader.—Elephanta.—Sea snakes.—Chained to a +tombstone.—Berlin's escape.—Lord Chetwynd.—Lecture +in the Red Sea.—Marseilles. +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><a href="#Page_303">CHAPTER XIII</a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +<p class="blockquotetoc"> +The Institut Metaphysique.—Lecture in French.—Wonderful +musical improviser.—Camille Flammarion.—Test of +materialised hand.—Last ditch of materialism.—Sitting +with Mrs. Bisson's medium, Eva.—Round the Aisne +battlefields.—A tragic intermezzo.—Anglo-French +Rugby match.—Madame Blifaud's clairvoyance. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +</p> +</td> +</tr> + +</table> + + +<hr class="r65" /> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table width="500" border="0" summary="Table of Illustrations"> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#Frontispiece">On the War-Path in Australia, 1920-1921</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> +</td> +<td align="right"><i>Facing Page</i> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#Page_8">How This Book was Written</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_8">9</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_16">The God-Speed Luncheon in London. On this occasion +250 out of 290 Guests rose as testimony that they +were in Personal touch with their Dead</a></p> +</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_16">16</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_72">The Wanderers, 1920-1921</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_72">72</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_80">Bellchambers and the Mallee Fowl. "Get along with +you, do"</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_80">80</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_96">Melbourne, November, 1920</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_96">96</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_128">A Typical Australian Back-Country Scene by H. J. +Johnstone, a Great Painter Who Died Unknown. +Painting in Adelaide National Gallery</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_128">128</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_144">At Melbourne Town Hall, November 12th, 1920</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_144">144</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_208">The People of Turi's Canoe, after a Voyage of Great +Hardship, at last Sight the Shores of New Zealand. +From a Painting by C. F. Goldie and L. G. A. Steele</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_208">208</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_240">Laying Foundation Stone of Spiritualist Church at +Brisbane</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_240">240</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_252">Curious Photographic Effect referred to in Text. +Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane. +"Absolutely mystifying" is his Description</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_252">252</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_256">Our Party <i>en route</i> to the Jenolan Caves, January 20th, +1921. In Front of Old Court House in which Bushrangers +were Tried</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_256">256</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left"><p class="blockquotetoc"><a href="#I_264">Denis with a Black Snake at Medlow Bath</a></p></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#I_264">264</a> +</td> +</tr> + +</table> + + +<hr class="r65" /> + + +<h2>TO MY WIFE.</h2> + +<p class="center"> +THIS MEMORIAL OF A JOURNEY WHICH<br /> +HER HELP AND PRESENCE CHANGED<br /> +FROM A DUTY TO A PLEASURE.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn nr5right">A. C. D.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn nr5left"><i>July 18/21.</i></p> + +<hr class="r65" /> + +<div class="figcenter"><span class='imgnum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="250" height="393" alt=" +HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN." title="" /> +<p class="blockquotetn nr5right"><i>See page 11.</i></p> +<p class="center caption">HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN.</p></div> + + + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>The inception of the enterprise.—The Merthyr Séance.—Experience +of British lectures.—Call from Australia.—The +Holborn luncheon.—Remarkable testimony to +communication.—Is individual proof necessary?—Excursion +to Exeter.—Can spiritualists continue to be +Christians?—Their views on Atonement.—The party on +the "Naldera."</p></div> + + +<p>This is an account of the wanderings of a spiritualist, +geographical and speculative. Should the +reader have no interest in psychic things—if +indeed any human being can be so foolish as not +to be interested in his own nature and fate,—then +this is the place to put the book down. It were +better also to end the matter now if you have no +patience with a go-as-you-please style of narrative, +which founds itself upon the conviction that +thought may be as interesting as action, and +which is bound by its very nature to be intensely +personal. I write a record of what absorbs my +mind which may be very different from that which +appeals to yours. But if you are content to come +with me upon these terms then let us start with +my apologies in advance for the pages which may +bore you, and with my hopes that some may compensate +you by pleasure or by profit. I write +these lines with a pad upon my knee, heaving upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +the long roll of the Indian Ocean, running large +and grey under a grey streaked sky, with the +rain-swept hills of Ceylon, just one shade greyer, +lining the Eastern skyline. So under many +difficulties it will be carried on, which may explain +if it does not excuse any slurring of a style, which +is at its best but plain English.</p> + +<p>There was one memorable night when I walked +forth with my head throbbing and my whole +frame quivering from the villa of Mr. Southey +at Merthyr. Behind me the brazen glare of +Dowlais iron-works lit up the sky, and in front +twinkled the many lights of the Welsh town. For +two hours my wife and I had sat within listening +to the whispering voices of the dead, voices which +are so full of earnest life, and of desperate endeavours +to pierce the barrier of our dull senses. +They had quivered and wavered around us, giving +us pet names, sweet sacred things, the intimate +talk of the olden time. Graceful lights, signs of +spirit power had hovered over us in the darkness. +It was a different and a wonderful world. Now +with those voices still haunting our memories we +had slipped out into the material world—a world +of glaring iron works and of twinkling cottage +windows. As I looked down on it all I grasped +my wife's hand in the darkness and I cried aloud, +"My God, if they only knew—if they could only +know!" Perhaps in that cry, wrung from my +very soul, lay the inception of my voyage to the +other side of the world. The wish to serve was +strong upon us both. God had given us wonderful +signs, and they were surely not for ourselves alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had already done the little I might. From +the moment that I had understood the overwhelming +importance of this subject, and realised +how utterly it must change and chasten the whole +thought of the world when it is whole-heartedly +accepted, I felt it good to work in the matter and +understood that all other work which I had ever +done, or could ever do, was as nothing compared +to this. Therefore from the time that I had +finished the history of the Great War on which I +was engaged, I was ready to turn all my remaining +energies of voice or hand to the one great end. +At first I had little of my own to narrate, and my +task was simply to expound the spiritual philosophy +as worked out by the thoughts and experiences +of others, showing folk so far as I was able, +that the superficial and ignorant view taken of it +in the ordinary newspapers did not touch the heart +of the matter. My own experiences were limited +and inconclusive, so that it was the evidence of +others which I quoted. But as I went forward +signs were given in profusion to me also, such +signs as were far above all error or deception, so +that I was able to speak with that more vibrant +note which comes not from belief or faith, but from +personal experience and knowledge. I had found +that the wonderful literature of Spiritualism did +not reach the people, and that the press was so full +of would-be jocosities and shallow difficulties that +the public were utterly misled. Only one way +was left, which was to speak to the people face to +face. This was the task upon which I set forth, +and it had led me to nearly every considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +city of Great Britain from Aberdeen to Torquay. +Everywhere I found interest, though it varied +from the heavier spirit of the sleepy cathedral +towns to the brisk reality of centres of life and +work like Glasgow or Wolverhampton. Many a +time my halls were packed, and there were as +many outside as inside the building. I have no +eloquence and make profession of none, but I am +audible and I say no more than I mean and can +prove, so that my audiences felt that it was +indeed truth so far as I could see it, which I +conveyed. Their earnestness and receptiveness +were my great help and reward in my venture. +Those who had no knowledge of what my views +were assembled often outside my halls, waving +banners and distributing tracts, but never once in +the course of addressing 150,000 people, did I +have disturbance in my hall. I tried, while never +flinching from truth, to put my views in such a +way as to hurt no one's feelings, and although I +have had clergymen of many denominations as my +chairmen, I have had thanks from them and no +remonstrance. My enemies used to follow and +address meetings, as they had every right to do, +in the same towns. It is curious that the most +persistent of these enemies were Jesuits on the one +side and Evangelical sects of the Plymouth +Brethren type upon the other. I suppose the +literal interpretation of the Old Testament was +the common bond.</p> + +<p>However this is digression, and when the +digressions are taken out of this book there will not +be much left. I get back to the fact that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +overwhelming effect of the Merthyr Séance and of +others like it, made my wife and myself feel that +when we had done what we could in Britain we +must go forth to further fields. Then came the +direct invitation from spiritual bodies in Australia. +I had spent some never-to-be-forgotten days with +Australian troops at the very crisis of the war. +My heart was much with them. If my message +could indeed bring consolation to bruised hearts +and to bewildered minds—and I had boxes full of +letters to show that it did—then to whom should +I carry it rather than to those who had fought so +splendidly and lost so heavily in the common +cause? I was a little weary also after three years +of incessant controversy, speaking often five times +a week, and continually endeavouring to uphold +the cause in the press. The long voyage presented +attractions, even if there was hard work at the end +of it. There were difficulties in the way. Three +children, boys of eleven and nine, with a girl of +seven, all devotedly attached to their home and +their parents, could not easily be left behind. If +they came a maid was also necessary. The pressure +upon me of correspondence and interviews +would be so great that my old friend and secretary, +Major Wood, would be also needed. Seven of us +in all therefore, and a cheque of sixteen hundred +pounds drawn for our return tickets, apart from +outfit, before a penny could be entered on the +credit side. However, Mr. Carlyle Smythe, the +best agent in Australia, had taken the matter up, +and I felt that we were in good hands. The +lectures would be numerous, controversies severe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +the weather at its hottest, and my own age over +sixty. But there are compensating forces, and I +was constantly aware of their presence. I may +count our adventures as actually beginning from +the luncheon which was given us in farewell a +week or so before our sailing by the spiritualists of +England. Harry Engholm, most unselfish of men, +and a born organiser among our most unorganised +crowd, had the matter in hand, so it was bound to +be a success. There was sitting room at the +Holborn Restaurant for 290 people, and it was all +taken up three weeks before the event. The +secretary said that he could have filled the Albert +Hall. It was an impressive example of the +solidity of the movement showing itself for the +moment round us, but really round the cause. +There were peers, doctors, clergymen, officers of +both services, and, above all, those splendid lower +middle class folk, if one talks in our material earth +terms, who are the spiritual peers of the nation. +Many professional mediums were there also, and +I was honoured by their presence, for as I said +in my remarks, I consider that in these days of +doubt and sorrow, a genuine professional medium +is the most useful member of the whole community. +Alas! how few they are! Four +photographic mediums do I know in all Britain, +with about twelve physical phenomena mediums +and as many really reliable clairvoyants. What +are these among so many? But there are +many amateur mediums of various degrees, +and the number tends to increase. Perhaps +there will at last be an angel to every church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +as in the days of John. I see dimly the time +when two congregations, the living and those +who have passed on, shall move forward together +with the medium angel as the bridge between +them.</p> + +<p>It was a wonderful gathering, and I only wish +I could think that my own remarks rose to the +height of the occasion. However, I did my best +and spoke from my heart. I told how the +Australian visit had arisen, and I claimed that the +message that I would carry was the most important +that the mind of man could conceive, +implying as it did the practical abolition of death, +and the reinforcement of our present religious +views by the actual experience of those who have +made the change from the natural to the spiritual +bodies. Speaking of our own experiences, I +mentioned that my wife and I had actually +spoken face to face beyond all question or doubt +with eleven friends or relatives who had passed +over, their direct voices being in each case audible, +and their conversation characteristic and evidential—in +some cases marvellously so. Then with +a sudden impulse I called upon those in the +audience who were prepared to swear that they +had had a similar experience to stand up and +testify. It seemed for a moment as if the whole +audience were on their feet. <i>The Times</i> next day +said 250 out of 290 and I am prepared to accept +that estimate. Men and women, of all professions +and social ranks—I do not think that I +exaggerated when I said that it was the most +remarkable demonstration that I had ever seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +and that nothing like it had ever occurred in the +City of London.</p> + +<p>It was vain for those journals who tried to +minimise it to urge that in a Baptist or a Unitarian +assembly all would have stood up to testify to +their own faith. No doubt they would, but this +was not a case of faith, it was a case of bearing +witness to fact. There were people of all creeds, +Church, dissent, Unitarian and ex-materialists. +They were testifying to an actual objective experience +as they might have testified to having +seen the lions in Trafalgar Square. If such a +public agreement of evidence does not establish a +fact then it is indeed impossible, as Professor +Challis remarked long ago, to prove a thing by +any human testimony whatever. I confess that +I was amazed. When I remember how many +years it was before I myself got any final personal +proofs I should have thought that the vast +majority of Spiritualists were going rather upon +the evidence of others than upon their own. And +yet 250 out of 290 had actually joined hands across +the border. I had no idea that the direct proof +was so widely spread.</p> + +<p>I have always held that people insist too much +upon direct proof. What direct proof have we of +most of the great facts of Science? We simply +take the word of those who have examined. How +many of us have, for example, seen the rings of +Saturn? We are assured that they are there, and +we accept the assurance. Strong telescopes are +rare, and so we do not all expect to see the rings +with our own eyes. In the same way strong +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>mediums are rare, and we cannot all expect to +experience the higher psychic results. But if the +assurance of those who have carefully experimented, +of the Barretts, the Hares, the Crookes, +the Wallaces, the Lodges and the Lombrosos, is +not enough, then it is manifest that we are dealing +with this matter on different terms to those +which we apply to all the other affairs of science. +It would of course be different if there were a +school of patient investigators who had gone +equally deeply into the matter and come to +opposite conclusions. Then we should certainly +have to find the path of truth by individual +effort. But such a school does not exist. Only +the ignorant and inexperienced are in total +opposition, and the humblest witness who has +really sought the evidence has more weight than +they.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_16" id="I_16">[16]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="380" height="230" alt="THE GOD-SPEED LUNCHEON IN LONDON." title="" /> +<p class="center caption">THE GOD-SPEED LUNCHEON IN LONDON.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn nr5right"><i>See page 15.</i><br /></p> +<p class="blockquotetn center">On this occasion 250 out of 290 guests rose as testimony that they were in personal touch with their dead.</p> +</div> + +<p>After the luncheon my wife made the final +preparations—and only ladies can tell what it +means to fit out six people with tropical and semi-tropical +outfits which will enable them for eight +months to stand inspection in public. I employed +the time by running down to Devonshire +to give addresses at Exeter and Torquay, with +admirable audiences at both. Good Evan Powell +had come down to give me a last séance, and I had +the joy of a few last words with my arisen son, who +blessed me on my mission and assured me that I +would indeed bring solace to bruised hearts. +The words he uttered were a quotation from my +London speech at which Powell had not been +present, nor had the verbatim account of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +appeared anywhere at that time. It was one +more sign of how closely our words and actions +are noted from the other side. Powell was tired, +having given a sitting the night before, so the +proceedings were short, a few floating lights, my +son and my sister's son to me, one or two greetings +to other sitters, and it was over.</p> + +<p>Whilst in Exeter I had a discussion with those +who would break away from Christianity. They +are a strong body within the movement, and how +can Christians be surprised at it when they +remember that for seventy years they have had +nothing but contempt and abuse for the true light-bearers +of the world? Is there at the present +moment one single bishop, or one head of a Free +Church, who has the first idea of psychic truth? +Dr. Parker had, in his day, so too Archdeacons +Wilberforce and Colley, Mr. Haweis and a few +others. General Booth has also testified to +spiritual communion with the dead. But what +have Spiritualists had in the main save misrepresentation +and persecution? Hence the movement +has admittedly, so far as it is an organised +religion—and it has already 360 churches and +1,000 building funds—taken a purely Unitarian +turn. This involves no disrespect towards Him +Whom they look upon as the greatest Spirit who +ever trod the earth, but only a deep desire to communicate +direct without intermediary with that +tremendous centre of force from and to whom all +things radiate or return. They are very earnest +and good men, these organised religious Spiritualists, +and for the most part, so far as my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +experience goes, are converts from materialism +who, having in their materialistic days said very +properly that they would believe nothing which +could not be proved to them, are ready now with +Thomas to be absolutely wholehearted when the +proof of survival and spirit communion has +actually reached them. There, however, the +proof ends, nor will they go further than the proof +extends, as otherwise their original principles +would be gone. Therefore they are Unitarians +with a breadth of vision which includes Christ, +Krishna, Buddha and all the other great spirits +whom God has sent to direct different lines of +spiritual evolution which correspond to the +different needs of the various races of mankind. +Our information from the beyond is that this +evolution is continued beyond the grave, and very +far on until all details being gradually merged, +they become one as children of God. With a +deep reverence for Christ it is undeniable that the +organised Spiritualist does not accept vicarious +atonement nor original sin, and believes that a man +reaps as he sows with no one but himself to pull +out the weeds. It seems to me the more virile +and manly doctrine, and as to the texts which +seem to say otherwise, we cannot deny that the +New Testament has been doctored again and +again in order to square the record of the Scriptures +with the practice of the Church. Professor +Nestle, in the preface to a work on theology (I +write far from books of reference), remarks that +there were actually officials named "Correctores," +who were appointed at the time of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +Council of Nicæa for this purpose, and St. Jerome, +when he constructed the Vulgate, complains to +Pope Damasus that it is practically a new book +that he is making, putting any sin arising upon the +Pope's head. In the face of such facts we can +only accept the spirit of the New Testament +fortified with common sense, and using such +interpretation as brings most spiritual strength to +each of us. Personally, I accept the view of the +organised Spiritual religion, for it removes difficulties +which formerly stood between me and the +whole Christian system, but I would not say or +do anything which would abash those others who +are getting real spiritual help from any sort of +Christian belief. The gaining of spirituality and +widening of the personality are the aims of life, +and how it is done is the business of the individual. +Every creed has produced its saints and has to +that extent justified its existence. I like the +Unitarian position of the main Spiritual body, +however, because it links the movement up with +the other great creeds of the world and makes it +more accessible to the Jew, the Mohammedan or the +Buddhist. It is far too big to be confined within +the palings of Christianity.</p> + +<p>Here is a little bit of authentic teaching from +the other side which bears upon the question. I +take it from the remarkable record of Mr. Miller +of Belfast, whose dialogues with his son after the +death of the latter seem to me to be as certainly +true as any case which has come to my notice. +On asking the young soldier some question about +the exact position of Christ in religion he modestly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +protested that such a subject was above his head, +and asked leave to bring his higher guide to answer +the question. Using a fresh voice and in a new +and more weighty manner the medium then +said:—</p> + +<p>"I wish to answer your question. Jesus the +Christ is the proper designation. Jesus was +perfect humanity. Christ was the God idea in +Him. Jesus, on account of His purity, manifested +in the highest degree the psychic powers +which resulted in His miracles. Jesus never +preached the blood of the lamb. The disciples +after His ascension forgot the message in admiration +of the man. The Christ is in every +human being, and so are the psychic forces which +were used by Jesus. If the same attention were +given to spiritual development which you give to +the comfort and growth of your material bodies +your progress in spiritual life would be rapid and +would be characterised by the same works as were +performed by Jesus. The one essential thing for +all on earth to strive after is a fuller knowledge +and growth in spiritual living."</p> + +<p>I think that the phrase, "In their admiration of +the man they forgot His message," is as pregnant +a one as I ever heard.</p> + +<p>To come back then to the discussion at Exeter, +what I said then and feel now is that every +Spiritualist is free to find his own path, and that +as a matter of fact his typical path is a Unitarian +one, but that this in no way obscures the fact that +our greatest leaders, Lodge, Barrett, Ellis Powell, +Tweedale, are devoted sons of the Church, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +our literature is full of Christian aspiration, and +that our greatest prophet, Vale Owen, is a priest +of a particularly sacerdotal turn of mind. We are +in a transition stage, and have not yet found any +common theological position, or any common +position at all, save that the dead carry on, that +they do not change, that they can under proper +physical conditions communicate with us, and +that there are many physical signs by which they +make their presence known to us. That is our +common ground, and all beyond that is matter of +individual observation and inference. Therefore, +we are not in a position to take on any anti-Christian +agitation, for it would be against the +conscience of the greater part of our own people.</p> + +<p>Well, it is clear that if I do not begin my book I +shall finish it before I have begun, so let me end +this chapter by saying that in despite of all superstition +we started for Australia in the good ship +"Naldera" (Capt. Lewellin, R.N.R.), on Friday, +August 13th, 1920. As we carried two bishops +in addition to our ominous dates we were foredoomed +by every nautical tradition. Our party +were my dear, splendid wife, who has shared both +my evidence and my convictions. She it is who, +by breaking up her household, leaving her beloved +home, breaking the schooling of her children, and +venturing out upon a sea voyage, which of all +things she hates, has made the real sacrifice for +the cause. As to me, I am fond of change and +adventure, and heartily agree with President +Roosevelt when he said that the grandest sport +upon earth is to champion an unpopular cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +which you know to be true. With us were Denis, +Malcolm and Baby, concerning whom I wrote +the "Three of them" sketches some years +ago. In their train was Jakeman, most faithful +of maids, and in mine Major Wood, who has been +mixed up in my life ever since as young men we +played both cricket and football in the same team. +Such was the little party who set forth to try and +blow that smouldering glow of truth which already +existed in Australia, into a more lively flame.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Gibraltar.—Spanish right versus British might.—Relics of +Barbary Rovers, and of German militarists.—Ichabod! +Senegal Infantry.—No peace for the world.—Religion on +a liner.—Differences of vibration.—The Bishop of Kwang-Si.—Religion +in China.—Whisky in excelsis.—France's +masterpiece.—British errors.—A procession of giants.—The +invasion of Egypt.—Tropical weather.—The Russian +Horror.—An Indian experiment.—Aden.—Bombay.—The +Lambeth encyclical.—A great novelist.—The Mango +trick.—Snakes.—The Catamarans.—The Robber Castles +of Ceylon.—Doctrine of Reincarnation.—Whales and +Whalers.—Perth.—The Bight.</p></div> + + +<p>We had a favourable journey across the Bay and +came without adventure to Gibraltar, that strange +crag, Arabic by name, African in type, Spanish +by right, and British by might. I trust that my +whole record has shown me to be a loyal son of +the Empire, and I recognise that we must have a +secure line of communications with the East, but +if any change could give us Ceuta, on the opposite +African coast, instead of this outlying corner of +proud old Spain, it would be good policy as well +as good morality to make the change. I wonder +how we should like it if the French held a garrison +at Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, which would +be a very similar situation. Is it worth having +a latent enemy who at any time might become an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +active one, or is it wiser to hold them to us by the +memory of a great voluntary act of justice? +They would pay, of course, for all quays, breakwaters +and improvements, which would give us +the money to turn Ceuta into a worthy substitute, +which could be held without offending the pride +of a great nation, as old and proud as ourselves. +The whole lesson of this great war is that no +nation can do what is unjust with impunity, and +that sooner or later one's sin will find one out. +How successful seemed all the scheming of +Frederick of Prussia! But what of Silesia and +of Poland now? Only on justice can you build +with a permanent foundation, and there is no +justice in our tenure of Gibraltar. We had only +an hour ashore, a great joy to the children, and +carried away a vague impression of grey-shirted +Tommies, swarthy loungers, one long, cobblestoned +street, scarlet blossoms, and a fine Governor's +house, in which I picture that brave old +warrior, Smith-Dorrien, writing a book which +will set all the critics talking, and the military +clubs buzzing a year or two from now. I do not +know if he was really forced to fight at Le Cateau, +though our sympathies must always go to the man +who fights, but I do feel that if he had had his way +and straightened the salient of Ypres, there would +have been a mighty saving of blood and tears. +There were sentimental reasons against it, but I +can think of no material ones—certainly none +which were worth all the casualties of the Salient. +I had only one look at the place, and that by +night, but never shall I forget the murderous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +loop, outlined by star shells, nor the horrible +noises which rose up from that place of wrath and +misery.</p> + +<p>On August 19th we were running up the eastern +Spanish coast, a most desolate country of high +bare cliffs and barren uplands, studded with aged +towers which told of pirate raids of old. These +Mediterranean shore dwellers must have had a +hellish life, when the Barbary Rover was afloat, +and they might be wakened any night by the +Moslem yell. Truly, if the object of human life +was chastening by suffering, then we have given +it to each other in full measure. If this were the +only life I do not know how the hypothesis of the +goodness of God could be sustained, since our +history has been one hardly broken record of +recurring miseries, war, famine, and disease, +from the ice to the equator. I should still be a +materialist, as I was of yore, if it were not for the +comfort and teaching from beyond, which tells +me that this is the worst—far the worst—and that +by its standard everything else becomes most +gloriously better, so long as we help to make +it so. "If the boys knew what it was like +over here," said a dead soldier, "they would +just jump for it." He added however, "If +they did that they would surely miss it." We +cannot bluff Providence, or short-circuit things +to our liking.</p> + +<p>We got ashore once more at Marseilles. I saw +converted German merchant ships, with names +like "Burgomeister Müller," in the harbour, and +railway trucks with "Mainz-Cöln" still marked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +upon their flanks—part of the captured loot. +Germany, that name of terror, how short is the +time since we watched you well-nigh all-powerful, +mighty on land, dangerous on the sea, conquering +the world with your commerce and threatening it +with your arms! You had everything, numbers, +discipline, knowledge, industry, bravery, organisation, +all in the highest—such an engine as the world +has never seen. And now—Ichabod! Ichabod! +Your warships lie under the waves, your liners +fly the flags of your enemies, your mother Rhine +on either bank hears the bugles of your invaders. +What was wanting in you to bring you to such a +pass? Was it not spirituality? Had not your +churches become as much a department of State +as the Post Office, where every priest and pastor +was in State pay, and said that which the State +ordained? All other life was at its highest, but +spiritual life was dead, and because it was dead +all the rest had taken on evil activities which could +only lead to dissolution and corruption. Had +Germany obeyed the moral law would she not +now be great and flourishing, instead of the ruin +which we see? Was ever such an object lesson +in sin and its consequence placed before the +world? But let us look to it, for we also have +our lesson to learn, and our punishment is surely +waiting if we do not learn it. If now after such +years we sink back into old ruts and do not make +an earnest effort for real religion and real active +morality, then we cumber the ground, and it is +time that we were swept away, for no greater +chance of reform can ever come to us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>I saw some of the Senegal troops in the streets +of Marseilles—a whole battalion of them marching +down for re-embarkation. They are fierce, hard +soldiers, by the look of them, for the negro is a +natural fighter, as the prize ring shows, and these +have long service training upon the top of this +racial pugnacity. They look pure savages, with +the tribal cuts still upon their faces, and I do not +wonder that the Germans objected to them, +though we cannot doubt that the Germans would +themselves have used their Askaris in Europe as +well as in Africa if they could have done so. The +men who had as allies the murderers of the Armenians +would not stick at trifles. I said during the +war, and I can clearly see now, that the way in +which the war was fought will prove hardly second +to the war itself as a misfortune to the human +race. A clean war could end in a clean peace. +But how can we ever forget the poison gas, the +Zeppelin bombardments of helpless cities, the +submarine murders, the scattering of disease +germs, and all the other atrocities of Germany? +No water of oblivion can ever wash her clean. +She had one chance, and only one. It was to at +once admit it all herself and to set to work purging +her national guilt by punishing guilty individuals. +Perhaps she may even now save herself and +clear the moral atmosphere of the world by +doing this. But time passes and the signs are +against it. There can be no real peace in the +world until voluntary reparation has been made. +Forced reparation can only make things worse, +for it cannot satisfy us, and it must embitter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +them. I long for real peace, and should love +to see our Spiritualist bodies lead the van. But +the time is not yet and it is realities we need, not +phrases.</p> + +<p>Old travellers say that they never remember +the Mediterranean so hot. We went down it +with a following breeze which just neutralised +our own head wind, the result being a quivering +tropical heat. With the Red Sea before us it was +no joke to start our trials so soon, and already the +children began to wilt. However, Major Wood +kept them at work for the forenoons and discipline +still flourished. On the third day out we +were south of Crete, and saw an island lying there +which is surely the same in the lee of which Paul's +galley took refuge when Euroclydon was behaving +so badly. I had been asked to address the first-class +passengers upon psychic religion that evening, +and it was strange indeed to speak in those waters, +for I knew well that however ill my little pip-squeak +might compare with that mighty voice, +yet it was still the same battle of the unseen +against the material, raging now as it did 2,000 +years ago. Some 200 of the passengers, with the +Bishop of Kwang-Si, turned up, and a better +audience one could not wish, though the acoustic +properties of the saloon were abominable. However, +I got it across, though I was as wet as if I +had fallen overboard when I had finished. I was +pleased to learn afterwards that among the most +keen of my audience were every colored man and +woman on the ship, Parsees, Hindoos, Japanese +and Mohammedans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you believe it is true?" they were asked +next day.</p> + +<p>"We <i>know</i> that it is true," was the answer, and +it came from a lady with a red caste-mark like a +wafer upon her forehead. So far as I could learn +she spoke for all the Eastern folk.</p> + +<p>And the others? At least I set them talking +and thinking. I heard next morning of a queue +of six waiting at the barber's all deep in theological +discussion, with the barber himself, razor +in hand, joining warmly in. "There has never +been so much religion talked on a P. & O. ship +since the line was started," said one old traveller. +It was all good-humoured and could do no harm. +Before we had reached Port Said all my books on +the subject were lent out to eager readers, and I +was being led aside into remote corners and cross-questioned +all day. I have a number of good +psychic photographs with me, some of them of my +own taking, and all of them guaranteed, and I find +these valuable as making folk realise that my +words do in truth represent realities. I have the +famous fairy photos also, which will appear in +England in the Christmas number of the <i>Strand</i>. +I feel as if it were a delay-action mine which I had +left behind me. I can imagine the cry of "Fake!" +which will arise. But they will stand investigation. +It has of course nothing to do with +Spiritualism proper, but everything which can +shake the mind out of narrow, material grooves, +and make it realise that endless worlds surround +us, separated only by difference of vibration, +must work in the general direction of truth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Difference of Vibration"—I have been trying +lately to get behind mere words and to realise +more clearly what this may mean. It is a fascinating +and fruitful line of thought. It begins with +my electric fan whizzing over my head. As it +starts with slow vibration I see the little propellers. +Soon they become a dim mist, and finally I can +see them no more. But they are there. At any +moment, by slowing the movement, I can bring +them back to my vision. Why do I not see it all +the time? Because the impression is so fast that +my retina has not time to register it. Can we +not imagine then that some objects may emit the +usual light waves, long enough and slow enough +to leave a picture, but that other objects may send +waves which are short and steep, and therefore +make so swift an impression that it is not recorded? +That, so far as I can follow it, is what we mean +by an object with a higher rate of vibration. It +is but a feeling out into the dark, but it is a hypothesis +which may serve us to carry on with, though +the clairvoyant seems to be not a person with a +better developed physical retina, but rather one +who has the power to use that which corresponds +with the retina in their own etheric bodies which +are in harmony with etheric waves from outside. +When a man can walk round a room and examine +the pictures with the back of his head, as Tom +Tyrrell has done, it is clear that it is not his +physical retina which is working. In countless +cases inquirers into magnetic phenomena have +caused their subjects to read with various parts +of their bodies. It is the other body, the etheric<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +body, the "spiritual" body of Paul, which lies +behind all such phenomena—that body which is +loose with all of us in sleep, but only exceptionally +in waking hours. Once we fully understand the +existence of that deathless etheric body, merged +in our own but occasionally detachable, we have +mastered many a problem and solved many a +ghost story.</p> + +<p>However, I must get back to my Cretan lecture. +The bishop was interested, and I lent him one of +the Rev. Charles Tweedale's pamphlets next day, +which shows how sadly Christianity has wandered +away from its early faith of spiritual gifts and +Communion of Saints. Both have now become +words instead of things, save among our ranks. +The bishop is a good fellow, red and rough like a +Boer farmer, but healthy, breezy, and Apostolic. +"Do mention his kind grey eyes," says my wife. +He may die a martyr yet in that inland diocese +of China—and he would not shrink from it. Meanwhile, +apart from his dogma, which must be +desperately difficult to explain to an educated +Chinaman, he must always be a centre of civilisation +and social effort. A splendid fellow—but he +suffers from what all bishops and all cardinals and +all Popes suffer from, and that is superannuation. +A physiologist has said that few men can ever +entertain a new idea after fifty. How then can any +church progress when all its leaders are over that +age? This is why Christianity has stagnated and +degenerated. If here and there one had a new +idea, how could it survive the pressure of the +others? It is hopeless. In this particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +question of psychic religion the whole order is an +inversion, for the people are ahead of the clergy +and the clergy of the bishops. But when the +laymen lead strongly enough the others will follow +unless they wish to see the whole Church organisation +dissolve.</p> + +<p>He was very interesting upon the state of +Christianity in China. Protestantism, thanks to +the joint British and American Missions, is gaining +upon Roman Catholicism, and has now far outstripped +it, but the Roman Catholic organisations +are very wealthy on account of ancient valuable +concessions and well-invested funds. In case of +a Bolshevist movement that may be a source of +danger, as it gives a reason for attack. The +Bishop made the very striking remark that if the +whites cleared right out of China all the Christian +Churches of divers creeds would within a generation +merge into one creed. "What have we to +do," they say, "with these old historical quarrels +which are hardly intelligible to us? We are all +followers of Christ, and that is enough." Truly, +the converted seem far ahead of those who converted +them. It is the priesthoods, the organisations, +the funds and the vested interests which +prevent the Churches from being united. In the +meanwhile ninety per cent. of our population shows +what it thinks by never entering into a church +at all. Personally, I can never remember since +I reached manhood feeling myself the better for +having gone into one. And yet I have been an +earnest seeker for truth. Verily, there is something +deep down which is rotten. It is want of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +fact, want of reality, words instead of things. +Only last Sunday I shuddered as I listened to the +hymns, and it amazed me to look around and see +the composed faces of those who were singing +them. Do they think what they are saying, or +does Faith atrophy some part of the brain? We +are "born through water and blood into the true +church." We drink precious blood. "He hath +broken the teeth in their jaw." Can such phrases +really mean anything to any thoughtful man? +If not, why continue them? You will have your +churches empty while you do. People will not +argue about it—they will, and do, simply stay +away. And the clergy go on stating and restating +incredible unproved things, while neglecting +and railing at those which could be proved +and believed. On our lines those nine out of +ten could be forced back to a reconsideration of +their position, even though that position would +not square with all the doctrines of present-day +Christianity, which would, I think, have offended +the early Christians as much as it does the earnest +thinkers of to-day.</p> + +<p>Port Said came at last, and we entered the Suez +Canal. It is a shocking thing that the entrance +to this, one of the most magnificent of the works of +man, are flanked by great sky advertisements of +various brands of whisky. The sale of whisky +may or may not be a tolerable thing, but its +flaunting advertisements, Dewar, Johnny Walker, +and the rest, have surely long been intolerable. +If anything would make me a total prohibitionist +those would. They are shameless. I do not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +know if some middle way could be found by which +light alcoholic drinks could remain—so light that +drunkenness would be hardly possible—but if this +cannot be done, then let us follow the noble +example of America. It is indeed shameful to +see at the very point of the world where some +noble sentiment might best be expressed these +huge reminders of that which has led to so much +misery and crime. To a Frenchman it must seem +even worse than to us, while what the abstemious +Mohammedan can think is beyond my imagination. +In that direction at least the religion of Mohammed +has done better than that of Christ. If all those +Esquimaux, South Sea Islanders and others who +have been converted to Christianity and then +debauched by drink, had followed the prophet +instead, it cannot be denied that their development +would have been a happier and a higher one, +though the cast-iron doctrines and dogmas of the +Moslem have dangers of their own.</p> + +<p>Has France ever had the credit she deserves +for the splendid faith with which she followed that +great beneficent genius Lesseps in his wonderful +work? It is beautiful from end to end, French +in its neatness, its order, its exquisite finish. +Truly the opposition of our people, both experts +and public, was a disgrace to us, though it sinks +into insignificance when compared with our colossal +national stupidity over the Channel tunnel. When +our descendants compute the sums spent in +shipping and transhipping in the great war, the +waste of merchant ships and convoys, the sufferings +of the wounded, the delay in reinforcements,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +the dependence upon the weather, they will agree +that our sin had found us out and that we have +paid a fitting price for our stupidity. Unhappily, +it was not our blind guides who paid it, but it was +the soldier and sailor and taxpayer, for the nation +always pays collectively for the individual blunder. +Would a hundred million pounds cover the cost of +that one? Well can I remember how a year +before war was declared, seeing clearly what was +coming, I sent three memoranda to the Naval +and Military authorities and to the Imperial +Council of Defence pointing out exactly what the +situation would be, and especially the danger to +our transports. It is admitted now that it was +only the strange inaction of the German light +forces, and especially their want of comprehension +of the possibilities of the submarine, which +enabled our Expeditionary Force to get across at +all, so that we might have lost the war within the +first month. But as to my poor memoranda, +which proved so terribly correct, I might as well +have dropped them into my own wastepaper +basket instead of theirs, and so saved the postage. +My only convert was Captain, now General, +Swinton, part inventor of the tanks, who acted +as Secretary to the Imperial Defence Committee, +and who told me at the time that my paper had set +him thinking furiously.</p> + +<p>Which leads my thoughts to the question of the +torpedoing of merchant vessels by submarines. +So sure was I that the Germans would do this, +that after knocking at official doors in vain, I +published a sketch called "Danger," which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +written a year before the war, and depicted all +that afterwards occurred, even down to such small +details as the ships zig-zagging up Channel to +escape, and the submarines using their guns to +save torpedoes. I felt as if, like Solomon Eagle, +I could have marched down Fleet Street with a +brazier on my head if I could only call people's +attention to the coming danger. I saw naval +officers on the point, but they were strangely blind, +as is shown by the comments printed at the end of +"Danger," which give the opinions of several +admirals pooh-poohing my fears. Among others +I saw Captain Beatty, as he then was, and found +him alive to the possible danger, though he did not +suggest a remedy. His quiet, brisk personality +impressed me, and I felt that our national brain-errors +might perhaps be made good in the end by +the grit that is in us. But how hard were our tasks +from our want of foresight. Admiral Von Capelle +did me the honour to say during the war, in the +German Reichstag, that I was the only man who +had prophesied the conditions of the great naval +war. As a matter of fact, both Fisher and Scott +had done so, though they had not given it to the +public in the same detail—but nothing had been +done. We know now that there was not a single +harbour proof against submarines on our whole +East Coast. Truly the hand of the Lord was over +England. Nothing less could have saved her.</p> + +<p>We tied up to the bank soon after entering the +Canal, and lay there most of the night while a +procession of great ships moving northwards swept +silently past us in the ring of vivid light cast by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +their searchlights and our own. I stayed on +deck most of the night to watch them. The +silence was impressive—those huge structures +sweeping past with only the slow beat of their +propellers and the wash of their bow wave on +either side. No sooner had one of these great +shapes slid past than, looking down the Canal, one +saw the brilliant head light of another in the +distance. They are only allowed to go at the +slowest pace, so that their wash may not wear +away the banks. Finally, the last had passed, and +we were ourselves able to cast off our warps and +push southwards. I remained on deck seeing the +sun rise over the Eastern desert, and then a +wonderful slow-moving panorama of Egypt as the +bank slid slowly past us. First desert, then green +oases, then the long line of rude fortifications from +Kantara downwards, with the camp fires smoking, +groups of early busy Tommies and endless dumps +of stores. Here and to the south was the point +where the Turks with their German leaders +attempted the invasion of Egypt, carrying flat-bottomed +boats to ford the Canal. How they +were ever allowed to get so far is barely comprehensible, +but how they were ever permitted +to get back again across one hundred miles of +desert in the face of our cavalry and camelry +is altogether beyond me. Even their guns got +back untaken. They dropped a number of mines +in the Canal, but with true Turkish slovenliness +they left on the banks at each point the +long bamboos on which they had carried them +across the desert, which considerably lessened the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +work of those who had to sweep them up. The +sympathies of the Egyptians seems to have been +against us, and yet they have no desire to pass +again under the rule of the Turk. Our dominion +has had the effect of turning a very poor country +into a very rich one, and of securing some sort of +justice for the fellah or peasant, but since we get +no gratitude and have no trade preference it is +a little difficult to see how we are the better for all +our labours. So long as the Canal is secure—and +it is no one's interest to injure it—we should be +better if the country governed itself. We have +too many commitments, and if we have to take +new ones, such as Mesopotamia, it would be well +to get rid of some of the others where our task +is reasonably complete. "We never let the +youngsters grow up," said a friendly critic. +There is, however, I admit, another side to +the question, and the idea of permitting a +healthy moral place like Port Said to relapse +into the hotbed of gambling and syphilis which +it used to be, is repugnant to the mind. Which +is better—that a race be free, immoral and +incompetent, or that it be forced into morality +and prosperity? That question meets us at every +turn.</p> + +<p>The children have been delighted by the fish on +the surface of the Canal. Their idea seems to be +that the one aim and object of our excursion is to +see sharks in the sea and snakes in Australia. +We did actually see a shark half ashore upon +a sandbank in one of the lower lakes near +Suez. It was lashing about with a frantic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +tail, and so got itself off into deep water. To +the west all day we see the very wild and +barren country through which our ancestors +used to drive upon the overland route when they +travelled by land from Cairo to Suez. The smoke +of a tiny mail-train marks the general line of that +most desolate road. In the evening we were +through the Canal and marked the rugged shore +upon our left down which the Israelites pursued +their way in the direction of Sinai. One wonders +how much truth there is in the narrative. On the +one hand it is impossible to doubt that something +of the sort did occur. On the other, the impossibility +of so huge a crowd living on the rare +wells of the desert is manifest. But numbers are +not the strong point of an Oriental historian. +Perhaps a thousand or two may have followed +their great leader upon that perilous journey. I +have heard that Moses either on his own or +through his wife was in touch with Babylonian +habits. This would explain those tablets of stone, +or of inscribed clay burned into brick, which we +receive as the Ten Commandments, and which only +differ from the moral precepts of other races in +the strange limitations and omissions. At least +ten new ones have long been needed to include +drunkenness, gluttony, pride, envy, bigotry, lying +and the rest.</p> + +<p>The weather grows hotter and hotter, so that +one aged steward who has done 100 voyages +declares it to be unique. One passenger has died. +Several stewards have collapsed. The wind still +keeps behind us. In the midst of all this I had an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +extensively signed petition from the second class +passengers that I should address them. I did so, +and spoke on deck for forty minutes to a very +attentive audience which included many of the +officers of the ship. I hope I got my points across +to them. I was a sad example of sweated labour +when I had finished. My wife tells me that the +people were impressed. As I am never aware of +the presence of any individual when I am speaking +on this subject I rely upon my wife's very quick +and accurate feminine impressions. She sits +always beside me, notes everything, gives me her +sympathetic atmosphere which is of such psychic +importance, and finally reports the result. If any +point of mine seems to her to miss its mark I +unhesitatingly take it out. It interests me to hear +her tell of the half-concealed sneer with which +men listen to me, and how it turns into interest, +bewilderment and finally something like reverence +and awe as the brain gradually realises the +proved truth of what I am saying, which upsets +the whole philosophy on which their lives are +built.</p> + +<p>There are several Australian officers on board +who are coming from the Russian front full of +dreadful stories of Bolshevist atrocities, seen with +their own eyes. The executioners were Letts +and Chinese, and the instigators renegade Jews, +so that the Russians proper seem to have been the +more or less innocent dupes. They had dreadful +photographs of tortured and mutilated men as +corroboration. Surely hell, the place of punishment +and purgatorial expiation, is actually upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +this earth in such cases. One leader seems to have +been a Sadic madman, for after torturing his +victims till even the Chinese executioners struck, +he would sit playing a violin very exquisitely +while he gloated over their agonies. All these +Australian boys agree that the matter will burn +itself out, and that it will end in an immense +massacre of Jews which may involve the whole +seven millions now in Russia. God forbid, but +the outlook is ominous! I remember a prophecy +which I read early in the war that a great figure +would arise in the north and have power for six +years. If Lenin was the great figure then he has, +according to the prophet, about two years more +to run. But prophecy is fitful, dangerous work. +The way in which the founders of the Christian +faith all foretold the imminent end of the world +is an example. What they dimly saw was no +doubt the destruction of Jerusalem, which seems to +have been equally clear to Ezekiel 600 years +before, for his picture of cannibalism and dispersion +is very exact.</p> + +<p>It is wonderful what chances of gaining direct +information one has aboard a ship of this sort, +with its mixed crowd of passengers, many of +them famous in their own lines. I have already +alluded to the officers returning from Russia with +their prophecies of evil. But there are many +other folk with tales of deep interest. There is a +Mr. Covell, a solid practical Briton, who may +prove to be a great pioneer, for he has made +farming pay handsomely in the very heart of +the Indian plains. Within a hundred miles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +Lucknow he has founded the townlet of Covellpore, +where he handles 3,000 acres of wheat and cotton +with the aid of about the same number of natives. +This is the most practical step I have ever heard +of for forming a real indigenous white population +in India. His son was with him, going out to +carry on the work. Mr. Covell holds that the +irrigation of the North West of India is one of the +greatest wonders of the world, and Jacob the +engineer responsible. I had never heard of him, +nor, I am ashamed to say, had I heard of Sir +Leonard Rogers, who is one of those great men +like Sir Ronald Ross, whom the Indian Medical +Service throws up. Rogers has reduced the +mortality of cholera by intravenous injections of +hypertonic saline until it is only 15 per cent. +General Maude, I am informed, would almost +certainly have been saved, had it not been that +some false departmental economy had withheld +the necessary apparatus. Leprosy also seems in +a fair way to yielding to Rogers' genius for +investigation.</p> + +<p>It is sad to hear that this same Indian Medical +Service which has produced such giants as Fayrer, +Ross, and Rogers is in a fair way to absolute ruin, +because the conditions are such that good white +candidates will no longer enter it. White doctors +do not mind working with, or even under, natives +who have passed the same British examinations +as themselves, but they bar the native doctor who +has got through a native college in India, and is +on a far lower educational level than themselves. +To serve under such a man is an impossible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +inversion. This is appreciated by the medical +authorities at home, the word is given to the +students, and the best men avoid the service. +So unless a change is made, the end is in sight of +the grand old service which has given so much to +humanity.</p> + +<p>Aden is remarkable only for the huge water +tanks cut to catch rain, and carved out of solid +rock. A whole captive people must have been +set to work on so colossal a task, and one wonders +where the poor wretches got water themselves +the while. Their work is as fresh and efficient as +when they left it. No doubt it was for the +watering, not of the population, but of the Egyptian +and other galleys on their way to Punt and +King Solomon's mines. It must be a weary life +for our garrison in such a place. There is strange +fishing, sea snakes, parrot fish and the like. It is +their only relaxation, for it is desert all round.</p> + +<p>Monsoon and swell and drifting rain in the +Indian Ocean. We heard that "thresh of the +deep sea rain," of which Kipling sings. Then at +last in the early morning the long quay of Bombay, +and the wonderful crowd of men of every race who +await an incoming steamer. Here at least half +our passengers were disgorged, young subalterns, +grey colonels, grave administrators, yellow-faced +planters, all the fuel which is grown in Britain and +consumed in the roaring furnace of India. So +devoted to their work, so unthanked and uncomprehended +by those for whom they work! They +are indeed a splendid set of men, and if they withdrew +I wonder how long it would be before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +wild men of the frontier would be in Calcutta and +Bombay, as the Picts and Scots flowed over +Britain when the Roman legions were withdrawn. +What view will the coming Labour governments +of Britain take of our Imperial commitments? +Upon that will depend the future history of great +tracts of the globe which might very easily relapse +into barbarism.</p> + +<p>The ship seemed lonely when our Indian friends +were gone, for indeed, the pick of the company +went with them. Several pleased me by assuring +me as they left that their views of life had been +changed since they came on board the "Naldera." +To many I gave reading lists that they might look +further into the matter for themselves. A little +leaven in the great lump, but how can we help +leavening it all when we know that, unlike other +creeds, no true Spiritualist can ever revert, so +that while we continually gain, we never lose. +One hears of the converts to various sects, but +one does not hear of those who are driven out by +their narrow, intolerant doctrines. You can +change your mind about faiths, but not about +facts, and hence our certain conquest.</p> + +<p>One cannot spend even a single long day in +India without carrying away a wonderful +impression of the gentle dignity of the Indian +people. Our motor drivers were extraordinarily +intelligent and polite, and all we met gave the same +impression.</p> + +<p>India may be held by the sword, but it is certainly +kept very carefully in the scabbard, for we +hardly saw a soldier in the streets of this, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +greatest city. I observed some splendid types +of manhood, however, among the native police. +We lunched at the Taj Mahal Hotel, and got back +tired and full of mixed impressions.</p> + +<p>Verily the ingenuity of children is wonderful. +They have turned their active minds upon the +problem of paper currency with fearsome results. +Baby writes cheques in quaint ways upon odd bits +of paper and brings them to me to be cashed. +Malcolm, once known as Dimples, has made a +series of pound and five pound notes of his own. +The bank they call the money shop. I can trace +every sort of atavism, the arboreal, the cave +dweller, the adventurous raider, and the tribal +instinct in the child, but this development seems +a little premature.</p> + +<p>Sunday once more, and the good Bishop +preaching. I wonder more and more what an +educated Chinaman would make of such doctrines. +To take an example, he has quoted to-day with +great approval, the action of Peter in discarding +the rite of circumcision as a proof of election. +That marked, according to the Bishop, the broad +comprehensive mind which could not confine the +mercies of God to any limited class. And yet +when I take up the œcumenical pronouncement +from the congress of Anglican bishops which he +has just attended, I find that baptism is made the +test, even as the Jews made circumcision. Have +the bishops not learned that there are millions +who revere the memory of Christ, whether they +look upon him as God or man, but who think that +baptism is a senseless survival of heathendom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +like so many of our religious observances? The +idea that the Being who made the milky way can +be either placated or incensed by pouring a splash +of water over child or adult is an offence to reason, +and a slur upon the Divinity.</p> + +<p>Two weary days upon the sea with drifting rain +showers and wonderful scarlet and green sunsets. +Have beguiled the time with W. B. Maxwell's +"Lamp and the Mirror." I have long thought +that Maxwell was the greatest of British novelists, +and this book confirms me in my opinion. Who +else could have drawn such fine detail and yet so +broad and philosophic a picture? There may have +been single books which were better than Maxwell's +best—the "Garden of Allah," with its gorgeous +oriental colour would, for example, make a bid for +first place, but which of us has so splendid a list +of first class serious works as "Mrs. Thompson," +"The Rest Cure," "Vivian," "In Cotton Wool," +above all, "The Guarded Flame"—classics, every +one. Our order of merit will come out very +differently in a generation or so to what it stands +now, and I shall expect to find my nominee at the +top. But after all, what's the odds? You do +your work as well as you can. You pass. You +find other work to do. How the old work compares +with the other fellow's work can be a matter +of small concern.</p> + +<p>In Colombo harbour lay H.M.S. "Highflyer," +which we looked upon with the reverence which +everybody and everything which did well in the +war deserve from us—a saucy, rakish, speedy craft. +Several other steamers were flying the yellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +quarantine flag, but our captain confided to me +that it was a recognised way of saying "no +visitors," and did not necessarily bear any pathological +meaning. As we had nearly two days +before we resumed our voyage I was able to +give all our party a long stretch on shore, finally +staying with my wife for the night at the Galle +Face Hotel, a place where the preposterous charges +are partly compensated for by the glorious rollers +which break upon the beach outside. I was +interested in the afternoon by a native conjurer +giving us what was practically a private performance +of the mango-tree trick. He did it so +admirably that I can well understand those who +think that it is an occult process. I watched the +man narrowly, and believe that I solved the little +mystery, though even now I cannot be sure. In +doing it he began by laying several objects out in a +casual way while hunting in his bag for his mango +seed. These were small odds and ends including +a little rag doll, very rudely fashioned, about six +or eight inches long. One got accustomed to the +presence of these things and ceased to remark +them. He showed the seed and passed it for +examination, a sort of large Brazil nut. He then +laid it among some loose earth, poured some water +on it, covered it with a handkerchief, and crooned +over it. In about a minute he exhibited the same, +or another seed, the capsule burst, and a light +green leaf protruding. I took it in my hands, +and it was certainly a real bursting mango seed, +but clearly it had been palmed and substituted +for the other. He then buried it again and kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +raising the handkerchief upon his own side, and +scrabbling about with his long brown fingers +underneath its cover. Then he suddenly whisked +off the handkerchief and there was the plant, a +foot or so high, with thick foliage and blossoms, +its root well planted in the earth. It was certainly +very startling.</p> + +<p>My explanation is that by a miracle of packing +the whole of the plant had been compressed into +the rag doll, or little cloth cylinder already mentioned. +The scrabbling of the hands under the +cloth was to smooth out the leaves after it was +freed from this covering. I observed that the +leaves were still rather crumpled, and that there +were dark specks of fungi which would not be there +if the plant were straight from nature's manufactory. +But it was wonderfully done when you +consider that the man was squatting in our +midst, we standing in a semi-circle around him, +with no adventitious aid whatever. I do not +believe that the famous Mr. Maskeleyne or any of +those other wise conjurers who are good enough +occasionally to put Lodge, Crookes and Lombroso +in their places, could have wrought a better +illusion.</p> + +<p>The fellow had a cobra with him which he +challenged me to pick up. I did so and gazed into +its strange eyes, which some devilry of man's had +turned to a lapis lazuli blue. The juggler said it +was the result of its skin-sloughing, but I have my +doubts. The poison bag had, I suppose, been +extracted, but the man seemed nervous and slipped +his brown hand between my own and the swaying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +venomous head with its peculiar flattened hood. +It is a fearsome beast, and I can realise what was +told me by a lover of animals that the snake was +the one creature from which he could get no return +of affection. I remember that I once had three +in my employ when the "Speckled Band" was +produced in London, fine, lively rock pythons, +and yet in spite of this profusion of realism +I had the experience of reading a review +which, after duly slating the play, wound up +with the scathing sentence, "The performance +ended with the production of a palpably artificial +serpent." Such is the reward of virtue. Afterwards +when the necessities of several travelling +companies compelled us to use dummy snakes we +produced a much more realistic effect. The real +article either hung down like a pudgy yellow bell +rope, or else when his tail was pinched, endeavoured +to squirm back and get level with the stage +carpenter, who pinched him, which was not in the +plot. The latter individual had no doubts at all +as to the dummy being an improvement upon +the real.</p> + +<p>Never, save on the west coast of Africa, have I +seen "the league-long roller thundering on the +shore," as here, where the Indian Ocean with its +thousand leagues of momentum hits the western +coast of Ceylon. It looks smooth out at sea, and +then you are surprised to observe that a good-sized +boat has suddenly vanished. Then it scoops upwards +once more on the smooth arch of the billow, +disappearing on the further slope. The native +catamarans are almost invisible, so that you see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +a row of standing figures from time to time on the +crest of the waves. I cannot think that any craft +in the world would come through rough water as +these catamarans with their long outriggers can +do. Man has made few more simple and more +effective inventions, and if I were a younger man +I would endeavour to introduce them to Brighton +beach, as once I introduced ski to Switzerland, +or auto-wheels to the British roads. I have other +work to do now, but why does not some sportsman +take the model, have it made in England, and then +give an exhibition in a gale of wind on the south +coast. It would teach our fishermen some possibilities +of which they are ignorant.</p> + +<p>As I stood in a sandy cove one of them came +flying in, a group of natives rushing out and +pulling it up on the beach. The craft consists only +of two planks edgewise and lengthwise. In the +nine-inch slit between them lay a number of great +twelve-pound fish, like cod, and tied to the side of +the boat was a ten-foot sword fish. To catch that +creature while standing on a couple of floating +planks must have been sport indeed, and yet the +craft is so ingenious that to a man who can at a +pinch swim for it, there is very small element of +danger. The really great men of our race, the +inventor of the wheel, the inventor of the lever, +the inventor of the catamaran are all lost in the +mists of the past, but ethnologists have found that +the cubic capacity of the neolithic brain is as great +as our own.</p> + +<p>There are two robbers' castles, as the unhappy +visitor calls them, facing the glorious sea, the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +the Galle Face, the other the Mount Lavinia +Hotel. They are connected by an eight-mile +road, which has all the colour and life and variety +of the East for every inch of the way. In that +glorious sun, under the blue arch of such a sky, +and with the tropical trees and flowers around, +the poverty of these people is very different from +the poverty of a London slum. Is there in all +God's world such a life as that, and can it really +be God's world while we suffer it to exist! Surely, +it is a palpable truth that no one has a right to +luxuries until every one has been provided with +necessities, and among such necessities a decent +environment is the first. If we had spent money +to fight slumland as we spent it to fight Germany, +what a different England it would be. The world +moves all the same, and we have eternity before +us. But some folk need it.</p> + +<p>A doctor came up to me in the hotel and told +me that he was practising there, and had come +recently from England. He had lost his son in +the war, and had himself become unsettled. +Being a Spiritualist he went to Mrs. Brittain, the +medium, who told him that his boy had a message +for him which was that he would do very well in +Colombo. He had himself thought of Ceylon, but +Mrs. B. had no means of knowing that. He had +obeyed the advice thus given, and was glad that he +had done so. How much people may miss by +cutting themselves away from these ministers of +grace! In all this opposition to Spiritualism the +punishment continually fits the crime.</p> + +<p>Once again we shed passengers and proceeded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +chastened mood with empty decks where once it +was hard to move. Among others, good Bishop +Banister of Kwang-si had gone. I care little +for his sacramental and vicarious doctrines, but +I am very sure that wherever his robust, kindly, +sincere personality may dwell is bound to be a +centre of the true missionary effort—the effort +which makes for the real original teaching of his +Master, submission to God and goodwill to our +fellow men.</p> + +<p>Now we are on the last lap with nothing but a +clear stretch of salt water between our prow and +West Australia. Our mission from being a sort +of dream takes concrete form and involves definite +plans. Meanwhile we plough our way through a +deep blue sea with the wind continually against +us. I have not seen really calm water since we +left the Canal. We carry on with the usual +routine of ship sports, which include an England +and Australia cricket match, in which I have the +honour of captaining England, a proper ending +for a long if mediocre career as a cricketer. We +lost by one run, which was not bad considering +our limited numbers.</p> + +<p>Posers of all sorts are brought to me by thoughtful +inquirers, which I answer when I can. Often +I can't. One which is a most reasonable objection +has given me a day's thought. If, as is +certain, we can remember in our next life the +more important incidents of this one, why is it +that in this one we can remember nothing of that +previous spiritual career, which must have existed +since nothing can be born in time for eternity?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +Our friends on the other side cannot help us there, +nor can even such extended spiritual visions as +those of Vale Owen clear it up. On the whole we +must admit that our Theosophical friends, with +whom we quarrel for their absence of evidence, +have the best attempt at an explanation. I +imagine that man's soul has a cycle which is complete +in itself, and all of which is continuous and +self conscious. This begins with earth life. Then +at last a point is reached, it may be a reincarnation, +and a new cycle is commenced, the old one +being closed to our memory until we have reached +some lofty height in our further journey. Pure +speculation, I admit, but it would cover what we +know and give us a working hypothesis. I can +never excite myself much about the reincarnation +idea, for if it be so, it occurs seldom, and at long +intervals, with ten years spent in the other spheres +for one spent here, so that even admitting all that +is said by its supporters it is not of such great +importance. At the present rate of change this +world will be as strange as another sphere by the +time we are due to tread the old stage once more. +It is only fair to say that though many spiritualists +oppose it, there is a strong body, including +the whole French Allan Kardec school, who support +it. Those who have passed over may well +be divided upon the subject since it concerns their +far future and is a matter of speculation to them +as to us.</p> + +<p>Thrasher whales and sperm whales were seen +which aroused the old whaling thrill in my +heart. It was the more valuable Greenland whale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +which I helped to catch, while these creatures are +those which dear old Frank Bullen, a childlike +sailor to the last, described in his "Cruise of the +Cachelot." How is it that sailors write such +perfect English. There are Bullen and Conrad, +both of whom served before the mast—the two +purest stylists of their generation. So was Loti +in France. There are some essays of Bullen's, +especially a description of a calm in the tropics, +and again of "Sunrise seen from the Crow's Nest," +which have not been matched in our time for +perfection of imagery and diction. They are both +in his "Idyls of the Sea." If there is compensation +in the beyond—and I know that there is—then +Frank Bullen is in great peace, for his whole +earthly life was one succession of troubles. When +I think of his cruel stepmother, his dreadful +childhood, his life on a Yankee blood ship, his +struggles as a tradesman, his bankruptcy, his +sordid worries, and finally, his prolonged ill-health, +I marvel at the unequal distribution of such +burdens. He was the best singer of a chanty +that I have ever heard, and I can hear him now +with his rich baritone voice trolling out "Sally +Brown" or "Stormalong." May I hear him once +again! Our dear ones tell us that there is no +great gap between what pleases us here and that +which will please us in the beyond. Our own +brains, had we ever used them in the matter, +should have instructed us that all evolution, +spiritual as well as material, must be gradual. +Indeed, once one knows psychic truth, one can, +reasoning backwards, perceive that we should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +unaided have come to the same conclusions, but +since we have all been deliberately trained not to +use our reason in religious matters, it is no wonder +that we have made rather a hash of it. Surely it +is clear enough that in the case of an artist the +artistic nature is part of the man himself. Therefore, +if he survives it must survive. But if it +survives it must have means of expression, or it is +a senseless thing. But means of expression implies +appreciation from others and a life on the +general lines of this one. So also of the drama, +music, science and literature, if we carry on they +carry on, and they cannot carry on without actual +expression and a public to be served.</p> + +<p>To the east of us and just beyond the horizon +lie the Cocos Islands, where Ross established his +strange little kingdom, and where the <i>Emden</i> +met its end—a glorious one, as every fair minded +man must admit. I have seen her stern post +since then in the hall of the Federal Parliament at +Melbourne, like some fossil monster, once a terror +and now for children to gaze at. As to the Cocos +Islands, the highest point is, I understand, about +twenty feet, and tidal waves are not unknown upon +the Pacific, so that the community holds its tenure +at very short and sudden notice to quit.</p> + +<p>On the morning of September 17th a low coast +line appeared upon the port bow—Australia at +last. It was the edge of the West Australian +State. The evening before a wireless had reached +me from the spiritualists of Perth saying that they +welcomed us and our message. It was a kind +thought and a helpful one. We were hardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +moored in the port of Fremantle, which is about +ten miles from the capital, when a deputation of +these good, kind people was aboard, bearing great +bunches of wild flowers, most of which were new +to us. Their faces fell when they learned that I +must go on in the ship and that there was very +little chance of my being able to address them. +They are only connected with the other States by +one long thin railway line, 1,200 miles long, with +scanty trains which were already engaged, so that +unless we stuck to the ship we should have to pass +ten days or so before we could resume our journey. +This argument was unanswerable, and so the idea +of a meeting was given up.</p> + +<p>These kind people had two motors in attendance, +which must, I fear, have been a strain upon their +resources, for as in the old days the true believers +and practical workers are drawn from the poor and +humble. However, they certainly treated us +royally, and even the children were packed into +the motors. We skirted the Swan River, passed +through the very beautiful public park, and, +finally, lunched at the busy town, where Bone's +store would cut a respectable figure in London, +with its many departments and its roof restaurant. +It was surprising after our memories of England +to note how good and abundant was the food. +It is a charming little town, and it was strange, +after viewing its settled order, to see the mill +where the early settlers not so very long ago had +to fight for their lives with the black fellows. +Those poor black fellows! Their fate is a dark +stain upon Australia. And yet it must in justice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +to our settlers be admitted that the question was +a very difficult one. Was colonisation to be +abandoned, or were these brave savages to be +overcome? That was really the issue. When +they speared the cattle of the settlers what were +the settlers to do? Of course, if a reservation +could have been opened up, as in the case +of the Maoris, that would have been ideal. +But the noble Maori is a man with whom +one could treat on equal terms and he belonged +to a solid race. The Aborigines of Australia +were broken wandering tribes, each at war +with its neighbours. In a single reservation +they would have exterminated each other. It +was a piteous tragedy, and yet, even now in +retrospect, how difficult it is to point out what +could have been done.</p> + +<p>The Spiritualists of Perth seem to be a small +body, but as earnest as their fellows elsewhere. +A masterful looking lady, Mrs. McIlwraith, rules +them, and seems fit for the part. They have +several mediums developing, but I had no chance +of testing their powers. Altogether our encounter +with them cheered us on our way. We had the +first taste of Australian labour conditions at +Fremantle, for the men knocked off at the given hour, +refusing to work overtime, with the result that we +carried a consignment of tea, meant for their own +tea-pots, another thousand miles to Adelaide, and +so back by train which must have been paid for out +of their own pockets and those of their fellow +citizens. Verily, you cannot get past the golden +rule, and any breach of it brings its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +punishment somehow, somewhere, be the sinner a +master or a man.</p> + +<p>And now we had to cross the dreaded Bight, +where the great waves from the southern ice come +rolling up, but our luck was still in, and we went +through it without a qualm. Up to Albany one +sees the barren irregular coast, and then there +were two days of blue water, which brought us at +last to Adelaide, our port of debarkation. The +hour and the place at last!</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.—Challenges.—Mr. Carlyle +Smythe.—The Adelaide Press.—The great drought.—The +wine industry.—Clairvoyance.—Meeting with Bellchambers.—The +first lecture.—The effect.—The Religious +lecture.—The illustrated lecture.—Premonitions.—The +spot light.—Mr. Thomas' account of the incident.—Correspondence.—Adelaide +doctors.—A day in the Bush.—The Mallee +fowl.—Sussex in Australia.—Farewell to +Adelaide.</p></div> + + +<p>I was welcomed to Australia by a hospitable letter +from the Premier, Mr. Hughes, who assured me +that he would do what he could to make our visit +a pleasant one, and added, "I hope you will see +Australia as it is, for I want you to tell the world +about us. We are a very young country, we +have a very big and very rich heritage, and the +great war has made us realise that we are Australians, +proud to belong to the Empire, but proud +too of our own country."</p> + +<p>Apart from Mr. Hughes's kind message, my +chief welcome to the new land came from Sydney, +and took the queer form of two independant +challenges to public debate, one from the Christian +Evidence Society, and the other from the local +leader of the materialists. As the two positions +are mutually destructive, one felt inclined to tell +them to fight it out between themselves and that +I would fight the winner. The Christian Evidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +Society, is, of course, out of the question, since +they regard a text as an argument, which I can +only accept with many qualifications, so that there +is no common basis. The materialist is a more +worthy antagonist, for though he is often as +bigotted and inaccessible to reason as the worst +type of Christian, there is always a leaven of +honest, open-minded doubters on whom a debate +might make an impression. A debate with them, +as I experienced when I met Mr. MacCabe, can only +follow one line, they quoting all the real or alleged +scandals which have ever been connected with the +lowest forms of mediumship, and claiming that +the whole cult is comprised therein, to which you +counter with your own personal experiences, and +with the evidence of the cloud of witnesses who +have found the deepest comfort and enlarged +knowledge. It is like two boxers each hitting the +air, and both returning to their respective corners +amid the plaudits of their backers, while the +general public is none the better.</p> + +<p>Three correspondents headed me off on the +ship, and as I gave each of them a long separate +interview, I was a tired man before I got ashore. +Mr. Carlyle Smythe, my impresario, had also +arrived, a small alert competent gentleman, with +whom I at once got on pleasant terms, which +were never once clouded during our long travels +together upon our tour. I was fortunate indeed +to have so useful and so entertaining a companion, +a musician, a scholar, and a man of many varied +experiences. With his help we soon got our stuff +through the customs, and made the short train<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +journey which separates the Port of Adelaide from +the charming city of that name. By one o'clock +we were safely housed in the Grand Central Hotel, +with windows in place of port holes, and the roar +of the trams to take the place of the murmurs of +the great ocean.</p> + +<p>The good genius of Adelaide was a figure, already +almost legendary, one Colonel Light, who played +the part of Romulus and Remus to the infant +city. Somewhere in the thirties of last century +he chose the site, against strong opposition, and +laid out the plan with such skill that in all British +and American lands I have seen few such cities, +so pretty, so orderly and so self-sufficing. When +one sees all the amenities of the place, botanical +gardens, zoological gardens, art gallery, museum, +university, public library and the rest, it is hard +to realise that the whole population is still under +three hundred thousand. I do not know whether +the press sets the tone to the community or the +community to the press, but in any case Adelaide +is greatly blessed in this respect, for its two chief +papers the <i>Register</i> and the <i>Advertiser</i>, under Sir +William Sowden and Sir Langdon Bonython +respectively, are really excellent, with a worldwide +Metropolitan tone.</p> + +<p>Their articles upon the subject in which I am +particularly interested, though by no means one-sided, +were at least informed with knowledge and +breadth of mind.</p> + +<p>In Adelaide I appreciated, for the first time, the +crisis which Australia has been passing through +in the shape of a two-years drought, only recently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +broken. It seems to have involved all the States +and to have caused great losses, amounting to +millions of sheep and cattle. The result was that +the price of those cattle which survived has risen +enormously, and at the time of our visit an +absolute record had been established, a bullock +having been sold for £41. The normal price +would be about £13. Sheep were about £3 each, +the normal being fifteen shillings. This had, of +course, sent the price of meat soaring with the +usual popular unrest and agitation as a result. It +was clear, however, that with the heavy rains the +prices would fall. These Australian droughts are +really terrible things, especially when they come +upon newly-opened country and in the hotter +regions of Queensland and the North. One lady +told us that she had endured a drought in Queensland +which lasted so long that children of five had +never seen a drop of rain. You could travel a +hundred miles and find the brown earth the whole +way, with no sign of green anywhere, the sheep +eating twigs or gnawing bark until they died. +Her brother sold his surviving sheep for one +shilling each, and when the drought broke had +to restock at 50s. a head. This is a common experience, +and all but the man with savings have +to take to some subordinate work, ruined men. +No doubt, with afforestation, artesian wells, +irrigation and water storage things may be +modified, but all these things need capital, and +capital in these days is hard to seek, nor can it +be expected that capitalists will pour their money +into States which have wild politicians who talk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +lightly of past obligations. You cannot tell the +investor that he is a bloated incubus one moment, +and go hat in hand for further incubation the +next. I fear that this grand country as a whole +may suffer from the wild ideas of some of its +representatives. But under it all lies the solid +self-respecting British stuff, which will never +repudiate a just debt, however heavily it may +press. Australians may groan under the burden, +but they should remember that for every pound +of taxation they carry the home Briton carries +nearly three.</p> + +<p>But to return for a moment to the droughts; +has any writer of fiction invented or described a +more long-drawn agony than that of the man, his +nerves the more tired and sensitive from the +constant unbroken heat, waiting day after day +for the cloud that never comes, while under the +glaring sun from the unchanging blue above him, +his sheep, which represent all his life's work and +his hopes, perish before his eyes? A revolver shot +has often ended the long vigil and the pioneer has +joined his vanished flocks. I have just come in +contact with a case where two young returned +soldiers, demobilised from the war and planted on +the land had forty-two cattle given them by the +State to stock their little farm. Not a drop of +water fell for over a year, the feed failed, and these +two warriors of Palestine and Flanders wept at +their own helplessness while their little herd died +before their eyes. Such are the trials which the +Australian farmer has to bear.</p> + +<p>While waiting for my first lecture I do what I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +can to understand the country and its problems. +To this end I visited the vineyards and wine plant +of a local firm which possesses every factor for +success, save the capacity to answer letters. The +originator started grape culture as a private hobby +about 60 years ago, and now such an industry has +risen that this firm alone has £700,000 sunk in the +business, and yet it is only one of several. The +product can be most excellent, but little or any +ever reaches Europe, for it cannot overtake the +local demand. The quality was good and purer +than the corresponding wines in Europe—especially +the champagnes, which seem to be devoid of that +poison, whatever it may be, which has for a +symptom a dry tongue with internal acidity, +driving elderly gentlemen to whisky and soda. +The Australian product, taken in moderate doses, +seems to have no poisonous quality, and is without +that lime-like dryness which appears to be the +cause of it. If temperance reform takes the sane +course of insisting upon a lowering of the alcohol +in our drinks, so that one may be surfeited before +one could be drunken, then this question of good +mild wines will bulk very largely in the future, +and Australia may supply one of the answers. +With all my sympathy for the reformers I feel +that wine is so useful a social agent that we should +not abolish it until we are certain that there is no +<i>via media</i>. The most pregnant argument upon +the subject was the cartoon which showed the +husband saying "My dear, it is the anniversary of +our wedding. Let us have a second bottle of +ginger beer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>We went over the vineyards, ourselves mildly +interested in the vines, and the children wildly +excited over the possibility of concealed snakes. +Then we did the vats and the cellars with their +countless bottles. We were taught the secrets of +fermentation, how the wonderful Pasteur had +discovered that the best and quickest was produced +not by the grape itself, as of old, but by the scraped +bloom of the grape inserted in the bottle. After +viewing the number of times a bottle must be +turned, a hundred at least, and the complex processes +which lead up to the finished article, I will +pay my wine bills in future with a better grace. +The place was all polished wood and shining brass, +like the fittings of a man-of-war, and a great +impression of cleanliness and efficiency was left +upon our minds. We only know the Australian +wines at present by the rough article sold in flasks, +but when the supply has increased the world will +learn that this country has some very different +stuff in its cellars, and will try to transport it to +their tables.</p> + +<p>We had a small meeting of spiritualists in our +hotel sitting-room, under the direction of Mr. +Victor Cromer, a local student of the occult, who +seems to have considerable psychic power. He +has a small circle for psychic development which +is on new lines, for the neophytes who are learning +clairvoyance sit around in a circle in silence, while +Mr. Cromer endeavours by mental effort to build +up the thought form of some object, say a tree, +in the centre of the room. After a time he asks +each of the circle what he or she can see, and has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +many correct answers. With colours in the same +way he can convey impressions to his pupils. It +is clear that telepathy is not excluded as an explanation, +but the actual effect upon the participants +is according to their own account, visual +rather than mental. We had an interesting +sitting with a number of these developing mediums +present, and much information was given, but +little of it could be said to be truly evidential. +After seeing such clairvoyance as that of Mr. Tom +Tyrell or others at home, when a dozen names and +addresses will be given together with the descriptions +of those who once owned them, one is spoiled +for any lesser display.</p> + +<p>There was one man whom I had particularly +determined to meet when I came to Australia. +This was Mr. T. P. Bellchambers, about whom I +had read an article in some magazine which showed +that he was a sort of humble Jeffries or Thoreau, +more lonely than the former, less learned than the +latter, who lived among the wild creatures in the +back country, and was on such terms with our +humble brothers as few men are ever privileged +to attain. I had read how the eagle with the +broken wing had come to him for succour, and how +little birds would sit on the edge of his pannikin +while he drank. Him at all cost would we see. +Like the proverbial prophet, no one I met had +ever heard of him, but on the third day of our +residence there came a journalist bearing with +him a rudely dressed, tangle-haired man, collarless +and unkempt, with kind, irregular features and +clear blue eyes—the eyes of a child. It was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +man himself. "He brought me," said he, nodding +towards the journalist. "He had to, for I always +get bushed in a town."</p> + +<p>This rude figure fingering his frayed cap was +clearly out of his true picture, and we should have +to visit him in his own little clearing to see him as +he really was. Meanwhile I wondered whether +one who was so near nature might know something +of nature's more occult secrets. The dialogue +ran like this:</p> + +<p>"You who are so near nature must have psychic +experiences."</p> + +<p>"What's psychic? I live so much in the wild +that I don't know much."</p> + +<p>"I expect you know plenty we don't know. +But I meant spiritual."</p> + +<p>"Supernatural?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we think it is natural, but little understood."</p> + +<p>"You mean fairies and things?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and the dead."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess our fairies would be black +fairies."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I never saw any."</p> + +<p>"I hoped you might."</p> + +<p>"No, but I know one thing. The night my +mother died I woke to find her hand upon my +brow. Oh, there's no doubt. Her hand was +heavy on my brow."</p> + +<p>"At the time?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, at the very hour."</p> + +<p>"Well, that was good."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Animals know more about such things."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"They see something. My dog gets terrified +when I see nothing, and there's a place in the +bush where my horse shies and sweats, he does, +but there's nothing to see."</p> + +<p>"Something evil has been done there. I've +known many cases."</p> + +<p>"I expect that's it."</p> + +<p>So ran our dialogue. At the end of it he took a +cigar, lighted it at the wrong end, and took himself +with his strong simple backwoods atmosphere +out of the room. Assuredly I must follow him +to the wilds.</p> + +<p>Now came the night of my first lecture. It +was in the city hall, and every seat was occupied. +It was a really magnificent audience of two +thousand people, the most representative of the +town. I am an embarrassed and an interested +witness, so let me for this occasion quote the +sympathetic, not to say flattering account of the +<i>Register</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>"There could not have been a more impressive +set of circumstances than those which attended +the first Australian lecture by Sir Arthur Conan +Doyle at the Adelaide Town Hall on Saturday +night, September 25th. The audience, large, +representative and thoughtful, was in its calibre +and proportions a fitting compliment to a world +celebrity and his mission. Many of the intellectual +leaders of the city were present—University +professors, pulpit personalities, men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +eminent in business, legislators, every section +of the community contributed a quota. It +cannot be doubted, of course, that the brilliant +literary fame of the lecturer was an attraction +added to that strange subject which explored +the 'unknown drama of the soul.' Over all Sir +Arthur dominated by his big arresting presence. +His face has a rugged, kindly strength, tense and +earnest in its grave moments, and full of winning +animation when the sun of his rich humour plays +on the powerful features."</p> + +<p>"It is not altogether a sombre journey he +makes among the shadows, but apparently one of +happy, as well as tender experiences, so that +laughter is not necessarily excluded from the +exposition. Do not let that be misunderstood. +There was no intrusion of the slightest flippancy—Sir +Arthur, the whole time, exhibited that +attitude of reverence and humility demanded of +one traversing a domain on the borderland of +the tremendous. Nothing approaching a theatrical +presentation of the case for Spiritualism +marred the discourse. It was for the most part +a plain statement. First things had to be said, +and the explanatory groundwork laid for future +development. It was a lucid, illuminating +introduction."</p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur had a budget of notes, but after +he had turned over a few pages he sallied forth +with fluent independence under the inspiration +of a vast mental store of material. A finger +jutted out now and again with a thrust of +passionate emphasis, or his big glasses twirled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +during moments of descriptive ease, and occasionally +both hands were held forward as though +delivering settled points to the audience for its +examination. A clear, well-disciplined voice, +excellent diction, and conspicuous sincerity of +manner marked the lecture, and no one could +have found fault with the way in which Sir Arthur +presented his case."</p> + +<p>"The lecturer approached the audience in no +spirit of impatient dogmatism, but in the capacity +of an understanding mind seeking to illumine +the darkness of doubt in those who had +not shared his great experiences. He did not +dictate, but reasoned and pleaded, taking the +people into his confidence with strong conviction +and a consoling faith. 'I want to speak to you +to-night on a subject which concerns the destiny +of every man and woman in this room,' began +Sir Arthur, bringing everybody at once into +an intimate personal circle. 'No doubt the +Almighty, by putting an angel in King William +Street, could convert every one of you to +Spiritualism, but the Almighty law is that we +must use our own brains, and find out our own +salvation, and it is not made too easy for us.'"</p></div> + +<p>It is awkward to include this kindly picture, +and yet I do not know how else to give an idea of +how the matter seemed to a friendly observer. +I had chosen for my theme the scientific aspect of +the matter, and I marshalled my witnesses and +showed how Professor Mayo corroborated Professor +Hare, and Professor Challis Professor Mayo,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +and Sir William Crookes all his predecessors, while +Russell Wallace and Lombroso and Zollner and +Barrett, and Lodge, and many more had all +after long study assented, and I read the very +words of these great men, and showed how bravely +they had risked their reputations and careers for +what they knew to be the truth. I then showed +how the opposition who dared to contradict them +were men with no practical experience of it at all. +It was wonderful to hear the shout of assent when +I said that what struck me most in such a position +was its colossal impertinence. That shout told +me that my cause was won, and from then onwards +the deep silence was only broken by the occasional +deep murmur of heart-felt agreement. I told +them the evidence that had been granted to me, +the coming of my son, the coming of my brother, +and their message. "Plough! Plough! others +will cast the seed." It is hard to talk of such +intimate matters, but they were not given to me +for my private comfort alone, but for that of +humanity. Nothing could have gone better than +this first evening, and though I had no chairman +and spoke for ninety minutes without a pause, I +was so upheld—there is no other word for the +sensation—that I was stronger at the end than +when I began. A leading materialist was among +my audience. "I am profoundly impressed," +said he to Mr. Smythe, as he passed him in the +corridor. That stood out among many kind +messages which reached me that night.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_72" id="I_72">[72]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="390" height="306" alt=" + +THE WANDERERS, 1920-21." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn center"> +<i>Photo: Stirling, Melbourne.</i> <i>See page 75.</i> +<br /> <br /></p> +<p class="blockquotetn caption center">THE WANDERERS, 1920-21.</p> +</div> + +<p>My second lecture, two nights later, was on the +Religious aspect of the matter. I had shown that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>the phenomena were nothing, mere material signals +to arrest the attention of a material world. I had +shown also that the personal benefit, the conquest +of death, the Communion of Saints, was a high, +but not the highest boon. The real full flower of +Spiritualism was what the wisdom of the dead +could tell us about their own conditions, their +present experiences, their outlook upon the secret +of the universe, and the testing of religious truth +from the viewpoint of two worlds instead of one. +The audience was more silent than before, but +the silence was that of suspense, not of dissent, +as I showed them from message after message +what it was exactly which awaited them in the +beyond. Even I, who am oblivious as a rule to +my audience, became aware that they were tense +with feeling and throbbing with emotion. I +showed how there was no conflict with religion, +in spite of the misunderstanding of the churches, +and that the revelation had come to extend and +explain the old, even as the Christ had said that +he had much more to tell but could not do it now. +"Entirely new ground was traversed," says my +kindly chronicler, "and the audience listened +throughout with rapt attention. They were +obviously impressed by the earnestness of the +speaker and his masterly presentation of the +theme." I cannot answer for the latter but at +least I can for the former, since I speak not of +what I think but of what I know. How can a man +fail to be earnest then?</p> + +<p>A few days later I followed up the lectures by +two exhibitions of psychic pictures and photographs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +upon a screen. It was certainly an +amazing experience for those who imagined that +the whole subject was dreamland, and they freely +admitted that it staggered them. They might +well be surprised, for such a series has never been +seen, I believe, before, including as it does choice +samples from the very best collections. I showed +them the record of miracle after miracle, some of +them done under my very eyes, one guaranteed +by Russell Wallace, three by Sir William Crookes, +one of the Geley series from Paris, two of Dr. +Crawford's medium with the ecto-plasm pouring +from her, four illustrating the absolutely final +Lydia Haig case on the island of Rothesay, several +of Mr. Jeffrey's collection and several also of our +own Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, +with the fine photograph of the face within +a crystal. No wonder that the audience sat spellbound, +while the local press declared that no such +exhibition had ever been seen before in Australia. +It is almost too overwhelming for immediate +propaganda purposes. It has a stunning, dazing +effect upon the spectators. Only afterwards, I +think, when they come to turn it all over in their +minds, do they see that the final proof has been +laid before them, which no one with the least sense +for evidence could reject. But the sense for +evidence is not, alas, a universal human quality.</p> + +<p>I am continually aware of direct spirit intervention +in my own life. I have put it on record +in my "New Revelation" that I was able to say +that the turn of the great war would come upon +the Piave months before that river was on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +Italian war map. This was recorded at the time, +before the fulfilment which occurred more than a +year later—so it does not depend upon my assertion. +Again, I dreamed the name of the ship +which was to take us to Australia, rising in the +middle of the night and writing it down in pencil +on my cheque-book. I wrote <i>Nadera</i>, but it was +actually <i>Naldera</i>. I had never heard that such a +ship existed until I visited the P. & O. office, when +they told me we should go by the <i>Osterley</i>, while +I, seeing the <i>Naldera</i> upon the list, thought "No, +that will be our ship!" So it proved, through no +action of our own, and thereby we were saved +from quarantine and all manner of annoyance.</p> + +<p>Never before have I experienced such direct +visible intervention as occurred during my first +photographic lecture at Adelaide. I had shown a +slide the effect of which depended upon a single +spirit face appearing amid a crowd of others. +The slide was damp, and as photos under these +circumstances always clear from the edges when +placed in the lantern, the whole centre was so +thickly fogged that I was compelled to admit that +I could not myself see the spirit face. Suddenly, +as I turned away, rather abashed by my failure, I +heard cries of "There it is," and looking up again +I saw this single face shining out from the general +darkness with so bright and vivid an effect that +I never doubted for a moment that the operator +was throwing a spot light upon it, my wife sharing +my impression. I thought how extraordinarily +clever it was that he should pick it out so accurately +at the distance. So the matter passed, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +next morning Mr. Thomas, the operator, who is +not a Spiritualist, came in great excitement to +say that a palpable miracle had been wrought, and +that in his great experience of thirty years he had +never known a photo dry from the centre, nor, as +I understood him, become illuminated in such a +fashion. Both my wife and I were surprised to learn +that he had thrown no ray upon it. Mr. Thomas +told us that several experts among the audience +had commented upon the strangeness of the +incident. I, therefore, asked Mr. Thomas if he +would give me a note as to his own impression, so +as to furnish an independant account. This is +what he wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="right extraspacetop extraspacebot"> +<i>"Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.</i> +</p> + +<p>"<i>In Adelaide, on September 28th, I projected +a lantern slide containing a group of ladies and +gentlemen, and in the centre of the picture, when +the slide was reversed, appeared a human face. +On the appearance of the picture showing the +group the fog incidental to a damp or new slide +gradually appeared covering the whole slide, +and only after some minutes cleared, and then +quite contrary to usual practice did so from a +central point just over the face that appeared in +the centre, and refused even after that to clear +right off to the edge. The general experience is +for a slide to clear from the outside edges to a +common centre. Your slide cleared only sufficiently +in the centre to show the face, and did +not, while the slide was on view, clear any more +than sufficient to show that face. Thinking that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +perhaps there might be a scientific explanation +to this phenomenon, I hesitated before writing +you, and in the meantime I have made several +experiments but have not in any one particular +experiment obtained the same result. I am +very much interested—as are hundreds of others +who personally witnessed the phenomenon.</i>" +</p></div> + +<p class="extraspacetop">Mr. Thomas, in his account, has missed the self-illuminated +appearance of the face, but otherwise +he brings out the points. I never gave occasion +for the repetition of the phenomenon, for in every +case I was careful that the slides were carefully +dried beforehand.</p> + +<p>So much for the lectures at Adelaide, which were +five in all, and left, as I heard from all sides, a +deep impression upon the town. Of course, the +usual abusive messages poured in, including one +which wound up with the hearty words: "May +you be struck dead before you leave this Commonwealth." +From Melbourne I had news that before +our arrival in Australia at a public prayer meeting +at the Assembly Hall, Collins Street, a Presbyterian +prayed that we might never reach Australia's +shores. As we were on the high seas at the time +this was clearly a murderous petition, nor could +I have believed it if a friend of mine had not +actually been present and heard it. On the other +hand, we received many letters of sympathy and +thanks, which amply atoned. "I feel sure that +many mothers, who have lost their sons in the +war, will, wherever you go, bless you, as I do, for +the help you have given." As this was the object<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +of our journey it could not be denied that we had +attained our end. When I say "we," I mean that +such letters with inquiries came continually to my +wife as well as myself, though she answered them +with far greater fullness and clearness than I had +time to do.</p> + +<p>Hotel life began to tell upon the children, who +are like horses with a profusion of oats and no +exercise. On the whole they were wonderfully +good. When some domestic crisis was passed the +small voice of Malcolm, once "Dimples," was +heard from the darkness of his bed, saying, "Well, +if I am to be good I must have a proper start. +Please mammie, say one, two, three, and away!" +When this ceremony had been performed a still +smaller voice of Baby asked the same favour, so +once more there was a formal start. The result was +intermittent, and it is as well. I don't believe in +angelic children.</p> + +<p>The Adelaide doctors entertained me to dinner, +and I was pleased to meet more than one who +had been of my time at Edinburgh. They seemed +to be a very prosperous body of men. There was +much interesting conversation, especially from +one elderly professor named Watson, who had +known Bully Hayes and other South Sea celebrities +in the semi-piratical, black-birding days. +He told me one pretty story. They landed upon +some outlying island in Carpentaria, peopled by +real primitive blacks, who were rounded up by the +ships crew on one of the peninsulas which formed +the end of the island. These creatures, the lowest +of the human race, huddled together in consternation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +while the white men trained a large camera +upon them. Suddenly three males advanced and +made a speech in their own tongue which, when +interpreted, proved to be an offer that those three +should die in exchange for the lives of the tribe. +What could the very highest do more than this, +and yet it came from the lowest savages. Truly, +we all have something of the divine, and it is the +very part which will grow and spread until it has +burned out all the rest. "Be a Christ!" said +brave old Stead. At the end of countless æons +we may all reach that point which not only Stead +but St. Paul also has foreshadowed.</p> + +<p>I refreshed myself between lectures by going +out to Nature and to Bellchambers. As it was +twenty-five miles out in the bush, inaccessible by +rail, and only to be approached by motor roads +which were in parts like the bed of a torrent, I +could not take my wife, though the boys, after the +nature of boys, enjoy a journey the more for its +roughness. It was a day to remember. I saw +lovely South Australia in the full beauty of the +spring, the budding girlhood of the year, with all +her winsome growing graces upon her. The +brilliant yellow wattle was just fading upon the +trees, but the sward was covered with star-shaped +purple flowers of the knot-grass, and with familiar +home flowers, each subtly altered by their transportation. +It was wild bush for part of the way, +but mostly of the second growth on account of +forest fires as much as the woodman's axe. Bellchambers +came in to guide us, for there is no one +to ask upon these desolate tracks, and it is easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +to get bushed. Mr. Waite, the very capable +zoologist of the museum, joined the party, and +with two such men the conversation soon got to +that high nature talk which represents the really +permanent things of material life—more lasting +than thrones and dynasties. I learned of the +strange storks, the "native companions" who +meet, 500 at a time, for their stately balls, where +in the hush of the bush they advance, retreat, +and pirouette in their dignified minuets. I heard +of the bower birds, who decorate their homes with +devices of glass and pebbles. There was talk, too, +of the little red beetles who have such cunning +ways that they can fertilise the insectivorous +plants without being eaten, and of the great ants +who get through galvanised iron by the aid of +some acid-squirting insect which they bring with +them to the scene of their assault. I heard also +of the shark's egg which Mr. Waite had raped +from sixty feet deep in Sydney Harbour, descending +for the purpose in a diver's suit, for which I +raised my hat to him. Deep things came also +from Bellchambers' store of knowledge and little +glimpses of beautiful humanity from this true +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "I am mostly vegetarian. +You see, I know the beasts too well to bring +myself to pick their bones. Yes, I'm friends with +most of them. Birds have more sense than +animals to my mind. They understand you like. +They know what you mean. Snakes have least of +any. They don't get friendly-like in the same +way. But Nature helps the snakes in queer ways. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>Some of them hatch their own eggs, and when +they do Nature raises the temperature of their +bodies. That's queer."</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_80" id="I_80">[80]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="365" height="253" alt=" + +BELLCHAMBERS AND THE MALLEE FOWL. "GET ALONG WITH YOU, DO!"" title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn center"> +<i>Photo: W. G. Smith, Adelaide.</i> <i>See page 81.</i> <br /> <br /> + +BELLCHAMBERS AND THE MALLEE FOWL. <br /> " GET ALONG WITH YOU, DO!"</p> +</div> + +<p>I carried away a mixed memory of the things I +had seen. A blue-headed wren, an eagle soaring +in the distance; a hideous lizard with a huge open +mouth; a laughing jackass which refused to +laugh; many more or less tame wallabies and +kangaroos; a dear little 'possum which got +under the back of my coat, and would not come +out; noisy mynah birds which fly ahead and +warn the game against the hunter. Good little +noisy mynah! All my sympathies are with you! +I would do the same if I could. This senseless +lust for killing is a disgrace to the race. We, of +England, cannot preach, for a pheasant battue is +about the worst example of it. But do let the +creatures alone unless they are surely noxious! +When Mr. Bellchambers told us how he had +trained two ibises—the old religious variety—and +how both had been picked off by some +unknown local "sportsman" it made one sad.</p> + +<p>We had a touch of comedy, however, when Mr. +Bellchambers attempted to expose the egg of the +Mallee fowl, which is covered a foot deep in +mould. He scraped into the mound with his +hands. The cock watched him with an expression +which clearly said: "Confound the fellow! What +is he up to now?" He then got on the mound, +and as quickly as Bellchambers shovelled the +earth out he kicked it back again, Bellchambers +in his good-humoured way crying "Get along +with you, do!" A good husband is the Mallee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +cock, and looks after the family interests. But +what we humans would think if we were born deep +underground and had to begin our career by +digging our way to the surface, is beyond +imagination.</p> + +<p>There are quite a clan of Bellchambers living +in or near the little pioneer's hut built in a clearing +of the bush. Mrs. Bellchambers is of Sussex, as is +her husband, and when they heard that we were +fresh from Sussex also it was wonderful to see the +eager look that came upon their faces, while the +bush-born children could scarce understand what +it was that shook the solid old folk to their marrow. +On the walls were old prints of the Devil's Dyke +and Firle Beacon. How strange that old Sussex +should be wearing out its very life in its care for +the fauna of young Australia. This remarkable +man is unpaid with only his scanty holding upon +which to depend, and many dumb mouths dependent +upon him. I shall rejoice if my efforts +in the local press serve to put his affairs upon a +more worthy foundation, and to make South +Australia realise what a valuable instrument lies +to her hand.</p> + +<p>Before I left Adelaide I learned many pleasing +things about the lectures, which did away with +any shadow cast by those numerous correspondents +who seemed to think that we were still +living under the Mosaic dispensation, and who +were so absent-minded that they usually forgot to +sign their names. It is a curious difference +between the Christian letters of abuse and those +of materialists, that the former are usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +anonymous and the latter signed. I heard of +one man, a lame stockman, who had come 300 +miles from the other side of Streaky Bay to +attend the whole course, and who declared that +he could listen all night. Another seized my +hand and cried, "You will never know the good +you have done in this town." Well, I hope it +was so, but I only regard myself as the plough. +Others must follow with the seed. Knowledge, +perseverance, sanity, judgment, courage—we ask +some qualities from our disciples if they are to do +real good. Talking of moral courage I would say +that the Governor of South Australia, Sir Archibald +Weigall with Lady Weigall, had no hesitation in +coming to support me with their presence. By +the end of September this most successful mission +in Adelaide was accomplished, and early in +October we were on our way to Melbourne, which +meant a long night in the train and a few hours +of the next morning during which we saw the +surface diggings of Ballarat on every side of the +railway line, the sandy soil pitted in every direction +with the shallow claims of the miners.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Speculations on Paul and his Master.—Arrival at Melbourne.—Attack +in the Argus.—Partial press boycott.—Strength +of the movement.—The Prince of Wales.—Victorian +football.—Rescue Circle in Melbourne.—Burke and +Wills' statue.—Success of the lectures.—Reception at the +Auditorium.—Luncheon of the British Empire League.—Mr. +Ryan's experience.—The Federal Government.—Mr. +Hughes' personality.—The mediumship of Charles +Bailey.—His alleged exposure.—His remarkable record.—A +second sitting.—The Indian nest.—A remarkable lecture.— +Arrival of Lord Forster.—The future of the Empire.—Kindness +of Australians.—Prohibition.—Horse-racing.—Roman +Catholic policy.</p></div> + + +<p>One cannot help speculating about those great +ones who first carried to the world the Christian +revelation. What were their domestic ties! +There is little said about them, but we should +never have known that Peter had a wife were it +not for a chance allusion to his mother-in-law, just +as another chance allusion shows us that Jesus +was one of a numerous family. One thing can +safely be said of Paul, that he was either a bachelor +or else was a domestic bully with a very submissive +wife, or he would never have dared to express his +well known views about women. As to his +preaching, he had a genius for making a clear +thing obscure, even as Jesus had a genius for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +making an obscure thing clear. Read the Sermon +on the Mount and then a chapter of Paul as a contrast +in styles. Apart from his style one can +reconstruct him as a preacher to the extent that +he had a powerful voice—no one without one +could speak from the historic rocky pulpit on the +hill of Mars at Athens, as I ascertained for myself. +The slope is downwards, sound ascends, and the +whole conditions are abominable. He was certainly +long-winded and probably monotonous in +his diction, or he could hardly have reduced one of +his audience to such a deep sleep that he fell out +of the window. We may add that he was a man +of brisk courage in an emergency, that he was +subject to such sudden trances that he was occasionally +unaware himself whether he was normal +or not, and that he was probably short-sighted, +as he mistook the person who addressed him, and +had his letters usually written for him. At least +three languages were at his command, he had an +intimate and practical knowledge of the occult, +and was an authority upon Jewish law—a good +array of accomplishments for one man.</p> + +<p>There are some points about Paul's august +Master which also help in a reconstruction of +Himself and His surroundings. That His mother +was opposed to His mission is, I think, very +probable. Women are dubious about spiritual +novelties, and one can well believe that her heart +ached to see her noble elder son turn from the sure +competence of His father's business at Nazareth +to the precarious existence of a wandering preacher. +This domestic opposition clouded Him as one can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +see in the somewhat cold, harsh words which He +used to her, and his mode of address which began +simply as "Woman." His assertion to the disciples +that one who followed His path had to give +up his family points to the same thing. No doubt +Mary remained with the younger branches at +Nazareth while Jesus pursued His ministry, though +she came, as any mother would, to be near Him +at the end.</p> + +<p>Of His own personality we know extraordinarily +little, considering the supreme part that He +played in the world. That He was a highly trained +psychic, or as we should say, medium, is obvious +to anyone who studies the miracles, and it is certainly +not derogatory to say that they were done +along the line of God's law rather than that they +were inversions of it. I cannot doubt also that +he chose his apostles for their psychic powers—if +not, on what possible principle were they +selected, since they were neither staunch nor +learned? It is clear that Peter and James and +John were the inner circle of psychics, since they +were assembled both at the transfiguration and +at the raising of Jairus' daughter. It is from +unlearned open-air men who are near Nature that +the highest psychic powers are obtained. It has +been argued that the Christ was an Essene, but +this seems hard to believe, as the Essenes were not +only secluded from the world, but were certainly +vegetarians and total abstainers, while Jesus was +neither. On the other hand baptism was not a +Jewish rite, and his undergoing it—if He did, +indeed, undergo it—marks Him as belonging to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +some dissenting sect. I say "if He did" because +it is perfectly certain that there were forgeries +and interpolations introduced into the Gospels in +order to square their teaching with the practice +of the Church some centuries later. One would +look for those forgeries not in the ordinary narrative, +which in the adult years bears every mark of +truth, but in the passages which support ceremonial +or tributes to the Church—such as the +allusions to baptism, "Unless a man be born +again," to the sacrament, "This is my body, +etc.," and the whole story of Ananias and Sapphira, +the moral of which is that it is dangerous to hold +anything back from the Church.</p> + +<p>Physically I picture the Christ as an extremely +powerful man. I have known several famous +healers and they were all men who looked as if +they had redundant health and strength to give +to others. His words to the sick woman, "Who +has touched me? Much power" (<i>dunamis</i> is +the word in the original Greek) "has gone out of +me," show that His system depended upon His +losing what He gave to others. Therefore He was +a very strong man. The mere feat of carrying a +wooden cross strong enough to bear a man from +Jerusalem to Calvary, up a hill, is no light one. +It is the details which convince me that the gospel +narrative is correct and really represents an actual +event. Take the incident during that sad journey +of Simon of Cyrene having helped for a time with +the cross. Why should anyone invent such a +thing, putting an actual name to the person? +It is touches of this kind which place the narrative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +beyond all suspicion of being a pure invention. +Again and again in the New Testament one is +confronted with incidents which a writer of fiction +recognises as being beyond the reach of invention, +because the inventor does not put in things which +have no direct bearing upon the matter in hand. +Take as an example how the maid, seeing Peter +outside the door after his escape from prison, ran +back to the guests and said that it was his angel +(or etheric body) which was outside. Such an +episode could only have been recorded because it +actually occurred.</p> + +<p>But these be deep waters. Let me get back to +my own humble experiences, these interpolated +thoughts being but things which have been found +upon the wayside of our journey. On reaching +Melbourne we were greeted at the station by a few +devoted souls who had waited for two trains +before they found us. Covered with the flowers +which they had brought we drove to Menzies +Hotel, whence we moved a few days later to a flat +in the Grand, where we were destined to spend +five eventful weeks. We found the atmosphere +and general psychic conditions of Melbourne by no +means as pleasant or receptive as those of Adelaide, +but this of course was very welcome as the greater +the darkness the more need of the light. If +Spiritualism had been a popular cult in Australia +there would have been no object in my visit. I +was welcome enough as an individual, but by no +means so as an emissary, and both the Churches +and the Materialists, in most unnatural combination, +had done their best to make the soil stony<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +for me. Their chief agent had been the <i>Argus</i>, a +solid, stodgy paper, which amply fulfilled the +material needs of the public, but was not given to +spiritual vision. This paper before my arrival +had a very violent and abusive leader which +attracted much attention, full of such terms as +"black magic," "Shamanism," "witchcraft," +"freak religion," "cranky faith," "cruelty," +"black evil," "poison," finishing up with the +assertion that I represented "a force which we +believe to be purely evil." This was from a paper +which whole-heartedly supports the liquor interest, +and has endless columns of betting and racing +news, nor did its principles cause it to refuse substantial +sums for the advertising of my lectures. +Still, however arrogant or illogical, I hold that a +paper has a perfect right to publish and uphold its +own view, nor would I say that the subsequent +refusal of the <i>Argus</i> to print any answer to its +tirade was a real breach of the ethics of journalism. +Where its conduct became outrageous, however, +and where it put itself beyond the pale of all +literary decency, was when it reported my first +lecture by describing my wife's dress, my own +voice, the colour of my spectacles, and not a word +of what I said. It capped this by publishing so- +called answers to me by Canon Hughes, and by +Bishop Phelan—critics whose knowledge of the +subject seemed to begin and end with the witch +of Endor—while omitting the statements to which +these answers applied. Never in any British +town have I found such reactionary intolerance +as in this great city, for though the <i>Argus</i> was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +chief offender, the other papers were as timid as +rabbits in the matter. My psychic photographs +which, as I have said, are the most wonderful +collection ever shown in the world, were received +in absolute silence by the whole press, though it is +notorious that if I had come there with a comic +opera or bedroom comedy instead of with the +evidence of a series of miracles, I should have had +a column. This seems to have been really due to +moral cowardice, and not to ignorance, for I saw +a private letter afterwards in which a sub-editor +remarked that he and the chief leader-writer had +both seen the photographs and that they could +see no possible answer to them.</p> + +<p>There was another and more pleasing side to +the local conditions, and that lay in the numbers +who had already mastered the principles of +Spiritualism, the richer classes as individuals, +the poorer as organised churches. They were so +numerous that when we received an address of +welcome in the auditorium to which only Spiritualists +were invited by ticket, the Hall, which holds +two thousand, was easily filled. This would mean on +the same scale that the Spiritualists of London could +fill the Albert Hall several times over—as no doubt +they could. Their numbers were in a sense an +embarrassment, as I always had the fear that I was +addressing the faithful instead of those whom I +had come so far to instruct. On the whole their +quality and organisation were disappointing. +They had a splendid spiritual paper in their midst, +the <i>Harbinger of Light</i>, which has run for fifty +years, and is most ably edited by Mr. Britton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +Harvey. When I think of David Gow, Ernest +Oaten, John Lewis and Britton Harvey I feel that +our cause is indeed well represented by its press. +They have also some splendid local workers, like +Bloomfield and Tozer, whole-hearted and apostolic. +But elsewhere there is the usual tendency +to divide and to run into vulgarities and extravagances +in which the Spiritual has small share. +Discipline is needed, which involves central +powers, and that in turn means command of the +purse. It would be far better to have no Spiritual +churches than some I have seen.</p> + +<p>However, I seem to have got to some of my final +conclusions at Melbourne before I have begun our +actual experience there. We found the place +still full of rumours and talk about the recent visit +of the Prince of Wales, who seems to have a perfect +genius for making himself popular and beloved. +May he remain unspoiled and retain the fresh +kindliness of his youth. His success is due not +to any ordered rule of conduct but to a perfectly +natural courtesy which is his essential self and +needs no effort. Our waiter at the hotel who had +waited upon him remarked: "God never made +anything nearer to Nature than that boy. He +spoke to me as he might have spoken to the +Governor." It was a fine tribute, and characteristic +of the humbler classes in this country, who +have a vigour of speech and an independence of +view which is very refreshing. Once as I passed +a public house, a broken old fellow who had been +leaning against the wall with a short pipe in his +mouth, stepped forward to me and said: "I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +all for civil and religious liberty. There is plenty +of room for your cult here, sir, and I wish you +well against the bigots." I wonder from what +heights that old fellow had fallen before he brought +up against the public house wall?</p> + +<p>One of my first afternoons in Melbourne was +spent in seeing the final tie of the Victorian football +cup. I have played both Rugby and Soccer, and +I have seen the American game at its best, but I +consider that the Victorian system has some points +which make it the best of all—certainly from the +spectacular point of view. There is no off-side, +and you get a free kick if you catch the ball. +Otherwise you can run as in ordinary Rugby, +though there is a law about bouncing the ball as +you run, which might, as it seemed to me, be cut +out without harming the game. This bouncing +rule was put in by Mr. Harrison who drew up the +original rules, for the chivalrous reason that he +was himself the fastest runner in the Colony, and +he did not wish to give himself any advantage. +There is not so much man-handling in the Victorian +game, and to that extent it is less dramatic, but it +is extraordinarily open and fast, with none of the +packed scrums which become so wearisome, and +with linesmen who throw in the ball the instant +it goes out. There were several points in which +the players seemed better than our best—one was +the accurate passing by low drop kicking, very +much quicker and faster than a pass by hand. +Another was the great accuracy of the place +kicking and of the screw kicking when a runner +would kick at right angles to his course. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +were four long quarters, and yet the men were in +such condition that they were going hard at the +end. They are all, I understand, semi-professionals. +Altogether it was a very fine display, and the +crowd was much excited. It was suggestive that +the instant the last whistle blew a troop of mounted +police cantered over the ground and escorted the +referees to the safety of the pavilion.</p> + +<p>I began at once to endeavour to find out the +conditions of local Spiritualism, and had a long +conversation with Mr. Tozer, the chairman of the +movement, a slow-talking, steady-eyed man, of the +type that gets a grip and does not easily let go. +After explaining the general situation, which needs +some explanation as it is full of currents and cross-currents +caused by individual schisms and secessions, +he told me in his gentle, earnest way some of +his own experiences in his home circle which +corroborate much which I have heard elsewhere. +He has run a rescue circle for the instruction of +the lower spirits who are so material that they +can be reached more easily by humanity than by +the higher angels. The details he gave me were +almost the same as those given by Mr. MacFarlane +of Southsea who had a similar circle of which Mr. +Tozer had certainly never heard. A wise spirit +control dominates the proceedings. The medium +goes into trance. The spirit control then explains +what it is about to do, and who the spirit is who +is about to be reformed. The next scene is often +very violent, the medium having to be held down +and using rough language. This comes from +some low spirit who has suddenly found this means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +of expressing himself. At other times the language +is not violent but only melancholy, the spirit +declaring that he is abandoned and has not a +friend in the universe. Some do not realise that +they are dead, but only that they wander all alone, +under conditions they could not understand, in a +cloud of darkness.</p> + +<p>Then comes the work of regeneration. They are +reasoned with and consoled. Gradually they +become more gentle. Finally, they accept the +fact that they are spirits, that their condition is +their own making, and that by aspiration and +repentance they can win their way to the light. +When one has found the path and has returned +thanks for it, another case is treated. As a rule +these errant souls are unknown to fame. Often +they are clergymen whose bigotry has hindered +development. Occasionally some great sinner of +the past may come into view. I have before me +a written lament professing to come from Alva, +the bigoted governor of the Lowlands. It is +gruesome enough. "Picture to yourself the hell +I was in. Blood, blood everywhere, corpses on +all sides, gashed, maimed, mutilated, quivering +with agony and bleeding at every pore! At the +same time thousands of voices were raised in +bitter reproaches, in curses and execrations! +Imagine the appalling spectacle of this multitude +of the dead and dying, fresh from the flames, +from the sword, the rack, the torture chambers +and the gibbet; and the pandemonium of voices +shrieking out the most terrible maledictions! +Imagine never being able to get away from these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +sights and sounds, and then tell me, was I not +in hell?—a hell of greater torment than that to +which I believed all heretics were consigned. Such +was the hell of the 'bloody Alva,' from which I +have been rescued by what seems to me a great +merciful dispensation of Almighty God."</p> + +<p>Sometimes in Mr. Tozer's circle the souls of +ancient clerics who have slumbered long show +their first signs of resuscitation, still bearing their +old-world intolerance with them. The spirit control +purports to be a well-educated Chinaman, +whose presence and air of authority annoy the +ecclesiastics greatly. The petrified mind leads to +a long period of insensibility which means loss of +ground and of time in the journey towards happiness. +I was present at the return of one alleged +Anglican Bishop of the eighteenth century, who +spoke with great intolerance. When asked if he +had seen the Christ he answered that he had not +and that he could not understand it. When asked +if he still considered the Christ to be God he +threw up his hand and shouted violently, "Stop! +That is blasphemy!" The Chinese control said, +"He stupid man. Let him wait. He learn +better"—and removed him. He was succeeded +by a very noisy and bigoted Puritan divine who +declared that no one but devils would come +to a séance. On being asked whether that meant +that he was himself a devil he became so abusive +that the Chinaman once more had to intervene. +I quote all this as a curious sidelight into some +developments of the subject which are familiar +enough to students, but not to the general public.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +It is easy at a distance to sneer at such things and +to ask for their evidential value, but they are very +impressive to those who view them at closer +quarters. As to evidence, I am informed that +several of the unfortunates have been identified in +this world through the information which they +gave of their own careers.</p> + +<p>Melbourne is a remarkable city, far more solid +and old-established than the European visitor +would expect. We spent some days in exploring +it. There are few cities which have the same +natural advantages, for it is near the sea, with +many charming watering places close at hand, +while inland it has some beautiful hills for the +week-end villas of the citizens. Edinburgh is the +nearest analogy which I can recall. Parks and +gardens are beautiful, but, as in most British +cities, the public statues are more solid than +impressive. The best of them, that to Burke +and Wills, the heroic explorers, has no name +upon it to signify who the two figures are, so that +they mean nothing at all to the casual observer, +in spite of some excellent bas-reliefs, round the +base, which show the triumphant start and the +terrible end of that tragic but successful journey, +which first penetrated the Continent from south +to north. Before our departure I appealed in the +press to have this omission rectified and it was, +I believe, done.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_96" id="I_96">[96]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs06.jpg" width="300" height="399" alt=" + +MELBOURNE, NOVEMBER, 1920." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn center"> +<i>Photo: Stirling, Melbourne.</i> <i>See page 97.</i> <br /> <br /> + +MELBOURNE, NOVEMBER, 1920.</p> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Smythe, my agent, had been unfortunate +in being unable to secure one of the very few +large halls in Melbourne, so we had to confine ourselves +to the Playhouse which has only seating +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>for about 1,200. Here I opened on October 5th, +following my lectures up in the same order as in +Adelaide. The press was very shy, but nothing +could have exceeded the warmth and receptivity +of my hearers. Yet on account of the inadequate +reports of the press, with occasional total suppression, +no one who was not present could have +imagined how packed was the house, or how +unanimous the audience.</p> + +<p>On October 14th the Spiritualists filled the +Auditorium and had a special service of welcome +for ourselves. When I went down to it in the +tram, the conductor, unaware of my identity, said, +when I asked to be put down at the Auditorium, +"It's no use, sir; it's jam full an hour ago." +"The Pilgrims," as they called us, were in special +seats, the seven of us all in a line upon the right +of the chair. Many kind things were said, and I +replied as best I might. The children will carry +the remembrance of that warm-hearted reception +through their lives, and they are not likely to +forget how they staggered home, laden with the +flowers which were literally heaped upon them.</p> + +<p>The British Empire League also entertained my +wife and myself to lunch, a very select company +assembling who packed the room. Sir Joseph +Cook, Federal Chancellor of the Exchequer, made +a pleasant speech, recalling our adventures upon +the Somme, when he had his baptism of fire. In +my reply I pulled the leg of my audience with +some success, for I wound up by saying, very +solemnly, that I was something greater than +Governments and the master of Cabinet Ministers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +By the time I had finished my tremendous claims +I am convinced that they expected some extravagant +occult pretension, whereas I actually +wound up with the words, "for I am the man in +the street." There was a good deal of amusement +caused.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thomas Ryan, a very genial and capable +member of the State Legislature, took the chair at +this function. He had no particular psychic +knowledge, but he was deeply impressed by an +experience in London in the presence of that +remarkable little lady, Miss Scatcherd. Mr. Ryan +had said that he wanted some evidence before he +could accept psychic philosophy, upon which Miss +Scatcherd said: "There is a spirit beside you now. +He conveys to me that his name is Roberts. He +says he is worried in his mind because the home +which you prepared for his widow has not been +legally made over to her." All this applied to a +matter in Adelaide. In that city, according to +Mr. Ryan, a séance was held that night, Mr. +Victor Cromer being the medium, at which a +message came through from Roberts saying that +he was now easy in his mind as he had managed to +convey his trouble to Mr. Ryan who could set it +right. When these psychic laws are understood +the dead as well as the living will be relieved from +a load of unnecessary care; but how can these laws +be ignored or pooh-poohed in the face of such +instances as this which I have quoted? They are +so numerous now that it is hardly an exaggeration +to say that every circle of human beings +which meets can supply one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Hughes was good enough to ask me to +meet the members of the Federal Government at +lunch, and the experience was an interesting one, +for here round one small table were those who +were shaping the course of this young giant among +the nations. They struck me as a practical hard-worked +rough-and-ready lot of men. Mr. Hughes +dominated the conversation, which necessarily +becomes one-sided as he is very deaf, though his +opponents say that he has an extraordinary knack +of hearing what he is not meant to hear. He told +us a series of anecdotes of his stormy political +youth with a great deal of vivacity, the whole +company listening in silence. He is a hard, wiry +man, with a high-nosed Red Indian face, and a +good deal of healthy devilry in his composition—a +great force for good during the war.</p> + +<p>After lunch he conducted me through the library, +and coming to a portrait of Clemenceau he cried: +"That's the man I learned to admire in Europe." +Then, turning to one of Wilson, he added, "And +that's the man I learned to dislike." He added a +number of instances of Wilson's ignorance of +actual conditions, and of his ungenial coldness +of heart. "If he had not been so wrapped in +himself, and if he had taken Lodge or some other +Republican with him, all could have easily been +arranged." I feel that I am not indiscreet in +repeating this, for Hughes is not a man who +conceals his opinions from the world.</p> + +<p>I have been interested in the medium Bailey, +who was said to have been exposed in France in +1910. The curious will find the alleged exposure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +in "Annals of Psychical Science," Vol. IX. +Bailey is an apport medium—that is to say, that +among his phenomena is the bringing of objects +which are said to come from a distance, passing +through the walls and being precipitated down +upon the table. These objects are of the strangest +description—Assyrian tablets (real or forged), +tortoises, live birds, snakes, precious stones, &c. +In this case, after being searched by the committee, +he was able to produce two live birds in the séance +room. At the next sitting the committee proposed +an obscene and absurd examination of the +medium, which he very rightly resented and +refused. They then confidently declared that on +the first occasion the two live birds were in his +intestines, a theory so absurd that it shakes one's +confidence in their judgment. They had, however, +some more solid grounds for a charge against him, +for they produced a married couple who swore +that they had sold three such birds with a cage to +Bailey some days before. This Bailey denied, +pointing out that he could neither speak French, +nor had he ever had any French money, which +Professor Reichel, who brought him from Australia, +corroborated. However, the committee considered +the evidence to be final, and the séances +came to an end, though Colonel de Rochas, the +leading member, wound up the incident by writing: +"Are we to conclude from the fraud that we have +witnessed that all Bailey's apports may have +been fraudulent? I do not think so, and this +is also the opinion of the members of the committee, +who have had much experience with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +mediums and are conversant with the literature of +the subject."</p> + +<p>Reading the alleged exposure, one is struck, as +so often in such cases, with its unsatisfactory +nature. There is the difficulty of the language +and the money. There is the disappearance of +the third bird and the cage. Above all, how did +the birds get into the carefully-guarded seance +room, especially as Bailey was put in a bag +during the proceedings? The committee say the +bag may not have been efficient, but they also +state that Bailey desired the control to be made +more effective. Altogether it is a puzzling case. +On my applying to Bailey himself for information, +he declared roundly that he had been the victim of +a theological plot with suborned evidence. The +only slight support which I can find for that view +is that there was a Rev. Doctor among his accusers. +I was told independently that Professor Reichel, +before his death in 1918, came also to the conclusion +that there had been a plot. But in any case +most of us will agree with Mr. Stanford, Bailey's +Australian patron, that the committee would have +been wise to say nothing, continue the sittings, +and use their knowledge to get at some more +complete conclusion.</p> + +<p>With such a record one had to be on one's +guard with Mr. Bailey. I had a sitting in my +room at the hotel to which I invited ten guests, +but the results were not impressive. We saw +so-called spirit hands, which were faintly luminous, +but I was not allowed to grasp them, and they +were never further from the medium than he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +have reached. All this was suspicious but not +conclusive. On the other hand, there was an +attempt at a materialisation of a head, which took +the form of a luminous patch, and seemed to some +of the sitters to be further from the cabinet than +could be reached. We had an address purporting +to come from the control, Dr. Whitcombe, and +we also had a message written in bad Italian. +On the whole it was one of those baffling sittings +which leave a vague unpleasant impression, and +there was a disturbing suggestion of cuffs about +those luminous hands.</p> + +<p>I have been reading Bailey's record, however, +and I cannot doubt that he has been a great apport +medium. The results were far above all possible +fraud, both in the conditions and in the articles +brought into the room by spirit power. For +example, I have a detailed account published by +Dr. C. W. McCarthy, of Sydney, under the title, +"Rigid Tests of the Occult." During these tests +Bailey was sealed up in a bag, and in one case was +inside a cage of mosquito curtain. The door and +windows were secured and the fire-place blocked. +The sitters were all personal friends, but they +mutually searched each other. The medium was +stripped naked before the séance. Under these +stringent conditions during a series of six sittings +138 articles were brought into the room, which +included eighty-seven ancient coins (mostly of +Ptolemy), eight live birds, eighteen precious stones +of modest value and varied character, two live +turtles, seven inscribed Babylonian tablets, one +Egyptian Scarabæus, an Arabic newspaper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +a leopard skin, four nests and many other things. +It seems to me perfect nonsense to talk about +these things being the results of trickery. I may +add that at a previous test meeting they had a +young live shark about 1-1/2 feet long, which was +tangled with wet seaweed and flopped about on +the table. Dr. McCarthy gives a photograph of +the creature.</p> + +<p>My second sitting with Bailey was more successful +than the first. On his arrival I and others +searched him and satisfied ourselves he carried +nothing upon him. I then suddenly switched out +all the lights, for it seemed to me that the luminous +hands of the first sitting might be the result of +phosphorised oil put on before the meeting and +only visible in complete darkness, so that it could +defy all search. I was wrong, however, for there +was no luminosity at all. We then placed Mr. +Bailey in the corner of the room, lowered the lights +without turning them out, and waited. Almost +at once he breathed very heavily, as one in trance, +and soon said something in a foreign tongue +which was unintelligible to me. One of our +friends, Mr. Cochrane, recognised it as Indian, and +at once answered, a few sentences being interchanged. +In English the voice then said that he +was a Hindoo control who was used to bring +apports for the medium, and that he would, he +hoped, be able to bring one for us. "Here it is," +he said a moment later, and the medium's hand +was extended with something in it. The light +was turned full on and we found it was a very +perfect bird's nest, beautifully constructed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +some very fine fibre mixed with moss. It stood +about two inches high and had no sign of any +flattening which would have come with concealment. +The size would be nearly three inches +across. In it lay a small egg, white, with tiny +brown speckles. The medium, or rather the +Hindoo control acting through the medium, +placed the egg on his palm and broke it, some fine +albumen squirting out. There was no trace of +yolk. "We are not allowed to interfere with +life," said he. "If it had been fertilised we could +not have taken it." These words were said before +he broke it, so that he was aware of the condition +of the egg, which certainly seems remarkable.</p> + +<p>"Where did it come from?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"From India."</p> + +<p>"What bird is it?"</p> + +<p>"They call it the jungle sparrow."</p> + +<p>The nest remained in my possession, and I +spent a morning with Mr. Chubb, of the local +museum, to ascertain if it was really the nest of +such a bird. It seemed too small for an Indian +sparrow, and yet we could not match either nest +or egg among the Australian types. Some of Mr. +Bailey's other nests and eggs have been actually +identified. Surely it is a fair argument that +while it is conceivable that such birds might be +imported and purchased here, it is really an insult +to one's reason to suppose that nests with fresh +eggs in them could also be in the market. Therefore +I can only support the far more extended +experience and elaborate tests of Dr. McCarthy +of Sydney, and affirm that I believe Mr. Charles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +Bailey to be upon occasion a true medium, with a +very remarkable gift for apports.</p> + +<p>It is only right to state that when I returned to +London I took one of Bailey's Assyrian tablets +to the British Museum and that it was pronounced +to be a forgery. Upon further inquiry it proved +that these forgeries are made by certain Jews in +a suburb of Bagdad—and, so far as is known, +only there. Therefore the matter is not much +further advanced. To the transporting agency +it is at least possible that the forgery, steeped in +recent human magnetism, is more capable of being +handled than the original taken from a mound. +Bailey has produced at least a hundred of these +things, and no Custom House officer has deposed +how they could have entered the country. On +the other hand, Bailey told me clearly that the +tablets had been passed by the British Museum, +so that I fear that I cannot acquit him of tampering +with truth—and just there lies the great difficulty +of deciding upon his case. But one has always to +remember that physical mediumship has no connection +one way or the other with personal +character, any more than the gift of poetry.</p> + +<p>To return to this particular séance, it was +unequal. We had luminous hands, but they were +again within reach of the cabinet in which the +medium was seated. We had also a long address +from Dr. Whitcombe, the learned control, in which +he discoursed like an absolute master upon +Assyrian and Roman antiquities and psychic +science. It was really an amazing address, and if +Bailey were the author of it I should hail him as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +master mind. He chatted about the Kings of +Babylon as if he had known them all, remarked +that the Bible was wrong in calling Belthazar +King as he was only Crown Prince, and put in all +those easy side allusions which a man uses when +he is absolutely full of his subject. Upon his +asking for questions, I said: "Please give me some +light as to the dematerialisation and subsequent +reassembly of an object such as a bird's nest." +"It involves," he answered, "some factors which are +beyond your human science and which could not +be made clear to you. At the same time you may +take as a rough analogy the case of water which +is turned into steam, and then this steam which is +invisible, is conducted elsewhere to be reassembled +as visible water." I thought this explanation +was exceedingly apt, though of course I agree that +it is only a rough analogy. On my asking if there +were libraries and facilities for special study in +the next world, he said that there certainly were, +but that instead of studying books they usually +studied the actual objects themselves. All he +said was full of dignity and wisdom. It was +curious to notice that, learned as he was, Dr. +Whitcombe always referred back with reverence +to Dr. Robinson, another control not present at +the moment, as being the real expert. I am told +that some of Dr. Robinson's addresses have fairly +amazed the specialists. I notice that Col. de +Rochas in his report was equally impressed by +Bailey's controls.</p> + +<p>I fear that my psychic experiences are pushing +my travels into the background, but I warned the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +reader that it might be so when first we joined +hands. To get back to the earth, let me say that +I saw the procession when the new Governor-General, +Lord Forster, with his charming wife, +made their ceremonial entry into Melbourne, with +many workman-like Commonwealth troops before +and behind their carriage. I knew Lord Forster +of old, for we both served upon a committee over +the Olympic Games, so that he gave quite a start +of surprised recognition when his quick eye fell +upon my face in the line of spectators. He is a +man who cannot fail to be popular here, for he has +the physical as well as the mental qualities. Our +stay in Melbourne was afterwards made more +pleasant by the gracious courtesy of Government +House for, apart from attending several functions, +we were invited to a special dinner, after which I +exhibited upon a screen my fairy portraits and a +few of my other very wonderful psychic photographs. +It was not an occasion when I could +preach, but no quick intelligence could be brought +in contact with such phenomena without asking +itself very seriously what lay behind them. When +that question is earnestly asked the battle is won.</p> + +<p>One asks oneself what will be the end of this +system of little viceroys in each State and a big +viceroy in the Capital—however capable and +excellent in themselves such viceroys may be. +The smaller courts are, I understand, already +doomed, and rightly so, since there is no need for +them and nothing like them elsewhere. There +is no possible purpose that they serve save to +impose a nominal check, which is never used,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +upon the legislation. The Governor-Generalship +will last no doubt until Australia cuts the painter, +or we let go our end of it, whichever may come +first.</p> + +<p>Personally, I have no fear of Britain's power +being weakened by a separation of her dominions. +Close allies which were independent might be a +greater source of moral strength than actual +dependencies. When the sons leave the father's +house and rule their own homes, becoming fathers +in turn, the old man is not weakened thereby. +Certainly I desire no such change, but if it came +I would bear it with philosophy. I hope that the +era of great military crises is for ever past, but, if +it should recur, I am sure that the point of view +would be the same, and that the starry Union Jack +of the great Australian nation would still fly beside +the old flag which was its model.</p> + +<p>If one took a Machiavelian view of British +interests one would say that to retain a colony the +surest way is not to remove any danger which may +threaten her. We conquered Canada from the +French, removing in successive campaigns the +danger from the north and from the west which +threatened our American colonies. When we had +expended our blood and money to that end, so +that the colonies had nothing to fear, they took +the first opportunity to force an unnecessary +quarrel and to leave us. So I have fears for South +Africa now that the German menace has been +removed. Australia is, I think, loyal to the core, +and yet self-interest is with every nation the basis +of all policy, and so long as the British fleet can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +guard the shores of the great empty northern +territories, a region as big as Britain, Germany, +France and Austria put together, they have need +of us. There can be no doubt that if they were +alone in the world in the face of the teeming +millions of the East, they might, like the Siberian +travellers, have to throw a good deal to the wolves +in order to save the remainder. Brave and +capable as they are, neither their numbers nor +their resources could carry them through a long +struggle if the enemy held the sea. They are +natural shots and soldiers, so that they might be +wiser to spend their money in a strategic railway +right across their northern coast, rather than in +direct military preparations. To concentrate +rapidly before the enemy was firmly established +might under some circumstances be a very vital +need.</p> + +<p>But so long as the British Empire lasts Australia +is safe, and in twenty years' time her own enlarged +population will probably make her safe without +help from anyone. But her empty places are a +danger. History abhors a vacuum and finds some +one to fill it up. I have never yet understood +why the Commonwealth has not made a serious +effort to attract to the northern territories those +Italians who are flooding the Argentine. It is +great blood and no race is the poorer for it—the +blood of ancient Rome. They are used to semitropical +heat and to hard work in bad conditions +if there be only hope ahead. Perhaps the policy +of the future may turn in that direction. If that +one weak spot be guarded then it seems to me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +that in the whole world there is no community, +save only the United States, which is so safe from +outside attack as Australia. Internal division is +another matter, but there Australia is in some +ways stronger than the States. She has no negro +question, and the strife between Capital and Labour +is not likely to be so formidable. I wonder, by the +way, how many people in the United States realise +that this small community lost as many men as +America did in the great war. We were struck also +by the dignified resignation with which this fact was +faced, and by the sense of proportion which was +shown in estimating the sacrifices of various nations.</p> + +<p>We like the people here very much more than +we had expected to, for one hears in England +exaggerated stories of their democratic bearing. +When democracy takes the form of equality one +can get along with it, but when it becomes rude +and aggressive one would avoid it. Here one +finds a very pleasing good fellowship which no +one would object to. Again and again we have +met with little acts of kindness from people in +shops or in the street, which were not personal to +ourselves, but part of their normal good manners. +If you ask the way or any other information, +strangers will take trouble to put you right. They +are kindly, domestic and straight in speech and +in dealings. Materialism and want of vision in the +broader affairs of life seem to be the national weakness, +but that may be only a passing phase, for +when a nation has such a gigantic material proposition +as this continent to handle it is natural that +their thoughts should run on the wool and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +wheat and the gold by which it can be accomplished. +I am bound to say, however, that I +think every patriotic Australian should vote, if +not for prohibition, at least for the solution which +is most dear to myself, and that is the lowering of +the legal standard of alcohol in any drink. We +have been shocked and astonished by the number +of young men of decent exterior whom we have +seen staggering down the street, often quite early +in the day. The Biblical test for drunkenness, +that it was not yet the third hour, would not apply +to them. I hear that bad as it is in the big towns +it is worse in the small ones, and worst of all in +the northern territories and other waste places +where work is particularly needed. It must +greatly decrease the national efficiency. A recent +vote upon the question in Victoria only carried +total abstinence in four districts out of about 200, +but a two-third majority was needed to do it. +On the other hand a trial of strength in Queensland, +generally supposed to be rather a rowdy State, has +shown that the temperance men all combined can +out-vote the others. Therefore it is certain that +reform will not be long delayed.</p> + +<p>The other curse of the country, which is a real +drag upon its progress, is the eternal horse-racing. +It goes on all the year round, though it has its +more virulent bouts, as for example during our +visit to this town when the Derby, the Melbourne +Cup, and Oaks succeeded each other. They call +it sport, but I fear that in that case I am no +sportsman. I would as soon call the roulette-table +a sport. The whole population is unsettled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +and bent upon winning easy money, which dissatisfies +them with the money that has to be +worked for. Every shop is closed when the Cup +is run, and you have lift-boys, waiters and maids +all backing their fancies, not with half-crowns but +with substantial sums. The danger to honesty +is obvious, and it came under our own notice that +it is not imaginary. Of course we are by no means +blameless in England, but it only attacks a limited +class, while here it seems to the stranger to be +almost universal. In fact it is so bad that it is +sure to get better, for I cannot conceive that any +sane nation will allow it to continue. The book-makers, +however, are a powerful guild, and will +fight tooth and nail. The Catholic Church, I am +sorry to say, uses its considerable influence to +prevent drink reform by legislation, and I fear +that it will not support the anti-gamblers either. +I wonder from what hidden spring, from what +ignorant Italian camarilla, this venerable and in +some ways admirable Church gets its secular +policy, which must have central direction, since +it is so consistent! When I remember the recent +sequence of world events and the part played by +that Church, the attack upon the innocent Dreyfus, +the refusal to support reform in the Congo, and +finally the obvious leaning towards the Central +Powers who were clearly doomed to lose, one +would think that it was ruled by a Council of +lunatics. These matters bear no relation to faith +or dogma, so that one wonders that the sane +Catholics have not risen in protest. No doubt the +better class laymen are ahead of the clergy in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +as in other religious organisations. I cannot +forget how the Duke of Norfolk sent me a cheque +for the Congo Reform Movement at the very time +when we could not get the Catholic Church to line +up with the other sects at a Reform Demonstration +at the Albert Hall. In this country also there +were many brave and loyal Catholics who took +their own line against Cardinal Mannix upon the +question of conscription, when that Cardinal did +all that one man could do to bring about the defeat +of the free nations in the great war. How he +could face an American audience afterwards, or +how such an audience could tolerate him, is hard +to understand.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>More English than the English.—A day in the Bush.—Immigration.—A +case of spirit return.—A Séance.—Geelong.—The +lava plain.—Good-nature of General Ryrie.—Bendigo.—Down +a gold mine.—Prohibition v. Continuance.—Mrs. +Knight MacLellan.—Nerrin.—A wild +drive.—Electric shearing.—Rich sheep stations.—Cockatoo +farmers.—Spinnifex and Mallee.—Rabbits.—The +great marsh.</p></div> + + +<p>In some ways the Australians are more English +than the English. We have been imperceptibly +Americanised, while our brethren over the sea +have kept the old type. The Australian is less +ready to show emotion, cooler in his bearing, more +restrained in applause, more devoted to personal +liberty, keener on sport, and quieter in expression +(as witness the absence of scare lines in the papers) +than our people are. Indeed, they remind me +more of the Scotch than the English, and Melbourne +on a Sunday, without posts, or Sunday +papers, or any amenity whatever, is like the +Edinburgh of my boyhood. Sydney is more +advanced. There are curious anomalies in both +towns. Their telephone systems are so bad that +they can only be balanced against each other, for +they are in a class by themselves. One smiles +when one recollects that one used to grumble at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +the London lines. On the other hand the tramway +services in both towns are wonderful, and so +continuous that one never hastens one's step to +catch a tram since another comes within a minute. +The Melbourne trams have open bogey cars in +front, which make a drive a real pleasure.</p> + +<p>One of our pleasant recollections in the early +days of our Melbourne visit was a day in the bush +with Mr. Henry Stead and his wife. My intense +admiration for the moral courage and energy of +the father made it easy for me to form a friendship +with his son, who has shown the family qualities +by the able way in which he has founded and +conducted an excellent journal, <i>Stead's Monthly</i>. +Australia was lucky ever to get such an immigrant +as that, for surely an honest, fearless and clear-headed +publicist is the most valuable man that a +young country, whose future is one long problem +play, could import. We spent our day in the +Dandenong Hills, twenty miles from Melbourne, in a +little hostel built in a bush clearing and run by +one Lucas, of good English cricket stock, his +father having played for Sussex. On the way we +passed Madame Melba's place at Lilydale, and +the wonderful woods with their strange tree-ferns +seemed fit cover for such a singing bird. Coming +back in Stead's light American car we tried a short +cut down roads which proved to be almost impossible. +A rather heavier car ahead of us, with +two youths in it, got embedded in the mud, and +we all dismounted to heave it out. There suddenly +appeared on the lonely road an enormous coloured +man; he looked like a cross between negro and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +black fellow. He must have lived in some hut +in the woods, but the way his huge form suddenly +rose beside us was quite surprising. He stood in +gloomy majesty surveying our efforts, and repeating +a series of sentences which reminded one of +German exercises. "I have no jack. I had a +jack. Some one has taken my jack. This is +called a road. It is not a road. There is no road." +We finally levered out the Australian car, for which, +by the way, neither occupant said a word of thanks, +and then gave the black giant a shilling, which he +received as a keeper takes his toll. On looking +back I am not sure that this slough of despond is +not carefully prepared by this negro, who makes a +modest income by the tips which he gets from the +unfortunates who get bogged in it. No keeper +ever darted out to a trap quicker than he did +when the car got stuck.</p> + +<p>Stead agreed with me that the Australians do +not take a big enough view of their own destiny. +They—or the labour party, to be more exact—are +inclined to buy the ease of the moment at the +cost of the greatness of their continental future. +They fear immigration lest it induce competition +and pull down prices. It is a natural attitude. +And yet that little fringe of people on the edge of +that huge island can never adequately handle it. +It is like an enormous machine with a six horsepower +engine to drive it. I have a great sympathy +with their desire to keep the British stock as pure +as possible. But the land needs the men, and +somewhere they must be found. I cannot doubt +that they would become loyal subjects of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +Empire which had adopted them. I have wondered +sometimes whether in Lower California and +the warmer States of the Union there may not be +human material for Australia. Canada has +received no more valuable stock than from the +American States, so it might be that another portion +of the Union would find the very stamp of +man that Queensland and the north require. +The American likes a big gamble and a broad life +with plenty of elbow-room. Let him bring his +cotton seeds over to semi-tropical Australia and see +what he can make of it there.</p> + +<p>To pass suddenly to other-worldly things, +which are my mission. People never seem to +realise the plain fact that one positive result must +always outweigh a hundred negative ones. It only +needs one single case of spirit return to be established, +and there is no more to be said. Incidentally, +how absurd is the position of those wiseacres +who say "nine-tenths of the phenomena are +fraud." Can they not see that if they grant +us one-tenth, they grant us our whole contention?</p> + +<p>These remarks are elicited by a case which +occurred in 1883 in Melbourne, and which should +have converted the city as surely as if an +angel had walked down Collins Street. Yet +nearly forty years later I find it as stagnant and +material as any city I have ever visited. The +facts are these, well substantiated by documentary +and official evidence. Mr. Junor Browne, +a well-known citizen, whose daughter afterwards +married Mr. Alfred Deakin, subsequently Premier,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +had two sons, Frank and Hugh. Together with +a seaman named Murray they went out into the +bay in their yacht the "Iolanthe," and they never +returned. The father was fortunately a Spiritualist +and upon the second day of their absence, +after making all normal inquiries, he asked a +sensitive, Mr. George Spriggs, formerly of Cardiff, +if he would trace them. Mr. Spriggs collected +some of the young men's belongings, so as to get +their atmosphere, and then he was able by psychometry +to give an account of their movements, the +last which he could see of them being that they +were in trouble upon the yacht and that confusion +seemed to reign aboard her. Two days later, as +no further news was brought in, the Browne +family held a séance, Mr. Spriggs being the medium. +He fell into trance and the two lads, who had been +trained in spiritual knowledge and knew the +possibilities, at once came through. They expressed +their contrition to their mother, who had +desired them not to go, and they then gave a clear +account of the capsizing of the yacht, and how +they had met their death, adding that they had +found themselves after death in the exact physical +conditions of happiness and brightness which their +father's teaching had led them to expect. They +brought with them the seaman Murray, who also +said a few words. Finally Hugh, speaking through +the medium, informed Mr. Browne that Frank's +arm and part of his clothing had been torn off by +a fish.</p> + +<p>"A shark?" asked Mr. Browne.</p> + +<p>"Well, it was not like any shark I have seen."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mark the sequel. Some weeks later a large +shark of a rare deep-sea species, unknown to the +fishermen, and quite unlike the ordinary blue +shark with which the Brownes were familiar, was +taken at Frankston, about twenty-seven miles +from Melbourne. Inside it was found the bone of +a human arm, and also a watch, some coins, and +other articles which had belonged to Frank +Browne. These facts were all brought out in the +papers at the time, and Mr. Browne put much of +it on record in print before the shark was taken, +or any word of the missing men had come by +normal means. The facts are all set forth in a +little book by Mr. Browne himself, called "A +Rational Faith." What have fraudulent mediums +and all the other decoys to do with such a case as +that, and is it not perfectly convincing to any +man who is not perverse? Personally, I value +it not so much for the evidence of survival, since +we have that so complete already, but for the +detailed account given by the young men of their +new conditions, so completely corroborating what +so many young officers, cut off suddenly in the +war, have said of their experience. "Mother, if +you could see how happy we are, and the beautiful +home we are in, you would not weep except for +joy. I feel so light in my spiritual body and +have no pain, I would not exchange this life for +earth life even it were in my power. Poor spirits +without number are waiting anxiously to communicate +with their friends when an opportunity +is offered." The young Brownes had the enormous +advantage of the education they had received from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +their father, so that they instantly understood +and appreciated the new conditions.</p> + +<p>On October 8th we had a séance with Mrs. +Hunter, a pleasant middle-aged woman, with a +soft South of England accent. Like so many of +our mediums she had little sign of education in her +talk. It does not matter in spiritual things, +though it is a stumbling block to some inquirers. +After all, how much education had the apostles? +I have no doubt they were very vulgar provincial +people from the average Roman point of view. +But they shook the world none the less. Most +of our educated people have got their heads so +crammed with things that don't matter that they +have no room for the things that do matter. +There was no particular success at our sitting, but +I have heard that the medium is capable of better +things.</p> + +<p>On October 13th I had my first experience of a +small town, for I went to Geelong and lectured +there. It was an attentive and cultured audience, +but the hall was small and the receipts could +hardly have covered the expenses. However, it +is the press report and the local discussion which +really matter. I had little time to inspect +Geelong, which is a prosperous port with 35,000 +inhabitants. What interested me more was the +huge plain of lava which stretches around it +and connects it with Melbourne. This plain is a +good hundred miles across, and as it is of great +depth one can only imagine that there must be +monstrous cavities inside the earth to correspond +with the huge amount extruded. Here and there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +one sees stunted green cones which are the remains +of the volcanoes which spewed up all this stuff. +The lava has disintegrated on the surface to the +extent of making good arable soil, but the harder +bits remain unbroken, so that the surface is +covered with rocks, which are used to build up +walls for the fields after the Irish fashion. Every +here and there a peak of granite has remained +as an island amid the lava, to show what was +there before the great outflow. Eruptions appear +to be caused by water pouring in through some +crack and reaching the heated inside of the earth +where the water is turned to steam, expands, and +so gains the force to spread destruction. If this +process went on it is clear that the whole sea might +continue to pour down the crack until the heat +had been all absorbed by the water. I have +wondered whether the lava may not be a clever +healing process of nature, by which this soft +plastic material is sent oozing out in every direction +with the idea that it may find the crack and then +set hard and stop it up. Wild speculation no +doubt, but the guess must always precede the +proof.</p> + +<p>The Australians are really a very good-natured +people. It runs through the whole race, high and +low. A very exalted person, the Minister of War, +shares our flat in the hotel, his bedroom being +imbedded among our rooms. This is General Sir +Granville Ryrie, a famous hero of Palestine, +covered with wounds and medals—a man, too, of +great dignity of bearing. As I was dressing one +morning I heard some rather monotonous whistling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +and, forgetting the very existence of the General, +and taking it for granted that it was my eldest +boy Denis, I put my head out and said, "Look +here, old chap, consider other people's nerves +and give up that rotten habit of whistling before +breakfast." Imagine my feelings when the deep +voice of the General answered, "All right, Sir +Arthur, I will!" We laughed together over the +incident afterwards, and I told him that he had +furnished me with one more example of Australian +good humour for my notes.</p> + +<p>On October 13th I was at the prosperous +50,000 population town of Bendigo, which every +one, except the people on the spot, believes to have +been named after the famous boxer. This must +surely be a world record, for so far as my memory +serves, neither a Grecian Olympic athletic, nor a +Roman Gladiator, nor a Byzantine Charioteer, has +ever had a city for a monument. Borrow, who +looked upon a good honest pugilist as the pick +of humanity, must have rejoiced in it. Is not +valour the basis of all character, and where shall +we find greater valour than theirs? Alas, that +most of them began and ended there! It is +when the sage and the saint build on the basis +of the fighter that you have the highest to which +humanity can attain.</p> + +<p>I had a full hall at Bendigo, and it was packed, +I am told, by real old-time miners, for, of course, +Bendigo is still the centre of the gold mining +industry. Mr. Smythe told me that it was quite a +sight to see those rows of deeply-lined, bearded +faces listening so intently to what I said of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +destiny which is theirs as well as mine. I never +had a better audience, and it was their sympathy +which helped me through, for I was very weary +that night. But however weary you may be, +when you climb upon the platform to talk about +this subject, you may be certain that you will be +less weary when you come off. That is my settled +conviction after a hundred trials.</p> + +<p>On the morning after my lecture I found myself +half a mile nearer to dear Old England, for I +descended the Unity mine, and they say that the +workings extend to that depth. Perhaps I was +not at the lowest level, but certainly it was a long +journey in the cage, and reminded me of my +friend Bang's description of the New York +elevator, when he said that the distance to his +suburban villa and his town flat was the same, +but the one was horizontal and the other perpendicular.</p> + +<p>It was a weird experience that peep into the +profound depths of the great gold mine. Time +was when the quartz veins were on the surface +for the poor adventurer to handle. Now they have +been followed underground, and only great companies +and costly machinery can win it. Always +it is the same white quartz vein with the little +yellow specks and threads running through it. +We were rattled down in pitch darkness until we +came to a stop at the end of a long passage dimly +lit by an occasional guttering candle. Carrying +our own candles, and clad in miner's costume we +crept along with bent heads until we came suddenly +out into a huge circular hall which might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +have sprung from Doré's imagination. The place +was draped with heavy black shadows, but every +here and there was a dim light. Each light +showed where a man was squatting toad-like, a +heap of broken debris in front of him, turning it +over, and throwing aside the pieces with clear +traces of gold. These were kept for special treatment, +while the rest of the quartz was passed in +ordinary course through the mill. These scattered +heaps represented the broken stuff after a charge +of dynamite had been exploded in the quartz +vein. It was strange indeed to see these squatting +figures deep in the bowels of the earth, their +candles shining upon their earnest faces and +piercing eyes, and to reflect that they were +striving that the great exchanges of London and +New York might be able to balance with bullion +their output of paper. This dim troglodyte +industry was in truth the centre and mainspring +of all industries, without which trade would stop. +Many of the men were from Cornwall, the troll +among the nations, where the tools of the miner are +still, as for two thousand years, the natural +heritage of the man. Dr. Stillwell, the geologist +of the company, and I had a long discussion as to +where the gold came from, but the only possible +conclusion was that nobody knew. We know +now that the old alchemists were perfectly right +and that one metal may change into another. Is +it possible that under some conditions a mineral +may change into a metal? Why should quartz +always be the matrix? Some geological Darwin +will come along some day and we shall get a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +awakening, for at present we are only disguising +our own ignorance in this department of knowledge. +I had always understood that quartz +was one of the old igneous primeval rocks, +and yet here I saw it in thin bands, sandwiched +in between clays and slates and other water-borne +deposits. The books and the strata don't +agree.</p> + +<p>These smaller towns, like the Metropolis itself, +are convulsed with the great controversy between +Prohibition and Continuance, no reasonable compromise +between the two being suggested. Every +wall displays posters, on one side those very +prosperous-looking children who demand that +some restraint be placed upon their daddy, and +on the other hair-raising statements as to the +financial results of restricting the publicans. To +the great disgust of every decent man they have +run the Prince into it, and some remark of his +after his return to England has been used by the +liquor party. It is dangerous for royalty to be +jocose in these days, but this was a particularly +cruel example of the exploitation of a harmless +little joke. If others felt as I did I expect it cost +the liquor interest many a vote.</p> + +<p>We had another séance, this time with Mrs. +Knight MacLellan, after my return from Bendigo. +She is a lady who has grown grey in the service of +the cult, and who made a name in London when +she was still a child by her mediumistic powers. +We had nothing of an evidential character that +evening save that one lady who had recently +lost her son had his description and an apposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +message given. It was the first of several tests +which we were able to give this lady, and before +we left Melbourne she assured us that she was a +changed woman and her sorrow for ever gone.</p> + +<p>On October 18th began a very delightful +experience, for my wife and I, leaving our party +safe in Melbourne, travelled up country to be +the guests of the Hon. Agar Wynne and his +charming wife at their station of Nerrin-Nerrin +in Western Victoria. It is about 140 miles from +Melbourne, and as the trains are very slow, the +journey was not a pleasant one. But that was +soon compensated for in the warmth of the welcome +which awaited us. Mr. Agar Wynne was +Postmaster-General of the Federal Government, +and author of several improvements, one of which, +the power of sending long letter-telegrams at low +rates during certain hours was a triumph of +common sense. For a shilling one could send +quite a long communication to the other end of +the Continent, but it must go through at the +time when the telegraph clerk had nothing else +to do.</p> + +<p>It was interesting to us to find ourselves upon +an old-established station, typical of the real life +of Australia, for cities are much the same the +world over. Nerrin had been a sheep station for +eighty years, but the comfortable verandahed +bungalow house, with every convenience within it, +was comparatively modern. What charmed us +most, apart from the kindness of our hosts, was a +huge marsh or lagoon which extended for many +miles immediately behind the house, and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +was a bird sanctuary, so that it was crowded +with ibises, wild black swans, geese, ducks, +herons and all sorts of fowl. We crept out of our +bedroom in the dead of the night and stood under +the cloud-swept moon listening to the chorus of +screams, hoots, croaks and whistles coming out of +the vast expanse of reeds. It would make a most +wonderful hunting ground for a naturalist who +was content to observe and not to slay. The +great morass of Nerrin will ever stand out in our +memories.</p> + +<p>Next day we were driven round the borders of +this wonderful marsh, Mr. Wynne, after the +Australian fashion, taking no note of roads, and +going right across country with alarming results +to anyone not used to it. Finally, the swaying +and rolling became so terrific that he was himself +thrown off the box seat and fell down between the +buggy and the front wheel, narrowly escaping a +very serious accident. He was able to show us +the nests and eggs which filled the reed-beds, and +even offered to drive us out into the morass to +inspect them, a proposal which was rejected by +the unanimous vote of a full buggy. I never knew +an answer more decidedly in the negative. As we +drove home we passed a great gum tree, and half-way +up the trunk was a deep incision where the +bark had been stripped in an oval shape some four +foot by two. It was where some savage in days +of old had cut his shield. Such a mark outside a +modern house with every amenity of cultured life +is an object lesson of how two systems have over-lapped, +and how short a time it is since this great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +continent was washed by a receding wave, ere the +great Anglo-Saxon tide came creeping forward.</p> + +<p>Apart from the constant charm of the wild life of +the marsh there did not seem to be much for the +naturalist around Nerrin. Opossums bounded +upon the roof at night and snakes were not uncommon. +A dangerous tiger-snake was killed +on the day of our arrival. I was amazed also +at the size of the Australian eels. A returned +soldier had taken up fishing as a trade, renting +a water for a certain time and putting the contents, +so far as he could realise them, upon the +market. It struck me that after this wily digger +had passed that way there would not be much +for the sportsman who followed him. But the eels +were enormous. He took a dozen at a time from +his cunning eel-pots, and not one under six pounds. +I should have said that they were certainly +congers had I seen them in England.</p> + +<p>I wonder whether all this part of the country +has not been swept by a tidal wave at some not +very remote period. It is a low coastline with +this great lava plain as a hinterland, and I can see +nothing to prevent a big wave even now from +sweeping the civilisation of Victoria off the +planet, should there be any really great disturbance +under the Pacific. At any rate, it is my impression +that it has actually occurred once already, for I +cannot otherwise understand the existence of great +shallow lakes of salt water in these inland parts. +Are they not the pools left behind by that terrible +tide? There are great banks of sand, too, here +and there on the top of the lava which I can in no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>way account for unless they were swept here in +some tremendous world-shaking catastrophe which +took the beach from St. Kilda and threw it up +at Nerrin. God save Australia from such a night +as that must have been if my reading of the signs +be correct.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_128" id="I_128">[128]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs07.jpg" width="375" height="242" alt=" +A TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN BACK-COUNTRY SCENE. +By H. J. Johnstone, a great painter who died unknown." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 127.</i></p> <br /> +<p class="center caption"> A TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN BACK-COUNTRY SCENE.<br /> + +By H. J. Johnstone, a great painter who died unknown. <br /> +(Painting in Adelaide National Gallery.)</p> +</div> + +<p>One of the sights of Nerrin is the shearing of +the sheep by electric machinery. These sheep are +merinos, which have been bred as wool-producers +to such an extent that they can hardly see, and +the wool grows thick right down to their hoofs. +The large stately creature is a poor little shadow +when his wonderful fleece has been taken from +him. The electric clips with which the operation +is performed, are, I am told, the invention of a +brother of Garnet Wolseley, who worked away +at the idea, earning the name of being a half-crazy +crank, until at last the invention materialised +and did away with the whole slow and clumsy +process of the hand-shearer. It is not, however, +a pleasant process to watch even for a man, far +less a sensitive woman, for the poor creatures get +cut about a good deal in the process. The shearer +seizes a sheep, fixes him head up between his +knees, and then plunges the swiftly-moving +clippers into the thick wool which covers the +stomach. With wonderful speed he runs it along +and the creature is turned out of its covering, and +left as bare as a turkey in a poulterer's window, +but, alas, its white and tender skin is too often +gashed and ripped with vivid lines of crimson +by the haste and clumsiness of the shearer. It +was worse, they say, in the days of the hand-shearer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +I am bound to say, however, that the +creature makes no fuss about it, remains perfectly +still, and does not appear to suffer any pain. +Nature is often kinder than we know, even to her +most humble children, and some soothing and +healing process seems to be at work.</p> + +<p>The shearers appear to be a rough set of men, +and spend their whole time moving in gangs from +station to station, beginning up in the far north +and winding up on the plains of South Australia. +They are complete masters of the situation, having +a powerful union at their back. They not only +demand and receive some two pounds a day in +wages, but they work or not by vote, the majority +being able to grant a complete holiday. It is +impossible to clip a wet sheep, so that after rain +there is an interval of forced idleness, which may +be prolonged by the vote of the men. They work +very rapidly, however, when they are actually at +it, and the man who tallies most fleeces, called +"the ringer," receives a substantial bonus. When +the great shed is in full activity it is a splendid +sight with the row of stooping figures, each +embracing his sheep, the buzz of the shears, the +rush of the messengers who carry the clip to the +table, the swift movements of the sorters who +separate the perfect from the imperfect wool, and +the levering and straining of the packers who +compress it all into square bundles as hard as iron +with 240 pounds in each. With fine wool at the +present price of ninety-six pence a pound it is clear +that each of these cubes stands for nearly a +hundred pounds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>They are rich men these sheep owners—and I +am speaking here of my general inquiry and not +at all of Nerrin. On a rough average, with many +local exceptions, one may say that an estate bears +one sheep to an acre, and that the sheep may show +a clear profit of one pound in the year. Thus, +after the first initial expense is passed, and when +the flock has reached its full, one may easily make +an assessment of the owner's income. Estates of +10,000 acres are common, and they run up to +50,000 and 60,000 acres. They can be run so +cheaply that the greater part of income is clear +profit, for when the land is barb-wired into great +enclosures no shepherds are needed, and only a +boundary rider or two to see that all is in order. +These, with a few hands at lambing time, and two +or three odd-job men at the central station, make +up the whole staff. It is certainly the short cut +to a fortune if one can only get the plant running.</p> + +<p>Can a man with a moderate capital get a share of +these good things? Certainly he can if he have +grit and a reasonable share of that luck which +must always be a factor in Nature's processes. +Droughts, floods, cyclones, etc., are like the zero +at Monte Carlo, which always may turn up to +defeat the struggling gamester. I followed several +cases where small men had managed to make good. +It is reckoned that the man who gets a holding of +from 300 to 500 acres is able on an average in three +years to pay off all his initial expenses and to have +laid the foundations of a career which may lead to +fortune. One case was a London baker who knew +nothing of the work. He had 300 acres and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +laid it out in wheat, cows, sheep and mixed +farming. He worked from morning to night, his +wife was up at four, and his child of ten was +picking up stones behind the furrow. But he was +already making his £500 a year. The personal +equation was everything. One demobilised +soldier was doing well. Another had come to +smash. Very often a deal is made between the +small man and the large holder, by which the +latter lets the former a corner of his estate, taking +a share, say one-third, of his profits as rent. That +is a plan which suits everyone, and the landlord +can gradually be bought out by the "cockatoo +farmer," as he is styled.</p> + +<p>There is a great wool-clip this year, and prices +in London are at record figures, so that Australia, +which only retains 17 per cent. of her own wool, +should have a very large sum to her credit. But +she needs it. When one considers that the debt of +this small community is heavier now than that of +Great Britain before the war, one wonders how +she can ever win through. But how can anyone +win through? I don't think we have fairly +realised the financial problem yet, and I believe +that within a very few years there will be an +International Council which will be compelled to +adopt some such scheme as the one put forward +by my friend, Mr. Stilwell, under the name of +"The Great Plan." This excellent idea was that +every nation should reduce its warlike expenditure +to an absolute minimum, that the difference +between this minimum and the 1914 pre-war +standard should be paid every year to a central<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +fund, and that international bonds be now drawn +upon the security of that fund, anticipating not its +present amount but what it will represent in fifty +years' time. It is, in fact, making the future help +the present, exactly as an estate which has some +sudden great call upon it might reasonably +anticipate or mortgage its own development. I +believe that the salvation of the world may depend +upon some such plan, and that the Council of the +League of Nations is the agency by which it could +be made operative.</p> + +<p>Australia has had two plants which have been a +perfect curse to her as covering the land and +offering every impediment to agriculture. They +are the Spinnifex in the West and the Mallee scrub +in the East. The latter was considered a hopeless +proposition, and the only good which could be +extracted from it was that the root made an ideal +fire, smouldering long and retaining heat. Suddenly, +however, a genius named Lascelles discovered +that this hopeless Mallee land was simply +unrivalled for wheat, and his schemes have now +brought seven million acres under the plough. +This could hardly have been done if another genius, +unnamed, had not invented a peculiar and +ingenious plough, the "stump-jump plough," +which can get round obstacles without breaking +itself. It is not generally known that Australia +really heads the world for the ingenuity and +efficiency of her agricultural machinery. There +is an inventor and manufacturer, MacKay, of +Sunshine, who represents the last word in automatic +reapers, etc. He exports them, a shipload<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +at a time, to the United States, which, if one +considers the tariff which they have to surmount, +is proof in itself of the supremacy of the article. +With this wealth of machinery the real power of +Australia in the world is greater than her population +would indicate, for a five-million nation, which, +by artificial aid, does the work normally done by +ten million people, becomes a ten-million nation +so far as economic and financial strength is +concerned.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Australia has her hindrances +as well as her helps. Certainly the rabbits have +done her no good, though the evil is for the +moment under control. An efficient rabbiter gets +a pound a day, and he is a wise insurance upon +any estate, for the creatures, if they get the upper-hand, +can do thousands of pounds' worth of +damage. This damage takes two shapes. First, +they eat on all the grass and leave nothing at all +for the sheep. Secondly, they burrow under +walls, etc., and leave the whole place an untidy +ruin. Little did the man who introduced the +creature into Australia dream how the imprecations +of a continent would descend upon him.</p> + +<p>Alas! that we could not linger at Nerrin; but +duty was calling at Melbourne. Besides, the +days of the Melbourne Cup were at hand, and not +only was Mr. Wynne a great pillar of the turf, but +Mr. Osborne, owner of one of the most likely horses +in the race, was one of the house-party. To Melbourne +therefore we went. We shall always, +however, be able in our dreams to revisit that +broad verandah, the low hospitable façade, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +lovely lawn with its profusion of scented shrubs, +the grove of towering gum trees, where the +opossums lurked, and above all the great marsh +where with dark clouds drifting across the moon +we had stolen out at night to hear the crying of +innumerable birds. That to us will always be the +real Australia.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>The Melbourne Cup.—Psychic healing.—M. J. Bloomfield.—My +own experience.—Direct healing.—Chaos and Ritual.—Government +House Ball.—The Rescue Circle again.—Sitting +with Mrs. Harris.—A good test case.—Australian +botany.—The land of myrtles.—English cricket team.—Great +final meeting in Melbourne.</p></div> + + +<p>It was the week of weeks in Melbourne when we +returned from Nerrin, and everything connected +with my mission was out of the question. When +the whole world is living vividly here and now +there is no room for the hereafter. Personally, +I fear I was out of sympathy with it all, though +we went to the Derby, where the whole male and +a good part of the female population of Melbourne +seemed to be assembled, reinforced by +contingents from every State in the Federation. +A fine handsome body of people they are when +you see them <i>en masse</i>, strong, solid and capable, +if perhaps a little lacking in those finer and more +spiritual graces which come with a more matured +society. The great supply of animal food must +have its effect upon the mind as well as the body +of a nation. Lord Forster appeared at the races, +and probably, as an all round sportsman, took a +genuine interest, but the fate of the Governor +who did not take an interest would be a rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +weary one—like that kind-hearted Roman +Emperor, Claudius, if I remember right, who had +to attend the gladiatorial shows, but did his +business there so as to distract his attention from +the arena. We managed to get out of attending +the famous Melbourne Cup, and thereby found +the St. Kilda Beach deserted for once, and I was +able to spend a quiet day with my wife watching +the children bathe and preparing for the more +strenuous times ahead.</p> + +<p>One psychic subject which has puzzled me +more than any other, is that of magnetic healing. +All my instincts as a doctor, and all the traditional +teaching of the profession, cry out against unexplained +effects, and the opening which their +acceptance must give to the quack. The man +who has paid a thousand pounds for his special +knowledge has a natural distaste when he sees a +man who does not know the subclavian artery +from the pineal gland, effecting or claiming to +effect cures on some quite unconventional line. +And yet ... and yet!</p> + +<p>The ancients knew a great deal which we have +forgotten, especially about the relation of one body +to another. What did Hippocrates mean when +he said, "The affections suffered by the body the +soul sees with shut eyes?" I will show you +exactly what he means. My friend, M. J. Bloomfield, +as unselfish a worker for truth as the world +can show, tried for nearly two years to develop +the medical powers of a clairvoyant. Suddenly +the result was attained, without warning. He was +walking with a friend in Collins Street laughing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +over some joke. In an instant the laugh was +struck from his lips. A man and woman were +walking in front, their backs towards Bloomfield. +To his amazement he saw the woman's inner +anatomy mapped out before him, and especially +marked a rounded mass near the liver which he +felt intuitively should not be there. His companion +rallied him on his sudden gravity, and +still more upon the cause of it, when it was explained. +Bloomfield was so certain, however, that +the vision was for a purpose, that he accosted the +couple, and learned that the woman was actually +about to be operated on for cancer. He reassured +them, saying that the object seemed clearly +defined and not to have widespread roots as a +cancer might have. He was asked to be present +at the operation, pointed out the exact place +where he had seen the growth, and saw it extracted. +It was, as he had said, innocuous. With this +example in one's mind the words of Hippocrates +begin to assume a very definite meaning. I +believe that the surgeon was so struck by the +incident that he was most anxious that Bloomfield +should aid him permanently in his diagnoses.</p> + +<p>I will now give my own experience with Mr. +Bloomfield. Denis had been suffering from certain +pains, so I took him round as a test case. Bloomfield, +without asking the boy any questions, gazed +at him for a couple of minutes. He then said that +the pains were in the stomach and head, pointing +out the exact places. The cause, he said, was some +slight stricture in the intestine and he proceeded +to tell me several facts of Denis's early history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +which were quite correct, and entirely beyond his +normal knowledge. I have never in all my +experience of medicine known so accurate a +diagnosis.</p> + +<p>Another lady, whom I knew, consulted him for +what she called a "medical reading." Without +examining her in any way he said: "What a +peculiar throat you have! It is all pouched +inside." She admitted that this was so, and that +doctors in London had commented upon it. By +his clairvoyant gift he could see as much as they +with their laryngoscopes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bloomfield has never accepted any fees for +his remarkable gifts. Last year he gave 3,000 +consultations. I have heard of mediums with +similar powers in England, but I had never before +been in actual contact with one. With all my +professional prejudices I am bound to admit that +they have powers, just as Braid and Esdaile, the +pioneers of hypnotism, had powers, which must +sooner or later be acknowledged.</p> + +<p>There are, as I understand it, at least two quite +different forms of psychic healing. In such cases +as those quoted the result may be due only to +subtle powers of the human organism which some +have developed and others have not. The clairvoyance +and the instinctive knowledge may both +belong to the individual. In the other cases, +however, there are the direct action and advice of a +wise spirit control, a deceased physician usually, +who has added to his worldly stock of knowledge. +He can, of course, only act through a medium—and +just there, alas, is the dangerous opening for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +fraud and quackery. But if anyone wishes to +study the operation at its best let him read a tiny +book called "One thing I know," which records the +cure of the writer, the sister of an Anglican canon, +when she had practically been given up by doctors +of this world after fifteen years of bed, but was rescued +by the ministrations of Dr. Beale, a physician +on the other side. Dr. Beale received promotion to +a higher sphere in the course of the treatment, +which was completed by his assistant and successor. +It is a very interesting and convincing narrative.</p> + +<p>We were invited to another spiritual meeting at +the Auditorium. Individuality runs riot sometimes +in our movement. On this occasion a concert +had been mixed up with a religious service +and the effect was not good, though the musical +part of the proceedings disclosed one young +violinist, Master Hames, who should, I think, +make a name in the world. I have always been +against ritual, and yet now that I see the effect of +being without it I begin to understand that some +form of it, however elastic, is necessary. The +clairvoyance was good, if genuine, but it offends +me to see it turned off and on like a turn at a music +hall. It is either nonsense or the holy of holies +and mystery of mysteries. Perhaps it was just +this conflict between the priest with his ritual and +the medium without any, which split the early +Christian Church, and ended in the complete +victory of the ritual, which meant the extinction +not only of the medium but of the living, visible, +spiritual forces which he represented. Flowers, +music, incense, architecture, all tried to fill the gap,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +but the soul of the thing had gone out of it. It +must, I suppose, have been about the end of the +third century that the process was completed, +and the living thing had set into a petrifaction. +That would be the time no doubt when, as already +mentioned, special correctors were appointed to +make the gospel texts square with the elaborate +machinery of the Church. Only now does the +central fire begin to glow once more through the +ashes which have been heaped above it.</p> + +<p>We attended the great annual ball at the Government +House, where the Governor-General and his +wife were supported by the Governors of the +various States, the vice-regal party performing +their own stately quadrille with a dense hedge of +spectators around them. There were few chaperons, +and nearly every one ended by dancing, so +that it was a cheerful and festive scene. My +friend Major Wood had played with the Governor-General +in the same Hampshire eleven, and it was +singular to think that after many years they should +meet again like this.</p> + +<p>Social gaieties are somewhat out of key with my +present train of thought, and I was more in my +element next evening at a meeting of the Rescue +Circle under Mr. Tozer. Mr. Love was the medium +and it was certainly a very remarkable and consistent +performance. Even those who might +imagine that the different characters depicted +were in fact various strands of Mr. Love's subconscious +self, each dramatising its own peculiarities, +must admit that it was a very absorbing +exhibition. The circle sits round with prayer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +and hymns while Mr. Love falls into a trance +state. He is then controlled by the Chinaman +Quong, who is a person of such standing and +wisdom in the other world, that other lower +spirits have to obey him. The light is dim, but +even so the characteristics of this Chinaman get +across very clearly, the rolling head, the sidelong, +humorous glance the sly smile, the hands crossed +and buried in what should be the voluminous folds of +a mandarin's gown. He greets the company in somewhat +laboured English and says he has many who +would be the better for our ministrations. "Send +them along, please!" says Mr. Tozer. The +medium suddenly sits straight and his whole face +changes into an austere harshness. "What is +this ribald nonsense?" he cries. "Who are you, +friend?" says Tozer. "My name is Mathew +Barret. I testified in my life to the Lamb and to +Him crucified. I ask again: What is this ribald +nonsense?" "It is not nonsense, friend. We +are here to help you and to teach you that you are +held down and punished for your narrow ideas, +and that you cannot progress until they are more +charitable." "What I preached in life I still +believe." "Tell us, friend, did you find it on the +other side as you had preached?" "What do +you mean?" "Well, did you, for example, see +Christ?" There was an embarrassed silence. +"No, I did not." "Have you seen the devil?" +"No, I have not." "Then, bethink you, friend, +that there may be truth in what we teach." "It +is against all that I have preached." A moment +later the Chinaman was back with his rolling head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +and his wise smile. "He good man—stupid +man. He learn in time. Plenty time before +him."</p> + +<p>We had a wonderful succession of "revenants." +One was a very dignified Anglican, who always +referred to the Control as "this yellow person." +Another was an Australian soldier. "I never +thought I'd take my orders from a 'Chink,'" said +he, "but he says 'hist!' and by gum you've got +to 'hist' and no bloomin' error." Yet another +said he had gone down in the <i>Monmouth</i>. +"Can you tell me anything of the action?" I +asked. "We never had a chance. It was just +hell." There was a world of feeling in his voice. +He was greatly amused at their "sky-pilot," as +he called the chaplain, and at his confusion when +he found the other world quite different to what he +had depicted. A terrifying Ghurkha came along, +who still thought he was in action and charged +about the circle, upsetting the medium's chair, +and only yielding to a mixture of force and persuasion. +There were many others, most of whom +returned thanks for the benefit derived from +previous meetings. "You've helped us quite a +lot," they said. Between each the old Chinese +sage made comments upon the various cases, a +kindly, wise old soul, with just a touch of mischievous +humour running through him. We had +an exhibition of the useless apostolic gift of tongues +during the evening, for two of the ladies present +broke out into what I was informed was the Maori +language, keeping up a long and loud conversation. +I was not able to check it, but it was certainly a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +coherent language of some sort. In all this there +was nothing which one could take hold of and +quote as absolutely and finally evidential, and yet +the total effect was most convincing. I have been +in touch with some Rescue Circles, however, where +the identity of the "patients," as we may call +them, was absolutely traced.</p> + +<p>As I am on the subject of psychic experiences +I may as well carry on, so that the reader who is +out of sympathy may make a single skip of the +lot. Mrs. Susanna Harris, the American voice-medium, +who is well known in London, had arrived +here shortly after ourselves, and gave us a sitting. +Mrs. Harris's powers have been much discussed, +for while on the one hand she passed a most difficult +test in London, where, with her mouth full of +coloured water, she produced the same voice effects +as on other occasions, she had no success in Norway +when she was examined by their Psychic Research +Committee; but I know how often these intellectuals +ruin their own effects by their mental attitude, +which acts like those anti-ferments which prevent +a chemical effervescence. We must always get +back to the principle, however, that one positive +result is more important than a hundred negative +ones—just as one successful demonstration in +chemistry makes up for any number of failures. +We cannot command spirit action, and we can only +commiserate with, not blame, the medium who +does not receive it when it is most desired. +Personally I have sat four times with Mrs. Harris +and I have not the faintest doubt that on each of +these occasions I got true psychic results, though +I cannot answer for what happens in Norway or +elsewhere.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_144" id="I_144">[144]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs08.jpg" width="340" height="216" alt=" +AT MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, NOVEMBER 12TH, 1920." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 149.</i></p> +<p class="center caption">AT MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, NOVEMBER 12TH, 1920.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> +<p>Shortly after her arrival in Melbourne she gave +us a séance in our private room at the hotel, no +one being present save at my invitation. There +were about twelve guests, some of whom had no +psychic experience, and I do not think there was +one of them who did not depart convinced that +they had been in touch with preternatural forces. +There were two controls, Harmony, with a high +girlish treble voice, and a male control with a +strong decisive bass. I sat next to Mrs. Harris, +holding her hand in mine, and I can swear to it that +again and again she spoke to me while the other +voices were conversing with the audience. Harmony +is a charming little creature, witty, friendly +and innocent. I am quite ready to consider the +opinion expressed by the Theosophists that such +controls as Harmony with Mrs. Harris, Bella with +Mrs. Brittain, Feda with Mrs. Leonard, and others +are in reality nature-spirits who have never lived +in the flesh but take an intelligent interest in our +affairs and are anxious to help us. The male +control, however, who always broke in with some +final clinching remark in a deep voice, seemed +altogether human.</p> + +<p>Whilst these two controls formed, and were the +chorus of the play, the real drama rested with the +spirit voices, the same here as I have heard them +under Mrs. Wriedt, Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Powell in +England, intense, low, vibrating with emotion +and with anxiety to get through. Nearly everyone +in the circle had communications which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +satisfied them. One lady who had mourned her +husband very deeply had the inexpressible satisfaction +of hearing his voice thanking her for putting +flowers before his photograph, a fact which no one +else could know. A voice claiming to be "Moore-Usborne +Moore," came in front of me. I said, +"Well, Admiral, we never met, but we corresponded +in life." He said, "Yes, and we disagreed," +which was true. Then there came a voice which +claimed to be Mr. J. Morse, the eminent pioneer +of Spiritualism. I said, "Mr. Morse, if that is you, +you can tell me where we met last." He answered, +"Was it not in '<i>Light</i>' office in London?" I +said, "No, surely it was when you took the chair +for me at that great meeting at Sheffield." He +answered, "Well, we lose some of our memory in +passing." As a matter of fact he was perfectly +right, for after the sitting both my wife and I +remembered that I had exchanged a word or two +with him as I was coming out of <i>Light</i> office at +least a year after the Sheffield meeting. This was +a good test as telepathy was excluded. General +Sir Alfred Turner also came and said that he +remembered our conversations on earth. When I +asked him whether he had found the conditions +beyond the grave as happy as he expected he +answered, "infinitely more so." Altogether I +should think that not less than twenty spirits +manifested during this remarkable séance. The +result may have been the better because Mrs. +Harris had been laid up in bed for a week beforehand, +and so we had her full force. I fancy that +like most mediums, she habitually overworks her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +wonderful powers. Such séances have been going +on now for seventy years, with innumerable +witnesses of credit who will testify, as I have done +here, that all fraud or mistake was out of the +question. And still the men of no experience +shake their heads. I wonder how long they will +succeed in standing between the world and the +consolation which God has sent us.</p> + +<p>There is one thing very clear about mediumship +and that is that it bears no relation to physical +form. Mrs. Harris is a very large lady, tall and +Junoesque, a figure which would catch the eye in +any assembly. She has, I believe, a dash of the +mystic Red Indian blood in her, which may be +connected with her powers. Bailey, on the other +hand, is a little, ginger-coloured man, while Campbell +of Sydney, who is said to have apport powers +which equal Bailey, is a stout man, rather like the +late Corney Grain. Every shape and every +quality of vessel may hold the psychic essence.</p> + +<p>I spend such spare time as I have in the +Melbourne Botanical Gardens, which is, I +think, absolutely the most beautiful place that I +have ever seen. I do not know what genius laid +them out, but the effect is a succession of the most +lovely vistas, where flowers, shrubs, large trees +and stretches of water, are combined in an extraordinary +harmony. Green swards slope down to +many tinted groves, and they in turn droop over +still ponds mottled with lovely water plants. It +is an instructive as well as a beautiful place, for +every tree has its visiting card attached and +one soon comes to know them. Australia is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +preeminently the Land of the Myrtles, for a large +proportion of its vegetation comes under this one +order, which includes the gum trees, of which +there are 170 varieties. They all shed their bark +instead of their leaves, and have a generally untidy, +not to say indecent appearance, as they stand +with their covering in tatters and their white underbark +shining through the rents. There is not the +same variety of species in Australia as in England, +and it greatly helps a superficial botanist like +myself, for when you have learned the ti-tree, the +wild fig tree and the gum trees, you will be on terms +with nature wherever you go. New Zealand +however offers quite a fresh lot of problems.</p> + +<p>The Melbourne Cricket Club has made me an +honorary member, so Denis and I went down +there, where we met the giant bowler, Hugh +Trumble, who left so redoubtable a name in +England. As the Chela may look at the Yogi so +did Denis, with adoring eyes, gaze upon Trumble, +which so touched his kind heart that he produced +a cricket ball, used in some famous match, which +he gave to the boy—a treasure which will be +reverently brought back to England. I fancy +Denis slept with it that night, as he certainly did +in his pads and gloves the first time that he owned +them.</p> + +<p>We saw the English team play Victoria, and it +was pleasant to see the well-known faces once +more. The luck was all one way, for Armstrong +was on the sick list, and Armstrong is the mainstay +of Victorian cricket. Rain came at a critical +moment also, and gave Woolley and Rhodes a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +wicket which was impossible for a batsman. +However, it was all good practice for the more +exacting games of the future. It should be a +fine eleven which contains a genius like Hobbs, +backed by such men as the bustling bulldog, +Hendren, a great out-field as well as a grand +bat, or the wily, dangerous Hearne, or Douglas, +cricketer, boxer, above all warrior, a worthy +leader of Englishmen. Hearne I remember as +little more than a boy, when he promised to carry +on the glories of that remarkable family, of which +George and Alec were my own playmates. He +has ended by proving himself the greatest of +them all.</p> + +<p>My long interval of enforced rest came at last +to an end, when the race fever had spent itself, and +I was able to have my last great meeting at the +Town Hall. It really was a great meeting, as the +photograph of it will show. I spoke for over +two hours, ending up by showing a selection of +the photographs. I dealt faithfully with the +treatment given to me by the <i>Argus</i>. I take the +extract from the published account. "On this, +the last time in my life that I shall address a +Melbourne audience, I wish to thank the people +for the courtesy with which we have been received. +It would, however, be hypocritical upon my part +if I were to thank the Press. A week before I +entered Melbourne the <i>Argus</i> declared that I +was an emissary of the devil (laughter). I care +nothing for that. I am out for a fight and can +take any knocks that come. But the <i>Argus</i> +refused to publish a word I said. I came 12,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +miles to give you a message of hope and comfort, +and I appeal to you to say whether three or four +gentlemen sitting in a board-room have a right +to say to the people of Melbourne, 'You shall not +listen to that man nor read one word of what he +has to say.' (Cries of 'Shame!') You, I am +sure, resent being spoon-fed in such a manner." +The audience showed in the most hearty fashion +that they did resent it, and they cheered loudly +when I pointed out that my remarks did not +arise, as anyone could see by looking round, from +any feeling on my part that my mission had failed +to gain popular support. It was a great evening, +and I have never addressed a more sympathetic +audience. The difficulty always is for my wife +and myself to escape from our kind well-wishers, +and it is touching and heartening to hear the +sincere "God bless you!" which they shower +upon us as we pass.</p> + +<p>This then was the climax of our mission in Melbourne. +It was marred by the long but unavoidable +delay in the middle, but it began well and +ended splendidly. On November 13th we left the +beautiful town behind us, and embarked upon +what we felt would be a much more adventurous +period at Sydney, for all we had heard showed +that both our friends and our enemies were more +active in the great seaport of New South Wales.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Great reception at Sydney.—Importance of Sydney.—Journalistic +luncheon.—A psychic epidemic.—Gregory.—Barracking.—Town +Hall reception.—Regulation of +Spiritualism.—An ether apport.—Surfing at Manly.—A +challenge.—Bigoted opponents.—A disgruntled photographer.—Outing +in the Harbour.—Dr. Mildred Creed.—Leon +Gellert.—Norman Lindsay.—Bishop Leadbeater.—Our +relations with Theosophy.—Incongruities of H.P.B.—Of +D.D. Home.</p></div> + + +<p>We had a wonderful reception at Sydney. I +have a great shrinking from such deputations as +they catch you at the moment when you are +exhausted and unkempt after a long journey, +and when you need all your energies to collect +your baggage and belongings so as to make your +way to your hotel. But on this occasion it was +so hearty, and the crowd of faces beamed such +good wishes upon us that it was quite a pick-me-up +to all of us. "God bless you!" and "Thank +God you have come!" reached us from all sides. +My wife, covered with flowers, was hustled off in +one direction, while I was borne away in another, +and each of the children was the centre of a +separate group. Major Wood had gone off to +see to the luggage, and Jakeman was herself +embedded somewhere in the crowd, so at last I +had to shout, "Where's that little girl? Where's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +that little boy?" until we reassembled and were +able, laden with bouquets, to reach our carriage. +The evening paper spread itself over the scene.</p> + +<p>"When Sir Conan Doyle, his wife and their +three children arrived from Melbourne by the +express this morning, an assembly of Spiritualists +accorded them a splendid greeting. Men swung +their hats high and cheered, women danced in +their excitement, and many of their number +rushed the party with rare bouquets. The excitement +was at its highest, and Sir Conan being +literally carried along the platform by the pressing +crowds, when a digger arrived on the outskirts. +'Who's that?' he asked of nobody in particular. +Almost immediately an urchin replied, 'The +bloke that wrote "Sherlock Holmes."' When +asked if the latter gentleman was really and +irretrievably dead the author of his being remarked, +'Well, you can say that a coroner has +never sat upon him.'"</p> + +<p>It was a grand start, and we felt at once in a +larger and more vigorous world, where, if we had +fiercer foes, we at least had warm and well-organised +friends. Better friends than those of +Melbourne do not exist, but there was a method +and cohesion about Sydney which impressed us +from the first day to the last. There seemed, also, +to be fewer of those schisms which are the bane +of our movement. If Wells' dictum that +organisation is death has truth in it, then we are +very much alive.</p> + +<p>We had rooms in Petty's Hotel, which is an +old-world hostel with a very quiet, soothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +atmosphere. There I was at once engaged with +the usual succession of journalists with a long list +of questions which ranged from the destiny of the +human soul to the chances of the test match. +What with the constant visitors, the unpacking of +our trunks, and the settling down of the children, +we were a very weary band before evening.</p> + +<p>I had no idea that Sydney was so great a place. +The population is now very nearly a million, +which represents more than one-sixth of the +whole vast Continent. It seems a weak point of +the Australian system that 41 per cent. of the +whole population dwell in the six capital cities. +The vital statistics of Sydney are extraordinarily +good, for the death rate is now only twelve per +thousand per annum. Our standard in such +matters is continually rising, for I can remember +the days when twenty per thousand was reckoned +to be a very good result. In every civic amenity +Sydney stands very high. Her Botanical Gardens +are not so supremely good as those of Melbourne, +but her Zoo is among the very best in the world. +The animals seem to be confined by trenches +rather than by bars, so that they have the appearance +of being at large. It was only after Jakeman +had done a level hundred with a child under each +arm that she realised that a bear, which she saw +approaching, was not really in a state of freedom.</p> + +<p>As to the natural situation of Sydney, especially +its harbour, it is so world-renowned that it is +hardly necessary to allude to it. I can well +imagine that a Sydney man would grow homesick +elsewhere, for he could never find the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +surroundings. The splendid landlocked bay with +its numerous side estuaries and its narrow entrance +is a grand playground for a sea-loving race. On +a Saturday it is covered with every kind of craft, +from canoe to hundred-tonner. The fact that +the water swarms with sharks seems to present +no fears to these strong-nerved people, and I have +found myself horrified as I watched little craft, +manned by boys, heeling over in a fresh breeze +until the water was up to their gunwales. At very +long intervals some one gets eaten, but the fun +goes on all the same.</p> + +<p>The people of Sydney have their residences +(bungalows with verandahs) all round this beautiful +bay, forming dozens of little townlets. The +system of ferry steamers becomes as important as +the trams, and is extraordinarily cheap and convenient. +To Manly, for example, which lies some +eight miles out, and is a favourite watering place, +the fare is fivepence for adults and twopence for +children. So frequent are the boats that you never +worry about catching them, for if one is gone +another will presently start. Thus, the whole +life of Sydney seems to converge into the Circular +Quay, from which as many as half a dozen of +these busy little steamers may be seen casting off +simultaneously for one or another of the oversea +suburbs. Now and then, in a real cyclone, the +service gets suspended, but it is a rare event, and +there is a supplementary, but roundabout, service +of trams.</p> + +<p>The journalists of New South Wales gave a +lunch to my wife and myself, which was a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +pleasant function. One leading journalist announced, +amid laughter, that he had actually +consulted me professionally in my doctoring days, +and had lived to tell the tale, which contradicts the +base insinuation of some orator who remarked +once that though I was known to have practised, +no <i>living</i> patient of mine had ever yet been seen.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been more successful than +my first lecture, which filled the Town Hall. +There were evidently a few people who had come +with intent to make a scene, but I had my +audience so entirely with me, that it was impossible +to cause real trouble. One fanatic near +the door cried out, "Anti-Christ!" several times, +and was then bundled out. Another, when I +described how my son had come back to me, cried +out that it was the devil, but on my saying with +a laugh that such a remark showed the queer +workings of some people's minds, the people +cheered loudly in assent. Altogether it was a +great success, which was repeated in the second, +and culminated in the third, when, with a hot +summer day, and the English cricketers making +their debut, I still broke the record for a Town +Hall matinée. The rush was more than the +officials could cope with, and I had to stand for +ten long minutes looking at the audience before it +was settled enough for me to begin. Some spiritualists +in the audience struck up "Lead, Kindly +Light!" which gave the right note to the +assemblage. Mr. Smythe, with all his experience, +was amazed at our results. "This is no longer +a mere success," he cried. "It is a triumph. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +an epidemic!" Surely, it will leave some permanent +good behind it and turn the public mind +from religious shadows to realities.</p> + +<p>We spent one restful day seeing our cricketers +play New South Wales. After a promising start +they were beaten owing to a phenomenal first-wicket +stand in the second innings by Macartney +and Collins, both batsmen topping the hundred. +Gregory seemed a dangerous bowler, making the +ball rise shoulder high even on that Bulli wicket, +where midstump is as much as an ordinary bowler +can attain. He is a tiger of a man, putting every +ounce of his strength and inch of his great height +into every ball, with none of the artistic finesse +of a Spofforth, but very effective all the same. +We have no one of the same class; and that will +win Australia the rubber unless I am—as I hope +I am—a false prophet. I was not much impressed +either by the manners or by the knowledge of the +game shown by the barrackers. Every now and +then, out of the mass of people who darken the +grass slopes round the ground, you hear a raucous +voice giving advice to the captain, or, perhaps, +conjuring a fast bowler to bowl at the wicket +when the man is keeping a perfect length outside +the off stump and trying to serve his three slips. +When Mailey went on, because he was slow and +seemed easy, they began to jeer, and, yet, you +had only to watch the batsman to see that the ball +was doing a lot and kept him guessing. One +wonders why the neighbours of these bawlers +tolerate it. In England such men would soon be +made to feel that they were ill-mannered nuisances,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +I am bound to testify, however, that they seem +quite impartial, and that the English team had +no special cause for complaint. I may also add +that, apart from this cricketing peculiarity, which +is common to all the States, the Sydney crowd +is said to be one of the most good-humoured +and orderly in the world. My own observation +confirms this, and I should say that there was a +good deal less drunkenness than in Melbourne, +but, perhaps the races gave me an exaggerated +impression of the latter.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, 28th, the spiritualists gave the +pilgrims (as they called us) a reception at the +Town Hall. There was not a seat vacant, and +the sight of these 3,500 well-dressed, intelligent +people must have taught the press that the movement +is not to be despised. There are at least +10,000 professed spiritualists in Sydney, and even +as a political force they demand consideration. +The seven of us were placed in the front of the +platform, and the service was very dignified and +impressive. When the great audience sang, "God +hold you safely till we meet once more," it was +almost overpowering, for it is a beautiful tune, +and was sung with real feeling. In my remarks I +covered a good deal of ground, but very particularly +I warned them against all worldly use of +this great knowledge, whether it be fortune +telling, prophecies about races and stocks, or any +other prostitution of our subject. I also exhorted +them when they found fraud to expose it at once, +as their British brethren do, and never to trifle +with truth. When I had finished, the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +3,500 people stood up, and everyone waved a +handkerchief, producing a really wonderful scene. +We can never forget it.</p> + +<p>Once more I must take refuge behind the local +Observer. "The scene as Sir Arthur rose will be +long remembered by those who were privileged +to witness it. A sea of waving handkerchiefs +confronted the speaker, acclaiming silently and +reverently the deep esteem in which he was held +by all present. Never has Sir Arthur's earnestness +in his mission been more apparent than on +this occasion as he proceeded with a heart to heart +talk with the spiritualists present, offering friendly +criticisms, sound advice, and encouragement to +the adherents of the great movement.</p> + +<p>"'He had got,' he said, 'so much into the +habit of lecturing that he was going to lecture the +spiritualists.' With a flash of humour Sir Arthur +added: 'It does none of us any harm to be +lectured occasionally. I am a married man +myself' (laughter). 'I would say to the +spiritualists', "For Heaven's sake keep this thing +high and unspotted. Don't let it drop into the +regions of fortune telling and other things which +leave such an ugly impression on the public mind, +and which we find it so difficult to justify. Keep +it in its most religious and purest aspect." At the +same time, I expressed my view that there was no +reason at all why a medium should not receive +moderate payment for work done, since it is +impossible, otherwise, that he can live.</p> + +<p>Every solid spiritualist would, I am sure, agree +with me that our whole subject needs regulating,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +and is in an unsatisfactory condition. We cannot +approve of the sensation mongers who run from +medium to medium (or possibly pretended +medium) with no object but excitement or +curiosity. The trouble is that you have to +recognise a thing before you can regulate it, and +the public has not properly recognised us. Let +them frankly do so, and take us into counsel, and +then we shall get things on a solid basis. Personally, +I would be ready to go so far as to agree +that an inquirer should take out a formal permit +to consult a medium, showing that it was done +for some definite object, if in return we could get +State recognition for those mediums who were +recommended as genuine by valid spiritual +authorities. My friends will think this a reactionary +proposition, but none the less I feel the +need of regulation almost as much as I do that of +recognition.</p> + +<p>One event which occurred to me at Sydney I +shall always regard as an instance of that fostering +care of which I have been conscious ever since +we set forth upon our journey. I had been over-tired, +had slept badly and had a large meeting +in the evening, so that it was imperative that I +should have a nap in the afternoon. My brain +was racing, however, and I could get no rest or +prospect of any. The second floor window was +slightly open behind me, and outside was a broad +open space, shimmering in the heat of a summer +day. Suddenly, as I lay there, I was aware of a +very distinct pungent smell of ether, coming in +waves from outside. With each fresh wave I felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +my over-excited nerves calming down as the sea +does when oil is poured upon it. Within a few +minutes I was in a deep sleep, and woke all +ready for my evening's work. I looked out of +the window and tried to picture where the ether +could have come from; then I returned thanks +for one more benefit received. I do not suppose +that I am alone in such interpositions, but I think +that our minds are so centred on this tiny mud +patch, that we are deaf and blind to all that impinges +on us from beyond.</p> + +<p>Having finished in Sydney, and my New +Zealand date having not yet arrived, we shifted +our quarters to Manly, upon the sea coast, about +eight miles from the town. Here we all devoted +ourselves to surf-bathing, spending a good deal of +our day in the water, as is the custom of the place. +It is a real romp with Nature, for the great Pacific +rollers come sweeping in and break over you, +rolling you over on the sand if they catch you +unawares. It was a golden patch in our restless +lives. There were surf boards, and I am told that +there were men competent to ride them, but I saw +none of Jack London's Sun Gods riding in erect +upon the crest of the great rollers. Alas, poor +Jack London! What right had such a man to +die, he who had more vim and passion, and knowledge +of varied life than the very best of us? +Apart from all his splendid exuberance and +exaggeration he had very real roots of grand +literature within him. I remember, particularly, +the little episodes of bygone days in "The +Jacket." The man who wrote those could do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +anything. Those whom the American public love +die young. Frank Norris, Harold Frederic, +Stephen Crane, the author of "David Harum," +and now Jack London—but the greatest of these +was Jack London.</p> + +<p>There is a grand beach at Manly, and the +thundering rollers carry in some flotsam from the +great ocean. One morning the place was covered +with beautiful blue jelly-fish, like little Roman +lamps with tendrils hanging down. I picked up +one of these pretty things, and was just marvelling +at its complete construction when I discovered +that it was even more complete than I supposed, +for it gave me a violent sting. For a day or two +I had reason to remember my little blue castaway, +with his up-to-date fittings for keeping the stranger +at a distance.</p> + +<p>I was baited at Sydney by a person of the name +of Simpson, representing Christianity, though I +was never clear what particular branch of religion +he represented, and he was disowned by some +leaders of Christian Thought. I believe he was +president of the Christian Evidence Society. His +opposition, though vigorous, and occasionally +personal, was perfectly legitimate, but his well-advertised +meeting at the Town Hall (though no +charge was made for admission) was not a success. +His constant demand was that I should meet him +in debate, which was, of course, out of the question, +since no debate is possible between a man +who considers a text to be final, and one who +cannot take this view. My whole energies, so +much needed for my obvious work, would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +been frittered away in barren controversies had I +allowed my hand to be forced. I had learned my +lesson, however, at the M'Cabe debate in London, +when I saw clearly that nothing could come +from such proceedings. On the other hand, I +conceived the idea of what would be a real test, +and I issued it as a challenge in the public press. +"It is clear," I said, "that one single case of +spirit return proves our whole contention. Therefore, +let the question be concentrated upon one, +or, if necessary, upon three cases. These I would +undertake to prove, producing my witnesses in the +usual way. My opponent would act the part of +hostile counsel, cross-examining and criticising +my facts. The case would be decided by a +majority vote of a jury of twelve, chosen from men +of standing, who pledged themselves as open-minded +on the question. Such a test could +obviously only take place in a room of limited +dimensions, so that no money would be involved +and truth only be at stake. That is all that I +seek. If such a test can be arranged I am ready +for it, either before I leave, or after I return from +New Zealand." This challenge was not taken up +by my opponents.</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson had a long tirade in the Sydney +papers about the evil religious effects of my mission, +which caused me to write a reply in which +I defined our position in a way which may be +instructive to others. I said:—</p> + +<p>"The tenets which we spiritualists preach and +which I uphold upon the platform are that any +man who is deriving spirituality from his creed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +be that creed what it may, is learning the lesson +of life. For this reason we would not attack your +creed, however repulsive it might seem to us, so +long as you and your colleagues might be getting +any benefit from it. We desire to go our own +way, saying what we know to be true, and claiming +from others the same liberty of conscience and of +expression which we freely grant to them.</p> + +<p>"You, on the other hand, go out of your way to +attack us, to call us evil names, and to pretend +that those loved ones who return to us are in +truth devils, and that our phenomena, though they +are obviously of the same sort as those which are +associated with early Christianity, are diabolical +in their nature. This absurd view is put forward +without a shadow of proof, and entirely upon the +supposed meaning of certain ancient texts which +refer in reality to a very different matter, but +which are strained and twisted to suit your +purpose.</p> + +<p>"It is men like you and your colleagues who, +by your parody of Christianity and your constant +exhibition of those very qualities which Christ +denounced in the Pharisees, have driven many +reasonable people away from religion and left the +churches half empty. Your predecessors, who +took the same narrow view of the literal interpretation +of the Bible, were guilty of the murder +of many thousands of defenceless old women who +were burned in deference to the text, 'Suffer no +witch to live.' Undeterred by this terrible result +of the literal reading, you still advocate it, although +you must be well aware that polygamy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +slavery and murder can all be justified by such a +course.</p> + +<p>"In conclusion, let me give you the advice to +reconsider your position, to be more charitable to +your neighbours, and to devote your redundant +energies to combating the utter materialism which +is all round you, instead of railing so bitterly at +those who are proving immortality and the need +for good living in a way which meets their spiritual +wants, even though it is foreign to yours."</p> + +<p>A photographer, named Mark Blow, also caused +me annoyance by announcing that my photographs +were fakes, and that he was prepared to give £25 +to any charity if he could not reproduce them. I +at once offered the same sum if he could do so, +and I met him by appointment at the office of +the evening paper, the editor being present to +see fair play. I placed my money on the table, +but Mr. Blow did not cover it. I then produced a +packet of plates from my pocket and suggested +that we go straight across to Mr. Blow's studio +and produce the photographs. He replied by +asking me a long string of questions as to the +conditions under which the Crewe photographs +were produced, noting down all my answers. I +then renewed my proposition. He answered that +it was absurd to expect him to produce a spirit +photograph since he did not believe in such foolish +things. I answered that I did not ask him to +produce a spirit photograph, but to fulfil his +promise which was to produce a similar result +upon the plate under similar conditions. He held +out that they should be his own conditions. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +pointed out that any school boy could make a +half-exposed impression upon a plate, and that the +whole test lay in the conditions. As he refused +to submit to test conditions the matter fell through, +as all such foolish challenges fall through. It was +equally foolish on my part to have taken any +notice of it.</p> + +<p>I had a conversation with Mr. Maskell, the +capable Secretary of the Sydney spiritualists, in +which he described how he came out originally +from Leicester to Australia. He had at that +time developed some power of clairvoyance, but +it was very intermittent. He had hesitated in his +mind whether he should emigrate to Australia, +and sat one night debating it within himself, +while his little son sat at the table cutting patterns +out of paper. Maskell said to his spirit guides, +mentally, "If it is good that I go abroad give me +the vision of a star. If not, let it be a circle." +He waited for half an hour or so, but no vision +came, and he was rising in disappointment when +the little boy turned round and said, "Daddy, +here is a star for you," handing over one which he +had just cut. He has had no reason to regret the +subsequent decision.</p> + +<p>We had a very quiet, comfortable, and healthy +ten days at the Pacific Hotel at Manly, which was +broken only by an excursion which the Sydney +spiritualists had organised for us in a special +steamer, with the intention of showing us the +glories of the harbour. Our party assembled +on Manly Pier, and the steamer was still far away +when we saw the fluttering handkerchiefs which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +announced that they had sighted us. It was a +long programme, including a picnic lunch, but it +all went off with great success and good feeling. +It was fairly rough within the harbour, and some +of the party were sea sick, but the general good +spirits rose above such trifles, and we spent the +day in goodly fellowship. On Sunday I was asked +to speak to his congregation by Mr. Sanders, a +very intelligent young Congregational Minister +of Manly, far above the level of Australasian or, +indeed, British clerics. It was a novel experience +for me to be in a Nonconformist pulpit, but I +found an excellent audience, and I hope that they +in turn found something comforting and new.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting men whom I met in +Australia was Dr. Creed, of the New South Wales +Parliament, an elderly medical man who has held +high posts in the Government. He is blessed +with that supreme gift, a mind which takes a +keen interest in everything which he meets in life. +His researches vary from the cure of diabetes and +of alcoholism (both of which he thinks that he has +attained) down to the study of Australian +Aborigines and of the palæontology of his country. +I was interested to find the very high opinion +which he has of the brains of the black fellows, +and he asserts that their results at the school +which is devoted to their education are as high +as with the white Australians. They train into +excellent telegraphic operators and other employments +needing quick intelligence. The increasing +brain power of the human race seems to be in the +direction of originating rather than of merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +accomplishing. Many can do the latter, but only +the very highest can do the former. Dr. Creed +is clear upon the fact that no very ancient remains +of any sort are to be found anywhere in Australia, +which would seem to be against the view of a +Lemurian civilisation, unless the main seat of it +lay to the north where the scattered islands +represent the mountain tops of the ancient continent. +Dr. Creed was one of the very few public +men who had the intelligence or the courage to +admit the strength of the spiritual position, and he +assured me that he would help in any way.</p> + +<p>Another man whom I was fortunate to meet was +Leon Gellert, a very young poet, who promises +to be the rising man in Australia in this, the +supreme branch of literature. He served in the +war, and his verses from the front attain a very high +level. His volume of war poems represents the +most notable literary achievement of recent years, +and its value is enhanced by being illustrated by +Norman Lindsay, whom I look upon as one of the +greatest artists of our time. I have seen three +pictures of his, "The Goths," "Who Comes?" +and "The Crucifixion of Venus," each of which, +in widely different ways, seemed very remarkable. +Indeed, it is the versatility of the man that is his +charm, and now that he is turning more and more +from the material to the spiritual it is impossible +to say how high a level he may attain. Another +Australian whose works I have greatly admired is +Henry Lawson, whose sketches of bush life in +"Joe Wilson" and other of his studies, remind +one of a subdued Bret Harte. He is a considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +poet also, and his war poem, "England Yet," +could hardly be matched.</p> + +<p>Yet another interesting figure whom I met in +Sydney was Bishop Leadbeater, formerly a close +colleague of Mrs. Besant in the Theosophical +movement, and now a prelate of the so-called +Liberal Catholic Church, which aims at preserving +the traditions and forms of the old Roman Church, +but supplementing them with all modern spiritual +knowledge. I fear I am utterly out of sympathy +with elaborate forms, which always in the end +seem to me to take the place of facts, and to +become a husk without a kernel, but none the less +I can see a definite mission for such a church as +appealing to a certain class of mind. Leadbeater, +who has suffered from unjust aspersion in the +past, is a venerable and striking figure. His +claims to clairvoyant and other occult powers are +very definite, and so far as I had the opportunity of +observing him, he certainly lives the ascetic life, +which the maintenance of such power demands. +His books, especially the little one upon the +Astral Plane, seem to me among the best of the +sort.</p> + +<p>But the whole subject of Theosophy is to me a +perpetual puzzle. I asked for proofs and +spiritualism has given them to me. But why +should I abandon one faith in order to embrace +another one? I have done with faith. It is a +golden mist in which human beings wander in +devious tracks with many a collision. I need the +white clear light of knowledge. For that we +build from below, brick upon brick, never getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +beyond the provable fact. There is the building +which will last. But these others seem to build +from above downwards, beginning by the assumption +that there is supreme human wisdom at the +apex. It may be so. But it is a dangerous +habit of thought which has led the race astray +before, and may again. Yet, I am struck by the +fact that this ancient wisdom does describe the +etheric body, the astral world, and the general +scheme which we have proved for ourselves. +But when the high priestess of the cult wrote of +this she said so much that was against all our own +spiritual experience, that we feel she was in touch +with something very different from our angels of +light. Her followers appreciate that now, and +are more charitable than she, but what is the worth +of her occult knowledge if she so completely misread +that which lies nearest to us, and how can we +hope that she is more correct when she speaks of +that which is at a distance?</p> + +<p>I was deeply attracted by the subject once, but +Madame Blavatsky's personality and record repelled +me. I have read the defence, and yet +Hodgson and the Coulombs seem to me to hold +the field. Could any conspiracy be so broad that +it included numerous forged letters, trap doors +cut in floors, and actually corroborative accounts +in the books of a flower seller in the bazaar? On +the other hand, there is ample evidence of real +psychic powers, and of the permanent esteem of +men like Sinnett and Olcott, whom none could fail +to respect. It is the attitude of these honourable +men which commends and upholds her, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +sometimes it seems hard to justify it. As an +example, in the latter years of her life she wrote a +book, "The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan," in +which she describes the fearsome adventures +which she and Olcott had in certain expeditions, +falling down precipices and other such escapes. +Olcott, like the honest gentleman he was, writes +in his diary that there is not a word of truth in +this, and that it is pure fiction. And yet, after +this very damaging admission, in the same page +he winds up, "Ah, if the world ever comes to +know who was the mighty entity, who laboured +sixty years under that quivering mask of flesh, +it will repent its cruel treatment of H. P. B., and +be amazed at the depth of its ignorance." These +are the things which make it so difficult to understand +either her or the cult with which she was +associated. Had she never lived these men and +women would, as it seems to me, have been the +natural leaders of the spiritualist movement, and +instead of living in the intellectual enjoyment of +far-off systems they would have concentrated +upon the all-important work of teaching poor +suffering humanity what is the meaning of the +dark shadow which looms upon their path. +Even now I see no reason why they should not +come back to those who need them, and help them +forward upon their rocky road.</p> + +<p>Of course, we spiritualists are ourselves vulnerable +upon the subject of the lives of some of our +mediums, but we carefully dissociate those +lives from the powers which use the physical +frame of the medium for their own purposes, just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +as the religious and inspired poetry of a Verlaine +may be held separate from his dissipated life. +Whilst upon this subject I may say that whilst in +Australia I had some interesting letters from a +solicitor named Rymer. All students of spiritualism +will remember that when Daniel Home first came +to England in the early fifties he received great +kindness from the Rymer family, who then +lived at Ealing. Old Rymer treated him entirely +as one of the family. This Bendigo Rymer was +the grandson of Home's benefactor, and he had +no love for the great medium because he considered +that he had acted with ingratitude towards +his people. The actual letters of his father, which +he permitted me to read, bore out this statement, +and I put it on record because I have said much in +praise of Home, and the balance should be held +true. These letters, dating from about '57, show +that one of the sons of old Rymer was sent to +travel upon the Continent to study art, and that +Home was his companion. They were as close as +brothers, but when they reached Florence, and +Home became a personage in society there, he +drifted away from Rymer, whose letters are those +of a splendid young man. Home's health was +already indifferent, and while he was laid up in his +hotel he seems to have been fairly kidnapped by +a strong-minded society lady of title, an Englishwoman +living apart from her husband. For +weeks he lived at her villa, though the state of his +health would suggest that it was rather as patient +than lover. What was more culpable was that +he answered the letters of his comrade very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +rudely and showed no sense of gratitude for all +that the family had done for him. I have read the +actual letters and confess that I was chilled and +disappointed. Home was an artist as well as a +medium, the most unstable combination possible, +full of emotions, flying quickly to extremes, +capable of heroisms and self-denials, but also of +vanities and ill-humour. On this occasion the +latter side of his character was too apparent. To +counteract the effect produced upon one's mind +one should read in Home's Life the letter of the +Bavarian captain whom he rescued upon the +field of battle, or of the many unfortunates whom +he aided with unobtrusive charity. It cannot, +however, be too often repeated—since it is never +grasped by our critics—that the actual character +of a man is as much separate from his mediumistic +powers, as it would be from his musical powers. +Both are inborn gifts beyond the control of their +possessor. The medium is the telegraph instrument +and the telegraph boy united in one, but the +real power is that which transmits the message, +which he only receives and delivers. The remark +applies to the Fox sisters as much as it does to +Home.</p> + +<p>Talking about Home, it is astonishing how the +adverse judgment of the Vice-Chancellor Gifford, +a materialist, absolutely ignorant of psychic +matters, has influenced the minds of men. The +very materialists who quote it, would not attach +the slightest importance to the opinion of an +orthodox judge upon the views of Hume, Payne, +or any free-thinker. It is like quoting a Roman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +tribune against a Christian. The real facts of the +case are perfectly clear to anyone who reads the +documents with care. The best proof of how +blameless Home was in the matter is that of all +the men of honour with whom he was on intimate +terms—men like Robert Chambers, Carter Hall, +Lord Seaton, Lord Adare and others—not one +relaxed in their friendship after the trial. This was +in 1866, but in 1868 we find these young noblemen +on Christian-name terms with the man who would +have been outside the pale of society had the +accusations of his enemies been true.</p> + +<p>Whilst we were in Sydney, a peculiar ship, now +called the "Marella," was brought into the harbour +as part of the German ship surrender. It is +commonly reported that this vessel, of very +grandiose construction, was built to conduct the +Kaiser upon a triumphal progress round the +world after he had won his war. It is, however, +only of 8,000 tons, and, personally, I cannot believe +that this would have had room for his swollen +head, had he indeed been the victor. All the +fittings, even to the carpet holders, are of German +silver. The saloon is of pure marble, eighty by +fifty, with beautiful hand-painted landscapes. +The smoke-room is the reproduction of one in +Potsdam Palace. There is a great swimming +bath which can be warmed. Altogether a very +notable ship, and an index, not only of the danger +escaped, but of the danger to come, in the form +of the super-excellence of German design and +manufacture.</p> + +<p>Our post-bag is very full, and it takes Major<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +Wood and myself all our time to keep up with the +letters. Many of them are so wonderful that I +wish I had preserved them all, but it would have +meant adding another trunk to our baggage. +There are a few samples which have been rescued. +Many people seemed to think that I was myself +a wandering medium, and I got this sort of +missive:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span>—<i>I am very anxious to ask you +a question, trusting you will answer me. What I +wish to know I have been corresponding with +a gentleman for nearly three years. From this +letter can you tell me if I will marry him. I +want you to answer this as I am keeping it strictly +private and would dearly love you to answer this +message if possible, and if I will do quite right +if I marry him. Trusting to hear from you soon. +Yours faithfully——.</i></p> + +<p><i>P.S.—I thoroughly believe in Spirit-ualism.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>Here is another.</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Honored Sir,</span>—<i>Just a few lines in limited +time to ask you if you tell the future. If so, what +is your charges? Please excuse no stamped and +ad. envelope—out of stamps and in haste to catch +mail. Please excuse.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>On the other hand, I had many which were +splendidly instructive and helpful. I was particularly +struck by one series of spirit messages +which were received in automatic writing by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +a man living in the Bush in North Queensland +and thrown upon his own resources. They +were descriptive of life in the beyond, and +were in parts extremely corroborative of the +Vale Owen messages, though they had been +taken long prior to that date. Some of the +points of resemblance were so marked and so +unusual that they seem clearly to come from a +common inspiration. As an example, this script +spoke of the creative power of thought in the +beyond, but added the detail that when the +object to be created was large and important a +band of thinkers was required, just as a band of +workers would be here. This exactly corresponds +to the teaching of Vale Owen's guide.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Dangerous fog.—The six photographers.—Comic advertisements.—Beauties +of Auckland.—A Christian clergyman.—Shadows +in our American relations.—The Gallipoli +Stone.—Stevenson and the Germans.—Position of De +Rougemont.—Mr. Clement Wragge.—Atlantean theories.—A +strange psychic.—Wellington the windy.—A literary +Oasis.—A Maori Séance.—Presentation.</p></div> + + +<p>My voyage to New Zealand in the <i>Maheno</i> was +pleasant and uneventful, giving me four days in +which to arrange my papers and look over the +many manuscripts which mediums, or, more often, +would-be mediums, had discharged at me as I +passed. Dr. Bean, my Theosophic friend, who +had been somewhat perturbed by my view that +his people were really the officers of our movement +who had deserted their army, formed an +officers' corps, and so taken the money and brains +and leadership away from the struggling masses, +was waiting on the Sydney Quay, and gave me +twelve books upon his subject to mend my wicked +ways, so that I was equipped for a voyage round +the world. I needed something, since I had left +my wife and family behind me in Manly, feeling +that the rapid journey through New Zealand would +be too severe for them. In Mr. Carlyle Smythe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +however, I had an admirable "cobber," to use the +pal phrase of the Australian soldier.</p> + +<p>Mr. Smythe had only one defect as a comrade, +and that was his conversation in a fog. It was +of a distinctly depressing character, as I had +occasion to learn when we ran into very thick +weather among the rocky islands which make +navigation so difficult to the north of Auckland. +Between the screams of the siren I would hear a +still small voice in the bunk above me.</p> + +<p>"We are now somewhere near the Three Kings. +It is an isolated group of rocks celebrated for the +wreck of the <i>Elingamite</i>, which went ashore on +just such a morning as this." (Whoo-ee! remarked +the foghorn). "They were nearly starved, +but kept themselves alive by fish which were +caught by improvised lines made from the ladies' +stay-laces. Many of them died."</p> + +<p>I lay digesting this and staring at the fog which +crawled all round the port hole. Presently he +was off again.</p> + +<p>"You can't anchor here, and there is no use +stopping her, for the currents run hard and she +would drift on to one of the ledges which would +rip the side out of her." (Whoo-ee! repeated the +foghorn). "The islands are perpendicular with +deep water up to the rocks, so you never know +they are there until you hit them, and then, of +course, there is no reef to hold you up." +(Whoo-ee!) "Close by here is the place where +the <i>Wairarapa</i> went down with all hands a few +years ago. It was just such a day as this when +she struck the Great Barrier——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was about this time that I decided to go on +deck. Captain Brown had made me free of the +bridge, so I climbed up and joined him there, +peering out into the slow-drifting scud.</p> + +<p>I spent the morning there, and learned something +of the anxieties of a sailor's life. Captain +Brown had in his keeping, not only his own career +and reputation, but what was far more to him, the +lives of more than three hundred people. We had +lost all our bearings, for we had drifted in the +fog during those hours when it was too thick to +move. Now the scud was coming in clouds, the +horizon lifting to a couple of miles, and then +sinking to a few hundred yards. On each side of +us and ahead were known to be rocky islands or +promontories. Yet we must push on to our destination. +It was fine to see this typical British +sailor working his ship as a huntsman might take +his horse over difficult country, now speeding +ahead when he saw an opening, now waiting for a +fogbank to get ahead, now pushing in between +two clouds. For hours we worked along with the +circle of oily lead-coloured sea around us, and then +the grey veil, rising and falling, drifting and +waving, with danger lurking always in its shadow. +There are strange results when one stares intently +over such a sea, for after a time one feels that +it all slopes upwards, and that one is standing +deep in a saucer with the rim far above one. +Once in the rifts we saw a great ship feeling +her way southwards, in the same difficulties as +ourselves. She was the <i>Niagara</i>, from Vancouver +to Auckland. Then, as suddenly as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +raising of a drop-curtain, up came the fog, and +there ahead of us was the narrow path which led +to safety. The <i>Niagara</i> was into it first, which +seemed to matter little, but really mattered a good +deal, for her big business occupied the Port +Authorities all the evening, while our little business +was not even allowed to come alongside until such an +hour that we could not get ashore, to the disappointment +of all, and very especially of me, for I knew +that some of our faithful had been waiting for +twelve hours upon the quay to give me a welcoming +hand. It was breakfast time on the very morning +that I was advertised to lecture before we at last +reached our hotel.</p> + +<p>Here I received that counter-demonstration +which always helped to keep my head within the +limits of my hat. This was a peremptory demand +from six gentlemen, who modestly described +themselves as the leading photographers of the +city, to see the negatives of the photographs which +I was to throw upon the screen. I was assured at +the same time by other photographers that they +had no sympathy with such a demand, and that +the others were self-advertising busybodies who +had no mandate at all for such a request. My +experience at Sydney had shown me that such +challenges came from people who had no knowledge +of psychic conditions, and who did not realise that +it is the circumstances under which a photograph +is taken, and the witnesses who guarantee such +circumstances, which are the real factors that +matter, and not the negative which may be so +easily misunderstood by those who have not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +studied the processes by which such things are +produced. I therefore refused to allow my +photographs to pass into ignorant hands, explaining +at the same time that I had no negatives, since +the photographs in most cases were not mine at +all, so that the negatives would, naturally, be with +Dr. Crawford, Dr. Geley, Lady Glenconnor, the +representatives of Sir William Crookes, or whoever +else had originally taken the photograph. Their +challenge thereupon appeared in the Press with a +long tirade of abuse attached to it, founded upon +the absurd theory that all the photos had been +taken by me, and that there was no proof of their +truth save in my word. One gets used to being +indirectly called a liar, and I can answer arguments +with self-restraint which once I would have met +with the toe of my boot. However, a little breeze +of this sort does no harm, but rather puts ginger +into one's work, and my audience were very soon +convinced of the absurdity of the position of the +six dissenting photographers who had judged that +which they had not seen.</p> + +<p>Auckland is the port of call of the American +steamers, and had some of that air of activity and +progress which America brings with her. The +spirit of enterprise, however, took curious shapes, +as in the case of one man who was a local miller, +and pushed his trade by long advertisements at +the head of the newspapers, which began with +abuse of me and my ways, and ended by a recommendation +to eat dessicated corn, or whatever his +particular commodity may have been. The result +was a comic jumble which was too funny to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +offensive, though Auckland should discourage such +pleasantries, as they naturally mar the beautiful +impression which her fair city and surroundings +make upon the visitor. I hope I was the only +victim, and that every stranger within her gates +is not held up to ridicule for the purpose of calling +attention to Mr. Blank's dessicated corn.</p> + +<p>I seemed destined to have strange people mixed +up with my affairs in Auckland, for there was a +conjuror in the town, who, after the fashion of +that rather blatant fraternity, was offering £1,000 +that he could do anything I could do. As I could +do nothing, it seemed easy money. In any case, +the argument that because you can imitate a +thing therefore the thing does not exist, is one +which it takes the ingenuity of Mr. Maskelyne to +explain. There was also an ex-spiritualist medium +(so-called) who covered the papers with his +advertisements, so that my little announcement +was quite overshadowed. He was to lecture the +night after me in the Town Hall, with most terrifying +revelations. I was fascinated by his paragraphs, +and should have liked greatly to be present, +but that was the date of my exodus. Among +other remarkable advertisements was one "What +has become of 'Pelorus Jack'? Was he a lost +soul?" Now, "Pelorus Jack" was a white +dolphin, who at one time used to pilot vessels into +a New Zealand harbour, gambolling under the +bows, so that the question really did raise curiosity. +However, I learned afterwards that my successor +did not reap the harvest which his ingenuity +deserved, and that the audience was scanty and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +derisive. What the real psychic meaning of +"Pelorus Jack" may have been was not recorded +by the press.</p> + +<p>From the hour I landed upon the quay at +Auckland until I waved my last farewell my visit +was made pleasant, and every wish anticipated by +the Rev. Jasper Calder, a clergyman who has a +future before him, though whether it will be in the +Church of England or not, time and the Bishop +will decide. Whatever he may do, he will remain +to me and to many more the nearest approach we +are likely to see to the ideal Christian—much as he +will dislike my saying so. After all, if enemies are +given full play, why should not friends redress the +balance? I will always carry away the remembrance +of him, alert as a boy, rushing about to serve +anyone, mixing on equal terms with scallywags on +the pier, reclaiming criminals whom he called his +brothers, winning a prize for breaking-in a buckjumper, +which he did in order that he might gain +the respect of the stockmen; a fiery man of God in +the pulpit, but with a mind too broad for special +dispensations, he was like one of those wonderfully +virile creatures of Charles Reade. The clergy of +Australasia are stagnant and narrow, but on the +other hand, I have found men like the Dean of +Sydney, Strong of Melbourne, Sanders of Manly, +Calder of Auckland, and others whom it is worth +crossing this world to meet.</p> + +<p>Of my psychic work at Auckland there is little +to be said, save that I began my New Zealand tour +under the most splendid auspices. Even Sydney +had not furnished greater or more sympathetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +audiences than those which crowded the great +Town Hall upon two successive nights. I could +not possibly have had a better reception, or got +my message across more successfully. All the +newspaper ragging and offensive advertisements +had produced (as is natural among a generous +people) a more kindly feeling for the stranger, and +I had a reception I can never forget.</p> + +<p>This town is very wonderfully situated, and I +have never seen a more magnificent view than +that from Mount Eden, an extinct volcano about +900 feet high, at the back of it. The only one +which I could class with it is that from Arthur's +Seat, also an extinct volcano about 900 feet high, +as one looks on Edinburgh and its environs. +Edinburgh, however, is for ever shrouded in smoke, +while here the air is crystal clear, and I could +clearly see Great Barrier Island, which is a good +eighty miles to the north. Below lay the most marvellous +medley of light blue water and light green +land mottled with darker foliage. We could see +not only the whole vista of the wonderful winding +harbour, and the seas upon the east of the island, +but we could look across and see the firths which +connected with the seas of the west. Only a seven-mile +canal is needed to link the two up, and to save +at least two hundred miles of dangerous navigation +amid those rock-strewn waters from which we had +so happily emerged. Of course it will be done, +and when it is done it should easily pay its way, +for what ship coming from Australia—or going to +it—but would gladly pay the fees? The real +difficulty lies not in cutting the canal, but in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +dredging the western opening, where shifting sandbanks +and ocean currents combine to make a +dangerous approach. I see in my mind's eye two +great breakwaters, stretching like nippers into the +Pacific at that point, while, between the points of +the nippers, the dredgers will for ever be at work. +It will be difficult, but it is needed and it will be +done.</p> + +<p>The Australian Davis Cup quartette—Norman +Brooks, Patterson, O'Hara Wood and another—had +come across in the <i>Maheno</i> with us and +were now at the Grand Hotel. There also was the +American team, including the formidable Tilden, +now world's champion. The general feeling of +Australasia is not as cordial as one would wish to +the United States for the moment. I have met +several men back from that country who rather +bitterly resent the anti-British agitation which +plays such a prominent part in the American +press. This continual nagging is, I am sorry +to say, wearing down the stolid patience of the +Britisher more than I can ever remember, and it is +a subject on which I have always been sensitive as +I have been a life-long advocate of Anglo-American +friendship, leading in the fullness of +time to some loose form of Anglo-American +Union. At present it almost looks as if these +racial traitors who make the artificial dissensions +were succeeding for a time in their work of +driving a wedge between the two great sections +of the English-speaking peoples. My fear is +that when some world crisis comes, and +everything depends upon us all pulling together,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +the English-speakers may neutralise each +other. There lies the deadly danger. It is +for us on both sides to endeavour to avoid +it.</p> + +<p>Everyone who is in touch with the sentiment of +the British officers in Flanders knows that they +found men of their own heart in the brave, unassuming +American officers who were their comrades, +and often their pupils. It is some of the stay-at-home +Americans who appear to have such a false +perspective, and who fail to realise that even +British Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, +lost nearly as many men as the United States in the +war, while Britain herself laid down ten lives +for every one spent by America. This is not +America's fault, but when we see apparent forgetfulness +of it on the part of a section of the +American people when our wounds are still fresh, +it cannot be wondered at that we feel sore. We +do not advertise, and as a result there are few who +know that we lost more men and made larger +captures during the last two years of the war than +our gallant ally of France. When we hear that +others won the war we smile—but it is a bitter +smile.</p> + +<p>Strange, indeed, are some of the episodes of +psychic experience. There came to me at my +hotel in Auckland two middle-aged hard-working +women, who had come down a hundred miles from +the back country to my lecture. One had lost +her boy at Gallipoli. She gave me a long post-mortem +account from him as to the circumstances +of his own death, including the military operations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +which led up to it. I read it afterwards, and it +was certainly a very coherent account of the events +both before and after the shell struck him. +Having handed me the pamphlet the country +woman then, with quivering fingers, produced +from her bosom a little silver box. Out of this +she took an object, wrapped in white silk. It +was a small cube of what looked to me like sandstone, +about an inch each way. She told me it +was an apport, that it had been thrown down on +her table while she and her family, including, as I +understood, the friend then present, were holding +a séance. A message came with it to say that it +was from the boy's grave at Gallipoli. What are +we to say to that? Was it fraud? Then why +were they playing tricks upon themselves? If +it was, indeed, an apport, it is surely one of the +most remarkable for distance and for purpose +recorded of any private circle.</p> + +<p>A gentleman named Moors was staying at the +same hotel in Auckland, and we formed an acquaintance. +I find that he was closely connected with +Stevenson, and had actually written a very +excellent book upon his comradeship with him at +Samoa. Stevenson dabbled in the politics of +Samoa, and always with the best motives and on +the right side, but he was of so frank and impetuous +a nature that he was not trusted with any inside +knowledge. Of the German rule Mr. Moors says +that for the first twelve years Dr. Solf was as good +as he could be, and did fair justice to all. Then +he went on a visit to Berlin, and returned "bitten +by the military bug," with his whole nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +changed, and began to "imponieren" in true +Prussian fashion. It is surely extraordinary how +all the scattered atoms of a race can share the +diseases of the central organism from which they +sprang. I verily believe that if a German had been +alone on a desert island in 1914 he would have +begun to dance and brandish a club. How many +cases are on record of the strange changes and +wild deeds of individuals?</p> + +<p>Mr. Moors told me that he dropped into a +developing circle of spiritualists at Sydney, none +of whom could have known him. One of them +said, "Above your head I see a man, an artist, long +hair, brown eyes, and I get the name of Stephens." +If he was indeed unknown, this would seem +fairly evidential.</p> + +<p>I was struck by one remark of Mr. Moors, which +was that he had not only seen the natives ride +turtles in the South Sea lagoons, but that he had +actually done so himself, and that it was by no +means difficult. This was the feat which was +supposed to be so absurd when De Rougemont +claimed to have done it. There are, of course, +some gross errors which are probably pure misuse +of words in that writer's narrative, but he places +the critic in a dilemma which has never been +fairly faced. Either he is a liar, in which case he +is, beyond all doubt, the most realistic writer of +adventure since Defoe, or else he speaks the truth, +in which case he is a great explorer. I see no +possible avoidance of this dilemma, so that which +ever way you look at it the man deserves credit +which he has never received.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>We set off, four of us, to visit Mr. Clement +Wragge, who is the most remarkable personality +in Auckland—dreamer, mystic, and yet very +practical adviser on all matters of ocean and of air.</p> + +<p>On arriving at the charming bungalow, buried +among all sorts of broad-leaved shrubs and trees, +I was confronted by a tall, thin figure, clad in +black, with a face like a sadder and thinner +Bernard Shaw, dim, dreamy eyes, heavily pouched, +with a blue turban surmounting all. On repeating +my desire he led me apart into his study. I +had been warned that with his active brain and +copious knowledge I would never be able to hold +him to the point, so, in the dialogue which +followed, I perpetually headed him off as he +turned down bye paths, until the conversation +almost took the form of a game.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Wragge, you are, I know, one of the +greatest authorities upon winds and currents."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is one of my pursuits. When I +was young I ran the Ben Nevis Observatory in +Scotland and——"</p> + +<p>"It was only a small matter I wished to ask +you. You'll excuse my directness as I have so +little time."</p> + +<p>"Certainly. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"If the Maoris came, originally, from Hawaii, +what prevailing winds would their canoes meet in +the 2,000 miles which they crossed to reach New +Zealand?"</p> + +<p>The dim eyes lit up with the joy of the problem, +and the nervous fingers unrolled a chart of the +Pacific. He flourished a pair of compasses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here is Hawaii. They would start with a +north-westerly trade wind. That would be a fair +wind. I may say that the whole affair took place +far further back than is usually supposed. We +have to get back to astronomy for our fixed date. +Don't imagine that the obliquity of the ecliptic +was always 23 degrees."</p> + +<p>"The Maoris had a fair wind then?"</p> + +<p>The compasses stabbed at the map.</p> + +<p>"Only down to this point. Then they would +come on the Doldrums—the calm patch of the +equator. They could paddle their canoes across +that. Of course, the remains at Easter Island +prove——"</p> + +<p>"But they could not paddle all the way."</p> + +<p>"No; they would run into the south-easterly +trades. Then they made their way to Rarotonga +in Tahiti. It was from here that they made for +New Zealand."</p> + +<p>"But how could they know New Zealand was +there?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, how did they know?"</p> + +<p>"Had they compasses?"</p> + +<p>"They steered by the stars. We have a poem +of theirs which numbers the star-gazer as one of +the crew. We have a chart, also, cut in the rocks +at Hawaii, which seems to be the plot of a voyage. +Here is a slide of it." He fished out a photo of +lines and scratches upon a rock.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said he, "the root of the matter is +that missionaries from Atlantis permeated the +Pacific, coming across Central America, and left +their traces everywhere."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ah, Atlantis! I am a bit of an Atlantean +myself, so off we went at scratch and both enjoyed +ourselves greatly until time had come to rejoin +the party and meet Mr. Wragge's wife, a charming +Brahmin lady from India, who was one of the +most gracious personalities I have met in my +wanderings. The blue-turbaned, eager man, half +western science, half eastern mystic, and his dark-eyed +wife amid their profusion of flowers will +linger in my memory. Mrs. Wragge was eager +that I go and lecture in India. Well, who knows?</p> + +<p>I was so busy listening to Mr. Wragge's Atlantean +theories that I had no chance of laying +before him my own contribution to the subject, +which is, I think, both original and valid. If the +huge bulk of Atlantis sank beneath the ocean, +then, assuredly, it raised such a tidal wave as has +never been known in the world's history. This +tidal wave, since all sea water connects, would be +felt equally all over the world, as the wave of +Krakatoa was in 1883 felt in Europe. The wave +must have rushed over all flat coasts and drowned +every living thing, as narrated in the biblical +narrative. Therefore, since this catastrophe was, +according to Plato's account, not very much more +than 10,000 years ago there should exist ample +evidence of a wholesale destruction of life, +especially in the flatter lands of the globe. Is +there such evidence? Think of Darwin's account +of how the pampas of South America are in places +one huge grave-yard. Think, also, of the mammoth +remains which strew the Tundras of Siberia, +and which are so numerous that some of the Arctic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +islands are really covered with bones. There is +ample evidence of some great flood which would +exactly correspond with the effect produced by +the sinking of Atlantis. The tragedy broadens as +one thinks of it. Everyone everywhere must +have been drowned save only the hill-dwellers. +The object of the catastrophe was, according to +some occult information, to remove the Atlantean +race and make room for the Aryan, even as the +Lemurian had been removed to make room for +the Atlantean. How long has the Aryan race to +run? The answer may depend upon themselves. +The great war is a warning bell perhaps.</p> + +<p>I had a talk with a curious type of psychic +while I was in Auckland. He claimed to be a +psychologist who did not need to be put <i>en +rapport</i> with his object by any material starting +point. A piece of clothing is, as a rule, to a +psychometrist what it would be to a bloodhound, +the starting point of a chase which runs +down the victim. Thus Van Bourg, when he +discovered by crystal gazing the body of Mr. +Foxhall (I quote the name from memory) floating +in the Thames, began by covering the table with +the missing man's garments. This is the usual +procedure which will become more familiar as the +public learn the full utility of a psychic.</p> + +<p>This gentlemen, Mr. Pearman, was a builder +by trade, a heavy, rather uneducated man with +the misty eye of a seer. He told me that if he +desired to turn his powers upon anything he had +only to sit in a dim room and concentrate his +thought upon the matter, without any material<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +nexus. For example, a murder had been done in +Western Australia. The police asked his help. +Using his power, he saw the man, a stranger, and +yet he <i>knew</i> that it was the man, descending the +Swan River in a boat. He saw him mix with the +dockmen of Fremantle. Then he saw him return +to Perth. Finally, he saw him take train on the +Transcontinental Railway. The police at once +acted, and intercepted the man, who was duly +convicted and hanged. This was one of several +cases which this man told me, and his stories +carried conviction with them. All this, although +psychic, has, of course, nothing to do with +spiritualism, but is an extension of the normal, +though undefined, powers of the human mind and +soul.</p> + +<p>The reader will be relieved to hear that I did not +visit Rotorua. An itinerant lecturer upon an +unpopular cause has enough hot water without +seeking out a geyser. My travels would make +but an indifferent guide book, but I am bound to +put it upon record that Wellington is a very +singular city plastered upon the side of a very +steep hill. It is said that the plan of the city +was entirely drawn up in England under the +impression that the site was a flat one, and that +it was duly carried out on the perpendicular +instead of the horizontal. It is a town of fine +buildings, however, in a splendid winding estuary +ringed with hills. It is, of course, the capital, and +the centre of all officialdom in New Zealand, but +Auckland, in the north, is already the greater +city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had the opportunity of spending the day after +my arrival with Dr. Morrice, who married the +daughter of the late Premier, Sir R. Seddon, +whom I had known in years gone by. Their +summer house was down the Bay, and so I had a +long drive which gave me an admirable chance of +seeing the wonderful panorama. It was blowing +a full gale, and the road is so exposed that even +motors are sometimes upset by the force of the +wind. On this occasion nothing more serious +befell us than the loss of Mr. Smythe's hat, which +disappeared with such velocity that no one was +able to say what had become of it. It simply was, +and then it was not. The yellow of the foreshore, +the green of the shallows, the blue mottled with +purple of the deep, all fretted with lines of foam, +made an exhilarating sight. The whole excursion +was a brief but very pleasant break in our round +of work. Another pleasant experience was that +I met Dr. Purdey, who had once played cricket +with me, when we were very young, at Edinburgh +University. <i>Eheu fugaces!</i> I had also the pleasure +of meeting Mr. Massey, the Premier, a bluff, +strong, downright man who impresses one with +his force and sincerity.</p> + +<p>I had the privilege when I was at Wellington +of seeing the first edition of "Robinson Crusoe," +which came out originally in three volumes. I +had no idea that the three-decker dated back to +1719. It had a delightful map of the island +which would charm any boy, and must have been +drawn up under the personal guidance of Defoe +himself. I wonder that map has not been taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +as an integral part of the book, and reproduced +in every edition, for it is a fascinating and a +helpful document.</p> + +<p>I saw this rare book in the Turnbull Library, +which, under the loving care of Mr. Anderson +(himself no mean poet), is a fine little collection +of books got together by a Wellington man of +business. In a raw young land such a literary +oasis is like a Gothic Cathedral in the midst of a +suburb of modern villas. Anyone can come in to +consult the books, and if I were a Wellingtonian I +would certainly spend a good deal of time there. +I handled with fitting reverence a first edition +of "Lyrical Ballads," where, in 1798, Coleridge +and Wordsworth made their entry hand in hand +into poetical literature. I saw an original +Hakluyt, the book which has sent so many +brave hearts a-roving. There, too, was a precious +Kelmscott "Chaucer," a Plutarch and Montaigne, +out of which Shakespeare might have done +his cribbing; Capt. Cook's manuscript "Diary," +written in the stiff hand of a very methodical +man; a copy of Swinburne's "Poems and +Ballads," which is one of twenty from a recalled +edition, and many other very rare and worthy +volumes carefully housed and clad. I spent a +mellow hour among them.</p> + +<p>I have been looking up all the old books upon +the Maoris which I could find, with the special +intent of clearing up their history, but while doing +so I found in one rather rare volume "Old New +Zealand," an account of a Maori séance, which +seems to have been in the early forties, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +therefore, older than the Hydesville knockings. +I only wish every honest materialist could read it +and compare it with the experiences which we +have, ourselves, independently reported. Surely +they cannot persist in holding that such identical +results are obtained by coincidence, or that fraud +would work in exactly the same fashion in two +different hemispheres.</p> + +<p>A popular young chief had been killed in battle. +The white man was invited to join the solemn +circle who hoped to regain touch with him. The +séance was in the dark of a large hut, lit only by +the ruddy glow of a low fire. The white man, a +complete unbeliever, gives his evidence in grudging +fashion, but cannot get past the facts. The +voice came, a strange melancholy sound, like the +wind blowing into a hollow vessel. "Salutation! +Salutation to you all! To you, my tribe! +Family, I salute you! Friends, I salute you!" +When the power waned the voice cried, "Speak +to me, the family! Speak to me!" In the +published dialogue between Dr. Hodgson after his +death and Professor Hyslop, Hodgson cries, +"Speak, Hyslop!" when the power seemed to +wane. For some reason it would appear either by +vibrations or by concentrating attention to help +the communicator. "It is well with me," said +the chief. "This place is a good place." He was +with the dead of the tribe and described them, and +offered to take messages to them. The incredulous +white man asked where a book had been +concealed which only the dead man knew about. +The place was named and the book found. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +white man himself did not know, so there was no +telepathy. Finally, with a "Farewell!" which +came from high in the air, the spirit passed back +to immaterial conditions.</p> + +<p>This is, I think, a very remarkable narrative. +If you take it as literally true, which I most +certainly do, since our experience corroborates it, +it gives us some points for reflection. One is that +the process is one known in all the ages, as our +Biblical reading has already told us. A second +is that a young barbarian chief with no advantages +of religion finds the next world a very +pleasant place, just as our dead do, and that they +love to come back and salute those whom they +have left, showing a keen memory of their earth +life. Finally, we must face the conclusion that +the mere power of communication has no elevating +effect in itself, otherwise these tribes could not +have continued to be ferocious savages. It has +to be united with the Christ message from beyond +before it will really help us upon the upward path.</p> + +<p>Before I left Wellington the spiritualists made +me a graceful presentation of a travelling rug, +and I was able to assure them that if they found +the rug I would find the travelling. It is made of +the beautiful woollen material in which New +Zealand is supreme. The presentation was made +by Mrs. Stables, the President of the New Zealand +Association, an energetic lady to whom the cause +owes much. A greenstone penholder was given +to me for my wife, and a little charm for my small +daughter, the whole proceedings being marked +with great cordiality and good feeling. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +faithful are strong in Wellington, but are much +divided among themselves, which, I hope, may +be alleviated as a consequence of my visit. +Nothing could have been more successful than +my two meetings. The Press was splendidly +sympathetic, and I left by a night boat in high +heart for my campaign in the South Island.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>The Anglican Colony.—Psychic dangers.—The learned dog.—Absurd +newspaper controversy.—A backward community.—The +Maori tongue.—Their origin.—Their treatment +by the Empire.—A fiasco.—The Pa of Kaiopoi.—Dr. +Thacker.—Sir Joseph Kinsey.—A generous collector.—Scott +and Amundsen.—Dunedin.—A genuine medium.—Evidence.—The +shipping strike.—Sir Oliver.—Farewell.</p></div> + + +<p>I am afraid that the average Britisher looks upon +New Zealand as one solid island. If he had to +cross Cook's Strait to get from the northern to +the southern half, he would never forget his +lesson in geography, for it can be as nasty a bit of +water as is to be found in the world, with ocean +waves, mountain winds and marine currents all +combining into a horrible chaos. Twelve good +hours separate Wellington in the north from +Lyttelton, which is the port of Christchurch in +the south. A very short railway joins the two +latter places. My luck held good, and I had an +excellent passage, dining in Wellington and breakfasting +in Christchurch. It is a fine city, the +centre of the famous Canterbury grazing country. +Four shiploads of people calling themselves the +Canterbury Pilgrims arrived here in 1852, built +a cathedral, were practically ruled over by Bishop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +Selwyn, and tried the successful experiment of +establishing a community which should be as +Anglican as New England is Nonconformist. +The distinctive character has now largely disappeared, +but a splendid and very English city +remains as a memorial of their efforts. When +you are on the green, sloping banks of the river +Avon, with the low, artistic bridges, it would not +be hard to imagine that you were in the Backs at +Cambridge.</p> + +<p>At Christchurch I came across one of those +little bits of psychic evidence which may be taken +as certainly true, and which can be regarded, +therefore, as pieces which have to be fitted into +the jig-saw puzzle in order to make the completed +whole, at that far off date when a +completed whole is within the reach of man's +brain. It concerns Mr. Michie, a local Spiritualist +of wide experience. On one occasion some years +ago, he practised a short cut to psychic power, +acquired through a certain method of breathing +and of action, which amounts, in my opinion, to +something in the nature of self-hypnotisation. I +will not give details, as I think all such exercises +are dangerous save for very experienced students +of these matters, who know the risk and are prepared +to take it. The result upon Mr. Michie, +through some disregard upon his part of the +conditions which he was directed to observe, was +disastrous. He fell into an insidious illness with +certain psychic symptoms, and within a few +months was reduced to skin and bone. Mr. +Michie's wife is mediumistic and liable to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +controlled. One day an entity came to her and +spoke through her to her husband, claiming to be +the spirit of one, Gordon Stanley. He said: "I +can sympathise with your case, because my own +death was brought about in exactly the same way. +I will help you, however, to fight against it and to +recover." The spirit then gave an account of his +own life, described himself as a clerk in Cole's +Book Arcade in Melbourne, and said that his +widow was living at an address in Melbourne, +which was duly given. Mr. Michie at once wrote +to this address and received this reply, the original +of which I have seen:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"> +<p class="nrright"> +<i>"Park Street,</i></p> +<p class="right"><i>"Melbourne.</i> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span>—<i>I have just received your strange—I +must say, your very strange letter. Yes, I +am Mrs. Stanley. My husband did die two +years ago from consumption. He was a clerk +in Cole's Arcade. I must say your letter gave +me a great shock. But I cannot doubt after +what you have said, for I know you are a complete +stranger to me.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>Shortly afterwards Mr. Stanley returned again +through the medium, said that his widow was +going to marry again, and that it was with his +full approbation. The incident may be taken by +our enemies as illustrating the danger of psychic +research, and we admit that there are forms of it +which should be approached with caution, but I +do not think that mankind will ever be warned off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +by putting a danger label upon it, so long as +they think there is real knowledge to be gained. +How could the motor-car or the aeroplane have +been developed if hundreds had not been ready +to give their lives to pay the price? Here the +price has been far less, and the goal far higher, +but if in gaining it a man were assured that he +would lose his health, his reason, or his life, it is +none the less his duty to go forward if he clearly +sees that there is something to be won. To meet +death in conquering death is to die in victory—the +ideal death.</p> + +<p>Whilst I was at Auckland Mr. Poynton, a +stipendiary magistrate there, told me of a dog in +Christchurch which had a power of thought comparable, +not merely to a human being, but even, +as I understood him, to a clairvoyant, as it would +bark out the number of coins in your pocket and +other such questions. The alternative to clairvoyance +was that he was a very quick and accurate +thought-reader, but in some cases the power +seemed to go beyond this. Mr. Poynton, who +had studied the subject, mentioned four learned +beasts in history: a marvellous horse in Shakespeare's +time, which was burned with its master in +Florence; the Boston skipper's dog; Hans, the +Russian horse, and Darkie of Christchurch. He +investigated the latter himself, as one of a committee +of three. On the first occasion they got +no results. On the second, ninety per cent. of the +questions were right, and they included sums of +addition, subtraction, etc. "It was uncanny," +he wrote.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p> + +<p>I called, therefore, upon Mrs. McGibbon, the +owner, who allowed me to see the dog. He was +a dark, vivacious fox terrier, sixteen years old, +blind and deaf, which obviously impaired his +powers. In spite of his blindness he dashed at +me the moment he was allowed into the room, +pawing at me and trembling all over with excitement. +He was, in fact so excited that he was of +little use for demonstration, as when once he +began to bark he could not be induced to stop. +Occasionally he steadied down, and gave us a +touch of his true quality. When a half-crown was +placed before him and he was asked how many +sixpences were in it, he gave five barks, and four +for a florin, but when a shilling was substituted he +gave twelve, which looked as if he had pennies in +his mind. On the whole the performance was a +failure, but as he had raised by exhibiting his +gifts, £138 for war charities, I took my hat off to +him all the same. I will not imitate those psychic +researchers who imagine that because they do not +get a result, therefore, every one else who has +reported it is a cheat or a fool. On the contrary, +I have no doubt that the dog had these powers, +though age and excitement have now impaired +them.</p> + +<p>The creature's powers were first discovered +when the son of the house remarked one day: +"I will give you a biscuit if you bark three times." +He at once did it. "Now, six times." He did so. +"Now, take three off." He barked three times +once again. Since then they have hardly found +any problem he could not tackle. When asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +how many males in the room he always included +himself in the number, but omitted himself when +asked how many human beings. One wonders +how many other dogs have human brains without +the humans being clever enough to detect it.</p> + +<p>I had an amusing controversy in Christchurch +with one of the local papers, <i>The Press</i>, which +represents the clerical interest, and, also, the +clerical intolerance of a cathedral city. It issued +an article upon me and my beliefs, severe, but +quite within the limits of legitimate criticism, +quoting against me Professor Hyslop, "who," +it said, "is Professor of Logic at Columbia, etc." +To this I made the mild and obvious retort in the +course of my lecture that as Professor Hyslop +was dead, <i>The Press</i> went even further than I +in saying that he "<i>is</i> Professor at Columbia." +Instead of accepting this correction, <i>The Press</i> +made the tactical error of standing by their +assertion, and aggravated it by head-lines which +challenged me, and quoted my statement as +"typical of the inaccuracy of a Spiritualist." As +I rather pride myself on my accuracy, which has +seldom been challenged, I answered shortly but +politely, as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir,</span>—<i>I am surprised that the news of the +death of Professor Hyslop has not reached New +Zealand, and even more surprised that it could +be imagined that I would make such a statement +on a matter so intimately connected with the +subject upon which I lecture without being sure +of my fact. I am reported as saying 'some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +years,' but, if so, it was a slip of the tongue for +'some time.' The Professor died either late last +year or early in the present one.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>I should have thought that my answer was +conclusive, and would have elicited some sort of +apology; but instead of this, <i>The Press</i> called +loudly upon me in a leading article to apologise, +though for what I know not, save that they +asserted I had said "some years," whereas I +claim that I actually said "some time." This +drew the following rather more severe letter from +me:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir,</span>—<i>I am collecting New Zealand curiosities, +so I will take your leading article home with me. +To get the full humour of it one has to remember +the sequence of events. In a leading article you +remarked that Professor Hyslop is Professor of +Logic. I answered with mild irony that he +certainly is not, as he had been dead 'some years' +or 'some time'—which of the two is perfectly +immaterial, since I presume that in either case +you would agree that he has ceased to be Professor +of Logic. To this you were rash enough to reply +with a challenging article with large head-lines, +declaring that I had blundered, and that this +was typical of the inaccuracy of Spiritualists. I +wrote a gentle remonstrance to show that I had +not blundered, and that my assertion was +essentially true, since the man was dead. This +you now tacitly admit, but instead of expressing +regret you ask for an apology from me. I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +engaged in much newspaper controversy, but I +can truly say that I can recall no such instance of +effrontery as this.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>This led to another leader and considerable +abuse.</p> + +<p>The controversy was, however, by no means +one-sided, in spite of the shadow of the Cathedral. +Mr. Peter Trolove is a man of wit as well as +knowledge, and wields a pretty pen. A strong +man, also, is Dr. John Guthrie, whose letter +contains words so kindly that I must quote +them:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"<i>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stands above it all, +not only as a courteous gentleman, but as a fair +controversialist throughout. He is, anyhow, a +chivalrous and magnanimous personality, whether +or not his beliefs have any truth. Fancy quoting +authorities against a man who has spent great +part of his life studying the subject, and who +knows the authorities better than all his opponents +put together—a man who has deliberately used +his great gifts in an honest attempt to get at +truth. I do think that Christchurch has some +need to apologise for its controversialists—much +more need than our distinguished visitor has to +apologise for what we all know to be his honest +convictions.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>I have never met Dr. John Guthrie in the flesh, +but I would thank him here, should this ever +meet his eye, for this kindly protest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will be gathered that I succeeded at Christchurch +in performing the feat of waking up a +Cathedral City, and all the ex-sleepers were protesting +loudly against such a disturbing inrush +from the outer world. Glancing at the head-lines +I see that Bishop Brodie declared it to be +"A blasphemy nurtured in fraud," the Dean of +Christchurch writes it down as "Spiritism, the +abrogation of Reason," the Rev. John Patterson +calls it "an ancient delusion," the Rev. Mr. +North says it is "a foolish Paganism," and the +Rev. Mr. Ready opines that it is "a gospel +of uncertainty and conjecture." Such are the +clerical leaders of thought in Christchurch in the +year 1920. I think of what the wise old Chinese +Control said of similar types at the Melbourne +Rescue Circle. "He good man but foolish man. +He learn better. Never rise till he learn better. +Plenty time yet." Who loses except themselves?</p> + +<p>The enormous number of letters which I get upon +psychic subjects—which I do my best to answer—give +me some curious sidelights, but they are +often confidential, and would not bear publication. +Some of them are from devout, but narrow +Christians, who narrate psychic and prophetic +gifts which they possess, and at the same time +almost resent them on the ground that they are +condemned by the Bible. As if the whole Bible +was not psychic and prophetic! One very long +letter detailed a whole succession of previsions of +the most exact character, and wound up by the +conviction that we were on the edge of some great +discovery. This was illustrated by a simile which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +seemed very happy. "Have you noticed a tree +covered in spider webs during a fog? Well, it +was only through the law of the fog that we saw +them. They were there all the time, but only +when the moisture came could we see them." It +was a good illustration. Many amazing experiences +are detailed to me in every town I visit, +and though I have no time to verify them and go +into details, none the less they fit so accurately +with the various types of psychic cases with which +I am familiar that I cannot doubt that such +occurrences are really very common. It is the +injudicious levity with which they are met which +prevents their being published by those who +experience them.</p> + +<p>As an amateur philologist of a superficial type, I +am greatly interested in studying the Maori +language, and trying to learn whence these +wonderful savages came before their twenty-two +terrible canoes came down upon the unhappy +land which would have been safer had as many +shiploads of tigers been discharged upon its beach. +The world is very old, and these folk have wandered +from afar, and by many devious paths. Surely +there are Celtic traces both in their appearance, +their character and their language. An old +Maori woman smoking her pipe is the very image +of an old Celtic woman occupied the same way. +Their word for water is <i>wei</i>, and England is full +of Wye and Way river names, dating from the +days before the Germans arrived. Strangest of +all is their name for the supreme God. A name +never mentioned and taboo among them, is Io.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +"J" is, of course, interchangeable with "I," so +that we get the first two letters of Jove and an +approximation of Jehovah. Papa is parent. +Altogether there is good evidence that they are +from the same root as some European races, +preferably the Celts. But on the top of this +comes a whole series of Japanese combinations of +letters, Rangi, Muru, Tiki, and so forth, so that +many of the place names seem pure Japanese. +What are we to make of such a mixture? Is it +possible that one Celtic branch, far away in the +mists of time, wandered east while their racial +brethren wandered west, so that part reached far +Corea while the others reached Ireland? Then, +after getting a tincture of Japanese terms and +word endings, they continued their migration, +taking to the seas, and finally subduing the +darker races who inhabited the Polynesian Islands, +so making their way to New Zealand. This wild +imagining would at least cover the observed facts. +It is impossible to look at some of the Maori faces +without realising that they are of European stock.</p> + +<p>I must interpolate a paragraph here to say that +I was pleased, after writing the above, to find that +in my blind gropings I had come upon the main +conclusions which have been put forward with +very full knowledge by the well-known authority, +Dr. McMillan Brown. He has worked out the +very fact which I surmised, that the Maoris are +practically of the same stock as Europeans, that +they had wandered Japan-wards, and had finally +taken to the sea. There are two points of interest +which show the date of their exodus was a very +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>ancient one. The first is that they have not the +use of the bow. The second is that they have no +knowledge of metals. Such knowledge once +possessed would never have been lost, so it is safe +to say that they left Asia a thousand years (as a +minimum) before Christ, for at that date the use +of bronze, at any rate, was widespread. What +adventures and vicissitudes this remarkable race, +so ignorant in some directions and so advanced in +others, must have endured during those long +centuries. If you look at the wonderful ornaments +of their old war canoes, which carry a hundred men, +and can traverse the whole Pacific, it seems almost +incredible that human patience and ingenuity +could construct the whole fabric with instruments +of stone. They valued them greatly when once +they were made, and the actual names of the twenty-two +original invading canoes are still recorded.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_208" id="I_208">[208]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs09.jpg" width="320" height="189" alt="THE PEOPLE OF TURI'S CANOE, AFTER A VOYAGE OF GREAT HARDSHIP, AT LAST +SIGHT THE SHORES OF NEW ZEALAND." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 209.</i></p> +<p class="blockquotetn center caption">THE PEOPLE OF TURI'S CANOE, AFTER A VOYAGE OF GREAT HARDSHIP, AT LAST +SIGHT THE SHORES OF NEW ZEALAND.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn center">From a painting in the Auckland Art Gallery by C. F. Goldie and L. J. Steele.</p> +</div> + +<p>In the public gallery of Auckland they have a +duplicate of one of these enormous canoes. It is +87 feet in length and the thwarts are broad enough +to hold three or four men. When it was filled +with its hundred warriors, with the chief standing +in the centre to give time to the rowers, it must, +as it dashed through the waves, have been a truly +terrific object. I should think that it represented +the supreme achievement of neolithic man. There +are a series of wonderful pictures of Maori life in +the same gallery by Goldie and Steele. Of these +I reproduce, by permission, one which represents +the starving crew of one canoe sighting the distant +shore. The engraving only gives a faint indication +of the effect of the vividly-coloured original.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p> + +<p>Reference has been made to the patient industry +of the Maori race. A supreme example of this is +that every man had his tikki, or image of a little +idol made of greenstone, which was hung round his +neck. Now, this New Zealand greenstone is one of +the hardest objects in nature, and yet it is worn down +without metals into these quaint figures. On an +average it took ten years to make one, and it was +rubbed down from a chunk of stone into an image +by the constant friction of a woman's foot.</p> + +<p>It is said that the Tahungas, or priests, have +much hereditary knowledge of an occult sort. +Their oracles were famous, and I have already +quoted an example of their séances. A student +of Maori lore told me the following interesting +story. He was a student of Maori words, and on +one occasion a Maori chief let slip an unusual word, +let us say "buru," and then seemed confused and +refused to answer when the Englishman asked the +meaning. The latter took it to a friend, a Tohunga, +who seemed much surprised and disturbed, and +said it was a word of which a paheka or white man +should know nothing. Not to be beaten, my +informant took it to an old and wise chief who +owed him a return for some favours. This chief +was also much exercised in mind when he heard +the word, and walked up and down in agitation. +Finally he said, "Friend, we are both Christians. +You remember the chapter in the Bible where +Jacob wrestled with an angel. Well, this word +'buru' represents that for which they were +wrestling." He would say no more and there it +had perforce to be left.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<p>The British Empire may be proud of their +treatment of the Maoris. Like the Jews, they +object to a census, but their number cannot be +more than 50,000 in a population of over a million. +There is no question, therefore, of our being constrained +to treat them well. Yet they own vast +tracts of the best land in the country, and so unquestioned +are their rights that when they forbade +a railway to pass down the centre of the North +Island, the traffic had to go by sea from Auckland +until, at last, after many years, it was shown to +the chiefs that their financial interests would be +greatly aided by letting the railway through. +These financial interests are very large, and many +Maoris are wealthy men, buying expensive motor +cars and other luxuries. Some of the more educated +take part in legislative work, and are +distinguished for their eloquence. The half-castes +make a particularly fine breed, especially in their +youth, for they tend as they grow older to revert +to the pure Maori type. New Zealand has no +national sin upon its conscience as regards the +natives, which is more, I fear, than can be said +whole-heartedly for Australia, and even less for +Tasmania. Our people never descended to the +level of the old Congo, but they have something +on their conscience none the less.</p> + +<p>On December 18th there was some arrangement +by which I should meet the Maoris and see the +historic Pa of Kaiopoi. The affair, however, was, +I am sorry to say, a fiasco. As we approached the +building, which was the village school room, there +emerged an old lady—a very old lady—who uttered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +a series of shrill cries, which I was told meant +welcome, though they sounded more like the other +thing. I can only trust that my informants were +right. Inside was a very fine assemblage of +atmospheric air, and of nothing else. The explanation +was that there had been a wedding the +night before, and that the whole community had +been—well, tired. Presently a large man +in tweeds of the reach-me-down variety appeared +upon the scene, and several furtive figures, including +a row of children, materialised in corners of +the big empty room. The visitors, who were more +numerous than the visited, sat on a long bench +and waited developments which refused to develop. +My dreams of the dignified and befeathered savage +were drifting away. Finally, the large man, with +his hands in his pockets, and looking hard at a +corner of the rafters, made a speech of welcome, +punctuated by long stops and gaps. He then, at +our request, repeated it in Maori, and the children +were asked to give a Maori shout, which they +sternly refused to do. I then made a few feeble +bleats, uncertain whether to address my remarks +to the level of the large man or to that of the row +of children. I ended by handing over some books +for their library, and we then escaped from this +rather depressing scene.</p> + +<p>But it was a very different matter with the Pa. +I found it intensely interesting. You could still +trace quite clearly the main lines of the battle +which destroyed it. It lay on about five acres of +ground, with deep swamp all round save for one +frontage of some hundreds of yards. That was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +all which really needed defence. The North +Island natives, who were of a sterner breed than +those of the South, came down under the famous +Rauparaha (these Maori names are sad snags in +a story) and besieged the place. One can see the +saps and follow his tactics, which ended by piling +brushwood against the palings—please observe +the root "pa" in palings—with the result that +he carried the place. Massacre Hill stands close +by, and so many of the defenders were eaten that +their gnawed bones covered the ground within +the memory of living men. Such things may have +been done by the father of the elderly gentleman +who passes you in his motor car with his race +glasses slung across his chest. The siege of +Kaiopoi was about 1831. Even on a fine sunlit +day I was conscious of that heavy atmosphere +within the enclosure which impresses itself upon +me when I am on the scene of ancient violence. +So frightful an episode within so limited a space, +where for months the garrison saw its horrible +fate drawing nearer day by day, must surely have +left some etheric record even to our blunt senses.</p> + +<p>I was indebted to Dr. Thacker, the mayor, for +much kind attention whilst in Christchurch. He +is a giant man, but a crippled giant, alas, for he +still bears the traces of an injury received in a +historic football match, which left his and my old +University of Edinburgh at the top of the tree in +Scotland. He showed me some curious, if ghastly, +relics of his practice. One of these was a tumour +of the exact size and shape of a boxing glove, +thumb and all, which he cut out of the back of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +boxer who had lost a glove fight and taken it +greatly to heart. Always on many converging +lines we come back to the influence of mind over +matter.</p> + +<p>Another most pleasant friendship which I made +in Christchurch was with Sir Joseph Kinsey, who +has acted as father to several successive British +Arctic expeditions. Scott and Shackleton have +both owed much to him, their constant agent, +adviser and friend. Scott's dying hand traced a +letter to him, so unselfish and so noble that it +alone would put Scott high in the gallery of +British worthies. Of all modern men of action +Scott seems to me the most lofty. To me he was +only an acquaintance, but Kinsey, who knew him +well as a friend, and Lady Kinsey, who had all +Arctic exploration at her finger ends, were of the +same opinion.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph discussed the action of Amundsen in +making for the pole. When it was known that +Amundsen was heading south instead of pursuing +his advertised intentions, Kinsey smelled danger +and warned Scott, who, speaking from his own +noble loyalty, said, "He would never do so dishonourable +a thing. My plans are published and +are known to all the world." However, when he +reached the ice, and when Pennell located the +"Fram," he had to write and admit that Kinsey +was right. It was a sad blow, that forestalling, +though he took it like the man that he was. None +the less, it must have preyed upon the spirits of all +his party and weakened their resistance in that cruel +return journey. On the other hand Amundsen's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +expedition, which was conducted on rather less +than a sixth of the cost of the British, was a +triumph of organisation, and he had the good luck +or deep wisdom to strike a route which was clear +of those great blizzards which overwhelmed Scott. +The scurvy was surely a slur upon our medical +preparations. According to Stefansson, who +knows more of the matter than any living man, +lime juice is useless, vegetables are of secondary +importance, but fresh animal food, be it seal, +penguin, or what you will, is the final preventive.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph is a passionate and discriminating +collector, and has but one fault in collecting, +which is a wide generosity. You have but to +visit him often enough and express sufficient +interest to absorb all his treasures. Perhaps my +protests were half-hearted, but I emerged from +his house with a didrachm of Alexander, a tetradrachm +of some Armenian monarch, a sheet of +rare Arctic stamps for Denis, a lump of native +greenstone, and a small nugget of gold. No +wonder when I signed some books for him I +entered the date as that of "The Sacking of +Woomeroo," that being the name of his dwelling. +The mayor, in the same spirit of hospitality, +pressed upon me a huge bone of the extinct Moa, +but as I had never failed to impress upon my wife +the extreme importance of cutting down our +luggage, I could not face the scandal of appearing +with this monstrous impedimentum.</p> + +<p>Leaving Christchurch in the journalistic uproar +to which allusion has been made, our engagements +took us on to Dunedin, which is reached by rail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +in a rather tiring day's journey. A New Zealand +train is excellent while it is running, but it has a +way of starting with an epileptic leap, and stopping +with a bang, which becomes wearisome after a +while. On the other hand this particular journey +is beguiled by the fact that the line runs high for +two hours round the curve of the hills with the +Pacific below, so that a succession of marvellous +views opens out before you as you round each spur. +There can be few more beautiful lines.</p> + +<p>Dunedin was founded in 1848 by a group of +Scotsmen, and it is modelled so closely upon +Edinburgh that the familiar street names all reappear, +and even Portobello has its duplicate +outside the town. The climate, also, I should +judge to be about the same. The prevailing tone +of the community is still Scottish, which should +mean that they are sympathetic with my mission, +for nowhere is Spiritualism more firmly established +now than in Scotland, especially in Glasgow, +where a succession of great mediums and of earnest +workers have built up a considerable organisation. +I soon found that it was so, for nowhere had I +more private assurances of support, nor a better +public reception, the theatre being filled at each +lecture. In the intervals kind friends put their +motors at my disposal and I had some splendid +drives over the hills, which look down upon the +winding estuary at the head of which the town is +situated.</p> + +<p>At the house of Mr. Reynolds, of Dunedin, I +met one of the most powerful clairvoyants and +trance mediums whom I have tested. Her name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +is Mrs. Roberts, and though her worldly circumstances +are modest, she has never accepted any +money for her wonderful psychic gifts. For this +I honour her, but, as I told her, we all sell the +gifts which God has given us, and I cannot see +why, and within reason, psychic gifts should not +also be placed within the reach of the public, +instead of being confined to a favoured few. How +can the bulk of the people ever get into touch +with a good medium if they are debarred from +doing so in the ordinary way of business?</p> + +<p>Mrs. Roberts is a stout, kindly woman, with a +motherly manner, and a sensitive, expressive face. +When in touch with my conditions she at once gave +the names of several relatives and friends who have +passed over, without any slurring or mistakes. +She then cried, "I see an elderly lady here—she +is a beautifully high spirit—her name is Selina." +This rather unusual name belonged to my wife's +mother, who died nearly two years ago. Then, +suddenly, becoming slightly convulsed, as a +medium does when her mechanism is controlled +by another, she cried with an indescribable intensity +of feeling, "Thank God! Thank God to get +in touch again! Jean! Jean! Give my dear love +to Jean!" Both names, therefore, had been got +correctly, that of the mother and the daughter. +Is it not an affront to reason to explain away such +results by wild theories of telepathy, or by anything +save the perfectly plain and obvious fact +that spirit communion is indeed true, and that I +was really in touch with that dead lady who was, +even upon earth, a beautifully high and unselfish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +spirit. I had a number of other communications +through Mrs. Roberts that night, and at a second +interview two days later, not one of which erred +so far as names were concerned. Among others was +one who professed to be Dr. Russell Wallace. I +should be honoured, indeed, to think that it was +so, but I was unable to hit on anything which +would be evidential. I asked him if his further +experience had taught him anything more about +reincarnation, which he disputed in his lifetime. +He answered that he now accepted it, though I am +not clear whether he meant for all cases. I +thanked him for any spiritual help I had from +him. His answer was "Me! Don't thank me! +You would be surprised if you knew who your +real helpers are." He added, "By your work I +rise. We are co-workers!" I pray that it be +so, for few men have lived for whom I have greater +respect; wise and brave, and mellow and good. +His biography was a favourite book of mine +long before I understood the full significance of +Spiritualism, which was to him an evolution of the +spirit on parallel lines to that evolution of the +body which he did so much to establish.</p> + +<p>Now that my work in New Zealand was drawing +to a close a very grave problem presented itself +to Mr. Smythe and myself, and that was how we +were to get back to our families in Australia. +A strike had broken out, which at first seemed a +small matter, but it was accentuated by the +approach of Christmas and the fact that many of +the men were rather looking for an excuse for +a holiday. Every day things became blacker.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +Once before Mr. Smythe had been held up for +four months by a similar cause, and, indeed, it +has become a very serious consideration for all +who visit New Zealand. We made a forced +march for the north amid constant rumours that +far from reaching Australia we could not even get +to the North Island, as the twelve-hour ferry +boats were involved in the strike. I had every +trust in my luck, or, as I should prefer to say, in +my helpers, and we got the <i>Maori</i> on the last ferry +trip which she was sure to take. Up to the last +moment the firemen wavered, and we had no +stewards on board, but none the less, to our +inexpressible relief we got off. There was no food +on the ship and no one to serve it, so we went into +a small hostel at Lyttleton before we started, to +see what we could pick up. There was a man +seated opposite to me who assumed the air of +laboured courtesy and extreme dignity, which is +one phase of alcoholism.</p> + +<p>"'Scuse me, sir!" said he, looking at me with +a glassy stare, "but you bear most 'straordinary +resemblance Olver Lodge."</p> + +<p>I said something amiable.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir—'straordinary! Have you ever seen +Olver Lodge, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have."</p> + +<p>"Well, did you perceive resemblance?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Oliver, as I remember him, was a tall man +with a grey beard."</p> + +<p>He shook his head at me sadly.</p> + +<p>"No, sir—I heard him at Wellington last week. +No beard. A moustache, sir, same as your own."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're sure it was Sir Oliver?"</p> + +<p>A slow smile came over his face.</p> + +<p>"Blesh my soul—Conan Doyle—that's the +name. Yes, sir, you bear truly remarkable +resemblance Conan Doyle."</p> + +<p>I did not say anything further so I daresay +he has not discovered yet the true cause of the +resemblance.</p> + +<p>All the nerve-wracking fears of being held up +which we endured at Lyttleton were repeated at +Wellington, where we had taken our passages in +the little steamer <i>Paloona</i>. In any case we had +to wait for a day, which I spent in clearing up +my New Zealand affairs while Mr. Smythe interviewed +the authorities and paid no less than +£141 war tax upon the receipts of our lectures—a +heavy impost upon a fortnight's work. Next +morning, with our affairs and papers all in order, +we boarded our little craft.</p> + +<p>Up to the last moment we had no certainty of +starting. Not only was the strike in the air, but +it was Christmas Eve, and it was natural enough +that the men should prefer their own homes to +the stokehole of the <i>Paloona</i>. Agents with offers +of increased pay were scouring the docks. Finally +our complement was completed, and it was a +glad moment when the hawsers were thrown off, +and after the usual uncomfortable preliminaries +we found ourselves steaming in a sharp wind +down the very turbulent waters of Cook's Strait.</p> + +<p>The place is full of Cook's memory. Everywhere +the great man has left his traces. We +passed Cook's Island where the <i>Endeavour</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +actually struck and had to be careened and +patched. What a nerve the fellow had! So +coolly and deliberately did he do his work that +even now his charting holds good, I understand, +in many long stretches of coast. Tacking +and wearing, he poked and pried into every +estuary, naming capes, defining bays, plotting out +positions, and yet all the while at the mercy of +the winds, with a possible lee shore always before +him, with no comrade within hail, and with +swarms of cannibals eyeing his little ship from the +beach. After I have seen his work I shall feel +full of reverence every time I pass that fine +statue which adorns the mall side of the great +Admiralty building.</p> + +<p>And now we are out in the open sea, with +Melbourne, Sydney and love in front of our +prow. Behind the sun sets in a slur of scarlet +above the olive green hills, while the heavy night +fog, crawling up the valleys, turns each of them +into a glacier. A bright star twinkles above. +Below a light shines out from the gloom. Farewell, +New Zealand! I shall never see you again, +but perhaps some memory of my visit may +remain—or not, as God pleases.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, my own memory will remain. +Every man looks on his own country as God's +own country if it be a free land, but the New +Zealander has more reason than most. It is a +lovely place, and contains within its moderate +limits the agricultural plains of England, the lakes +and hills of Scotland, the glaciers of Switzerland, +and the fiords of Norway, with a fine hearty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +people, who do not treat the British newcomer +with ignorant contempt or hostility. There are +so many interests and so many openings that it is +hard to think that a man will not find a career in +New Zealand. Canada, Australia and South +Africa seem to me to be closely balanced so far +as their attractions for the emigrant goes, but +when one considers that New Zealand has neither +the winter of Canada, the droughts of Australia, +nor the racial problems of Africa, it does surely +stand supreme, though it demands, as all of them +do, both labour and capital from the newcomer.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Christian origins.—Mithraism.—Astronomy.—Exercising +boats.—Bad news from home.—Futile strikes.—Labour +Party.—The blue wilderness.—Journey to Brisbane.—Warm +reception.—Friends and foes.—Psychic experience +of Dr. Doyle.—Birds.—Criticism on Melbourne.—Spiritualist +Church.—Ceremony.—Sir Matthew Nathan.—Alleged +repudiation of Queensland.—Billy tea.—The +bee farm.—Domestic service in Australia.—Hon. John +Fihilly.—Curious photograph by the state photographer.—The +"Orsova."</p></div> + + +<p>The voyage back from New Zealand to Melbourne +was pleasant and uneventful, though the boat was +small and there was a sea rough enough to upset +many of the passengers. We were fortunate in +our Captain, Doorby, who, I found, was a literary +confrère with two books to his credit, one of them +a record of the relief ship <i>Morning</i>, in which he had +served at the time of Scott's first expedition, the +other a little book, "The Handmaiden of the +Navy," which gave some of his adventures and +experiences in the merchant service during the +great war. He had been torpedoed once, and +had lost, on another occasion, nearly all his crew +with plague, so that he had much that was +interesting to talk about. Mr. Blake, of the +<i>Strand Magazine</i>, was also on board. A Unitarian +Minister, Mr. Hale, was also a valuable companion, +and we had much discussion over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +origins of Christianity, which was the more +interesting to me as I had taken advantage of the +voyage to re-read the Acts and Paul's Epistles. +There are no documents which can be read so +often and yet reveal something new, the more so +when you have that occult clue which is needful +before Paul can be understood. It is necessary +also to know something of Mythra worship and +the other philosophies which Paul had learned, and +woven into his Christianity. I have stated elsewhere +my belief that all expressions about +redemption by blood, the blood of the lamb, etc., +are founded upon the parallel of the blood of +the bull which was shed by the Mythra-worshippers, +and in which they were actually baptised. +Enlarging upon this, Mr. Hale pointed out on the +authority, if I remember right, of Pfleiderer's +"Christian Origins," that in the Mythra service +something is placed over the candidate, a hide +probably, which is called "putting on Mythra," +and corresponds with Paul's expression about +"putting on Christ." Paul, with his tremendous +energy and earnestness, fixed Christianity upon +the world, but I wonder what Peter and those +who had actually heard Christ's words thought +about it all. We have had Paul's views about +Christ, but we do not know Christ's views about +Paul. He had been, as we are told by himself, a +Jewish Pharisee of the strictest type in his youth +at Jerusalem, but was a Roman citizen, had +lived long at Tarsus, which was a centre of +Mithraism, and was clearly famous for his learning, +since Festus twitted him with it. The simple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +tenets of the carpenter and the fishermen would +take strange involved forms in such a brain as +that. His epistles are presumably older than the +gospels, which may, in their simplicity, represent +a protest against his confused theology.</p> + +<p>It was an enjoyable voyage in the little <i>Paloona</i>, +and rested me after the whirlwind campaign of +New Zealand. In large liners one loses in romance +what one gains in comfort. On a small ship one +feels nearer to Nature, to the water and even to +the stars. On clear nights we had magnificent +displays of the Southern heaven. I profited by +the astronomical knowledge of Mr. Smythe. Here +first I was introduced to Alpha Centauri, which is +the nearest fixed star, and, therefore, the cobber +to the sun. It is true that it is distant 3-1/2 years +of light travel, and light travels at about 182,000 +miles a second, but when one considers that it +takes centuries for average starlight to reach us, +we may consider Alpha as snuggling close up to +us for companionship in the lonely wastes of space. +The diamond belt of Orion looks homely enough +with the bright solitaire Sirius sparkling beside +it, but there are the Magellanic clouds, the +scattered wisps torn from the Milky Way, and +there is the strange black space called the Coalsack, +where one seems to look right past all +created things into a bottomless void. What +would not Galileo and all the old untravelled +astronomers have given to have one glimpse of +this wondrous Southern display?</p> + +<p>Captain Doorby, finding that he had time in +hand, ran the ship into a small deserted bay upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +the coast, and, after anchoring, ordered out all +the boats for the sake of practice. It was very +well done, and yet what I saw convinced me that +it should be a Board of Trade regulation, if it is +not one already, that once, at least, near the +beginning of every long voyage, this should be +compulsory. It is only when you come to launch +them that you really realise which of the davits +is rusted up, and which block is tangled, or which +boat is without a plug. I was much impressed +by this idea as I watched the difficulties which +were encountered even in that secluded anchorage.</p> + +<p>The end of my journey was uneventful, but my +joy at being reunited with my family was clouded +by the news of the death of my mother. She was +eighty-three years of age, and had for some years +been almost totally blind, so that her change was +altogether a release, but it was sad to think that +we should never see the kind face and gracious +presence again in its old material form. Denis +summed up our feelings when he cried, "What a +reception Grannie must have had!" There was +never any one who had so broad and sympathetic +a heart, a world-mother mourning over everything +which was weak or oppressed, and thinking +nothing of her own time and comfort in her +efforts to help the sufferers. Even when blind +and infirm she would plot and plan for the benefit +of others, thinking out their needs, and bringing +about surprising results by her intervention. For +my own psychic work she had, I fear, neither +sympathy nor understanding, but she had an +innate faith and spirituality which were so natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +to her that she could not conceive the needs of +others in that direction. She understands now.</p> + +<p>Whilst in the Blue Mountains I was forced to +reconsider my plans on account of the strike which +has paralysed all coastal trade. If I should be +able to reach Tasmania I might be unable to +return, and it would, indeed, be a tragic situation +if my family were ready to start for England in +the <i>Naldera</i>, and I was unable to join them. +I felt, therefore, that I was not justified in going +to Tasmania, even if I were able, which is very +doubtful. It was sad, as it spoiled the absolute +completeness of my tour, but on the other hand +I felt sure that I should find plenty of work to +do on the mainland, without taking so serious a +risk.</p> + +<p>It is a terrible thing to see this young country, +which needs every hour of time and every ounce of +energy for its speedy development frittering itself +away in these absurd conflicts, which never give +any result to compare with the loss. One feels +that in the stern contests of nations one will arise +which has economic discipline, and that none +other could stand against it. If the training of +reorganised Germany should take this shape she +will conquer and she will deserve to conquer. It +is a monstrous abuse that Compulsory Arbitration +Courts should be established, as is the case in +Australia, and that Unions should either strike +against their decisions, or should anticipate their +decisions, as in the case of these stewards, by +forcing a strike. In such a case I hold that the +secretary and every other official of the Union<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +should be prosecuted and heavily fined, if not +imprisoned. It is the only way by which the +community can be saved from a tyranny which is +quite as real as that of any autocrat. What +would be said, for example, of a king who cut off +the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand from +communication with the outer world, deranging +the whole Christmas arrangements of countless +families who had hoped to reunite? Yet this is +what has been done by a handful of stewards +with some trivial grievance. A fireman who objects +to the cooking can hold up a great vessel. +There is nothing but chaos in front of a nation +unless it insists upon being master in its own +house, and forbids either employed or employer +to do that which is for the common scathe. The +time seems to be coming when Britons, the world +over, will have to fight for liberty against licence +just as hard as ever they fought for her against +tyranny. This I say with full sympathy for the +Labour Party, which I have often been tempted +to join, but have always been repelled by their +attempt to bully the rest of the State instead of +using those means which would certainly ensure +their legitimate success, even if it took some years +to accomplish. There are many anomalies and +injustices, and it is only a people's party which +can set them right. Hereditary honours are an +injustice, lands owned by feudal or royal gift are +an injustice, increased private wealth through +the growth of towns is an injustice, coal royalties +are an injustice, the expense of the law is a glaring +injustice, the support of any single religion by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +the State is an injustice, our divorce laws are an +injustice—with such a list a real honest Labour +Party would be a sure winner if it could persuade +us all that it would not commit injustices itself, +and bolster up labour artificially at the expense of +every one else. It is not organised labour which +moves me, for it can take care of itself, but it is +the indigent governesses with thirty pounds a +year, the broken people, the people with tiny +pensions, the struggling widows with children—when +I think of all these and then of the man +who owns a county I feel that there is something +deeply, deeply wrong which nothing but some +great strong new force can set right.</p> + +<p>One finds in the Blue Mountains that opportunity +of getting alone with real Nature, which is +so healing and soothing a thing. The wild scrub +flows up the hillsides to the very grounds of the +hotels, and in a very few minutes one may find +oneself in the wilderness of ferns and gum trees +unchanged from immemorial ages. It is a very +real danger to the young or to those who have no +sense of direction, for many people have wandered +off and never come back alive—in fact, there is a +specially enrolled body of searchers who hunt for +the missing visitor. I have never in all my +travels seen anything more spacious and wonderful +than the view from the different sandstone +bluffs, looking down into the huge gullies beneath, +a thousand feet deep, where the great gum trees +look like rows of cabbages. I suppose that in +water lies the force which, in the course of ages, +has worn down the soft, sandy rock and formed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +these colossal clefts, but the effects are so enormous +that one is inclined to think some great +earth convulsion must also have been concerned +in their production. Some of the cliffs have a +sheer drop of over one thousand feet, which is +said to be unequalled in the world.</p> + +<p>These mountains are so precipitous and tortuous, +presenting such a maze to the explorer, +that for many years they were a formidable +barrier to the extension of the young Colony. +There were only about forty miles of arable land +from the coast to the great Hawkesbury River, +which winds round the base of the mountains. +Then came this rocky labyrinth. At last, in 1812, +four brave and persevering men—Blaxland, +Evans, Wentworth and Lawson—took the matter +in hand, and after many adventures, blazed a +trail across, by which all the splendid hinterland +was opened up, including the gold fields, which +found their centre in the new town of Bathurst. +When one reflects that all the gold had to be +brought across this wilderness, with unexplored +woodlands fringing the road, it is no wonder that +a race of bushrangers sprang into existence, and +the marvel is that the police should ever have +been able to hunt them down. So fresh is all +this very vital history in the development of a +nation, that one can still see upon the trees the +marks of the explorers' axes, as they endeavoured +to find a straight trail among the countless +winding gullies. At Mount York, the highest +view-point, a monument has been erected to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +them, at the place from which they got the first +glimpse of the promised land beyond.</p> + +<p>We had been told that in the tropical weather +now prevailing, it was quite vain for us to go to +Queensland, for no one would come to listen to +lectures. My own belief was, however, that this +subject has stirred people very deeply, and that +they will suffer any inconvenience to learn about +it. Mr. Smythe was of opinion, at first, that my +audiences were drawn from those who came from +curiosity because they had read my writings, but +when he found that the second and the third meetings +were as full as the first, he was forced to admit +that the credit of success lay with the matter +rather than with the man. In any case I reflected +that my presence in Brisbane would certainly +bring about the usual Press controversy, with a +free ventilation of the subject, so we determined +to go. Mr. Smythe, for once, did not accompany +us, but the very capable lady who assists him, +Miss Sternberg, looked after all arrangements.</p> + +<p>It was a very wearisome train journey of +twenty-eight hours; tropically hot, rather dusty, +with a change in the middle, and the usual stuffiness +of a sleeper, which was superior to the ordinary +American one, but below the British standard. +How the Americans, with their nice sense of +decency, can stand the awful accommodation +their railway companies give them, or at any rate, +used to give them, is incomprehensible, but public +opinion in all matters asserts itself far less directly +in America than in Britain. Australia is half-way +between, and, certainly, I have seen abuses there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +in the management of trains, posts, telegrams +and telephones, which would have evoked loud +protests at home. I think that there is more +initiative at home. For example, when the +railway strike threatened to throttle the country, +the public rose to the occasion and improvised +methods which met the difficulty. I have not +heard of anything of the kind in the numerous +strikes with which this community is harassed. +Any individual action arouses attention. I +remember the amusement of the Hon. Agar +Wynne when, on arriving late at Melbourne, in +the absence of porters, I got a trolley, placed my +own luggage on it, and wheeled it to a cab. Yet +we thought nothing of that when labour was +short in London.</p> + +<p>The country north of Sydney is exactly like +the Blue Mountains, on a lesser scale—riven ranges +of sandstone covered with gum trees. I cannot +understand those who say there is nothing worth +seeing in Australia, for I know no big city which +has glorious scenery so near it as Sydney. After +crossing the Queensland border, one comes to +the Darling Downs, unsurpassed for cattle and +wheat. Our first impressions of the new State +were that it was the most naturally rich of any +Australian Colony, and the longer we were in it, +the more did we realise that this was indeed so. +It is so enormous, however, that it is certain, +sooner or later, to be divided into a South, Middle, +and North, each of which will be a large and +flourishing community. We observed from the +railway all sorts of new vegetable life, and I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +especially interested to notice that our English +Yellow Mullein was lining the track, making its +way gradually up country.</p> + +<p>Even Sydney did not provide a warmer and +more personal welcome than that which we both +received when we at last reached Brisbane. At +Toowoomba, and other stations on the way, small +deputations of Spiritualists had met the train, +but at Brisbane the platform was crowded. My +wife was covered with flowers, and we were soon +made to realise that we had been misinformed in +the south, when we were told that the movement +was confined to a small circle.</p> + +<p>We were tired, but my wife rose splendidly to +the occasion. The local paper says: "Carefully +concealing all feelings of fatigue and tiredness +after the long and wearisome train journey from +Sydney, Lady Doyle charmed the large gathering +of Spiritualists assembled at the Central Railway +Station on Saturday night, to meet her and her +husband. In vivacious fashion, Lady Doyle responded +to the many enthusiastic greetings, and +she was obviously delighted with the floral gifts +presented to her on her arrival. To a press +representative, Lady Doyle expressed her admiration +of the Australian scenery, and she referred +enthusiastically to the Darling Downs district +and to the Toowoomba Range. During her +husband's absence in New Zealand, Lady Doyle +and her children spent a holiday in the Blue +Mountains (New South Wales), and were delighted +with the innumerable gorgeous beauty spots there."</p> + +<p>After a short experience, when we were far from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +comfortable, we found our way to the Bellevue +Hotel, where a kindly old Irish proprietress, +Mrs. Finegan, gave us greater attention and luxury +than we had found anywhere up to then on the +Australian continent.</p> + +<p>The usual press discussion was in full swing. +The more bigoted clergy in Brisbane, as elsewhere, +were very vituperative, but so unreasonable and +behind their own congregations in knowledge +and intelligence, that they must have alienated +many who heard them. Father Lane, for example, +preaching in the cathedral, declared that the +whole subject was "an abomination to the Lord." +He does not seem to have asked himself why the +Lord gave us these powers if they are an abomination. +He also declared that we denied our moral +responsibility to God in this life, a responsibility +which must have weighed rather lightly upon +Father Lane when he made so false a statement. +The Rev. L. H. Jaggers, not to be outdone in +absurdity by Father Lane, described all our +fellow-mortals of India, China and Japan as +"demoniacal races." Dr. Cosh put forward the +Presbyterian sentiment that I was Anti-Christ, +and a serious menace to the spiritual life of +Australia. Really, when I see the want of all +truth and charity shown by these gentlemen, it +does begin to convince me of the reality of +diabolical interference in the affairs of mankind, +for I cannot understand why, otherwise, such +efforts should be made to obscure, by falsehood +and abuse, the great revelation and comfort which +God has sent us. The opposition culminated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +in an open letter from Dr. Cosh in the <i>Mail</i>, +demanding that I should define my exact views +as to the Trinity, the Atonement, and other such +mysteries. I answered by pointing out that all +the religious troubles of the past had come from +the attempt to give exact definitions of things +which were entirely beyond the human power of +thought, and that I refused to be led along so +dangerous a path. One Baptist clergyman, +named Rowe, had the courage to say that he was +on my side, but with that exception I fear that I +had a solid phalanx against me.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the general public were +amazingly friendly. It was the more wonderful +as it was tropical weather, even for Brisbane. +In that awful heat the great theatre could not +hold the people, and they stood in the upper +galleries, packed tightly, for an hour and a half +without a movement or a murmur. It was a really +wonderful sight. Twice the house was packed +this way, so (as the Tasmanian venture was now +hopeless, owing to the shipping strike) I determined +to remain in our very comfortable quarters +at the Bellevue Hotel, and give one more lecture, +covering fresh ground. The subject opens up +so that I am sure I could lecture for a week +without repeating myself. On this occasion the +house was crowded once more. The theatrical +manager said, "Well, if it was comic opera in +the season, it could not have succeeded better!" +I was rather exhausted at the end, for I spoke, as +usual, with no chairman, and gave them a full +ninety minutes, but it was nearing the end of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +work, and the prospect of the quiet time ahead +of us helped me on.</p> + +<p>I met a kinsman, Dr. A. A. Doyle, who is a +distinguished skin specialist, in Brisbane. He +knew little of psychic matters, but he had met +with a remarkable experience. His son, a splendid +young fellow, died at the front. At that moment +his father woke to find the young soldier stooping +over him, his face quite close. He at once woke +his wife and told her that their son, he feared, +was dead. But here comes a fine point. He +said to the wife, "Eric has had a return of the +acne of the face, for which I treated him years +ago. I saw the spots." The next post brought a +letter, written before Eric's death, asking that +some special ointment should be sent, as his acne +had returned. This is a very instructive case, +as showing that even an abnormal thing is +reproduced at first upon the etheric body. But +what has a materialist to say to the whole story? +He can only evade it, or fall back upon his +usual theory, that every one who reports such +occurrences is either a fool or a liar.</p> + +<p>We had a pleasant Sunday among the birds of +Queensland. Mr. Chisholm, an enthusiastic bird-lover, +took us round to see two very large aviaries, +since the haunt of the wild birds was beyond our +reach. Birds in captivity have always saddened +me, but here I found them housed in such great +structures, with every comfort included, and every +natural enemy excluded, that really one could +not pity them. One golden pheasant amused us, +for he is a very conceited bird when all is well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +with him, and likes to occupy the very centre of +the stage, with the spot light upon him, and a +chorus of drab hens admiring him from the rear. +We had caught him, however, when he was moulting, +and he was so conscious of his bedraggled +glories that he dodged about behind a barrel, +and scuttled under cover every time we tried to +put him out. A fearful thing happened one day, +for a careless maid left the door ajar, and in the +morning seventy of the inmates were gone. It +must have been a cruel blow to Mr. Baldwin, +who is devoted to his collection. However, he +very wisely left the door open, after securing the +remaining birds, and no less than thirty-four of +the refugees returned. The fate of the others +was probably tragic, for they were far from the +mountains which are their home.</p> + +<p>Mr. Farmer Whyte, the very progressive editor +of the <i>Daily Mail</i>, who is miles ahead of most +journalists in psychic knowledge, took us for an +interesting drive through the dense woods of +One Tree Hill. Here we were courteously met +by two of the original owners, one of them an +iguana, a great, heavy lizard, which bolted up a +tree, and the other a kangaroo, who stood among +the brushwood, his ears rotating with emotion, +while he gazed upon our halted car. From the +summit of the hill one has a wonderful view of +the ranges stretching away to the horizon in all +directions, while at one's feet lies the very wide +spread city. As nearly every dwelling house is +a bungalow, with its own little ground, the +Australian cities take up great space, which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +nullified by their very excellent tram services. A +beautiful river, the Brisbane, rather wider than +the Thames, winds through the town, and has +sufficient depth to allow ocean steamers to come +within cab-drive of the hotels.</p> + +<p>About this time I had the usual experience +which every visitor to the States or to the +Dominions is liable to, in that his own utterances +in his letters home get into print, and boomerang +back upon him. My own feelings, both to the +Australian people and their country, have been +so uniformly whole-hearted that I should have +thought no mischief could be made, but at the +same time, I have always written freely that +which I was prepared to stand by. In this case, +the extract, from a private letter, removed from +all modifying context, came through as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquote extraspacetop extraspacebot"><p>"Sir Conan Doyle, quoted in the <i>International +Psychic Gazette</i>, in referring to his 'ups and +downs' in Australia, says: 'Amid the "downs" +is the Press boycott, caused partly by ignorance +and want of proportion, partly by moral +cowardice and fear of finding out later that +they had backed the wrong horse, or had given +the wrong horse fair play. They are very backward, +and far behind countries like Iceland and +Denmark in the knowledge of what has been +done in Spiritualism. They are dear folk, +these Australians, but, Lord, they want +Spirituality, and dynamiting out of their +grooves! The Presbyterians actually prayed +that I might not reach the country. This is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +rather near murder, if they thought their rotten +prayers would avail. The result was an excellent +voyage, but it is the spiritual deadness of +this place which gets on my nerves.'"</p></div> + +<p>This was copied into every paper in Australia, +but it was soon recognised that "this place" +was not Australia, but Melbourne, from which +the letter was dated. I have already recorded +how I was treated by the leading paper in that +city, and my general experience there was faithfully +reflected in my remarks. Therefore, I had +nothing to withdraw. My more extended experience +taught me that the general level of +intelligence and of spirituality in the Australasian +towns is as high as in the average towns of Great +Britain, though none are so far advanced as towns +like Manchester or Glasgow, nor are there the +same number of professional and educated men +who have come forward and given testimony. +The thirst for information was great, however, +and that proved an open mind, which must now +lead to a considerable extension of knowledge +within the churches as well as without.</p> + +<p>My remarks had been caused by the action of +the <i>Argus</i>, but the <i>Age</i>, the other leading Melbourne +paper, seemed to think that its honour +was also touched, and had a very severe leading +article upon my delinquencies, and my alleged +views, which was, as usual, a wild travesty of my +real ones. It began this article by the assertion +that, apparently, I still thought that Australia +was inhabited by the aborigines, before I ventured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +to bring forward such theories. Such a remark, +applied to a subject which has won the assent in +varying degrees of every one who has seriously +examined it, and which has its foundation resting +upon the labours of some of the greatest minds +in the world, did not help me to recover my +respect for the mentality and breadth of view of +the journals of Melbourne. I answered, pointing +out that David Syme, the very distinguished +founder of the paper, by no means shared this +contempt to Spiritualism, as is shown by two +long letters included in his published Life.</p> + +<p>This attitude, and that of so many other +objectors, is absolutely unintelligible to me. They +must know that this cult is spreading and that +many capable minds have examined and endorsed +it. They must know, also, that the views we +proclaim, the continuance of happy life and the +practical abolition of death are, if true, the +grandest advance that the human race has ever +made. And yet, so often, instead of saying, +"Well, here is some one who is supposed to know +something about the matter. Let us see if this +grand claim can possibly be established by +evidence and argument," they break into insults +and revilings as if something offensive had been +laid before them. This attitude can only arise +from the sluggish conservatism of the human +brain, which runs easily in certain well-worn +grooves, and is horrified by the idea that something +may come to cause mental exertion and +readjustment.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_240" id="I_240">[240]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs10.jpg" width="320" height="221" alt=" +LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF SPIRITUALIST CHURCH AT BRISBANE." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 241.</i></p> +<p class="blockquotetn center caption">LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF SPIRITUALIST CHURCH AT BRISBANE.</p> +</div> + +<p>I am bound to add that the general public went +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>out of their way to show that their Press did +not represent their views. The following passage +is typical of many: "The criticism which you +have so justly resented is, I am sure, not in keeping +with the views of the majority of the Australian +people. In my own small sphere many of my +friends have been stirred deeply by your theories, +and the inspiration in some cases has been so +marked that the fact should afford you satisfaction. +We are not all spiritually defunct. Many +are quite satisfied that you are giving your best for +humanity, and believe that there is a tremendous +revelation coming to this weary old world."</p> + +<p>The Spiritualists of Brisbane, greatly daring, +have planned out a church which is to cost +£10,000, trusting to those who work with us on +the other side to see the enterprise through. +The possible fallacy lies in the chance that those +on the other side do not desire to see this immense +movement become a separate sect, but are in +favour of the peaceful penetration of all creeds +by our new knowledge. It is on record that early +in the movement Senator Talmadge asked two +different spirit controls, in different States of the +Union, what the ultimate goal of this spiritual +outburst might be, and received exactly the same +answer from each, namely, that it was to prove +immortality and to unify the Churches. The first +half has been done, so far as survival implies +immortality, and the second may well come to +pass, by giving such a large common platform to +each Church that they will learn to disregard the +smaller differences.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> + +<p>Be this as it may, one could not but admire the +faith and energy of Mr. Reinhold and the others +who were determined to have a temple of their +own. I laid the foundation stone at three in the +afternoon under so tropical a sun that I felt as if +the ceremony was going to have its immemorial +accompaniment of a human sacrifice and even +of a whole-burned offering. The crowd made +matters worse, but a friendly bystander with an +umbrella saved me from heat apoplexy. I felt +the occasion was a solemn one, for it was certainly +the first Spiritual Church in the whole of Queensland, +and I doubt if we have many anywhere in +Australia, for among our apostolic gifts poverty +is conspicuous. It has always amazed me how +Theosophists and Christian Scientists get their fine +halls and libraries, while we, with our zeal and +our knowledge, have some bare schoolroom or +worse as our only meeting place. It reflects +little credit upon the rich people who accept the +comforts we bring, but share none of the burdens +we bear. There is a kink in their souls.</p> + +<p>I spoke at some length, and the people listened +with patience in spite of the great heat. It was +an occasion when I could, with propriety, lay +emphasis upon the restraint and charity with +which such a church should be run. The Brisbane +paper reports me as follows: "I would emphasise +three things. Mind your own business; go on +quietly in your own way; you know the truth, +and do not need to quarrel with other people. +There are many roads to salvation. The second +point I would urge is that you should live up to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +your knowledge. We know for certain that we +live on after death, that everything we do in this +world influences what comes after; therefore, we +can afford to be unselfish and friendly to other +religions. Some Spiritualists run down the Bible, +whereas it is from cover to cover a spiritual book. +I would like to see the Bible read in every +Spiritualistic Church with particular attention +paid to the passages dealing with occultism. +The third point I would emphasise is that you +should have nothing to do with fortune-telling or +anything of that kind. All fortune-telling is +really a feeling out in the dark. If good things +are going to happen to you be content to wait for +them, and if evil is to come nothing is to be +gained by attempting to anticipate it. My +sympathies are with the police in their attitude to +fortune-tellers, whose black magic is far removed +from the services of our mediums in striving to +bring comfort to those whose loved ones have +gone before. If these three things are lived up to, +this church will be a source of great brightness +and happiness."</p> + +<p>Our work was pleasantly broken by an invitation +to lunch with Sir Matthew Nathan, at +Government House. Sir Matthew impresses one +as a man of character, and as he is a financial +authority he is in a position to help by his advice +in restoring the credit of Queensland. The matter +in dispute, which has been called repudiation, +does not, as it seems to me, deserve so harsh a +term, as it is one of those cases where there are +two sides to the question, so equally balanced that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +it is difficult for an outsider to pronounce a judgment. +On the one hand the great squatters +who hold millions of acres in the State had received +the land on considerable leases which charged +them with a very low rent—almost a nominal one—on +condition of their taking up and developing +the country. On the other hand, the Government +say these leases were granted under very different +circumstances, the lessees have already done very +well out of them, the war has made it imperative +that the State raise funds, and the assets upon +which the funds can be raised are all in the hands +of these lessees, who should consent to a revision +of their agreements. So stands the quarrel, so +far as I could understand it, and the State has +actually imposed the increased rates. Hence the +cry that they have repudiated their own contract. +The result of the squatters' grievance was that +Mr. Theodore, the Premier, was unable to raise +money in the London market, and returned home +with the alternative of getting a voluntary loan +in the Colony, or of raising a compulsory loan +from those who had the money. The latter has +an ugly sound, and yet the need is great, and if +some may be compelled to serve with their bodies +I do not see why some may not also be compelled +to serve with their purses. The assets of the +Colony compare very favourably, I believe, with +others, for while these others have sold their +lands, the Government of Queensland has still +the ownership of the main tracts of the gloriously +fertile country. Therefore, with an issue at 6-1/2 per +cent., without tax, one would think that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +should have no difficulty in getting any reasonable +sum. I was cinemaed in the act of applying +for a small share in the issue, but I think the +advertisement would have been of more value to +the loan, had they captured some one of greater +financial stability.</p> + +<p>The more one examines this alleged "repudiation" +the less reason appears in the charge, and +as it has assuredly injured Queensland's credit, +it is well that an impartial traveller should touch +upon it. The squatters are the richer folk and in +a position to influence the public opinion of the +world, and in their anxiety to exploit their own +grievance they seem to have had little regard for +the reputation of their country. It is like a man +burning down his house in the hope of roasting +some other inmate of whom he disapproves. A +conservative paper (the <i>Producer's Review</i>, January +10th, 1921), says: "No living man can say how +much Queensland has been damaged by the +foolish partisan statements that have been uttered +and published." The article proceeds to show +in very convincing style, with chapter and verse, +that the Government has always been well within +its rights, and that a Conservative Government on +a previous occasion did the same thing, framing a +Bill on identical lines.</p> + +<p>On January 12th my kinsman, Dr. Doyle, with +his charming wife, took us out into the bush for +a billy tea—that is, to drink tea which is prepared +as the bushmen prepare it in their tin cans. It +was certainly excellent, and we enjoyed the drive +and the whole experience, though uninvited guests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +of the mosquito tribe made things rather lively for +us. I prayed that my face would be spared, as I +did not wish to turn up at my lecture as if I had +been having a round with Dr. Cosh, and I react +in a most whole-hearted way to any attentions +from an insect. The result was certainly remarkable, +be it coincidence or not, for though my +hands were like boxing-gloves, and my neck all +swollen, there was not a mark upon my face. I +fancy that the hardened inhabitants hardly realise +what new chums endure after they are bitten by +these pests. It means to me not only disfigurement, +but often a sleepless night. My wife and +the children seem to escape more lightly. I found +many objects of interest in the bush—among +others a spider's web so strong that full-sized +dragon flies were enmeshed in it. I could not see +the creature itself, but it must have been as big +as a tarantula. Our host was a large landowner +as well as a specialist, and he talked seriously of +leaving the country, so embittered was he by +the land-policy of the Government. At the same +time, the fact that he could sell his estate at a +fair price seemed to imply that others took a less +grave view of the situation. Many of the richer +classes think that Labour is adopting a policy of +deliberate petty irritation in order to drive them +out of the country, but perhaps they are over-sensitive.</p> + +<p>So full was our life in Brisbane that there was +hardly a day that we had not some memorable +experience, even when I had to lecture in the +evening. Often we were going fourteen and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +fifteen hours a day, and a tropical day at that. +On January 14th we were taken to see the largest +bee-farm in Australia, run by Mr. H. L. Jones. +Ever since I consigned Mr. Sherlock Holmes to +a bee farm for his old age, I have been supposed to +know something of the subject, but really I am so +ignorant that when a woman wrote to me and said +she would be a suitable housekeeper to the retired +detective because she could "segregate the +queen," I did not know what she meant. On this +occasion I saw the operation and many other +wonderful things which make me appreciate +Maeterlinck's prose-poem upon the subject. There +is little poetry about Mr. Jones however, and he +is severely practical. He has numbers of little +boxes with a store of bee-food compressed into +one end of them. Into each he thrusts a queen +with eight attendants to look after her. The +food is enough to last two months, so he simply puts +on a postage stamp and sends it off to any one in +California or South Africa who is starting an +apiary. Several hives were opened for our inspection +with the precaution of blowing in some +smoke to pacify the bees. We were told that +this sudden inrush of smoke gives the bees the idea +that some great cataclysm has occurred, and their +first action is to lay in a store of honey, each of +them, as a man might seize provisions in an +earthquake so as to be ready for whatever the +future might bring. He showed us that the +queen, fed with some special food by the workers, +can lay twice her own weight of eggs in a day, and +that if we could find something similar for hens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +we could hope for an unbroken stream of eggs. +Clever as the bee is it is clearly an instinctive +hereditary cleverness, for man has been able to +make many improvements in its methods, making +artificial comb which is better than the original, in +that it has cells for more workers and fewer drones. +Altogether it was a wonderful demonstration, +which could be viewed with comfort under a veil +with one's hands in one's pockets, for though we +were assured they would not sting if they knew we +would not hurt them, a misunderstanding was +possible. One lady spectator seemed to have a +sudden ambition to break the standing jump +record, and we found that she had received two +stings, but Mr. Jones and his assistants covered +their hands with the creatures and were quite immune. +A half-wild wallaby appeared during our +visit, and after some coyness yielded to the fascination +which my wife exercises over all animals, and +fed out of her hand. We were assured that this had +never before occurred in the case of any visitor.</p> + +<p>We found in Brisbane, as in every other town, +that the question of domestic service, the most +important of all questions to a householder, was +very acute. Ladies who occupied leading positions +in the town assured us that it was impossible +to keep maids, and that they were compelled now +to give it up in despair, and to do all their own +house work with such casual daily assistance as +they could get. A pound a week is a common +wage for very inefficient service. It is a serious +matter and no solution is in sight. English maids +are, I am sorry to say, looked upon as the worst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +of all, for to all the other faults they add constant +criticism of their employers, whom they pronounce +to be "no ladies" because they are forced to do +many things which are not done at home. Inefficiency +plus snobbishness is a dreadful mixture. +Altogether the lot of the Australian lady is not an +easy one, and we admired the brave spirit with +which they rose above their troubles.</p> + +<p>This servant question bears very directly upon +the Imperial puzzle of the northern territory. A +white man may live and even work there, but a +white woman cannot possibly run a household +unless domestic labour is plentiful. In that +climate it simply means absolute breakdown in a +year. Therefore it is a mad policy which at +present excludes so rigorously the Chinese, Indians +or others who alone can make white households +possible. White labour assumes a dog in the +manger policy, for it will not, or cannot, do the +work itself, and yet it shuts out those who could +do it. It is an impossible position and must be +changed. How severe and unreasonable are the +coloured immigrant laws is shown by the fact that +the experienced and popular Commander of the +<i>Naldera</i>, Captain Lewellin, was fined at Sydney +a large sum of money because three Goa Indians +deserted from his ship. There is a great demand +for Indian camel drivers in the north, and this no +doubt was the reason for the desertion, but what +a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> of the law which comes +between the demand and the supply, besides +punishing an innocent victim.</p> + +<p>As usual a large number of psychic confidences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +reached us, some of which were very interesting. +One lady is a clairaudient, and on the occasion of +her mother falling ill she heard the words "Wednesday—the +fifteenth." Death seemed a matter +of hours, and the date far distant, but the patient, +to the surprise of the doctors, still lingered. Then +came the audible message "She will tell you +where she is going." The mother had lain +for two days helpless and comatose. Suddenly +she opened her eyes and said in a clear strong +voice, "I have seen the mansions in my father's +house. My husband and children await me +there. I could not have imagined anything so +exquisitely lovely." Then she breathed her last, +the date being the 15th.</p> + +<p>We were entertained to dinner on the last +evening by the Hon. John Fihilly, acting Premier +of the Colony, and his wife. He is an Irish +labour leader with a remarkable resemblance to +Dan O'Connell in his younger days. I was +pleased to see that the toast of the King was +given though it was not called for at a private +dinner. Fihilly is a member of the Government, +and I tackled him upon the question of British +emigrants being enticed out by specious promises +on the part of Colonial Agents in London, only +to find that no work awaited them. Some deplorable +cases had come within my own observation, +one, an old Lancashire Fusilier, having +walked the streets for six months. He assured +me that the arrangements were now in perfect +order, and that emigrants were held back in the +old country until they could be sure that there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +was a place for them. There are so many out of +work in Australia that one feels some sympathy +with those labour men who are against fresh +arrivals.</p> + +<p>And there lies the great problem which we +have not, with all our experience, managed to +master. On the one side illimitable land calling +for work. On the other innumerable workers +calling for land. And yet the two cannot be +joined. I remember how it jarred me when I +saw Edmonton, in Western Canada, filled with +out-of-workers while the great land lay uninhabited. +The same strange paradox meets one +here. It is just the connecting link that is +missing, and that link lies in wise prevision. The +helpless newcomer can do nothing if he and his +family are dumped down upon a hundred acres +of gum trees. Put yourself in their position. +How can they hope with their feeble hands to +clear the ground? All this early work must be +done for them by the State, the owner repaying +after he has made good. Let the emigrant move +straight on to a cleared farm, with a shack-house +already prepared, and clear instructions as to the +best crops, and how to get them. Then it seems +to me that emigration would bring no want of +employment in its train. But the State must +blaze the trail and the public follow after. Such +arrangements may even now exist, but if so they +need expansion and improvement, for they do not +seem to work.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Brisbane my attention was +drawn to the fact that the State photographer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +when he took the scene of the opening of the loan, +had produced to all appearance a psychic effect. +The Brisbane papers recorded it as follows: —</p> + +<p>"'It is a remarkable result, and I cannot offer +any opinion as to what caused it. It is absolutely +mystifying.' Such was the declaration +made yesterday by the Government photographer, +Mr. W. Mobsby, in regard to the unique effect +associated with a photograph he took on Thursday +last of Sir A. Conan Doyle. Mr. Mobsby, +who has been connected with photography since +boyhood, explained that he was instructed to +take an official photograph of the function at +which Sir A. Conan Doyle handed over his subscription +to the State Loan organiser. When he +arrived, the entrance to the building was thronged +by a large crowd, and he had to mount a stepladder, +which was being used by the <i>Daily +Mail</i> photographer, in order to get a good view +of the proceedings. Mr. Mobsby took only one +picture, just at the moment Sir A. Conan Doyle +was mounting the steps at the Government +Tourist Bureau to meet the Acting Premier, +Mr. J. Fihilly. Mr. Mobsby developed the film +himself, and was amazed to find that while all +the other figures in the picture were distinct the +form of Sir A. Conan Doyle appeared enveloped +in mist and could only be dimly seen. The +photograph was taken on an ordinary film with a +No. 3a Kodak, and careful examination does not +in any way indicate the cause of the sensational +result." I have had so many personal proofs of +the intervention of supernormal agencies during +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>the time that I have been engaged upon this task +that I am prepared to accept the appearance of +this aura as being an assurance of the presence of +those great forces for whom I act as a humble +interpreter. At the same time, the sceptic is +very welcome to explain it as a flawed film and a +coincidence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_252" id="I_252">[252]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs11.jpg" width="320" height="245" alt="CURIOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECT REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 252.</i></p> +<p class="blockquotetn caption center">CURIOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECT REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.</p> +<p class="blockquotetn center">Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane, "Absolutely mystifying" is his description.</p> +</div> + +<p>We returned from Brisbane to Sydney in the +Orient Liner "Orsova," which is a delightful +alternative to the stuffy train. The sea has +always been a nursing mother to me, and I suppose +I have spent a clear two years of my life +upon the waves. We had a restful Sunday aboard +the boat, disturbed only by the Sunday service, +which left its usual effect upon my mind. The +Psalms were set to some unhappy tune, very +different from the grand Gregorian rhythm, so +that with its sudden rise to a higher level it +sounded more like the neighing of horses than the +singing of mortals. The words must surely offend +anyone who considers what it is that he is +saying—a mixture of most unmanly wailing and +spiteful threats. How such literature has been +perpetuated three thousand years, and how it can +ever have been sacred, is very strange. Altogether +from first to last there was nothing, save +only the Lord's Prayer, which could have any +spiritual effect. These old observances are like +an iron ball tied to the leg of humanity, for ever +hampering spiritual progress. If now, after the +warning of the great war, we have not the mental +energy and the moral courage to get back to +realities, we shall deserve what is coming to us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> + +<p>On January 17th we were back, tired but +contented, in the Medlow Bath Hotel in the heart +of the Blue Mountains—an establishment which +I can heartily recommend to any who desire a +change from the summer heats of Sydney.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Medlow Bath.—Jenolan Caves.—Giant skeleton.—Mrs. +Foster Turner's mediumship.—A wonderful prophecy.—Final +results.—Third sitting with Bailey.—Failure of +State Control.—Retrospection.—Melbourne presentation.—Crooks.—Lecture +at Perth.—West Australia.—Rabbits, +sparrows and sharks.</p></div> + + +<p>We recuperated after our Brisbane tour by +spending the next week at Medlow Bath, that +little earthly paradise, which is the most restful +spot we have found in our wanderings. It was +built originally by Mr. Mark Foy, a successful +draper of Sydney, and he is certainly a man of +taste, for he has adorned it with a collection of +prints and of paintings—hundreds of each—which +would attract attention in any city, but +which on a mountain top amid the wildest +scenery give one the idea of an Arabian Nights +palace. There was a passage some hundreds of +yards long, which one has to traverse on the way +to each meal, and there was a certain series of +French prints, representing events of Byzantine +history, which I found it difficult to pass, so that +I was often a late comer. A very fair library is +among the other attractions of this remarkable +place.</p> + +<p>Before leaving we spent one long day at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +famous Jenolan Caves, which are distant about +forty-five miles. As the said miles are very up-and-down, +and as the cave exploration involves +several hours of climbing, it makes a fairly hard +day's work. We started all seven in a motor, as +depicted by the wayside photographers, but Baby +got sick and had to be left with Jakeman at the +half-way house, where we picked her up, quite +recovered, on our return. It was as well, for the +walk would have been quite beyond her, and yet +having once started there is no return, so we +should have ended by carrying her through all +the subterranean labyrinths. The road is a +remarkably good one, and represents a considerable +engineering feat. It passes at last through +an enormous archway of rock which marks the +entrance to the cave formations. These caves +are hollowed out of what was once a coral reef +in a tropical sea, but is now sixty miles inland +with a mountain upon the top of it—such changes +this old world has seen. If the world were formed +only that man might play his drama upon it, +then mankind must be in the very earliest days +of his history, for who would build so elaborate a +stage if the play were to be so short and +insignificant?</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_256" id="I_256">[256]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs12.jpg" width="340" height="233" alt=" + +OUR PARTY EN ROUTE TO THE JENOLAN CAVES, JANUARY 20TH, 1921, IN FRONT OF OLD COURT +HOUSE IN WHICH BUSHRANGERS WERE TRIED." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 256.</i></p> +<p class="blockquotetn center caption">OUR PARTY EN ROUTE TO THE JENOLAN CAVES, <br /> +JANUARY 20TH, 1921, <br /> +IN FRONT OF OLD COURT HOUSE IN WHICH BUSHRANGERS WERE TRIED.</p> +</div> + +<p>The caves are truly prodigious. They were +discovered first in the pursuit of some poor devil +of a bushranger who must have been hard put to +it before he took up his residence in this damp +and dreary retreat. A brave man, Wilson, did +most of the actual exploring, lowering himself +by a thin rope into noisome abysses of unknown +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>depth and charting out the whole of this devil's +warren. It is so vast that many weeks would +be needed to go through it, and it is usual at one +visit to take only a single sample. On this +occasion it was the River Cave, so named because +after many wanderings you come on a river about +twenty feet across and forty-five feet deep which +has to be navigated for some distance in a punt. +The stalactite effects, though very wonderful, +are not, I think, superior to those which I have +seen in Derbyshire, and the caves have none of +that historical glamour which is needed in order +to link some large natural object to our own comprehension. +I can remember in Derbyshire how +my imagination and sympathy were stirred by +a Roman lady's brooch which had been found +among the rubble. Either a wild beast or a +bandit knew best how it got there. Jenolan has +few visible links with the past, but one of them +is a tremendous one. It is the complete, though +fractured, skeleton of a very large man—seven +foot four said the guide, but he may have put it +on a little—who was found partly imbedded in +the lime. Many ages ago he seems to have fallen +through the roof of the cavern, and the bones of +a wallaby hard by give some indication that he +was hunting at the time, and that his quarry +shared his fate. He was of the Black fellow type, +with a low-class cranium. It is remarkable the +proportion of very tall men who are dug up in +ancient tombs. Again and again the bogs of +Ireland have yielded skeletons of seven and eight +feet. Some years ago a Scythian chief was dug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +up on the Southern Steppes of Russia who was +eight feet six. What a figure of a man with his +winged helmet and his battle axe! All over the +world one comes upon these giants of old, and one +wonders whether they represented some race, +further back still, who were all gigantic. The +Babylonian tradition in our Bible says: "And +there were giants in those days." The big +primeval kangaroo has grown down to the smaller +modern one, the wombat, which was an animal as +big as a tapir, is now as small as a badger, the +great saurians have become little lizards, and so +it would seem not unreasonable to suppose that +man may have run to great size at some unexplored +period in his evolution.</p> + +<p>We all emerged rather exhausted from the +bowels of the earth, dazed with the endless succession +of strange gypsum formations which we +had seen, minarets, thrones, shawls, coronets, +some of them so made that one could imagine +that the old kobolds had employed their leisure +hours in fashioning their freakish outlines. It +was a memorable drive home in the evening. +Once as a bird flew above my head, the slanting +ray of the declining sun struck it and turned it +suddenly to a vivid scarlet and green. It was +the first of many parrots. Once also a couple of +kangaroos bounded across the road, amid wild cries +of delight from the children. Once, too, a long snake +writhed across and was caught by one of the wheels +of the motor. Rabbits, I am sorry to say, abounded. +If they would confine themselves to these primeval +woods, Australia would be content.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the last of our pleasant Australian +excursions, and we left Medlow Bath refreshed +not only by its charming atmosphere, but by +feeling that we had gained new friends. We made +our way on January 26th to Sydney, where all +business had to be settled up and preparations +made for our homeward voyage.</p> + +<p>Whilst in Sydney I had an opportunity of +examining several phases of mediumship which +will be of interest to the psychic reader. I called +upon Mrs. Foster Turner, who is perhaps the +greatest all-round medium with the highest +general level of any sensitive in Australia. I +found a middle-aged lady of commanding and +pleasing appearance with a dignified manner and +a beautifully modulated voice, which must be +invaluable to her in platform work. Her gifts +are so many that it must have been difficult for +her to know which to cultivate, but she finally +settled upon medical diagnosis, in which she has, +I understand, done good work. Her practice +is considerable, and her help is not despised by +some of the leading practitioners. This gift is, as +I have explained previously in the case of Mr. +Bloomfield, a form of clairvoyance, and Mrs. +Foster Turner enjoys all the other phases of that +wonderful power, including psychometry, with its +application to detective work, the discerning of +spirits, and to a very marked degree the gift of +prophecy, which she has carried upon certain +occasions to a length which I have never known +equalled in any reliable record of the past.</p> + +<p>Here is an example for which, I am told, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +hundred witnesses could be cited. At a meeting +at the Little Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, +on a Sunday evening of February, 1914, Mrs. +Turner addressed the audience under an inspiration +which claimed to be W. T. Stead. He ended +his address by saying that in order to prove that +he spoke with a power beyond mortal, he would, +on the next Sunday, give a prophecy as to the +future of the world.</p> + +<p>Next Sunday some 900 people assembled, +when Mrs. Turner, once more under control, +spoke as follows. I quote from notes taken at +the time. "Now, although there is not at present +a whisper of a great European war at hand, yet I +want to warn you that before this year, 1914, has +run its course, Europe will be deluged in blood. +Great Britain, our beloved nation, will be drawn +into the most awful war the world has ever known. +Germany will be the great antagonist, and will +draw other nations in her train. Austria will +totter to its ruin. Kings and kingdoms will fall. +Millions of precious lives will be slaughtered, but +Britain will finally triumph and emerge victorious. +During the year, also, the Pope of Rome will pass +away, and a bomb will be placed in St. Paul's +Church, but will be discovered in time and removed +before damage is done."</p> + +<p>Can any prophecy be more accurate or better +authenticated than that? The only equally exact +prophecy on public events which I can recall is +when Emma Hardinge Britten, having been +refused permission in 1860 to deliver a lecture on +Spiritualism in the Town Hall of Atlanta, declared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +that, before many years had passed, that very +Town Hall would be choked up with the dead and +the dying, drawn from the State which persecuted +her. This came literally true in the Civil War a +few years later, when Sherman's army passed +that way.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Foster Turner's gift of psychometry is one +which will be freely used by the community +when we become more civilised and less ignorant. +As an example of how it works, some years ago +a Melbourne man named Cutler disappeared, +and there was a considerable debate as to his fate. +His wife, without giving a name, brought Cutler's +boot to Mrs. Turner. She placed it near her +forehead and at once got <i>en rapport</i> with the +missing man. She described how he left his +home, how he kissed his wife good-bye, all the +succession of his movements during that morning, +and finally how he had fallen or jumped over a +bridge into the river, where he had been caught +under some snag. A search at the place named +revealed the dead body. If this case be compared +with that of Mr. Foxhall, already quoted, one can +clearly see that the same law underlies each. +But what an ally for our C.I.D.!</p> + +<p>There was one pleasant incident in connection +with my visit to Mrs. Foster Turner. Upon my +asking her whether she had any psychic impression +when she saw me lecturing, she said that I was +accompanied on the platform by a man in spirit +life, about 70 years of age, grey-bearded, with +rugged eyebrows. She searched her mind for a +name, and then said, "Alfred Russell Wallace."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +Doctor Abbott, who was present, confirmed that +she had given that name at the time. It will be +remembered that Mrs. Roberts, of Dunedin, had +also given the name of the great Spiritualistic +Scientist as being my coadjutor. There was no +possible connection between Mrs. Turner and +Mrs. Roberts. Indeed, the intervention of the +strike had made it almost impossible for them +to communicate, even if they had known each +other—which they did not. It was very helpful +to me to think that so great a soul was at my +side in the endeavour to stimulate the attention +of the world.</p> + +<p>Two days before our departure we attended +the ordinary Sunday service of the Spiritualists +at Stanmore Road, which appeared to be most +reverently and beautifully conducted. It is indeed +pleasant to be present at a religious service +which in no way offends one's taste or one's +reason—which cannot always be said, even of +Spiritualistic ones. At the end I was presented +with a beautifully illuminated address from the +faithful of Sydney, thanking me for what they +were pleased to call "the splendidly successful +mission on behalf of Spiritualism in Sydney." +"You are a specially chosen leader," it went on, +"endowed with power to command attention +from obdurate minds. We rejoice that you are +ready to consecrate your life to the spread of our +glorious gospel, which contains more proof of +the eternal love of God than any other truth yet +revealed to man." So ran this kindly document. +It was decorated with Australian emblems, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +there was a laughing jackass in the corner, I was +able to raise a smile by suggesting that they had +adorned it with the picture of a type of opponent +with whom we were very familiar, the more so +as some choice specimens had been observed in +Sydney. There are some gentle souls in our +ranks who refrain from all retort—and morally, +they are no doubt the higher—but personally, +when I am moved by the malevolence and ignorance +of our opponents, I cannot help hitting back +at them. It was Mark Twain, I think, who said +that, instead of turning the other cheek, he +returned the other's cheek. That is my unregenerate +instinct.</p> + +<p>I was able, for the first time, to give a bird's-eye +view of my tour and its final results. I had, in all, +addressed twenty-five meetings, averaging 2,000 +people in each, or 50,000 people in all. I read aloud a +letter from Mr. Carlyle Smythe, who, with his father, +had managed the tours of every lecturer of repute +who had come to Australia during the past thirty +years. Mr. Smythe knew what success and failure +were, and he said: "For an equal number of +lectures, yours has proved the most prosperous +tour in my experience. No previous tour has +won such consistent success. From the push-off +at Adelaide to the great boom in New Zealand +and Brisbane, it has been a great dynamic progression +of enthusiasm. I have known in my +career nothing parallel to it."</p> + +<p>The enemies of our cause were longing for my +failure, and had, indeed, in some cases most +unscrupulously announced it, so it was necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +that I should give precise details as to this great +success, and to the proof which it afforded that +the public mind was open to the new revelation. +But, after all, the money test was the acid one. +I had taken a party of seven people at a time +when all expenses were doubled or trebled by +the unnatural costs of travel and of living, which +could not be made up for by increasing the price +of admission. It would seem a miracle that I +could clear this great bill of expenses in a country +like Australia, where the large towns are few. +And yet I was able to show that I had not only +done so, after paying large sums in taxation, +but that I actually had seven hundred pounds +over. This I divided among Spiritual funds in +Australia, the bulk of it, five hundred pounds, +being devoted to a guarantee of expenses for the +next lecturer who should follow me. It seemed +to me that such a lecturer, if well chosen, and +properly guaranteed against loss, might devote +a longer time than I, and visit the smaller towns, +from which I had often the most touching appeals. +If he were successful, he need not touch the guarantee +fund, and so it would remain as a perpetual +source of active propaganda. Such was the +scheme which I outlined that night, and which +was eventually adopted by the Spiritualists of +both Australia and New Zealand.</p> + +<div class="figcenter extraspacetop extraspacebot"><span class='imgnum'><a name="I_264" id="I_264">[264]</a></span> +<img src="images/gs13.jpg" width="275" height="402" alt="DENIS WITH A BLACK SNAKE AT MEDLOW BATH." title="" /><br /> +<p class="blockquotetn nrright"> <i>See page 258.</i></p> +<p class="blockquotetn center caption">DENIS WITH A BLACK SNAKE AT MEDLOW BATH.</p> +</div> + +<p>On my last evening at Sydney, I attended a +third séance with Charles Bailey, the apport +medium. It was not under test conditions, so +that it can claim no strict scientific value, and yet +the results are worth recording. It had struck +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>me that a critic might claim that there was phosphorescent +matter inside the spectacle case, which +seemed to be the only object which Bailey took +inside the cabinet, so I insisted on examining it, +but found it quite innocent. The usual inconclusive +shadowy appearance of luminous vapour +was evident almost at once, but never, so far as I +could judge, out of reach of the cabinet, which +was simply a blanket drawn across the corner of +the room. The Hindoo control then announced +that an apport would be brought, and asked that +water be placed in a tin basin. He (that is, Bailey +himself, under alleged control) then emerged, +the lights being half up, carrying the basin over +his head. On putting it down, we all saw two +strange little young tortoises swimming about in +it. I say "strange," because I have seen none +like them. They were about the size of a half-crown, +and the head, instead of being close to +the shell, was at the end of a thin neck half as +long as the body. There were a dozen Australians +present, and they all said they had never seen any +similar ones. The control claimed that he had +just brought them from a tank in Benares. The +basin was left on the table, and while the lights +were down, the creatures disappeared. It is only +fair to say that they could have been removed by +hand in the dark, but on examining the table, +I was unable to see any of those sloppings of +water which might be expected to follow such an +operation.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards there was a great crash in +the dark, and a number of coins fell on to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +table, and were handed to me by the presiding +control as a parting present. They did not, +I fear, help me much with my hotel bill, for they +were fifty-six Turkish copper pennies, taken "from a +well," according to our informant. These two +apports were all the phenomena, and the medium, +who has been working very hard of late, showed +every sign of physical collapse at the close.</p> + +<p>Apart from the actual production in the séance +room, which may be disputed, I should like to +confront the honest sceptic with the extraordinary +nature of the objects which Bailey produces on +these occasions. They cannot be disputed, for +hundreds have handled them, collections of them +have been photographed, there are cases full at +the Stanford University at California, and I am +bringing a few samples back to England with me. +If the whole transaction is normal, then where +does he get them? I had an Indian nest. Does +anyone import Indian nests? Does anyone import +queer little tortoises with long, thin necks? +Is there a depot for Turkish copper coins in +Australia? On the previous sitting, he got 100 +Chinese ones. Those might be explained, since +the Chinaman is not uncommon in Sydney, but +surely he exports coins, rather than imports them. +Then what about 100 Babylonian tablets, with +legible inscriptions in Assyrian, some of them +cylindrical, with long histories upon them? +Granting that they are Jewish forgeries, how do +they get into the country? Bailey's house was +searched once by the police, but nothing was found. +Arabic papers, Chinese schoolbooks, mandarins'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +buttons, tropical birds—all sorts of odd things +arrive. If they are not genuine, where do they +come from? The matter is ventilated in papers, +and no one comes forward to damn Bailey for ever +by proving that he supplied them. It is no use +passing the question by. It calls for an answer. +If these articles can be got in any normal way, +then what is the way? If not, then Bailey has +been a most ill-used man, and miracles are of +daily occurrence in Australia. This man should +be under the strict, but patient and sympathetic, +control of the greatest scientific observers in the +world, instead of being allowed to wear himself out +by promiscuous séances, given in order to earn a +living. Imagine our scientists expending themselves +in the examination of shells, or the classification of +worms, when such a subject as this awaits them. +And it cannot await them long. The man dies, +and then where are these experiments? But if +such scientific investigation be made, it must be +thorough and prolonged, directed by those who +have real experience of occult matters, otherwise +it will wreck itself upon some theological or other +snag, as did Colonel de Rochas' attempt at +Grenoble.</p> + +<p>The longer one remains in Australia, the more +one is struck by the failure of State control. +Whenever you test it, in the telephones, the +telegraphs and the post, it stands for inefficiency, +with no possibility that I can see of remedy. +The train service is better, but still far from good. +As to the State ventures in steamboat lines and +in banking, I have not enough information to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +guide me. On the face of it, it is evident that +in each case there is no direct responsible master, +and that there is no real means of enforcing discipline. +I have talked to the heads of large +institutions, who have assured me that the conduct +of business is becoming almost impossible. When +they send an urgent telegram, with a letter confirming +it, it is no unusual thing for the letter +to arrive first. No complaint produces any redress. +The maximum compensation for sums +lost in the post is, I am told, two pounds, so that +the banks, whose registered letters continually +disappear, suffer heavy losses. On the other +hand, if they send a messenger with the money, +there is a law by which all bullion carried by train +has to be declared, and has to pay a commission. +Yet the public generally, having no standard of +comparison, are so satisfied with the wretched +public services, that there is a continued agitation +to extend public control, and so ruin the well +conducted private concerns. The particular instance +which came under my notice was the ferry +service of Sydney harbour, which is admirably +and cheaply conducted, and yet there is a clamour +that it also should be dragged into this morass +of slovenly inefficiency. I hope, however, that +the tide will soon set the other way. I fear, from +what I have seen of the actual working, that it is +only under exceptional conditions, and with very +rigorous and high-principled direction, that the +State control of industries can be carried out. +I cannot see that it is a political question, or that +the democracy has any interest, save to have the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +public work done as well and as economically as +possible. When the capitalist has a monopoly, +and is exacting an undue return, it is another +matter.</p> + +<p>As I look back at Australia my prayers—if +deep good wishes form a prayer—go out to it. +Save for that great vacuum upon the north, +which a wise Government would strive hard to +fill, I see no other external danger which can +threaten her people. But internally I am +shadowed by the feeling that trouble may be +hanging over them, though I am assured that the +cool stability of their race will at last pull them +through it. There are some dangerous factors +there which make their position more precarious +than our own, and behind a surface of civilisation +there lie possible forces which might make for +disruption. As a people they are rather less +disciplined than a European nation. There is no +large middle or leisured class who would represent +moderation. Labour has tried a Labour Government, +and finding that politics will not really +alter economic facts is now seeking some fresh +solution. The land is held in many cases by large +proprietors who work great tracts with few hands, +so there is not the conservative element which +makes the strength of the United States with its +six million farmers, each with his stake in the +land. Above all, there is no standing military +force, and nothing but a small, though very +efficient, police force to stand between organised +government and some wild attempt of the extremists. +There are plenty of soldiers, it is true,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +and they have been treated with extreme +generosity by the State, but they have been +reabsorbed into the civil population. If they +stand for law and order then all is well. On the +other hand, there are the Irish, who are fairly +numerous, well organised and disaffected. There +is no Imperial question, so far as I can see, save +with the Irish, but there is this disquieting internal +situation which, with the coming drop of wages, +may suddenly become acute. An Australian +should be a sober-minded man for he has his +difficulties before him. We of the old country +should never forget that these difficulties have +been partly caused by his splendid participation +in the great war, and so strain every nerve to help, +both by an enlightened sympathy and by such +material means as are possible.</p> + +<p>Personally, I have every sympathy with all +reasonable and practical efforts to uphold the +standard of living in the working classes. At +present there is an almost universal opinion among +thoughtful and patriotic Australians that the +progress of the country is woefully hampered by +the constant strikes, which are declared in defiance +of all agreements and all arbitration courts. The +existence of Labour Governments, or the State +control of industries, does not seem to alleviate +these evil conditions, but may rather increase +them, for in some cases such pressure has been +put upon the Government that they have been +forced to subsidise the strikers—or at least those +sufferers who have come out in sympathy with +the original strikers. Such tactics must demoralise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +a country and encourage labour to make +claims upon capital which the latter cannot +possibly grant, since in many cases the margin of +profit is so small and precarious that it would be +better for the capitalist to withdraw his money +and invest it with no anxieties. It is clear that +the tendency is to destroy the very means by +which the worker earns his bread, and that the +position will become intolerable unless the older, +more level-headed men gain control of the unions +and keep the ignorant hot-heads in order. It is the +young unmarried men without responsibilities +who create the situations, and it is the married +men with their women and children who suffer. +A table of strikes prepared recently by the <i>Manchester +Guardian</i> shows that more hours were lost +in Australia with her five or six million inhabitants +than in the United Kingdom with nearly fifty +million. Surely this must make the Labour +leaders reconsider their tactics. As I write the +stewards' strike, which caused such extended +misery, has collapsed, the sole result being a loss +of nearly a million pounds in wages to the working +classes, and great inconvenience to the public. +The shipowners seem now in no hurry to resume +the services, and if their delay will make the +strikers more thoughtful it is surely to be defended.</p> + +<p>On February 1st we started from Sydney in our +good old "Naldera" upon our homeward voyage, +but the work was not yet finished. On reaching +Melbourne, where the ship was delayed two days, +we found that a Town Hall demonstration had +been arranged to give us an address from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +Victorian Spiritualists, and wish us farewell. It +was very short notice and there was a tram strike +which prevented people from getting about, so the +hall was not more than half full. None the less, +we had a fine chance of getting in touch with our +friends, and the proceedings were very hearty. +The inscription was encased in Australian wood +with a silver kangaroo outside and beautiful +illuminations within. It ran as follows:</p> + +<p>"We desire to place on permanent record our +intense appreciation of your zealous and self-sacrificing +efforts, and our deep gratitude for the +great help you have given to the cause to which +you have consecrated your life. The over-flowing +meetings addressed by you bear evidence of the +unqualified success of your mission, and many +thousands bless the day when you determined to +enter this great crusade beneath the Southern +Cross.... In all these sentiments we desire +to include your loyal and most devoted partner, +Lady Doyle, whose self-sacrifice equals or exceeds +your own."</p> + +<p>Personally, I have never been conscious of any +self-sacrifice, but the words about my wife were +in no way an over-statement. I spoke in reply +for about forty minutes, and gave a synopsis of +the state of the faith in other centres, for each +Australian State is curiously self-centred and +realises very little beyond its own borders. It +was good for Melbourne to know that Sydney, +Brisbane, Adelaide and New Zealand were quite as +alive and zealous as themselves.</p> + +<p>At the end of the function I gave an account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +the financial results of my tour and handed over +£500 as a guarantee fund for future British +lecturers, and £100 to Mr. Britton Harvey to +assist his admirable paper, <i>The Harbinger of Light</i>. +I had already expended about £100 upon spiritual +causes, so that my whole balance came to £700, +which is all now invested in the Cause and should +bring some good spiritual interest in time to come. +We badly need money in order to be able to lay +our case more fully before the world.</p> + +<p>I have already given the written evidence of +Mr. Smythe that my tour was the most successful +ever conducted in his time in Australia. To this +I may add the financial result recorded above. +In view of this it is worth recording that <i>Life</i>, +a paper entirely under clerical management, said: +"The one thing clear is that Sir Conan Doyle's +mission to Australia was a mournful and complete +failure, and it has left him in a very exasperated +state of mind." This is typical of the +perverse and unscrupulous opposition which we +have continually to face, which hesitates at no +lie in order to try and discredit the movement.</p> + +<p>One small incident broke the monotony of the +voyage between Adelaide and Fremantle, across +the dreaded Bight.</p> + +<p>There have been considerable depredations in +the coastal passenger trade of Australia, and since +the State boats were all laid up by the strike it +was to be expected that the crooks would appear +upon the big liners. A band of them came on +board the <i>Naldera</i> at Adelaide, but their methods +were crude, and they were up against a discipline<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +and an organisation against which they were +helpless. One ruffian entered a number of cabins +and got away with some booty, but was very +gallantly arrested by Captain Lewellin himself, +after a short hand-to-hand struggle. This fellow +was recognised by the detectives at Fremantle +and was pronounced to be an old hand. In the +general vigilance and search for accomplices +which followed, another passenger was judged to +be suspicious and he was also carried away by the +detectives on a charge of previous forgery. Altogether +the crooks came out very badly in their +encounter with the <i>Naldera</i>, whose officers deserve +some special recognition from the Company for the +able way in which the matter was handled.</p> + +<p>Although my formal tour was now over, I had +quite determined to speak at Perth if it were +humanly possible, for I could not consider my +work as complete if the capital of one State had +been untouched. I therefore sent the message +ahead that I would fit in with any arrangements +which they might make, be it by day or night, but +that the ship would only be in port for a few +hours. As matters turned out the <i>Naldera</i> +arrived in the early morning and was announced +to sail again at 3 p.m., so that the hours were +awkward. They took the great theatre, however, +for 1 p.m., which alarmed me as I reflected that +my audience must either be starving or else in +a state of repletion. Everything went splendidly, +however. The house was full, and I have never +had a more delightfully keen set of people in front +of me. Of all my experiences there was none<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +which was more entirely and completely satisfactory, +and I hope that it brought a very substantial +sum into the local spiritual treasury. +There was quite a scene in the street afterwards, +and the motor could not start for the +crowds who surrounded it and stretched their +kind hands and eager faces towards us. It was +a wonderful last impression to bear away from +Australia.</p> + +<p>It is worth recording that upon a clairvoyante +being asked upon this occasion whether she saw +any one beside me on the platform she at once +answered "an elderly man with very tufted eyebrows." +This was the marked characteristic +of the face of Russell Wallace. I was told before +I left England that Wallace was my guide. I have +already shown that Mrs. Roberts, of Dunedin, +gave me a message direct from him to the same +effect. Mrs. Foster Turner, in Sydney, said she +saw him, described him and gave the name. +Three others have described him. Each of these +has been quite independent of the others. I +think that the most sceptical person must admit +that the evidence is rather strong. It is naturally +more strong to me since I am personally conscious +of his intervention and assistance.</p> + +<p>Apart from my spiritual mission, I was very +sorry that I could not devote some time to exploring +West Australia, which is in some ways +the most interesting, as it is the least developed, +of the States in the Federation. One or two +points which I gathered about it are worth recording, +especially its relation to the rabbits and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +the sparrows, the only hostile invaders which it +has known. Long may they remain so!</p> + +<p>The battle between the West Australians and +the rabbits was historical and wonderful. After +the creatures had become a perfect pest in the +East it was hoped that the great central desert +would prevent them from ever reaching the West. +There was no water for a thousand miles. None +the less, the rabbits got across. It was a notable +day when the West Australian outrider, loping +from west to east, met the pioneer rabbit loping +from east to west. Then West Australia made a +great effort. She built a rabbit-proof wire screen +from north to south for hundreds of miles from +sea to sea, with such thoroughness that the +northern end projected over a rock which fringed +deep water. With such thoroughness, too, did +the rabbits reconnoitre this obstacle that their +droppings were seen upon the far side of that very +rock. There came another day of doom when +two rabbits were seen on the wrong side of the +wire. Two dragons of the slime would not have +alarmed the farmer more. A second line was +built, but this also was, as I understand, carried +by the attack, which is now consolidating, upon +the ground it has won. However, the whole +situation has been changed by the discovery +elsewhere that the rabbit can be made a paying +proposition, so all may end well in this curious +story.</p> + +<p>A similar fight, with more success, has been +made by West Australia against the sparrow, +which has proved an unmitigated nuisance elsewhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +The birds are slowly advancing down the +line of the Continental Railway and their forward +scouts are continually cut off. Captain White, +the distinguished ornithologist, has the matter +in hand, and received, as I am told, a wire a few +weeks ago, he being in Melbourne, to the effect +that two sparrows had been observed a thousand +miles west of where they had any rights. He set +off, or sent off, instantly to this way-side desert +station in the hope of destroying them, with what +luck I know not. I should be inclined to back +the sparrows.</p> + +<p>This Captain White is a man of energy and +brains, whose name comes up always when one +enquires into any question of bird or beast. He +has made a remarkable expedition lately to those +lonely Everard Ranges, which lie some distance +to the north of the desolate Nularbor Plain, +through which the Continental Railway passes. +It must form one of the most dreadful wastes +in the world, for there are a thousand miles of +coast line, without one single stream emerging. +Afforestation may alter all that. In the Everard +Ranges Captain White found untouched savages +of the stone age, who had never seen a white man +before, and who treated him with absolute courtesy +and hospitality. They were a fine race physically, +though they lived under such conditions that +there was little solid food save slugs, lizards and +the like. One can but pray that the Australian +Government will take steps to save these poor +people from the sad fate which usually follows +the contact between the higher and the lower.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> + +<p>From what I heard, West Australian immigrants +are better looked after than in the other States. +I was told in Perth that nine hundred ex-service +men with their families had arrived, and that +all had been fitted into places, permanent or +temporary, within a fortnight. This is not due +to Government, but to the exertions of a peculiar +local Society, with the strange title of "The Ugly +Men." "Handsome is as handsome does," and +they seem to be great citizens. West Australia +calls itself the Cinderella State, for, although it +covers a third of the Continent, it is isolated +from the great centres of population. It has a +very individual life of its own, however, with its +gold fields, its shark fisheries, its pearlers, and +the great stock-raising plain in the north. Among +other remarkable achievements is its great water +pipe, which extends for four hundred miles across +the desert, and supplies the pressure for the +electric machinery at Kalgurli.</p> + +<p>By a coincidence, the <i>Narkunda</i>, which is +the sister ship of the <i>Naldera</i>, lay alongside +the same quay at Fremantle, and it was an +impressive sight to see these two great shuttles +of Empire lying for a few hours at rest. In their +vastness and majesty they made me think of a +daring saying of my mother's, when she exclaimed +that if some works of man, such as an ocean-going +steamer, were compared with some works of God, +such as a hill, man could sustain the comparison. +It is the divine spark within us which gives us +the creative power, and what may we not be +when that is fully developed!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p>The children were fishing for sharks, with a +line warranted to hold eighteen pounds, with the +result that Malcolm's bait, lead, and everything +else was carried away. But they were amply +repaid by actually seeing the shark, which played +about for some time in the turbid water, a brown, +ugly, varminty creature, with fine lines of speed +in its tapering body. "It was in Adelaide, +daddy, not Fremantle," they protest in chorus, +and no doubt they are right.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>Pleasing letters.—Visit to Candy.—Snake and Flying Fox.—Buddha's +shrine.—The Malaya.—Naval digression.—Indian +trader.—Elephanta.—Sea snakes.—Chained to a +tombstone.—Berlin's escape.—Lord Chetwynd.—Lecture +in the Red Sea.—Marseilles.</p></div> + + +<p>It was on Friday, February 11th, that we drew +away from the Fremantle wharf, and started +forth upon our long, lonely trek for Colombo—a +huge stretch of sea, in which it is unusual to see +a single sail. As night fell I saw the last twinkling +lights of Australia fade away upon our +starboard quarter. Well, my job is done. I +have nothing to add, nor have I said anything +which I would wish withdrawn. My furrow +gapes across two young Continents. I feel, +deep in my soul, that the seed will fall in due +season, and that the reaping will follow the +seed. Only the work concerns ourselves—the +results lie with those whose instruments we +are.</p> + +<p>Of the many kindly letters which bade us farewell, +and which assured us that our work was +not in vain, none was more eloquent and thoughtful +than that of Mr. Thomas Ryan, a member of +the Federal Legislature. "Long after you leave +us your message will linger. This great truth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +which we had long thought of as the plaything +of the charlatan and crank, into this you breathed +the breath of life, and, as of old, we were forced +to say, 'We shall think of this again. We shall +examine it more fully.' Give us time—for the +present only this, we are sure that this thing +was not done in a corner. Let me say in the +few moments I am able to snatch from an +over-crowded life, that we realise throughout +the land how deep and far-reaching were the +things of which you spoke to us. We want +time, and even more time, to make them part of +ourselves. We are glad you have come and +raised our thoughts from the market-place to the +altar."</p> + +<p>Bishop Leadbeater, of Sydney, one of the most +venerable and picturesque figures whom I met +in my travels, wrote, "Now that you are leaving +our shores, let me express my conviction that +your visit has done great good in stirring up the +thought of the people, and, I hope, in convincing +many of them of the reality of the other life." +Among very many other letters there was none +I valued more than one from the Rev. Jasper +Calder, of Auckland. "Rest assured, Sir Arthur, +the plough has gone deep, and the daylight will +now reach the soil that has so long been in +the darkness of ignorance. I somehow feel +as if this is the beginning of new things for us +all."</p> + +<p>It is a long and weary stretch from Australia +to Ceylon, but it was saved from absolute monotony +by the weather, which was unusually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +boisterous for so genial a region. Two days +before crossing the line we ran into a north-western +monsoon, a rather rare experience, so that the +doldrums became quite a lively place. Even our +high decks were wet with spindrift and the edge +of an occasional comber, and some of the cabins +were washed out. A smaller ship would have +been taking heavy seas. In all that great stretch +of ocean we never saw a sail or a fish, and very +few birds. The loneliness of the surface of the sea +is surely a very strange fact in nature. One +would imagine, if the sea is really so populous as +we imagine, that the surface, which is the only +fixed point in very deep water, would be the +gathering ground and trysting place for all life. +Save for the flying fish, there was not a trace in +all those thousands of miles.</p> + +<p>I suppose that on such a voyage one should +rest and do nothing, but how difficult it is to do +nothing, and can it be restful to do what is +difficult? To me it is almost impossible. I was +helped through a weary time by many charming +companions on board, particularly the +Rev. Henry Howard, reputed to be the best +preacher in Australia. Some of his sermons +which I read are, indeed, splendid, depending +for their effect upon real thought and knowledge, +without any theological emotion. He is ignorant +of psychic philosophy, though, like so many men +who profess themselves hostile to Spiritualism, +he is full of good stories which conclusively prove +the very thing he denies. However, he has +reached full spirituality, which is more important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +than Spiritualism, and he must be a great +influence for good wherever he goes. The rest +he will learn later, either upon this side, or the +other.</p> + +<p>At Colombo I was interested to receive a +<i>Westminster Gazette</i>, which contained an article +by their special commissioner upon the Yorkshire +fairies. Some correspondent has given the full +name of the people concerned, with their address, +which means that their little village will be +crammed with chars-à-banc, and the peace of +their life ruined. It was a rotten thing to do. +For the rest, the <i>Westminster</i> inquiries seem to +have confirmed Gardner and me in every particular, +and brought out the further fact that the +girls had never before taken a photo in their life. +One of them had, it seems, been for a short time +in the employ of a photographer, but as she was +only a child, and her duties consisted in running +on errands, the fact would hardly qualify her, as +<i>Truth</i> suggests, for making faked negatives which +could deceive the greatest experts in London. +There may be some loophole in the direction of +thought forms, but otherwise the case is as complete +as possible.</p> + +<p>We have just returned from a dream journey +to Candy. The old capital is in the very centre +of the island, and seventy-two miles from Colombo, +but, finding that we had one clear night, we all +crammed ourselves (my wife, the children and +self) into a motor car, and made for it, while +Major Wood and Jakeman did the same by train. +It was a wonderful experience, a hundred and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +forty miles of the most lovely coloured cinema +reel that God ever released. I carry away the confused +but beautiful impression of a good broad red-tinted +road, winding amid all shades of green, +from the dark foliage of overhanging trees, to the +light stretches of the half-grown rice fields. Tea +groves, rubber plantations, banana gardens, and +everywhere the coconut palms, with their graceful, +drooping fronds. Along this great road +streamed the people, and their houses lined the +way, so that it was seldom that one was out of +sight of human life. They were of all types and +colours, from the light brown of the real Singalese +to the negroid black of the Tamils, but all shared +the love of bright tints, and we were delighted by +the succession of mauves, purples, crimsons, +ambers and greens. Water buffaloes, with the +resigned and half-comic air of the London landlady +who has seen better days, looked up at us from +their mudholes, and jackal-like dogs lay thick on +the path, hardly moving to let our motor pass. +Once, my lord the elephant came round a corner, +with his soft, easy-going stride, and surveyed us +with inscrutable little eyes. It was the unchanged +East, even as it had always been, save for the neat +little police stations and their smart occupants, +who represented the gentle, but very efficient, +British Raj. It may have been the merit of that +Raj, or it may have been the inherent virtue of +the people, but in all that journey we were never +conscious of an unhappy or of a wicked face. +They were very sensitive, speaking faces, too, and +it was not hard to read the thoughts within.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p> + +<p>As we approached Candy, our road ran through +the wonderful Botanical Gardens, unmatched for +beauty in the world, though I still give Melbourne +pride of place for charm. As we sped down one +avenue an elderly keeper in front of us raised his +gun and fired into the thick foliage of a high tree. +An instant later something fell heavily to the +ground. A swarm of crows had risen, so that we had +imagined it was one of these, but when we stopped +the car a boy came running up with the victim, +which was a great bat, or flying fox, with a two-foot +span of leathery wing. It had the appealing +face of a mouse, and two black, round eyes, as +bright as polished shoe buttons. It was wounded, +so the boy struck it hard upon the ground, and +held it up once more, the dark eyes glazed, and +the graceful head bubbling blood from either +nostril. "Horrible! horrible!" cried poor +Denis, and we all echoed it in our hearts. This +intrusion of tragedy into that paradise of a garden +reminded us of the shadows of life. There is +something very intimately moving in the evil +fate of the animals. I have seen a man's hand +blown off in warfare, and have not been conscious +of the same haunting horror which the pains of +animals have caused me.</p> + +<p>And here I may give another incident from our +Candy excursion. The boys are wild over snakes, +and I, since I sat in the front of the motor, was +implored to keep a look-out. We were passing +through a village, where a large lump of concrete, +or stone, was lying by the road. A stick, about +five feet long, was resting against it. As we flew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +past, I saw, to my amazement, the top of the +stick bend back a little. I shouted to the driver, +and we first halted, and then ran back to the spot. +Sure enough, it was a long, yellow snake, basking +in this peculiar position. The village was alarmed, +and peasants came running, while the boys, wildly +excited, tumbled out of the motor. "Kill it!" +they cried. "No, no!" cried the chauffeur. +"There is the voice of the Buddhist," I thought, +so I cried, "No! no!" also. The snake, meanwhile, +squirmed over the stone, and we saw it +lashing about among the bushes. Perhaps we +were wrong to spare it, for I fear it was full of +venom. However, the villagers remained round +the spot, and they had sticks, so perhaps the story +was not ended.</p> + +<p>Candy, the old capital, is indeed a dream city, +and we spent a long, wonderful evening beside the +lovely lake, where the lazy tortoises paddled +about, and the fireflies gleamed upon the margin. +We visited also the old Buddhist temple, where, +as in all those places, the atmosphere is ruined by +the perpetual demand for small coins. The few +mosques which I have visited were not desecrated +in this fashion, and it seems to be an unenviable +peculiarity of the Buddhists, whose yellow-robed +shaven priests have a keen eye for money. Beside +the temple, but in ruins, lay the old palace of the +native kings.</p> + +<p>I wish we could have seen the temple under +better conditions, for it is really the chief shrine +of the most numerous religion upon earth, serving +the Buddhist as the Kaaba serves the Moslem,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +or St. Peter's the Catholic. It is strange how the +mind of man drags high things down to its own +wretched level, the priests in each creed being the +chief culprits. Buddha under his boh tree was a +beautiful example of sweet, unselfish benevolence +and spirituality. And the upshot, after two +thousand years, is that his followers come to adore +a horse's tooth (proclaimed to be Buddha's, and +three inches long), at Candy, and to crawl up +Adam's Peak, in order to worship at a hole in the +ground which is supposed to be his yard-long +footstep. It is not more senseless than some +Christian observances, but that does not make it +less deplorable.</p> + +<p>I was very anxious to visit one of the buried +cities further inland, and especially to see the +ancient Boh tree, which must surely be the doyen +of the whole vegetable kingdom, since it is undoubtedly +a slip taken from Buddha's original +Boh tree, transplanted into Ceylon about two +hundred years before Christ. Its history is certain +and unbroken. Now, I understand, it is a very +doddering old trunk, with withered limbs which +are supported by crutches, but may yet hang on +for some centuries to come. On the whole, we +employed our time very well, but Ceylon will +always remain to each of us as an earthly paradise, +and I could imagine no greater pleasure than to +have a clear month to wander over its beauties. +Monsieur Clemenceau was clearly of the same +opinion, for he was doing it very thoroughly +whilst we were there.</p> + +<p>From Colombo to Bombay was a dream of blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +skies and blue seas. Half way up the Malabar +coast, we saw the old Portuguese settlement of +Goa, glimmering white on a distant hillside. +Even more interesting to us was a squat battleship +making its way up the coast. As we came +abreast of it we recognised the <i>Malaya</i>, one of +that famous little squadron of Evan Thomas', +which staved off the annihilation of Beatty's +cruisers upon that day of doom on the Jutland +coast. We gazed upon it with the reverence +that it deserved. We had, in my opinion, a +mighty close shave upon that occasion. If +Jellicoe had gambled with the British fleet he +might have won a shattering victory, but surely +he was wise to play safety with such tremendous +interests at stake. There is an account of the +action, given by a German officer, at the end of +Freeman's book "With the <i>Hercules</i> to Kiel," +which shows clearly that the enemy desired +Jellicoe to close with them, as giving them their +only chance for that torpedo barrage which they +had thoroughly practised, and on which they +relied to cripple a number of our vessels. In +every form of foresight and preparation, the +brains seem to have been with them—but that +was not the fault of the fighting seamen. Surely +an amateur could have foreseen that, in a night +action, a star shell is better than a searchlight, +that a dropping shell at a high trajectory is far +more likely to hit the deck than the side, and that +the powder magazine should be cut off from the +turret, as, otherwise, a shell crushing the one will +explode the other. This last error in construction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +seems to have been the cause of half our losses, +and the <i>Lion</i> herself would have been a victim, +but for the self-sacrifice of brave Major Harvey of +the Marines. All's well that ends well, but it was +stout hearts, and not clear heads, which pulled +us through.</p> + +<p>It is all very well to say let bygones be bygones, +but we have no guarantee that the old +faults are corrected, and certainly no one has been +censured. It looks as if the younger officers had +no means of bringing their views before those in +authority, while the seniors were so occupied with +actual administration that they had no time for +thinking outside their routine. Take the really +monstrous fact that, at the outset of a war of +torpedoes and mines, when ships might be expected +to sink like kettles with a hole in them, no least +provision had been made for saving the crew! +Boats were discarded before action, nothing +wooden or inflammable was permitted, and the +consideration that life-saving apparatus might be +non-inflammable does not seem to have presented +itself. When I wrote to the Press, pointing this +out with all the emphasis of which I was capable—I +was ready to face the charge of hysteria in such +a cause—I was gravely rebuked by a leading naval +authority, and cautioned not to meddle with +mysteries of which I knew nothing. None the +less, within a week there was a rush order for +swimming collars of india rubber. <i>Post hoc non +propter</i>, perhaps, but at least it verified the view +of the layman. That was in the days when +not one harbour had been boomed and netted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +though surely a shark in a bathing pool would be +innocuous compared to a submarine in an anchorage. +The swimmers could get out, but the ships +could not.</p> + +<p>But all this comes of seeing the white <i>Malaya</i>, +steaming slowly upon deep blue summer seas, +with the olive-green coast of Malabar on the +horizon behind her.</p> + +<p>I had an interesting conversation on psychic +matters with Lady Dyer, whose husband was +killed in the war. It has been urged that it is +singular and unnatural that our friends from the +other side so seldom allude to the former occasions +on which they have manifested. There is, I think, +force in the objection. Lady Dyer had an excellent +case to the contrary—and, indeed, they are not +rare when one makes inquiry. She was most +anxious to clear up some point which was left +open between her husband and herself, and for +this purpose consulted three mediums in London, +Mr. Vout Peters, Mrs. Brittain, and another. In +each case she had some success. Finally, she +consulted Mrs. Leonard, and her husband, speaking +through Feda, under control, began a long conversation +by saying, "I have already spoken to +you through three mediums, two women and a +man." Lady Dyer had not given her name upon +any occasion, so there was no question of passing +on information. I may add that the intimate +point at issue was entirely cleared up by the +husband, who rejoiced greatly that he had the +chance to do so.</p> + +<p>Bombay is not an interesting place for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +casual visitor, and was in a state of uproar and +decoration on account of the visit of the Duke of +Connaught. My wife and I did a little shopping, +which gave us a glimpse of the patient pertinacity +of the Oriental. The sum being 150 rupees, I +asked the Indian's leave to pay by cheque, as +money was running low. He consented. When +we reached the ship by steam-launch, we found +that he, in some strange way, had got there +already, and was squatting with the goods outside +our cabin door. He looked askance at Lloyd's +Bank, of which he had never heard, but none the +less he took the cheque under protest. Next +evening he was back at our cabin door, squatting +as before, with a sweat-stained cheque in his hand +which, he declared, that he was unable to cash. +This time I paid in English pound notes, but he +looked upon them with considerable suspicion. +As our ship was lying a good three miles from the +shore, the poor chap had certainly earned his +money, for his goods, in the first instance, were +both good and cheap.</p> + +<p>We have seen the Island of Elephanta, and may +the curse of Ernulphus, which comprises all other +curses, be upon that old Portuguese Governor +who desecrated it, and turned his guns upon the +wonderful stone carvings. It reminds me of +Abou Simbel in Nubia, and the whole place has an +Egyptian flavour. In a vast hollow in the hill, +a series of very elaborate bas reliefs have been +carved, showing Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, the +old Hindoo trinity, with all those strange satellites, +the bulls, the kites, the dwarfs, the elephant-headed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +giants with which Hindoo mythology has +so grotesquely endowed them. Surely a visitor +from some wiser planet, examining our traces, +would judge that the human race, though sane in +all else, was mad the moment that it touched +religion, whether he judged it by such examples +as these, or by the wearisome iteration of expressionless +Buddhas, the sacred crocodiles and hawk-headed +gods of Egypt, the monstrosities of Central +America, or the lambs and doves which adorn our +own churches. It is only in the Mohammedan faith +that such an observer would find nothing which +could offend, since all mortal symbolism is there +forbidden. And yet if these strange conceptions +did indeed help these poor people through their +journey of life—and even now they come from far +with their offerings—then we should morally be +as the Portuguese governor, if we were to say or +do that which might leave them prostrate and +mutilated in their minds. It was a pleasant +break to our long voyage, and we were grateful to +our commander, who made everything easy for +us. He takes the humane view that a passenger +is not merely an article of cargo, to be conveyed +from port to port, but that his recreation should, +in reason, be considered as well.</p> + +<p>Elephanta was a little bit of the old India, +but the men who conveyed us there from the +launch to the shore in their ancient dhows were +of a far greater antiquity. These were Kolis, +small, dark men, who held the country before +the original Aryan invasion, and may still be +plying their boats when India has become Turanian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +or Slavonic, or whatever its next avatar may +be. They seem to have the art of commerce +well developed, for they held us up cleverly +until they had extracted a rupee each, counting +us over and over with great care and +assiduity.</p> + +<p>At Bombay we took over 200 more travellers.</p> + +<p>We had expected that the new-comers, who +were mostly Anglo-Indians whose leave had been +long overdue, would show signs of strain and +climate, but we were agreeably surprised to find +that they were a remarkably healthy and alert +set of people. This may be due to the fact that +it is now the end of the cold weather. Our new +companions included many native gentlemen, +one of whom, the Rajah of Kapurthala, brought +with him his Spanish wife, a regal-looking lady, +whose position must be a difficult one. Hearne +and Murrell, the cricketers, old playmates and +friends, were also among the new-comers. All +of them seemed perturbed as to the unrest in +India, though some were inclined to think that +the worst was past, and that the situation was +well in hand. When we think how splendidly +India helped us in the war, it would indeed be +sad if a serious rift came between us now. One +thing I am very sure of, that if Great Britain +should ever be forced to separate from India, it +is India, and not Britain, which will be the chief +sufferer.</p> + +<p>We passed over hundreds of miles of absolute +calm in the Indian Ocean. There is a wonderful +passage in Frank Bullen's "Sea Idylls," in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +he describes how, after a long-continued tropical +calm, all manner of noxious scum and vague evil +shapes come flickering to the surface. Coleridge +has done the same idea, for all time, in "The Ancient +Mariner," when "the very sea did rot." In our +case we saw nothing so dramatic, but the ship +passed through one area where there was a great +number of what appeared to be sea-snakes, +creatures of various hues, from two to ten feet +long, festooned or slowly writhing some feet below +the surface. I cannot recollect seeing anything +of the kind in any museum. These, and a couple +of Arab dhows, furnished our only break in a +thousand miles. Certainly, as an entertainment +the ocean needs cutting.</p> + +<p>In the extreme south, like a cloud upon the +water, we caught a glimpse of the Island of Socotra, +one of the least visited places upon earth, though +so near to the main line of commerce. What a +base for submarines, should it fall into wrong +hands! It has a comic-opera Sultan of its own, +with 15,000 subjects, and a subsidy from the +British Government of 200 dollars a year, which +has been increased lately to 360, presumably on +account of the higher cost of living. It is a curious +fact that, though it is a great place of hill and plain, +seventy miles by eighteen, there is only one wild +animal known, namely the civet cat. A traveller, +Mr. Jacob, who examined the place, put forward +the theory that one of Alexander the Great's +ships was wrecked there, the crew remaining, +for he found certain Greek vestiges, but what +they were I have been unable to find out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> + +<p>As we approached Aden, we met the <i>China</i> on +her way out. Her misadventure some years ago +at the Island of Perim, has become one of the +legends of the sea. In those days, the discipline +aboard P. & O. ships was less firm than at present, +and on the occasion of the birthday of one of the +leading passengers, the officers of the ship had been +invited to the festivity. The result was that, +in the middle of dinner, the ship crashed, no great +distance from the lighthouse, and, it is said, +though this is probably an exaggeration, that the +revellers were able to get ashore over the bows +without wetting their dress shoes. No harm was +done, save that one unlucky rock projected, like a +huge spike, through the ship's bottom, and it cost +the company a good half-million before they were +able to get her afloat and in service once more. +However, there she was, doing her fifteen knots, +and looking so saucy and new that no one +would credit such an unsavoury incident in her +past.</p> + +<p>Early in February I gave a lantern lecture upon +psychic phenomena to passengers of both classes. +The Red Sea has become quite a favourite +stamping ground of mine, but it was much more +tolerable now than on that terrible night in August +when I discharged arguments and perspiration to +a sweltering audience. On this occasion it was +a wonderful gathering, a microcosm of the world, +with an English peer, an Indian Maharajah, +many native gentlemen, whites of every type +from four great countries, and a fringe of stewards, +stewardesses, and nondescripts of all sorts, including<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +the ship's barber, who is one of the most +active men on the ship in an intellectual sense. +All went well, and if they were not convinced +they were deeply interested, which is the first +stage. Somewhere there are great forces which +are going to carry on this work, and I never +address an audience without the feeling that +among them there may be some latent Paul +or Luther whom my words may call into +activity.</p> + +<p>I heard an anecdote yesterday which is worth +recording. We have a boatswain who is a fine, +burly specimen of a British seaman. In one of +his short holidays while in mufti, in Norfolk, he +had an argument with a Norfolk farmer, a stranger +to him, who wound up the discussion by saying: +"My lad, what you need is a little travel to +broaden your mind."</p> + +<p>The boatswain does his 70,000 miles a year. It +reminded me of the doctor who advised his +patient to take a brisk walk every morning before +breakfast, and then found out that he was talking +to the village postman.</p> + +<p>A gentleman connected with the cinema trade +told me a curious story within his own experience. +Last year a psychic cinema story was shown in +Australia, and to advertise it a man was hired +who would consent to be chained to a tombstone +all night. This was done in Melbourne and +Sydney without the person concerned suffering +in any way. It was very different in Launceston. +The man was found to be nearly mad from terror +in the morning, though he was a stout fellow of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +the dock labourer type. His story was that in the +middle of the night he had heard to his horror the +sound of dripping water approaching him. On +looking up he saw an evil-looking shape with +water streaming from him, who stood before him +and abused him a long time, frightening him +almost to death. The man was so shaken that +the cinema company had to send him for a +voyage. Of course, it was an unfair test for any +one's nerves, and imagination may have played +its part, but it is noticeable that a neighbouring +grave contained a man who had been drowned +in the Esk many years before. In any case, it +makes a true and interesting story, whatever the +explanation.</p> + +<p>I have said that there was an English peer on +board. This was Lord Chetwynd, a man who +did much towards winning the war. Now that +the storm is over the public knows nothing, and +apparently cares little, about the men who brought +the ship of State through in safety. Some day +we shall get a more exact sense of proportion, but +it is all out of focus at present. Lord Chetwynd, +in the year 1915, discovered by his own personal +experiments how to make an explosive far more +effective than the one we were using, which was +very unreliable. This he effected by a particular +combination and treatment of T.N.T. and ammonia +nitrate. Having convinced the authorities +by actual demonstration, he was given a free +hand, which he used to such effect that within a +year he was furnishing the main shell supply of +the army. His own installation was at Chilwell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +near Nottingham, and it turned out 19,000,000 +shells, while six other establishments were +erected elsewhere on the same system. Within +his own works Lord Chetwynd was so complete +an autocrat that it was generally believed that he +shot three spies with his own hand. Thinking +the rumour a useful one, he encouraged it by +creating three dummy graves, which may, perhaps, +be visited to this day by pious pro-Germans. It +should be added that Lord Chetwynd's explosive +was not only stronger, but cheaper, than that in +previous use, so that his labours saved the country +some millions of pounds.</p> + +<p>It was at Chilwell that the huge bombs were +filled which were destined for Berlin. There +were 100 of them to be carried in twenty-five +Handley Page machines. Each bomb was capable +of excavating 350 tons at the spot where it fell, +and in a trial trip one which was dropped in the +central courtyard of a large square building left +not a stone standing around it. Berlin was saved +by a miracle, which she hardly deserved after the +irresponsible glee with which she had hailed the +devilish work of her own Zeppelins. The original +hundred bombs sent to be charged had the tails +removed before being sent, and when they were +returned it was found to be such a job finding the +right tail for the right bomb, the permutations +being endless, that it was quicker and easier to +charge another hundred bombs with tails attached. +This and other fortuitous matters consumed +several weeks. Finally, the bombs were ready +and were actually on the machines in England,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +whence the start was to be made, when the Armistice +was declared. Possibly a knowledge of this +increased the extreme haste of the German +delegates. Personally, I am glad it was so, for +we have enough cause for hatred in the world +without adding the death of 10,000 German +civilians. There is some weight, however, in +the contention of those who complain that +Germans have devastated Belgium and France, +but have never been allowed to experience +in their own persons what the horrors of war +really are. Still, if Christianity and religion +are to be more than mere words, we must be +content that Berlin was not laid in ruins at +a time when the issue of the war was already +decided.</p> + +<p>Here we are at Suez once again. It would +take Loti or Robert Hichens to describe the +wonderful shades peculiar to the outskirts of +Egypt. Deep blue sea turns to dark green, +which in turn becomes the very purest, clearest +emerald as it shallows into a snow-white frill +of foam. Thence extends the golden desert +with deep honey-coloured shadows, stretching +away until it slopes upwards into melon-tinted +hills, dry and bare and wrinkled. At one point a +few white dwellings with a group of acacias mark +the spot which they call Moses Well. They say +that a Jew can pick up a living in any country, +but when one surveys these terrible wastes +one can only imagine that the climate has greatly +changed since a whole nomad people were able to +cross them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Mediterranean we had a snap of real cold +which laid many of us out, myself included. +I recall the Lancastrian who complained that he +had swallowed a dog fight. The level of our lives +had been disturbed for an instant by a feud +between the children and one of the passengers +who had, probably quite justly, given one of +them a box on the ear. In return, they had fixed +an abusive document in his cabin which they had +ended by the words, "With our warmest despisings," +all signing their names to it. The passenger +was sportsman enough to show this document +around, or we should not have known of its +existence. Strange little souls with their vivid +hopes and fears, a parody of our own. I gave +baby a daily task and had ordered her to do a +map of Australia. I found her weeping in the +evening. "I did the map," she cried, between +her sobs, "but they all said it was a pig!" She +was shaken to the soul at the slight upon her +handiwork.</p> + +<p>It was indeed wonderful to find ourselves at +Marseilles once more, and, after the usual unpleasant +<i>douane</i> formalities, which are greatly +ameliorated in France as compared to our own +free trade country, to be at temporary rest at the +Hôtel du Louvre.</p> + +<p>A great funeral, that of Frederic Chevillon and +his brother, was occupying the attention of the +town. Both were public officials and both were +killed in the war, their bodies being now exhumed +for local honour. A great crowd filed past with +many banners, due decorum being observed save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +that some of the mourners were smoking +cigarettes, which "was not handsome," as Mr. +Pepys would observe. There was no sign of +any religious symbol anywhere. It was a Sunday +and yet the people in the procession seemed very +badly dressed and generally down-at-heel and +slovenly. I think we should have done the thing +better in England. The simplicity of the flag-wrapped +coffins was however dignified and pleasing. +The inscriptions, too, were full of simple +patriotism.</p> + +<p>I never take a stroll through a French town +without appreciating the gulf which lies between +us and them. They have the old Roman civilisation, +with its ripe mellow traits, which have never +touched the Anglo-Saxon, who, on the other +hand, has his raw Northern virtues which make +life angular but effective. I watched a scene +to-day inconceivable under our rule. Four very +smart officers, captains or majors, were seated +outside a café. The place was crowded, but there +was room for four more at this table on the sidewalk, +so presently that number of negro privates +came along and occupied the vacant seats. The +officers smiled most good humouredly, and remarks +were exchanged between the two parties, which +ended in the high falsetto laugh of a negro. +These black troops seemed perfectly self-respecting, +and I never saw a drunken man, soldier or civilian, +during two days.</p> + +<p>I have received English letters which announce +that I am to repeat my Australian lectures at the +Queen's Hall, from April 11th onwards. I seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +to be returning with shotted guns and going +straight into action. They say that the most +dangerous course is to switch suddenly off when +you have been working hard. I am little likely +to suffer from that.</p> + + + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<div class="blockquotech extraspacebot"><p>The Institut Metaphysique.—Lecture in French.—Wonderful +musical improviser.—Camille Flammarion.—Test of +materialised hand.—Last ditch of materialism.—Sitting +with Mrs. Bisson's medium, Eva.—Round the Aisne +battlefields.—A tragic intermezzo.—Anglo-French Rugby +match.—Madame Blifaud's clairvoyance.</p></div> + + +<p>One long stride took us to Paris, where, under the +friendly and comfortable roof of the Hôtel du +Louvre, we were able at last to unpack our +trunks and to steady down after this incessant +movement. The first visit which I paid in Paris +was to Dr. Geley, head of the Institut Metaphysique, +at 89, Avenue Niel. Now that poor +Crawford has gone, leaving an imperishable name +behind him, Geley promises to be the greatest +male practical psychic researcher, and he has +advantages of which Crawford could never boast, +since the liberality of Monsieur Jean Meyer has +placed him at the head of a splendid establishment +with laboratory, photographic room, lecture +room, séance room and library, all done in the +most splendid style. Unless some British patron +has the generosity and intelligence to do the same, +this installation, with a man like Geley to run it, +will take the supremacy in psychic advance from +Britain, where it now lies, and transfer it to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +France. Our nearest approach to something +similar depends at present upon the splendid private +efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hewat MacKenzie, in +the Psychic College at 59, Holland Park, which +deserve the support of everyone who realises the +importance of the subject.</p> + +<p>I made a <i>faux pas</i> with the Geleys, for I volunteered +to give an exhibition of my Australian slides, +and they invited a distinguished audience of men +of science to see them. Imagine my horror when +I found that my box of slides was in the luggage +which Major Wood had taken on with him in the +"Naldera" to England. They were rushed over by +aeroplane, however, in response to my telegram, +and so the situation was saved.</p> + +<p>The lecture was a private one and was attended +by Mr. Charles Richet, Mr. Gabrielle +Delanne, and a number of other men of science. +Nothing could have gone better, though I +fear that my French, which is execrable, must +have been a sore trial to my audience. I gave +them warning at the beginning by quoting a +remark which Bernard Shaw made to me once, +that when he spoke French he did not say what +he wanted to say, but what he could say. Richet +told me afterwards that he was deeply interested +by the photographs, and when I noted the wonder +and awe with which he treated them—he, the +best known physiologist in the world—and compared +it with the attitude of the ordinary lay +Press, it seemed a good example of the humility +of wisdom and the arrogance of ignorance. After +my lecture, which covered an hour and a quarter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +we were favoured by an extraordinary exhibition +from a medium named Aubert. This gentleman +has had no musical education whatever, but he +sits down in a state of semi-trance and he handles +a piano as I, for one, have never heard one handled +before. It is a most amazing performance. He +sits with his eyes closed while some one calls the +alphabet, striking one note when the right letter +sounds. In this way he spells out the name of +the particular composer whom he will represent. +He then dashes off, with tremendous verve and +execution, upon a piece which is not a known +composition of that author, but is an improvisation +after his manner. We had Grieg, Mendelssohn, +Berlioz and others in quick succession, +each of them masterly and characteristic. His +technique seemed to my wife and me to be not +inferior to that of Paderewski. Needles can be +driven through him as he plays, and sums can be +set before him which he will work out without +ceasing the wonderful music which appears to flow +through him, but quite independently of his own +powers or volition. He would certainly cause a +sensation in London.</p> + +<p>I had the honour next day of meeting Camille +Flammarion, the famous astronomer, who is deeply +engaged in psychic study, and was so interested +in the photos which I snowed him that I was +compelled to leave them in his hands that he +might get copies done. Flammarion is a dear, +cordial, homely old gentleman with a beautiful +bearded head which would delight a sculptor. He +entertained us with psychic stories all lunch time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +Madame Bisson was there and amused me with +her opinion upon psychic researchers, their density, +their arrogance, their preposterous theories +to account for obvious effects. If she had not +been a great pioneer in Science, she might have +been a remarkable actress, for it was wonderful +how her face took off the various types. Certainly, +as described by her, their far-fetched precautions, +which irritate the medium and ruin the harmony +of the conditions, do appear very ridiculous, and +the parrot cry of "Fraud!" and "Fake!" has +been sadly overdone. All are agreed here that +spiritualism has a far greater chance in England +than in France, because the French temperament +is essentially a mocking one, and also because the +Catholic Church is in absolute opposition. Three +of their bishops, Beauvais, Lisieux and Coutances, +helped to burn a great medium, Joan of Arc, six +hundred years ago, asserting at the trial the very +accusations of necromancy which are asserted +to-day. Now they have had to canonise her. +One would have hoped that they had learned +something from the incident.</p> + +<p>Dr. Geley has recently been experimenting +with Mr. Franek Kluski, a Polish amateur of weak +health, but with great mediumistic powers. These +took the form of materialisations. Dr. Geley +had prepared a bucket of warm paraffin, and upon +the appearance of the materialised figure, which +was that of a smallish man, the request was +made that the apparition should plunge its hand +into the bucket and then withdraw it, so that +when it dematerialised a cast of the hand would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +be left, like a glove of solidified paraffin, so narrow +at the wrist that the hands could not have been +withdrawn by any possible normal means without +breaking the moulds. These hands I was able +to inspect, and also the plaster cast which had +been taken from the inside of one of them. The +latter showed a small hand, not larger than a +boy's, but presenting the characteristics of age, +for the skin was loose and formed transverse +folds. The materialised figure had also, unasked, +left an impression of its own mouth and chin, +which was, I think, done for evidential purposes, +for a curious wart hung from the lower lip, which +would mark the owner among a million. So far +as I could learn, however, no identification had +actually been effected. The mouth itself was +thick-lipped and coarse, and also gave an impression +of age.</p> + +<p>To show the thoroughness of Dr. Geley's work, +he had foreseen that the only answer which any +critic, however exacting, could make to the +evidence, was that the paraffin hand had been +brought in the medium's pocket. Therefore he +had treated with cholesterin the paraffin in his +bucket, and this same cholesterin reappeared in +the resulting glove. What can any sceptic have +to say to an experiment like that save to ignore +it, and drag us back with wearisome iteration to +some real or imaginary scandal of the past? The +fact is that the position of the materialists could +only be sustained so long as there was a general +agreement among all the newspapers to regard +this subject as a comic proposition. Now that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +there is a growing tendency towards recognising +its overwhelming gravity, the evidence is getting +slowly across to the public, and the old attitude +of negation and derision has become puerile. I +can clearly see, however, that the materialists +will fall back upon their second line of trenches, +which will be to admit the phenomena, but to put +them down to material causes in the unexplored +realms of nature with no real connection with +human survival. This change of front is now +due, but it will fare no better than the old one. +Before quitting the subject I should have added +that these conclusions of Dr. Geley concerning +the paraffin moulds taken from Kluski's +materialisation are shared by Charles Richet and +Count de Gramont of the Institute of France, who +took part in the experiments. How absurd are +the efforts of those who were not present to contradict +the experiences of men like these.</p> + +<p>I was disappointed to hear from Dr. Geley that +the experiments in England with the medium +Eva had been largely negative, though once or +twice the ectoplasmic flow was, as I understand, +observed. Dr. Geley put this comparative failure +down to the fantastic precautions taken by the +committee, which had produced a strained and +unnatural atmosphere. It seems to me that if a +medium is searched, and has all her clothes +changed before entering the seance room, that is +ample, but when in addition to this you put her +head in a net-bag and restrict her in other ways, +you are producing an abnormal self-conscious +state of mind which stops that passive mood of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +receptivity which is essential. Professor Hyslop +has left it on record that after a long series of +rigid tests with Mrs. Piper he tried one sitting +under purely natural conditions, and received +more convincing and evidential results than in +all the others put together. Surely this should +suggest freer methods in our research.</p> + +<p>I have just had a sitting with Eva, whom I +cannot even say that I have seen, for she was +under her cloth cabinet when I arrived and still +under it when I left, being in trance the whole +time. Professor Jules Courtier of the Sorbonne +and a few other men of science were present. +Madame Bisson experiments now in the full light +of the afternoon. Only the medium is in darkness, +but her two hands protrude through the cloth +and are controlled by the sitters. There is a +flap in the cloth which can be opened to show +anything which forms beneath. After sitting +about an hour this flap was opened, and Madame +Bisson pointed out to me a streak of ectoplasm +upon the outside of the medium's bodice. It was +about six inches long and as thick as a finger. I +was allowed to touch it, and felt it shrink and contract +under my hand. It is this substance which +can, under good conditions, be poured out in +great quantities and can be built up into forms +and shapes, first flat and finally rounded, by +powers which are beyond our science. We +sometimes call it Psychoplasm in England, +Richet named it Ectoplasm, Geley calls it +Ideoplasm; but call it what you will, Crawford +has shown for all time that it is the substance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +which is at the base of psychic physical phenomena.</p> + +<p>Madame Bisson, whose experience after twelve +years' work is unique, has an interesting theory. +She disagrees entirely with Dr. Geley's view, that +the shapes are thought forms, and she resents +the name ideoplasm, since it represents that +view. Her conclusion is that Eva acts the part +which a "detector" plays, when it turns the +Hertzian waves, which are too short for our +observation, into slower ones which can become +audible. Thus Eva breaks up certain currents +and renders them visible. According to her, +what we see is never the thing itself but always +the reflection of the thing which exists in another +plane and is made visible in ours by Eva's strange +material organisation. It was for this reason +that the word Miroir appeared in one of the +photographs, and excited much adverse criticism. +One dimly sees a new explanation of mediumship. +The light seems a colourless thing until it passes +through a prism and suddenly reveals every +colour in the world.</p> + +<p>A picture of Madame Bisson's father hung +upon the wall, and I at once recognised him as +the phantom which appears in the photographs +of her famous book, and which formed the culminating +point of Eva's mediumship. He has a +long and rather striking face which was clearly +indicated in the ectoplasmic image. Only on one +occasion was this image so developed that it +could speak, and then only one word. The word +was "Esperez."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p> + +<p>We have just returned, my wife, Denis and +I, from a round of the Aisne battlefields, paying +our respects incidentally to Bossuet at Meaux, +Fenelon at Château Thierry, and Racine at La +Ferté Millon. It is indeed a frightful cicatrix +which lies across the brow of France—a scar +which still gapes in many places as an open wound. +I could not have believed that the ruins were still +so untouched. The land is mostly under cultivation, +but the houses are mere shells, and I cannot +think where the cultivators live. When you +drive for sixty miles and see nothing but ruin on +either side of the road, and when you know that +the same thing extends from the sea to the Alps, +and that in places it is thirty miles broad, it helps +one to realise the debt that Germany owes to her +victims. If it had been in the Versailles terms +that all her members of parliament and journalists +should be personally conducted, as we have +been, through a sample section, their tone would +be more reasonable.</p> + +<p>It has been a wonderful panorama. We +followed the route of the thousand taxi-cabs +which helped to save Europe up to the place +where Gallieni's men dismounted and walked +straight up against Klück's rearguard. We saw +Belleau Wood, where the 2nd and 46th American +divisions made their fine debut and showed +Ludendorff that they were not the useless soldiers +he had so vainly imagined. Thence we passed +all round that great heavy sack of Germans +which had formed in June, 1918, with its tip at +Dormans and Château Thierry. We noted Bligny,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +sacred to the sacrifices of Carter Campbell's 51st +Highlanders, and Braithwaite's 62nd Yorkshire +division, who lost between them seven thousand +men in these woods. These British episodes seem +quite unknown to the French, while the Americans +have very properly laid out fine graveyards +with their flag flying, and placed engraved tablets +of granite where they played their part, so that in +time I really think that the average Frenchman +will hardly remember that we were in the war +at all, while if you were to tell him that in the +critical year we took about as many prisoners and +guns as all the other nations put together, he +would stare at you with amazement. Well, what +matter! With a man or a nation it is the duty +done for its own sake and the sake of its own +conscience and self-respect that really counts. +All the rest is swank.</p> + +<p>We slept at Rheims. We had stayed at the +chief hotel, the Golden Lion, in 1912, when we were +en route to take part in the Anglo-German motor-car +competition, organised by Prince Henry. We +searched round, but not one stone of the hotel was +standing. Out of 14,000 houses in the town, +only twenty had entirely escaped. As to the +Cathedral, either a miracle has been wrought or +the German gunners have been extraordinary +masters of their craft, for there are acres of absolute +ruin up to its very walls, and yet it stands +erect with no very vital damage. The same +applies to the venerable church of St. Remy. On +the whole I am prepared to think that save in one +fit of temper upon September 19th, 1914, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +guns were never purposely turned upon this +venerable building. Hitting the proverbial haystack +would be a difficult feat compared to getting +home on to this monstrous pile which dominates +the town. It is against reason to suppose that +both here and at Soissons they could not have +left the cathedrals as they left the buildings +around them.</p> + +<p>Next day, we passed down the Vesle and Aisne, +seeing the spot where French fought his brave +but barren action on September 13th, 1914, and +finally we reached the Chemin des Dames—a good +name had the war been fought in the knightly +spirit of old, but horribly out of place amid the +ferocities with which Germany took all chivalry +from warfare. The huge barren countryside, +swept with rainstorms and curtained in clouds, +looked like some evil landscape out of Vale Owen's +revelations. It was sown from end to end with +shattered trenches, huge coils of wire and rusted +weapons, including thousands of bombs which are +still capable of exploding should you tread upon +them too heavily. Denis ran wildly about, like +a terrier in a barn, and returned loaded with all +sorts of trophies, most of which had to be discarded +as overweight. He succeeded, however, in +bringing away a Prussian helmet and a few other +of the more portable of his treasures. We returned +by Soissons, which interested me greatly, +as I had seen it under war conditions in 1916. +Finally we reached Paris after a really wonderful +two days in which, owing to Mr. Cook's organisation +and his guide, we saw more and understood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +more, than in a week if left to ourselves. They +run similar excursions to Verdun and other points. +I only wish we had the time to avail ourselves of +them.</p> + +<p>A tragic intermezzo here occurred in our Paris +experience. I suddenly heard that my brother-in-law, +E. W. Hornung, the author of "Raffles" +and many another splendid story, was dying at +St. Jean de Luz in the Pyrenees. I started off at +once, but was only in time to be present at his +funeral. Our little family group has been thinned +down these last two years until we feel like a +company under hot fire with half on the ground. +We can but close our ranks the tighter. Hornung +lies within three paces of George Gissing, an +author for whom both of us had an affection. It +is good to think that one of his own race and +calling keeps him company in his Pyrennean +grave.</p> + +<p>Hornung, apart from his literary powers, was +one of the wits of our time. I could brighten +this dull chronicle if I could insert a page of his +sayings. Like Charles Lamb, he could find +humour in his own physical disabilities—disabilities +which did not prevent him, when over fifty, +from volunteering for such service as he could do +in Flanders. When pressed to have a medical +examination, his answer was, "My body is like a +sausage. The less I know of its interior, the +easier will be my mind." It was a characteristic +mixture of wit and courage.</p> + +<p>During our stay in Paris we went to see the +Anglo-French Rugby match at Coulombes. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +French have not quite got the sporting spirit, and +there was some tendency to hoot whenever a +decision was given for the English, but the play +of their team was most excellent, and England +only won by the narrow margin of 10 to 6. I can +remember the time when French Rugby was the +joke of the sporting world. They are certainly +a most adaptive people. The tactics of the game +have changed considerably since the days when I +was more familiar with it, and it has become less +dramatic, since ground is gained more frequently +by kicking into touch than by the individual run, +or even by the combined movement. But it is +still the king of games. It was like the old lists, +where the pick of these two knightly nations bore +themselves so bravely of old, and it was an object +lesson to see Clement, the French back, playing on +manfully, with the blood pouring from a gash in +the head. Marshal Foch was there, and I have +no doubt that he noted the incident with approval.</p> + +<p>I had a good look at the famous soldier, who +was close behind me. He looks very worn, and +sadly in need of a rest. His face and head are +larger than his pictures indicate, but it is not a +face with any marked feature or character. His +eyes, however, are grey, and inexorable. His +kepi was drawn down, and I could not see the +upper part of the head, but just there lay the ruin +of Germany. It must be a very fine brain, for in +political, as well as in military matters, his judgment +has always been justified.</p> + +<p>There is an excellent clairvoyante in Paris, +Madame Blifaud, and I look forward, at some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +later date, to a personal proof of her powers, +though if it fails I shall not be so absurd as to +imagine that that disproves them. The particular +case which came immediately under my notice +was that of a mother whose son had been killed +from an aeroplane, in the war. She had no details +of his death. On asking Madame B., the latter +replied, "Yes, he is here, and gives me a vision +of his fall. As a proof that it is really he, he +depicts the scene, which was amid songs, flags +and music." As this corresponded with no +episode of the war, the mother was discouraged +and incredulous. Within a short time, however, +she received a message from a young officer who +had been with her son when the accident occurred. +It was on the Armistice day, at Salonica. The +young fellow had flown just above the flags, one +of the flags got entangled with his rudder, and +the end was disaster. But bands, songs and flags +all justified the clairvoyante.</p> + +<p>Now, at last, our long journey drew to its close. +Greatly guarded by the high forces which have, +by the goodness of Providence, been deputed to +help us, we are back in dear old London once +more. When we look back at the 30,000 +miles which we have traversed, at the complete +absence of illness which spared any one of seven +a single day in bed, the excellence of our long +voyages, the freedom from all accidents, the undisturbed +and entirely successful series of lectures, +the financial success won for the cause, the double +escape from shipping strikes, and, finally, the +several inexplicable instances of supernormal,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +personal happenings, together with the three-fold +revelation of the name of our immediate guide, +we should be stocks and stones if we did not +realise that we have been the direct instruments +of God in a cause upon which He has set His +visible seal. There let it rest. If He be with +us, who is against us? To give religion a foundation +of rock instead of quicksand, to remove the +legitimate doubts of earnest minds, to make the +invisible forces, with their moral sanctions, a real +thing, instead of mere words upon our lips, and, +incidentally, to reassure the human race as to +the future which awaits it, and to broaden its +appreciation of the possibilities of the present +life, surely no more glorious message was ever +heralded to mankind. And it begins visibly to +hearken. The human race is on the very eve of a +tremendous revolution of thought, marking a +final revulsion from materialism, and it is part of +our glorious and assured philosophy, that, though +we may not be here to see the final triumph of +our labours, we shall, none the less, be as much +engaged in the struggle and the victory from the +day when we join those who are our comrades in +battle upon the further side.</p> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London, Reading and Fakenham</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="r65" /> +<hr class="r65" /> + +<p class="center extraspace3top">"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has given us a classic."—Sir W. Robertson Nicoll</p> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<p class="blockquotech"> +<i>The First Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1914</b> +</p> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. FOURTH EDITION</b></p> + +<p>"After reading every word of this most fascinating book, the writer +of this notice ventures, as a professional soldier, to endorse the +author's claim, and even to suggest that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has +understated the value of a book which will be of enormous help to +the student of this wondrous war as a reliable framework for his +further investigations."—Colonel A. M. Murray, C.B., in the <i>Observer</i>.</p> + +<p>"A book which should appeal to every Briton and should shame those +who wish to make of none effect the deeds and sacrifices recounted +in its pages."—Professor A. F. Pollard in the <i>Daily Chronicle</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p> +<i>The Second Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1915</b><br /> +</p> + +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. SECOND EDITION</b></p> + +<p>"If any student of the war is in search of a plain statement, accurate +and chronological, of what took place in these dynamic sequences of +onslaughts which have strewn the plain of Ypres with unnumbered +dead, and which won for the Canadians, the Indians, and our own +Territorial divisions immortal fame, let him go to this volume. He +will find in it few dramatic episodes, no unbridled panegyric, no +purple patches. But he will own himself a much enlightened man, +and, with greater knowledge, will be filled with much greater pride +and much surer confidence."—<i>Daily Telegraph</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p> +<i>The Third Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1916</b><br /> +</p> + +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams</b></p> + +<p>"We gave praise, and it was high, to the first and second volumes of +'The British Campaign in France and Flanders.' We can give the +same to the third, and more, too. For the whole of this volume is +devoted to the preliminaries and the full grapple of the Battle of the +Somme—a theme far surpassing everything that went before in +magnitude and dreadfulness, but also in inspiration for our own race +and in profound human import of every kind."—<i>Observer</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p> +<i>The Fourth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1917</b><br /> +</p> + +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams</b></p> + +<p>"If Sir Arthur can complete the remaining two volumes with the same +zest and truth as is exhibited here, it will indeed be a work which +every student who fought in France in the Great War will be proud +to possess on his shelves."—<i>Sunday Times</i></p> + +<p>"It will find with others of the series a permanent place in all military +libraries as a reliable work of reference for future students of the war."—<i>Observer</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p> +<i>The Fifth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS January to July, 1918</b><br /> +</p> + +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams</b></p> + +<p>"The history shows no abatement in vigour and readableness, but +rather the opposite, and a final volume describing the great counter-attack +of the Allies, leading to their final victory, will bring to a close +a series which, on its own lines, is unsurpassable."—<i>Scotsman</i></p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has stuck to his great work with admirable +assiduity.... He has produced an accurate and concise record of +a campaign the most glorious and the most deadly in all the history +of the British race, and a record well qualified to live among the +notable books of the language."—<i>Edinburgh Evening Dispatch</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r45" /> + +<div class="blockquotech"> +<p> +<i>The Sixth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War</i><br /> +<br /> +<b>THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS July to November, 1918</b><br /> +</p> + +<p><b>With Maps, Plans and Diagrams</b></p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's concluding volume of the interim history +of the British Campaign on the West Front is as good as any of its +predecessors."—<i>Morning Post</i></p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'History of the British Campaign in +France and Flanders' is an authoritative work, which is destined +for immortality.... With full confidence in the historian, with +congratulations on a noble task accomplished, we open the sixth and +final volume."—<i>British Weekly</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r65" /> +<p class="center"> +HODDER & STOUGHTON LTD., Warwick Square, London, E.C.4<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="r65" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + +***** This file should be named 39718-h.htm or 39718-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/1/39718/ + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wanderings of a Spiritualist + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [EBook #39718] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. + Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected. + + + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ ON THE WARPATH IN + AUSTRALIA, 1920-21. + + + +_THE +WANDERINGS OF A +SPIRITUALIST_ + +BY +SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE + +AUTHOR OF +"THE NEW REVELATION," "THE VITAL MESSAGE," ETC. + +"Aggressive fighting for the right is +the noblest sport the world affords." + +_Theodore Roosevelt._ + +HODDER AND STOUGHTON +LIMITED LONDON + + + + +_By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE_ + + +THE NEW REVELATION + + Ninth Edition. Cloth, 5/. net.. Paper, 2/6 net. + + "This book is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's confession of faith, very + frank, very courageous and very resolute ... the courage and + large-mindedness of this book deserve cordial recognition."--DAILY + CHRONICLE. "It is a book that demands our respect and commands our + interest.... Much more likely to influence the opinion of the + general public than 'Raymond' or the long reports of the Society + for Psychical Research."--DAILY NEWS. + + +THE VITAL MESSAGE + + Tenth Thousand. Cloth, 5/. + + "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The New Revelation' was his confession + of faith. 'The Vital Message' seeks to show our future relations + with the Unseen World."--DAILY CHRONICLE. "... it is a clear, + earnest presentation of the case, and will serve as a useful + introduction to the subject to anyone anxious to learn what the new + Spiritualists claim for their researches and their faith.... Sir + Arthur writes with evident sincerity, and, within the limits of his + system, with much broad-mindedness and toleration."--DAILY + TELEGRAPH. "A splendid propaganda book, written in the author's + telling and racy style, and one that will add to his prestige and + renown."--TWO WORLDS. + + +SPIRITUALISM AND RATIONALISM + + + WITH A DRASTIC EXAMINATION OF MR. JOSEPH M'CABE + + Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's trenchant reply to the criticisms of + Spiritualism as formulated by Mr. Joseph M'Cabe. + Paper, 1/. net. + +_HODDER & STOUGHTON, Ltd., London, E.C.4_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +CHAPTER I 9 + +The inception of the enterprise.--The Merthyr Seance.--Experience +of British lectures.--Call from Australia.--The Holborn +luncheon.--Remarkable testimony to communication.--Is individual +proof necessary?--Excursion to Exeter.--Can Spiritualists continue +to be Christians?--Their views on Atonement.--The party on the +"Naldera." + +CHAPTER II 24 + +Gibraltar.--Spanish right versus British might.--Relics of +Barbary Rovers, and of German militarists.--Ichabod!--Senegal +Infantry.--No peace for the world.--Religion on a liner.--Differences +of vibration.--The Bishop of Kwang-Si.--Religion in China.--Whisky +in excelsis.--France's masterpiece.--British errors.--A procession +of giants.--The invasion of Egypt.--Tropical weather.--The +Russian Horror.--An Indian experiment.--Aden.--Bombay.--The +Lambeth encyclical. A great novelist.--The Mango trick.--Snakes.--The +Catamarans.--The Robber Castles of Ceylon.--Doctrine of +Reincarnation.--Whales and Whalers.--Perth.--The Bight. + +CHAPTER III 60 + +Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.--Challenges.--Mr. Carlyle +Smythe.--The Adelaide Press.--The great drought.--The wine +industry.--Clairvoyance.--Meeting with Bellchambers.--The +first lecture.--The effect.--The Religious lecture.--The +illustrated lecture.--Premonitions.--The spot light.--Mr. +Thomas' account of the incident.--Correspondence.--Adelaide +doctors.--A day in the Bush,--The Mallee fowl.--Sussex in +Australia.--Farewell to Adelaide. + +CHAPTER IV 84 + +Speculations on Paul and his Master.--Arrival at Melbourne.--Attack +in the Argus.--Partial press boycott.--Strength of the movement.--The +Prince of Wales.--Victorian football. Rescue Circle in +Melbourne.--Burke and Wills' statue.--Success of the +lectures.--Reception at the Auditorium.--Luncheon of the British +Empire League.--Mr. Ryan's experience.--The Federal Government.--Mr. +Hughes' personality.--The mediumship of Charles Bailey.--His alleged +exposure.--His remarkable record.--A test sitting.--The Indian +nest.--A remarkable lecture.--Arrival of Lord Forster.--The +future of the Empire.--Kindness of Australians.--Prohibition. +--Horse-racing.--Roman Catholic policy. + +CHAPTER V 114 + +More English than the English.--A day in the Bush.--Immigration.--A +case of spirit return.--A seance.--Geelong.--The lava +plain.--Good-nature of General Ryrie.--Bendigo.--Down a gold +mine.--Prohibition v. Continuance.--Mrs. Knight MacLellan. +--Nerrin.--A wild drive.--Electric shearing.--Rich sheep stations. +--Cockatoo farmers.--Spinnifex and Mallee.--Rabbits.--The +great marsh. + +CHAPTER VI 136 + +The Melbourne Cup.--Psychic healing.--M. J. Bloomfield.--My +own experience.--Direct healing.--Chaos and Ritual.--Government +House Ball.--The Rescue Circle again.--Sitting with Mrs. +Harris.--A good test case.--Australian botany.--The land of +myrtles.--English cricket team.--Great final meeting in Melbourne. + +CHAPTER VII 151 + +Great reception at Sydney.--Importance of Sydney.--Journalistic +luncheon.--A psychic epidemic.--Gregory.--Barracking.--Town +Hall reception.--Regulation of Spiritualism.--An ether +apport.--Surfing at Manly.--A challenge.--Bigoted opponents.--A +disgruntled photographer.--Outing in the harbour.--Dr. Mildred +Creed.--Leon Gellert.--Norman Lindsay.--Bishop Leadbeater.--Our +relations with Theosophy.--Incongruities of H.P.B.--Of D.D. Home. + + +CHAPTER VIII 176 + +Dangerous fog.--The six photographers.--Comic +Advertisements.--Beauties of Auckland.--A Christian +clergyman.--Shadows in our American relations.--The +Gallipoli Stone.--Stevenson and the Germans.--Position of +De Rougemont.--Mr. Clement Wragge.--Atlantean +theories.--A strange psychic.--Wellington the windy.--A +literary oasis.--A Maori seance.--Presentation. + +CHAPTER IX 198 + +The Anglican Colony.--Psychic dangers.--The learned dog.--Absurd +newspaper controversy.--A backward community.--The Maori +tongue.--Their origin.--Their treatment by the Empire.--A +fiasco.--The Pa of Kaiopoi.--Dr. Thacker.--Sir Joseph Kinsey.--A +generous collector.--Scott and Amundsen.--Dunedin.--A genuine +medium.--Evidence.--The Shipping strike.--Sir Oliver.--Farewell. + +CHAPTER X 223 + +Christian origins.--Mithraism.--Astronomy.--Exercising +boats.--Bad news from home.--Futile strikes.--Labour +Party.--The blue wilderness.--Journey to Brisbane.--Warm +reception.--Friends and Foes.--Psychic experience +of Dr. Doyle.--Birds.--Criticism on Melbourne--Spiritualist +Church.--Ceremony.--Sir Matthew Nathan.--Alleged repudiation of +Queensland.--Billy tea.--The bee farm.--Domestic service in +Australia.--Hon. John Fihilly.--Curious photograph by the State +photographer.--The "Orsova." + +CHAPTER XI 255 + +Medlow Bath.--Jenolan Caves.--Giant skeleton.--Mrs. +Foster Turner's mediumship.--A wonderful prophecy.--Final +results.--Third sitting with Bailey.--Failure of State +Control.--Retrospection.--Melbourne presentation.--Crooks.--Lecture +at Perth.--West Australia.--Rabbits, sparrows and sharks. + +CHAPTER XII 280 + +Pleasing letters.--Visit to Candy.--Snake and Flying Fox.--Buddha's +shrine.--The Malaya.--Naval digression.--Indian trader. +--Elephanta.--Sea snakes.--Chained to a tombstone.--Berlin's escape. +--Lord Chetwynd.--Lecture in the Red Sea.--Marseilles. + +CHAPTER XIII 303 + +The Institut Metaphysique.--Lecture in French.--Wonderful +musical improviser.--Camille Flammarion.--Test of materialised +hand.--Last ditch of materialism.--Sitting with Mrs. Bisson's medium, +Eva.--Round the Aisne battlefields.--A tragic intermezzo. +--Anglo-French Rugby match.--Madame Blifaud's clairvoyance. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +On the War-Path in Australia, 1920-1921 _Frontispiece_ + + _Facing page_ + +How This Book was Written 9 + +The God-Speed Luncheon in London. On this occasion +250 out of 290 Guests rose as testimony that they +were in Personal touch with their Dead 16 + +The Wanderers, 1920-1921 72 + +Bellchambers and the Mallee Fowl. "Get along with +you, do" 80 + +Melbourne, November, 1920 96 + +A Typical Australian Back-Country Scene by H. J. +Johnstone, a Great Painter Who Died Unknown. +Painting in Adelaide National Gallery 128 + +At Melbourne Town Hall, November 12th, 1920 144 + +The People of Turi's Canoe, after a Voyage of Great +Hardship, at last Sight the Shores of New Zealand. +From a Painting by C. F. Goldie and L. G. A. Steele 208 + +Laying Foundation Stone of Spiritualist Church at +Brisbane 240 + +Curious Photographic Effect referred to in Text. +Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane. +"Absolutely mystifying" is his Description 252 + +Our Party _en route_ to the Jenolan Caves, January 20th, +1921. In Front of Old Court House in which Bushrangers were +Tried 256 + +Denis with a Black Snake at Medlow Bath 264 + + + + + TO MY WIFE. + + + THIS MEMORIAL OF A JOURNEY WHICH + HER HELP AND PRESENCE CHANGED + FROM A DUTY TO A PLEASURE. + + A. C. D. + + _July 18/21._ + + + + Illustration: HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + The inception of the enterprise.--The Merthyr Seance.--Experience + of British lectures.--Call from Australia.--The Holborn + luncheon.--Remarkable testimony to communication.--Is individual + proof necessary?--Excursion to Exeter.--Can spiritualists continue + to be Christians?--Their views on Atonement.--The party on the + "Naldera." + + +This is an account of the wanderings of a spiritualist, geographical and +speculative. Should the reader have no interest in psychic things--if +indeed any human being can be so foolish as not to be interested in his +own nature and fate,--then this is the place to put the book down. It +were better also to end the matter now if you have no patience with a +go-as-you-please style of narrative, which founds itself upon the +conviction that thought may be as interesting as action, and which is +bound by its very nature to be intensely personal. I write a record of +what absorbs my mind which may be very different from that which appeals +to yours. But if you are content to come with me upon these terms then +let us start with my apologies in advance for the pages which may bore +you, and with my hopes that some may compensate you by pleasure or by +profit. I write these lines with a pad upon my knee, heaving upon the +long roll of the Indian Ocean, running large and grey under a grey +streaked sky, with the rain-swept hills of Ceylon, just one shade +greyer, lining the Eastern skyline. So under many difficulties it will +be carried on, which may explain if it does not excuse any slurring of a +style, which is at its best but plain English. + +There was one memorable night when I walked forth with my head throbbing +and my whole frame quivering from the villa of Mr. Southey at Merthyr. +Behind me the brazen glare of Dowlais iron-works lit up the sky, and in +front twinkled the many lights of the Welsh town. For two hours my wife +and I had sat within listening to the whispering voices of the dead, +voices which are so full of earnest life, and of desperate endeavours to +pierce the barrier of our dull senses. They had quivered and wavered +around us, giving us pet names, sweet sacred things, the intimate talk +of the olden time. Graceful lights, signs of spirit power had hovered +over us in the darkness. It was a different and a wonderful world. Now +with those voices still haunting our memories we had slipped out into +the material world--a world of glaring iron works and of twinkling +cottage windows. As I looked down on it all I grasped my wife's hand in +the darkness and I cried aloud, "My God, if they only knew--if they +could only know!" Perhaps in that cry, wrung from my very soul, lay the +inception of my voyage to the other side of the world. The wish to serve +was strong upon us both. God had given us wonderful signs, and they were +surely not for ourselves alone. + +I had already done the little I might. From the moment that I had +understood the overwhelming importance of this subject, and realised how +utterly it must change and chasten the whole thought of the world when +it is whole-heartedly accepted, I felt it good to work in the matter and +understood that all other work which I had ever done, or could ever do, +was as nothing compared to this. Therefore from the time that I had +finished the history of the Great War on which I was engaged, I was +ready to turn all my remaining energies of voice or hand to the one +great end. At first I had little of my own to narrate, and my task was +simply to expound the spiritual philosophy as worked out by the thoughts +and experiences of others, showing folk so far as I was able, that the +superficial and ignorant view taken of it in the ordinary newspapers did +not touch the heart of the matter. My own experiences were limited and +inconclusive, so that it was the evidence of others which I quoted. But +as I went forward signs were given in profusion to me also, such signs +as were far above all error or deception, so that I was able to speak +with that more vibrant note which comes not from belief or faith, but +from personal experience and knowledge. I had found that the wonderful +literature of Spiritualism did not reach the people, and that the press +was so full of would-be jocosities and shallow difficulties that the +public were utterly misled. Only one way was left, which was to speak to +the people face to face. This was the task upon which I set forth, and +it had led me to nearly every considerable city of Great Britain from +Aberdeen to Torquay. Everywhere I found interest, though it varied from +the heavier spirit of the sleepy cathedral towns to the brisk reality of +centres of life and work like Glasgow or Wolverhampton. Many a time my +halls were packed, and there were as many outside as inside the +building. I have no eloquence and make profession of none, but I am +audible and I say no more than I mean and can prove, so that my +audiences felt that it was indeed truth so far as I could see it, which +I conveyed. Their earnestness and receptiveness were my great help and +reward in my venture. Those who had no knowledge of what my views were +assembled often outside my halls, waving banners and distributing +tracts, but never once in the course of addressing 150,000 people, did I +have disturbance in my hall. I tried, while never flinching from truth, +to put my views in such a way as to hurt no one's feelings, and although +I have had clergymen of many denominations as my chairmen, I have had +thanks from them and no remonstrance. My enemies used to follow and +address meetings, as they had every right to do, in the same towns. It +is curious that the most persistent of these enemies were Jesuits on the +one side and Evangelical sects of the Plymouth Brethren type upon the +other. I suppose the literal interpretation of the Old Testament was the +common bond. + +However this is digression, and when the digressions are taken out of +this book there will not be much left. I get back to the fact that the +overwhelming effect of the Merthyr Seance and of others like it, made my +wife and myself feel that when we had done what we could in Britain we +must go forth to further fields. Then came the direct invitation from +spiritual bodies in Australia. I had spent some never-to-be-forgotten +days with Australian troops at the very crisis of the war. My heart was +much with them. If my message could indeed bring consolation to bruised +hearts and to bewildered minds--and I had boxes full of letters to show +that it did--then to whom should I carry it rather than to those who had +fought so splendidly and lost so heavily in the common cause? I was a +little weary also after three years of incessant controversy, speaking +often five times a week, and continually endeavouring to uphold the +cause in the press. The long voyage presented attractions, even if there +was hard work at the end of it. There were difficulties in the way. +Three children, boys of eleven and nine, with a girl of seven, all +devotedly attached to their home and their parents, could not easily be +left behind. If they came a maid was also necessary. The pressure upon +me of correspondence and interviews would be so great that my old friend +and secretary, Major Wood, would be also needed. Seven of us in all +therefore, and a cheque of sixteen hundred pounds drawn for our return +tickets, apart from outfit, before a penny could be entered on the +credit side. However, Mr. Carlyle Smythe, the best agent in Australia, +had taken the matter up, and I felt that we were in good hands. The +lectures would be numerous, controversies severe, the weather at its +hottest, and my own age over sixty. But there are compensating forces, +and I was constantly aware of their presence. I may count our adventures +as actually beginning from the luncheon which was given us in farewell a +week or so before our sailing by the spiritualists of England. Harry +Engholm, most unselfish of men, and a born organiser among our most +unorganised crowd, had the matter in hand, so it was bound to be a +success. There was sitting room at the Holborn Restaurant for 290 +people, and it was all taken up three weeks before the event. The +secretary said that he could have filled the Albert Hall. It was an +impressive example of the solidity of the movement showing itself for +the moment round us, but really round the cause. There were peers, +doctors, clergymen, officers of both services, and, above all, those +splendid lower middle class folk, if one talks in our material earth +terms, who are the spiritual peers of the nation. Many professional +mediums were there also, and I was honoured by their presence, for as I +said in my remarks, I consider that in these days of doubt and sorrow, a +genuine professional medium is the most useful member of the whole +community. Alas! how few they are! Four photographic mediums do I know +in all Britain, with about twelve physical phenomena mediums and as many +really reliable clairvoyants. What are these among so many? But there +are many amateur mediums of various degrees, and the number tends to +increase. Perhaps there will at last be an angel to every church as in +the days of John. I see dimly the time when two congregations, the +living and those who have passed on, shall move forward together with +the medium angel as the bridge between them. + +It was a wonderful gathering, and I only wish I could think that my own +remarks rose to the height of the occasion. However, I did my best and +spoke from my heart. I told how the Australian visit had arisen, and I +claimed that the message that I would carry was the most important that +the mind of man could conceive, implying as it did the practical +abolition of death, and the reinforcement of our present religious views +by the actual experience of those who have made the change from the +natural to the spiritual bodies. Speaking of our own experiences, I +mentioned that my wife and I had actually spoken face to face beyond all +question or doubt with eleven friends or relatives who had passed over, +their direct voices being in each case audible, and their conversation +characteristic and evidential--in some cases marvellously so. Then with +a sudden impulse I called upon those in the audience who were prepared +to swear that they had had a similar experience to stand up and testify. +It seemed for a moment as if the whole audience were on their feet. _The +Times_ next day said 250 out of 290 and I am prepared to accept that +estimate. Men and women, of all professions and social ranks--I do not +think that I exaggerated when I said that it was the most remarkable +demonstration that I had ever seen and that nothing like it had ever +occurred in the City of London. + +It was vain for those journals who tried to minimise it to urge that in +a Baptist or a Unitarian assembly all would have stood up to testify to +their own faith. No doubt they would, but this was not a case of faith, +it was a case of bearing witness to fact. There were people of all +creeds, Church, dissent, Unitarian and ex-materialists. They were +testifying to an actual objective experience as they might have +testified to having seen the lions in Trafalgar Square. If such a public +agreement of evidence does not establish a fact then it is indeed +impossible, as Professor Challis remarked long ago, to prove a thing by +any human testimony whatever. I confess that I was amazed. When I +remember how many years it was before I myself got any final personal +proofs I should have thought that the vast majority of Spiritualists +were going rather upon the evidence of others than upon their own. And +yet 250 out of 290 had actually joined hands across the border. I had no +idea that the direct proof was so widely spread. + +I have always held that people insist too much upon direct proof. What +direct proof have we of most of the great facts of Science? We simply +take the word of those who have examined. How many of us have, for +example, seen the rings of Saturn? We are assured that they are there, +and we accept the assurance. Strong telescopes are rare, and so we do +not all expect to see the rings with our own eyes. In the same way +strong mediums are rare, and we cannot all expect to experience the +higher psychic results. But if the assurance of those who have carefully +experimented, of the Barretts, the Hares, the Crookes, the Wallaces, the +Lodges and the Lombrosos, is not enough, then it is manifest that we are +dealing with this matter on different terms to those which we apply to +all the other affairs of science. It would of course be different if +there were a school of patient investigators who had gone equally deeply +into the matter and come to opposite conclusions. Then we should +certainly have to find the path of truth by individual effort. But such +a school does not exist. Only the ignorant and inexperienced are in +total opposition, and the humblest witness who has really sought the +evidence has more weight than they. + + Illustration: THE GOD-SPEED LUNCHEON IN LONDON. On this occasion + 250 out of 290 guests rose as testimony that they were in personal + touch with their dead. + +After the luncheon my wife made the final preparations--and only ladies +can tell what it means to fit out six people with tropical and +semi-tropical outfits which will enable them for eight months to stand +inspection in public. I employed the time by running down to Devonshire +to give addresses at Exeter and Torquay, with admirable audiences at +both. Good Evan Powell had come down to give me a last seance, and I had +the joy of a few last words with my arisen son, who blessed me on my +mission and assured me that I would indeed bring solace to bruised +hearts. The words he uttered were a quotation from my London speech at +which Powell had not been present, nor had the verbatim account of it +appeared anywhere at that time. It was one more sign of how closely our +words and actions are noted from the other side. Powell was tired, +having given a sitting the night before, so the proceedings were short, +a few floating lights, my son and my sister's son to me, one or two +greetings to other sitters, and it was over. + +Whilst in Exeter I had a discussion with those who would break away from +Christianity. They are a strong body within the movement, and how can +Christians be surprised at it when they remember that for seventy years +they have had nothing but contempt and abuse for the true light-bearers +of the world? Is there at the present moment one single bishop, or one +head of a Free Church, who has the first idea of psychic truth? Dr. +Parker had, in his day, so too Archdeacons Wilberforce and Colley, Mr. +Haweis and a few others. General Booth has also testified to spiritual +communion with the dead. But what have Spiritualists had in the main +save misrepresentation and persecution? Hence the movement has +admittedly, so far as it is an organised religion--and it has already +360 churches and 1,000 building funds--taken a purely Unitarian turn. +This involves no disrespect towards Him Whom they look upon as the +greatest Spirit who ever trod the earth, but only a deep desire to +communicate direct without intermediary with that tremendous centre of +force from and to whom all things radiate or return. They are very +earnest and good men, these organised religious Spiritualists, and for +the most part, so far as my experience goes, are converts from +materialism who, having in their materialistic days said very properly +that they would believe nothing which could not be proved to them, are +ready now with Thomas to be absolutely wholehearted when the proof of +survival and spirit communion has actually reached them. There, however, +the proof ends, nor will they go further than the proof extends, as +otherwise their original principles would be gone. Therefore they are +Unitarians with a breadth of vision which includes Christ, Krishna, +Buddha and all the other great spirits whom God has sent to direct +different lines of spiritual evolution which correspond to the different +needs of the various races of mankind. Our information from the beyond +is that this evolution is continued beyond the grave, and very far on +until all details being gradually merged, they become one as children of +God. With a deep reverence for Christ it is undeniable that the +organised Spiritualist does not accept vicarious atonement nor original +sin, and believes that a man reaps as he sows with no one but himself to +pull out the weeds. It seems to me the more virile and manly doctrine, +and as to the texts which seem to say otherwise, we cannot deny that the +New Testament has been doctored again and again in order to square the +record of the Scriptures with the practice of the Church. Professor +Nestle, in the preface to a work on theology (I write far from books of +reference), remarks that there were actually officials named +"Correctores," who were appointed at the time of the Council of Nicaea +for this purpose, and St. Jerome, when he constructed the Vulgate, +complains to Pope Damasus that it is practically a new book that he is +making, putting any sin arising upon the Pope's head. In the face of +such facts we can only accept the spirit of the New Testament fortified +with common sense, and using such interpretation as brings most +spiritual strength to each of us. Personally, I accept the view of the +organised Spiritual religion, for it removes difficulties which formerly +stood between me and the whole Christian system, but I would not say or +do anything which would abash those others who are getting real +spiritual help from any sort of Christian belief. The gaining of +spirituality and widening of the personality are the aims of life, and +how it is done is the business of the individual. Every creed has +produced its saints and has to that extent justified its existence. I +like the Unitarian position of the main Spiritual body, however, because +it links the movement up with the other great creeds of the world and +makes it more accessible to the Jew, the Mohammedan or the Buddhist. It +is far too big to be confined within the palings of Christianity. + +Here is a little bit of authentic teaching from the other side which +bears upon the question. I take it from the remarkable record of Mr. +Miller of Belfast, whose dialogues with his son after the death of the +latter seem to me to be as certainly true as any case which has come to +my notice. On asking the young soldier some question about the exact +position of Christ in religion he modestly protested that such a +subject was above his head, and asked leave to bring his higher guide to +answer the question. Using a fresh voice and in a new and more weighty +manner the medium then said:-- + +"I wish to answer your question. Jesus the Christ is the proper +designation. Jesus was perfect humanity. Christ was the God idea in Him. +Jesus, on account of His purity, manifested in the highest degree the +psychic powers which resulted in His miracles. Jesus never preached the +blood of the lamb. The disciples after His ascension forgot the message +in admiration of the man. The Christ is in every human being, and so are +the psychic forces which were used by Jesus. If the same attention were +given to spiritual development which you give to the comfort and growth +of your material bodies your progress in spiritual life would be rapid +and would be characterised by the same works as were performed by Jesus. +The one essential thing for all on earth to strive after is a fuller +knowledge and growth in spiritual living." + +I think that the phrase, "In their admiration of the man they forgot His +message," is as pregnant a one as I ever heard. + +To come back then to the discussion at Exeter, what I said then and feel +now is that every Spiritualist is free to find his own path, and that as +a matter of fact his typical path is a Unitarian one, but that this in +no way obscures the fact that our greatest leaders, Lodge, Barrett, +Ellis Powell, Tweedale, are devoted sons of the Church, that our +literature is full of Christian aspiration, and that our greatest +prophet, Vale Owen, is a priest of a particularly sacerdotal turn of +mind. We are in a transition stage, and have not yet found any common +theological position, or any common position at all, save that the dead +carry on, that they do not change, that they can under proper physical +conditions communicate with us, and that there are many physical signs +by which they make their presence known to us. That is our common +ground, and all beyond that is matter of individual observation and +inference. Therefore, we are not in a position to take on any +anti-Christian agitation, for it would be against the conscience of the +greater part of our own people. + +Well, it is clear that if I do not begin my book I shall finish it +before I have begun, so let me end this chapter by saying that in +despite of all superstition we started for Australia in the good ship +"Naldera" (Capt. Lewellin, R.N.R.), on Friday, August 13th, 1920. As we +carried two bishops in addition to our ominous dates we were foredoomed +by every nautical tradition. Our party were my dear, splendid wife, who +has shared both my evidence and my convictions. She it is who, by +breaking up her household, leaving her beloved home, breaking the +schooling of her children, and venturing out upon a sea voyage, which of +all things she hates, has made the real sacrifice for the cause. As to +me, I am fond of change and adventure, and heartily agree with President +Roosevelt when he said that the grandest sport upon earth is to champion +an unpopular cause which you know to be true. With us were Denis, +Malcolm and Baby, concerning whom I wrote the "Three of them" sketches +some years ago. In their train was Jakeman, most faithful of maids, and +in mine Major Wood, who has been mixed up in my life ever since as young +men we played both cricket and football in the same team. Such was the +little party who set forth to try and blow that smouldering glow of +truth which already existed in Australia, into a more lively flame. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + Gibraltar.--Spanish right versus British might.--Relics of Barbary + Rovers, and of German militarists.--Ichabod! Senegal Infantry.--No + peace for the world.--Religion on a liner.--Differences of + vibration.--The Bishop of Kwang-Si.--Religion in China.--Whisky in + excelsis.--France's masterpiece.--British errors.--A procession of + giants.--The invasion of Egypt.--Tropical weather.--The Russian + Horror.--An Indian experiment.--Aden.--Bombay.--The Lambeth + encyclical.--A great novelist.--The Mango trick.--Snakes.--The + Catamarans.--The Robber Castles of Ceylon.--Doctrine of + Reincarnation.--Whales and Whalers.--Perth.--The Bight. + + +We had a favourable journey across the Bay and came without adventure to +Gibraltar, that strange crag, Arabic by name, African in type, Spanish +by right, and British by might. I trust that my whole record has shown +me to be a loyal son of the Empire, and I recognise that we must have a +secure line of communications with the East, but if any change could +give us Ceuta, on the opposite African coast, instead of this outlying +corner of proud old Spain, it would be good policy as well as good +morality to make the change. I wonder how we should like it if the +French held a garrison at Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, which would be +a very similar situation. Is it worth having a latent enemy who at any +time might become an active one, or is it wiser to hold them to us by +the memory of a great voluntary act of justice? They would pay, of +course, for all quays, breakwaters and improvements, which would give us +the money to turn Ceuta into a worthy substitute, which could be held +without offending the pride of a great nation, as old and proud as +ourselves. The whole lesson of this great war is that no nation can do +what is unjust with impunity, and that sooner or later one's sin will +find one out. How successful seemed all the scheming of Frederick of +Prussia! But what of Silesia and of Poland now? Only on justice can you +build with a permanent foundation, and there is no justice in our tenure +of Gibraltar. We had only an hour ashore, a great joy to the children, +and carried away a vague impression of grey-shirted Tommies, swarthy +loungers, one long, cobblestoned street, scarlet blossoms, and a fine +Governor's house, in which I picture that brave old warrior, +Smith-Dorrien, writing a book which will set all the critics talking, +and the military clubs buzzing a year or two from now. I do not know if +he was really forced to fight at Le Cateau, though our sympathies must +always go to the man who fights, but I do feel that if he had had his +way and straightened the salient of Ypres, there would have been a +mighty saving of blood and tears. There were sentimental reasons against +it, but I can think of no material ones--certainly none which were worth +all the casualties of the Salient. I had only one look at the place, and +that by night, but never shall I forget the murderous loop, outlined by +star shells, nor the horrible noises which rose up from that place of +wrath and misery. + +On August 19th we were running up the eastern Spanish coast, a most +desolate country of high bare cliffs and barren uplands, studded with +aged towers which told of pirate raids of old. These Mediterranean shore +dwellers must have had a hellish life, when the Barbary Rover was +afloat, and they might be wakened any night by the Moslem yell. Truly, +if the object of human life was chastening by suffering, then we have +given it to each other in full measure. If this were the only life I do +not know how the hypothesis of the goodness of God could be sustained, +since our history has been one hardly broken record of recurring +miseries, war, famine, and disease, from the ice to the equator. I +should still be a materialist, as I was of yore, if it were not for the +comfort and teaching from beyond, which tells me that this is the +worst--far the worst--and that by its standard everything else becomes +most gloriously better, so long as we help to make it so. "If the boys +knew what it was like over here," said a dead soldier, "they would just +jump for it." He added however, "If they did that they would surely miss +it." We cannot bluff Providence, or short-circuit things to our liking. + +We got ashore once more at Marseilles. I saw converted German merchant +ships, with names like "Burgomeister Mueller," in the harbour, and +railway trucks with "Mainz-Coeln" still marked upon their flanks--part +of the captured loot. Germany, that name of terror, how short is the +time since we watched you well-nigh all-powerful, mighty on land, +dangerous on the sea, conquering the world with your commerce and +threatening it with your arms! You had everything, numbers, discipline, +knowledge, industry, bravery, organisation, all in the highest--such an +engine as the world has never seen. And now--Ichabod! Ichabod! Your +warships lie under the waves, your liners fly the flags of your enemies, +your mother Rhine on either bank hears the bugles of your invaders. What +was wanting in you to bring you to such a pass? Was it not spirituality? +Had not your churches become as much a department of State as the Post +Office, where every priest and pastor was in State pay, and said that +which the State ordained? All other life was at its highest, but +spiritual life was dead, and because it was dead all the rest had taken +on evil activities which could only lead to dissolution and corruption. +Had Germany obeyed the moral law would she not now be great and +flourishing, instead of the ruin which we see? Was ever such an object +lesson in sin and its consequence placed before the world? But let us +look to it, for we also have our lesson to learn, and our punishment is +surely waiting if we do not learn it. If now after such years we sink +back into old ruts and do not make an earnest effort for real religion +and real active morality, then we cumber the ground, and it is time that +we were swept away, for no greater chance of reform can ever come to +us. + +I saw some of the Senegal troops in the streets of Marseilles--a whole +battalion of them marching down for re-embarkation. They are fierce, +hard soldiers, by the look of them, for the negro is a natural fighter, +as the prize ring shows, and these have long service training upon the +top of this racial pugnacity. They look pure savages, with the tribal +cuts still upon their faces, and I do not wonder that the Germans +objected to them, though we cannot doubt that the Germans would +themselves have used their Askaris in Europe as well as in Africa if +they could have done so. The men who had as allies the murderers of the +Armenians would not stick at trifles. I said during the war, and I can +clearly see now, that the way in which the war was fought will prove +hardly second to the war itself as a misfortune to the human race. A +clean war could end in a clean peace. But how can we ever forget the +poison gas, the Zeppelin bombardments of helpless cities, the submarine +murders, the scattering of disease germs, and all the other atrocities +of Germany? No water of oblivion can ever wash her clean. She had one +chance, and only one. It was to at once admit it all herself and to set +to work purging her national guilt by punishing guilty individuals. +Perhaps she may even now save herself and clear the moral atmosphere of +the world by doing this. But time passes and the signs are against it. +There can be no real peace in the world until voluntary reparation has +been made. Forced reparation can only make things worse, for it cannot +satisfy us, and it must embitter them. I long for real peace, and +should love to see our Spiritualist bodies lead the van. But the time is +not yet and it is realities we need, not phrases. + +Old travellers say that they never remember the Mediterranean so hot. We +went down it with a following breeze which just neutralised our own head +wind, the result being a quivering tropical heat. With the Red Sea +before us it was no joke to start our trials so soon, and already the +children began to wilt. However, Major Wood kept them at work for the +forenoons and discipline still flourished. On the third day out we were +south of Crete, and saw an island lying there which is surely the same +in the lee of which Paul's galley took refuge when Euroclydon was +behaving so badly. I had been asked to address the first-class +passengers upon psychic religion that evening, and it was strange indeed +to speak in those waters, for I knew well that however ill my little +pip-squeak might compare with that mighty voice, yet it was still the +same battle of the unseen against the material, raging now as it did +2,000 years ago. Some 200 of the passengers, with the Bishop of +Kwang-Si, turned up, and a better audience one could not wish, though +the acoustic properties of the saloon were abominable. However, I got it +across, though I was as wet as if I had fallen overboard when I had +finished. I was pleased to learn afterwards that among the most keen of +my audience were every colored man and woman on the ship, Parsees, +Hindoos, Japanese and Mohammedans. + +"Do you believe it is true?" they were asked next day. + +"We _know_ that it is true," was the answer, and it came from a lady +with a red caste-mark like a wafer upon her forehead. So far as I could +learn she spoke for all the Eastern folk. + +And the others? At least I set them talking and thinking. I heard next +morning of a queue of six waiting at the barber's all deep in +theological discussion, with the barber himself, razor in hand, joining +warmly in. "There has never been so much religion talked on a P. & O. +ship since the line was started," said one old traveller. It was all +good-humoured and could do no harm. Before we had reached Port Said all +my books on the subject were lent out to eager readers, and I was being +led aside into remote corners and cross-questioned all day. I have a +number of good psychic photographs with me, some of them of my own +taking, and all of them guaranteed, and I find these valuable as making +folk realise that my words do in truth represent realities. I have the +famous fairy photos also, which will appear in England in the Christmas +number of the _Strand_. I feel as if it were a delay-action mine which I +had left behind me. I can imagine the cry of "Fake!" which will arise. +But they will stand investigation. It has of course nothing to do with +Spiritualism proper, but everything which can shake the mind out of +narrow, material grooves, and make it realise that endless worlds +surround us, separated only by difference of vibration, must work in the +general direction of truth. + +"Difference of Vibration"--I have been trying lately to get behind mere +words and to realise more clearly what this may mean. It is a +fascinating and fruitful line of thought. It begins with my electric fan +whizzing over my head. As it starts with slow vibration I see the little +propellers. Soon they become a dim mist, and finally I can see them no +more. But they are there. At any moment, by slowing the movement, I can +bring them back to my vision. Why do I not see it all the time? Because +the impression is so fast that my retina has not time to register it. +Can we not imagine then that some objects may emit the usual light +waves, long enough and slow enough to leave a picture, but that other +objects may send waves which are short and steep, and therefore make so +swift an impression that it is not recorded? That, so far as I can +follow it, is what we mean by an object with a higher rate of vibration. +It is but a feeling out into the dark, but it is a hypothesis which may +serve us to carry on with, though the clairvoyant seems to be not a +person with a better developed physical retina, but rather one who has +the power to use that which corresponds with the retina in their own +etheric bodies which are in harmony with etheric waves from outside. +When a man can walk round a room and examine the pictures with the back +of his head, as Tom Tyrrell has done, it is clear that it is not his +physical retina which is working. In countless cases inquirers into +magnetic phenomena have caused their subjects to read with various parts +of their bodies. It is the other body, the etheric body, the +"spiritual" body of Paul, which lies behind all such phenomena--that +body which is loose with all of us in sleep, but only exceptionally in +waking hours. Once we fully understand the existence of that deathless +etheric body, merged in our own but occasionally detachable, we have +mastered many a problem and solved many a ghost story. + +However, I must get back to my Cretan lecture. The bishop was +interested, and I lent him one of the Rev. Charles Tweedale's pamphlets +next day, which shows how sadly Christianity has wandered away from its +early faith of spiritual gifts and Communion of Saints. Both have now +become words instead of things, save among our ranks. The bishop is a +good fellow, red and rough like a Boer farmer, but healthy, breezy, and +Apostolic. "Do mention his kind grey eyes," says my wife. He may die a +martyr yet in that inland diocese of China--and he would not shrink from +it. Meanwhile, apart from his dogma, which must be desperately difficult +to explain to an educated Chinaman, he must always be a centre of +civilisation and social effort. A splendid fellow--but he suffers from +what all bishops and all cardinals and all Popes suffer from, and that +is superannuation. A physiologist has said that few men can ever +entertain a new idea after fifty. How then can any church progress when +all its leaders are over that age? This is why Christianity has +stagnated and degenerated. If here and there one had a new idea, how +could it survive the pressure of the others? It is hopeless. In this +particular question of psychic religion the whole order is an +inversion, for the people are ahead of the clergy and the clergy of the +bishops. But when the laymen lead strongly enough the others will follow +unless they wish to see the whole Church organisation dissolve. + +He was very interesting upon the state of Christianity in China. +Protestantism, thanks to the joint British and American Missions, is +gaining upon Roman Catholicism, and has now far outstripped it, but the +Roman Catholic organisations are very wealthy on account of ancient +valuable concessions and well-invested funds. In case of a Bolshevist +movement that may be a source of danger, as it gives a reason for +attack. The Bishop made the very striking remark that if the whites +cleared right out of China all the Christian Churches of divers creeds +would within a generation merge into one creed. "What have we to do," +they say, "with these old historical quarrels which are hardly +intelligible to us? We are all followers of Christ, and that is enough." +Truly, the converted seem far ahead of those who converted them. It is +the priesthoods, the organisations, the funds and the vested interests +which prevent the Churches from being united. In the meanwhile ninety +per cent. of our population shows what it thinks by never entering into +a church at all. Personally, I can never remember since I reached +manhood feeling myself the better for having gone into one. And yet I +have been an earnest seeker for truth. Verily, there is something deep +down which is rotten. It is want of fact, want of reality, words +instead of things. Only last Sunday I shuddered as I listened to the +hymns, and it amazed me to look around and see the composed faces of +those who were singing them. Do they think what they are saying, or does +Faith atrophy some part of the brain? We are "born through water and +blood into the true church." We drink precious blood. "He hath broken +the teeth in their jaw." Can such phrases really mean anything to any +thoughtful man? If not, why continue them? You will have your churches +empty while you do. People will not argue about it--they will, and do, +simply stay away. And the clergy go on stating and restating incredible +unproved things, while neglecting and railing at those which could be +proved and believed. On our lines those nine out of ten could be forced +back to a reconsideration of their position, even though that position +would not square with all the doctrines of present-day Christianity, +which would, I think, have offended the early Christians as much as it +does the earnest thinkers of to-day. + +Port Said came at last, and we entered the Suez Canal. It is a shocking +thing that the entrance to this, one of the most magnificent of the +works of man, are flanked by great sky advertisements of various brands +of whisky. The sale of whisky may or may not be a tolerable thing, but +its flaunting advertisements, Dewar, Johnny Walker, and the rest, have +surely long been intolerable. If anything would make me a total +prohibitionist those would. They are shameless. I do not know if some +middle way could be found by which light alcoholic drinks could +remain--so light that drunkenness would be hardly possible--but if this +cannot be done, then let us follow the noble example of America. It is +indeed shameful to see at the very point of the world where some noble +sentiment might best be expressed these huge reminders of that which has +led to so much misery and crime. To a Frenchman it must seem even worse +than to us, while what the abstemious Mohammedan can think is beyond my +imagination. In that direction at least the religion of Mohammed has +done better than that of Christ. If all those Esquimaux, South Sea +Islanders and others who have been converted to Christianity and then +debauched by drink, had followed the prophet instead, it cannot be +denied that their development would have been a happier and a higher +one, though the cast-iron doctrines and dogmas of the Moslem have +dangers of their own. + +Has France ever had the credit she deserves for the splendid faith with +which she followed that great beneficent genius Lesseps in his wonderful +work? It is beautiful from end to end, French in its neatness, its +order, its exquisite finish. Truly the opposition of our people, both +experts and public, was a disgrace to us, though it sinks into +insignificance when compared with our colossal national stupidity over +the Channel tunnel. When our descendants compute the sums spent in +shipping and transhipping in the great war, the waste of merchant ships +and convoys, the sufferings of the wounded, the delay in +reinforcements, the dependence upon the weather, they will agree that +our sin had found us out and that we have paid a fitting price for our +stupidity. Unhappily, it was not our blind guides who paid it, but it +was the soldier and sailor and taxpayer, for the nation always pays +collectively for the individual blunder. Would a hundred million pounds +cover the cost of that one? Well can I remember how a year before war +was declared, seeing clearly what was coming, I sent three memoranda to +the Naval and Military authorities and to the Imperial Council of +Defence pointing out exactly what the situation would be, and especially +the danger to our transports. It is admitted now that it was only the +strange inaction of the German light forces, and especially their want +of comprehension of the possibilities of the submarine, which enabled +our Expeditionary Force to get across at all, so that we might have lost +the war within the first month. But as to my poor memoranda, which +proved so terribly correct, I might as well have dropped them into my +own wastepaper basket instead of theirs, and so saved the postage. My +only convert was Captain, now General, Swinton, part inventor of the +tanks, who acted as Secretary to the Imperial Defence Committee, and who +told me at the time that my paper had set him thinking furiously. + +Which leads my thoughts to the question of the torpedoing of merchant +vessels by submarines. So sure was I that the Germans would do this, +that after knocking at official doors in vain, I published a sketch +called "Danger," which was written a year before the war, and depicted +all that afterwards occurred, even down to such small details as the +ships zig-zagging up Channel to escape, and the submarines using their +guns to save torpedoes. I felt as if, like Solomon Eagle, I could have +marched down Fleet Street with a brazier on my head if I could only call +people's attention to the coming danger. I saw naval officers on the +point, but they were strangely blind, as is shown by the comments +printed at the end of "Danger," which give the opinions of several +admirals pooh-poohing my fears. Among others I saw Captain Beatty, as he +then was, and found him alive to the possible danger, though he did not +suggest a remedy. His quiet, brisk personality impressed me, and I felt +that our national brain-errors might perhaps be made good in the end by +the grit that is in us. But how hard were our tasks from our want of +foresight. Admiral Von Capelle did me the honour to say during the war, +in the German Reichstag, that I was the only man who had prophesied the +conditions of the great naval war. As a matter of fact, both Fisher and +Scott had done so, though they had not given it to the public in the +same detail--but nothing had been done. We know now that there was not a +single harbour proof against submarines on our whole East Coast. Truly +the hand of the Lord was over England. Nothing less could have saved +her. + +We tied up to the bank soon after entering the Canal, and lay there most +of the night while a procession of great ships moving northwards swept +silently past us in the ring of vivid light cast by their searchlights +and our own. I stayed on deck most of the night to watch them. The +silence was impressive--those huge structures sweeping past with only +the slow beat of their propellers and the wash of their bow wave on +either side. No sooner had one of these great shapes slid past than, +looking down the Canal, one saw the brilliant head light of another in +the distance. They are only allowed to go at the slowest pace, so that +their wash may not wear away the banks. Finally, the last had passed, +and we were ourselves able to cast off our warps and push southwards. I +remained on deck seeing the sun rise over the Eastern desert, and then a +wonderful slow-moving panorama of Egypt as the bank slid slowly past us. +First desert, then green oases, then the long line of rude +fortifications from Kantara downwards, with the camp fires smoking, +groups of early busy Tommies and endless dumps of stores. Here and to +the south was the point where the Turks with their German leaders +attempted the invasion of Egypt, carrying flat-bottomed boats to ford +the Canal. How they were ever allowed to get so far is barely +comprehensible, but how they were ever permitted to get back again +across one hundred miles of desert in the face of our cavalry and +camelry is altogether beyond me. Even their guns got back untaken. They +dropped a number of mines in the Canal, but with true Turkish +slovenliness they left on the banks at each point the long bamboos on +which they had carried them across the desert, which considerably +lessened the work of those who had to sweep them up. The sympathies of +the Egyptians seems to have been against us, and yet they have no desire +to pass again under the rule of the Turk. Our dominion has had the +effect of turning a very poor country into a very rich one, and of +securing some sort of justice for the fellah or peasant, but since we +get no gratitude and have no trade preference it is a little difficult +to see how we are the better for all our labours. So long as the Canal +is secure--and it is no one's interest to injure it--we should be better +if the country governed itself. We have too many commitments, and if we +have to take new ones, such as Mesopotamia, it would be well to get rid +of some of the others where our task is reasonably complete. "We never +let the youngsters grow up," said a friendly critic. There is, however, +I admit, another side to the question, and the idea of permitting a +healthy moral place like Port Said to relapse into the hotbed of +gambling and syphilis which it used to be, is repugnant to the mind. +Which is better--that a race be free, immoral and incompetent, or that +it be forced into morality and prosperity? That question meets us at +every turn. + +The children have been delighted by the fish on the surface of the +Canal. Their idea seems to be that the one aim and object of our +excursion is to see sharks in the sea and snakes in Australia. We did +actually see a shark half ashore upon a sandbank in one of the lower +lakes near Suez. It was lashing about with a frantic tail, and so got +itself off into deep water. To the west all day we see the very wild and +barren country through which our ancestors used to drive upon the +overland route when they travelled by land from Cairo to Suez. The smoke +of a tiny mail-train marks the general line of that most desolate road. +In the evening we were through the Canal and marked the rugged shore +upon our left down which the Israelites pursued their way in the +direction of Sinai. One wonders how much truth there is in the +narrative. On the one hand it is impossible to doubt that something of +the sort did occur. On the other, the impossibility of so huge a crowd +living on the rare wells of the desert is manifest. But numbers are not +the strong point of an Oriental historian. Perhaps a thousand or two may +have followed their great leader upon that perilous journey. I have +heard that Moses either on his own or through his wife was in touch with +Babylonian habits. This would explain those tablets of stone, or of +inscribed clay burned into brick, which we receive as the Ten +Commandments, and which only differ from the moral precepts of other +races in the strange limitations and omissions. At least ten new ones +have long been needed to include drunkenness, gluttony, pride, envy, +bigotry, lying and the rest. + +The weather grows hotter and hotter, so that one aged steward who has +done 100 voyages declares it to be unique. One passenger has died. +Several stewards have collapsed. The wind still keeps behind us. In the +midst of all this I had an extensively signed petition from the second +class passengers that I should address them. I did so, and spoke on deck +for forty minutes to a very attentive audience which included many of +the officers of the ship. I hope I got my points across to them. I was a +sad example of sweated labour when I had finished. My wife tells me that +the people were impressed. As I am never aware of the presence of any +individual when I am speaking on this subject I rely upon my wife's very +quick and accurate feminine impressions. She sits always beside me, +notes everything, gives me her sympathetic atmosphere which is of such +psychic importance, and finally reports the result. If any point of mine +seems to her to miss its mark I unhesitatingly take it out. It interests +me to hear her tell of the half-concealed sneer with which men listen to +me, and how it turns into interest, bewilderment and finally something +like reverence and awe as the brain gradually realises the proved truth +of what I am saying, which upsets the whole philosophy on which their +lives are built. + +There are several Australian officers on board who are coming from the +Russian front full of dreadful stories of Bolshevist atrocities, seen +with their own eyes. The executioners were Letts and Chinese, and the +instigators renegade Jews, so that the Russians proper seem to have been +the more or less innocent dupes. They had dreadful photographs of +tortured and mutilated men as corroboration. Surely hell, the place of +punishment and purgatorial expiation, is actually upon this earth in +such cases. One leader seems to have been a Sadic madman, for after +torturing his victims till even the Chinese executioners struck, he +would sit playing a violin very exquisitely while he gloated over their +agonies. All these Australian boys agree that the matter will burn +itself out, and that it will end in an immense massacre of Jews which +may involve the whole seven millions now in Russia. God forbid, but the +outlook is ominous! I remember a prophecy which I read early in the war +that a great figure would arise in the north and have power for six +years. If Lenin was the great figure then he has, according to the +prophet, about two years more to run. But prophecy is fitful, dangerous +work. The way in which the founders of the Christian faith all foretold +the imminent end of the world is an example. What they dimly saw was no +doubt the destruction of Jerusalem, which seems to have been equally +clear to Ezekiel 600 years before, for his picture of cannibalism and +dispersion is very exact. + +It is wonderful what chances of gaining direct information one has +aboard a ship of this sort, with its mixed crowd of passengers, many of +them famous in their own lines. I have already alluded to the officers +returning from Russia with their prophecies of evil. But there are many +other folk with tales of deep interest. There is a Mr. Covell, a solid +practical Briton, who may prove to be a great pioneer, for he has made +farming pay handsomely in the very heart of the Indian plains. Within a +hundred miles of Lucknow he has founded the townlet of Covellpore, +where he handles 3,000 acres of wheat and cotton with the aid of about +the same number of natives. This is the most practical step I have ever +heard of for forming a real indigenous white population in India. His +son was with him, going out to carry on the work. Mr. Covell holds that +the irrigation of the North West of India is one of the greatest wonders +of the world, and Jacob the engineer responsible. I had never heard of +him, nor, I am ashamed to say, had I heard of Sir Leonard Rogers, who is +one of those great men like Sir Ronald Ross, whom the Indian Medical +Service throws up. Rogers has reduced the mortality of cholera by +intravenous injections of hypertonic saline until it is only 15 per +cent. General Maude, I am informed, would almost certainly have been +saved, had it not been that some false departmental economy had withheld +the necessary apparatus. Leprosy also seems in a fair way to yielding to +Rogers' genius for investigation. + +It is sad to hear that this same Indian Medical Service which has +produced such giants as Fayrer, Ross, and Rogers is in a fair way to +absolute ruin, because the conditions are such that good white +candidates will no longer enter it. White doctors do not mind working +with, or even under, natives who have passed the same British +examinations as themselves, but they bar the native doctor who has got +through a native college in India, and is on a far lower educational +level than themselves. To serve under such a man is an impossible +inversion. This is appreciated by the medical authorities at home, the +word is given to the students, and the best men avoid the service. So +unless a change is made, the end is in sight of the grand old service +which has given so much to humanity. + +Aden is remarkable only for the huge water tanks cut to catch rain, and +carved out of solid rock. A whole captive people must have been set to +work on so colossal a task, and one wonders where the poor wretches got +water themselves the while. Their work is as fresh and efficient as when +they left it. No doubt it was for the watering, not of the population, +but of the Egyptian and other galleys on their way to Punt and King +Solomon's mines. It must be a weary life for our garrison in such a +place. There is strange fishing, sea snakes, parrot fish and the like. +It is their only relaxation, for it is desert all round. + +Monsoon and swell and drifting rain in the Indian Ocean. We heard that +"thresh of the deep sea rain," of which Kipling sings. Then at last in +the early morning the long quay of Bombay, and the wonderful crowd of +men of every race who await an incoming steamer. Here at least half our +passengers were disgorged, young subalterns, grey colonels, grave +administrators, yellow-faced planters, all the fuel which is grown in +Britain and consumed in the roaring furnace of India. So devoted to +their work, so unthanked and uncomprehended by those for whom they work! +They are indeed a splendid set of men, and if they withdrew I wonder how +long it would be before the wild men of the frontier would be in +Calcutta and Bombay, as the Picts and Scots flowed over Britain when the +Roman legions were withdrawn. What view will the coming Labour +governments of Britain take of our Imperial commitments? Upon that will +depend the future history of great tracts of the globe which might very +easily relapse into barbarism. + +The ship seemed lonely when our Indian friends were gone, for indeed, +the pick of the company went with them. Several pleased me by assuring +me as they left that their views of life had been changed since they +came on board the "Naldera." To many I gave reading lists that they +might look further into the matter for themselves. A little leaven in +the great lump, but how can we help leavening it all when we know that, +unlike other creeds, no true Spiritualist can ever revert, so that while +we continually gain, we never lose. One hears of the converts to various +sects, but one does not hear of those who are driven out by their +narrow, intolerant doctrines. You can change your mind about faiths, but +not about facts, and hence our certain conquest. + +One cannot spend even a single long day in India without carrying away a +wonderful impression of the gentle dignity of the Indian people. Our +motor drivers were extraordinarily intelligent and polite, and all we +met gave the same impression. + +India may be held by the sword, but it is certainly kept very carefully +in the scabbard, for we hardly saw a soldier in the streets of this, +its greatest city. I observed some splendid types of manhood, however, +among the native police. We lunched at the Taj Mahal Hotel, and got back +tired and full of mixed impressions. + +Verily the ingenuity of children is wonderful. They have turned their +active minds upon the problem of paper currency with fearsome results. +Baby writes cheques in quaint ways upon odd bits of paper and brings +them to me to be cashed. Malcolm, once known as Dimples, has made a +series of pound and five pound notes of his own. The bank they call the +money shop. I can trace every sort of atavism, the arboreal, the cave +dweller, the adventurous raider, and the tribal instinct in the child, +but this development seems a little premature. + +Sunday once more, and the good Bishop preaching. I wonder more and more +what an educated Chinaman would make of such doctrines. To take an +example, he has quoted to-day with great approval, the action of Peter +in discarding the rite of circumcision as a proof of election. That +marked, according to the Bishop, the broad comprehensive mind which +could not confine the mercies of God to any limited class. And yet when +I take up the oecumenical pronouncement from the congress of Anglican +bishops which he has just attended, I find that baptism is made the +test, even as the Jews made circumcision. Have the bishops not learned +that there are millions who revere the memory of Christ, whether they +look upon him as God or man, but who think that baptism is a senseless +survival of heathendom, like so many of our religious observances? The +idea that the Being who made the milky way can be either placated or +incensed by pouring a splash of water over child or adult is an offence +to reason, and a slur upon the Divinity. + +Two weary days upon the sea with drifting rain showers and wonderful +scarlet and green sunsets. Have beguiled the time with W. B. Maxwell's +"Lamp and the Mirror." I have long thought that Maxwell was the greatest +of British novelists, and this book confirms me in my opinion. Who else +could have drawn such fine detail and yet so broad and philosophic a +picture? There may have been single books which were better than +Maxwell's best--the "Garden of Allah," with its gorgeous oriental colour +would, for example, make a bid for first place, but which of us has so +splendid a list of first class serious works as "Mrs. Thompson," "The +Rest Cure," "Vivian," "In Cotton Wool," above all, "The Guarded +Flame"--classics, every one. Our order of merit will come out very +differently in a generation or so to what it stands now, and I shall +expect to find my nominee at the top. But after all, what's the odds? +You do your work as well as you can. You pass. You find other work to +do. How the old work compares with the other fellow's work can be a +matter of small concern. + +In Colombo harbour lay H.M.S. "Highflyer," which we looked upon with the +reverence which everybody and everything which did well in the war +deserve from us--a saucy, rakish, speedy craft. Several other steamers +were flying the yellow quarantine flag, but our captain confided to me +that it was a recognised way of saying "no visitors," and did not +necessarily bear any pathological meaning. As we had nearly two days +before we resumed our voyage I was able to give all our party a long +stretch on shore, finally staying with my wife for the night at the +Galle Face Hotel, a place where the preposterous charges are partly +compensated for by the glorious rollers which break upon the beach +outside. I was interested in the afternoon by a native conjurer giving +us what was practically a private performance of the mango-tree trick. +He did it so admirably that I can well understand those who think that +it is an occult process. I watched the man narrowly, and believe that I +solved the little mystery, though even now I cannot be sure. In doing it +he began by laying several objects out in a casual way while hunting in +his bag for his mango seed. These were small odds and ends including a +little rag doll, very rudely fashioned, about six or eight inches long. +One got accustomed to the presence of these things and ceased to remark +them. He showed the seed and passed it for examination, a sort of large +Brazil nut. He then laid it among some loose earth, poured some water on +it, covered it with a handkerchief, and crooned over it. In about a +minute he exhibited the same, or another seed, the capsule burst, and a +light green leaf protruding. I took it in my hands, and it was certainly +a real bursting mango seed, but clearly it had been palmed and +substituted for the other. He then buried it again and kept raising the +handkerchief upon his own side, and scrabbling about with his long brown +fingers underneath its cover. Then he suddenly whisked off the +handkerchief and there was the plant, a foot or so high, with thick +foliage and blossoms, its root well planted in the earth. It was +certainly very startling. + +My explanation is that by a miracle of packing the whole of the plant +had been compressed into the rag doll, or little cloth cylinder already +mentioned. The scrabbling of the hands under the cloth was to smooth out +the leaves after it was freed from this covering. I observed that the +leaves were still rather crumpled, and that there were dark specks of +fungi which would not be there if the plant were straight from nature's +manufactory. But it was wonderfully done when you consider that the man +was squatting in our midst, we standing in a semi-circle around him, +with no adventitious aid whatever. I do not believe that the famous Mr. +Maskeleyne or any of those other wise conjurers who are good enough +occasionally to put Lodge, Crookes and Lombroso in their places, could +have wrought a better illusion. + +The fellow had a cobra with him which he challenged me to pick up. I did +so and gazed into its strange eyes, which some devilry of man's had +turned to a lapis lazuli blue. The juggler said it was the result of its +skin-sloughing, but I have my doubts. The poison bag had, I suppose, +been extracted, but the man seemed nervous and slipped his brown hand +between my own and the swaying venomous head with its peculiar +flattened hood. It is a fearsome beast, and I can realise what was told +me by a lover of animals that the snake was the one creature from which +he could get no return of affection. I remember that I once had three in +my employ when the "Speckled Band" was produced in London, fine, lively +rock pythons, and yet in spite of this profusion of realism I had the +experience of reading a review which, after duly slating the play, wound +up with the scathing sentence, "The performance ended with the +production of a palpably artificial serpent." Such is the reward of +virtue. Afterwards when the necessities of several travelling companies +compelled us to use dummy snakes we produced a much more realistic +effect. The real article either hung down like a pudgy yellow bell rope, +or else when his tail was pinched, endeavoured to squirm back and get +level with the stage carpenter, who pinched him, which was not in the +plot. The latter individual had no doubts at all as to the dummy being +an improvement upon the real. + +Never, save on the west coast of Africa, have I seen "the league-long +roller thundering on the shore," as here, where the Indian Ocean with +its thousand leagues of momentum hits the western coast of Ceylon. It +looks smooth out at sea, and then you are surprised to observe that a +good-sized boat has suddenly vanished. Then it scoops upwards once more +on the smooth arch of the billow, disappearing on the further slope. The +native catamarans are almost invisible, so that you see a row of +standing figures from time to time on the crest of the waves. I cannot +think that any craft in the world would come through rough water as +these catamarans with their long outriggers can do. Man has made few +more simple and more effective inventions, and if I were a younger man I +would endeavour to introduce them to Brighton beach, as once I +introduced ski to Switzerland, or auto-wheels to the British roads. I +have other work to do now, but why does not some sportsman take the +model, have it made in England, and then give an exhibition in a gale of +wind on the south coast. It would teach our fishermen some possibilities +of which they are ignorant. + +As I stood in a sandy cove one of them came flying in, a group of +natives rushing out and pulling it up on the beach. The craft consists +only of two planks edgewise and lengthwise. In the nine-inch slit +between them lay a number of great twelve-pound fish, like cod, and tied +to the side of the boat was a ten-foot sword fish. To catch that +creature while standing on a couple of floating planks must have been +sport indeed, and yet the craft is so ingenious that to a man who can at +a pinch swim for it, there is very small element of danger. The really +great men of our race, the inventor of the wheel, the inventor of the +lever, the inventor of the catamaran are all lost in the mists of the +past, but ethnologists have found that the cubic capacity of the +neolithic brain is as great as our own. + +There are two robbers' castles, as the unhappy visitor calls them, +facing the glorious sea, the one the Galle Face, the other the Mount +Lavinia Hotel. They are connected by an eight-mile road, which has all +the colour and life and variety of the East for every inch of the way. +In that glorious sun, under the blue arch of such a sky, and with the +tropical trees and flowers around, the poverty of these people is very +different from the poverty of a London slum. Is there in all God's world +such a life as that, and can it really be God's world while we suffer it +to exist! Surely, it is a palpable truth that no one has a right to +luxuries until every one has been provided with necessities, and among +such necessities a decent environment is the first. If we had spent +money to fight slumland as we spent it to fight Germany, what a +different England it would be. The world moves all the same, and we have +eternity before us. But some folk need it. + +A doctor came up to me in the hotel and told me that he was practising +there, and had come recently from England. He had lost his son in the +war, and had himself become unsettled. Being a Spiritualist he went to +Mrs. Brittain, the medium, who told him that his boy had a message for +him which was that he would do very well in Colombo. He had himself +thought of Ceylon, but Mrs. B. had no means of knowing that. He had +obeyed the advice thus given, and was glad that he had done so. How much +people may miss by cutting themselves away from these ministers of +grace! In all this opposition to Spiritualism the punishment continually +fits the crime. + +Once again we shed passengers and proceeded in chastened mood with +empty decks where once it was hard to move. Among others, good Bishop +Banister of Kwang-si had gone. I care little for his sacramental and +vicarious doctrines, but I am very sure that wherever his robust, +kindly, sincere personality may dwell is bound to be a centre of the +true missionary effort--the effort which makes for the real original +teaching of his Master, submission to God and goodwill to our fellow +men. + +Now we are on the last lap with nothing but a clear stretch of salt +water between our prow and West Australia. Our mission from being a sort +of dream takes concrete form and involves definite plans. Meanwhile we +plough our way through a deep blue sea with the wind continually against +us. I have not seen really calm water since we left the Canal. We carry +on with the usual routine of ship sports, which include an England and +Australia cricket match, in which I have the honour of captaining +England, a proper ending for a long if mediocre career as a cricketer. +We lost by one run, which was not bad considering our limited numbers. + +Posers of all sorts are brought to me by thoughtful inquirers, which I +answer when I can. Often I can't. One which is a most reasonable +objection has given me a day's thought. If, as is certain, we can +remember in our next life the more important incidents of this one, why +is it that in this one we can remember nothing of that previous +spiritual career, which must have existed since nothing can be born in +time for eternity? Our friends on the other side cannot help us there, +nor can even such extended spiritual visions as those of Vale Owen clear +it up. On the whole we must admit that our Theosophical friends, with +whom we quarrel for their absence of evidence, have the best attempt at +an explanation. I imagine that man's soul has a cycle which is complete +in itself, and all of which is continuous and self conscious. This +begins with earth life. Then at last a point is reached, it may be a +reincarnation, and a new cycle is commenced, the old one being closed to +our memory until we have reached some lofty height in our further +journey. Pure speculation, I admit, but it would cover what we know and +give us a working hypothesis. I can never excite myself much about the +reincarnation idea, for if it be so, it occurs seldom, and at long +intervals, with ten years spent in the other spheres for one spent here, +so that even admitting all that is said by its supporters it is not of +such great importance. At the present rate of change this world will be +as strange as another sphere by the time we are due to tread the old +stage once more. It is only fair to say that though many spiritualists +oppose it, there is a strong body, including the whole French Allan +Kardec school, who support it. Those who have passed over may well be +divided upon the subject since it concerns their far future and is a +matter of speculation to them as to us. + +Thrasher whales and sperm whales were seen which aroused the old whaling +thrill in my heart. It was the more valuable Greenland whale which I +helped to catch, while these creatures are those which dear old Frank +Bullen, a childlike sailor to the last, described in his "Cruise of the +Cachelot." How is it that sailors write such perfect English. There are +Bullen and Conrad, both of whom served before the mast--the two purest +stylists of their generation. So was Loti in France. There are some +essays of Bullen's, especially a description of a calm in the tropics, +and again of "Sunrise seen from the Crow's Nest," which have not been +matched in our time for perfection of imagery and diction. They are both +in his "Idyls of the Sea." If there is compensation in the beyond--and I +know that there is--then Frank Bullen is in great peace, for his whole +earthly life was one succession of troubles. When I think of his cruel +stepmother, his dreadful childhood, his life on a Yankee blood ship, his +struggles as a tradesman, his bankruptcy, his sordid worries, and +finally, his prolonged ill-health, I marvel at the unequal distribution +of such burdens. He was the best singer of a chanty that I have ever +heard, and I can hear him now with his rich baritone voice trolling out +"Sally Brown" or "Stormalong." May I hear him once again! Our dear ones +tell us that there is no great gap between what pleases us here and that +which will please us in the beyond. Our own brains, had we ever used +them in the matter, should have instructed us that all evolution, +spiritual as well as material, must be gradual. Indeed, once one knows +psychic truth, one can, reasoning backwards, perceive that we should +unaided have come to the same conclusions, but since we have all been +deliberately trained not to use our reason in religious matters, it is +no wonder that we have made rather a hash of it. Surely it is clear +enough that in the case of an artist the artistic nature is part of the +man himself. Therefore, if he survives it must survive. But if it +survives it must have means of expression, or it is a senseless thing. +But means of expression implies appreciation from others and a life on +the general lines of this one. So also of the drama, music, science and +literature, if we carry on they carry on, and they cannot carry on +without actual expression and a public to be served. + +To the east of us and just beyond the horizon lie the Cocos Islands, +where Ross established his strange little kingdom, and where the _Emden_ +met its end--a glorious one, as every fair minded man must admit. I have +seen her stern post since then in the hall of the Federal Parliament at +Melbourne, like some fossil monster, once a terror and now for children +to gaze at. As to the Cocos Islands, the highest point is, I understand, +about twenty feet, and tidal waves are not unknown upon the Pacific, so +that the community holds its tenure at very short and sudden notice to +quit. + +On the morning of September 17th a low coast line appeared upon the port +bow--Australia at last. It was the edge of the West Australian State. +The evening before a wireless had reached me from the spiritualists of +Perth saying that they welcomed us and our message. It was a kind +thought and a helpful one. We were hardly moored in the port of +Fremantle, which is about ten miles from the capital, when a deputation +of these good, kind people was aboard, bearing great bunches of wild +flowers, most of which were new to us. Their faces fell when they +learned that I must go on in the ship and that there was very little +chance of my being able to address them. They are only connected with +the other States by one long thin railway line, 1,200 miles long, with +scanty trains which were already engaged, so that unless we stuck to the +ship we should have to pass ten days or so before we could resume our +journey. This argument was unanswerable, and so the idea of a meeting +was given up. + +These kind people had two motors in attendance, which must, I fear, have +been a strain upon their resources, for as in the old days the true +believers and practical workers are drawn from the poor and humble. +However, they certainly treated us royally, and even the children were +packed into the motors. We skirted the Swan River, passed through the +very beautiful public park, and, finally, lunched at the busy town, +where Bone's store would cut a respectable figure in London, with its +many departments and its roof restaurant. It was surprising after our +memories of England to note how good and abundant was the food. It is a +charming little town, and it was strange, after viewing its settled +order, to see the mill where the early settlers not so very long ago had +to fight for their lives with the black fellows. Those poor black +fellows! Their fate is a dark stain upon Australia. And yet it must in +justice to our settlers be admitted that the question was a very +difficult one. Was colonisation to be abandoned, or were these brave +savages to be overcome? That was really the issue. When they speared the +cattle of the settlers what were the settlers to do? Of course, if a +reservation could have been opened up, as in the case of the Maoris, +that would have been ideal. But the noble Maori is a man with whom one +could treat on equal terms and he belonged to a solid race. The +Aborigines of Australia were broken wandering tribes, each at war with +its neighbours. In a single reservation they would have exterminated +each other. It was a piteous tragedy, and yet, even now in retrospect, +how difficult it is to point out what could have been done. + +The Spiritualists of Perth seem to be a small body, but as earnest as +their fellows elsewhere. A masterful looking lady, Mrs. McIlwraith, +rules them, and seems fit for the part. They have several mediums +developing, but I had no chance of testing their powers. Altogether our +encounter with them cheered us on our way. We had the first taste of +Australian labour conditions at Fremantle, for the men knocked off at +the given hour, refusing to work overtime, with the result that we +carried a consignment of tea, meant for their own tea-pots, another +thousand miles to Adelaide, and so back by train which must have been +paid for out of their own pockets and those of their fellow citizens. +Verily, you cannot get past the golden rule, and any breach of it brings +its own punishment somehow, somewhere, be the sinner a master or a man. + +And now we had to cross the dreaded Bight, where the great waves from +the southern ice come rolling up, but our luck was still in, and we went +through it without a qualm. Up to Albany one sees the barren irregular +coast, and then there were two days of blue water, which brought us at +last to Adelaide, our port of debarkation. The hour and the place at +last! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + Mr. Hughes' letter of welcome.--Challenges.--Mr. Carlyle + Smythe.--The Adelaide Press.--The great drought.--The wine + industry.--Clairvoyance.--Meeting with Bellchambers.--The first + lecture.--The effect.--The Religious lecture.--The illustrated + lecture.--Premonitions.--The spot light.--Mr. Thomas' account of + the incident.--Correspondence.--Adelaide doctors.--A day in the + Bush.--The Mallee fowl.--Sussex in Australia.--Farewell to + Adelaide. + + +I was welcomed to Australia by a hospitable letter from the Premier, Mr. +Hughes, who assured me that he would do what he could to make our visit +a pleasant one, and added, "I hope you will see Australia as it is, for +I want you to tell the world about us. We are a very young country, we +have a very big and very rich heritage, and the great war has made us +realise that we are Australians, proud to belong to the Empire, but +proud too of our own country." + +Apart from Mr. Hughes's kind message, my chief welcome to the new land +came from Sydney, and took the queer form of two independant challenges +to public debate, one from the Christian Evidence Society, and the other +from the local leader of the materialists. As the two positions are +mutually destructive, one felt inclined to tell them to fight it out +between themselves and that I would fight the winner. The Christian +Evidence Society, is, of course, out of the question, since they regard +a text as an argument, which I can only accept with many qualifications, +so that there is no common basis. The materialist is a more worthy +antagonist, for though he is often as bigotted and inaccessible to +reason as the worst type of Christian, there is always a leaven of +honest, open-minded doubters on whom a debate might make an impression. +A debate with them, as I experienced when I met Mr. MacCabe, can only +follow one line, they quoting all the real or alleged scandals which +have ever been connected with the lowest forms of mediumship, and +claiming that the whole cult is comprised therein, to which you counter +with your own personal experiences, and with the evidence of the cloud +of witnesses who have found the deepest comfort and enlarged knowledge. +It is like two boxers each hitting the air, and both returning to their +respective corners amid the plaudits of their backers, while the general +public is none the better. + +Three correspondents headed me off on the ship, and as I gave each of +them a long separate interview, I was a tired man before I got ashore. +Mr. Carlyle Smythe, my impresario, had also arrived, a small alert +competent gentleman, with whom I at once got on pleasant terms, which +were never once clouded during our long travels together upon our tour. +I was fortunate indeed to have so useful and so entertaining a +companion, a musician, a scholar, and a man of many varied experiences. +With his help we soon got our stuff through the customs, and made the +short train journey which separates the Port of Adelaide from the +charming city of that name. By one o'clock we were safely housed in the +Grand Central Hotel, with windows in place of port holes, and the roar +of the trams to take the place of the murmurs of the great ocean. + +The good genius of Adelaide was a figure, already almost legendary, one +Colonel Light, who played the part of Romulus and Remus to the infant +city. Somewhere in the thirties of last century he chose the site, +against strong opposition, and laid out the plan with such skill that in +all British and American lands I have seen few such cities, so pretty, +so orderly and so self-sufficing. When one sees all the amenities of the +place, botanical gardens, zoological gardens, art gallery, museum, +university, public library and the rest, it is hard to realise that the +whole population is still under three hundred thousand. I do not know +whether the press sets the tone to the community or the community to the +press, but in any case Adelaide is greatly blessed in this respect, for +its two chief papers the _Register_ and the _Advertiser_, under Sir +William Sowden and Sir Langdon Bonython respectively, are really +excellent, with a worldwide Metropolitan tone. + +Their articles upon the subject in which I am particularly interested, +though by no means one-sided, were at least informed with knowledge and +breadth of mind. + +In Adelaide I appreciated, for the first time, the crisis which +Australia has been passing through in the shape of a two-years drought, +only recently broken. It seems to have involved all the States and to +have caused great losses, amounting to millions of sheep and cattle. The +result was that the price of those cattle which survived has risen +enormously, and at the time of our visit an absolute record had been +established, a bullock having been sold for L41. The normal price would +be about L13. Sheep were about L3 each, the normal being fifteen +shillings. This had, of course, sent the price of meat soaring with the +usual popular unrest and agitation as a result. It was clear, however, +that with the heavy rains the prices would fall. These Australian +droughts are really terrible things, especially when they come upon +newly-opened country and in the hotter regions of Queensland and the +North. One lady told us that she had endured a drought in Queensland +which lasted so long that children of five had never seen a drop of +rain. You could travel a hundred miles and find the brown earth the +whole way, with no sign of green anywhere, the sheep eating twigs or +gnawing bark until they died. Her brother sold his surviving sheep for +one shilling each, and when the drought broke had to restock at 50s. a +head. This is a common experience, and all but the man with savings have +to take to some subordinate work, ruined men. No doubt, with +afforestation, artesian wells, irrigation and water storage things may +be modified, but all these things need capital, and capital in these +days is hard to seek, nor can it be expected that capitalists will pour +their money into States which have wild politicians who talk lightly of +past obligations. You cannot tell the investor that he is a bloated +incubus one moment, and go hat in hand for further incubation the next. +I fear that this grand country as a whole may suffer from the wild ideas +of some of its representatives. But under it all lies the solid +self-respecting British stuff, which will never repudiate a just debt, +however heavily it may press. Australians may groan under the burden, +but they should remember that for every pound of taxation they carry the +home Briton carries nearly three. + +But to return for a moment to the droughts; has any writer of fiction +invented or described a more long-drawn agony than that of the man, his +nerves the more tired and sensitive from the constant unbroken heat, +waiting day after day for the cloud that never comes, while under the +glaring sun from the unchanging blue above him, his sheep, which +represent all his life's work and his hopes, perish before his eyes? A +revolver shot has often ended the long vigil and the pioneer has joined +his vanished flocks. I have just come in contact with a case where two +young returned soldiers, demobilised from the war and planted on the +land had forty-two cattle given them by the State to stock their little +farm. Not a drop of water fell for over a year, the feed failed, and +these two warriors of Palestine and Flanders wept at their own +helplessness while their little herd died before their eyes. Such are +the trials which the Australian farmer has to bear. + +While waiting for my first lecture I do what I can to understand the +country and its problems. To this end I visited the vineyards and wine +plant of a local firm which possesses every factor for success, save the +capacity to answer letters. The originator started grape culture as a +private hobby about 60 years ago, and now such an industry has risen +that this firm alone has L700,000 sunk in the business, and yet it is +only one of several. The product can be most excellent, but little or +any ever reaches Europe, for it cannot overtake the local demand. The +quality was good and purer than the corresponding wines in +Europe--especially the champagnes, which seem to be devoid of that +poison, whatever it may be, which has for a symptom a dry tongue with +internal acidity, driving elderly gentlemen to whisky and soda. The +Australian product, taken in moderate doses, seems to have no poisonous +quality, and is without that lime-like dryness which appears to be the +cause of it. If temperance reform takes the sane course of insisting +upon a lowering of the alcohol in our drinks, so that one may be +surfeited before one could be drunken, then this question of good mild +wines will bulk very largely in the future, and Australia may supply one +of the answers. With all my sympathy for the reformers I feel that wine +is so useful a social agent that we should not abolish it until we are +certain that there is no _via media_. The most pregnant argument upon +the subject was the cartoon which showed the husband saying "My dear, it +is the anniversary of our wedding. Let us have a second bottle of ginger +beer." + +We went over the vineyards, ourselves mildly interested in the vines, +and the children wildly excited over the possibility of concealed +snakes. Then we did the vats and the cellars with their countless +bottles. We were taught the secrets of fermentation, how the wonderful +Pasteur had discovered that the best and quickest was produced not by +the grape itself, as of old, but by the scraped bloom of the grape +inserted in the bottle. After viewing the number of times a bottle must +be turned, a hundred at least, and the complex processes which lead up +to the finished article, I will pay my wine bills in future with a +better grace. The place was all polished wood and shining brass, like +the fittings of a man-of-war, and a great impression of cleanliness and +efficiency was left upon our minds. We only know the Australian wines at +present by the rough article sold in flasks, but when the supply has +increased the world will learn that this country has some very different +stuff in its cellars, and will try to transport it to their tables. + +We had a small meeting of spiritualists in our hotel sitting-room, under +the direction of Mr. Victor Cromer, a local student of the occult, who +seems to have considerable psychic power. He has a small circle for +psychic development which is on new lines, for the neophytes who are +learning clairvoyance sit around in a circle in silence, while Mr. +Cromer endeavours by mental effort to build up the thought form of some +object, say a tree, in the centre of the room. After a time he asks each +of the circle what he or she can see, and has many correct answers. +With colours in the same way he can convey impressions to his pupils. It +is clear that telepathy is not excluded as an explanation, but the +actual effect upon the participants is according to their own account, +visual rather than mental. We had an interesting sitting with a number +of these developing mediums present, and much information was given, but +little of it could be said to be truly evidential. After seeing such +clairvoyance as that of Mr. Tom Tyrell or others at home, when a dozen +names and addresses will be given together with the descriptions of +those who once owned them, one is spoiled for any lesser display. + +There was one man whom I had particularly determined to meet when I came +to Australia. This was Mr. T. P. Bellchambers, about whom I had read an +article in some magazine which showed that he was a sort of humble +Jeffries or Thoreau, more lonely than the former, less learned than the +latter, who lived among the wild creatures in the back country, and was +on such terms with our humble brothers as few men are ever privileged to +attain. I had read how the eagle with the broken wing had come to him +for succour, and how little birds would sit on the edge of his pannikin +while he drank. Him at all cost would we see. Like the proverbial +prophet, no one I met had ever heard of him, but on the third day of our +residence there came a journalist bearing with him a rudely dressed, +tangle-haired man, collarless and unkempt, with kind, irregular features +and clear blue eyes--the eyes of a child. It was the man himself. "He +brought me," said he, nodding towards the journalist. "He had to, for I +always get bushed in a town." + +This rude figure fingering his frayed cap was clearly out of his true +picture, and we should have to visit him in his own little clearing to +see him as he really was. Meanwhile I wondered whether one who was so +near nature might know something of nature's more occult secrets. The +dialogue ran like this: + +"You who are so near nature must have psychic experiences." + +"What's psychic? I live so much in the wild that I don't know much." + +"I expect you know plenty we don't know. But I meant spiritual." + +"Supernatural?" + +"Well, we think it is natural, but little understood." + +"You mean fairies and things?" + +"Yes, and the dead." + +"Well, I guess our fairies would be black fairies." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, I never saw any." + +"I hoped you might." + +"No, but I know one thing. The night my mother died I woke to find her +hand upon my brow. Oh, there's no doubt. Her hand was heavy on my brow." + +"At the time?" + +"Yes, at the very hour." + +"Well, that was good." + +"Animals know more about such things." + +"Yes." + +"They see something. My dog gets terrified when I see nothing, and +there's a place in the bush where my horse shies and sweats, he does, +but there's nothing to see." + +"Something evil has been done there. I've known many cases." + +"I expect that's it." + +So ran our dialogue. At the end of it he took a cigar, lighted it at the +wrong end, and took himself with his strong simple backwoods atmosphere +out of the room. Assuredly I must follow him to the wilds. + +Now came the night of my first lecture. It was in the city hall, and +every seat was occupied. It was a really magnificent audience of two +thousand people, the most representative of the town. I am an +embarrassed and an interested witness, so let me for this occasion quote +the sympathetic, not to say flattering account of the _Register_. + + "There could not have been a more impressive set of circumstances + than those which attended the first Australian lecture by Sir + Arthur Conan Doyle at the Adelaide Town Hall on Saturday night, + September 25th. The audience, large, representative and thoughtful, + was in its calibre and proportions a fitting compliment to a world + celebrity and his mission. Many of the intellectual leaders of the + city were present--University professors, pulpit personalities, + men eminent in business, legislators, every section of the + community contributed a quota. It cannot be doubted, of course, + that the brilliant literary fame of the lecturer was an attraction + added to that strange subject which explored the 'unknown drama of + the soul.' Over all Sir Arthur dominated by his big arresting + presence. His face has a rugged, kindly strength, tense and earnest + in its grave moments, and full of winning animation when the sun of + his rich humour plays on the powerful features." + + "It is not altogether a sombre journey he makes among the shadows, + but apparently one of happy, as well as tender experiences, so that + laughter is not necessarily excluded from the exposition. Do not + let that be misunderstood. There was no intrusion of the slightest + flippancy--Sir Arthur, the whole time, exhibited that attitude of + reverence and humility demanded of one traversing a domain on the + borderland of the tremendous. Nothing approaching a theatrical + presentation of the case for Spiritualism marred the discourse. It + was for the most part a plain statement. First things had to be + said, and the explanatory groundwork laid for future development. + It was a lucid, illuminating introduction." + + "Sir Arthur had a budget of notes, but after he had turned over a + few pages he sallied forth with fluent independence under the + inspiration of a vast mental store of material. A finger jutted out + now and again with a thrust of passionate emphasis, or his big + glasses twirled during moments of descriptive ease, and + occasionally both hands were held forward as though delivering + settled points to the audience for its examination. A clear, + well-disciplined voice, excellent diction, and conspicuous + sincerity of manner marked the lecture, and no one could have found + fault with the way in which Sir Arthur presented his case." + + "The lecturer approached the audience in no spirit of impatient + dogmatism, but in the capacity of an understanding mind seeking to + illumine the darkness of doubt in those who had not shared his + great experiences. He did not dictate, but reasoned and pleaded, + taking the people into his confidence with strong conviction and a + consoling faith. 'I want to speak to you to-night on a subject + which concerns the destiny of every man and woman in this room,' + began Sir Arthur, bringing everybody at once into an intimate + personal circle. 'No doubt the Almighty, by putting an angel in + King William Street, could convert every one of you to + Spiritualism, but the Almighty law is that we must use our own + brains, and find out our own salvation, and it is not made too easy + for us.'" + +It is awkward to include this kindly picture, and yet I do not know how +else to give an idea of how the matter seemed to a friendly observer. I +had chosen for my theme the scientific aspect of the matter, and I +marshalled my witnesses and showed how Professor Mayo corroborated +Professor Hare, and Professor Challis Professor Mayo, and Sir William +Crookes all his predecessors, while Russell Wallace and Lombroso and +Zollner and Barrett, and Lodge, and many more had all after long study +assented, and I read the very words of these great men, and showed how +bravely they had risked their reputations and careers for what they knew +to be the truth. I then showed how the opposition who dared to +contradict them were men with no practical experience of it at all. It +was wonderful to hear the shout of assent when I said that what struck +me most in such a position was its colossal impertinence. That shout +told me that my cause was won, and from then onwards the deep silence +was only broken by the occasional deep murmur of heart-felt agreement. I +told them the evidence that had been granted to me, the coming of my +son, the coming of my brother, and their message. "Plough! Plough! +others will cast the seed." It is hard to talk of such intimate matters, +but they were not given to me for my private comfort alone, but for that +of humanity. Nothing could have gone better than this first evening, and +though I had no chairman and spoke for ninety minutes without a pause, I +was so upheld--there is no other word for the sensation--that I was +stronger at the end than when I began. A leading materialist was among +my audience. "I am profoundly impressed," said he to Mr. Smythe, as he +passed him in the corridor. That stood out among many kind messages +which reached me that night. + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ THE WANDERERS, 1920-21. + +My second lecture, two nights later, was on the Religious aspect of the +matter. I had shown that the phenomena were nothing, mere material +signals to arrest the attention of a material world. I had shown also +that the personal benefit, the conquest of death, the Communion of +Saints, was a high, but not the highest boon. The real full flower of +Spiritualism was what the wisdom of the dead could tell us about their +own conditions, their present experiences, their outlook upon the secret +of the universe, and the testing of religious truth from the viewpoint +of two worlds instead of one. The audience was more silent than before, +but the silence was that of suspense, not of dissent, as I showed them +from message after message what it was exactly which awaited them in the +beyond. Even I, who am oblivious as a rule to my audience, became aware +that they were tense with feeling and throbbing with emotion. I showed +how there was no conflict with religion, in spite of the +misunderstanding of the churches, and that the revelation had come to +extend and explain the old, even as the Christ had said that he had much +more to tell but could not do it now. "Entirely new ground was +traversed," says my kindly chronicler, "and the audience listened +throughout with rapt attention. They were obviously impressed by the +earnestness of the speaker and his masterly presentation of the theme." +I cannot answer for the latter but at least I can for the former, since +I speak not of what I think but of what I know. How can a man fail to be +earnest then? + +A few days later I followed up the lectures by two exhibitions of +psychic pictures and photographs upon a screen. It was certainly an +amazing experience for those who imagined that the whole subject was +dreamland, and they freely admitted that it staggered them. They might +well be surprised, for such a series has never been seen, I believe, +before, including as it does choice samples from the very best +collections. I showed them the record of miracle after miracle, some of +them done under my very eyes, one guaranteed by Russell Wallace, three +by Sir William Crookes, one of the Geley series from Paris, two of Dr. +Crawford's medium with the ecto-plasm pouring from her, four +illustrating the absolutely final Lydia Haig case on the island of +Rothesay, several of Mr. Jeffrey's collection and several also of our +own Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, with the fine +photograph of the face within a crystal. No wonder that the audience sat +spellbound, while the local press declared that no such exhibition had +ever been seen before in Australia. It is almost too overwhelming for +immediate propaganda purposes. It has a stunning, dazing effect upon the +spectators. Only afterwards, I think, when they come to turn it all over +in their minds, do they see that the final proof has been laid before +them, which no one with the least sense for evidence could reject. But +the sense for evidence is not, alas, a universal human quality. + +I am continually aware of direct spirit intervention in my own life. I +have put it on record in my "New Revelation" that I was able to say that +the turn of the great war would come upon the Piave months before that +river was on the Italian war map. This was recorded at the time, before +the fulfilment which occurred more than a year later--so it does not +depend upon my assertion. Again, I dreamed the name of the ship which +was to take us to Australia, rising in the middle of the night and +writing it down in pencil on my cheque-book. I wrote _Nadera_, but it +was actually _Naldera_. I had never heard that such a ship existed until +I visited the P. & O. office, when they told me we should go by the +_Osterley_, while I, seeing the _Naldera_ upon the list, thought "No, +that will be our ship!" So it proved, through no action of our own, and +thereby we were saved from quarantine and all manner of annoyance. + +Never before have I experienced such direct visible intervention as +occurred during my first photographic lecture at Adelaide. I had shown a +slide the effect of which depended upon a single spirit face appearing +amid a crowd of others. The slide was damp, and as photos under these +circumstances always clear from the edges when placed in the lantern, +the whole centre was so thickly fogged that I was compelled to admit +that I could not myself see the spirit face. Suddenly, as I turned away, +rather abashed by my failure, I heard cries of "There it is," and +looking up again I saw this single face shining out from the general +darkness with so bright and vivid an effect that I never doubted for a +moment that the operator was throwing a spot light upon it, my wife +sharing my impression. I thought how extraordinarily clever it was that +he should pick it out so accurately at the distance. So the matter +passed, but next morning Mr. Thomas, the operator, who is not a +Spiritualist, came in great excitement to say that a palpable miracle +had been wrought, and that in his great experience of thirty years he +had never known a photo dry from the centre, nor, as I understood him, +become illuminated in such a fashion. Both my wife and I were surprised +to learn that he had thrown no ray upon it. Mr. Thomas told us that +several experts among the audience had commented upon the strangeness of +the incident. I, therefore, asked Mr. Thomas if he would give me a note +as to his own impression, so as to furnish an independant account. This +is what he wrote:-- + + _"Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide._ + + "_In Adelaide, on September 28th, I projected a lantern slide + containing a group of ladies and gentlemen, and in the centre of + the picture, when the slide was reversed, appeared a human face. On + the appearance of the picture showing the group the fog incidental + to a damp or new slide gradually appeared covering the whole slide, + and only after some minutes cleared, and then quite contrary to + usual practice did so from a central point just over the face that + appeared in the centre, and refused even after that to clear right + off to the edge. The general experience is for a slide to clear + from the outside edges to a common centre. Your slide cleared only + sufficiently in the centre to show the face, and did not, while the + slide was on view, clear any more than sufficient to show that + face. Thinking that perhaps there might be a scientific + explanation to this phenomenon, I hesitated before writing you, and + in the meantime I have made several experiments but have not in any + one particular experiment obtained the same result. I am very much + interested--as are hundreds of others who personally witnessed the + phenomenon._" + +Mr. Thomas, in his account, has missed the self-illuminated appearance +of the face, but otherwise he brings out the points. I never gave +occasion for the repetition of the phenomenon, for in every case I was +careful that the slides were carefully dried beforehand. + +So much for the lectures at Adelaide, which were five in all, and left, +as I heard from all sides, a deep impression upon the town. Of course, +the usual abusive messages poured in, including one which wound up with +the hearty words: "May you be struck dead before you leave this +Commonwealth." From Melbourne I had news that before our arrival in +Australia at a public prayer meeting at the Assembly Hall, Collins +Street, a Presbyterian prayed that we might never reach Australia's +shores. As we were on the high seas at the time this was clearly a +murderous petition, nor could I have believed it if a friend of mine had +not actually been present and heard it. On the other hand, we received +many letters of sympathy and thanks, which amply atoned. "I feel sure +that many mothers, who have lost their sons in the war, will, wherever +you go, bless you, as I do, for the help you have given." As this was +the object of our journey it could not be denied that we had attained +our end. When I say "we," I mean that such letters with inquiries came +continually to my wife as well as myself, though she answered them with +far greater fullness and clearness than I had time to do. + +Hotel life began to tell upon the children, who are like horses with a +profusion of oats and no exercise. On the whole they were wonderfully +good. When some domestic crisis was passed the small voice of Malcolm, +once "Dimples," was heard from the darkness of his bed, saying, "Well, +if I am to be good I must have a proper start. Please mammie, say one, +two, three, and away!" When this ceremony had been performed a still +smaller voice of Baby asked the same favour, so once more there was a +formal start. The result was intermittent, and it is as well. I don't +believe in angelic children. + +The Adelaide doctors entertained me to dinner, and I was pleased to meet +more than one who had been of my time at Edinburgh. They seemed to be a +very prosperous body of men. There was much interesting conversation, +especially from one elderly professor named Watson, who had known Bully +Hayes and other South Sea celebrities in the semi-piratical, +black-birding days. He told me one pretty story. They landed upon some +outlying island in Carpentaria, peopled by real primitive blacks, who +were rounded up by the ships crew on one of the peninsulas which formed +the end of the island. These creatures, the lowest of the human race, +huddled together in consternation while the white men trained a large +camera upon them. Suddenly three males advanced and made a speech in +their own tongue which, when interpreted, proved to be an offer that +those three should die in exchange for the lives of the tribe. What +could the very highest do more than this, and yet it came from the +lowest savages. Truly, we all have something of the divine, and it is +the very part which will grow and spread until it has burned out all the +rest. "Be a Christ!" said brave old Stead. At the end of countless aeons +we may all reach that point which not only Stead but St. Paul also has +foreshadowed. + +I refreshed myself between lectures by going out to Nature and to +Bellchambers. As it was twenty-five miles out in the bush, inaccessible +by rail, and only to be approached by motor roads which were in parts +like the bed of a torrent, I could not take my wife, though the boys, +after the nature of boys, enjoy a journey the more for its roughness. It +was a day to remember. I saw lovely South Australia in the full beauty +of the spring, the budding girlhood of the year, with all her winsome +growing graces upon her. The brilliant yellow wattle was just fading +upon the trees, but the sward was covered with star-shaped purple +flowers of the knot-grass, and with familiar home flowers, each subtly +altered by their transportation. It was wild bush for part of the way, +but mostly of the second growth on account of forest fires as much as +the woodman's axe. Bellchambers came in to guide us, for there is no one +to ask upon these desolate tracks, and it is easy to get bushed. Mr. +Waite, the very capable zoologist of the museum, joined the party, and +with two such men the conversation soon got to that high nature talk +which represents the really permanent things of material life--more +lasting than thrones and dynasties. I learned of the strange storks, the +"native companions" who meet, 500 at a time, for their stately balls, +where in the hush of the bush they advance, retreat, and pirouette in +their dignified minuets. I heard of the bower birds, who decorate their +homes with devices of glass and pebbles. There was talk, too, of the +little red beetles who have such cunning ways that they can fertilise +the insectivorous plants without being eaten, and of the great ants who +get through galvanised iron by the aid of some acid-squirting insect +which they bring with them to the scene of their assault. I heard also +of the shark's egg which Mr. Waite had raped from sixty feet deep in +Sydney Harbour, descending for the purpose in a diver's suit, for which +I raised my hat to him. Deep things came also from Bellchambers' store +of knowledge and little glimpses of beautiful humanity from this true +gentleman. + +"Yes," he said, "I am mostly vegetarian. You see, I know the beasts too +well to bring myself to pick their bones. Yes, I'm friends with most of +them. Birds have more sense than animals to my mind. They understand you +like. They know what you mean. Snakes have least of any. They don't get +friendly-like in the same way. But Nature helps the snakes in queer +ways. Some of them hatch their own eggs, and when they do Nature +raises the temperature of their bodies. That's queer." + + Illustration: _Photo: W. G. Smith, Adelaide._ BELLCHAMBERS AND THE + MALLEE FOWL. "GET ALONG WITH YOU, DO!" + +I carried away a mixed memory of the things I had seen. A blue-headed +wren, an eagle soaring in the distance; a hideous lizard with a huge +open mouth; a laughing jackass which refused to laugh; many more or less +tame wallabies and kangaroos; a dear little 'possum which got under the +back of my coat, and would not come out; noisy mynah birds which fly +ahead and warn the game against the hunter. Good little noisy mynah! All +my sympathies are with you! I would do the same if I could. This +senseless lust for killing is a disgrace to the race. We, of England, +cannot preach, for a pheasant battue is about the worst example of it. +But do let the creatures alone unless they are surely noxious! When Mr. +Bellchambers told us how he had trained two ibises--the old religious +variety--and how both had been picked off by some unknown local +"sportsman" it made one sad. + +We had a touch of comedy, however, when Mr. Bellchambers attempted to +expose the egg of the Mallee fowl, which is covered a foot deep in +mould. He scraped into the mound with his hands. The cock watched him +with an expression which clearly said: "Confound the fellow! What is he +up to now?" He then got on the mound, and as quickly as Bellchambers +shovelled the earth out he kicked it back again, Bellchambers in his +good-humoured way crying "Get along with you, do!" A good husband is the +Mallee cock, and looks after the family interests. But what we humans +would think if we were born deep underground and had to begin our career +by digging our way to the surface, is beyond imagination. + +There are quite a clan of Bellchambers living in or near the little +pioneer's hut built in a clearing of the bush. Mrs. Bellchambers is of +Sussex, as is her husband, and when they heard that we were fresh from +Sussex also it was wonderful to see the eager look that came upon their +faces, while the bush-born children could scarce understand what it was +that shook the solid old folk to their marrow. On the walls were old +prints of the Devil's Dyke and Firle Beacon. How strange that old Sussex +should be wearing out its very life in its care for the fauna of young +Australia. This remarkable man is unpaid with only his scanty holding +upon which to depend, and many dumb mouths dependent upon him. I shall +rejoice if my efforts in the local press serve to put his affairs upon a +more worthy foundation, and to make South Australia realise what a +valuable instrument lies to her hand. + +Before I left Adelaide I learned many pleasing things about the +lectures, which did away with any shadow cast by those numerous +correspondents who seemed to think that we were still living under the +Mosaic dispensation, and who were so absent-minded that they usually +forgot to sign their names. It is a curious difference between the +Christian letters of abuse and those of materialists, that the former +are usually anonymous and the latter signed. I heard of one man, a lame +stockman, who had come 300 miles from the other side of Streaky Bay to +attend the whole course, and who declared that he could listen all +night. Another seized my hand and cried, "You will never know the good +you have done in this town." Well, I hope it was so, but I only regard +myself as the plough. Others must follow with the seed. Knowledge, +perseverance, sanity, judgment, courage--we ask some qualities from our +disciples if they are to do real good. Talking of moral courage I would +say that the Governor of South Australia, Sir Archibald Weigall with +Lady Weigall, had no hesitation in coming to support me with their +presence. By the end of September this most successful mission in +Adelaide was accomplished, and early in October we were on our way to +Melbourne, which meant a long night in the train and a few hours of the +next morning during which we saw the surface diggings of Ballarat on +every side of the railway line, the sandy soil pitted in every direction +with the shallow claims of the miners. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + Speculations on Paul and his Master.--Arrival at Melbourne.--Attack + in the Argus.--Partial press boycott.--Strength of the + movement.--The Prince of Wales.--Victorian football.--Rescue Circle + in Melbourne.--Burke and Wills' statue.--Success of the + lectures.--Reception at the Auditorium.--Luncheon of the British + Empire League.--Mr. Ryan's experience.--The Federal + Government.--Mr. Hughes' personality.--The mediumship of Charles + Bailey.--His alleged exposure.--His remarkable record.--A second + sitting.--The Indian nest.--A remarkable lecture.--Arrival of Lord + Forster.--The future of the Empire.--Kindness of + Australians.--Prohibition.--Horse-racing.--Roman Catholic policy. + + +One cannot help speculating about those great ones who first carried to +the world the Christian revelation. What were their domestic ties! There +is little said about them, but we should never have known that Peter had +a wife were it not for a chance allusion to his mother-in-law, just as +another chance allusion shows us that Jesus was one of a numerous +family. One thing can safely be said of Paul, that he was either a +bachelor or else was a domestic bully with a very submissive wife, or he +would never have dared to express his well known views about women. As +to his preaching, he had a genius for making a clear thing obscure, even +as Jesus had a genius for making an obscure thing clear. Read the +Sermon on the Mount and then a chapter of Paul as a contrast in styles. +Apart from his style one can reconstruct him as a preacher to the extent +that he had a powerful voice--no one without one could speak from the +historic rocky pulpit on the hill of Mars at Athens, as I ascertained +for myself. The slope is downwards, sound ascends, and the whole +conditions are abominable. He was certainly long-winded and probably +monotonous in his diction, or he could hardly have reduced one of his +audience to such a deep sleep that he fell out of the window. We may add +that he was a man of brisk courage in an emergency, that he was subject +to such sudden trances that he was occasionally unaware himself whether +he was normal or not, and that he was probably short-sighted, as he +mistook the person who addressed him, and had his letters usually +written for him. At least three languages were at his command, he had an +intimate and practical knowledge of the occult, and was an authority +upon Jewish law--a good array of accomplishments for one man. + +There are some points about Paul's august Master which also help in a +reconstruction of Himself and His surroundings. That His mother was +opposed to His mission is, I think, very probable. Women are dubious +about spiritual novelties, and one can well believe that her heart ached +to see her noble elder son turn from the sure competence of His father's +business at Nazareth to the precarious existence of a wandering +preacher. This domestic opposition clouded Him as one can see in the +somewhat cold, harsh words which He used to her, and his mode of address +which began simply as "Woman." His assertion to the disciples that one +who followed His path had to give up his family points to the same +thing. No doubt Mary remained with the younger branches at Nazareth +while Jesus pursued His ministry, though she came, as any mother would, +to be near Him at the end. + +Of His own personality we know extraordinarily little, considering the +supreme part that He played in the world. That He was a highly trained +psychic, or as we should say, medium, is obvious to anyone who studies +the miracles, and it is certainly not derogatory to say that they were +done along the line of God's law rather than that they were inversions +of it. I cannot doubt also that he chose his apostles for their psychic +powers--if not, on what possible principle were they selected, since +they were neither staunch nor learned? It is clear that Peter and James +and John were the inner circle of psychics, since they were assembled +both at the transfiguration and at the raising of Jairus' daughter. It +is from unlearned open-air men who are near Nature that the highest +psychic powers are obtained. It has been argued that the Christ was an +Essene, but this seems hard to believe, as the Essenes were not only +secluded from the world, but were certainly vegetarians and total +abstainers, while Jesus was neither. On the other hand baptism was not a +Jewish rite, and his undergoing it--if He did, indeed, undergo it--marks +Him as belonging to some dissenting sect. I say "if He did" because it +is perfectly certain that there were forgeries and interpolations +introduced into the Gospels in order to square their teaching with the +practice of the Church some centuries later. One would look for those +forgeries not in the ordinary narrative, which in the adult years bears +every mark of truth, but in the passages which support ceremonial or +tributes to the Church--such as the allusions to baptism, "Unless a man +be born again," to the sacrament, "This is my body, etc.," and the whole +story of Ananias and Sapphira, the moral of which is that it is +dangerous to hold anything back from the Church. + +Physically I picture the Christ as an extremely powerful man. I have +known several famous healers and they were all men who looked as if they +had redundant health and strength to give to others. His words to the +sick woman, "Who has touched me? Much power" (_dunamis_ is the word in +the original Greek) "has gone out of me," show that His system depended +upon His losing what He gave to others. Therefore He was a very strong +man. The mere feat of carrying a wooden cross strong enough to bear a +man from Jerusalem to Calvary, up a hill, is no light one. It is the +details which convince me that the gospel narrative is correct and +really represents an actual event. Take the incident during that sad +journey of Simon of Cyrene having helped for a time with the cross. Why +should anyone invent such a thing, putting an actual name to the person? +It is touches of this kind which place the narrative beyond all +suspicion of being a pure invention. Again and again in the New +Testament one is confronted with incidents which a writer of fiction +recognises as being beyond the reach of invention, because the inventor +does not put in things which have no direct bearing upon the matter in +hand. Take as an example how the maid, seeing Peter outside the door +after his escape from prison, ran back to the guests and said that it +was his angel (or etheric body) which was outside. Such an episode could +only have been recorded because it actually occurred. + +But these be deep waters. Let me get back to my own humble experiences, +these interpolated thoughts being but things which have been found upon +the wayside of our journey. On reaching Melbourne we were greeted at the +station by a few devoted souls who had waited for two trains before they +found us. Covered with the flowers which they had brought we drove to +Menzies Hotel, whence we moved a few days later to a flat in the Grand, +where we were destined to spend five eventful weeks. We found the +atmosphere and general psychic conditions of Melbourne by no means as +pleasant or receptive as those of Adelaide, but this of course was very +welcome as the greater the darkness the more need of the light. If +Spiritualism had been a popular cult in Australia there would have been +no object in my visit. I was welcome enough as an individual, but by no +means so as an emissary, and both the Churches and the Materialists, in +most unnatural combination, had done their best to make the soil stony +for me. Their chief agent had been the _Argus_, a solid, stodgy paper, +which amply fulfilled the material needs of the public, but was not +given to spiritual vision. This paper before my arrival had a very +violent and abusive leader which attracted much attention, full of such +terms as "black magic," "Shamanism," "witchcraft," "freak religion," +"cranky faith," "cruelty," "black evil," "poison," finishing up with the +assertion that I represented "a force which we believe to be purely +evil." This was from a paper which whole-heartedly supports the liquor +interest, and has endless columns of betting and racing news, nor did +its principles cause it to refuse substantial sums for the advertising +of my lectures. Still, however arrogant or illogical, I hold that a +paper has a perfect right to publish and uphold its own view, nor would +I say that the subsequent refusal of the _Argus_ to print any answer to +its tirade was a real breach of the ethics of journalism. Where its +conduct became outrageous, however, and where it put itself beyond the +pale of all literary decency, was when it reported my first lecture by +describing my wife's dress, my own voice, the colour of my spectacles, +and not a word of what I said. It capped this by publishing so-called +answers to me by Canon Hughes, and by Bishop Phelan--critics whose +knowledge of the subject seemed to begin and end with the witch of +Endor--while omitting the statements to which these answers applied. +Never in any British town have I found such reactionary intolerance as +in this great city, for though the _Argus_ was the chief offender, the +other papers were as timid as rabbits in the matter. My psychic +photographs which, as I have said, are the most wonderful collection +ever shown in the world, were received in absolute silence by the whole +press, though it is notorious that if I had come there with a comic +opera or bedroom comedy instead of with the evidence of a series of +miracles, I should have had a column. This seems to have been really due +to moral cowardice, and not to ignorance, for I saw a private letter +afterwards in which a sub-editor remarked that he and the chief +leader-writer had both seen the photographs and that they could see no +possible answer to them. + +There was another and more pleasing side to the local conditions, and +that lay in the numbers who had already mastered the principles of +Spiritualism, the richer classes as individuals, the poorer as organised +churches. They were so numerous that when we received an address of +welcome in the auditorium to which only Spiritualists were invited by +ticket, the Hall, which holds two thousand, was easily filled. This +would mean on the same scale that the Spiritualists of London could fill +the Albert Hall several times over--as no doubt they could. Their +numbers were in a sense an embarrassment, as I always had the fear that +I was addressing the faithful instead of those whom I had come so far to +instruct. On the whole their quality and organisation were +disappointing. They had a splendid spiritual paper in their midst, the +_Harbinger of Light_, which has run for fifty years, and is most ably +edited by Mr. Britton Harvey. When I think of David Gow, Ernest Oaten, +John Lewis and Britton Harvey I feel that our cause is indeed well +represented by its press. They have also some splendid local workers, +like Bloomfield and Tozer, whole-hearted and apostolic. But elsewhere +there is the usual tendency to divide and to run into vulgarities and +extravagances in which the Spiritual has small share. Discipline is +needed, which involves central powers, and that in turn means command of +the purse. It would be far better to have no Spiritual churches than +some I have seen. + +However, I seem to have got to some of my final conclusions at Melbourne +before I have begun our actual experience there. We found the place +still full of rumours and talk about the recent visit of the Prince of +Wales, who seems to have a perfect genius for making himself popular and +beloved. May he remain unspoiled and retain the fresh kindliness of his +youth. His success is due not to any ordered rule of conduct but to a +perfectly natural courtesy which is his essential self and needs no +effort. Our waiter at the hotel who had waited upon him remarked: "God +never made anything nearer to Nature than that boy. He spoke to me as he +might have spoken to the Governor." It was a fine tribute, and +characteristic of the humbler classes in this country, who have a vigour +of speech and an independence of view which is very refreshing. Once as +I passed a public house, a broken old fellow who had been leaning +against the wall with a short pipe in his mouth, stepped forward to me +and said: "I am all for civil and religious liberty. There is plenty of +room for your cult here, sir, and I wish you well against the bigots." I +wonder from what heights that old fellow had fallen before he brought up +against the public house wall? + +One of my first afternoons in Melbourne was spent in seeing the final +tie of the Victorian football cup. I have played both Rugby and Soccer, +and I have seen the American game at its best, but I consider that the +Victorian system has some points which make it the best of +all--certainly from the spectacular point of view. There is no off-side, +and you get a free kick if you catch the ball. Otherwise you can run as +in ordinary Rugby, though there is a law about bouncing the ball as you +run, which might, as it seemed to me, be cut out without harming the +game. This bouncing rule was put in by Mr. Harrison who drew up the +original rules, for the chivalrous reason that he was himself the +fastest runner in the Colony, and he did not wish to give himself any +advantage. There is not so much man-handling in the Victorian game, and +to that extent it is less dramatic, but it is extraordinarily open and +fast, with none of the packed scrums which become so wearisome, and with +linesmen who throw in the ball the instant it goes out. There were +several points in which the players seemed better than our best--one was +the accurate passing by low drop kicking, very much quicker and faster +than a pass by hand. Another was the great accuracy of the place kicking +and of the screw kicking when a runner would kick at right angles to his +course. There were four long quarters, and yet the men were in such +condition that they were going hard at the end. They are all, I +understand, semi-professionals. Altogether it was a very fine display, +and the crowd was much excited. It was suggestive that the instant the +last whistle blew a troop of mounted police cantered over the ground and +escorted the referees to the safety of the pavilion. + +I began at once to endeavour to find out the conditions of local +Spiritualism, and had a long conversation with Mr. Tozer, the chairman +of the movement, a slow-talking, steady-eyed man, of the type that gets +a grip and does not easily let go. After explaining the general +situation, which needs some explanation as it is full of currents and +cross-currents caused by individual schisms and secessions, he told me +in his gentle, earnest way some of his own experiences in his home +circle which corroborate much which I have heard elsewhere. He has run a +rescue circle for the instruction of the lower spirits who are so +material that they can be reached more easily by humanity than by the +higher angels. The details he gave me were almost the same as those +given by Mr. MacFarlane of Southsea who had a similar circle of which +Mr. Tozer had certainly never heard. A wise spirit control dominates the +proceedings. The medium goes into trance. The spirit control then +explains what it is about to do, and who the spirit is who is about to +be reformed. The next scene is often very violent, the medium having to +be held down and using rough language. This comes from some low spirit +who has suddenly found this means of expressing himself. At other times +the language is not violent but only melancholy, the spirit declaring +that he is abandoned and has not a friend in the universe. Some do not +realise that they are dead, but only that they wander all alone, under +conditions they could not understand, in a cloud of darkness. + +Then comes the work of regeneration. They are reasoned with and +consoled. Gradually they become more gentle. Finally, they accept the +fact that they are spirits, that their condition is their own making, +and that by aspiration and repentance they can win their way to the +light. When one has found the path and has returned thanks for it, +another case is treated. As a rule these errant souls are unknown to +fame. Often they are clergymen whose bigotry has hindered development. +Occasionally some great sinner of the past may come into view. I have +before me a written lament professing to come from Alva, the bigoted +governor of the Lowlands. It is gruesome enough. "Picture to yourself +the hell I was in. Blood, blood everywhere, corpses on all sides, +gashed, maimed, mutilated, quivering with agony and bleeding at every +pore! At the same time thousands of voices were raised in bitter +reproaches, in curses and execrations! Imagine the appalling spectacle +of this multitude of the dead and dying, fresh from the flames, from the +sword, the rack, the torture chambers and the gibbet; and the +pandemonium of voices shrieking out the most terrible maledictions! +Imagine never being able to get away from these sights and sounds, and +then tell me, was I not in hell?--a hell of greater torment than that to +which I believed all heretics were consigned. Such was the hell of the +'bloody Alva,' from which I have been rescued by what seems to me a +great merciful dispensation of Almighty God." + +Sometimes in Mr. Tozer's circle the souls of ancient clerics who have +slumbered long show their first signs of resuscitation, still bearing +their old-world intolerance with them. The spirit control purports to be +a well-educated Chinaman, whose presence and air of authority annoy the +ecclesiastics greatly. The petrified mind leads to a long period of +insensibility which means loss of ground and of time in the journey +towards happiness. I was present at the return of one alleged Anglican +Bishop of the eighteenth century, who spoke with great intolerance. When +asked if he had seen the Christ he answered that he had not and that he +could not understand it. When asked if he still considered the Christ to +be God he threw up his hand and shouted violently, "Stop! That is +blasphemy!" The Chinese control said, "He stupid man. Let him wait. He +learn better"--and removed him. He was succeeded by a very noisy and +bigoted Puritan divine who declared that no one but devils would come to +a seance. On being asked whether that meant that he was himself a devil +he became so abusive that the Chinaman once more had to intervene. I +quote all this as a curious sidelight into some developments of the +subject which are familiar enough to students, but not to the general +public. It is easy at a distance to sneer at such things and to ask for +their evidential value, but they are very impressive to those who view +them at closer quarters. As to evidence, I am informed that several of +the unfortunates have been identified in this world through the +information which they gave of their own careers. + +Melbourne is a remarkable city, far more solid and old-established than +the European visitor would expect. We spent some days in exploring it. +There are few cities which have the same natural advantages, for it is +near the sea, with many charming watering places close at hand, while +inland it has some beautiful hills for the week-end villas of the +citizens. Edinburgh is the nearest analogy which I can recall. Parks and +gardens are beautiful, but, as in most British cities, the public +statues are more solid than impressive. The best of them, that to Burke +and Wills, the heroic explorers, has no name upon it to signify who the +two figures are, so that they mean nothing at all to the casual +observer, in spite of some excellent bas-reliefs, round the base, which +show the triumphant start and the terrible end of that tragic but +successful journey, which first penetrated the Continent from south to +north. Before our departure I appealed in the press to have this +omission rectified and it was, I believe, done. + + Illustration: _Photo: Stirling, Melbourne._ MELBOURNE, NOVEMBER, + 1920. + +Mr. Smythe, my agent, had been unfortunate in being unable to secure one +of the very few large halls in Melbourne, so we had to confine ourselves +to the Playhouse which has only seating for about 1,200. Here I +opened on October 5th, following my lectures up in the same order as in +Adelaide. The press was very shy, but nothing could have exceeded the +warmth and receptivity of my hearers. Yet on account of the inadequate +reports of the press, with occasional total suppression, no one who was +not present could have imagined how packed was the house, or how +unanimous the audience. + +On October 14th the Spiritualists filled the Auditorium and had a +special service of welcome for ourselves. When I went down to it in the +tram, the conductor, unaware of my identity, said, when I asked to be +put down at the Auditorium, "It's no use, sir; it's jam full an hour +ago." "The Pilgrims," as they called us, were in special seats, the +seven of us all in a line upon the right of the chair. Many kind things +were said, and I replied as best I might. The children will carry the +remembrance of that warm-hearted reception through their lives, and they +are not likely to forget how they staggered home, laden with the flowers +which were literally heaped upon them. + +The British Empire League also entertained my wife and myself to lunch, +a very select company assembling who packed the room. Sir Joseph Cook, +Federal Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a pleasant speech, recalling +our adventures upon the Somme, when he had his baptism of fire. In my +reply I pulled the leg of my audience with some success, for I wound up +by saying, very solemnly, that I was something greater than Governments +and the master of Cabinet Ministers. By the time I had finished my +tremendous claims I am convinced that they expected some extravagant +occult pretension, whereas I actually wound up with the words, "for I am +the man in the street." There was a good deal of amusement caused. + +Mr. Thomas Ryan, a very genial and capable member of the State +Legislature, took the chair at this function. He had no particular +psychic knowledge, but he was deeply impressed by an experience in +London in the presence of that remarkable little lady, Miss Scatcherd. +Mr. Ryan had said that he wanted some evidence before he could accept +psychic philosophy, upon which Miss Scatcherd said: "There is a spirit +beside you now. He conveys to me that his name is Roberts. He says he is +worried in his mind because the home which you prepared for his widow +has not been legally made over to her." All this applied to a matter in +Adelaide. In that city, according to Mr. Ryan, a seance was held that +night, Mr. Victor Cromer being the medium, at which a message came +through from Roberts saying that he was now easy in his mind as he had +managed to convey his trouble to Mr. Ryan who could set it right. When +these psychic laws are understood the dead as well as the living will be +relieved from a load of unnecessary care; but how can these laws be +ignored or pooh-poohed in the face of such instances as this which I +have quoted? They are so numerous now that it is hardly an exaggeration +to say that every circle of human beings which meets can supply one. + +Mr. Hughes was good enough to ask me to meet the members of the Federal +Government at lunch, and the experience was an interesting one, for here +round one small table were those who were shaping the course of this +young giant among the nations. They struck me as a practical hard-worked +rough-and-ready lot of men. Mr. Hughes dominated the conversation, which +necessarily becomes one-sided as he is very deaf, though his opponents +say that he has an extraordinary knack of hearing what he is not meant +to hear. He told us a series of anecdotes of his stormy political youth +with a great deal of vivacity, the whole company listening in silence. +He is a hard, wiry man, with a high-nosed Red Indian face, and a good +deal of healthy devilry in his composition--a great force for good +during the war. + +After lunch he conducted me through the library, and coming to a +portrait of Clemenceau he cried: "That's the man I learned to admire in +Europe." Then, turning to one of Wilson, he added, "And that's the man I +learned to dislike." He added a number of instances of Wilson's +ignorance of actual conditions, and of his ungenial coldness of heart. +"If he had not been so wrapped in himself, and if he had taken Lodge or +some other Republican with him, all could have easily been arranged." I +feel that I am not indiscreet in repeating this, for Hughes is not a man +who conceals his opinions from the world. + +I have been interested in the medium Bailey, who was said to have been +exposed in France in 1910. The curious will find the alleged exposure +in "Annals of Psychical Science," Vol. IX. Bailey is an apport +medium--that is to say, that among his phenomena is the bringing of +objects which are said to come from a distance, passing through the +walls and being precipitated down upon the table. These objects are of +the strangest description--Assyrian tablets (real or forged), tortoises, +live birds, snakes, precious stones, &c. In this case, after being +searched by the committee, he was able to produce two live birds in the +seance room. At the next sitting the committee proposed an obscene and +absurd examination of the medium, which he very rightly resented and +refused. They then confidently declared that on the first occasion the +two live birds were in his intestines, a theory so absurd that it shakes +one's confidence in their judgment. They had, however, some more solid +grounds for a charge against him, for they produced a married couple who +swore that they had sold three such birds with a cage to Bailey some +days before. This Bailey denied, pointing out that he could neither +speak French, nor had he ever had any French money, which Professor +Reichel, who brought him from Australia, corroborated. However, the +committee considered the evidence to be final, and the seances came to +an end, though Colonel de Rochas, the leading member, wound up the +incident by writing: "Are we to conclude from the fraud that we have +witnessed that all Bailey's apports may have been fraudulent? I do not +think so, and this is also the opinion of the members of the committee, +who have had much experience with mediums and are conversant with the +literature of the subject." + +Reading the alleged exposure, one is struck, as so often in such cases, +with its unsatisfactory nature. There is the difficulty of the language +and the money. There is the disappearance of the third bird and the +cage. Above all, how did the birds get into the carefully-guarded seance +room, especially as Bailey was put in a bag during the proceedings? The +committee say the bag may not have been efficient, but they also state +that Bailey desired the control to be made more effective. Altogether it +is a puzzling case. On my applying to Bailey himself for information, he +declared roundly that he had been the victim of a theological plot with +suborned evidence. The only slight support which I can find for that +view is that there was a Rev. Doctor among his accusers. I was told +independently that Professor Reichel, before his death in 1918, came +also to the conclusion that there had been a plot. But in any case most +of us will agree with Mr. Stanford, Bailey's Australian patron, that the +committee would have been wise to say nothing, continue the sittings, +and use their knowledge to get at some more complete conclusion. + +With such a record one had to be on one's guard with Mr. Bailey. I had a +sitting in my room at the hotel to which I invited ten guests, but the +results were not impressive. We saw so-called spirit hands, which were +faintly luminous, but I was not allowed to grasp them, and they were +never further from the medium than he could have reached. All this was +suspicious but not conclusive. On the other hand, there was an attempt +at a materialisation of a head, which took the form of a luminous patch, +and seemed to some of the sitters to be further from the cabinet than +could be reached. We had an address purporting to come from the control, +Dr. Whitcombe, and we also had a message written in bad Italian. On the +whole it was one of those baffling sittings which leave a vague +unpleasant impression, and there was a disturbing suggestion of cuffs +about those luminous hands. + +I have been reading Bailey's record, however, and I cannot doubt that he +has been a great apport medium. The results were far above all possible +fraud, both in the conditions and in the articles brought into the room +by spirit power. For example, I have a detailed account published by Dr. +C. W. McCarthy, of Sydney, under the title, "Rigid Tests of the Occult." +During these tests Bailey was sealed up in a bag, and in one case was +inside a cage of mosquito curtain. The door and windows were secured and +the fire-place blocked. The sitters were all personal friends, but they +mutually searched each other. The medium was stripped naked before the +seance. Under these stringent conditions during a series of six sittings +138 articles were brought into the room, which included eighty-seven +ancient coins (mostly of Ptolemy), eight live birds, eighteen precious +stones of modest value and varied character, two live turtles, seven +inscribed Babylonian tablets, one Egyptian Scarabaeus, an Arabic +newspaper, a leopard skin, four nests and many other things. It seems +to me perfect nonsense to talk about these things being the results of +trickery. I may add that at a previous test meeting they had a young +live shark about 1-1/2 feet long, which was tangled with wet seaweed and +flopped about on the table. Dr. McCarthy gives a photograph of the +creature. + +My second sitting with Bailey was more successful than the first. On his +arrival I and others searched him and satisfied ourselves he carried +nothing upon him. I then suddenly switched out all the lights, for it +seemed to me that the luminous hands of the first sitting might be the +result of phosphorised oil put on before the meeting and only visible in +complete darkness, so that it could defy all search. I was wrong, +however, for there was no luminosity at all. We then placed Mr. Bailey +in the corner of the room, lowered the lights without turning them out, +and waited. Almost at once he breathed very heavily, as one in trance, +and soon said something in a foreign tongue which was unintelligible to +me. One of our friends, Mr. Cochrane, recognised it as Indian, and at +once answered, a few sentences being interchanged. In English the voice +then said that he was a Hindoo control who was used to bring apports for +the medium, and that he would, he hoped, be able to bring one for us. +"Here it is," he said a moment later, and the medium's hand was extended +with something in it. The light was turned full on and we found it was a +very perfect bird's nest, beautifully constructed of some very fine +fibre mixed with moss. It stood about two inches high and had no sign of +any flattening which would have come with concealment. The size would be +nearly three inches across. In it lay a small egg, white, with tiny +brown speckles. The medium, or rather the Hindoo control acting through +the medium, placed the egg on his palm and broke it, some fine albumen +squirting out. There was no trace of yolk. "We are not allowed to +interfere with life," said he. "If it had been fertilised we could not +have taken it." These words were said before he broke it, so that he was +aware of the condition of the egg, which certainly seems remarkable. + +"Where did it come from?" I asked. + +"From India." + +"What bird is it?" + +"They call it the jungle sparrow." + +The nest remained in my possession, and I spent a morning with Mr. +Chubb, of the local museum, to ascertain if it was really the nest of +such a bird. It seemed too small for an Indian sparrow, and yet we could +not match either nest or egg among the Australian types. Some of Mr. +Bailey's other nests and eggs have been actually identified. Surely it +is a fair argument that while it is conceivable that such birds might be +imported and purchased here, it is really an insult to one's reason to +suppose that nests with fresh eggs in them could also be in the market. +Therefore I can only support the far more extended experience and +elaborate tests of Dr. McCarthy of Sydney, and affirm that I believe Mr. +Charles Bailey to be upon occasion a true medium, with a very +remarkable gift for apports. + +It is only right to state that when I returned to London I took one of +Bailey's Assyrian tablets to the British Museum and that it was +pronounced to be a forgery. Upon further inquiry it proved that these +forgeries are made by certain Jews in a suburb of Bagdad--and, so far as +is known, only there. Therefore the matter is not much further advanced. +To the transporting agency it is at least possible that the forgery, +steeped in recent human magnetism, is more capable of being handled than +the original taken from a mound. Bailey has produced at least a hundred +of these things, and no Custom House officer has deposed how they could +have entered the country. On the other hand, Bailey told me clearly that +the tablets had been passed by the British Museum, so that I fear that I +cannot acquit him of tampering with truth--and just there lies the great +difficulty of deciding upon his case. But one has always to remember +that physical mediumship has no connection one way or the other with +personal character, any more than the gift of poetry. + +To return to this particular seance, it was unequal. We had luminous +hands, but they were again within reach of the cabinet in which the +medium was seated. We had also a long address from Dr. Whitcombe, the +learned control, in which he discoursed like an absolute master upon +Assyrian and Roman antiquities and psychic science. It was really an +amazing address, and if Bailey were the author of it I should hail him +as a master mind. He chatted about the Kings of Babylon as if he had +known them all, remarked that the Bible was wrong in calling Belthazar +King as he was only Crown Prince, and put in all those easy side +allusions which a man uses when he is absolutely full of his subject. +Upon his asking for questions, I said: "Please give me some light as to +the dematerialisation and subsequent reassembly of an object such as a +bird's nest." "It involves," he answered, "some factors which are beyond +your human science and which could not be made clear to you. At the same +time you may take as a rough analogy the case of water which is turned +into steam, and then this steam which is invisible, is conducted +elsewhere to be reassembled as visible water." I thought this +explanation was exceedingly apt, though of course I agree that it is +only a rough analogy. On my asking if there were libraries and +facilities for special study in the next world, he said that there +certainly were, but that instead of studying books they usually studied +the actual objects themselves. All he said was full of dignity and +wisdom. It was curious to notice that, learned as he was, Dr. Whitcombe +always referred back with reverence to Dr. Robinson, another control not +present at the moment, as being the real expert. I am told that some of +Dr. Robinson's addresses have fairly amazed the specialists. I notice +that Col. de Rochas in his report was equally impressed by Bailey's +controls. + +I fear that my psychic experiences are pushing my travels into the +background, but I warned the reader that it might be so when first we +joined hands. To get back to the earth, let me say that I saw the +procession when the new Governor-General, Lord Forster, with his +charming wife, made their ceremonial entry into Melbourne, with many +workman-like Commonwealth troops before and behind their carriage. I +knew Lord Forster of old, for we both served upon a committee over the +Olympic Games, so that he gave quite a start of surprised recognition +when his quick eye fell upon my face in the line of spectators. He is a +man who cannot fail to be popular here, for he has the physical as well +as the mental qualities. Our stay in Melbourne was afterwards made more +pleasant by the gracious courtesy of Government House for, apart from +attending several functions, we were invited to a special dinner, after +which I exhibited upon a screen my fairy portraits and a few of my other +very wonderful psychic photographs. It was not an occasion when I could +preach, but no quick intelligence could be brought in contact with such +phenomena without asking itself very seriously what lay behind them. +When that question is earnestly asked the battle is won. + +One asks oneself what will be the end of this system of little viceroys +in each State and a big viceroy in the Capital--however capable and +excellent in themselves such viceroys may be. The smaller courts are, I +understand, already doomed, and rightly so, since there is no need for +them and nothing like them elsewhere. There is no possible purpose that +they serve save to impose a nominal check, which is never used, upon +the legislation. The Governor-Generalship will last no doubt until +Australia cuts the painter, or we let go our end of it, whichever may +come first. + +Personally, I have no fear of Britain's power being weakened by a +separation of her dominions. Close allies which were independent might +be a greater source of moral strength than actual dependencies. When the +sons leave the father's house and rule their own homes, becoming fathers +in turn, the old man is not weakened thereby. Certainly I desire no such +change, but if it came I would bear it with philosophy. I hope that the +era of great military crises is for ever past, but, if it should recur, +I am sure that the point of view would be the same, and that the starry +Union Jack of the great Australian nation would still fly beside the old +flag which was its model. + +If one took a Machiavelian view of British interests one would say that +to retain a colony the surest way is not to remove any danger which may +threaten her. We conquered Canada from the French, removing in +successive campaigns the danger from the north and from the west which +threatened our American colonies. When we had expended our blood and +money to that end, so that the colonies had nothing to fear, they took +the first opportunity to force an unnecessary quarrel and to leave us. +So I have fears for South Africa now that the German menace has been +removed. Australia is, I think, loyal to the core, and yet self-interest +is with every nation the basis of all policy, and so long as the British +fleet can guard the shores of the great empty northern territories, a +region as big as Britain, Germany, France and Austria put together, they +have need of us. There can be no doubt that if they were alone in the +world in the face of the teeming millions of the East, they might, like +the Siberian travellers, have to throw a good deal to the wolves in +order to save the remainder. Brave and capable as they are, neither +their numbers nor their resources could carry them through a long +struggle if the enemy held the sea. They are natural shots and soldiers, +so that they might be wiser to spend their money in a strategic railway +right across their northern coast, rather than in direct military +preparations. To concentrate rapidly before the enemy was firmly +established might under some circumstances be a very vital need. + +But so long as the British Empire lasts Australia is safe, and in twenty +years' time her own enlarged population will probably make her safe +without help from anyone. But her empty places are a danger. History +abhors a vacuum and finds some one to fill it up. I have never yet +understood why the Commonwealth has not made a serious effort to attract +to the northern territories those Italians who are flooding the +Argentine. It is great blood and no race is the poorer for it--the blood +of ancient Rome. They are used to semitropical heat and to hard work in +bad conditions if there be only hope ahead. Perhaps the policy of the +future may turn in that direction. If that one weak spot be guarded then +it seems to me that in the whole world there is no community, save only +the United States, which is so safe from outside attack as Australia. +Internal division is another matter, but there Australia is in some ways +stronger than the States. She has no negro question, and the strife +between Capital and Labour is not likely to be so formidable. I wonder, +by the way, how many people in the United States realise that this small +community lost as many men as America did in the great war. We were +struck also by the dignified resignation with which this fact was faced, +and by the sense of proportion which was shown in estimating the +sacrifices of various nations. + +We like the people here very much more than we had expected to, for one +hears in England exaggerated stories of their democratic bearing. When +democracy takes the form of equality one can get along with it, but when +it becomes rude and aggressive one would avoid it. Here one finds a very +pleasing good fellowship which no one would object to. Again and again +we have met with little acts of kindness from people in shops or in the +street, which were not personal to ourselves, but part of their normal +good manners. If you ask the way or any other information, strangers +will take trouble to put you right. They are kindly, domestic and +straight in speech and in dealings. Materialism and want of vision in +the broader affairs of life seem to be the national weakness, but that +may be only a passing phase, for when a nation has such a gigantic +material proposition as this continent to handle it is natural that +their thoughts should run on the wool and the wheat and the gold by +which it can be accomplished. I am bound to say, however, that I think +every patriotic Australian should vote, if not for prohibition, at least +for the solution which is most dear to myself, and that is the lowering +of the legal standard of alcohol in any drink. We have been shocked and +astonished by the number of young men of decent exterior whom we have +seen staggering down the street, often quite early in the day. The +Biblical test for drunkenness, that it was not yet the third hour, would +not apply to them. I hear that bad as it is in the big towns it is worse +in the small ones, and worst of all in the northern territories and +other waste places where work is particularly needed. It must greatly +decrease the national efficiency. A recent vote upon the question in +Victoria only carried total abstinence in four districts out of about +200, but a two-third majority was needed to do it. On the other hand a +trial of strength in Queensland, generally supposed to be rather a rowdy +State, has shown that the temperance men all combined can out-vote the +others. Therefore it is certain that reform will not be long delayed. + +The other curse of the country, which is a real drag upon its progress, +is the eternal horse-racing. It goes on all the year round, though it +has its more virulent bouts, as for example during our visit to this +town when the Derby, the Melbourne Cup, and Oaks succeeded each other. +They call it sport, but I fear that in that case I am no sportsman. I +would as soon call the roulette-table a sport. The whole population is +unsettled and bent upon winning easy money, which dissatisfies them +with the money that has to be worked for. Every shop is closed when the +Cup is run, and you have lift-boys, waiters and maids all backing their +fancies, not with half-crowns but with substantial sums. The danger to +honesty is obvious, and it came under our own notice that it is not +imaginary. Of course we are by no means blameless in England, but it +only attacks a limited class, while here it seems to the stranger to be +almost universal. In fact it is so bad that it is sure to get better, +for I cannot conceive that any sane nation will allow it to continue. +The book-makers, however, are a powerful guild, and will fight tooth and +nail. The Catholic Church, I am sorry to say, uses its considerable +influence to prevent drink reform by legislation, and I fear that it +will not support the anti-gamblers either. I wonder from what hidden +spring, from what ignorant Italian camarilla, this venerable and in some +ways admirable Church gets its secular policy, which must have central +direction, since it is so consistent! When I remember the recent +sequence of world events and the part played by that Church, the attack +upon the innocent Dreyfus, the refusal to support reform in the Congo, +and finally the obvious leaning towards the Central Powers who were +clearly doomed to lose, one would think that it was ruled by a Council +of lunatics. These matters bear no relation to faith or dogma, so that +one wonders that the sane Catholics have not risen in protest. No doubt +the better class laymen are ahead of the clergy in this as in other +religious organisations. I cannot forget how the Duke of Norfolk sent me +a cheque for the Congo Reform Movement at the very time when we could +not get the Catholic Church to line up with the other sects at a Reform +Demonstration at the Albert Hall. In this country also there were many +brave and loyal Catholics who took their own line against Cardinal +Mannix upon the question of conscription, when that Cardinal did all +that one man could do to bring about the defeat of the free nations in +the great war. How he could face an American audience afterwards, or how +such an audience could tolerate him, is hard to understand. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + More English than the English.--A day in the Bush.--Immigration.--A + case of spirit return.--A Seance.--Geelong.--The lava + plain.--Good-nature of General Ryrie.--Bendigo.--Down a gold + mine.--Prohibition v. Continuance.--Mrs. Knight + MacLellan.--Nerrin.--A wild drive.--Electric shearing.--Rich sheep + stations.--Cockatoo farmers.--Spinnifex and Mallee.--Rabbits.--The + great marsh. + + +In some ways the Australians are more English than the English. We have +been imperceptibly Americanised, while our brethren over the sea have +kept the old type. The Australian is less ready to show emotion, cooler +in his bearing, more restrained in applause, more devoted to personal +liberty, keener on sport, and quieter in expression (as witness the +absence of scare lines in the papers) than our people are. Indeed, they +remind me more of the Scotch than the English, and Melbourne on a +Sunday, without posts, or Sunday papers, or any amenity whatever, is +like the Edinburgh of my boyhood. Sydney is more advanced. There are +curious anomalies in both towns. Their telephone systems are so bad that +they can only be balanced against each other, for they are in a class by +themselves. One smiles when one recollects that one used to grumble at +the London lines. On the other hand the tramway services in both towns +are wonderful, and so continuous that one never hastens one's step to +catch a tram since another comes within a minute. The Melbourne trams +have open bogey cars in front, which make a drive a real pleasure. + +One of our pleasant recollections in the early days of our Melbourne +visit was a day in the bush with Mr. Henry Stead and his wife. My +intense admiration for the moral courage and energy of the father made +it easy for me to form a friendship with his son, who has shown the +family qualities by the able way in which he has founded and conducted +an excellent journal, _Stead's Monthly_. Australia was lucky ever to get +such an immigrant as that, for surely an honest, fearless and +clear-headed publicist is the most valuable man that a young country, +whose future is one long problem play, could import. We spent our day in +the Dandenong Hills, twenty miles from Melbourne, in a little hostel +built in a bush clearing and run by one Lucas, of good English cricket +stock, his father having played for Sussex. On the way we passed Madame +Melba's place at Lilydale, and the wonderful woods with their strange +tree-ferns seemed fit cover for such a singing bird. Coming back in +Stead's light American car we tried a short cut down roads which proved +to be almost impossible. A rather heavier car ahead of us, with two +youths in it, got embedded in the mud, and we all dismounted to heave it +out. There suddenly appeared on the lonely road an enormous coloured +man; he looked like a cross between negro and black fellow. He must +have lived in some hut in the woods, but the way his huge form suddenly +rose beside us was quite surprising. He stood in gloomy majesty +surveying our efforts, and repeating a series of sentences which +reminded one of German exercises. "I have no jack. I had a jack. Some +one has taken my jack. This is called a road. It is not a road. There is +no road." We finally levered out the Australian car, for which, by the +way, neither occupant said a word of thanks, and then gave the black +giant a shilling, which he received as a keeper takes his toll. On +looking back I am not sure that this slough of despond is not carefully +prepared by this negro, who makes a modest income by the tips which he +gets from the unfortunates who get bogged in it. No keeper ever darted +out to a trap quicker than he did when the car got stuck. + +Stead agreed with me that the Australians do not take a big enough view +of their own destiny. They--or the labour party, to be more exact--are +inclined to buy the ease of the moment at the cost of the greatness of +their continental future. They fear immigration lest it induce +competition and pull down prices. It is a natural attitude. And yet that +little fringe of people on the edge of that huge island can never +adequately handle it. It is like an enormous machine with a six +horsepower engine to drive it. I have a great sympathy with their desire +to keep the British stock as pure as possible. But the land needs the +men, and somewhere they must be found. I cannot doubt that they would +become loyal subjects of the Empire which had adopted them. I have +wondered sometimes whether in Lower California and the warmer States of +the Union there may not be human material for Australia. Canada has +received no more valuable stock than from the American States, so it +might be that another portion of the Union would find the very stamp of +man that Queensland and the north require. The American likes a big +gamble and a broad life with plenty of elbow-room. Let him bring his +cotton seeds over to semi-tropical Australia and see what he can make of +it there. + +To pass suddenly to other-worldly things, which are my mission. People +never seem to realise the plain fact that one positive result must +always outweigh a hundred negative ones. It only needs one single case +of spirit return to be established, and there is no more to be said. +Incidentally, how absurd is the position of those wiseacres who say +"nine-tenths of the phenomena are fraud." Can they not see that if they +grant us one-tenth, they grant us our whole contention? + +These remarks are elicited by a case which occurred in 1883 in +Melbourne, and which should have converted the city as surely as if an +angel had walked down Collins Street. Yet nearly forty years later I +find it as stagnant and material as any city I have ever visited. The +facts are these, well substantiated by documentary and official +evidence. Mr. Junor Browne, a well-known citizen, whose daughter +afterwards married Mr. Alfred Deakin, subsequently Premier, had two +sons, Frank and Hugh. Together with a seaman named Murray they went out +into the bay in their yacht the "Iolanthe," and they never returned. The +father was fortunately a Spiritualist and upon the second day of their +absence, after making all normal inquiries, he asked a sensitive, Mr. +George Spriggs, formerly of Cardiff, if he would trace them. Mr. Spriggs +collected some of the young men's belongings, so as to get their +atmosphere, and then he was able by psychometry to give an account of +their movements, the last which he could see of them being that they +were in trouble upon the yacht and that confusion seemed to reign aboard +her. Two days later, as no further news was brought in, the Browne +family held a seance, Mr. Spriggs being the medium. He fell into trance +and the two lads, who had been trained in spiritual knowledge and knew +the possibilities, at once came through. They expressed their contrition +to their mother, who had desired them not to go, and they then gave a +clear account of the capsizing of the yacht, and how they had met their +death, adding that they had found themselves after death in the exact +physical conditions of happiness and brightness which their father's +teaching had led them to expect. They brought with them the seaman +Murray, who also said a few words. Finally Hugh, speaking through the +medium, informed Mr. Browne that Frank's arm and part of his clothing +had been torn off by a fish. + +"A shark?" asked Mr. Browne. + +"Well, it was not like any shark I have seen." + +Mark the sequel. Some weeks later a large shark of a rare deep-sea +species, unknown to the fishermen, and quite unlike the ordinary blue +shark with which the Brownes were familiar, was taken at Frankston, +about twenty-seven miles from Melbourne. Inside it was found the bone of +a human arm, and also a watch, some coins, and other articles which had +belonged to Frank Browne. These facts were all brought out in the papers +at the time, and Mr. Browne put much of it on record in print before the +shark was taken, or any word of the missing men had come by normal +means. The facts are all set forth in a little book by Mr. Browne +himself, called "A Rational Faith." What have fraudulent mediums and all +the other decoys to do with such a case as that, and is it not perfectly +convincing to any man who is not perverse? Personally, I value it not so +much for the evidence of survival, since we have that so complete +already, but for the detailed account given by the young men of their +new conditions, so completely corroborating what so many young officers, +cut off suddenly in the war, have said of their experience. "Mother, if +you could see how happy we are, and the beautiful home we are in, you +would not weep except for joy. I feel so light in my spiritual body and +have no pain, I would not exchange this life for earth life even it were +in my power. Poor spirits without number are waiting anxiously to +communicate with their friends when an opportunity is offered." The +young Brownes had the enormous advantage of the education they had +received from their father, so that they instantly understood and +appreciated the new conditions. + +On October 8th we had a seance with Mrs. Hunter, a pleasant middle-aged +woman, with a soft South of England accent. Like so many of our mediums +she had little sign of education in her talk. It does not matter in +spiritual things, though it is a stumbling block to some inquirers. +After all, how much education had the apostles? I have no doubt they +were very vulgar provincial people from the average Roman point of view. +But they shook the world none the less. Most of our educated people have +got their heads so crammed with things that don't matter that they have +no room for the things that do matter. There was no particular success +at our sitting, but I have heard that the medium is capable of better +things. + +On October 13th I had my first experience of a small town, for I went to +Geelong and lectured there. It was an attentive and cultured audience, +but the hall was small and the receipts could hardly have covered the +expenses. However, it is the press report and the local discussion which +really matter. I had little time to inspect Geelong, which is a +prosperous port with 35,000 inhabitants. What interested me more was the +huge plain of lava which stretches around it and connects it with +Melbourne. This plain is a good hundred miles across, and as it is of +great depth one can only imagine that there must be monstrous cavities +inside the earth to correspond with the huge amount extruded. Here and +there one sees stunted green cones which are the remains of the +volcanoes which spewed up all this stuff. The lava has disintegrated on +the surface to the extent of making good arable soil, but the harder +bits remain unbroken, so that the surface is covered with rocks, which +are used to build up walls for the fields after the Irish fashion. Every +here and there a peak of granite has remained as an island amid the +lava, to show what was there before the great outflow. Eruptions appear +to be caused by water pouring in through some crack and reaching the +heated inside of the earth where the water is turned to steam, expands, +and so gains the force to spread destruction. If this process went on it +is clear that the whole sea might continue to pour down the crack until +the heat had been all absorbed by the water. I have wondered whether the +lava may not be a clever healing process of nature, by which this soft +plastic material is sent oozing out in every direction with the idea +that it may find the crack and then set hard and stop it up. Wild +speculation no doubt, but the guess must always precede the proof. + +The Australians are really a very good-natured people. It runs through +the whole race, high and low. A very exalted person, the Minister of +War, shares our flat in the hotel, his bedroom being imbedded among our +rooms. This is General Sir Granville Ryrie, a famous hero of Palestine, +covered with wounds and medals--a man, too, of great dignity of bearing. +As I was dressing one morning I heard some rather monotonous whistling +and, forgetting the very existence of the General, and taking it for +granted that it was my eldest boy Denis, I put my head out and said, +"Look here, old chap, consider other people's nerves and give up that +rotten habit of whistling before breakfast." Imagine my feelings when +the deep voice of the General answered, "All right, Sir Arthur, I will!" +We laughed together over the incident afterwards, and I told him that he +had furnished me with one more example of Australian good humour for my +notes. + +On October 13th I was at the prosperous 50,000 population town of +Bendigo, which every one, except the people on the spot, believes to +have been named after the famous boxer. This must surely be a world +record, for so far as my memory serves, neither a Grecian Olympic +athletic, nor a Roman Gladiator, nor a Byzantine Charioteer, has ever +had a city for a monument. Borrow, who looked upon a good honest +pugilist as the pick of humanity, must have rejoiced in it. Is not +valour the basis of all character, and where shall we find greater +valour than theirs? Alas, that most of them began and ended there! It is +when the sage and the saint build on the basis of the fighter that you +have the highest to which humanity can attain. + +I had a full hall at Bendigo, and it was packed, I am told, by real +old-time miners, for, of course, Bendigo is still the centre of the gold +mining industry. Mr. Smythe told me that it was quite a sight to see +those rows of deeply-lined, bearded faces listening so intently to what +I said of that destiny which is theirs as well as mine. I never had a +better audience, and it was their sympathy which helped me through, for +I was very weary that night. But however weary you may be, when you +climb upon the platform to talk about this subject, you may be certain +that you will be less weary when you come off. That is my settled +conviction after a hundred trials. + +On the morning after my lecture I found myself half a mile nearer to +dear Old England, for I descended the Unity mine, and they say that the +workings extend to that depth. Perhaps I was not at the lowest level, +but certainly it was a long journey in the cage, and reminded me of my +friend Bang's description of the New York elevator, when he said that +the distance to his suburban villa and his town flat was the same, but +the one was horizontal and the other perpendicular. + +It was a weird experience that peep into the profound depths of the +great gold mine. Time was when the quartz veins were on the surface for +the poor adventurer to handle. Now they have been followed underground, +and only great companies and costly machinery can win it. Always it is +the same white quartz vein with the little yellow specks and threads +running through it. We were rattled down in pitch darkness until we came +to a stop at the end of a long passage dimly lit by an occasional +guttering candle. Carrying our own candles, and clad in miner's costume +we crept along with bent heads until we came suddenly out into a huge +circular hall which might have sprung from Dore's imagination. The +place was draped with heavy black shadows, but every here and there was +a dim light. Each light showed where a man was squatting toad-like, a +heap of broken debris in front of him, turning it over, and throwing +aside the pieces with clear traces of gold. These were kept for special +treatment, while the rest of the quartz was passed in ordinary course +through the mill. These scattered heaps represented the broken stuff +after a charge of dynamite had been exploded in the quartz vein. It was +strange indeed to see these squatting figures deep in the bowels of the +earth, their candles shining upon their earnest faces and piercing eyes, +and to reflect that they were striving that the great exchanges of +London and New York might be able to balance with bullion their output +of paper. This dim troglodyte industry was in truth the centre and +mainspring of all industries, without which trade would stop. Many of +the men were from Cornwall, the troll among the nations, where the tools +of the miner are still, as for two thousand years, the natural heritage +of the man. Dr. Stillwell, the geologist of the company, and I had a +long discussion as to where the gold came from, but the only possible +conclusion was that nobody knew. We know now that the old alchemists +were perfectly right and that one metal may change into another. Is it +possible that under some conditions a mineral may change into a metal? +Why should quartz always be the matrix? Some geological Darwin will come +along some day and we shall get a great awakening, for at present we +are only disguising our own ignorance in this department of knowledge. I +had always understood that quartz was one of the old igneous primeval +rocks, and yet here I saw it in thin bands, sandwiched in between clays +and slates and other water-borne deposits. The books and the strata +don't agree. + +These smaller towns, like the Metropolis itself, are convulsed with the +great controversy between Prohibition and Continuance, no reasonable +compromise between the two being suggested. Every wall displays posters, +on one side those very prosperous-looking children who demand that some +restraint be placed upon their daddy, and on the other hair-raising +statements as to the financial results of restricting the publicans. To +the great disgust of every decent man they have run the Prince into it, +and some remark of his after his return to England has been used by the +liquor party. It is dangerous for royalty to be jocose in these days, +but this was a particularly cruel example of the exploitation of a +harmless little joke. If others felt as I did I expect it cost the +liquor interest many a vote. + +We had another seance, this time with Mrs. Knight MacLellan, after my +return from Bendigo. She is a lady who has grown grey in the service of +the cult, and who made a name in London when she was still a child by +her mediumistic powers. We had nothing of an evidential character that +evening save that one lady who had recently lost her son had his +description and an apposite message given. It was the first of several +tests which we were able to give this lady, and before we left Melbourne +she assured us that she was a changed woman and her sorrow for ever +gone. + +On October 18th began a very delightful experience, for my wife and I, +leaving our party safe in Melbourne, travelled up country to be the +guests of the Hon. Agar Wynne and his charming wife at their station of +Nerrin-Nerrin in Western Victoria. It is about 140 miles from Melbourne, +and as the trains are very slow, the journey was not a pleasant one. But +that was soon compensated for in the warmth of the welcome which awaited +us. Mr. Agar Wynne was Postmaster-General of the Federal Government, and +author of several improvements, one of which, the power of sending long +letter-telegrams at low rates during certain hours was a triumph of +common sense. For a shilling one could send quite a long communication +to the other end of the Continent, but it must go through at the time +when the telegraph clerk had nothing else to do. + +It was interesting to us to find ourselves upon an old-established +station, typical of the real life of Australia, for cities are much the +same the world over. Nerrin had been a sheep station for eighty years, +but the comfortable verandahed bungalow house, with every convenience +within it, was comparatively modern. What charmed us most, apart from +the kindness of our hosts, was a huge marsh or lagoon which extended for +many miles immediately behind the house, and which was a bird +sanctuary, so that it was crowded with ibises, wild black swans, geese, +ducks, herons and all sorts of fowl. We crept out of our bedroom in the +dead of the night and stood under the cloud-swept moon listening to the +chorus of screams, hoots, croaks and whistles coming out of the vast +expanse of reeds. It would make a most wonderful hunting ground for a +naturalist who was content to observe and not to slay. The great morass +of Nerrin will ever stand out in our memories. + +Next day we were driven round the borders of this wonderful marsh, Mr. +Wynne, after the Australian fashion, taking no note of roads, and going +right across country with alarming results to anyone not used to it. +Finally, the swaying and rolling became so terrific that he was himself +thrown off the box seat and fell down between the buggy and the front +wheel, narrowly escaping a very serious accident. He was able to show us +the nests and eggs which filled the reed-beds, and even offered to drive +us out into the morass to inspect them, a proposal which was rejected by +the unanimous vote of a full buggy. I never knew an answer more +decidedly in the negative. As we drove home we passed a great gum tree, +and half-way up the trunk was a deep incision where the bark had been +stripped in an oval shape some four foot by two. It was where some +savage in days of old had cut his shield. Such a mark outside a modern +house with every amenity of cultured life is an object lesson of how two +systems have over-lapped, and how short a time it is since this great +continent was washed by a receding wave, ere the great Anglo-Saxon tide +came creeping forward. + +Apart from the constant charm of the wild life of the marsh there did +not seem to be much for the naturalist around Nerrin. Opossums bounded +upon the roof at night and snakes were not uncommon. A dangerous +tiger-snake was killed on the day of our arrival. I was amazed also at +the size of the Australian eels. A returned soldier had taken up fishing +as a trade, renting a water for a certain time and putting the contents, +so far as he could realise them, upon the market. It struck me that +after this wily digger had passed that way there would not be much for +the sportsman who followed him. But the eels were enormous. He took a +dozen at a time from his cunning eel-pots, and not one under six pounds. +I should have said that they were certainly congers had I seen them in +England. + +I wonder whether all this part of the country has not been swept by a +tidal wave at some not very remote period. It is a low coastline with +this great lava plain as a hinterland, and I can see nothing to prevent +a big wave even now from sweeping the civilisation of Victoria off the +planet, should there be any really great disturbance under the Pacific. +At any rate, it is my impression that it has actually occurred once +already, for I cannot otherwise understand the existence of great +shallow lakes of salt water in these inland parts. Are they not the +pools left behind by that terrible tide? There are great banks of sand, +too, here and there on the top of the lava which I can in no way +account for unless they were swept here in some tremendous world-shaking +catastrophe which took the beach from St. Kilda and threw it up at +Nerrin. God save Australia from such a night as that must have been if +my reading of the signs be correct. + + Illustration: A TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN BACK-COUNTRY SCENE. By H. J. + Johnstone, a great painter who died unknown. (Painting in Adelaide + National Gallery.) + +One of the sights of Nerrin is the shearing of the sheep by electric +machinery. These sheep are merinos, which have been bred as +wool-producers to such an extent that they can hardly see, and the wool +grows thick right down to their hoofs. The large stately creature is a +poor little shadow when his wonderful fleece has been taken from him. +The electric clips with which the operation is performed, are, I am +told, the invention of a brother of Garnet Wolseley, who worked away at +the idea, earning the name of being a half-crazy crank, until at last +the invention materialised and did away with the whole slow and clumsy +process of the hand-shearer. It is not, however, a pleasant process to +watch even for a man, far less a sensitive woman, for the poor creatures +get cut about a good deal in the process. The shearer seizes a sheep, +fixes him head up between his knees, and then plunges the swiftly-moving +clippers into the thick wool which covers the stomach. With wonderful +speed he runs it along and the creature is turned out of its covering, +and left as bare as a turkey in a poulterer's window, but, alas, its +white and tender skin is too often gashed and ripped with vivid lines of +crimson by the haste and clumsiness of the shearer. It was worse, they +say, in the days of the hand-shearer. I am bound to say, however, that +the creature makes no fuss about it, remains perfectly still, and does +not appear to suffer any pain. Nature is often kinder than we know, even +to her most humble children, and some soothing and healing process seems +to be at work. + +The shearers appear to be a rough set of men, and spend their whole time +moving in gangs from station to station, beginning up in the far north +and winding up on the plains of South Australia. They are complete +masters of the situation, having a powerful union at their back. They +not only demand and receive some two pounds a day in wages, but they +work or not by vote, the majority being able to grant a complete +holiday. It is impossible to clip a wet sheep, so that after rain there +is an interval of forced idleness, which may be prolonged by the vote of +the men. They work very rapidly, however, when they are actually at it, +and the man who tallies most fleeces, called "the ringer," receives a +substantial bonus. When the great shed is in full activity it is a +splendid sight with the row of stooping figures, each embracing his +sheep, the buzz of the shears, the rush of the messengers who carry the +clip to the table, the swift movements of the sorters who separate the +perfect from the imperfect wool, and the levering and straining of the +packers who compress it all into square bundles as hard as iron with 240 +pounds in each. With fine wool at the present price of ninety-six pence +a pound it is clear that each of these cubes stands for nearly a hundred +pounds. + +They are rich men these sheep owners--and I am speaking here of my +general inquiry and not at all of Nerrin. On a rough average, with many +local exceptions, one may say that an estate bears one sheep to an acre, +and that the sheep may show a clear profit of one pound in the year. +Thus, after the first initial expense is passed, and when the flock has +reached its full, one may easily make an assessment of the owner's +income. Estates of 10,000 acres are common, and they run up to 50,000 +and 60,000 acres. They can be run so cheaply that the greater part of +income is clear profit, for when the land is barb-wired into great +enclosures no shepherds are needed, and only a boundary rider or two to +see that all is in order. These, with a few hands at lambing time, and +two or three odd-job men at the central station, make up the whole +staff. It is certainly the short cut to a fortune if one can only get +the plant running. + +Can a man with a moderate capital get a share of these good things? +Certainly he can if he have grit and a reasonable share of that luck +which must always be a factor in Nature's processes. Droughts, floods, +cyclones, etc., are like the zero at Monte Carlo, which always may turn +up to defeat the struggling gamester. I followed several cases where +small men had managed to make good. It is reckoned that the man who gets +a holding of from 300 to 500 acres is able on an average in three years +to pay off all his initial expenses and to have laid the foundations of +a career which may lead to fortune. One case was a London baker who knew +nothing of the work. He had 300 acres and had laid it out in wheat, +cows, sheep and mixed farming. He worked from morning to night, his wife +was up at four, and his child of ten was picking up stones behind the +furrow. But he was already making his L500 a year. The personal equation +was everything. One demobilised soldier was doing well. Another had come +to smash. Very often a deal is made between the small man and the large +holder, by which the latter lets the former a corner of his estate, +taking a share, say one-third, of his profits as rent. That is a plan +which suits everyone, and the landlord can gradually be bought out by +the "cockatoo farmer," as he is styled. + +There is a great wool-clip this year, and prices in London are at record +figures, so that Australia, which only retains 17 per cent. of her own +wool, should have a very large sum to her credit. But she needs it. When +one considers that the debt of this small community is heavier now than +that of Great Britain before the war, one wonders how she can ever win +through. But how can anyone win through? I don't think we have fairly +realised the financial problem yet, and I believe that within a very few +years there will be an International Council which will be compelled to +adopt some such scheme as the one put forward by my friend, Mr. +Stilwell, under the name of "The Great Plan." This excellent idea was +that every nation should reduce its warlike expenditure to an absolute +minimum, that the difference between this minimum and the 1914 pre-war +standard should be paid every year to a central fund, and that +international bonds be now drawn upon the security of that fund, +anticipating not its present amount but what it will represent in fifty +years' time. It is, in fact, making the future help the present, exactly +as an estate which has some sudden great call upon it might reasonably +anticipate or mortgage its own development. I believe that the salvation +of the world may depend upon some such plan, and that the Council of the +League of Nations is the agency by which it could be made operative. + +Australia has had two plants which have been a perfect curse to her as +covering the land and offering every impediment to agriculture. They are +the Spinnifex in the West and the Mallee scrub in the East. The latter +was considered a hopeless proposition, and the only good which could be +extracted from it was that the root made an ideal fire, smouldering long +and retaining heat. Suddenly, however, a genius named Lascelles +discovered that this hopeless Mallee land was simply unrivalled for +wheat, and his schemes have now brought seven million acres under the +plough. This could hardly have been done if another genius, unnamed, had +not invented a peculiar and ingenious plough, the "stump-jump plough," +which can get round obstacles without breaking itself. It is not +generally known that Australia really heads the world for the ingenuity +and efficiency of her agricultural machinery. There is an inventor and +manufacturer, MacKay, of Sunshine, who represents the last word in +automatic reapers, etc. He exports them, a shipload at a time, to the +United States, which, if one considers the tariff which they have to +surmount, is proof in itself of the supremacy of the article. With this +wealth of machinery the real power of Australia in the world is greater +than her population would indicate, for a five-million nation, which, by +artificial aid, does the work normally done by ten million people, +becomes a ten-million nation so far as economic and financial strength +is concerned. + +On the other hand, Australia has her hindrances as well as her helps. +Certainly the rabbits have done her no good, though the evil is for the +moment under control. An efficient rabbiter gets a pound a day, and he +is a wise insurance upon any estate, for the creatures, if they get the +upper-hand, can do thousands of pounds' worth of damage. This damage +takes two shapes. First, they eat on all the grass and leave nothing at +all for the sheep. Secondly, they burrow under walls, etc., and leave +the whole place an untidy ruin. Little did the man who introduced the +creature into Australia dream how the imprecations of a continent would +descend upon him. + +Alas! that we could not linger at Nerrin; but duty was calling at +Melbourne. Besides, the days of the Melbourne Cup were at hand, and not +only was Mr. Wynne a great pillar of the turf, but Mr. Osborne, owner of +one of the most likely horses in the race, was one of the house-party. +To Melbourne therefore we went. We shall always, however, be able in our +dreams to revisit that broad verandah, the low hospitable facade, the +lovely lawn with its profusion of scented shrubs, the grove of towering +gum trees, where the opossums lurked, and above all the great marsh +where with dark clouds drifting across the moon we had stolen out at +night to hear the crying of innumerable birds. That to us will always be +the real Australia. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + The Melbourne Cup.--Psychic healing.--M. J. Bloomfield.--My own + experience.--Direct healing.--Chaos and Ritual.--Government House + Ball.--The Rescue Circle again.--Sitting with Mrs. Harris.--A good + test case.--Australian botany.--The land of myrtles.--English + cricket team.--Great final meeting in Melbourne. + + +It was the week of weeks in Melbourne when we returned from Nerrin, and +everything connected with my mission was out of the question. When the +whole world is living vividly here and now there is no room for the +hereafter. Personally, I fear I was out of sympathy with it all, though +we went to the Derby, where the whole male and a good part of the female +population of Melbourne seemed to be assembled, reinforced by +contingents from every State in the Federation. A fine handsome body of +people they are when you see them _en masse_, strong, solid and capable, +if perhaps a little lacking in those finer and more spiritual graces +which come with a more matured society. The great supply of animal food +must have its effect upon the mind as well as the body of a nation. Lord +Forster appeared at the races, and probably, as an all round sportsman, +took a genuine interest, but the fate of the Governor who did not take +an interest would be a rather weary one--like that kind-hearted Roman +Emperor, Claudius, if I remember right, who had to attend the +gladiatorial shows, but did his business there so as to distract his +attention from the arena. We managed to get out of attending the famous +Melbourne Cup, and thereby found the St. Kilda Beach deserted for once, +and I was able to spend a quiet day with my wife watching the children +bathe and preparing for the more strenuous times ahead. + +One psychic subject which has puzzled me more than any other, is that of +magnetic healing. All my instincts as a doctor, and all the traditional +teaching of the profession, cry out against unexplained effects, and the +opening which their acceptance must give to the quack. The man who has +paid a thousand pounds for his special knowledge has a natural distaste +when he sees a man who does not know the subclavian artery from the +pineal gland, effecting or claiming to effect cures on some quite +unconventional line. And yet ... and yet! + +The ancients knew a great deal which we have forgotten, especially about +the relation of one body to another. What did Hippocrates mean when he +said, "The affections suffered by the body the soul sees with shut +eyes?" I will show you exactly what he means. My friend, M. J. +Bloomfield, as unselfish a worker for truth as the world can show, tried +for nearly two years to develop the medical powers of a clairvoyant. +Suddenly the result was attained, without warning. He was walking with a +friend in Collins Street laughing over some joke. In an instant the +laugh was struck from his lips. A man and woman were walking in front, +their backs towards Bloomfield. To his amazement he saw the woman's +inner anatomy mapped out before him, and especially marked a rounded +mass near the liver which he felt intuitively should not be there. His +companion rallied him on his sudden gravity, and still more upon the +cause of it, when it was explained. Bloomfield was so certain, however, +that the vision was for a purpose, that he accosted the couple, and +learned that the woman was actually about to be operated on for cancer. +He reassured them, saying that the object seemed clearly defined and not +to have widespread roots as a cancer might have. He was asked to be +present at the operation, pointed out the exact place where he had seen +the growth, and saw it extracted. It was, as he had said, innocuous. +With this example in one's mind the words of Hippocrates begin to assume +a very definite meaning. I believe that the surgeon was so struck by the +incident that he was most anxious that Bloomfield should aid him +permanently in his diagnoses. + +I will now give my own experience with Mr. Bloomfield. Denis had been +suffering from certain pains, so I took him round as a test case. +Bloomfield, without asking the boy any questions, gazed at him for a +couple of minutes. He then said that the pains were in the stomach and +head, pointing out the exact places. The cause, he said, was some slight +stricture in the intestine and he proceeded to tell me several facts of +Denis's early history which were quite correct, and entirely beyond his +normal knowledge. I have never in all my experience of medicine known so +accurate a diagnosis. + +Another lady, whom I knew, consulted him for what she called a "medical +reading." Without examining her in any way he said: "What a peculiar +throat you have! It is all pouched inside." She admitted that this was +so, and that doctors in London had commented upon it. By his clairvoyant +gift he could see as much as they with their laryngoscopes. + +Mr. Bloomfield has never accepted any fees for his remarkable gifts. +Last year he gave 3,000 consultations. I have heard of mediums with +similar powers in England, but I had never before been in actual contact +with one. With all my professional prejudices I am bound to admit that +they have powers, just as Braid and Esdaile, the pioneers of hypnotism, +had powers, which must sooner or later be acknowledged. + +There are, as I understand it, at least two quite different forms of +psychic healing. In such cases as those quoted the result may be due +only to subtle powers of the human organism which some have developed +and others have not. The clairvoyance and the instinctive knowledge may +both belong to the individual. In the other cases, however, there are +the direct action and advice of a wise spirit control, a deceased +physician usually, who has added to his worldly stock of knowledge. He +can, of course, only act through a medium--and just there, alas, is the +dangerous opening for fraud and quackery. But if anyone wishes to study +the operation at its best let him read a tiny book called "One thing I +know," which records the cure of the writer, the sister of an Anglican +canon, when she had practically been given up by doctors of this world +after fifteen years of bed, but was rescued by the ministrations of Dr. +Beale, a physician on the other side. Dr. Beale received promotion to a +higher sphere in the course of the treatment, which was completed by his +assistant and successor. It is a very interesting and convincing +narrative. + +We were invited to another spiritual meeting at the Auditorium. +Individuality runs riot sometimes in our movement. On this occasion a +concert had been mixed up with a religious service and the effect was +not good, though the musical part of the proceedings disclosed one young +violinist, Master Hames, who should, I think, make a name in the world. +I have always been against ritual, and yet now that I see the effect of +being without it I begin to understand that some form of it, however +elastic, is necessary. The clairvoyance was good, if genuine, but it +offends me to see it turned off and on like a turn at a music hall. It +is either nonsense or the holy of holies and mystery of mysteries. +Perhaps it was just this conflict between the priest with his ritual and +the medium without any, which split the early Christian Church, and +ended in the complete victory of the ritual, which meant the extinction +not only of the medium but of the living, visible, spiritual forces +which he represented. Flowers, music, incense, architecture, all tried +to fill the gap, but the soul of the thing had gone out of it. It must, +I suppose, have been about the end of the third century that the process +was completed, and the living thing had set into a petrifaction. That +would be the time no doubt when, as already mentioned, special +correctors were appointed to make the gospel texts square with the +elaborate machinery of the Church. Only now does the central fire begin +to glow once more through the ashes which have been heaped above it. + +We attended the great annual ball at the Government House, where the +Governor-General and his wife were supported by the Governors of the +various States, the vice-regal party performing their own stately +quadrille with a dense hedge of spectators around them. There were few +chaperons, and nearly every one ended by dancing, so that it was a +cheerful and festive scene. My friend Major Wood had played with the +Governor-General in the same Hampshire eleven, and it was singular to +think that after many years they should meet again like this. + +Social gaieties are somewhat out of key with my present train of +thought, and I was more in my element next evening at a meeting of the +Rescue Circle under Mr. Tozer. Mr. Love was the medium and it was +certainly a very remarkable and consistent performance. Even those who +might imagine that the different characters depicted were in fact +various strands of Mr. Love's subconscious self, each dramatising its +own peculiarities, must admit that it was a very absorbing exhibition. +The circle sits round with prayer and hymns while Mr. Love falls into a +trance state. He is then controlled by the Chinaman Quong, who is a +person of such standing and wisdom in the other world, that other lower +spirits have to obey him. The light is dim, but even so the +characteristics of this Chinaman get across very clearly, the rolling +head, the sidelong, humorous glance the sly smile, the hands crossed and +buried in what should be the voluminous folds of a mandarin's gown. He +greets the company in somewhat laboured English and says he has many who +would be the better for our ministrations. "Send them along, please!" +says Mr. Tozer. The medium suddenly sits straight and his whole face +changes into an austere harshness. "What is this ribald nonsense?" he +cries. "Who are you, friend?" says Tozer. "My name is Mathew Barret. I +testified in my life to the Lamb and to Him crucified. I ask again: What +is this ribald nonsense?" "It is not nonsense, friend. We are here to +help you and to teach you that you are held down and punished for your +narrow ideas, and that you cannot progress until they are more +charitable." "What I preached in life I still believe." "Tell us, +friend, did you find it on the other side as you had preached?" "What do +you mean?" "Well, did you, for example, see Christ?" There was an +embarrassed silence. "No, I did not." "Have you seen the devil?" "No, I +have not." "Then, bethink you, friend, that there may be truth in what +we teach." "It is against all that I have preached." A moment later the +Chinaman was back with his rolling head and his wise smile. "He good +man--stupid man. He learn in time. Plenty time before him." + +We had a wonderful succession of "revenants." One was a very dignified +Anglican, who always referred to the Control as "this yellow person." +Another was an Australian soldier. "I never thought I'd take my orders +from a 'Chink,'" said he, "but he says 'hist!' and by gum you've got to +'hist' and no bloomin' error." Yet another said he had gone down in the +_Monmouth_. "Can you tell me anything of the action?" I asked. "We never +had a chance. It was just hell." There was a world of feeling in his +voice. He was greatly amused at their "sky-pilot," as he called the +chaplain, and at his confusion when he found the other world quite +different to what he had depicted. A terrifying Ghurkha came along, who +still thought he was in action and charged about the circle, upsetting +the medium's chair, and only yielding to a mixture of force and +persuasion. There were many others, most of whom returned thanks for the +benefit derived from previous meetings. "You've helped us quite a lot," +they said. Between each the old Chinese sage made comments upon the +various cases, a kindly, wise old soul, with just a touch of mischievous +humour running through him. We had an exhibition of the useless +apostolic gift of tongues during the evening, for two of the ladies +present broke out into what I was informed was the Maori language, +keeping up a long and loud conversation. I was not able to check it, but +it was certainly a coherent language of some sort. In all this there +was nothing which one could take hold of and quote as absolutely and +finally evidential, and yet the total effect was most convincing. I have +been in touch with some Rescue Circles, however, where the identity of +the "patients," as we may call them, was absolutely traced. + +As I am on the subject of psychic experiences I may as well carry on, so +that the reader who is out of sympathy may make a single skip of the +lot. Mrs. Susanna Harris, the American voice-medium, who is well known +in London, had arrived here shortly after ourselves, and gave us a +sitting. Mrs. Harris's powers have been much discussed, for while on the +one hand she passed a most difficult test in London, where, with her +mouth full of coloured water, she produced the same voice effects as on +other occasions, she had no success in Norway when she was examined by +their Psychic Research Committee; but I know how often these +intellectuals ruin their own effects by their mental attitude, which +acts like those anti-ferments which prevent a chemical effervescence. We +must always get back to the principle, however, that one positive result +is more important than a hundred negative ones--just as one successful +demonstration in chemistry makes up for any number of failures. We +cannot command spirit action, and we can only commiserate with, not +blame, the medium who does not receive it when it is most desired. +Personally I have sat four times with Mrs. Harris and I have not the +faintest doubt that on each of these occasions I got true psychic +results, though I cannot answer for what happens in Norway or +elsewhere. + + Illustration: AT MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, NOVEMBER 12TH, 1920. + + +Shortly after her arrival in Melbourne she gave us a seance in our +private room at the hotel, no one being present save at my invitation. +There were about twelve guests, some of whom had no psychic experience, +and I do not think there was one of them who did not depart convinced +that they had been in touch with preternatural forces. There were two +controls, Harmony, with a high girlish treble voice, and a male control +with a strong decisive bass. I sat next to Mrs. Harris, holding her hand +in mine, and I can swear to it that again and again she spoke to me +while the other voices were conversing with the audience. Harmony is a +charming little creature, witty, friendly and innocent. I am quite ready +to consider the opinion expressed by the Theosophists that such controls +as Harmony with Mrs. Harris, Bella with Mrs. Brittain, Feda with Mrs. +Leonard, and others are in reality nature-spirits who have never lived +in the flesh but take an intelligent interest in our affairs and are +anxious to help us. The male control, however, who always broke in with +some final clinching remark in a deep voice, seemed altogether human. + +Whilst these two controls formed, and were the chorus of the play, the +real drama rested with the spirit voices, the same here as I have heard +them under Mrs. Wriedt, Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Powell in England, intense, +low, vibrating with emotion and with anxiety to get through. Nearly +everyone in the circle had communications which satisfied them. One +lady who had mourned her husband very deeply had the inexpressible +satisfaction of hearing his voice thanking her for putting flowers +before his photograph, a fact which no one else could know. A voice +claiming to be "Moore-Usborne Moore," came in front of me. I said, +"Well, Admiral, we never met, but we corresponded in life." He said, +"Yes, and we disagreed," which was true. Then there came a voice which +claimed to be Mr. J. Morse, the eminent pioneer of Spiritualism. I said, +"Mr. Morse, if that is you, you can tell me where we met last." He +answered, "Was it not in '_Light_' office in London?" I said, "No, +surely it was when you took the chair for me at that great meeting at +Sheffield." He answered, "Well, we lose some of our memory in passing." +As a matter of fact he was perfectly right, for after the sitting both +my wife and I remembered that I had exchanged a word or two with him as +I was coming out of _Light_ office at least a year after the Sheffield +meeting. This was a good test as telepathy was excluded. General Sir +Alfred Turner also came and said that he remembered our conversations on +earth. When I asked him whether he had found the conditions beyond the +grave as happy as he expected he answered, "infinitely more so." +Altogether I should think that not less than twenty spirits manifested +during this remarkable seance. The result may have been the better +because Mrs. Harris had been laid up in bed for a week beforehand, and +so we had her full force. I fancy that like most mediums, she habitually +overworks her wonderful powers. Such seances have been going on now for +seventy years, with innumerable witnesses of credit who will testify, as +I have done here, that all fraud or mistake was out of the question. And +still the men of no experience shake their heads. I wonder how long they +will succeed in standing between the world and the consolation which God +has sent us. + +There is one thing very clear about mediumship and that is that it bears +no relation to physical form. Mrs. Harris is a very large lady, tall and +Junoesque, a figure which would catch the eye in any assembly. She has, +I believe, a dash of the mystic Red Indian blood in her, which may be +connected with her powers. Bailey, on the other hand, is a little, +ginger-coloured man, while Campbell of Sydney, who is said to have +apport powers which equal Bailey, is a stout man, rather like the late +Corney Grain. Every shape and every quality of vessel may hold the +psychic essence. + +I spend such spare time as I have in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, +which is, I think, absolutely the most beautiful place that I have ever +seen. I do not know what genius laid them out, but the effect is a +succession of the most lovely vistas, where flowers, shrubs, large trees +and stretches of water, are combined in an extraordinary harmony. Green +swards slope down to many tinted groves, and they in turn droop over +still ponds mottled with lovely water plants. It is an instructive as +well as a beautiful place, for every tree has its visiting card attached +and one soon comes to know them. Australia is preeminently the Land of +the Myrtles, for a large proportion of its vegetation comes under this +one order, which includes the gum trees, of which there are 170 +varieties. They all shed their bark instead of their leaves, and have a +generally untidy, not to say indecent appearance, as they stand with +their covering in tatters and their white underbark shining through the +rents. There is not the same variety of species in Australia as in +England, and it greatly helps a superficial botanist like myself, for +when you have learned the ti-tree, the wild fig tree and the gum trees, +you will be on terms with nature wherever you go. New Zealand however +offers quite a fresh lot of problems. + +The Melbourne Cricket Club has made me an honorary member, so Denis and +I went down there, where we met the giant bowler, Hugh Trumble, who left +so redoubtable a name in England. As the Chela may look at the Yogi so +did Denis, with adoring eyes, gaze upon Trumble, which so touched his +kind heart that he produced a cricket ball, used in some famous match, +which he gave to the boy--a treasure which will be reverently brought +back to England. I fancy Denis slept with it that night, as he certainly +did in his pads and gloves the first time that he owned them. + +We saw the English team play Victoria, and it was pleasant to see the +well-known faces once more. The luck was all one way, for Armstrong was +on the sick list, and Armstrong is the mainstay of Victorian cricket. +Rain came at a critical moment also, and gave Woolley and Rhodes a +wicket which was impossible for a batsman. However, it was all good +practice for the more exacting games of the future. It should be a fine +eleven which contains a genius like Hobbs, backed by such men as the +bustling bulldog, Hendren, a great out-field as well as a grand bat, or +the wily, dangerous Hearne, or Douglas, cricketer, boxer, above all +warrior, a worthy leader of Englishmen. Hearne I remember as little more +than a boy, when he promised to carry on the glories of that remarkable +family, of which George and Alec were my own playmates. He has ended by +proving himself the greatest of them all. + +My long interval of enforced rest came at last to an end, when the race +fever had spent itself, and I was able to have my last great meeting at +the Town Hall. It really was a great meeting, as the photograph of it +will show. I spoke for over two hours, ending up by showing a selection +of the photographs. I dealt faithfully with the treatment given to me by +the _Argus_. I take the extract from the published account. "On this, +the last time in my life that I shall address a Melbourne audience, I +wish to thank the people for the courtesy with which we have been +received. It would, however, be hypocritical upon my part if I were to +thank the Press. A week before I entered Melbourne the _Argus_ declared +that I was an emissary of the devil (laughter). I care nothing for that. +I am out for a fight and can take any knocks that come. But the _Argus_ +refused to publish a word I said. I came 12,000 miles to give you a +message of hope and comfort, and I appeal to you to say whether three or +four gentlemen sitting in a board-room have a right to say to the people +of Melbourne, 'You shall not listen to that man nor read one word of +what he has to say.' (Cries of 'Shame!') You, I am sure, resent being +spoon-fed in such a manner." The audience showed in the most hearty +fashion that they did resent it, and they cheered loudly when I pointed +out that my remarks did not arise, as anyone could see by looking round, +from any feeling on my part that my mission had failed to gain popular +support. It was a great evening, and I have never addressed a more +sympathetic audience. The difficulty always is for my wife and myself to +escape from our kind well-wishers, and it is touching and heartening to +hear the sincere "God bless you!" which they shower upon us as we pass. + +This then was the climax of our mission in Melbourne. It was marred by +the long but unavoidable delay in the middle, but it began well and +ended splendidly. On November 13th we left the beautiful town behind us, +and embarked upon what we felt would be a much more adventurous period +at Sydney, for all we had heard showed that both our friends and our +enemies were more active in the great seaport of New South Wales. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + Great reception at Sydney.--Importance of Sydney.--Journalistic + luncheon.--A psychic epidemic.--Gregory.--Barracking.--Town Hall + reception.--Regulation of Spiritualism.--An ether apport.--Surfing + at Manly.--A challenge.--Bigoted opponents.--A disgruntled + photographer.--Outing in the Harbour.--Dr. Mildred Creed.--Leon + Gellert.--Norman Lindsay.--Bishop Leadbeater.--Our relations with + Theosophy.--Incongruities of H.P.B.--Of D.D. Home. + + +We had a wonderful reception at Sydney. I have a great shrinking from +such deputations as they catch you at the moment when you are exhausted +and unkempt after a long journey, and when you need all your energies to +collect your baggage and belongings so as to make your way to your +hotel. But on this occasion it was so hearty, and the crowd of faces +beamed such good wishes upon us that it was quite a pick-me-up to all of +us. "God bless you!" and "Thank God you have come!" reached us from all +sides. My wife, covered with flowers, was hustled off in one direction, +while I was borne away in another, and each of the children was the +centre of a separate group. Major Wood had gone off to see to the +luggage, and Jakeman was herself embedded somewhere in the crowd, so at +last I had to shout, "Where's that little girl? Where's that little +boy?" until we reassembled and were able, laden with bouquets, to reach +our carriage. The evening paper spread itself over the scene. + +"When Sir Conan Doyle, his wife and their three children arrived from +Melbourne by the express this morning, an assembly of Spiritualists +accorded them a splendid greeting. Men swung their hats high and +cheered, women danced in their excitement, and many of their number +rushed the party with rare bouquets. The excitement was at its highest, +and Sir Conan being literally carried along the platform by the pressing +crowds, when a digger arrived on the outskirts. 'Who's that?' he asked +of nobody in particular. Almost immediately an urchin replied, 'The +bloke that wrote "Sherlock Holmes."' When asked if the latter gentleman +was really and irretrievably dead the author of his being remarked, +'Well, you can say that a coroner has never sat upon him.'" + +It was a grand start, and we felt at once in a larger and more vigorous +world, where, if we had fiercer foes, we at least had warm and +well-organised friends. Better friends than those of Melbourne do not +exist, but there was a method and cohesion about Sydney which impressed +us from the first day to the last. There seemed, also, to be fewer of +those schisms which are the bane of our movement. If Wells' dictum that +organisation is death has truth in it, then we are very much alive. + +We had rooms in Petty's Hotel, which is an old-world hostel with a very +quiet, soothing atmosphere. There I was at once engaged with the usual +succession of journalists with a long list of questions which ranged +from the destiny of the human soul to the chances of the test match. +What with the constant visitors, the unpacking of our trunks, and the +settling down of the children, we were a very weary band before evening. + +I had no idea that Sydney was so great a place. The population is now +very nearly a million, which represents more than one-sixth of the whole +vast Continent. It seems a weak point of the Australian system that 41 +per cent. of the whole population dwell in the six capital cities. The +vital statistics of Sydney are extraordinarily good, for the death rate +is now only twelve per thousand per annum. Our standard in such matters +is continually rising, for I can remember the days when twenty per +thousand was reckoned to be a very good result. In every civic amenity +Sydney stands very high. Her Botanical Gardens are not so supremely good +as those of Melbourne, but her Zoo is among the very best in the world. +The animals seem to be confined by trenches rather than by bars, so that +they have the appearance of being at large. It was only after Jakeman +had done a level hundred with a child under each arm that she realised +that a bear, which she saw approaching, was not really in a state of +freedom. + +As to the natural situation of Sydney, especially its harbour, it is so +world-renowned that it is hardly necessary to allude to it. I can well +imagine that a Sydney man would grow homesick elsewhere, for he could +never find the same surroundings. The splendid landlocked bay with its +numerous side estuaries and its narrow entrance is a grand playground +for a sea-loving race. On a Saturday it is covered with every kind of +craft, from canoe to hundred-tonner. The fact that the water swarms with +sharks seems to present no fears to these strong-nerved people, and I +have found myself horrified as I watched little craft, manned by boys, +heeling over in a fresh breeze until the water was up to their gunwales. +At very long intervals some one gets eaten, but the fun goes on all the +same. + +The people of Sydney have their residences (bungalows with verandahs) +all round this beautiful bay, forming dozens of little townlets. The +system of ferry steamers becomes as important as the trams, and is +extraordinarily cheap and convenient. To Manly, for example, which lies +some eight miles out, and is a favourite watering place, the fare is +fivepence for adults and twopence for children. So frequent are the +boats that you never worry about catching them, for if one is gone +another will presently start. Thus, the whole life of Sydney seems to +converge into the Circular Quay, from which as many as half a dozen of +these busy little steamers may be seen casting off simultaneously for +one or another of the oversea suburbs. Now and then, in a real cyclone, +the service gets suspended, but it is a rare event, and there is a +supplementary, but roundabout, service of trams. + +The journalists of New South Wales gave a lunch to my wife and myself, +which was a very pleasant function. One leading journalist announced, +amid laughter, that he had actually consulted me professionally in my +doctoring days, and had lived to tell the tale, which contradicts the +base insinuation of some orator who remarked once that though I was +known to have practised, no _living_ patient of mine had ever yet been +seen. + +Nothing could have been more successful than my first lecture, which +filled the Town Hall. There were evidently a few people who had come +with intent to make a scene, but I had my audience so entirely with me, +that it was impossible to cause real trouble. One fanatic near the door +cried out, "Anti-Christ!" several times, and was then bundled out. +Another, when I described how my son had come back to me, cried out that +it was the devil, but on my saying with a laugh that such a remark +showed the queer workings of some people's minds, the people cheered +loudly in assent. Altogether it was a great success, which was repeated +in the second, and culminated in the third, when, with a hot summer day, +and the English cricketers making their debut, I still broke the record +for a Town Hall matinee. The rush was more than the officials could cope +with, and I had to stand for ten long minutes looking at the audience +before it was settled enough for me to begin. Some spiritualists in the +audience struck up "Lead, Kindly Light!" which gave the right note to +the assemblage. Mr. Smythe, with all his experience, was amazed at our +results. "This is no longer a mere success," he cried. "It is a triumph. +It is an epidemic!" Surely, it will leave some permanent good behind it +and turn the public mind from religious shadows to realities. + +We spent one restful day seeing our cricketers play New South Wales. +After a promising start they were beaten owing to a phenomenal +first-wicket stand in the second innings by Macartney and Collins, both +batsmen topping the hundred. Gregory seemed a dangerous bowler, making +the ball rise shoulder high even on that Bulli wicket, where midstump is +as much as an ordinary bowler can attain. He is a tiger of a man, +putting every ounce of his strength and inch of his great height into +every ball, with none of the artistic finesse of a Spofforth, but very +effective all the same. We have no one of the same class; and that will +win Australia the rubber unless I am--as I hope I am--a false prophet. I +was not much impressed either by the manners or by the knowledge of the +game shown by the barrackers. Every now and then, out of the mass of +people who darken the grass slopes round the ground, you hear a raucous +voice giving advice to the captain, or, perhaps, conjuring a fast bowler +to bowl at the wicket when the man is keeping a perfect length outside +the off stump and trying to serve his three slips. When Mailey went on, +because he was slow and seemed easy, they began to jeer, and, yet, you +had only to watch the batsman to see that the ball was doing a lot and +kept him guessing. One wonders why the neighbours of these bawlers +tolerate it. In England such men would soon be made to feel that they +were ill-mannered nuisances, I am bound to testify, however, that they +seem quite impartial, and that the English team had no special cause for +complaint. I may also add that, apart from this cricketing peculiarity, +which is common to all the States, the Sydney crowd is said to be one of +the most good-humoured and orderly in the world. My own observation +confirms this, and I should say that there was a good deal less +drunkenness than in Melbourne, but, perhaps the races gave me an +exaggerated impression of the latter. + +On Sunday, 28th, the spiritualists gave the pilgrims (as they called us) +a reception at the Town Hall. There was not a seat vacant, and the sight +of these 3,500 well-dressed, intelligent people must have taught the +press that the movement is not to be despised. There are at least 10,000 +professed spiritualists in Sydney, and even as a political force they +demand consideration. The seven of us were placed in the front of the +platform, and the service was very dignified and impressive. When the +great audience sang, "God hold you safely till we meet once more," it +was almost overpowering, for it is a beautiful tune, and was sung with +real feeling. In my remarks I covered a good deal of ground, but very +particularly I warned them against all worldly use of this great +knowledge, whether it be fortune telling, prophecies about races and +stocks, or any other prostitution of our subject. I also exhorted them +when they found fraud to expose it at once, as their British brethren +do, and never to trifle with truth. When I had finished, the whole +3,500 people stood up, and everyone waved a handkerchief, producing a +really wonderful scene. We can never forget it. + +Once more I must take refuge behind the local Observer. "The scene as +Sir Arthur rose will be long remembered by those who were privileged to +witness it. A sea of waving handkerchiefs confronted the speaker, +acclaiming silently and reverently the deep esteem in which he was held +by all present. Never has Sir Arthur's earnestness in his mission been +more apparent than on this occasion as he proceeded with a heart to +heart talk with the spiritualists present, offering friendly criticisms, +sound advice, and encouragement to the adherents of the great movement. + +"'He had got,' he said, 'so much into the habit of lecturing that he was +going to lecture the spiritualists.' With a flash of humour Sir Arthur +added: 'It does none of us any harm to be lectured occasionally. I am a +married man myself' (laughter). 'I would say to the spiritualists', "For +Heaven's sake keep this thing high and unspotted. Don't let it drop into +the regions of fortune telling and other things which leave such an ugly +impression on the public mind, and which we find it so difficult to +justify. Keep it in its most religious and purest aspect." At the same +time, I expressed my view that there was no reason at all why a medium +should not receive moderate payment for work done, since it is +impossible, otherwise, that he can live. + +Every solid spiritualist would, I am sure, agree with me that our whole +subject needs regulating, and is in an unsatisfactory condition. We +cannot approve of the sensation mongers who run from medium to medium +(or possibly pretended medium) with no object but excitement or +curiosity. The trouble is that you have to recognise a thing before you +can regulate it, and the public has not properly recognised us. Let them +frankly do so, and take us into counsel, and then we shall get things on +a solid basis. Personally, I would be ready to go so far as to agree +that an inquirer should take out a formal permit to consult a medium, +showing that it was done for some definite object, if in return we could +get State recognition for those mediums who were recommended as genuine +by valid spiritual authorities. My friends will think this a reactionary +proposition, but none the less I feel the need of regulation almost as +much as I do that of recognition. + +One event which occurred to me at Sydney I shall always regard as an +instance of that fostering care of which I have been conscious ever +since we set forth upon our journey. I had been over-tired, had slept +badly and had a large meeting in the evening, so that it was imperative +that I should have a nap in the afternoon. My brain was racing, however, +and I could get no rest or prospect of any. The second floor window was +slightly open behind me, and outside was a broad open space, shimmering +in the heat of a summer day. Suddenly, as I lay there, I was aware of a +very distinct pungent smell of ether, coming in waves from outside. With +each fresh wave I felt my over-excited nerves calming down as the sea +does when oil is poured upon it. Within a few minutes I was in a deep +sleep, and woke all ready for my evening's work. I looked out of the +window and tried to picture where the ether could have come from; then I +returned thanks for one more benefit received. I do not suppose that I +am alone in such interpositions, but I think that our minds are so +centred on this tiny mud patch, that we are deaf and blind to all that +impinges on us from beyond. + +Having finished in Sydney, and my New Zealand date having not yet +arrived, we shifted our quarters to Manly, upon the sea coast, about +eight miles from the town. Here we all devoted ourselves to +surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water, as is the +custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great +Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on +the sand if they catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our +restless lives. There were surf boards, and I am told that there were +men competent to ride them, but I saw none of Jack London's Sun Gods +riding in erect upon the crest of the great rollers. Alas, poor Jack +London! What right had such a man to die, he who had more vim and +passion, and knowledge of varied life than the very best of us? Apart +from all his splendid exuberance and exaggeration he had very real roots +of grand literature within him. I remember, particularly, the little +episodes of bygone days in "The Jacket." The man who wrote those could +do anything. Those whom the American public love die young. Frank +Norris, Harold Frederic, Stephen Crane, the author of "David Harum," and +now Jack London--but the greatest of these was Jack London. + +There is a grand beach at Manly, and the thundering rollers carry in +some flotsam from the great ocean. One morning the place was covered +with beautiful blue jelly-fish, like little Roman lamps with tendrils +hanging down. I picked up one of these pretty things, and was just +marvelling at its complete construction when I discovered that it was +even more complete than I supposed, for it gave me a violent sting. For +a day or two I had reason to remember my little blue castaway, with his +up-to-date fittings for keeping the stranger at a distance. + +I was baited at Sydney by a person of the name of Simpson, representing +Christianity, though I was never clear what particular branch of +religion he represented, and he was disowned by some leaders of +Christian Thought. I believe he was president of the Christian Evidence +Society. His opposition, though vigorous, and occasionally personal, was +perfectly legitimate, but his well-advertised meeting at the Town Hall +(though no charge was made for admission) was not a success. His +constant demand was that I should meet him in debate, which was, of +course, out of the question, since no debate is possible between a man +who considers a text to be final, and one who cannot take this view. My +whole energies, so much needed for my obvious work, would have been +frittered away in barren controversies had I allowed my hand to be +forced. I had learned my lesson, however, at the M'Cabe debate in +London, when I saw clearly that nothing could come from such +proceedings. On the other hand, I conceived the idea of what would be a +real test, and I issued it as a challenge in the public press. "It is +clear," I said, "that one single case of spirit return proves our whole +contention. Therefore, let the question be concentrated upon one, or, if +necessary, upon three cases. These I would undertake to prove, producing +my witnesses in the usual way. My opponent would act the part of hostile +counsel, cross-examining and criticising my facts. The case would be +decided by a majority vote of a jury of twelve, chosen from men of +standing, who pledged themselves as open-minded on the question. Such a +test could obviously only take place in a room of limited dimensions, so +that no money would be involved and truth only be at stake. That is all +that I seek. If such a test can be arranged I am ready for it, either +before I leave, or after I return from New Zealand." This challenge was +not taken up by my opponents. + +Mr. Simpson had a long tirade in the Sydney papers about the evil +religious effects of my mission, which caused me to write a reply in +which I defined our position in a way which may be instructive to +others. I said:-- + +"The tenets which we spiritualists preach and which I uphold upon the +platform are that any man who is deriving spirituality from his creed, +be that creed what it may, is learning the lesson of life. For this +reason we would not attack your creed, however repulsive it might seem +to us, so long as you and your colleagues might be getting any benefit +from it. We desire to go our own way, saying what we know to be true, +and claiming from others the same liberty of conscience and of +expression which we freely grant to them. + +"You, on the other hand, go out of your way to attack us, to call us +evil names, and to pretend that those loved ones who return to us are in +truth devils, and that our phenomena, though they are obviously of the +same sort as those which are associated with early Christianity, are +diabolical in their nature. This absurd view is put forward without a +shadow of proof, and entirely upon the supposed meaning of certain +ancient texts which refer in reality to a very different matter, but +which are strained and twisted to suit your purpose. + +"It is men like you and your colleagues who, by your parody of +Christianity and your constant exhibition of those very qualities which +Christ denounced in the Pharisees, have driven many reasonable people +away from religion and left the churches half empty. Your predecessors, +who took the same narrow view of the literal interpretation of the +Bible, were guilty of the murder of many thousands of defenceless old +women who were burned in deference to the text, 'Suffer no witch to +live.' Undeterred by this terrible result of the literal reading, you +still advocate it, although you must be well aware that polygamy, +slavery and murder can all be justified by such a course. + +"In conclusion, let me give you the advice to reconsider your position, +to be more charitable to your neighbours, and to devote your redundant +energies to combating the utter materialism which is all round you, +instead of railing so bitterly at those who are proving immortality and +the need for good living in a way which meets their spiritual wants, +even though it is foreign to yours." + +A photographer, named Mark Blow, also caused me annoyance by announcing +that my photographs were fakes, and that he was prepared to give L25 to +any charity if he could not reproduce them. I at once offered the same +sum if he could do so, and I met him by appointment at the office of the +evening paper, the editor being present to see fair play. I placed my +money on the table, but Mr. Blow did not cover it. I then produced a +packet of plates from my pocket and suggested that we go straight across +to Mr. Blow's studio and produce the photographs. He replied by asking +me a long string of questions as to the conditions under which the Crewe +photographs were produced, noting down all my answers. I then renewed my +proposition. He answered that it was absurd to expect him to produce a +spirit photograph since he did not believe in such foolish things. I +answered that I did not ask him to produce a spirit photograph, but to +fulfil his promise which was to produce a similar result upon the plate +under similar conditions. He held out that they should be his own +conditions. I pointed out that any school boy could make a half-exposed +impression upon a plate, and that the whole test lay in the conditions. +As he refused to submit to test conditions the matter fell through, as +all such foolish challenges fall through. It was equally foolish on my +part to have taken any notice of it. + +I had a conversation with Mr. Maskell, the capable Secretary of the +Sydney spiritualists, in which he described how he came out originally +from Leicester to Australia. He had at that time developed some power of +clairvoyance, but it was very intermittent. He had hesitated in his mind +whether he should emigrate to Australia, and sat one night debating it +within himself, while his little son sat at the table cutting patterns +out of paper. Maskell said to his spirit guides, mentally, "If it is +good that I go abroad give me the vision of a star. If not, let it be a +circle." He waited for half an hour or so, but no vision came, and he +was rising in disappointment when the little boy turned round and said, +"Daddy, here is a star for you," handing over one which he had just cut. +He has had no reason to regret the subsequent decision. + +We had a very quiet, comfortable, and healthy ten days at the Pacific +Hotel at Manly, which was broken only by an excursion which the Sydney +spiritualists had organised for us in a special steamer, with the +intention of showing us the glories of the harbour. Our party assembled +on Manly Pier, and the steamer was still far away when we saw the +fluttering handkerchiefs which announced that they had sighted us. It +was a long programme, including a picnic lunch, but it all went off with +great success and good feeling. It was fairly rough within the harbour, +and some of the party were sea sick, but the general good spirits rose +above such trifles, and we spent the day in goodly fellowship. On Sunday +I was asked to speak to his congregation by Mr. Sanders, a very +intelligent young Congregational Minister of Manly, far above the level +of Australasian or, indeed, British clerics. It was a novel experience +for me to be in a Nonconformist pulpit, but I found an excellent +audience, and I hope that they in turn found something comforting and +new. + +One of the most interesting men whom I met in Australia was Dr. Creed, +of the New South Wales Parliament, an elderly medical man who has held +high posts in the Government. He is blessed with that supreme gift, a +mind which takes a keen interest in everything which he meets in life. +His researches vary from the cure of diabetes and of alcoholism (both of +which he thinks that he has attained) down to the study of Australian +Aborigines and of the palaeontology of his country. I was interested to +find the very high opinion which he has of the brains of the black +fellows, and he asserts that their results at the school which is +devoted to their education are as high as with the white Australians. +They train into excellent telegraphic operators and other employments +needing quick intelligence. The increasing brain power of the human race +seems to be in the direction of originating rather than of merely +accomplishing. Many can do the latter, but only the very highest can do +the former. Dr. Creed is clear upon the fact that no very ancient +remains of any sort are to be found anywhere in Australia, which would +seem to be against the view of a Lemurian civilisation, unless the main +seat of it lay to the north where the scattered islands represent the +mountain tops of the ancient continent. Dr. Creed was one of the very +few public men who had the intelligence or the courage to admit the +strength of the spiritual position, and he assured me that he would help +in any way. + +Another man whom I was fortunate to meet was Leon Gellert, a very young +poet, who promises to be the rising man in Australia in this, the +supreme branch of literature. He served in the war, and his verses from +the front attain a very high level. His volume of war poems represents +the most notable literary achievement of recent years, and its value is +enhanced by being illustrated by Norman Lindsay, whom I look upon as one +of the greatest artists of our time. I have seen three pictures of his, +"The Goths," "Who Comes?" and "The Crucifixion of Venus," each of which, +in widely different ways, seemed very remarkable. Indeed, it is the +versatility of the man that is his charm, and now that he is turning +more and more from the material to the spiritual it is impossible to say +how high a level he may attain. Another Australian whose works I have +greatly admired is Henry Lawson, whose sketches of bush life in "Joe +Wilson" and other of his studies, remind one of a subdued Bret Harte. He +is a considerable poet also, and his war poem, "England Yet," could +hardly be matched. + +Yet another interesting figure whom I met in Sydney was Bishop +Leadbeater, formerly a close colleague of Mrs. Besant in the +Theosophical movement, and now a prelate of the so-called Liberal +Catholic Church, which aims at preserving the traditions and forms of +the old Roman Church, but supplementing them with all modern spiritual +knowledge. I fear I am utterly out of sympathy with elaborate forms, +which always in the end seem to me to take the place of facts, and to +become a husk without a kernel, but none the less I can see a definite +mission for such a church as appealing to a certain class of mind. +Leadbeater, who has suffered from unjust aspersion in the past, is a +venerable and striking figure. His claims to clairvoyant and other +occult powers are very definite, and so far as I had the opportunity of +observing him, he certainly lives the ascetic life, which the +maintenance of such power demands. His books, especially the little one +upon the Astral Plane, seem to me among the best of the sort. + +But the whole subject of Theosophy is to me a perpetual puzzle. I asked +for proofs and spiritualism has given them to me. But why should I +abandon one faith in order to embrace another one? I have done with +faith. It is a golden mist in which human beings wander in devious +tracks with many a collision. I need the white clear light of knowledge. +For that we build from below, brick upon brick, never getting beyond +the provable fact. There is the building which will last. But these +others seem to build from above downwards, beginning by the assumption +that there is supreme human wisdom at the apex. It may be so. But it is +a dangerous habit of thought which has led the race astray before, and +may again. Yet, I am struck by the fact that this ancient wisdom does +describe the etheric body, the astral world, and the general scheme +which we have proved for ourselves. But when the high priestess of the +cult wrote of this she said so much that was against all our own +spiritual experience, that we feel she was in touch with something very +different from our angels of light. Her followers appreciate that now, +and are more charitable than she, but what is the worth of her occult +knowledge if she so completely misread that which lies nearest to us, +and how can we hope that she is more correct when she speaks of that +which is at a distance? + +I was deeply attracted by the subject once, but Madame Blavatsky's +personality and record repelled me. I have read the defence, and yet +Hodgson and the Coulombs seem to me to hold the field. Could any +conspiracy be so broad that it included numerous forged letters, trap +doors cut in floors, and actually corroborative accounts in the books of +a flower seller in the bazaar? On the other hand, there is ample +evidence of real psychic powers, and of the permanent esteem of men like +Sinnett and Olcott, whom none could fail to respect. It is the attitude +of these honourable men which commends and upholds her, but sometimes +it seems hard to justify it. As an example, in the latter years of her +life she wrote a book, "The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan," in which +she describes the fearsome adventures which she and Olcott had in +certain expeditions, falling down precipices and other such escapes. +Olcott, like the honest gentleman he was, writes in his diary that there +is not a word of truth in this, and that it is pure fiction. And yet, +after this very damaging admission, in the same page he winds up, "Ah, +if the world ever comes to know who was the mighty entity, who laboured +sixty years under that quivering mask of flesh, it will repent its cruel +treatment of H. P. B., and be amazed at the depth of its ignorance." +These are the things which make it so difficult to understand either her +or the cult with which she was associated. Had she never lived these men +and women would, as it seems to me, have been the natural leaders of the +spiritualist movement, and instead of living in the intellectual +enjoyment of far-off systems they would have concentrated upon the +all-important work of teaching poor suffering humanity what is the +meaning of the dark shadow which looms upon their path. Even now I see +no reason why they should not come back to those who need them, and help +them forward upon their rocky road. + +Of course, we spiritualists are ourselves vulnerable upon the subject of +the lives of some of our mediums, but we carefully dissociate those +lives from the powers which use the physical frame of the medium for +their own purposes, just as the religious and inspired poetry of a +Verlaine may be held separate from his dissipated life. Whilst upon this +subject I may say that whilst in Australia I had some interesting +letters from a solicitor named Rymer. All students of spiritualism will +remember that when Daniel Home first came to England in the early +fifties he received great kindness from the Rymer family, who then lived +at Ealing. Old Rymer treated him entirely as one of the family. This +Bendigo Rymer was the grandson of Home's benefactor, and he had no love +for the great medium because he considered that he had acted with +ingratitude towards his people. The actual letters of his father, which +he permitted me to read, bore out this statement, and I put it on record +because I have said much in praise of Home, and the balance should be +held true. These letters, dating from about '57, show that one of the +sons of old Rymer was sent to travel upon the Continent to study art, +and that Home was his companion. They were as close as brothers, but +when they reached Florence, and Home became a personage in society +there, he drifted away from Rymer, whose letters are those of a splendid +young man. Home's health was already indifferent, and while he was laid +up in his hotel he seems to have been fairly kidnapped by a +strong-minded society lady of title, an Englishwoman living apart from +her husband. For weeks he lived at her villa, though the state of his +health would suggest that it was rather as patient than lover. What was +more culpable was that he answered the letters of his comrade very +rudely and showed no sense of gratitude for all that the family had done +for him. I have read the actual letters and confess that I was chilled +and disappointed. Home was an artist as well as a medium, the most +unstable combination possible, full of emotions, flying quickly to +extremes, capable of heroisms and self-denials, but also of vanities and +ill-humour. On this occasion the latter side of his character was too +apparent. To counteract the effect produced upon one's mind one should +read in Home's Life the letter of the Bavarian captain whom he rescued +upon the field of battle, or of the many unfortunates whom he aided with +unobtrusive charity. It cannot, however, be too often repeated--since it +is never grasped by our critics--that the actual character of a man is +as much separate from his mediumistic powers, as it would be from his +musical powers. Both are inborn gifts beyond the control of their +possessor. The medium is the telegraph instrument and the telegraph boy +united in one, but the real power is that which transmits the message, +which he only receives and delivers. The remark applies to the Fox +sisters as much as it does to Home. + +Talking about Home, it is astonishing how the adverse judgment of the +Vice-Chancellor Gifford, a materialist, absolutely ignorant of psychic +matters, has influenced the minds of men. The very materialists who +quote it, would not attach the slightest importance to the opinion of an +orthodox judge upon the views of Hume, Payne, or any free-thinker. It is +like quoting a Roman tribune against a Christian. The real facts of the +case are perfectly clear to anyone who reads the documents with care. +The best proof of how blameless Home was in the matter is that of all +the men of honour with whom he was on intimate terms--men like Robert +Chambers, Carter Hall, Lord Seaton, Lord Adare and others--not one +relaxed in their friendship after the trial. This was in 1866, but in +1868 we find these young noblemen on Christian-name terms with the man +who would have been outside the pale of society had the accusations of +his enemies been true. + +Whilst we were in Sydney, a peculiar ship, now called the "Marella," was +brought into the harbour as part of the German ship surrender. It is +commonly reported that this vessel, of very grandiose construction, was +built to conduct the Kaiser upon a triumphal progress round the world +after he had won his war. It is, however, only of 8,000 tons, and, +personally, I cannot believe that this would have had room for his +swollen head, had he indeed been the victor. All the fittings, even to +the carpet holders, are of German silver. The saloon is of pure marble, +eighty by fifty, with beautiful hand-painted landscapes. The smoke-room +is the reproduction of one in Potsdam Palace. There is a great swimming +bath which can be warmed. Altogether a very notable ship, and an index, +not only of the danger escaped, but of the danger to come, in the form +of the super-excellence of German design and manufacture. + +Our post-bag is very full, and it takes Major Wood and myself all our +time to keep up with the letters. Many of them are so wonderful that I +wish I had preserved them all, but it would have meant adding another +trunk to our baggage. There are a few samples which have been rescued. +Many people seemed to think that I was myself a wandering medium, and I +got this sort of missive: + + "DEAR SIR,--_I am very anxious to ask you a question, trusting you + will answer me. What I wish to know I have been corresponding with + a gentleman for nearly three years. From this letter can you tell + me if I will marry him. I want you to answer this as I am keeping + it strictly private and would dearly love you to answer this + message if possible, and if I will do quite right if I marry him. + Trusting to hear from you soon. Yours faithfully----._ + + _P.S.--I thoroughly believe in Spirit-ualism._" + +Here is another. + + "HONORED SIR,--_Just a few lines in limited time to ask you if you + tell the future. If so, what is your charges? Please excuse no + stamped and ad. envelope--out of stamps and in haste to catch mail. + Please excuse._" + +On the other hand, I had many which were splendidly instructive and +helpful. I was particularly struck by one series of spirit messages +which were received in automatic writing by a man living in the Bush in +North Queensland and thrown upon his own resources. They were +descriptive of life in the beyond, and were in parts extremely +corroborative of the Vale Owen messages, though they had been taken long +prior to that date. Some of the points of resemblance were so marked and +so unusual that they seem clearly to come from a common inspiration. As +an example, this script spoke of the creative power of thought in the +beyond, but added the detail that when the object to be created was +large and important a band of thinkers was required, just as a band of +workers would be here. This exactly corresponds to the teaching of Vale +Owen's guide. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + Dangerous fog.--The six photographers.--Comic + advertisements.--Beauties of Auckland.--A Christian + clergyman.--Shadows in our American relations.--The Gallipoli + Stone.--Stevenson and the Germans.--Position of De Rougemont.--Mr. + Clement Wragge.--Atlantean theories.--A strange + psychic.--Wellington the windy.--A literary Oasis.--A Maori + Seance.--Presentation. + + +My voyage to New Zealand in the _Maheno_ was pleasant and uneventful, +giving me four days in which to arrange my papers and look over the many +manuscripts which mediums, or, more often, would-be mediums, had +discharged at me as I passed. Dr. Bean, my Theosophic friend, who had +been somewhat perturbed by my view that his people were really the +officers of our movement who had deserted their army, formed an +officers' corps, and so taken the money and brains and leadership away +from the struggling masses, was waiting on the Sydney Quay, and gave me +twelve books upon his subject to mend my wicked ways, so that I was +equipped for a voyage round the world. I needed something, since I had +left my wife and family behind me in Manly, feeling that the rapid +journey through New Zealand would be too severe for them. In Mr. Carlyle +Smythe, however, I had an admirable "cobber," to use the pal phrase of +the Australian soldier. + +Mr. Smythe had only one defect as a comrade, and that was his +conversation in a fog. It was of a distinctly depressing character, as I +had occasion to learn when we ran into very thick weather among the +rocky islands which make navigation so difficult to the north of +Auckland. Between the screams of the siren I would hear a still small +voice in the bunk above me. + +"We are now somewhere near the Three Kings. It is an isolated group of +rocks celebrated for the wreck of the _Elingamite_, which went ashore on +just such a morning as this." (Whoo-ee! remarked the foghorn). "They +were nearly starved, but kept themselves alive by fish which were caught +by improvised lines made from the ladies' stay-laces. Many of them +died." + +I lay digesting this and staring at the fog which crawled all round the +port hole. Presently he was off again. + +"You can't anchor here, and there is no use stopping her, for the +currents run hard and she would drift on to one of the ledges which +would rip the side out of her." (Whoo-ee! repeated the foghorn). "The +islands are perpendicular with deep water up to the rocks, so you never +know they are there until you hit them, and then, of course, there is no +reef to hold you up." (Whoo-ee!) "Close by here is the place where the +_Wairarapa_ went down with all hands a few years ago. It was just such a +day as this when she struck the Great Barrier----" + +It was about this time that I decided to go on deck. Captain Brown had +made me free of the bridge, so I climbed up and joined him there, +peering out into the slow-drifting scud. + +I spent the morning there, and learned something of the anxieties of a +sailor's life. Captain Brown had in his keeping, not only his own career +and reputation, but what was far more to him, the lives of more than +three hundred people. We had lost all our bearings, for we had drifted +in the fog during those hours when it was too thick to move. Now the +scud was coming in clouds, the horizon lifting to a couple of miles, and +then sinking to a few hundred yards. On each side of us and ahead were +known to be rocky islands or promontories. Yet we must push on to our +destination. It was fine to see this typical British sailor working his +ship as a huntsman might take his horse over difficult country, now +speeding ahead when he saw an opening, now waiting for a fogbank to get +ahead, now pushing in between two clouds. For hours we worked along with +the circle of oily lead-coloured sea around us, and then the grey veil, +rising and falling, drifting and waving, with danger lurking always in +its shadow. There are strange results when one stares intently over such +a sea, for after a time one feels that it all slopes upwards, and that +one is standing deep in a saucer with the rim far above one. Once in the +rifts we saw a great ship feeling her way southwards, in the same +difficulties as ourselves. She was the _Niagara_, from Vancouver to +Auckland. Then, as suddenly as the raising of a drop-curtain, up came +the fog, and there ahead of us was the narrow path which led to safety. +The _Niagara_ was into it first, which seemed to matter little, but +really mattered a good deal, for her big business occupied the Port +Authorities all the evening, while our little business was not even +allowed to come alongside until such an hour that we could not get +ashore, to the disappointment of all, and very especially of me, for I +knew that some of our faithful had been waiting for twelve hours upon +the quay to give me a welcoming hand. It was breakfast time on the very +morning that I was advertised to lecture before we at last reached our +hotel. + +Here I received that counter-demonstration which always helped to keep +my head within the limits of my hat. This was a peremptory demand from +six gentlemen, who modestly described themselves as the leading +photographers of the city, to see the negatives of the photographs which +I was to throw upon the screen. I was assured at the same time by other +photographers that they had no sympathy with such a demand, and that the +others were self-advertising busybodies who had no mandate at all for +such a request. My experience at Sydney had shown me that such +challenges came from people who had no knowledge of psychic conditions, +and who did not realise that it is the circumstances under which a +photograph is taken, and the witnesses who guarantee such circumstances, +which are the real factors that matter, and not the negative which may +be so easily misunderstood by those who have not studied the processes +by which such things are produced. I therefore refused to allow my +photographs to pass into ignorant hands, explaining at the same time +that I had no negatives, since the photographs in most cases were not +mine at all, so that the negatives would, naturally, be with Dr. +Crawford, Dr. Geley, Lady Glenconnor, the representatives of Sir William +Crookes, or whoever else had originally taken the photograph. Their +challenge thereupon appeared in the Press with a long tirade of abuse +attached to it, founded upon the absurd theory that all the photos had +been taken by me, and that there was no proof of their truth save in my +word. One gets used to being indirectly called a liar, and I can answer +arguments with self-restraint which once I would have met with the toe +of my boot. However, a little breeze of this sort does no harm, but +rather puts ginger into one's work, and my audience were very soon +convinced of the absurdity of the position of the six dissenting +photographers who had judged that which they had not seen. + +Auckland is the port of call of the American steamers, and had some of +that air of activity and progress which America brings with her. The +spirit of enterprise, however, took curious shapes, as in the case of +one man who was a local miller, and pushed his trade by long +advertisements at the head of the newspapers, which began with abuse of +me and my ways, and ended by a recommendation to eat dessicated corn, or +whatever his particular commodity may have been. The result was a comic +jumble which was too funny to be offensive, though Auckland should +discourage such pleasantries, as they naturally mar the beautiful +impression which her fair city and surroundings make upon the visitor. I +hope I was the only victim, and that every stranger within her gates is +not held up to ridicule for the purpose of calling attention to Mr. +Blank's dessicated corn. + +I seemed destined to have strange people mixed up with my affairs in +Auckland, for there was a conjuror in the town, who, after the fashion +of that rather blatant fraternity, was offering L1,000 that he could do +anything I could do. As I could do nothing, it seemed easy money. In any +case, the argument that because you can imitate a thing therefore the +thing does not exist, is one which it takes the ingenuity of Mr. +Maskelyne to explain. There was also an ex-spiritualist medium +(so-called) who covered the papers with his advertisements, so that my +little announcement was quite overshadowed. He was to lecture the night +after me in the Town Hall, with most terrifying revelations. I was +fascinated by his paragraphs, and should have liked greatly to be +present, but that was the date of my exodus. Among other remarkable +advertisements was one "What has become of 'Pelorus Jack'? Was he a lost +soul?" Now, "Pelorus Jack" was a white dolphin, who at one time used to +pilot vessels into a New Zealand harbour, gambolling under the bows, so +that the question really did raise curiosity. However, I learned +afterwards that my successor did not reap the harvest which his +ingenuity deserved, and that the audience was scanty and derisive. What +the real psychic meaning of "Pelorus Jack" may have been was not +recorded by the press. + +From the hour I landed upon the quay at Auckland until I waved my last +farewell my visit was made pleasant, and every wish anticipated by the +Rev. Jasper Calder, a clergyman who has a future before him, though +whether it will be in the Church of England or not, time and the Bishop +will decide. Whatever he may do, he will remain to me and to many more +the nearest approach we are likely to see to the ideal Christian--much +as he will dislike my saying so. After all, if enemies are given full +play, why should not friends redress the balance? I will always carry +away the remembrance of him, alert as a boy, rushing about to serve +anyone, mixing on equal terms with scallywags on the pier, reclaiming +criminals whom he called his brothers, winning a prize for breaking-in a +buckjumper, which he did in order that he might gain the respect of the +stockmen; a fiery man of God in the pulpit, but with a mind too broad +for special dispensations, he was like one of those wonderfully virile +creatures of Charles Reade. The clergy of Australasia are stagnant and +narrow, but on the other hand, I have found men like the Dean of Sydney, +Strong of Melbourne, Sanders of Manly, Calder of Auckland, and others +whom it is worth crossing this world to meet. + +Of my psychic work at Auckland there is little to be said, save that I +began my New Zealand tour under the most splendid auspices. Even Sydney +had not furnished greater or more sympathetic audiences than those +which crowded the great Town Hall upon two successive nights. I could +not possibly have had a better reception, or got my message across more +successfully. All the newspaper ragging and offensive advertisements had +produced (as is natural among a generous people) a more kindly feeling +for the stranger, and I had a reception I can never forget. + +This town is very wonderfully situated, and I have never seen a more +magnificent view than that from Mount Eden, an extinct volcano about 900 +feet high, at the back of it. The only one which I could class with it +is that from Arthur's Seat, also an extinct volcano about 900 feet high, +as one looks on Edinburgh and its environs. Edinburgh, however, is for +ever shrouded in smoke, while here the air is crystal clear, and I could +clearly see Great Barrier Island, which is a good eighty miles to the +north. Below lay the most marvellous medley of light blue water and +light green land mottled with darker foliage. We could see not only the +whole vista of the wonderful winding harbour, and the seas upon the east +of the island, but we could look across and see the firths which +connected with the seas of the west. Only a seven-mile canal is needed +to link the two up, and to save at least two hundred miles of dangerous +navigation amid those rock-strewn waters from which we had so happily +emerged. Of course it will be done, and when it is done it should easily +pay its way, for what ship coming from Australia--or going to it--but +would gladly pay the fees? The real difficulty lies not in cutting the +canal, but in dredging the western opening, where shifting sandbanks +and ocean currents combine to make a dangerous approach. I see in my +mind's eye two great breakwaters, stretching like nippers into the +Pacific at that point, while, between the points of the nippers, the +dredgers will for ever be at work. It will be difficult, but it is +needed and it will be done. + +The Australian Davis Cup quartette--Norman Brooks, Patterson, O'Hara +Wood and another--had come across in the _Maheno_ with us and were now +at the Grand Hotel. There also was the American team, including the +formidable Tilden, now world's champion. The general feeling of +Australasia is not as cordial as one would wish to the United States for +the moment. I have met several men back from that country who rather +bitterly resent the anti-British agitation which plays such a prominent +part in the American press. This continual nagging is, I am sorry to +say, wearing down the stolid patience of the Britisher more than I can +ever remember, and it is a subject on which I have always been sensitive +as I have been a life-long advocate of Anglo-American friendship, +leading in the fullness of time to some loose form of Anglo-American +Union. At present it almost looks as if these racial traitors who make +the artificial dissensions were succeeding for a time in their work of +driving a wedge between the two great sections of the English-speaking +peoples. My fear is that when some world crisis comes, and everything +depends upon us all pulling together, the English-speakers may +neutralise each other. There lies the deadly danger. It is for us on +both sides to endeavour to avoid it. + +Everyone who is in touch with the sentiment of the British officers in +Flanders knows that they found men of their own heart in the brave, +unassuming American officers who were their comrades, and often their +pupils. It is some of the stay-at-home Americans who appear to have such +a false perspective, and who fail to realise that even British +Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, lost nearly as many men as the +United States in the war, while Britain herself laid down ten lives for +every one spent by America. This is not America's fault, but when we see +apparent forgetfulness of it on the part of a section of the American +people when our wounds are still fresh, it cannot be wondered at that we +feel sore. We do not advertise, and as a result there are few who know +that we lost more men and made larger captures during the last two years +of the war than our gallant ally of France. When we hear that others won +the war we smile--but it is a bitter smile. + +Strange, indeed, are some of the episodes of psychic experience. There +came to me at my hotel in Auckland two middle-aged hard-working women, +who had come down a hundred miles from the back country to my lecture. +One had lost her boy at Gallipoli. She gave me a long post-mortem +account from him as to the circumstances of his own death, including the +military operations which led up to it. I read it afterwards, and it +was certainly a very coherent account of the events both before and +after the shell struck him. Having handed me the pamphlet the country +woman then, with quivering fingers, produced from her bosom a little +silver box. Out of this she took an object, wrapped in white silk. It +was a small cube of what looked to me like sandstone, about an inch each +way. She told me it was an apport, that it had been thrown down on her +table while she and her family, including, as I understood, the friend +then present, were holding a seance. A message came with it to say that +it was from the boy's grave at Gallipoli. What are we to say to that? +Was it fraud? Then why were they playing tricks upon themselves? If it +was, indeed, an apport, it is surely one of the most remarkable for +distance and for purpose recorded of any private circle. + +A gentleman named Moors was staying at the same hotel in Auckland, and +we formed an acquaintance. I find that he was closely connected with +Stevenson, and had actually written a very excellent book upon his +comradeship with him at Samoa. Stevenson dabbled in the politics of +Samoa, and always with the best motives and on the right side, but he +was of so frank and impetuous a nature that he was not trusted with any +inside knowledge. Of the German rule Mr. Moors says that for the first +twelve years Dr. Solf was as good as he could be, and did fair justice +to all. Then he went on a visit to Berlin, and returned "bitten by the +military bug," with his whole nature changed, and began to "imponieren" +in true Prussian fashion. It is surely extraordinary how all the +scattered atoms of a race can share the diseases of the central organism +from which they sprang. I verily believe that if a German had been alone +on a desert island in 1914 he would have begun to dance and brandish a +club. How many cases are on record of the strange changes and wild deeds +of individuals? + +Mr. Moors told me that he dropped into a developing circle of +spiritualists at Sydney, none of whom could have known him. One of them +said, "Above your head I see a man, an artist, long hair, brown eyes, +and I get the name of Stephens." If he was indeed unknown, this would +seem fairly evidential. + +I was struck by one remark of Mr. Moors, which was that he had not only +seen the natives ride turtles in the South Sea lagoons, but that he had +actually done so himself, and that it was by no means difficult. This +was the feat which was supposed to be so absurd when De Rougemont +claimed to have done it. There are, of course, some gross errors which +are probably pure misuse of words in that writer's narrative, but he +places the critic in a dilemma which has never been fairly faced. Either +he is a liar, in which case he is, beyond all doubt, the most realistic +writer of adventure since Defoe, or else he speaks the truth, in which +case he is a great explorer. I see no possible avoidance of this +dilemma, so that which ever way you look at it the man deserves credit +which he has never received. + +We set off, four of us, to visit Mr. Clement Wragge, who is the most +remarkable personality in Auckland--dreamer, mystic, and yet very +practical adviser on all matters of ocean and of air. + +On arriving at the charming bungalow, buried among all sorts of +broad-leaved shrubs and trees, I was confronted by a tall, thin figure, +clad in black, with a face like a sadder and thinner Bernard Shaw, dim, +dreamy eyes, heavily pouched, with a blue turban surmounting all. On +repeating my desire he led me apart into his study. I had been warned +that with his active brain and copious knowledge I would never be able +to hold him to the point, so, in the dialogue which followed, I +perpetually headed him off as he turned down bye paths, until the +conversation almost took the form of a game. + +"Mr. Wragge, you are, I know, one of the greatest authorities upon winds +and currents." + +"Well, that is one of my pursuits. When I was young I ran the Ben Nevis +Observatory in Scotland and----" + +"It was only a small matter I wished to ask you. You'll excuse my +directness as I have so little time." + +"Certainly. What is it?" + +"If the Maoris came, originally, from Hawaii, what prevailing winds +would their canoes meet in the 2,000 miles which they crossed to reach +New Zealand?" + +The dim eyes lit up with the joy of the problem, and the nervous fingers +unrolled a chart of the Pacific. He flourished a pair of compasses. + +"Here is Hawaii. They would start with a north-westerly trade wind. That +would be a fair wind. I may say that the whole affair took place far +further back than is usually supposed. We have to get back to astronomy +for our fixed date. Don't imagine that the obliquity of the ecliptic was +always 23 degrees." + +"The Maoris had a fair wind then?" + +The compasses stabbed at the map. + +"Only down to this point. Then they would come on the Doldrums--the calm +patch of the equator. They could paddle their canoes across that. Of +course, the remains at Easter Island prove----" + +"But they could not paddle all the way." + +"No; they would run into the south-easterly trades. Then they made their +way to Rarotonga in Tahiti. It was from here that they made for New +Zealand." + +"But how could they know New Zealand was there?" + +"Ah, yes, how did they know?" + +"Had they compasses?" + +"They steered by the stars. We have a poem of theirs which numbers the +star-gazer as one of the crew. We have a chart, also, cut in the rocks +at Hawaii, which seems to be the plot of a voyage. Here is a slide of +it." He fished out a photo of lines and scratches upon a rock. + +"Of course," said he, "the root of the matter is that missionaries from +Atlantis permeated the Pacific, coming across Central America, and left +their traces everywhere." + +Ah, Atlantis! I am a bit of an Atlantean myself, so off we went at +scratch and both enjoyed ourselves greatly until time had come to rejoin +the party and meet Mr. Wragge's wife, a charming Brahmin lady from +India, who was one of the most gracious personalities I have met in my +wanderings. The blue-turbaned, eager man, half western science, half +eastern mystic, and his dark-eyed wife amid their profusion of flowers +will linger in my memory. Mrs. Wragge was eager that I go and lecture in +India. Well, who knows? + +I was so busy listening to Mr. Wragge's Atlantean theories that I had no +chance of laying before him my own contribution to the subject, which +is, I think, both original and valid. If the huge bulk of Atlantis sank +beneath the ocean, then, assuredly, it raised such a tidal wave as has +never been known in the world's history. This tidal wave, since all sea +water connects, would be felt equally all over the world, as the wave of +Krakatoa was in 1883 felt in Europe. The wave must have rushed over all +flat coasts and drowned every living thing, as narrated in the biblical +narrative. Therefore, since this catastrophe was, according to Plato's +account, not very much more than 10,000 years ago there should exist +ample evidence of a wholesale destruction of life, especially in the +flatter lands of the globe. Is there such evidence? Think of Darwin's +account of how the pampas of South America are in places one huge +grave-yard. Think, also, of the mammoth remains which strew the Tundras +of Siberia, and which are so numerous that some of the Arctic islands +are really covered with bones. There is ample evidence of some great +flood which would exactly correspond with the effect produced by the +sinking of Atlantis. The tragedy broadens as one thinks of it. Everyone +everywhere must have been drowned save only the hill-dwellers. The +object of the catastrophe was, according to some occult information, to +remove the Atlantean race and make room for the Aryan, even as the +Lemurian had been removed to make room for the Atlantean. How long has +the Aryan race to run? The answer may depend upon themselves. The great +war is a warning bell perhaps. + +I had a talk with a curious type of psychic while I was in Auckland. He +claimed to be a psychologist who did not need to be put _en rapport_ +with his object by any material starting point. A piece of clothing is, +as a rule, to a psychometrist what it would be to a bloodhound, the +starting point of a chase which runs down the victim. Thus Van Bourg, +when he discovered by crystal gazing the body of Mr. Foxhall (I quote +the name from memory) floating in the Thames, began by covering the +table with the missing man's garments. This is the usual procedure which +will become more familiar as the public learn the full utility of a +psychic. + +This gentlemen, Mr. Pearman, was a builder by trade, a heavy, rather +uneducated man with the misty eye of a seer. He told me that if he +desired to turn his powers upon anything he had only to sit in a dim +room and concentrate his thought upon the matter, without any material +nexus. For example, a murder had been done in Western Australia. The +police asked his help. Using his power, he saw the man, a stranger, and +yet he _knew_ that it was the man, descending the Swan River in a boat. +He saw him mix with the dockmen of Fremantle. Then he saw him return to +Perth. Finally, he saw him take train on the Transcontinental Railway. +The police at once acted, and intercepted the man, who was duly +convicted and hanged. This was one of several cases which this man told +me, and his stories carried conviction with them. All this, although +psychic, has, of course, nothing to do with spiritualism, but is an +extension of the normal, though undefined, powers of the human mind and +soul. + +The reader will be relieved to hear that I did not visit Rotorua. An +itinerant lecturer upon an unpopular cause has enough hot water without +seeking out a geyser. My travels would make but an indifferent guide +book, but I am bound to put it upon record that Wellington is a very +singular city plastered upon the side of a very steep hill. It is said +that the plan of the city was entirely drawn up in England under the +impression that the site was a flat one, and that it was duly carried +out on the perpendicular instead of the horizontal. It is a town of fine +buildings, however, in a splendid winding estuary ringed with hills. It +is, of course, the capital, and the centre of all officialdom in New +Zealand, but Auckland, in the north, is already the greater city. + +I had the opportunity of spending the day after my arrival with Dr. +Morrice, who married the daughter of the late Premier, Sir R. Seddon, +whom I had known in years gone by. Their summer house was down the Bay, +and so I had a long drive which gave me an admirable chance of seeing +the wonderful panorama. It was blowing a full gale, and the road is so +exposed that even motors are sometimes upset by the force of the wind. +On this occasion nothing more serious befell us than the loss of Mr. +Smythe's hat, which disappeared with such velocity that no one was able +to say what had become of it. It simply was, and then it was not. The +yellow of the foreshore, the green of the shallows, the blue mottled +with purple of the deep, all fretted with lines of foam, made an +exhilarating sight. The whole excursion was a brief but very pleasant +break in our round of work. Another pleasant experience was that I met +Dr. Purdey, who had once played cricket with me, when we were very +young, at Edinburgh University. _Eheu fugaces!_ I had also the pleasure +of meeting Mr. Massey, the Premier, a bluff, strong, downright man who +impresses one with his force and sincerity. + +I had the privilege when I was at Wellington of seeing the first edition +of "Robinson Crusoe," which came out originally in three volumes. I had +no idea that the three-decker dated back to 1719. It had a delightful +map of the island which would charm any boy, and must have been drawn up +under the personal guidance of Defoe himself. I wonder that map has not +been taken as an integral part of the book, and reproduced in every +edition, for it is a fascinating and a helpful document. + +I saw this rare book in the Turnbull Library, which, under the loving +care of Mr. Anderson (himself no mean poet), is a fine little collection +of books got together by a Wellington man of business. In a raw young +land such a literary oasis is like a Gothic Cathedral in the midst of a +suburb of modern villas. Anyone can come in to consult the books, and if +I were a Wellingtonian I would certainly spend a good deal of time +there. I handled with fitting reverence a first edition of "Lyrical +Ballads," where, in 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth made their entry hand +in hand into poetical literature. I saw an original Hakluyt, the book +which has sent so many brave hearts a-roving. There, too, was a precious +Kelmscott "Chaucer," a Plutarch and Montaigne, out of which Shakespeare +might have done his cribbing; Capt. Cook's manuscript "Diary," written +in the stiff hand of a very methodical man; a copy of Swinburne's "Poems +and Ballads," which is one of twenty from a recalled edition, and many +other very rare and worthy volumes carefully housed and clad. I spent a +mellow hour among them. + +I have been looking up all the old books upon the Maoris which I could +find, with the special intent of clearing up their history, but while +doing so I found in one rather rare volume "Old New Zealand," an account +of a Maori seance, which seems to have been in the early forties, and, +therefore, older than the Hydesville knockings. I only wish every honest +materialist could read it and compare it with the experiences which we +have, ourselves, independently reported. Surely they cannot persist in +holding that such identical results are obtained by coincidence, or that +fraud would work in exactly the same fashion in two different +hemispheres. + +A popular young chief had been killed in battle. The white man was +invited to join the solemn circle who hoped to regain touch with him. +The seance was in the dark of a large hut, lit only by the ruddy glow of +a low fire. The white man, a complete unbeliever, gives his evidence in +grudging fashion, but cannot get past the facts. The voice came, a +strange melancholy sound, like the wind blowing into a hollow vessel. +"Salutation! Salutation to you all! To you, my tribe! Family, I salute +you! Friends, I salute you!" When the power waned the voice cried, +"Speak to me, the family! Speak to me!" In the published dialogue +between Dr. Hodgson after his death and Professor Hyslop, Hodgson cries, +"Speak, Hyslop!" when the power seemed to wane. For some reason it would +appear either by vibrations or by concentrating attention to help the +communicator. "It is well with me," said the chief. "This place is a +good place." He was with the dead of the tribe and described them, and +offered to take messages to them. The incredulous white man asked where +a book had been concealed which only the dead man knew about. The place +was named and the book found. The white man himself did not know, so +there was no telepathy. Finally, with a "Farewell!" which came from high +in the air, the spirit passed back to immaterial conditions. + +This is, I think, a very remarkable narrative. If you take it as +literally true, which I most certainly do, since our experience +corroborates it, it gives us some points for reflection. One is that the +process is one known in all the ages, as our Biblical reading has +already told us. A second is that a young barbarian chief with no +advantages of religion finds the next world a very pleasant place, just +as our dead do, and that they love to come back and salute those whom +they have left, showing a keen memory of their earth life. Finally, we +must face the conclusion that the mere power of communication has no +elevating effect in itself, otherwise these tribes could not have +continued to be ferocious savages. It has to be united with the Christ +message from beyond before it will really help us upon the upward path. + +Before I left Wellington the spiritualists made me a graceful +presentation of a travelling rug, and I was able to assure them that if +they found the rug I would find the travelling. It is made of the +beautiful woollen material in which New Zealand is supreme. The +presentation was made by Mrs. Stables, the President of the New Zealand +Association, an energetic lady to whom the cause owes much. A greenstone +penholder was given to me for my wife, and a little charm for my small +daughter, the whole proceedings being marked with great cordiality and +good feeling. The faithful are strong in Wellington, but are much +divided among themselves, which, I hope, may be alleviated as a +consequence of my visit. Nothing could have been more successful than my +two meetings. The Press was splendidly sympathetic, and I left by a +night boat in high heart for my campaign in the South Island. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + The Anglican Colony.--Psychic dangers.--The learned dog.--Absurd + newspaper controversy.--A backward community.--The Maori + tongue.--Their origin.--Their treatment by the Empire.--A + fiasco.--The Pa of Kaiopoi.--Dr. Thacker.--Sir Joseph Kinsey.--A + generous collector.--Scott and Amundsen.--Dunedin.--A genuine + medium.--Evidence.--The shipping strike.--Sir Oliver.--Farewell. + + +I am afraid that the average Britisher looks upon New Zealand as one +solid island. If he had to cross Cook's Strait to get from the northern +to the southern half, he would never forget his lesson in geography, for +it can be as nasty a bit of water as is to be found in the world, with +ocean waves, mountain winds and marine currents all combining into a +horrible chaos. Twelve good hours separate Wellington in the north from +Lyttelton, which is the port of Christchurch in the south. A very short +railway joins the two latter places. My luck held good, and I had an +excellent passage, dining in Wellington and breakfasting in +Christchurch. It is a fine city, the centre of the famous Canterbury +grazing country. Four shiploads of people calling themselves the +Canterbury Pilgrims arrived here in 1852, built a cathedral, were +practically ruled over by Bishop Selwyn, and tried the successful +experiment of establishing a community which should be as Anglican as +New England is Nonconformist. The distinctive character has now largely +disappeared, but a splendid and very English city remains as a memorial +of their efforts. When you are on the green, sloping banks of the river +Avon, with the low, artistic bridges, it would not be hard to imagine +that you were in the Backs at Cambridge. + +At Christchurch I came across one of those little bits of psychic +evidence which may be taken as certainly true, and which can be +regarded, therefore, as pieces which have to be fitted into the jig-saw +puzzle in order to make the completed whole, at that far off date when a +completed whole is within the reach of man's brain. It concerns Mr. +Michie, a local Spiritualist of wide experience. On one occasion some +years ago, he practised a short cut to psychic power, acquired through a +certain method of breathing and of action, which amounts, in my opinion, +to something in the nature of self-hypnotisation. I will not give +details, as I think all such exercises are dangerous save for very +experienced students of these matters, who know the risk and are +prepared to take it. The result upon Mr. Michie, through some disregard +upon his part of the conditions which he was directed to observe, was +disastrous. He fell into an insidious illness with certain psychic +symptoms, and within a few months was reduced to skin and bone. Mr. +Michie's wife is mediumistic and liable to be controlled. One day an +entity came to her and spoke through her to her husband, claiming to be +the spirit of one, Gordon Stanley. He said: "I can sympathise with your +case, because my own death was brought about in exactly the same way. I +will help you, however, to fight against it and to recover." The spirit +then gave an account of his own life, described himself as a clerk in +Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne, and said that his widow was living at +an address in Melbourne, which was duly given. Mr. Michie at once wrote +to this address and received this reply, the original of which I have +seen: + + _"Park Street, + "Melbourne._ + + "DEAR SIR,--_I have just received your strange--I must say, your + very strange letter. Yes, I am Mrs. Stanley. My husband did die two + years ago from consumption. He was a clerk in Cole's Arcade. I must + say your letter gave me a great shock. But I cannot doubt after + what you have said, for I know you are a complete stranger to me._" + +Shortly afterwards Mr. Stanley returned again through the medium, said +that his widow was going to marry again, and that it was with his full +approbation. The incident may be taken by our enemies as illustrating +the danger of psychic research, and we admit that there are forms of it +which should be approached with caution, but I do not think that mankind +will ever be warned off by putting a danger label upon it, so long as +they think there is real knowledge to be gained. How could the motor-car +or the aeroplane have been developed if hundreds had not been ready to +give their lives to pay the price? Here the price has been far less, and +the goal far higher, but if in gaining it a man were assured that he +would lose his health, his reason, or his life, it is none the less his +duty to go forward if he clearly sees that there is something to be won. +To meet death in conquering death is to die in victory--the ideal death. + +Whilst I was at Auckland Mr. Poynton, a stipendiary magistrate there, +told me of a dog in Christchurch which had a power of thought +comparable, not merely to a human being, but even, as I understood him, +to a clairvoyant, as it would bark out the number of coins in your +pocket and other such questions. The alternative to clairvoyance was +that he was a very quick and accurate thought-reader, but in some cases +the power seemed to go beyond this. Mr. Poynton, who had studied the +subject, mentioned four learned beasts in history: a marvellous horse in +Shakespeare's time, which was burned with its master in Florence; the +Boston skipper's dog; Hans, the Russian horse, and Darkie of +Christchurch. He investigated the latter himself, as one of a committee +of three. On the first occasion they got no results. On the second, +ninety per cent. of the questions were right, and they included sums of +addition, subtraction, etc. "It was uncanny," he wrote. + +I called, therefore, upon Mrs. McGibbon, the owner, who allowed me to +see the dog. He was a dark, vivacious fox terrier, sixteen years old, +blind and deaf, which obviously impaired his powers. In spite of his +blindness he dashed at me the moment he was allowed into the room, +pawing at me and trembling all over with excitement. He was, in fact so +excited that he was of little use for demonstration, as when once he +began to bark he could not be induced to stop. Occasionally he steadied +down, and gave us a touch of his true quality. When a half-crown was +placed before him and he was asked how many sixpences were in it, he +gave five barks, and four for a florin, but when a shilling was +substituted he gave twelve, which looked as if he had pennies in his +mind. On the whole the performance was a failure, but as he had raised +by exhibiting his gifts, L138 for war charities, I took my hat off to +him all the same. I will not imitate those psychic researchers who +imagine that because they do not get a result, therefore, every one else +who has reported it is a cheat or a fool. On the contrary, I have no +doubt that the dog had these powers, though age and excitement have now +impaired them. + +The creature's powers were first discovered when the son of the house +remarked one day: "I will give you a biscuit if you bark three times." +He at once did it. "Now, six times." He did so. "Now, take three off." +He barked three times once again. Since then they have hardly found any +problem he could not tackle. When asked how many males in the room he +always included himself in the number, but omitted himself when asked +how many human beings. One wonders how many other dogs have human brains +without the humans being clever enough to detect it. + +I had an amusing controversy in Christchurch with one of the local +papers, _The Press_, which represents the clerical interest, and, also, +the clerical intolerance of a cathedral city. It issued an article upon +me and my beliefs, severe, but quite within the limits of legitimate +criticism, quoting against me Professor Hyslop, "who," it said, "is +Professor of Logic at Columbia, etc." To this I made the mild and +obvious retort in the course of my lecture that as Professor Hyslop was +dead, _The Press_ went even further than I in saying that he "_is_ +Professor at Columbia." Instead of accepting this correction, _The +Press_ made the tactical error of standing by their assertion, and +aggravated it by head-lines which challenged me, and quoted my statement +as "typical of the inaccuracy of a Spiritualist." As I rather pride +myself on my accuracy, which has seldom been challenged, I answered +shortly but politely, as follows: + + "SIR,--_I am surprised that the news of the death of Professor + Hyslop has not reached New Zealand, and even more surprised that it + could be imagined that I would make such a statement on a matter so + intimately connected with the subject upon which I lecture without + being sure of my fact. I am reported as saying 'some years,' but, + if so, it was a slip of the tongue for 'some time.' The Professor + died either late last year or early in the present one._" + +I should have thought that my answer was conclusive, and would have +elicited some sort of apology; but instead of this, _The Press_ called +loudly upon me in a leading article to apologise, though for what I know +not, save that they asserted I had said "some years," whereas I claim +that I actually said "some time." This drew the following rather more +severe letter from me: + + "SIR,--_I am collecting New Zealand curiosities, so I will take + your leading article home with me. To get the full humour of it one + has to remember the sequence of events. In a leading article you + remarked that Professor Hyslop is Professor of Logic. I answered + with mild irony that he certainly is not, as he had been dead 'some + years' or 'some time'--which of the two is perfectly immaterial, + since I presume that in either case you would agree that he has + ceased to be Professor of Logic. To this you were rash enough to + reply with a challenging article with large head-lines, declaring + that I had blundered, and that this was typical of the inaccuracy + of Spiritualists. I wrote a gentle remonstrance to show that I had + not blundered, and that my assertion was essentially true, since + the man was dead. This you now tacitly admit, but instead of + expressing regret you ask for an apology from me. I have engaged + in much newspaper controversy, but I can truly say that I can + recall no such instance of effrontery as this._" + +This led to another leader and considerable abuse. + +The controversy was, however, by no means one-sided, in spite of the +shadow of the Cathedral. Mr. Peter Trolove is a man of wit as well as +knowledge, and wields a pretty pen. A strong man, also, is Dr. John +Guthrie, whose letter contains words so kindly that I must quote them: + + "_Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stands above it all, not only as a + courteous gentleman, but as a fair controversialist throughout. He + is, anyhow, a chivalrous and magnanimous personality, whether or + not his beliefs have any truth. Fancy quoting authorities against a + man who has spent great part of his life studying the subject, and + who knows the authorities better than all his opponents put + together--a man who has deliberately used his great gifts in an + honest attempt to get at truth. I do think that Christchurch has + some need to apologise for its controversialists--much more need + than our distinguished visitor has to apologise for what we all + know to be his honest convictions._" + +I have never met Dr. John Guthrie in the flesh, but I would thank him +here, should this ever meet his eye, for this kindly protest. + +It will be gathered that I succeeded at Christchurch in performing the +feat of waking up a Cathedral City, and all the ex-sleepers were +protesting loudly against such a disturbing inrush from the outer world. +Glancing at the head-lines I see that Bishop Brodie declared it to be "A +blasphemy nurtured in fraud," the Dean of Christchurch writes it down as +"Spiritism, the abrogation of Reason," the Rev. John Patterson calls it +"an ancient delusion," the Rev. Mr. North says it is "a foolish +Paganism," and the Rev. Mr. Ready opines that it is "a gospel of +uncertainty and conjecture." Such are the clerical leaders of thought in +Christchurch in the year 1920. I think of what the wise old Chinese +Control said of similar types at the Melbourne Rescue Circle. "He good +man but foolish man. He learn better. Never rise till he learn better. +Plenty time yet." Who loses except themselves? + +The enormous number of letters which I get upon psychic subjects--which +I do my best to answer--give me some curious sidelights, but they are +often confidential, and would not bear publication. Some of them are +from devout, but narrow Christians, who narrate psychic and prophetic +gifts which they possess, and at the same time almost resent them on the +ground that they are condemned by the Bible. As if the whole Bible was +not psychic and prophetic! One very long letter detailed a whole +succession of previsions of the most exact character, and wound up by +the conviction that we were on the edge of some great discovery. This +was illustrated by a simile which seemed very happy. "Have you noticed +a tree covered in spider webs during a fog? Well, it was only through +the law of the fog that we saw them. They were there all the time, but +only when the moisture came could we see them." It was a good +illustration. Many amazing experiences are detailed to me in every town +I visit, and though I have no time to verify them and go into details, +none the less they fit so accurately with the various types of psychic +cases with which I am familiar that I cannot doubt that such occurrences +are really very common. It is the injudicious levity with which they are +met which prevents their being published by those who experience them. + +As an amateur philologist of a superficial type, I am greatly interested +in studying the Maori language, and trying to learn whence these +wonderful savages came before their twenty-two terrible canoes came down +upon the unhappy land which would have been safer had as many shiploads +of tigers been discharged upon its beach. The world is very old, and +these folk have wandered from afar, and by many devious paths. Surely +there are Celtic traces both in their appearance, their character and +their language. An old Maori woman smoking her pipe is the very image of +an old Celtic woman occupied the same way. Their word for water is +_wei_, and England is full of Wye and Way river names, dating from the +days before the Germans arrived. Strangest of all is their name for the +supreme God. A name never mentioned and taboo among them, is Io. "J" +is, of course, interchangeable with "I," so that we get the first two +letters of Jove and an approximation of Jehovah. Papa is parent. +Altogether there is good evidence that they are from the same root as +some European races, preferably the Celts. But on the top of this comes +a whole series of Japanese combinations of letters, Rangi, Muru, Tiki, +and so forth, so that many of the place names seem pure Japanese. What +are we to make of such a mixture? Is it possible that one Celtic branch, +far away in the mists of time, wandered east while their racial brethren +wandered west, so that part reached far Corea while the others reached +Ireland? Then, after getting a tincture of Japanese terms and word +endings, they continued their migration, taking to the seas, and finally +subduing the darker races who inhabited the Polynesian Islands, so +making their way to New Zealand. This wild imagining would at least +cover the observed facts. It is impossible to look at some of the Maori +faces without realising that they are of European stock. + +I must interpolate a paragraph here to say that I was pleased, after +writing the above, to find that in my blind gropings I had come upon the +main conclusions which have been put forward with very full knowledge by +the well-known authority, Dr. McMillan Brown. He has worked out the very +fact which I surmised, that the Maoris are practically of the same stock +as Europeans, that they had wandered Japan-wards, and had finally taken +to the sea. There are two points of interest which show the date of +their exodus was a very ancient one. The first is that they have not +the use of the bow. The second is that they have no knowledge of metals. +Such knowledge once possessed would never have been lost, so it is safe +to say that they left Asia a thousand years (as a minimum) before +Christ, for at that date the use of bronze, at any rate, was widespread. +What adventures and vicissitudes this remarkable race, so ignorant in +some directions and so advanced in others, must have endured during +those long centuries. If you look at the wonderful ornaments of their +old war canoes, which carry a hundred men, and can traverse the whole +Pacific, it seems almost incredible that human patience and ingenuity +could construct the whole fabric with instruments of stone. They valued +them greatly when once they were made, and the actual names of the +twenty-two original invading canoes are still recorded. + + Illustration: THE PEOPLE OF TURI'S CANOE, AFTER A VOYAGE OF GREAT + HARDSHIP, AT LAST SIGHT THE SHORES OF NEW ZEALAND. From a painting + in the Auckland Art Gallery by C. F. Goldie and L. J. Steele. + +In the public gallery of Auckland they have a duplicate of one of these +enormous canoes. It is 87 feet in length and the thwarts are broad +enough to hold three or four men. When it was filled with its hundred +warriors, with the chief standing in the centre to give time to the +rowers, it must, as it dashed through the waves, have been a truly +terrific object. I should think that it represented the supreme +achievement of neolithic man. There are a series of wonderful pictures +of Maori life in the same gallery by Goldie and Steele. Of these I +reproduce, by permission, one which represents the starving crew of one +canoe sighting the distant shore. The engraving only gives a faint +indication of the effect of the vividly-coloured original. + +Reference has been made to the patient industry of the Maori race. A +supreme example of this is that every man had his tikki, or image of a +little idol made of greenstone, which was hung round his neck. Now, this +New Zealand greenstone is one of the hardest objects in nature, and yet +it is worn down without metals into these quaint figures. On an average +it took ten years to make one, and it was rubbed down from a chunk of +stone into an image by the constant friction of a woman's foot. + +It is said that the Tahungas, or priests, have much hereditary knowledge +of an occult sort. Their oracles were famous, and I have already quoted +an example of their seances. A student of Maori lore told me the +following interesting story. He was a student of Maori words, and on one +occasion a Maori chief let slip an unusual word, let us say "buru," and +then seemed confused and refused to answer when the Englishman asked the +meaning. The latter took it to a friend, a Tohunga, who seemed much +surprised and disturbed, and said it was a word of which a paheka or +white man should know nothing. Not to be beaten, my informant took it to +an old and wise chief who owed him a return for some favours. This chief +was also much exercised in mind when he heard the word, and walked up +and down in agitation. Finally he said, "Friend, we are both Christians. +You remember the chapter in the Bible where Jacob wrestled with an +angel. Well, this word 'buru' represents that for which they were +wrestling." He would say no more and there it had perforce to be left. + +The British Empire may be proud of their treatment of the Maoris. Like +the Jews, they object to a census, but their number cannot be more than +50,000 in a population of over a million. There is no question, +therefore, of our being constrained to treat them well. Yet they own +vast tracts of the best land in the country, and so unquestioned are +their rights that when they forbade a railway to pass down the centre of +the North Island, the traffic had to go by sea from Auckland until, at +last, after many years, it was shown to the chiefs that their financial +interests would be greatly aided by letting the railway through. These +financial interests are very large, and many Maoris are wealthy men, +buying expensive motor cars and other luxuries. Some of the more +educated take part in legislative work, and are distinguished for their +eloquence. The half-castes make a particularly fine breed, especially in +their youth, for they tend as they grow older to revert to the pure +Maori type. New Zealand has no national sin upon its conscience as +regards the natives, which is more, I fear, than can be said +whole-heartedly for Australia, and even less for Tasmania. Our people +never descended to the level of the old Congo, but they have something +on their conscience none the less. + +On December 18th there was some arrangement by which I should meet the +Maoris and see the historic Pa of Kaiopoi. The affair, however, was, I +am sorry to say, a fiasco. As we approached the building, which was the +village school room, there emerged an old lady--a very old lady--who +uttered a series of shrill cries, which I was told meant welcome, +though they sounded more like the other thing. I can only trust that my +informants were right. Inside was a very fine assemblage of atmospheric +air, and of nothing else. The explanation was that there had been a +wedding the night before, and that the whole community had been--well, +tired. Presently a large man in tweeds of the reach-me-down variety +appeared upon the scene, and several furtive figures, including a row of +children, materialised in corners of the big empty room. The visitors, +who were more numerous than the visited, sat on a long bench and waited +developments which refused to develop. My dreams of the dignified and +befeathered savage were drifting away. Finally, the large man, with his +hands in his pockets, and looking hard at a corner of the rafters, made +a speech of welcome, punctuated by long stops and gaps. He then, at our +request, repeated it in Maori, and the children were asked to give a +Maori shout, which they sternly refused to do. I then made a few feeble +bleats, uncertain whether to address my remarks to the level of the +large man or to that of the row of children. I ended by handing over +some books for their library, and we then escaped from this rather +depressing scene. + +But it was a very different matter with the Pa. I found it intensely +interesting. You could still trace quite clearly the main lines of the +battle which destroyed it. It lay on about five acres of ground, with +deep swamp all round save for one frontage of some hundreds of yards. +That was all which really needed defence. The North Island natives, who +were of a sterner breed than those of the South, came down under the +famous Rauparaha (these Maori names are sad snags in a story) and +besieged the place. One can see the saps and follow his tactics, which +ended by piling brushwood against the palings--please observe the root +"pa" in palings--with the result that he carried the place. Massacre +Hill stands close by, and so many of the defenders were eaten that their +gnawed bones covered the ground within the memory of living men. Such +things may have been done by the father of the elderly gentleman who +passes you in his motor car with his race glasses slung across his +chest. The siege of Kaiopoi was about 1831. Even on a fine sunlit day I +was conscious of that heavy atmosphere within the enclosure which +impresses itself upon me when I am on the scene of ancient violence. So +frightful an episode within so limited a space, where for months the +garrison saw its horrible fate drawing nearer day by day, must surely +have left some etheric record even to our blunt senses. + +I was indebted to Dr. Thacker, the mayor, for much kind attention whilst +in Christchurch. He is a giant man, but a crippled giant, alas, for he +still bears the traces of an injury received in a historic football +match, which left his and my old University of Edinburgh at the top of +the tree in Scotland. He showed me some curious, if ghastly, relics of +his practice. One of these was a tumour of the exact size and shape of a +boxing glove, thumb and all, which he cut out of the back of a boxer +who had lost a glove fight and taken it greatly to heart. Always on many +converging lines we come back to the influence of mind over matter. + +Another most pleasant friendship which I made in Christchurch was with +Sir Joseph Kinsey, who has acted as father to several successive British +Arctic expeditions. Scott and Shackleton have both owed much to him, +their constant agent, adviser and friend. Scott's dying hand traced a +letter to him, so unselfish and so noble that it alone would put Scott +high in the gallery of British worthies. Of all modern men of action +Scott seems to me the most lofty. To me he was only an acquaintance, but +Kinsey, who knew him well as a friend, and Lady Kinsey, who had all +Arctic exploration at her finger ends, were of the same opinion. + +Sir Joseph discussed the action of Amundsen in making for the pole. When +it was known that Amundsen was heading south instead of pursuing his +advertised intentions, Kinsey smelled danger and warned Scott, who, +speaking from his own noble loyalty, said, "He would never do so +dishonourable a thing. My plans are published and are known to all the +world." However, when he reached the ice, and when Pennell located the +"Fram," he had to write and admit that Kinsey was right. It was a sad +blow, that forestalling, though he took it like the man that he was. +None the less, it must have preyed upon the spirits of all his party and +weakened their resistance in that cruel return journey. On the other +hand Amundsen's expedition, which was conducted on rather less than a +sixth of the cost of the British, was a triumph of organisation, and he +had the good luck or deep wisdom to strike a route which was clear of +those great blizzards which overwhelmed Scott. The scurvy was surely a +slur upon our medical preparations. According to Stefansson, who knows +more of the matter than any living man, lime juice is useless, +vegetables are of secondary importance, but fresh animal food, be it +seal, penguin, or what you will, is the final preventive. + +Sir Joseph is a passionate and discriminating collector, and has but one +fault in collecting, which is a wide generosity. You have but to visit +him often enough and express sufficient interest to absorb all his +treasures. Perhaps my protests were half-hearted, but I emerged from his +house with a didrachm of Alexander, a tetradrachm of some Armenian +monarch, a sheet of rare Arctic stamps for Denis, a lump of native +greenstone, and a small nugget of gold. No wonder when I signed some +books for him I entered the date as that of "The Sacking of Woomeroo," +that being the name of his dwelling. The mayor, in the same spirit of +hospitality, pressed upon me a huge bone of the extinct Moa, but as I +had never failed to impress upon my wife the extreme importance of +cutting down our luggage, I could not face the scandal of appearing with +this monstrous impedimentum. + +Leaving Christchurch in the journalistic uproar to which allusion has +been made, our engagements took us on to Dunedin, which is reached by +rail in a rather tiring day's journey. A New Zealand train is excellent +while it is running, but it has a way of starting with an epileptic +leap, and stopping with a bang, which becomes wearisome after a while. +On the other hand this particular journey is beguiled by the fact that +the line runs high for two hours round the curve of the hills with the +Pacific below, so that a succession of marvellous views opens out before +you as you round each spur. There can be few more beautiful lines. + +Dunedin was founded in 1848 by a group of Scotsmen, and it is modelled +so closely upon Edinburgh that the familiar street names all reappear, +and even Portobello has its duplicate outside the town. The climate, +also, I should judge to be about the same. The prevailing tone of the +community is still Scottish, which should mean that they are sympathetic +with my mission, for nowhere is Spiritualism more firmly established now +than in Scotland, especially in Glasgow, where a succession of great +mediums and of earnest workers have built up a considerable +organisation. I soon found that it was so, for nowhere had I more +private assurances of support, nor a better public reception, the +theatre being filled at each lecture. In the intervals kind friends put +their motors at my disposal and I had some splendid drives over the +hills, which look down upon the winding estuary at the head of which the +town is situated. + +At the house of Mr. Reynolds, of Dunedin, I met one of the most powerful +clairvoyants and trance mediums whom I have tested. Her name is Mrs. +Roberts, and though her worldly circumstances are modest, she has never +accepted any money for her wonderful psychic gifts. For this I honour +her, but, as I told her, we all sell the gifts which God has given us, +and I cannot see why, and within reason, psychic gifts should not also +be placed within the reach of the public, instead of being confined to a +favoured few. How can the bulk of the people ever get into touch with a +good medium if they are debarred from doing so in the ordinary way of +business? + +Mrs. Roberts is a stout, kindly woman, with a motherly manner, and a +sensitive, expressive face. When in touch with my conditions she at once +gave the names of several relatives and friends who have passed over, +without any slurring or mistakes. She then cried, "I see an elderly lady +here--she is a beautifully high spirit--her name is Selina." This rather +unusual name belonged to my wife's mother, who died nearly two years +ago. Then, suddenly, becoming slightly convulsed, as a medium does when +her mechanism is controlled by another, she cried with an indescribable +intensity of feeling, "Thank God! Thank God to get in touch again! Jean! +Jean! Give my dear love to Jean!" Both names, therefore, had been got +correctly, that of the mother and the daughter. Is it not an affront to +reason to explain away such results by wild theories of telepathy, or by +anything save the perfectly plain and obvious fact that spirit communion +is indeed true, and that I was really in touch with that dead lady who +was, even upon earth, a beautifully high and unselfish spirit. I had a +number of other communications through Mrs. Roberts that night, and at a +second interview two days later, not one of which erred so far as names +were concerned. Among others was one who professed to be Dr. Russell +Wallace. I should be honoured, indeed, to think that it was so, but I +was unable to hit on anything which would be evidential. I asked him if +his further experience had taught him anything more about reincarnation, +which he disputed in his lifetime. He answered that he now accepted it, +though I am not clear whether he meant for all cases. I thanked him for +any spiritual help I had from him. His answer was "Me! Don't thank me! +You would be surprised if you knew who your real helpers are." He added, +"By your work I rise. We are co-workers!" I pray that it be so, for few +men have lived for whom I have greater respect; wise and brave, and +mellow and good. His biography was a favourite book of mine long before +I understood the full significance of Spiritualism, which was to him an +evolution of the spirit on parallel lines to that evolution of the body +which he did so much to establish. + +Now that my work in New Zealand was drawing to a close a very grave +problem presented itself to Mr. Smythe and myself, and that was how we +were to get back to our families in Australia. A strike had broken out, +which at first seemed a small matter, but it was accentuated by the +approach of Christmas and the fact that many of the men were rather +looking for an excuse for a holiday. Every day things became blacker. +Once before Mr. Smythe had been held up for four months by a similar +cause, and, indeed, it has become a very serious consideration for all +who visit New Zealand. We made a forced march for the north amid +constant rumours that far from reaching Australia we could not even get +to the North Island, as the twelve-hour ferry boats were involved in the +strike. I had every trust in my luck, or, as I should prefer to say, in +my helpers, and we got the _Maori_ on the last ferry trip which she was +sure to take. Up to the last moment the firemen wavered, and we had no +stewards on board, but none the less, to our inexpressible relief we got +off. There was no food on the ship and no one to serve it, so we went +into a small hostel at Lyttleton before we started, to see what we could +pick up. There was a man seated opposite to me who assumed the air of +laboured courtesy and extreme dignity, which is one phase of alcoholism. + +"'Scuse me, sir!" said he, looking at me with a glassy stare, "but you +bear most 'straordinary resemblance Olver Lodge." + +I said something amiable. + +"Yes, sir--'straordinary! Have you ever seen Olver Lodge, sir?" + +"Yes, I have." + +"Well, did you perceive resemblance?" + +"Sir Oliver, as I remember him, was a tall man with a grey beard." + +He shook his head at me sadly. + +"No, sir--I heard him at Wellington last week. No beard. A moustache, +sir, same as your own." + +"You're sure it was Sir Oliver?" + +A slow smile came over his face. + +"Blesh my soul--Conan Doyle--that's the name. Yes, sir, you bear truly +remarkable resemblance Conan Doyle." + +I did not say anything further so I daresay he has not discovered yet +the true cause of the resemblance. + +All the nerve-wracking fears of being held up which we endured at +Lyttleton were repeated at Wellington, where we had taken our passages +in the little steamer _Paloona_. In any case we had to wait for a day, +which I spent in clearing up my New Zealand affairs while Mr. Smythe +interviewed the authorities and paid no less than L141 war tax upon the +receipts of our lectures--a heavy impost upon a fortnight's work. Next +morning, with our affairs and papers all in order, we boarded our little +craft. + +Up to the last moment we had no certainty of starting. Not only was the +strike in the air, but it was Christmas Eve, and it was natural enough +that the men should prefer their own homes to the stokehole of the +_Paloona_. Agents with offers of increased pay were scouring the docks. +Finally our complement was completed, and it was a glad moment when the +hawsers were thrown off, and after the usual uncomfortable preliminaries +we found ourselves steaming in a sharp wind down the very turbulent +waters of Cook's Strait. + +The place is full of Cook's memory. Everywhere the great man has left +his traces. We passed Cook's Island where the _Endeavour_ actually +struck and had to be careened and patched. What a nerve the fellow had! +So coolly and deliberately did he do his work that even now his charting +holds good, I understand, in many long stretches of coast. Tacking and +wearing, he poked and pried into every estuary, naming capes, defining +bays, plotting out positions, and yet all the while at the mercy of the +winds, with a possible lee shore always before him, with no comrade +within hail, and with swarms of cannibals eyeing his little ship from +the beach. After I have seen his work I shall feel full of reverence +every time I pass that fine statue which adorns the mall side of the +great Admiralty building. + +And now we are out in the open sea, with Melbourne, Sydney and love in +front of our prow. Behind the sun sets in a slur of scarlet above the +olive green hills, while the heavy night fog, crawling up the valleys, +turns each of them into a glacier. A bright star twinkles above. Below a +light shines out from the gloom. Farewell, New Zealand! I shall never +see you again, but perhaps some memory of my visit may remain--or not, +as God pleases. + +Anyhow, my own memory will remain. Every man looks on his own country as +God's own country if it be a free land, but the New Zealander has more +reason than most. It is a lovely place, and contains within its moderate +limits the agricultural plains of England, the lakes and hills of +Scotland, the glaciers of Switzerland, and the fiords of Norway, with a +fine hearty people, who do not treat the British newcomer with ignorant +contempt or hostility. There are so many interests and so many openings +that it is hard to think that a man will not find a career in New +Zealand. Canada, Australia and South Africa seem to me to be closely +balanced so far as their attractions for the emigrant goes, but when one +considers that New Zealand has neither the winter of Canada, the +droughts of Australia, nor the racial problems of Africa, it does surely +stand supreme, though it demands, as all of them do, both labour and +capital from the newcomer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + Christian origins.--Mithraism.--Astronomy.--Exercising boats.--Bad + news from home.--Futile strikes.--Labour Party.--The blue + wilderness.--Journey to Brisbane.--Warm reception.--Friends and + foes.--Psychic experience of Dr. Doyle.--Birds.--Criticism on + Melbourne.--Spiritualist Church.--Ceremony.--Sir Matthew + Nathan.--Alleged repudiation of Queensland.--Billy tea.--The bee + farm.--Domestic service in Australia.--Hon. John Fihilly.--Curious + photograph by the state photographer.--The "Orsova." + + +The voyage back from New Zealand to Melbourne was pleasant and +uneventful, though the boat was small and there was a sea rough enough +to upset many of the passengers. We were fortunate in our Captain, +Doorby, who, I found, was a literary confrere with two books to his +credit, one of them a record of the relief ship _Morning_, in which he +had served at the time of Scott's first expedition, the other a little +book, "The Handmaiden of the Navy," which gave some of his adventures +and experiences in the merchant service during the great war. He had +been torpedoed once, and had lost, on another occasion, nearly all his +crew with plague, so that he had much that was interesting to talk +about. Mr. Blake, of the _Strand Magazine_, was also on board. A +Unitarian Minister, Mr. Hale, was also a valuable companion, and we had +much discussion over the origins of Christianity, which was the more +interesting to me as I had taken advantage of the voyage to re-read the +Acts and Paul's Epistles. There are no documents which can be read so +often and yet reveal something new, the more so when you have that +occult clue which is needful before Paul can be understood. It is +necessary also to know something of Mythra worship and the other +philosophies which Paul had learned, and woven into his Christianity. I +have stated elsewhere my belief that all expressions about redemption by +blood, the blood of the lamb, etc., are founded upon the parallel of the +blood of the bull which was shed by the Mythra-worshippers, and in which +they were actually baptised. Enlarging upon this, Mr. Hale pointed out +on the authority, if I remember right, of Pfleiderer's "Christian +Origins," that in the Mythra service something is placed over the +candidate, a hide probably, which is called "putting on Mythra," and +corresponds with Paul's expression about "putting on Christ." Paul, with +his tremendous energy and earnestness, fixed Christianity upon the +world, but I wonder what Peter and those who had actually heard Christ's +words thought about it all. We have had Paul's views about Christ, but +we do not know Christ's views about Paul. He had been, as we are told by +himself, a Jewish Pharisee of the strictest type in his youth at +Jerusalem, but was a Roman citizen, had lived long at Tarsus, which was +a centre of Mithraism, and was clearly famous for his learning, since +Festus twitted him with it. The simple tenets of the carpenter and the +fishermen would take strange involved forms in such a brain as that. His +epistles are presumably older than the gospels, which may, in their +simplicity, represent a protest against his confused theology. + +It was an enjoyable voyage in the little _Paloona_, and rested me after +the whirlwind campaign of New Zealand. In large liners one loses in +romance what one gains in comfort. On a small ship one feels nearer to +Nature, to the water and even to the stars. On clear nights we had +magnificent displays of the Southern heaven. I profited by the +astronomical knowledge of Mr. Smythe. Here first I was introduced to +Alpha Centauri, which is the nearest fixed star, and, therefore, the +cobber to the sun. It is true that it is distant 3-1/2 years of light +travel, and light travels at about 182,000 miles a second, but when one +considers that it takes centuries for average starlight to reach us, we +may consider Alpha as snuggling close up to us for companionship in the +lonely wastes of space. The diamond belt of Orion looks homely enough +with the bright solitaire Sirius sparkling beside it, but there are the +Magellanic clouds, the scattered wisps torn from the Milky Way, and +there is the strange black space called the Coalsack, where one seems to +look right past all created things into a bottomless void. What would +not Galileo and all the old untravelled astronomers have given to have +one glimpse of this wondrous Southern display? + +Captain Doorby, finding that he had time in hand, ran the ship into a +small deserted bay upon the coast, and, after anchoring, ordered out +all the boats for the sake of practice. It was very well done, and yet +what I saw convinced me that it should be a Board of Trade regulation, +if it is not one already, that once, at least, near the beginning of +every long voyage, this should be compulsory. It is only when you come +to launch them that you really realise which of the davits is rusted up, +and which block is tangled, or which boat is without a plug. I was much +impressed by this idea as I watched the difficulties which were +encountered even in that secluded anchorage. + +The end of my journey was uneventful, but my joy at being reunited with +my family was clouded by the news of the death of my mother. She was +eighty-three years of age, and had for some years been almost totally +blind, so that her change was altogether a release, but it was sad to +think that we should never see the kind face and gracious presence again +in its old material form. Denis summed up our feelings when he cried, +"What a reception Grannie must have had!" There was never any one who +had so broad and sympathetic a heart, a world-mother mourning over +everything which was weak or oppressed, and thinking nothing of her own +time and comfort in her efforts to help the sufferers. Even when blind +and infirm she would plot and plan for the benefit of others, thinking +out their needs, and bringing about surprising results by her +intervention. For my own psychic work she had, I fear, neither sympathy +nor understanding, but she had an innate faith and spirituality which +were so natural to her that she could not conceive the needs of others +in that direction. She understands now. + +Whilst in the Blue Mountains I was forced to reconsider my plans on +account of the strike which has paralysed all coastal trade. If I should +be able to reach Tasmania I might be unable to return, and it would, +indeed, be a tragic situation if my family were ready to start for +England in the _Naldera_, and I was unable to join them. I felt, +therefore, that I was not justified in going to Tasmania, even if I were +able, which is very doubtful. It was sad, as it spoiled the absolute +completeness of my tour, but on the other hand I felt sure that I should +find plenty of work to do on the mainland, without taking so serious a +risk. + +It is a terrible thing to see this young country, which needs every hour +of time and every ounce of energy for its speedy development frittering +itself away in these absurd conflicts, which never give any result to +compare with the loss. One feels that in the stern contests of nations +one will arise which has economic discipline, and that none other could +stand against it. If the training of reorganised Germany should take +this shape she will conquer and she will deserve to conquer. It is a +monstrous abuse that Compulsory Arbitration Courts should be +established, as is the case in Australia, and that Unions should either +strike against their decisions, or should anticipate their decisions, as +in the case of these stewards, by forcing a strike. In such a case I +hold that the secretary and every other official of the Union should be +prosecuted and heavily fined, if not imprisoned. It is the only way by +which the community can be saved from a tyranny which is quite as real +as that of any autocrat. What would be said, for example, of a king who +cut off the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand from communication with +the outer world, deranging the whole Christmas arrangements of countless +families who had hoped to reunite? Yet this is what has been done by a +handful of stewards with some trivial grievance. A fireman who objects +to the cooking can hold up a great vessel. There is nothing but chaos in +front of a nation unless it insists upon being master in its own house, +and forbids either employed or employer to do that which is for the +common scathe. The time seems to be coming when Britons, the world over, +will have to fight for liberty against licence just as hard as ever they +fought for her against tyranny. This I say with full sympathy for the +Labour Party, which I have often been tempted to join, but have always +been repelled by their attempt to bully the rest of the State instead of +using those means which would certainly ensure their legitimate success, +even if it took some years to accomplish. There are many anomalies and +injustices, and it is only a people's party which can set them right. +Hereditary honours are an injustice, lands owned by feudal or royal gift +are an injustice, increased private wealth through the growth of towns +is an injustice, coal royalties are an injustice, the expense of the law +is a glaring injustice, the support of any single religion by the State +is an injustice, our divorce laws are an injustice--with such a list a +real honest Labour Party would be a sure winner if it could persuade us +all that it would not commit injustices itself, and bolster up labour +artificially at the expense of every one else. It is not organised +labour which moves me, for it can take care of itself, but it is the +indigent governesses with thirty pounds a year, the broken people, the +people with tiny pensions, the struggling widows with children--when I +think of all these and then of the man who owns a county I feel that +there is something deeply, deeply wrong which nothing but some great +strong new force can set right. + +One finds in the Blue Mountains that opportunity of getting alone with +real Nature, which is so healing and soothing a thing. The wild scrub +flows up the hillsides to the very grounds of the hotels, and in a very +few minutes one may find oneself in the wilderness of ferns and gum +trees unchanged from immemorial ages. It is a very real danger to the +young or to those who have no sense of direction, for many people have +wandered off and never come back alive--in fact, there is a specially +enrolled body of searchers who hunt for the missing visitor. I have +never in all my travels seen anything more spacious and wonderful than +the view from the different sandstone bluffs, looking down into the huge +gullies beneath, a thousand feet deep, where the great gum trees look +like rows of cabbages. I suppose that in water lies the force which, in +the course of ages, has worn down the soft, sandy rock and formed these +colossal clefts, but the effects are so enormous that one is inclined to +think some great earth convulsion must also have been concerned in their +production. Some of the cliffs have a sheer drop of over one thousand +feet, which is said to be unequalled in the world. + +These mountains are so precipitous and tortuous, presenting such a maze +to the explorer, that for many years they were a formidable barrier to +the extension of the young Colony. There were only about forty miles of +arable land from the coast to the great Hawkesbury River, which winds +round the base of the mountains. Then came this rocky labyrinth. At +last, in 1812, four brave and persevering men--Blaxland, Evans, +Wentworth and Lawson--took the matter in hand, and after many +adventures, blazed a trail across, by which all the splendid hinterland +was opened up, including the gold fields, which found their centre in +the new town of Bathurst. When one reflects that all the gold had to be +brought across this wilderness, with unexplored woodlands fringing the +road, it is no wonder that a race of bushrangers sprang into existence, +and the marvel is that the police should ever have been able to hunt +them down. So fresh is all this very vital history in the development of +a nation, that one can still see upon the trees the marks of the +explorers' axes, as they endeavoured to find a straight trail among the +countless winding gullies. At Mount York, the highest view-point, a +monument has been erected to them, at the place from which they got the +first glimpse of the promised land beyond. + +We had been told that in the tropical weather now prevailing, it was +quite vain for us to go to Queensland, for no one would come to listen +to lectures. My own belief was, however, that this subject has stirred +people very deeply, and that they will suffer any inconvenience to learn +about it. Mr. Smythe was of opinion, at first, that my audiences were +drawn from those who came from curiosity because they had read my +writings, but when he found that the second and the third meetings were +as full as the first, he was forced to admit that the credit of success +lay with the matter rather than with the man. In any case I reflected +that my presence in Brisbane would certainly bring about the usual Press +controversy, with a free ventilation of the subject, so we determined to +go. Mr. Smythe, for once, did not accompany us, but the very capable +lady who assists him, Miss Sternberg, looked after all arrangements. + +It was a very wearisome train journey of twenty-eight hours; tropically +hot, rather dusty, with a change in the middle, and the usual stuffiness +of a sleeper, which was superior to the ordinary American one, but below +the British standard. How the Americans, with their nice sense of +decency, can stand the awful accommodation their railway companies give +them, or at any rate, used to give them, is incomprehensible, but public +opinion in all matters asserts itself far less directly in America than +in Britain. Australia is half-way between, and, certainly, I have seen +abuses there in the management of trains, posts, telegrams and +telephones, which would have evoked loud protests at home. I think that +there is more initiative at home. For example, when the railway strike +threatened to throttle the country, the public rose to the occasion and +improvised methods which met the difficulty. I have not heard of +anything of the kind in the numerous strikes with which this community +is harassed. Any individual action arouses attention. I remember the +amusement of the Hon. Agar Wynne when, on arriving late at Melbourne, in +the absence of porters, I got a trolley, placed my own luggage on it, +and wheeled it to a cab. Yet we thought nothing of that when labour was +short in London. + +The country north of Sydney is exactly like the Blue Mountains, on a +lesser scale--riven ranges of sandstone covered with gum trees. I cannot +understand those who say there is nothing worth seeing in Australia, for +I know no big city which has glorious scenery so near it as Sydney. +After crossing the Queensland border, one comes to the Darling Downs, +unsurpassed for cattle and wheat. Our first impressions of the new State +were that it was the most naturally rich of any Australian Colony, and +the longer we were in it, the more did we realise that this was indeed +so. It is so enormous, however, that it is certain, sooner or later, to +be divided into a South, Middle, and North, each of which will be a +large and flourishing community. We observed from the railway all sorts +of new vegetable life, and I was especially interested to notice that +our English Yellow Mullein was lining the track, making its way +gradually up country. + +Even Sydney did not provide a warmer and more personal welcome than that +which we both received when we at last reached Brisbane. At Toowoomba, +and other stations on the way, small deputations of Spiritualists had +met the train, but at Brisbane the platform was crowded. My wife was +covered with flowers, and we were soon made to realise that we had been +misinformed in the south, when we were told that the movement was +confined to a small circle. + +We were tired, but my wife rose splendidly to the occasion. The local +paper says: "Carefully concealing all feelings of fatigue and tiredness +after the long and wearisome train journey from Sydney, Lady Doyle +charmed the large gathering of Spiritualists assembled at the Central +Railway Station on Saturday night, to meet her and her husband. In +vivacious fashion, Lady Doyle responded to the many enthusiastic +greetings, and she was obviously delighted with the floral gifts +presented to her on her arrival. To a press representative, Lady Doyle +expressed her admiration of the Australian scenery, and she referred +enthusiastically to the Darling Downs district and to the Toowoomba +Range. During her husband's absence in New Zealand, Lady Doyle and her +children spent a holiday in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), and +were delighted with the innumerable gorgeous beauty spots there." + +After a short experience, when we were far from comfortable, we found +our way to the Bellevue Hotel, where a kindly old Irish proprietress, +Mrs. Finegan, gave us greater attention and luxury than we had found +anywhere up to then on the Australian continent. + +The usual press discussion was in full swing. The more bigoted clergy in +Brisbane, as elsewhere, were very vituperative, but so unreasonable and +behind their own congregations in knowledge and intelligence, that they +must have alienated many who heard them. Father Lane, for example, +preaching in the cathedral, declared that the whole subject was "an +abomination to the Lord." He does not seem to have asked himself why the +Lord gave us these powers if they are an abomination. He also declared +that we denied our moral responsibility to God in this life, a +responsibility which must have weighed rather lightly upon Father Lane +when he made so false a statement. The Rev. L. H. Jaggers, not to be +outdone in absurdity by Father Lane, described all our fellow-mortals of +India, China and Japan as "demoniacal races." Dr. Cosh put forward the +Presbyterian sentiment that I was Anti-Christ, and a serious menace to +the spiritual life of Australia. Really, when I see the want of all +truth and charity shown by these gentlemen, it does begin to convince me +of the reality of diabolical interference in the affairs of mankind, for +I cannot understand why, otherwise, such efforts should be made to +obscure, by falsehood and abuse, the great revelation and comfort which +God has sent us. The opposition culminated in an open letter from Dr. +Cosh in the _Mail_, demanding that I should define my exact views as to +the Trinity, the Atonement, and other such mysteries. I answered by +pointing out that all the religious troubles of the past had come from +the attempt to give exact definitions of things which were entirely +beyond the human power of thought, and that I refused to be led along so +dangerous a path. One Baptist clergyman, named Rowe, had the courage to +say that he was on my side, but with that exception I fear that I had a +solid phalanx against me. + +On the other hand, the general public were amazingly friendly. It was +the more wonderful as it was tropical weather, even for Brisbane. In +that awful heat the great theatre could not hold the people, and they +stood in the upper galleries, packed tightly, for an hour and a half +without a movement or a murmur. It was a really wonderful sight. Twice +the house was packed this way, so (as the Tasmanian venture was now +hopeless, owing to the shipping strike) I determined to remain in our +very comfortable quarters at the Bellevue Hotel, and give one more +lecture, covering fresh ground. The subject opens up so that I am sure I +could lecture for a week without repeating myself. On this occasion the +house was crowded once more. The theatrical manager said, "Well, if it +was comic opera in the season, it could not have succeeded better!" I +was rather exhausted at the end, for I spoke, as usual, with no +chairman, and gave them a full ninety minutes, but it was nearing the +end of my work, and the prospect of the quiet time ahead of us helped +me on. + +I met a kinsman, Dr. A. A. Doyle, who is a distinguished skin +specialist, in Brisbane. He knew little of psychic matters, but he had +met with a remarkable experience. His son, a splendid young fellow, died +at the front. At that moment his father woke to find the young soldier +stooping over him, his face quite close. He at once woke his wife and +told her that their son, he feared, was dead. But here comes a fine +point. He said to the wife, "Eric has had a return of the acne of the +face, for which I treated him years ago. I saw the spots." The next post +brought a letter, written before Eric's death, asking that some special +ointment should be sent, as his acne had returned. This is a very +instructive case, as showing that even an abnormal thing is reproduced +at first upon the etheric body. But what has a materialist to say to the +whole story? He can only evade it, or fall back upon his usual theory, +that every one who reports such occurrences is either a fool or a liar. + +We had a pleasant Sunday among the birds of Queensland. Mr. Chisholm, an +enthusiastic bird-lover, took us round to see two very large aviaries, +since the haunt of the wild birds was beyond our reach. Birds in +captivity have always saddened me, but here I found them housed in such +great structures, with every comfort included, and every natural enemy +excluded, that really one could not pity them. One golden pheasant +amused us, for he is a very conceited bird when all is well with him, +and likes to occupy the very centre of the stage, with the spot light +upon him, and a chorus of drab hens admiring him from the rear. We had +caught him, however, when he was moulting, and he was so conscious of +his bedraggled glories that he dodged about behind a barrel, and +scuttled under cover every time we tried to put him out. A fearful thing +happened one day, for a careless maid left the door ajar, and in the +morning seventy of the inmates were gone. It must have been a cruel blow +to Mr. Baldwin, who is devoted to his collection. However, he very +wisely left the door open, after securing the remaining birds, and no +less than thirty-four of the refugees returned. The fate of the others +was probably tragic, for they were far from the mountains which are +their home. + +Mr. Farmer Whyte, the very progressive editor of the _Daily Mail_, who +is miles ahead of most journalists in psychic knowledge, took us for an +interesting drive through the dense woods of One Tree Hill. Here we were +courteously met by two of the original owners, one of them an iguana, a +great, heavy lizard, which bolted up a tree, and the other a kangaroo, +who stood among the brushwood, his ears rotating with emotion, while he +gazed upon our halted car. From the summit of the hill one has a +wonderful view of the ranges stretching away to the horizon in all +directions, while at one's feet lies the very wide spread city. As +nearly every dwelling house is a bungalow, with its own little ground, +the Australian cities take up great space, which is nullified by their +very excellent tram services. A beautiful river, the Brisbane, rather +wider than the Thames, winds through the town, and has sufficient depth +to allow ocean steamers to come within cab-drive of the hotels. + +About this time I had the usual experience which every visitor to the +States or to the Dominions is liable to, in that his own utterances in +his letters home get into print, and boomerang back upon him. My own +feelings, both to the Australian people and their country, have been so +uniformly whole-hearted that I should have thought no mischief could be +made, but at the same time, I have always written freely that which I +was prepared to stand by. In this case, the extract, from a private +letter, removed from all modifying context, came through as follows: + + "Sir Conan Doyle, quoted in the _International Psychic Gazette_, in + referring to his 'ups and downs' in Australia, says: 'Amid the + "downs" is the Press boycott, caused partly by ignorance and want + of proportion, partly by moral cowardice and fear of finding out + later that they had backed the wrong horse, or had given the wrong + horse fair play. They are very backward, and far behind countries + like Iceland and Denmark in the knowledge of what has been done in + Spiritualism. They are dear folk, these Australians, but, Lord, + they want Spirituality, and dynamiting out of their grooves! The + Presbyterians actually prayed that I might not reach the country. + This is rather near murder, if they thought their rotten prayers + would avail. The result was an excellent voyage, but it is the + spiritual deadness of this place which gets on my nerves.'" + +This was copied into every paper in Australia, but it was soon +recognised that "this place" was not Australia, but Melbourne, from +which the letter was dated. I have already recorded how I was treated by +the leading paper in that city, and my general experience there was +faithfully reflected in my remarks. Therefore, I had nothing to +withdraw. My more extended experience taught me that the general level +of intelligence and of spirituality in the Australasian towns is as high +as in the average towns of Great Britain, though none are so far +advanced as towns like Manchester or Glasgow, nor are there the same +number of professional and educated men who have come forward and given +testimony. The thirst for information was great, however, and that +proved an open mind, which must now lead to a considerable extension of +knowledge within the churches as well as without. + +My remarks had been caused by the action of the _Argus_, but the _Age_, +the other leading Melbourne paper, seemed to think that its honour was +also touched, and had a very severe leading article upon my +delinquencies, and my alleged views, which was, as usual, a wild +travesty of my real ones. It began this article by the assertion that, +apparently, I still thought that Australia was inhabited by the +aborigines, before I ventured to bring forward such theories. Such a +remark, applied to a subject which has won the assent in varying degrees +of every one who has seriously examined it, and which has its foundation +resting upon the labours of some of the greatest minds in the world, did +not help me to recover my respect for the mentality and breadth of view +of the journals of Melbourne. I answered, pointing out that David Syme, +the very distinguished founder of the paper, by no means shared this +contempt to Spiritualism, as is shown by two long letters included in +his published Life. + +This attitude, and that of so many other objectors, is absolutely +unintelligible to me. They must know that this cult is spreading and +that many capable minds have examined and endorsed it. They must know, +also, that the views we proclaim, the continuance of happy life and the +practical abolition of death are, if true, the grandest advance that the +human race has ever made. And yet, so often, instead of saying, "Well, +here is some one who is supposed to know something about the matter. Let +us see if this grand claim can possibly be established by evidence and +argument," they break into insults and revilings as if something +offensive had been laid before them. This attitude can only arise from +the sluggish conservatism of the human brain, which runs easily in +certain well-worn grooves, and is horrified by the idea that something +may come to cause mental exertion and readjustment. + + Illustration: LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF SPIRITUALIST CHURCH AT + BRISBANE. + +I am bound to add that the general public went out of their way to +show that their Press did not represent their views. The following +passage is typical of many: "The criticism which you have so justly +resented is, I am sure, not in keeping with the views of the majority of +the Australian people. In my own small sphere many of my friends have +been stirred deeply by your theories, and the inspiration in some cases +has been so marked that the fact should afford you satisfaction. We are +not all spiritually defunct. Many are quite satisfied that you are +giving your best for humanity, and believe that there is a tremendous +revelation coming to this weary old world." + +The Spiritualists of Brisbane, greatly daring, have planned out a church +which is to cost L10,000, trusting to those who work with us on the +other side to see the enterprise through. The possible fallacy lies in +the chance that those on the other side do not desire to see this +immense movement become a separate sect, but are in favour of the +peaceful penetration of all creeds by our new knowledge. It is on record +that early in the movement Senator Talmadge asked two different spirit +controls, in different States of the Union, what the ultimate goal of +this spiritual outburst might be, and received exactly the same answer +from each, namely, that it was to prove immortality and to unify the +Churches. The first half has been done, so far as survival implies +immortality, and the second may well come to pass, by giving such a +large common platform to each Church that they will learn to disregard +the smaller differences. + +Be this as it may, one could not but admire the faith and energy of Mr. +Reinhold and the others who were determined to have a temple of their +own. I laid the foundation stone at three in the afternoon under so +tropical a sun that I felt as if the ceremony was going to have its +immemorial accompaniment of a human sacrifice and even of a whole-burned +offering. The crowd made matters worse, but a friendly bystander with an +umbrella saved me from heat apoplexy. I felt the occasion was a solemn +one, for it was certainly the first Spiritual Church in the whole of +Queensland, and I doubt if we have many anywhere in Australia, for among +our apostolic gifts poverty is conspicuous. It has always amazed me how +Theosophists and Christian Scientists get their fine halls and +libraries, while we, with our zeal and our knowledge, have some bare +schoolroom or worse as our only meeting place. It reflects little credit +upon the rich people who accept the comforts we bring, but share none of +the burdens we bear. There is a kink in their souls. + +I spoke at some length, and the people listened with patience in spite +of the great heat. It was an occasion when I could, with propriety, lay +emphasis upon the restraint and charity with which such a church should +be run. The Brisbane paper reports me as follows: "I would emphasise +three things. Mind your own business; go on quietly in your own way; you +know the truth, and do not need to quarrel with other people. There are +many roads to salvation. The second point I would urge is that you +should live up to your knowledge. We know for certain that we live on +after death, that everything we do in this world influences what comes +after; therefore, we can afford to be unselfish and friendly to other +religions. Some Spiritualists run down the Bible, whereas it is from +cover to cover a spiritual book. I would like to see the Bible read in +every Spiritualistic Church with particular attention paid to the +passages dealing with occultism. The third point I would emphasise is +that you should have nothing to do with fortune-telling or anything of +that kind. All fortune-telling is really a feeling out in the dark. If +good things are going to happen to you be content to wait for them, and +if evil is to come nothing is to be gained by attempting to anticipate +it. My sympathies are with the police in their attitude to +fortune-tellers, whose black magic is far removed from the services of +our mediums in striving to bring comfort to those whose loved ones have +gone before. If these three things are lived up to, this church will be +a source of great brightness and happiness." + +Our work was pleasantly broken by an invitation to lunch with Sir +Matthew Nathan, at Government House. Sir Matthew impresses one as a man +of character, and as he is a financial authority he is in a position to +help by his advice in restoring the credit of Queensland. The matter in +dispute, which has been called repudiation, does not, as it seems to me, +deserve so harsh a term, as it is one of those cases where there are two +sides to the question, so equally balanced that it is difficult for an +outsider to pronounce a judgment. On the one hand the great squatters +who hold millions of acres in the State had received the land on +considerable leases which charged them with a very low rent--almost a +nominal one--on condition of their taking up and developing the country. +On the other hand, the Government say these leases were granted under +very different circumstances, the lessees have already done very well +out of them, the war has made it imperative that the State raise funds, +and the assets upon which the funds can be raised are all in the hands +of these lessees, who should consent to a revision of their agreements. +So stands the quarrel, so far as I could understand it, and the State +has actually imposed the increased rates. Hence the cry that they have +repudiated their own contract. The result of the squatters' grievance +was that Mr. Theodore, the Premier, was unable to raise money in the +London market, and returned home with the alternative of getting a +voluntary loan in the Colony, or of raising a compulsory loan from those +who had the money. The latter has an ugly sound, and yet the need is +great, and if some may be compelled to serve with their bodies I do not +see why some may not also be compelled to serve with their purses. The +assets of the Colony compare very favourably, I believe, with others, +for while these others have sold their lands, the Government of +Queensland has still the ownership of the main tracts of the gloriously +fertile country. Therefore, with an issue at 6-1/2 per cent., without +tax, one would think that they should have no difficulty in getting any +reasonable sum. I was cinemaed in the act of applying for a small share +in the issue, but I think the advertisement would have been of more +value to the loan, had they captured some one of greater financial +stability. + +The more one examines this alleged "repudiation" the less reason appears +in the charge, and as it has assuredly injured Queensland's credit, it +is well that an impartial traveller should touch upon it. The squatters +are the richer folk and in a position to influence the public opinion of +the world, and in their anxiety to exploit their own grievance they seem +to have had little regard for the reputation of their country. It is +like a man burning down his house in the hope of roasting some other +inmate of whom he disapproves. A conservative paper (the _Producer's +Review_, January 10th, 1921), says: "No living man can say how much +Queensland has been damaged by the foolish partisan statements that have +been uttered and published." The article proceeds to show in very +convincing style, with chapter and verse, that the Government has always +been well within its rights, and that a Conservative Government on a +previous occasion did the same thing, framing a Bill on identical lines. + +On January 12th my kinsman, Dr. Doyle, with his charming wife, took us +out into the bush for a billy tea--that is, to drink tea which is +prepared as the bushmen prepare it in their tin cans. It was certainly +excellent, and we enjoyed the drive and the whole experience, though +uninvited guests of the mosquito tribe made things rather lively for +us. I prayed that my face would be spared, as I did not wish to turn up +at my lecture as if I had been having a round with Dr. Cosh, and I react +in a most whole-hearted way to any attentions from an insect. The result +was certainly remarkable, be it coincidence or not, for though my hands +were like boxing-gloves, and my neck all swollen, there was not a mark +upon my face. I fancy that the hardened inhabitants hardly realise what +new chums endure after they are bitten by these pests. It means to me +not only disfigurement, but often a sleepless night. My wife and the +children seem to escape more lightly. I found many objects of interest +in the bush--among others a spider's web so strong that full-sized +dragon flies were enmeshed in it. I could not see the creature itself, +but it must have been as big as a tarantula. Our host was a large +landowner as well as a specialist, and he talked seriously of leaving +the country, so embittered was he by the land-policy of the Government. +At the same time, the fact that he could sell his estate at a fair price +seemed to imply that others took a less grave view of the situation. +Many of the richer classes think that Labour is adopting a policy of +deliberate petty irritation in order to drive them out of the country, +but perhaps they are over-sensitive. + +So full was our life in Brisbane that there was hardly a day that we had +not some memorable experience, even when I had to lecture in the +evening. Often we were going fourteen and fifteen hours a day, and a +tropical day at that. On January 14th we were taken to see the largest +bee-farm in Australia, run by Mr. H. L. Jones. Ever since I consigned +Mr. Sherlock Holmes to a bee farm for his old age, I have been supposed +to know something of the subject, but really I am so ignorant that when +a woman wrote to me and said she would be a suitable housekeeper to the +retired detective because she could "segregate the queen," I did not +know what she meant. On this occasion I saw the operation and many other +wonderful things which make me appreciate Maeterlinck's prose-poem upon +the subject. There is little poetry about Mr. Jones however, and he is +severely practical. He has numbers of little boxes with a store of +bee-food compressed into one end of them. Into each he thrusts a queen +with eight attendants to look after her. The food is enough to last two +months, so he simply puts on a postage stamp and sends it off to any one +in California or South Africa who is starting an apiary. Several hives +were opened for our inspection with the precaution of blowing in some +smoke to pacify the bees. We were told that this sudden inrush of smoke +gives the bees the idea that some great cataclysm has occurred, and +their first action is to lay in a store of honey, each of them, as a man +might seize provisions in an earthquake so as to be ready for whatever +the future might bring. He showed us that the queen, fed with some +special food by the workers, can lay twice her own weight of eggs in a +day, and that if we could find something similar for hens we could hope +for an unbroken stream of eggs. Clever as the bee is it is clearly an +instinctive hereditary cleverness, for man has been able to make many +improvements in its methods, making artificial comb which is better than +the original, in that it has cells for more workers and fewer drones. +Altogether it was a wonderful demonstration, which could be viewed with +comfort under a veil with one's hands in one's pockets, for though we +were assured they would not sting if they knew we would not hurt them, a +misunderstanding was possible. One lady spectator seemed to have a +sudden ambition to break the standing jump record, and we found that she +had received two stings, but Mr. Jones and his assistants covered their +hands with the creatures and were quite immune. A half-wild wallaby +appeared during our visit, and after some coyness yielded to the +fascination which my wife exercises over all animals, and fed out of her +hand. We were assured that this had never before occurred in the case of +any visitor. + +We found in Brisbane, as in every other town, that the question of +domestic service, the most important of all questions to a householder, +was very acute. Ladies who occupied leading positions in the town +assured us that it was impossible to keep maids, and that they were +compelled now to give it up in despair, and to do all their own house +work with such casual daily assistance as they could get. A pound a week +is a common wage for very inefficient service. It is a serious matter +and no solution is in sight. English maids are, I am sorry to say, +looked upon as the worst of all, for to all the other faults they add +constant criticism of their employers, whom they pronounce to be "no +ladies" because they are forced to do many things which are not done at +home. Inefficiency plus snobbishness is a dreadful mixture. Altogether +the lot of the Australian lady is not an easy one, and we admired the +brave spirit with which they rose above their troubles. + +This servant question bears very directly upon the Imperial puzzle of +the northern territory. A white man may live and even work there, but a +white woman cannot possibly run a household unless domestic labour is +plentiful. In that climate it simply means absolute breakdown in a year. +Therefore it is a mad policy which at present excludes so rigorously the +Chinese, Indians or others who alone can make white households possible. +White labour assumes a dog in the manger policy, for it will not, or +cannot, do the work itself, and yet it shuts out those who could do it. +It is an impossible position and must be changed. How severe and +unreasonable are the coloured immigrant laws is shown by the fact that +the experienced and popular Commander of the _Naldera_, Captain +Lewellin, was fined at Sydney a large sum of money because three Goa +Indians deserted from his ship. There is a great demand for Indian camel +drivers in the north, and this no doubt was the reason for the +desertion, but what a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the law which comes +between the demand and the supply, besides punishing an innocent victim. + +As usual a large number of psychic confidences reached us, some of +which were very interesting. One lady is a clairaudient, and on the +occasion of her mother falling ill she heard the words "Wednesday--the +fifteenth." Death seemed a matter of hours, and the date far distant, +but the patient, to the surprise of the doctors, still lingered. Then +came the audible message "She will tell you where she is going." The +mother had lain for two days helpless and comatose. Suddenly she opened +her eyes and said in a clear strong voice, "I have seen the mansions in +my father's house. My husband and children await me there. I could not +have imagined anything so exquisitely lovely." Then she breathed her +last, the date being the 15th. + +We were entertained to dinner on the last evening by the Hon. John +Fihilly, acting Premier of the Colony, and his wife. He is an Irish +labour leader with a remarkable resemblance to Dan O'Connell in his +younger days. I was pleased to see that the toast of the King was given +though it was not called for at a private dinner. Fihilly is a member of +the Government, and I tackled him upon the question of British emigrants +being enticed out by specious promises on the part of Colonial Agents in +London, only to find that no work awaited them. Some deplorable cases +had come within my own observation, one, an old Lancashire Fusilier, +having walked the streets for six months. He assured me that the +arrangements were now in perfect order, and that emigrants were held +back in the old country until they could be sure that there was a place +for them. There are so many out of work in Australia that one feels some +sympathy with those labour men who are against fresh arrivals. + +And there lies the great problem which we have not, with all our +experience, managed to master. On the one side illimitable land calling +for work. On the other innumerable workers calling for land. And yet the +two cannot be joined. I remember how it jarred me when I saw Edmonton, +in Western Canada, filled with out-of-workers while the great land lay +uninhabited. The same strange paradox meets one here. It is just the +connecting link that is missing, and that link lies in wise prevision. +The helpless newcomer can do nothing if he and his family are dumped +down upon a hundred acres of gum trees. Put yourself in their position. +How can they hope with their feeble hands to clear the ground? All this +early work must be done for them by the State, the owner repaying after +he has made good. Let the emigrant move straight on to a cleared farm, +with a shack-house already prepared, and clear instructions as to the +best crops, and how to get them. Then it seems to me that emigration +would bring no want of employment in its train. But the State must blaze +the trail and the public follow after. Such arrangements may even now +exist, but if so they need expansion and improvement, for they do not +seem to work. + +Before leaving Brisbane my attention was drawn to the fact that the +State photographer, when he took the scene of the opening of the loan, +had produced to all appearance a psychic effect. The Brisbane papers +recorded it as follows: -- + +"'It is a remarkable result, and I cannot offer any opinion as to what +caused it. It is absolutely mystifying.' Such was the declaration made +yesterday by the Government photographer, Mr. W. Mobsby, in regard to +the unique effect associated with a photograph he took on Thursday last +of Sir A. Conan Doyle. Mr. Mobsby, who has been connected with +photography since boyhood, explained that he was instructed to take an +official photograph of the function at which Sir A. Conan Doyle handed +over his subscription to the State Loan organiser. When he arrived, the +entrance to the building was thronged by a large crowd, and he had to +mount a stepladder, which was being used by the _Daily Mail_ +photographer, in order to get a good view of the proceedings. Mr. Mobsby +took only one picture, just at the moment Sir A. Conan Doyle was +mounting the steps at the Government Tourist Bureau to meet the Acting +Premier, Mr. J. Fihilly. Mr. Mobsby developed the film himself, and was +amazed to find that while all the other figures in the picture were +distinct the form of Sir A. Conan Doyle appeared enveloped in mist and +could only be dimly seen. The photograph was taken on an ordinary film +with a No. 3a Kodak, and careful examination does not in any way +indicate the cause of the sensational result." I have had so many +personal proofs of the intervention of supernormal agencies during +the time that I have been engaged upon this task that I am prepared to +accept the appearance of this aura as being an assurance of the presence +of those great forces for whom I act as a humble interpreter. At the +same time, the sceptic is very welcome to explain it as a flawed film +and a coincidence. + + Illustration: CURIOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECT REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT. + Taken by the Official Photographer, Brisbane, "Absolutely + mystifying" is his description. + +We returned from Brisbane to Sydney in the Orient Liner "Orsova," which +is a delightful alternative to the stuffy train. The sea has always been +a nursing mother to me, and I suppose I have spent a clear two years of +my life upon the waves. We had a restful Sunday aboard the boat, +disturbed only by the Sunday service, which left its usual effect upon +my mind. The Psalms were set to some unhappy tune, very different from +the grand Gregorian rhythm, so that with its sudden rise to a higher +level it sounded more like the neighing of horses than the singing of +mortals. The words must surely offend anyone who considers what it is +that he is saying--a mixture of most unmanly wailing and spiteful +threats. How such literature has been perpetuated three thousand years, +and how it can ever have been sacred, is very strange. Altogether from +first to last there was nothing, save only the Lord's Prayer, which +could have any spiritual effect. These old observances are like an iron +ball tied to the leg of humanity, for ever hampering spiritual progress. +If now, after the warning of the great war, we have not the mental +energy and the moral courage to get back to realities, we shall deserve +what is coming to us. + +On January 17th we were back, tired but contented, in the Medlow Bath +Hotel in the heart of the Blue Mountains--an establishment which I can +heartily recommend to any who desire a change from the summer heats of +Sydney. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + Medlow Bath.--Jenolan Caves.--Giant skeleton.--Mrs. Foster Turner's + mediumship.--A wonderful prophecy.--Final results.--Third sitting + with Bailey.--Failure of State Control.--Retrospection.--Melbourne + presentation.--Crooks.--Lecture at Perth.--West + Australia.--Rabbits, sparrows and sharks. + + +We recuperated after our Brisbane tour by spending the next week at +Medlow Bath, that little earthly paradise, which is the most restful +spot we have found in our wanderings. It was built originally by Mr. +Mark Foy, a successful draper of Sydney, and he is certainly a man of +taste, for he has adorned it with a collection of prints and of +paintings--hundreds of each--which would attract attention in any city, +but which on a mountain top amid the wildest scenery give one the idea +of an Arabian Nights palace. There was a passage some hundreds of yards +long, which one has to traverse on the way to each meal, and there was a +certain series of French prints, representing events of Byzantine +history, which I found it difficult to pass, so that I was often a late +comer. A very fair library is among the other attractions of this +remarkable place. + +Before leaving we spent one long day at the famous Jenolan Caves, which +are distant about forty-five miles. As the said miles are very +up-and-down, and as the cave exploration involves several hours of +climbing, it makes a fairly hard day's work. We started all seven in a +motor, as depicted by the wayside photographers, but Baby got sick and +had to be left with Jakeman at the half-way house, where we picked her +up, quite recovered, on our return. It was as well, for the walk would +have been quite beyond her, and yet having once started there is no +return, so we should have ended by carrying her through all the +subterranean labyrinths. The road is a remarkably good one, and +represents a considerable engineering feat. It passes at last through an +enormous archway of rock which marks the entrance to the cave +formations. These caves are hollowed out of what was once a coral reef +in a tropical sea, but is now sixty miles inland with a mountain upon +the top of it--such changes this old world has seen. If the world were +formed only that man might play his drama upon it, then mankind must be +in the very earliest days of his history, for who would build so +elaborate a stage if the play were to be so short and insignificant? + + Illustration: OUR PARTY EN ROUTE TO THE JENOLAN CAVES, JANUARY + 20TH, 1921, IN FRONT OF OLD COURT HOUSE IN WHICH BUSHRANGERS WERE + TRIED. + +The caves are truly prodigious. They were discovered first in the +pursuit of some poor devil of a bushranger who must have been hard put +to it before he took up his residence in this damp and dreary retreat. A +brave man, Wilson, did most of the actual exploring, lowering himself by +a thin rope into noisome abysses of unknown depth and charting out +the whole of this devil's warren. It is so vast that many weeks would be +needed to go through it, and it is usual at one visit to take only a +single sample. On this occasion it was the River Cave, so named because +after many wanderings you come on a river about twenty feet across and +forty-five feet deep which has to be navigated for some distance in a +punt. The stalactite effects, though very wonderful, are not, I think, +superior to those which I have seen in Derbyshire, and the caves have +none of that historical glamour which is needed in order to link some +large natural object to our own comprehension. I can remember in +Derbyshire how my imagination and sympathy were stirred by a Roman +lady's brooch which had been found among the rubble. Either a wild beast +or a bandit knew best how it got there. Jenolan has few visible links +with the past, but one of them is a tremendous one. It is the complete, +though fractured, skeleton of a very large man--seven foot four said the +guide, but he may have put it on a little--who was found partly imbedded +in the lime. Many ages ago he seems to have fallen through the roof of +the cavern, and the bones of a wallaby hard by give some indication that +he was hunting at the time, and that his quarry shared his fate. He was +of the Black fellow type, with a low-class cranium. It is remarkable the +proportion of very tall men who are dug up in ancient tombs. Again and +again the bogs of Ireland have yielded skeletons of seven and eight +feet. Some years ago a Scythian chief was dug up on the Southern +Steppes of Russia who was eight feet six. What a figure of a man with +his winged helmet and his battle axe! All over the world one comes upon +these giants of old, and one wonders whether they represented some race, +further back still, who were all gigantic. The Babylonian tradition in +our Bible says: "And there were giants in those days." The big primeval +kangaroo has grown down to the smaller modern one, the wombat, which was +an animal as big as a tapir, is now as small as a badger, the great +saurians have become little lizards, and so it would seem not +unreasonable to suppose that man may have run to great size at some +unexplored period in his evolution. + +We all emerged rather exhausted from the bowels of the earth, dazed with +the endless succession of strange gypsum formations which we had seen, +minarets, thrones, shawls, coronets, some of them so made that one could +imagine that the old kobolds had employed their leisure hours in +fashioning their freakish outlines. It was a memorable drive home in the +evening. Once as a bird flew above my head, the slanting ray of the +declining sun struck it and turned it suddenly to a vivid scarlet and +green. It was the first of many parrots. Once also a couple of kangaroos +bounded across the road, amid wild cries of delight from the children. +Once, too, a long snake writhed across and was caught by one of the +wheels of the motor. Rabbits, I am sorry to say, abounded. If they would +confine themselves to these primeval woods, Australia would be content. + +This was the last of our pleasant Australian excursions, and we left +Medlow Bath refreshed not only by its charming atmosphere, but by +feeling that we had gained new friends. We made our way on January 26th +to Sydney, where all business had to be settled up and preparations made +for our homeward voyage. + +Whilst in Sydney I had an opportunity of examining several phases of +mediumship which will be of interest to the psychic reader. I called +upon Mrs. Foster Turner, who is perhaps the greatest all-round medium +with the highest general level of any sensitive in Australia. I found a +middle-aged lady of commanding and pleasing appearance with a dignified +manner and a beautifully modulated voice, which must be invaluable to +her in platform work. Her gifts are so many that it must have been +difficult for her to know which to cultivate, but she finally settled +upon medical diagnosis, in which she has, I understand, done good work. +Her practice is considerable, and her help is not despised by some of +the leading practitioners. This gift is, as I have explained previously +in the case of Mr. Bloomfield, a form of clairvoyance, and Mrs. Foster +Turner enjoys all the other phases of that wonderful power, including +psychometry, with its application to detective work, the discerning of +spirits, and to a very marked degree the gift of prophecy, which she has +carried upon certain occasions to a length which I have never known +equalled in any reliable record of the past. + +Here is an example for which, I am told, a hundred witnesses could be +cited. At a meeting at the Little Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, +on a Sunday evening of February, 1914, Mrs. Turner addressed the +audience under an inspiration which claimed to be W. T. Stead. He ended +his address by saying that in order to prove that he spoke with a power +beyond mortal, he would, on the next Sunday, give a prophecy as to the +future of the world. + +Next Sunday some 900 people assembled, when Mrs. Turner, once more under +control, spoke as follows. I quote from notes taken at the time. "Now, +although there is not at present a whisper of a great European war at +hand, yet I want to warn you that before this year, 1914, has run its +course, Europe will be deluged in blood. Great Britain, our beloved +nation, will be drawn into the most awful war the world has ever known. +Germany will be the great antagonist, and will draw other nations in her +train. Austria will totter to its ruin. Kings and kingdoms will fall. +Millions of precious lives will be slaughtered, but Britain will finally +triumph and emerge victorious. During the year, also, the Pope of Rome +will pass away, and a bomb will be placed in St. Paul's Church, but will +be discovered in time and removed before damage is done." + +Can any prophecy be more accurate or better authenticated than that? The +only equally exact prophecy on public events which I can recall is when +Emma Hardinge Britten, having been refused permission in 1860 to deliver +a lecture on Spiritualism in the Town Hall of Atlanta, declared that, +before many years had passed, that very Town Hall would be choked up +with the dead and the dying, drawn from the State which persecuted her. +This came literally true in the Civil War a few years later, when +Sherman's army passed that way. + +Mrs. Foster Turner's gift of psychometry is one which will be freely +used by the community when we become more civilised and less ignorant. +As an example of how it works, some years ago a Melbourne man named +Cutler disappeared, and there was a considerable debate as to his fate. +His wife, without giving a name, brought Cutler's boot to Mrs. Turner. +She placed it near her forehead and at once got _en rapport_ with the +missing man. She described how he left his home, how he kissed his wife +good-bye, all the succession of his movements during that morning, and +finally how he had fallen or jumped over a bridge into the river, where +he had been caught under some snag. A search at the place named revealed +the dead body. If this case be compared with that of Mr. Foxhall, +already quoted, one can clearly see that the same law underlies each. +But what an ally for our C.I.D.! + +There was one pleasant incident in connection with my visit to Mrs. +Foster Turner. Upon my asking her whether she had any psychic impression +when she saw me lecturing, she said that I was accompanied on the +platform by a man in spirit life, about 70 years of age, grey-bearded, +with rugged eyebrows. She searched her mind for a name, and then said, +"Alfred Russell Wallace." Doctor Abbott, who was present, confirmed +that she had given that name at the time. It will be remembered that +Mrs. Roberts, of Dunedin, had also given the name of the great +Spiritualistic Scientist as being my coadjutor. There was no possible +connection between Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Roberts. Indeed, the +intervention of the strike had made it almost impossible for them to +communicate, even if they had known each other--which they did not. It +was very helpful to me to think that so great a soul was at my side in +the endeavour to stimulate the attention of the world. + +Two days before our departure we attended the ordinary Sunday service of +the Spiritualists at Stanmore Road, which appeared to be most reverently +and beautifully conducted. It is indeed pleasant to be present at a +religious service which in no way offends one's taste or one's +reason--which cannot always be said, even of Spiritualistic ones. At the +end I was presented with a beautifully illuminated address from the +faithful of Sydney, thanking me for what they were pleased to call "the +splendidly successful mission on behalf of Spiritualism in Sydney." "You +are a specially chosen leader," it went on, "endowed with power to +command attention from obdurate minds. We rejoice that you are ready to +consecrate your life to the spread of our glorious gospel, which +contains more proof of the eternal love of God than any other truth yet +revealed to man." So ran this kindly document. It was decorated with +Australian emblems, and as there was a laughing jackass in the corner, +I was able to raise a smile by suggesting that they had adorned it with +the picture of a type of opponent with whom we were very familiar, the +more so as some choice specimens had been observed in Sydney. There are +some gentle souls in our ranks who refrain from all retort--and morally, +they are no doubt the higher--but personally, when I am moved by the +malevolence and ignorance of our opponents, I cannot help hitting back +at them. It was Mark Twain, I think, who said that, instead of turning +the other cheek, he returned the other's cheek. That is my unregenerate +instinct. + +I was able, for the first time, to give a bird's-eye view of my tour and +its final results. I had, in all, addressed twenty-five meetings, +averaging 2,000 people in each, or 50,000 people in all. I read aloud a +letter from Mr. Carlyle Smythe, who, with his father, had managed the +tours of every lecturer of repute who had come to Australia during the +past thirty years. Mr. Smythe knew what success and failure were, and he +said: "For an equal number of lectures, yours has proved the most +prosperous tour in my experience. No previous tour has won such +consistent success. From the push-off at Adelaide to the great boom in +New Zealand and Brisbane, it has been a great dynamic progression of +enthusiasm. I have known in my career nothing parallel to it." + +The enemies of our cause were longing for my failure, and had, indeed, +in some cases most unscrupulously announced it, so it was necessary +that I should give precise details as to this great success, and to the +proof which it afforded that the public mind was open to the new +revelation. But, after all, the money test was the acid one. I had taken +a party of seven people at a time when all expenses were doubled or +trebled by the unnatural costs of travel and of living, which could not +be made up for by increasing the price of admission. It would seem a +miracle that I could clear this great bill of expenses in a country like +Australia, where the large towns are few. And yet I was able to show +that I had not only done so, after paying large sums in taxation, but +that I actually had seven hundred pounds over. This I divided among +Spiritual funds in Australia, the bulk of it, five hundred pounds, being +devoted to a guarantee of expenses for the next lecturer who should +follow me. It seemed to me that such a lecturer, if well chosen, and +properly guaranteed against loss, might devote a longer time than I, and +visit the smaller towns, from which I had often the most touching +appeals. If he were successful, he need not touch the guarantee fund, +and so it would remain as a perpetual source of active propaganda. Such +was the scheme which I outlined that night, and which was eventually +adopted by the Spiritualists of both Australia and New Zealand. + + Illustration: DENIS WITH A BLACK SNAKE AT MEDLOW BATH. + +On my last evening at Sydney, I attended a third seance with Charles +Bailey, the apport medium. It was not under test conditions, so that it +can claim no strict scientific value, and yet the results are worth +recording. It had struck me that a critic might claim that there was +phosphorescent matter inside the spectacle case, which seemed to be the +only object which Bailey took inside the cabinet, so I insisted on +examining it, but found it quite innocent. The usual inconclusive +shadowy appearance of luminous vapour was evident almost at once, but +never, so far as I could judge, out of reach of the cabinet, which was +simply a blanket drawn across the corner of the room. The Hindoo control +then announced that an apport would be brought, and asked that water be +placed in a tin basin. He (that is, Bailey himself, under alleged +control) then emerged, the lights being half up, carrying the basin over +his head. On putting it down, we all saw two strange little young +tortoises swimming about in it. I say "strange," because I have seen +none like them. They were about the size of a half-crown, and the head, +instead of being close to the shell, was at the end of a thin neck half +as long as the body. There were a dozen Australians present, and they +all said they had never seen any similar ones. The control claimed that +he had just brought them from a tank in Benares. The basin was left on +the table, and while the lights were down, the creatures disappeared. It +is only fair to say that they could have been removed by hand in the +dark, but on examining the table, I was unable to see any of those +sloppings of water which might be expected to follow such an operation. + +Shortly afterwards there was a great crash in the dark, and a number of +coins fell on to the table, and were handed to me by the presiding +control as a parting present. They did not, I fear, help me much with my +hotel bill, for they were fifty-six Turkish copper pennies, taken "from +a well," according to our informant. These two apports were all the +phenomena, and the medium, who has been working very hard of late, +showed every sign of physical collapse at the close. + +Apart from the actual production in the seance room, which may be +disputed, I should like to confront the honest sceptic with the +extraordinary nature of the objects which Bailey produces on these +occasions. They cannot be disputed, for hundreds have handled them, +collections of them have been photographed, there are cases full at the +Stanford University at California, and I am bringing a few samples back +to England with me. If the whole transaction is normal, then where does +he get them? I had an Indian nest. Does anyone import Indian nests? Does +anyone import queer little tortoises with long, thin necks? Is there a +depot for Turkish copper coins in Australia? On the previous sitting, he +got 100 Chinese ones. Those might be explained, since the Chinaman is +not uncommon in Sydney, but surely he exports coins, rather than imports +them. Then what about 100 Babylonian tablets, with legible inscriptions +in Assyrian, some of them cylindrical, with long histories upon them? +Granting that they are Jewish forgeries, how do they get into the +country? Bailey's house was searched once by the police, but nothing was +found. Arabic papers, Chinese schoolbooks, mandarins' buttons, tropical +birds--all sorts of odd things arrive. If they are not genuine, where do +they come from? The matter is ventilated in papers, and no one comes +forward to damn Bailey for ever by proving that he supplied them. It is +no use passing the question by. It calls for an answer. If these +articles can be got in any normal way, then what is the way? If not, +then Bailey has been a most ill-used man, and miracles are of daily +occurrence in Australia. This man should be under the strict, but +patient and sympathetic, control of the greatest scientific observers in +the world, instead of being allowed to wear himself out by promiscuous +seances, given in order to earn a living. Imagine our scientists +expending themselves in the examination of shells, or the classification +of worms, when such a subject as this awaits them. And it cannot await +them long. The man dies, and then where are these experiments? But if +such scientific investigation be made, it must be thorough and +prolonged, directed by those who have real experience of occult matters, +otherwise it will wreck itself upon some theological or other snag, as +did Colonel de Rochas' attempt at Grenoble. + +The longer one remains in Australia, the more one is struck by the +failure of State control. Whenever you test it, in the telephones, the +telegraphs and the post, it stands for inefficiency, with no possibility +that I can see of remedy. The train service is better, but still far +from good. As to the State ventures in steamboat lines and in banking, I +have not enough information to guide me. On the face of it, it is +evident that in each case there is no direct responsible master, and +that there is no real means of enforcing discipline. I have talked to +the heads of large institutions, who have assured me that the conduct of +business is becoming almost impossible. When they send an urgent +telegram, with a letter confirming it, it is no unusual thing for the +letter to arrive first. No complaint produces any redress. The maximum +compensation for sums lost in the post is, I am told, two pounds, so +that the banks, whose registered letters continually disappear, suffer +heavy losses. On the other hand, if they send a messenger with the +money, there is a law by which all bullion carried by train has to be +declared, and has to pay a commission. Yet the public generally, having +no standard of comparison, are so satisfied with the wretched public +services, that there is a continued agitation to extend public control, +and so ruin the well conducted private concerns. The particular instance +which came under my notice was the ferry service of Sydney harbour, +which is admirably and cheaply conducted, and yet there is a clamour +that it also should be dragged into this morass of slovenly +inefficiency. I hope, however, that the tide will soon set the other +way. I fear, from what I have seen of the actual working, that it is +only under exceptional conditions, and with very rigorous and +high-principled direction, that the State control of industries can be +carried out. I cannot see that it is a political question, or that the +democracy has any interest, save to have the public work done as well +and as economically as possible. When the capitalist has a monopoly, and +is exacting an undue return, it is another matter. + +As I look back at Australia my prayers--if deep good wishes form a +prayer--go out to it. Save for that great vacuum upon the north, which a +wise Government would strive hard to fill, I see no other external +danger which can threaten her people. But internally I am shadowed by +the feeling that trouble may be hanging over them, though I am assured +that the cool stability of their race will at last pull them through it. +There are some dangerous factors there which make their position more +precarious than our own, and behind a surface of civilisation there lie +possible forces which might make for disruption. As a people they are +rather less disciplined than a European nation. There is no large middle +or leisured class who would represent moderation. Labour has tried a +Labour Government, and finding that politics will not really alter +economic facts is now seeking some fresh solution. The land is held in +many cases by large proprietors who work great tracts with few hands, so +there is not the conservative element which makes the strength of the +United States with its six million farmers, each with his stake in the +land. Above all, there is no standing military force, and nothing but a +small, though very efficient, police force to stand between organised +government and some wild attempt of the extremists. There are plenty of +soldiers, it is true, and they have been treated with extreme +generosity by the State, but they have been reabsorbed into the civil +population. If they stand for law and order then all is well. On the +other hand, there are the Irish, who are fairly numerous, well organised +and disaffected. There is no Imperial question, so far as I can see, +save with the Irish, but there is this disquieting internal situation +which, with the coming drop of wages, may suddenly become acute. An +Australian should be a sober-minded man for he has his difficulties +before him. We of the old country should never forget that these +difficulties have been partly caused by his splendid participation in +the great war, and so strain every nerve to help, both by an enlightened +sympathy and by such material means as are possible. + +Personally, I have every sympathy with all reasonable and practical +efforts to uphold the standard of living in the working classes. At +present there is an almost universal opinion among thoughtful and +patriotic Australians that the progress of the country is woefully +hampered by the constant strikes, which are declared in defiance of all +agreements and all arbitration courts. The existence of Labour +Governments, or the State control of industries, does not seem to +alleviate these evil conditions, but may rather increase them, for in +some cases such pressure has been put upon the Government that they have +been forced to subsidise the strikers--or at least those sufferers who +have come out in sympathy with the original strikers. Such tactics must +demoralise a country and encourage labour to make claims upon capital +which the latter cannot possibly grant, since in many cases the margin +of profit is so small and precarious that it would be better for the +capitalist to withdraw his money and invest it with no anxieties. It is +clear that the tendency is to destroy the very means by which the worker +earns his bread, and that the position will become intolerable unless +the older, more level-headed men gain control of the unions and keep the +ignorant hot-heads in order. It is the young unmarried men without +responsibilities who create the situations, and it is the married men +with their women and children who suffer. A table of strikes prepared +recently by the _Manchester Guardian_ shows that more hours were lost in +Australia with her five or six million inhabitants than in the United +Kingdom with nearly fifty million. Surely this must make the Labour +leaders reconsider their tactics. As I write the stewards' strike, which +caused such extended misery, has collapsed, the sole result being a loss +of nearly a million pounds in wages to the working classes, and great +inconvenience to the public. The shipowners seem now in no hurry to +resume the services, and if their delay will make the strikers more +thoughtful it is surely to be defended. + +On February 1st we started from Sydney in our good old "Naldera" upon +our homeward voyage, but the work was not yet finished. On reaching +Melbourne, where the ship was delayed two days, we found that a Town +Hall demonstration had been arranged to give us an address from the +Victorian Spiritualists, and wish us farewell. It was very short notice +and there was a tram strike which prevented people from getting about, +so the hall was not more than half full. None the less, we had a fine +chance of getting in touch with our friends, and the proceedings were +very hearty. The inscription was encased in Australian wood with a +silver kangaroo outside and beautiful illuminations within. It ran as +follows: + +"We desire to place on permanent record our intense appreciation of your +zealous and self-sacrificing efforts, and our deep gratitude for the +great help you have given to the cause to which you have consecrated +your life. The over-flowing meetings addressed by you bear evidence of +the unqualified success of your mission, and many thousands bless the +day when you determined to enter this great crusade beneath the Southern +Cross.... In all these sentiments we desire to include your loyal and +most devoted partner, Lady Doyle, whose self-sacrifice equals or exceeds +your own." + +Personally, I have never been conscious of any self-sacrifice, but the +words about my wife were in no way an over-statement. I spoke in reply +for about forty minutes, and gave a synopsis of the state of the faith +in other centres, for each Australian State is curiously self-centred +and realises very little beyond its own borders. It was good for +Melbourne to know that Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and New Zealand were +quite as alive and zealous as themselves. + +At the end of the function I gave an account of the financial results +of my tour and handed over L500 as a guarantee fund for future British +lecturers, and L100 to Mr. Britton Harvey to assist his admirable paper, +_The Harbinger of Light_. I had already expended about L100 upon +spiritual causes, so that my whole balance came to L700, which is all +now invested in the Cause and should bring some good spiritual interest +in time to come. We badly need money in order to be able to lay our case +more fully before the world. + +I have already given the written evidence of Mr. Smythe that my tour was +the most successful ever conducted in his time in Australia. To this I +may add the financial result recorded above. In view of this it is worth +recording that _Life_, a paper entirely under clerical management, said: +"The one thing clear is that Sir Conan Doyle's mission to Australia was +a mournful and complete failure, and it has left him in a very +exasperated state of mind." This is typical of the perverse and +unscrupulous opposition which we have continually to face, which +hesitates at no lie in order to try and discredit the movement. + +One small incident broke the monotony of the voyage between Adelaide and +Fremantle, across the dreaded Bight. + +There have been considerable depredations in the coastal passenger trade +of Australia, and since the State boats were all laid up by the strike +it was to be expected that the crooks would appear upon the big liners. +A band of them came on board the _Naldera_ at Adelaide, but their +methods were crude, and they were up against a discipline and an +organisation against which they were helpless. One ruffian entered a +number of cabins and got away with some booty, but was very gallantly +arrested by Captain Lewellin himself, after a short hand-to-hand +struggle. This fellow was recognised by the detectives at Fremantle and +was pronounced to be an old hand. In the general vigilance and search +for accomplices which followed, another passenger was judged to be +suspicious and he was also carried away by the detectives on a charge of +previous forgery. Altogether the crooks came out very badly in their +encounter with the _Naldera_, whose officers deserve some special +recognition from the Company for the able way in which the matter was +handled. + +Although my formal tour was now over, I had quite determined to speak at +Perth if it were humanly possible, for I could not consider my work as +complete if the capital of one State had been untouched. I therefore +sent the message ahead that I would fit in with any arrangements which +they might make, be it by day or night, but that the ship would only be +in port for a few hours. As matters turned out the _Naldera_ arrived in +the early morning and was announced to sail again at 3 p.m., so that the +hours were awkward. They took the great theatre, however, for 1 p.m., +which alarmed me as I reflected that my audience must either be starving +or else in a state of repletion. Everything went splendidly, however. +The house was full, and I have never had a more delightfully keen set of +people in front of me. Of all my experiences there was none which was +more entirely and completely satisfactory, and I hope that it brought a +very substantial sum into the local spiritual treasury. There was quite +a scene in the street afterwards, and the motor could not start for the +crowds who surrounded it and stretched their kind hands and eager faces +towards us. It was a wonderful last impression to bear away from +Australia. + +It is worth recording that upon a clairvoyante being asked upon this +occasion whether she saw any one beside me on the platform she at once +answered "an elderly man with very tufted eyebrows." This was the marked +characteristic of the face of Russell Wallace. I was told before I left +England that Wallace was my guide. I have already shown that Mrs. +Roberts, of Dunedin, gave me a message direct from him to the same +effect. Mrs. Foster Turner, in Sydney, said she saw him, described him +and gave the name. Three others have described him. Each of these has +been quite independent of the others. I think that the most sceptical +person must admit that the evidence is rather strong. It is naturally +more strong to me since I am personally conscious of his intervention +and assistance. + +Apart from my spiritual mission, I was very sorry that I could not +devote some time to exploring West Australia, which is in some ways the +most interesting, as it is the least developed, of the States in the +Federation. One or two points which I gathered about it are worth +recording, especially its relation to the rabbits and to the sparrows, +the only hostile invaders which it has known. Long may they remain so! + +The battle between the West Australians and the rabbits was historical +and wonderful. After the creatures had become a perfect pest in the East +it was hoped that the great central desert would prevent them from ever +reaching the West. There was no water for a thousand miles. None the +less, the rabbits got across. It was a notable day when the West +Australian outrider, loping from west to east, met the pioneer rabbit +loping from east to west. Then West Australia made a great effort. She +built a rabbit-proof wire screen from north to south for hundreds of +miles from sea to sea, with such thoroughness that the northern end +projected over a rock which fringed deep water. With such thoroughness, +too, did the rabbits reconnoitre this obstacle that their droppings were +seen upon the far side of that very rock. There came another day of doom +when two rabbits were seen on the wrong side of the wire. Two dragons of +the slime would not have alarmed the farmer more. A second line was +built, but this also was, as I understand, carried by the attack, which +is now consolidating, upon the ground it has won. However, the whole +situation has been changed by the discovery elsewhere that the rabbit +can be made a paying proposition, so all may end well in this curious +story. + +A similar fight, with more success, has been made by West Australia +against the sparrow, which has proved an unmitigated nuisance +elsewhere. The birds are slowly advancing down the line of the +Continental Railway and their forward scouts are continually cut off. +Captain White, the distinguished ornithologist, has the matter in hand, +and received, as I am told, a wire a few weeks ago, he being in +Melbourne, to the effect that two sparrows had been observed a thousand +miles west of where they had any rights. He set off, or sent off, +instantly to this way-side desert station in the hope of destroying +them, with what luck I know not. I should be inclined to back the +sparrows. + +This Captain White is a man of energy and brains, whose name comes up +always when one enquires into any question of bird or beast. He has made +a remarkable expedition lately to those lonely Everard Ranges, which lie +some distance to the north of the desolate Nularbor Plain, through which +the Continental Railway passes. It must form one of the most dreadful +wastes in the world, for there are a thousand miles of coast line, +without one single stream emerging. Afforestation may alter all that. In +the Everard Ranges Captain White found untouched savages of the stone +age, who had never seen a white man before, and who treated him with +absolute courtesy and hospitality. They were a fine race physically, +though they lived under such conditions that there was little solid food +save slugs, lizards and the like. One can but pray that the Australian +Government will take steps to save these poor people from the sad fate +which usually follows the contact between the higher and the lower. + +From what I heard, West Australian immigrants are better looked after +than in the other States. I was told in Perth that nine hundred +ex-service men with their families had arrived, and that all had been +fitted into places, permanent or temporary, within a fortnight. This is +not due to Government, but to the exertions of a peculiar local Society, +with the strange title of "The Ugly Men." "Handsome is as handsome +does," and they seem to be great citizens. West Australia calls itself +the Cinderella State, for, although it covers a third of the Continent, +it is isolated from the great centres of population. It has a very +individual life of its own, however, with its gold fields, its shark +fisheries, its pearlers, and the great stock-raising plain in the north. +Among other remarkable achievements is its great water pipe, which +extends for four hundred miles across the desert, and supplies the +pressure for the electric machinery at Kalgurli. + +By a coincidence, the _Narkunda_, which is the sister ship of the +_Naldera_, lay alongside the same quay at Fremantle, and it was an +impressive sight to see these two great shuttles of Empire lying for a +few hours at rest. In their vastness and majesty they made me think of a +daring saying of my mother's, when she exclaimed that if some works of +man, such as an ocean-going steamer, were compared with some works of +God, such as a hill, man could sustain the comparison. It is the divine +spark within us which gives us the creative power, and what may we not +be when that is fully developed! + +The children were fishing for sharks, with a line warranted to hold +eighteen pounds, with the result that Malcolm's bait, lead, and +everything else was carried away. But they were amply repaid by actually +seeing the shark, which played about for some time in the turbid water, +a brown, ugly, varminty creature, with fine lines of speed in its +tapering body. "It was in Adelaide, daddy, not Fremantle," they protest +in chorus, and no doubt they are right. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + Pleasing letters.--Visit to Candy.--Snake and Flying Fox.--Buddha's + shrine.--The Malaya.--Naval digression.--Indian + trader.--Elephanta.--Sea snakes.--Chained to a tombstone.--Berlin's + escape.--Lord Chetwynd.--Lecture in the Red Sea.--Marseilles. + + +It was on Friday, February 11th, that we drew away from the Fremantle +wharf, and started forth upon our long, lonely trek for Colombo--a huge +stretch of sea, in which it is unusual to see a single sail. As night +fell I saw the last twinkling lights of Australia fade away upon our +starboard quarter. Well, my job is done. I have nothing to add, nor have +I said anything which I would wish withdrawn. My furrow gapes across two +young Continents. I feel, deep in my soul, that the seed will fall in +due season, and that the reaping will follow the seed. Only the work +concerns ourselves--the results lie with those whose instruments we are. + +Of the many kindly letters which bade us farewell, and which assured us +that our work was not in vain, none was more eloquent and thoughtful +than that of Mr. Thomas Ryan, a member of the Federal Legislature. "Long +after you leave us your message will linger. This great truth, which we +had long thought of as the plaything of the charlatan and crank, into +this you breathed the breath of life, and, as of old, we were forced to +say, 'We shall think of this again. We shall examine it more fully.' +Give us time--for the present only this, we are sure that this thing was +not done in a corner. Let me say in the few moments I am able to snatch +from an over-crowded life, that we realise throughout the land how deep +and far-reaching were the things of which you spoke to us. We want time, +and even more time, to make them part of ourselves. We are glad you have +come and raised our thoughts from the market-place to the altar." + +Bishop Leadbeater, of Sydney, one of the most venerable and picturesque +figures whom I met in my travels, wrote, "Now that you are leaving our +shores, let me express my conviction that your visit has done great good +in stirring up the thought of the people, and, I hope, in convincing +many of them of the reality of the other life." Among very many other +letters there was none I valued more than one from the Rev. Jasper +Calder, of Auckland. "Rest assured, Sir Arthur, the plough has gone +deep, and the daylight will now reach the soil that has so long been in +the darkness of ignorance. I somehow feel as if this is the beginning of +new things for us all." + +It is a long and weary stretch from Australia to Ceylon, but it was +saved from absolute monotony by the weather, which was unusually +boisterous for so genial a region. Two days before crossing the line we +ran into a north-western monsoon, a rather rare experience, so that the +doldrums became quite a lively place. Even our high decks were wet with +spindrift and the edge of an occasional comber, and some of the cabins +were washed out. A smaller ship would have been taking heavy seas. In +all that great stretch of ocean we never saw a sail or a fish, and very +few birds. The loneliness of the surface of the sea is surely a very +strange fact in nature. One would imagine, if the sea is really so +populous as we imagine, that the surface, which is the only fixed point +in very deep water, would be the gathering ground and trysting place for +all life. Save for the flying fish, there was not a trace in all those +thousands of miles. + +I suppose that on such a voyage one should rest and do nothing, but how +difficult it is to do nothing, and can it be restful to do what is +difficult? To me it is almost impossible. I was helped through a weary +time by many charming companions on board, particularly the Rev. Henry +Howard, reputed to be the best preacher in Australia. Some of his +sermons which I read are, indeed, splendid, depending for their effect +upon real thought and knowledge, without any theological emotion. He is +ignorant of psychic philosophy, though, like so many men who profess +themselves hostile to Spiritualism, he is full of good stories which +conclusively prove the very thing he denies. However, he has reached +full spirituality, which is more important than Spiritualism, and he +must be a great influence for good wherever he goes. The rest he will +learn later, either upon this side, or the other. + +At Colombo I was interested to receive a _Westminster Gazette_, which +contained an article by their special commissioner upon the Yorkshire +fairies. Some correspondent has given the full name of the people +concerned, with their address, which means that their little village +will be crammed with chars-a-banc, and the peace of their life ruined. +It was a rotten thing to do. For the rest, the _Westminster_ inquiries +seem to have confirmed Gardner and me in every particular, and brought +out the further fact that the girls had never before taken a photo in +their life. One of them had, it seems, been for a short time in the +employ of a photographer, but as she was only a child, and her duties +consisted in running on errands, the fact would hardly qualify her, as +_Truth_ suggests, for making faked negatives which could deceive the +greatest experts in London. There may be some loophole in the direction +of thought forms, but otherwise the case is as complete as possible. + +We have just returned from a dream journey to Candy. The old capital is +in the very centre of the island, and seventy-two miles from Colombo, +but, finding that we had one clear night, we all crammed ourselves (my +wife, the children and self) into a motor car, and made for it, while +Major Wood and Jakeman did the same by train. It was a wonderful +experience, a hundred and forty miles of the most lovely coloured +cinema reel that God ever released. I carry away the confused but +beautiful impression of a good broad red-tinted road, winding amid all +shades of green, from the dark foliage of overhanging trees, to the +light stretches of the half-grown rice fields. Tea groves, rubber +plantations, banana gardens, and everywhere the coconut palms, with +their graceful, drooping fronds. Along this great road streamed the +people, and their houses lined the way, so that it was seldom that one +was out of sight of human life. They were of all types and colours, from +the light brown of the real Singalese to the negroid black of the +Tamils, but all shared the love of bright tints, and we were delighted +by the succession of mauves, purples, crimsons, ambers and greens. Water +buffaloes, with the resigned and half-comic air of the London landlady +who has seen better days, looked up at us from their mudholes, and +jackal-like dogs lay thick on the path, hardly moving to let our motor +pass. Once, my lord the elephant came round a corner, with his soft, +easy-going stride, and surveyed us with inscrutable little eyes. It was +the unchanged East, even as it had always been, save for the neat little +police stations and their smart occupants, who represented the gentle, +but very efficient, British Raj. It may have been the merit of that Raj, +or it may have been the inherent virtue of the people, but in all that +journey we were never conscious of an unhappy or of a wicked face. They +were very sensitive, speaking faces, too, and it was not hard to read +the thoughts within. + +As we approached Candy, our road ran through the wonderful Botanical +Gardens, unmatched for beauty in the world, though I still give +Melbourne pride of place for charm. As we sped down one avenue an +elderly keeper in front of us raised his gun and fired into the thick +foliage of a high tree. An instant later something fell heavily to the +ground. A swarm of crows had risen, so that we had imagined it was one +of these, but when we stopped the car a boy came running up with the +victim, which was a great bat, or flying fox, with a two-foot span of +leathery wing. It had the appealing face of a mouse, and two black, +round eyes, as bright as polished shoe buttons. It was wounded, so the +boy struck it hard upon the ground, and held it up once more, the dark +eyes glazed, and the graceful head bubbling blood from either nostril. +"Horrible! horrible!" cried poor Denis, and we all echoed it in our +hearts. This intrusion of tragedy into that paradise of a garden +reminded us of the shadows of life. There is something very intimately +moving in the evil fate of the animals. I have seen a man's hand blown +off in warfare, and have not been conscious of the same haunting horror +which the pains of animals have caused me. + +And here I may give another incident from our Candy excursion. The boys +are wild over snakes, and I, since I sat in the front of the motor, was +implored to keep a look-out. We were passing through a village, where a +large lump of concrete, or stone, was lying by the road. A stick, about +five feet long, was resting against it. As we flew past, I saw, to my +amazement, the top of the stick bend back a little. I shouted to the +driver, and we first halted, and then ran back to the spot. Sure enough, +it was a long, yellow snake, basking in this peculiar position. The +village was alarmed, and peasants came running, while the boys, wildly +excited, tumbled out of the motor. "Kill it!" they cried. "No, no!" +cried the chauffeur. "There is the voice of the Buddhist," I thought, so +I cried, "No! no!" also. The snake, meanwhile, squirmed over the stone, +and we saw it lashing about among the bushes. Perhaps we were wrong to +spare it, for I fear it was full of venom. However, the villagers +remained round the spot, and they had sticks, so perhaps the story was +not ended. + +Candy, the old capital, is indeed a dream city, and we spent a long, +wonderful evening beside the lovely lake, where the lazy tortoises +paddled about, and the fireflies gleamed upon the margin. We visited +also the old Buddhist temple, where, as in all those places, the +atmosphere is ruined by the perpetual demand for small coins. The few +mosques which I have visited were not desecrated in this fashion, and it +seems to be an unenviable peculiarity of the Buddhists, whose +yellow-robed shaven priests have a keen eye for money. Beside the +temple, but in ruins, lay the old palace of the native kings. + +I wish we could have seen the temple under better conditions, for it is +really the chief shrine of the most numerous religion upon earth, +serving the Buddhist as the Kaaba serves the Moslem, or St. Peter's the +Catholic. It is strange how the mind of man drags high things down to +its own wretched level, the priests in each creed being the chief +culprits. Buddha under his boh tree was a beautiful example of sweet, +unselfish benevolence and spirituality. And the upshot, after two +thousand years, is that his followers come to adore a horse's tooth +(proclaimed to be Buddha's, and three inches long), at Candy, and to +crawl up Adam's Peak, in order to worship at a hole in the ground which +is supposed to be his yard-long footstep. It is not more senseless than +some Christian observances, but that does not make it less deplorable. + +I was very anxious to visit one of the buried cities further inland, and +especially to see the ancient Boh tree, which must surely be the doyen +of the whole vegetable kingdom, since it is undoubtedly a slip taken +from Buddha's original Boh tree, transplanted into Ceylon about two +hundred years before Christ. Its history is certain and unbroken. Now, I +understand, it is a very doddering old trunk, with withered limbs which +are supported by crutches, but may yet hang on for some centuries to +come. On the whole, we employed our time very well, but Ceylon will +always remain to each of us as an earthly paradise, and I could imagine +no greater pleasure than to have a clear month to wander over its +beauties. Monsieur Clemenceau was clearly of the same opinion, for he +was doing it very thoroughly whilst we were there. + +From Colombo to Bombay was a dream of blue skies and blue seas. Half +way up the Malabar coast, we saw the old Portuguese settlement of Goa, +glimmering white on a distant hillside. Even more interesting to us was +a squat battleship making its way up the coast. As we came abreast of it +we recognised the _Malaya_, one of that famous little squadron of Evan +Thomas', which staved off the annihilation of Beatty's cruisers upon +that day of doom on the Jutland coast. We gazed upon it with the +reverence that it deserved. We had, in my opinion, a mighty close shave +upon that occasion. If Jellicoe had gambled with the British fleet he +might have won a shattering victory, but surely he was wise to play +safety with such tremendous interests at stake. There is an account of +the action, given by a German officer, at the end of Freeman's book +"With the _Hercules_ to Kiel," which shows clearly that the enemy +desired Jellicoe to close with them, as giving them their only chance +for that torpedo barrage which they had thoroughly practised, and on +which they relied to cripple a number of our vessels. In every form of +foresight and preparation, the brains seem to have been with them--but +that was not the fault of the fighting seamen. Surely an amateur could +have foreseen that, in a night action, a star shell is better than a +searchlight, that a dropping shell at a high trajectory is far more +likely to hit the deck than the side, and that the powder magazine +should be cut off from the turret, as, otherwise, a shell crushing the +one will explode the other. This last error in construction seems to +have been the cause of half our losses, and the _Lion_ herself would +have been a victim, but for the self-sacrifice of brave Major Harvey of +the Marines. All's well that ends well, but it was stout hearts, and not +clear heads, which pulled us through. + +It is all very well to say let bygones be bygones, but we have no +guarantee that the old faults are corrected, and certainly no one has +been censured. It looks as if the younger officers had no means of +bringing their views before those in authority, while the seniors were +so occupied with actual administration that they had no time for +thinking outside their routine. Take the really monstrous fact that, at +the outset of a war of torpedoes and mines, when ships might be expected +to sink like kettles with a hole in them, no least provision had been +made for saving the crew! Boats were discarded before action, nothing +wooden or inflammable was permitted, and the consideration that +life-saving apparatus might be non-inflammable does not seem to have +presented itself. When I wrote to the Press, pointing this out with all +the emphasis of which I was capable--I was ready to face the charge of +hysteria in such a cause--I was gravely rebuked by a leading naval +authority, and cautioned not to meddle with mysteries of which I knew +nothing. None the less, within a week there was a rush order for +swimming collars of india rubber. _Post hoc non propter_, perhaps, but +at least it verified the view of the layman. That was in the days when +not one harbour had been boomed and netted, though surely a shark in a +bathing pool would be innocuous compared to a submarine in an anchorage. +The swimmers could get out, but the ships could not. + +But all this comes of seeing the white _Malaya_, steaming slowly upon +deep blue summer seas, with the olive-green coast of Malabar on the +horizon behind her. + +I had an interesting conversation on psychic matters with Lady Dyer, +whose husband was killed in the war. It has been urged that it is +singular and unnatural that our friends from the other side so seldom +allude to the former occasions on which they have manifested. There is, +I think, force in the objection. Lady Dyer had an excellent case to the +contrary--and, indeed, they are not rare when one makes inquiry. She was +most anxious to clear up some point which was left open between her +husband and herself, and for this purpose consulted three mediums in +London, Mr. Vout Peters, Mrs. Brittain, and another. In each case she +had some success. Finally, she consulted Mrs. Leonard, and her husband, +speaking through Feda, under control, began a long conversation by +saying, "I have already spoken to you through three mediums, two women +and a man." Lady Dyer had not given her name upon any occasion, so there +was no question of passing on information. I may add that the intimate +point at issue was entirely cleared up by the husband, who rejoiced +greatly that he had the chance to do so. + +Bombay is not an interesting place for the casual visitor, and was in a +state of uproar and decoration on account of the visit of the Duke of +Connaught. My wife and I did a little shopping, which gave us a glimpse +of the patient pertinacity of the Oriental. The sum being 150 rupees, I +asked the Indian's leave to pay by cheque, as money was running low. He +consented. When we reached the ship by steam-launch, we found that he, +in some strange way, had got there already, and was squatting with the +goods outside our cabin door. He looked askance at Lloyd's Bank, of +which he had never heard, but none the less he took the cheque under +protest. Next evening he was back at our cabin door, squatting as +before, with a sweat-stained cheque in his hand which, he declared, that +he was unable to cash. This time I paid in English pound notes, but he +looked upon them with considerable suspicion. As our ship was lying a +good three miles from the shore, the poor chap had certainly earned his +money, for his goods, in the first instance, were both good and cheap. + +We have seen the Island of Elephanta, and may the curse of Ernulphus, +which comprises all other curses, be upon that old Portuguese Governor +who desecrated it, and turned his guns upon the wonderful stone +carvings. It reminds me of Abou Simbel in Nubia, and the whole place has +an Egyptian flavour. In a vast hollow in the hill, a series of very +elaborate bas reliefs have been carved, showing Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, +the old Hindoo trinity, with all those strange satellites, the bulls, +the kites, the dwarfs, the elephant-headed giants with which Hindoo +mythology has so grotesquely endowed them. Surely a visitor from some +wiser planet, examining our traces, would judge that the human race, +though sane in all else, was mad the moment that it touched religion, +whether he judged it by such examples as these, or by the wearisome +iteration of expressionless Buddhas, the sacred crocodiles and +hawk-headed gods of Egypt, the monstrosities of Central America, or the +lambs and doves which adorn our own churches. It is only in the +Mohammedan faith that such an observer would find nothing which could +offend, since all mortal symbolism is there forbidden. And yet if these +strange conceptions did indeed help these poor people through their +journey of life--and even now they come from far with their +offerings--then we should morally be as the Portuguese governor, if we +were to say or do that which might leave them prostrate and mutilated in +their minds. It was a pleasant break to our long voyage, and we were +grateful to our commander, who made everything easy for us. He takes the +humane view that a passenger is not merely an article of cargo, to be +conveyed from port to port, but that his recreation should, in reason, +be considered as well. + +Elephanta was a little bit of the old India, but the men who conveyed us +there from the launch to the shore in their ancient dhows were of a far +greater antiquity. These were Kolis, small, dark men, who held the +country before the original Aryan invasion, and may still be plying +their boats when India has become Turanian or Slavonic, or whatever its +next avatar may be. They seem to have the art of commerce well +developed, for they held us up cleverly until they had extracted a rupee +each, counting us over and over with great care and assiduity. + +At Bombay we took over 200 more travellers. + +We had expected that the new-comers, who were mostly Anglo-Indians whose +leave had been long overdue, would show signs of strain and climate, but +we were agreeably surprised to find that they were a remarkably healthy +and alert set of people. This may be due to the fact that it is now the +end of the cold weather. Our new companions included many native +gentlemen, one of whom, the Rajah of Kapurthala, brought with him his +Spanish wife, a regal-looking lady, whose position must be a difficult +one. Hearne and Murrell, the cricketers, old playmates and friends, were +also among the new-comers. All of them seemed perturbed as to the unrest +in India, though some were inclined to think that the worst was past, +and that the situation was well in hand. When we think how splendidly +India helped us in the war, it would indeed be sad if a serious rift +came between us now. One thing I am very sure of, that if Great Britain +should ever be forced to separate from India, it is India, and not +Britain, which will be the chief sufferer. + +We passed over hundreds of miles of absolute calm in the Indian Ocean. +There is a wonderful passage in Frank Bullen's "Sea Idylls," in which +he describes how, after a long-continued tropical calm, all manner of +noxious scum and vague evil shapes come flickering to the surface. +Coleridge has done the same idea, for all time, in "The Ancient +Mariner," when "the very sea did rot." In our case we saw nothing so +dramatic, but the ship passed through one area where there was a great +number of what appeared to be sea-snakes, creatures of various hues, +from two to ten feet long, festooned or slowly writhing some feet below +the surface. I cannot recollect seeing anything of the kind in any +museum. These, and a couple of Arab dhows, furnished our only break in a +thousand miles. Certainly, as an entertainment the ocean needs cutting. + +In the extreme south, like a cloud upon the water, we caught a glimpse +of the Island of Socotra, one of the least visited places upon earth, +though so near to the main line of commerce. What a base for submarines, +should it fall into wrong hands! It has a comic-opera Sultan of its own, +with 15,000 subjects, and a subsidy from the British Government of 200 +dollars a year, which has been increased lately to 360, presumably on +account of the higher cost of living. It is a curious fact that, though +it is a great place of hill and plain, seventy miles by eighteen, there +is only one wild animal known, namely the civet cat. A traveller, Mr. +Jacob, who examined the place, put forward the theory that one of +Alexander the Great's ships was wrecked there, the crew remaining, for +he found certain Greek vestiges, but what they were I have been unable +to find out. + +As we approached Aden, we met the _China_ on her way out. Her +misadventure some years ago at the Island of Perim, has become one of +the legends of the sea. In those days, the discipline aboard P. & O. +ships was less firm than at present, and on the occasion of the birthday +of one of the leading passengers, the officers of the ship had been +invited to the festivity. The result was that, in the middle of dinner, +the ship crashed, no great distance from the lighthouse, and, it is +said, though this is probably an exaggeration, that the revellers were +able to get ashore over the bows without wetting their dress shoes. No +harm was done, save that one unlucky rock projected, like a huge spike, +through the ship's bottom, and it cost the company a good half-million +before they were able to get her afloat and in service once more. +However, there she was, doing her fifteen knots, and looking so saucy +and new that no one would credit such an unsavoury incident in her past. + +Early in February I gave a lantern lecture upon psychic phenomena to +passengers of both classes. The Red Sea has become quite a favourite +stamping ground of mine, but it was much more tolerable now than on that +terrible night in August when I discharged arguments and perspiration to +a sweltering audience. On this occasion it was a wonderful gathering, a +microcosm of the world, with an English peer, an Indian Maharajah, many +native gentlemen, whites of every type from four great countries, and a +fringe of stewards, stewardesses, and nondescripts of all sorts, +including the ship's barber, who is one of the most active men on the +ship in an intellectual sense. All went well, and if they were not +convinced they were deeply interested, which is the first stage. +Somewhere there are great forces which are going to carry on this work, +and I never address an audience without the feeling that among them +there may be some latent Paul or Luther whom my words may call into +activity. + +I heard an anecdote yesterday which is worth recording. We have a +boatswain who is a fine, burly specimen of a British seaman. In one of +his short holidays while in mufti, in Norfolk, he had an argument with a +Norfolk farmer, a stranger to him, who wound up the discussion by +saying: "My lad, what you need is a little travel to broaden your mind." + +The boatswain does his 70,000 miles a year. It reminded me of the doctor +who advised his patient to take a brisk walk every morning before +breakfast, and then found out that he was talking to the village +postman. + +A gentleman connected with the cinema trade told me a curious story +within his own experience. Last year a psychic cinema story was shown in +Australia, and to advertise it a man was hired who would consent to be +chained to a tombstone all night. This was done in Melbourne and Sydney +without the person concerned suffering in any way. It was very different +in Launceston. The man was found to be nearly mad from terror in the +morning, though he was a stout fellow of the dock labourer type. His +story was that in the middle of the night he had heard to his horror the +sound of dripping water approaching him. On looking up he saw an +evil-looking shape with water streaming from him, who stood before him +and abused him a long time, frightening him almost to death. The man was +so shaken that the cinema company had to send him for a voyage. Of +course, it was an unfair test for any one's nerves, and imagination may +have played its part, but it is noticeable that a neighbouring grave +contained a man who had been drowned in the Esk many years before. In +any case, it makes a true and interesting story, whatever the +explanation. + +I have said that there was an English peer on board. This was Lord +Chetwynd, a man who did much towards winning the war. Now that the storm +is over the public knows nothing, and apparently cares little, about the +men who brought the ship of State through in safety. Some day we shall +get a more exact sense of proportion, but it is all out of focus at +present. Lord Chetwynd, in the year 1915, discovered by his own personal +experiments how to make an explosive far more effective than the one we +were using, which was very unreliable. This he effected by a particular +combination and treatment of T.N.T. and ammonia nitrate. Having +convinced the authorities by actual demonstration, he was given a free +hand, which he used to such effect that within a year he was furnishing +the main shell supply of the army. His own installation was at +Chilwell, near Nottingham, and it turned out 19,000,000 shells, while +six other establishments were erected elsewhere on the same system. +Within his own works Lord Chetwynd was so complete an autocrat that it +was generally believed that he shot three spies with his own hand. +Thinking the rumour a useful one, he encouraged it by creating three +dummy graves, which may, perhaps, be visited to this day by pious +pro-Germans. It should be added that Lord Chetwynd's explosive was not +only stronger, but cheaper, than that in previous use, so that his +labours saved the country some millions of pounds. + +It was at Chilwell that the huge bombs were filled which were destined +for Berlin. There were 100 of them to be carried in twenty-five Handley +Page machines. Each bomb was capable of excavating 350 tons at the spot +where it fell, and in a trial trip one which was dropped in the central +courtyard of a large square building left not a stone standing around +it. Berlin was saved by a miracle, which she hardly deserved after the +irresponsible glee with which she had hailed the devilish work of her +own Zeppelins. The original hundred bombs sent to be charged had the +tails removed before being sent, and when they were returned it was +found to be such a job finding the right tail for the right bomb, the +permutations being endless, that it was quicker and easier to charge +another hundred bombs with tails attached. This and other fortuitous +matters consumed several weeks. Finally, the bombs were ready and were +actually on the machines in England, whence the start was to be made, +when the Armistice was declared. Possibly a knowledge of this increased +the extreme haste of the German delegates. Personally, I am glad it was +so, for we have enough cause for hatred in the world without adding the +death of 10,000 German civilians. There is some weight, however, in the +contention of those who complain that Germans have devastated Belgium +and France, but have never been allowed to experience in their own +persons what the horrors of war really are. Still, if Christianity and +religion are to be more than mere words, we must be content that Berlin +was not laid in ruins at a time when the issue of the war was already +decided. + +Here we are at Suez once again. It would take Loti or Robert Hichens to +describe the wonderful shades peculiar to the outskirts of Egypt. Deep +blue sea turns to dark green, which in turn becomes the very purest, +clearest emerald as it shallows into a snow-white frill of foam. Thence +extends the golden desert with deep honey-coloured shadows, stretching +away until it slopes upwards into melon-tinted hills, dry and bare and +wrinkled. At one point a few white dwellings with a group of acacias +mark the spot which they call Moses Well. They say that a Jew can pick +up a living in any country, but when one surveys these terrible wastes +one can only imagine that the climate has greatly changed since a whole +nomad people were able to cross them. + +In the Mediterranean we had a snap of real cold which laid many of us +out, myself included. I recall the Lancastrian who complained that he +had swallowed a dog fight. The level of our lives had been disturbed for +an instant by a feud between the children and one of the passengers who +had, probably quite justly, given one of them a box on the ear. In +return, they had fixed an abusive document in his cabin which they had +ended by the words, "With our warmest despisings," all signing their +names to it. The passenger was sportsman enough to show this document +around, or we should not have known of its existence. Strange little +souls with their vivid hopes and fears, a parody of our own. I gave baby +a daily task and had ordered her to do a map of Australia. I found her +weeping in the evening. "I did the map," she cried, between her sobs, +"but they all said it was a pig!" She was shaken to the soul at the +slight upon her handiwork. + +It was indeed wonderful to find ourselves at Marseilles once more, and, +after the usual unpleasant _douane_ formalities, which are greatly +ameliorated in France as compared to our own free trade country, to be +at temporary rest at the Hotel du Louvre. + +A great funeral, that of Frederic Chevillon and his brother, was +occupying the attention of the town. Both were public officials and both +were killed in the war, their bodies being now exhumed for local honour. +A great crowd filed past with many banners, due decorum being observed +save that some of the mourners were smoking cigarettes, which "was not +handsome," as Mr. Pepys would observe. There was no sign of any +religious symbol anywhere. It was a Sunday and yet the people in the +procession seemed very badly dressed and generally down-at-heel and +slovenly. I think we should have done the thing better in England. The +simplicity of the flag-wrapped coffins was however dignified and +pleasing. The inscriptions, too, were full of simple patriotism. + +I never take a stroll through a French town without appreciating the +gulf which lies between us and them. They have the old Roman +civilisation, with its ripe mellow traits, which have never touched the +Anglo-Saxon, who, on the other hand, has his raw Northern virtues which +make life angular but effective. I watched a scene to-day inconceivable +under our rule. Four very smart officers, captains or majors, were +seated outside a cafe. The place was crowded, but there was room for +four more at this table on the sidewalk, so presently that number of +negro privates came along and occupied the vacant seats. The officers +smiled most good humouredly, and remarks were exchanged between the two +parties, which ended in the high falsetto laugh of a negro. These black +troops seemed perfectly self-respecting, and I never saw a drunken man, +soldier or civilian, during two days. + +I have received English letters which announce that I am to repeat my +Australian lectures at the Queen's Hall, from April 11th onwards. I +seem to be returning with shotted guns and going straight into action. +They say that the most dangerous course is to switch suddenly off when +you have been working hard. I am little likely to suffer from that. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + The Institut Metaphysique.--Lecture in French.--Wonderful musical + improviser.--Camille Flammarion.--Test of materialised hand.--Last + ditch of materialism.--Sitting with Mrs. Bisson's medium, + Eva.--Round the Aisne battlefields.--A tragic + intermezzo.--Anglo-French Rugby match.--Madame Blifaud's + clairvoyance. + + +One long stride took us to Paris, where, under the friendly and +comfortable roof of the Hotel du Louvre, we were able at last to unpack +our trunks and to steady down after this incessant movement. The first +visit which I paid in Paris was to Dr. Geley, head of the Institut +Metaphysique, at 89, Avenue Niel. Now that poor Crawford has gone, +leaving an imperishable name behind him, Geley promises to be the +greatest male practical psychic researcher, and he has advantages of +which Crawford could never boast, since the liberality of Monsieur Jean +Meyer has placed him at the head of a splendid establishment with +laboratory, photographic room, lecture room, seance room and library, +all done in the most splendid style. Unless some British patron has the +generosity and intelligence to do the same, this installation, with a +man like Geley to run it, will take the supremacy in psychic advance +from Britain, where it now lies, and transfer it to France. Our nearest +approach to something similar depends at present upon the splendid +private efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hewat MacKenzie, in the Psychic College +at 59, Holland Park, which deserve the support of everyone who realises +the importance of the subject. + +I made a _faux pas_ with the Geleys, for I volunteered to give an +exhibition of my Australian slides, and they invited a distinguished +audience of men of science to see them. Imagine my horror when I found +that my box of slides was in the luggage which Major Wood had taken on +with him in the "Naldera" to England. They were rushed over by +aeroplane, however, in response to my telegram, and so the situation was +saved. + +The lecture was a private one and was attended by Mr. Charles Richet, +Mr. Gabrielle Delanne, and a number of other men of science. Nothing +could have gone better, though I fear that my French, which is +execrable, must have been a sore trial to my audience. I gave them +warning at the beginning by quoting a remark which Bernard Shaw made to +me once, that when he spoke French he did not say what he wanted to say, +but what he could say. Richet told me afterwards that he was deeply +interested by the photographs, and when I noted the wonder and awe with +which he treated them--he, the best known physiologist in the world--and +compared it with the attitude of the ordinary lay Press, it seemed a +good example of the humility of wisdom and the arrogance of ignorance. +After my lecture, which covered an hour and a quarter, we were favoured +by an extraordinary exhibition from a medium named Aubert. This +gentleman has had no musical education whatever, but he sits down in a +state of semi-trance and he handles a piano as I, for one, have never +heard one handled before. It is a most amazing performance. He sits with +his eyes closed while some one calls the alphabet, striking one note +when the right letter sounds. In this way he spells out the name of the +particular composer whom he will represent. He then dashes off, with +tremendous verve and execution, upon a piece which is not a known +composition of that author, but is an improvisation after his manner. We +had Grieg, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and others in quick succession, each of +them masterly and characteristic. His technique seemed to my wife and me +to be not inferior to that of Paderewski. Needles can be driven through +him as he plays, and sums can be set before him which he will work out +without ceasing the wonderful music which appears to flow through him, +but quite independently of his own powers or volition. He would +certainly cause a sensation in London. + +I had the honour next day of meeting Camille Flammarion, the famous +astronomer, who is deeply engaged in psychic study, and was so +interested in the photos which I snowed him that I was compelled to +leave them in his hands that he might get copies done. Flammarion is a +dear, cordial, homely old gentleman with a beautiful bearded head which +would delight a sculptor. He entertained us with psychic stories all +lunch time. Madame Bisson was there and amused me with her opinion upon +psychic researchers, their density, their arrogance, their preposterous +theories to account for obvious effects. If she had not been a great +pioneer in Science, she might have been a remarkable actress, for it was +wonderful how her face took off the various types. Certainly, as +described by her, their far-fetched precautions, which irritate the +medium and ruin the harmony of the conditions, do appear very +ridiculous, and the parrot cry of "Fraud!" and "Fake!" has been sadly +overdone. All are agreed here that spiritualism has a far greater chance +in England than in France, because the French temperament is essentially +a mocking one, and also because the Catholic Church is in absolute +opposition. Three of their bishops, Beauvais, Lisieux and Coutances, +helped to burn a great medium, Joan of Arc, six hundred years ago, +asserting at the trial the very accusations of necromancy which are +asserted to-day. Now they have had to canonise her. One would have hoped +that they had learned something from the incident. + +Dr. Geley has recently been experimenting with Mr. Franek Kluski, a +Polish amateur of weak health, but with great mediumistic powers. These +took the form of materialisations. Dr. Geley had prepared a bucket of +warm paraffin, and upon the appearance of the materialised figure, which +was that of a smallish man, the request was made that the apparition +should plunge its hand into the bucket and then withdraw it, so that +when it dematerialised a cast of the hand would be left, like a glove +of solidified paraffin, so narrow at the wrist that the hands could not +have been withdrawn by any possible normal means without breaking the +moulds. These hands I was able to inspect, and also the plaster cast +which had been taken from the inside of one of them. The latter showed a +small hand, not larger than a boy's, but presenting the characteristics +of age, for the skin was loose and formed transverse folds. The +materialised figure had also, unasked, left an impression of its own +mouth and chin, which was, I think, done for evidential purposes, for a +curious wart hung from the lower lip, which would mark the owner among a +million. So far as I could learn, however, no identification had +actually been effected. The mouth itself was thick-lipped and coarse, +and also gave an impression of age. + +To show the thoroughness of Dr. Geley's work, he had foreseen that the +only answer which any critic, however exacting, could make to the +evidence, was that the paraffin hand had been brought in the medium's +pocket. Therefore he had treated with cholesterin the paraffin in his +bucket, and this same cholesterin reappeared in the resulting glove. +What can any sceptic have to say to an experiment like that save to +ignore it, and drag us back with wearisome iteration to some real or +imaginary scandal of the past? The fact is that the position of the +materialists could only be sustained so long as there was a general +agreement among all the newspapers to regard this subject as a comic +proposition. Now that there is a growing tendency towards recognising +its overwhelming gravity, the evidence is getting slowly across to the +public, and the old attitude of negation and derision has become +puerile. I can clearly see, however, that the materialists will fall +back upon their second line of trenches, which will be to admit the +phenomena, but to put them down to material causes in the unexplored +realms of nature with no real connection with human survival. This +change of front is now due, but it will fare no better than the old one. +Before quitting the subject I should have added that these conclusions +of Dr. Geley concerning the paraffin moulds taken from Kluski's +materialisation are shared by Charles Richet and Count de Gramont of the +Institute of France, who took part in the experiments. How absurd are +the efforts of those who were not present to contradict the experiences +of men like these. + +I was disappointed to hear from Dr. Geley that the experiments in +England with the medium Eva had been largely negative, though once or +twice the ectoplasmic flow was, as I understand, observed. Dr. Geley put +this comparative failure down to the fantastic precautions taken by the +committee, which had produced a strained and unnatural atmosphere. It +seems to me that if a medium is searched, and has all her clothes +changed before entering the seance room, that is ample, but when in +addition to this you put her head in a net-bag and restrict her in other +ways, you are producing an abnormal self-conscious state of mind which +stops that passive mood of receptivity which is essential. Professor +Hyslop has left it on record that after a long series of rigid tests +with Mrs. Piper he tried one sitting under purely natural conditions, +and received more convincing and evidential results than in all the +others put together. Surely this should suggest freer methods in our +research. + +I have just had a sitting with Eva, whom I cannot even say that I have +seen, for she was under her cloth cabinet when I arrived and still under +it when I left, being in trance the whole time. Professor Jules Courtier +of the Sorbonne and a few other men of science were present. Madame +Bisson experiments now in the full light of the afternoon. Only the +medium is in darkness, but her two hands protrude through the cloth and +are controlled by the sitters. There is a flap in the cloth which can be +opened to show anything which forms beneath. After sitting about an hour +this flap was opened, and Madame Bisson pointed out to me a streak of +ectoplasm upon the outside of the medium's bodice. It was about six +inches long and as thick as a finger. I was allowed to touch it, and +felt it shrink and contract under my hand. It is this substance which +can, under good conditions, be poured out in great quantities and can be +built up into forms and shapes, first flat and finally rounded, by +powers which are beyond our science. We sometimes call it Psychoplasm in +England, Richet named it Ectoplasm, Geley calls it Ideoplasm; but call +it what you will, Crawford has shown for all time that it is the +substance which is at the base of psychic physical phenomena. + +Madame Bisson, whose experience after twelve years' work is unique, has +an interesting theory. She disagrees entirely with Dr. Geley's view, +that the shapes are thought forms, and she resents the name ideoplasm, +since it represents that view. Her conclusion is that Eva acts the part +which a "detector" plays, when it turns the Hertzian waves, which are +too short for our observation, into slower ones which can become +audible. Thus Eva breaks up certain currents and renders them visible. +According to her, what we see is never the thing itself but always the +reflection of the thing which exists in another plane and is made +visible in ours by Eva's strange material organisation. It was for this +reason that the word Miroir appeared in one of the photographs, and +excited much adverse criticism. One dimly sees a new explanation of +mediumship. The light seems a colourless thing until it passes through a +prism and suddenly reveals every colour in the world. + +A picture of Madame Bisson's father hung upon the wall, and I at once +recognised him as the phantom which appears in the photographs of her +famous book, and which formed the culminating point of Eva's mediumship. +He has a long and rather striking face which was clearly indicated in +the ectoplasmic image. Only on one occasion was this image so developed +that it could speak, and then only one word. The word was "Esperez." + +We have just returned, my wife, Denis and I, from a round of the Aisne +battlefields, paying our respects incidentally to Bossuet at Meaux, +Fenelon at Chateau Thierry, and Racine at La Ferte Millon. It is indeed +a frightful cicatrix which lies across the brow of France--a scar which +still gapes in many places as an open wound. I could not have believed +that the ruins were still so untouched. The land is mostly under +cultivation, but the houses are mere shells, and I cannot think where +the cultivators live. When you drive for sixty miles and see nothing but +ruin on either side of the road, and when you know that the same thing +extends from the sea to the Alps, and that in places it is thirty miles +broad, it helps one to realise the debt that Germany owes to her +victims. If it had been in the Versailles terms that all her members of +parliament and journalists should be personally conducted, as we have +been, through a sample section, their tone would be more reasonable. + +It has been a wonderful panorama. We followed the route of the thousand +taxi-cabs which helped to save Europe up to the place where Gallieni's +men dismounted and walked straight up against Klueck's rearguard. We saw +Belleau Wood, where the 2nd and 46th American divisions made their fine +debut and showed Ludendorff that they were not the useless soldiers he +had so vainly imagined. Thence we passed all round that great heavy sack +of Germans which had formed in June, 1918, with its tip at Dormans and +Chateau Thierry. We noted Bligny, sacred to the sacrifices of Carter +Campbell's 51st Highlanders, and Braithwaite's 62nd Yorkshire division, +who lost between them seven thousand men in these woods. These British +episodes seem quite unknown to the French, while the Americans have very +properly laid out fine graveyards with their flag flying, and placed +engraved tablets of granite where they played their part, so that in +time I really think that the average Frenchman will hardly remember that +we were in the war at all, while if you were to tell him that in the +critical year we took about as many prisoners and guns as all the other +nations put together, he would stare at you with amazement. Well, what +matter! With a man or a nation it is the duty done for its own sake and +the sake of its own conscience and self-respect that really counts. All +the rest is swank. + +We slept at Rheims. We had stayed at the chief hotel, the Golden Lion, +in 1912, when we were en route to take part in the Anglo-German +motor-car competition, organised by Prince Henry. We searched round, but +not one stone of the hotel was standing. Out of 14,000 houses in the +town, only twenty had entirely escaped. As to the Cathedral, either a +miracle has been wrought or the German gunners have been extraordinary +masters of their craft, for there are acres of absolute ruin up to its +very walls, and yet it stands erect with no very vital damage. The same +applies to the venerable church of St. Remy. On the whole I am prepared +to think that save in one fit of temper upon September 19th, 1914, the +guns were never purposely turned upon this venerable building. Hitting +the proverbial haystack would be a difficult feat compared to getting +home on to this monstrous pile which dominates the town. It is against +reason to suppose that both here and at Soissons they could not have +left the cathedrals as they left the buildings around them. + +Next day, we passed down the Vesle and Aisne, seeing the spot where +French fought his brave but barren action on September 13th, 1914, and +finally we reached the Chemin des Dames--a good name had the war been +fought in the knightly spirit of old, but horribly out of place amid the +ferocities with which Germany took all chivalry from warfare. The huge +barren countryside, swept with rainstorms and curtained in clouds, +looked like some evil landscape out of Vale Owen's revelations. It was +sown from end to end with shattered trenches, huge coils of wire and +rusted weapons, including thousands of bombs which are still capable of +exploding should you tread upon them too heavily. Denis ran wildly +about, like a terrier in a barn, and returned loaded with all sorts of +trophies, most of which had to be discarded as overweight. He succeeded, +however, in bringing away a Prussian helmet and a few other of the more +portable of his treasures. We returned by Soissons, which interested me +greatly, as I had seen it under war conditions in 1916. Finally we +reached Paris after a really wonderful two days in which, owing to Mr. +Cook's organisation and his guide, we saw more and understood more, +than in a week if left to ourselves. They run similar excursions to +Verdun and other points. I only wish we had the time to avail ourselves +of them. + +A tragic intermezzo here occurred in our Paris experience. I suddenly +heard that my brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung, the author of "Raffles" and +many another splendid story, was dying at St. Jean de Luz in the +Pyrenees. I started off at once, but was only in time to be present at +his funeral. Our little family group has been thinned down these last +two years until we feel like a company under hot fire with half on the +ground. We can but close our ranks the tighter. Hornung lies within +three paces of George Gissing, an author for whom both of us had an +affection. It is good to think that one of his own race and calling +keeps him company in his Pyrennean grave. + +Hornung, apart from his literary powers, was one of the wits of our +time. I could brighten this dull chronicle if I could insert a page of +his sayings. Like Charles Lamb, he could find humour in his own physical +disabilities--disabilities which did not prevent him, when over fifty, +from volunteering for such service as he could do in Flanders. When +pressed to have a medical examination, his answer was, "My body is like +a sausage. The less I know of its interior, the easier will be my mind." +It was a characteristic mixture of wit and courage. + +During our stay in Paris we went to see the Anglo-French Rugby match at +Coulombes. The French have not quite got the sporting spirit, and there +was some tendency to hoot whenever a decision was given for the English, +but the play of their team was most excellent, and England only won by +the narrow margin of 10 to 6. I can remember the time when French Rugby +was the joke of the sporting world. They are certainly a most adaptive +people. The tactics of the game have changed considerably since the days +when I was more familiar with it, and it has become less dramatic, since +ground is gained more frequently by kicking into touch than by the +individual run, or even by the combined movement. But it is still the +king of games. It was like the old lists, where the pick of these two +knightly nations bore themselves so bravely of old, and it was an object +lesson to see Clement, the French back, playing on manfully, with the +blood pouring from a gash in the head. Marshal Foch was there, and I +have no doubt that he noted the incident with approval. + +I had a good look at the famous soldier, who was close behind me. He +looks very worn, and sadly in need of a rest. His face and head are +larger than his pictures indicate, but it is not a face with any marked +feature or character. His eyes, however, are grey, and inexorable. His +kepi was drawn down, and I could not see the upper part of the head, but +just there lay the ruin of Germany. It must be a very fine brain, for in +political, as well as in military matters, his judgment has always been +justified. + +There is an excellent clairvoyante in Paris, Madame Blifaud, and I look +forward, at some later date, to a personal proof of her powers, though +if it fails I shall not be so absurd as to imagine that that disproves +them. The particular case which came immediately under my notice was +that of a mother whose son had been killed from an aeroplane, in the +war. She had no details of his death. On asking Madame B., the latter +replied, "Yes, he is here, and gives me a vision of his fall. As a proof +that it is really he, he depicts the scene, which was amid songs, flags +and music." As this corresponded with no episode of the war, the mother +was discouraged and incredulous. Within a short time, however, she +received a message from a young officer who had been with her son when +the accident occurred. It was on the Armistice day, at Salonica. The +young fellow had flown just above the flags, one of the flags got +entangled with his rudder, and the end was disaster. But bands, songs +and flags all justified the clairvoyante. + +Now, at last, our long journey drew to its close. Greatly guarded by the +high forces which have, by the goodness of Providence, been deputed to +help us, we are back in dear old London once more. When we look back at +the 30,000 miles which we have traversed, at the complete absence of +illness which spared any one of seven a single day in bed, the +excellence of our long voyages, the freedom from all accidents, the +undisturbed and entirely successful series of lectures, the financial +success won for the cause, the double escape from shipping strikes, and, +finally, the several inexplicable instances of supernormal, personal +happenings, together with the three-fold revelation of the name of our +immediate guide, we should be stocks and stones if we did not realise +that we have been the direct instruments of God in a cause upon which He +has set His visible seal. There let it rest. If He be with us, who is +against us? To give religion a foundation of rock instead of quicksand, +to remove the legitimate doubts of earnest minds, to make the invisible +forces, with their moral sanctions, a real thing, instead of mere words +upon our lips, and, incidentally, to reassure the human race as to the +future which awaits it, and to broaden its appreciation of the +possibilities of the present life, surely no more glorious message was +ever heralded to mankind. And it begins visibly to hearken. The human +race is on the very eve of a tremendous revolution of thought, marking a +final revulsion from materialism, and it is part of our glorious and +assured philosophy, that, though we may not be here to see the final +triumph of our labours, we shall, none the less, be as much engaged in +the struggle and the victory from the day when we join those who are our +comrades in battle upon the further side. + +_Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London, Reading and Fakenham_ + + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has given us a classic."--Sir W. Robertson +Nicoll + + * * * * * + +_The First Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1914= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. FOURTH EDITION= + +"After reading every word of this most fascinating book, the writer of +this notice ventures, as a professional soldier, to endorse the author's +claim, and even to suggest that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has understated +the value of a book which will be of enormous help to the student of +this wondrous war as a reliable framework for his further +investigations."--Colonel A. M. Murray, C.B., in the _Observer_. + +"A book which should appeal to every Briton and should shame those who +wish to make of none effect the deeds and sacrifices recounted in its +pages."--Professor A. F. Pollard in the _Daily Chronicle_ + + * * * * * + +_The Second Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1915= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams. SECOND EDITION= + +"If any student of the war is in search of a plain statement, accurate +and chronological, of what took place in these dynamic sequences of +onslaughts which have strewn the plain of Ypres with unnumbered dead, +and which won for the Canadians, the Indians, and our own Territorial +divisions immortal fame, let him go to this volume. He will find in it +few dramatic episodes, no unbridled panegyric, no purple patches. But he +will own himself a much enlightened man, and, with greater knowledge, +will be filled with much greater pride and much surer +confidence."--_Daily Telegraph_ + + * * * * * + +_The Third Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1916= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"We gave praise, and it was high, to the first and second volumes of +'The British Campaign in France and Flanders.' We can give the same to +the third, and more, too. For the whole of this volume is devoted to the +preliminaries and the full grapple of the Battle of the Somme--a theme +far surpassing everything that went before in magnitude and +dreadfulness, but also in inspiration for our own race and in profound +human import of every kind."--_Observer_ + + + +_The Fourth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS 1917= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"If Sir Arthur can complete the remaining two volumes with the same zest +and truth as is exhibited here, it will indeed be a work which every +student who fought in France in the Great War will be proud to possess +on his shelves."--_Sunday Times_ + +"It will find with others of the series a permanent place in all +military libraries as a reliable work of reference for future students +of the war."--_Observer_ + + * * * * * + +_The Fifth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS January to July, 1918= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"The history shows no abatement in vigour and readableness, but rather +the opposite, and a final volume describing the great counter-attack of +the Allies, leading to their final victory, will bring to a close a +series which, on its own lines, is unsurpassable."--_Scotsman_ + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has stuck to his great work with admirable +assiduity.... He has produced an accurate and concise record of a +campaign the most glorious and the most deadly in all the history of the +British race, and a record well qualified to live among the notable +books of the language."--_Edinburgh Evening Dispatch_ + + * * * * * + +_The Sixth Volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's +History of the War_ + +=THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN in FRANCE +and FLANDERS July to November, 1918= + +=With Maps, Plans and Diagrams= + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's concluding volume of the interim history of +the British Campaign on the West Front is as good as any of its +predecessors."--_Morning Post_ + +"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'History of the British Campaign in France and +Flanders' is an authoritative work, which is destined for +immortality.... With full confidence in the historian, with +congratulations on a noble task accomplished, we open the sixth and +final volume."--_British Weekly_ + +HODDER & STOUGHTON LTD., Warwick Square, London, E.C.4 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST *** + +***** This file should be named 39718.txt or 39718.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/1/39718/ + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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