Class 15 \ Book , M-3- DEATH, THE GATE OF LIFE? (MORS JANUA VITAE?) A DISCUSSION OF CERTAIN COMMUNICATIONS PURPORTING TO COME FROM FREDERIC W. H. MYERS BY HA. DALLAS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S. *' The veil Is rending, and the Voices of the day Are heard across the Voices of the dark." TENNYSON. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 Fifth Avenue ■< $ ■jO\ yw DEATH, THE GATE OF LIFE? ( MORS JANUA VITAE? ) Published 1919 By E. P. Dutton & Company All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States el America. TO MY FRIENDS IN BOTH WORLDS I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE AND GLAD ANTICIPATION PREFACE The object of this little book is to bring- before those who are not already familiar with the results of psychical research some small portion of the evidence for survival which has been accumulating within the last few years. The limits which I have laid down for myself are very narrow : I have confined myself to one point only, namely, to the consideration of that part of the evidence which relates to the question of the survival of the personality of Frederic Myers; and even so it has been necessary to select only a small portion of the available material, and to content myself with the briefest survey compatible with carrying out my purpose, which is to show that there exists a mass of evidence worthy of serious attention, to indicate what is the nature of that evidence and what are the conclusions to which it seems to point. Many of my readers will doubtless think that the conclusions suggested make too large vii viii PREFACE a demand on their credulity, and they may, perhaps, formulate in their minds various other conceivable explanations of the facts here presented. It is not likely, however, that they will light upon any hypothesis which has not already been fully considered by the careful experts who have for years been studying these phenomena. I venture to affirm that it is generally those who know comparatively little of the subject who are most ready with the offer of simple explana- tions, such as fraud, collusion, chance, or mind reading. Another class of reader will, perhaps, con- sider that I have claimed too little ; that even the small amount of evidence which I have produced would justify wider and fuller deductions than those indicated in this book. I am aware that I have not only reduced the evidence to a minimum, but that I have also set forth only the most obvious conclu- sions. This I deliberately aimed at doing. Those who care to assimilate the evidence here summarised, and who are able to accept, at least provisionally, the conclusions based upon it, will have no difficulty in finding fur- ther facts for study and in drawing fuller deductions for themselves. PREFACE ix I should like to anticipate one question, which may perhaps be suggested by the perusal of this work : it is this. If those who have died wish to communicate, can they not do so simply and directly? Must there always be an intermediary? Cannot spirit speak with spirit without having recourse to this difficult and strange method? Certainly there are abundant reasons for thinking that telepathic intercourse between minds can be maintained independently of all the channels of sense, and that those who have passed into the Unseen can, and do, directly impress their thoughts upon the minds of their still incarnate friends. But such intercourse does not, as a rule, afford evidence which can be verified in a way to convince those who do not participate in the experience. Mr. Myers knew r that something more than this was expected from him. He was familiar with the kind of objections raised by sceptics, objections which are by no means unreason- able. He had himself in his lifetime de- manded crucial scientific proof of survival, and had undertaken, if such a thing were possible, to afford the necessary evidence in his own case. It would, therefore, have been disappointing if after his death there had x PREFACE been no sort of attempt to produce proof of a more complex and unequivocal kind than had been previously forthcoming. To pro- duce this was evidently a very difficult task, requiring much effort and ingenuity. It does not follow that all communications between spirits need be of this nature. I desire to express my sincere thanks to the Council of the Society for Psychical Research for kindly giving me permission to quote at length from the published records of the Society; and I hope that the small work which I am thus enabled to bring out may serve as a useful introduction to the study of those records in their complete form. At the same time, I wish to make it clearly understood that the Society is in no way responsible either for the selection of pas- sages which I quote or for the treatment of the subject. On both these points the whole responsibility rests with myself. I also wish to acknowledge gratefully the kind assistance rendered by Mr, J. B. Shipley in correcting my MS. and proofs. IT. A. Dallas. Hampstead, November 1909. CONTENTS CHAPTER l'AGE INTRODUCTION Xl'ii I FREDERIC MYERS AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH I II MRS. VERRALL's AUTOMATIC SCRIPT . . IO in mrs. Holland's automatic script . . 19 IV THE 'SYMPOSIUM' EPISODE. . . $$ V THE SEALED ENVELOPE . . . -45 VI MRS. PIPER'S MEDIUMSHIP 59 VII THEORIES WHICH HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED . 67 VIII CAUSES OF CONFUSION .... 79 IX MRS. PIPER'S VISIT TO ENGLAND . 88 X THE LATIN MESSAGE 95 XI THE PLOTINUS EPISODE . . . . (l6 XII CONCLUSION 131 X] INTRODUCTION The author has asked me to say a few words by way of introduction to this little book. I shall, indeed, be glad if any word of mine will help to commend it to the reader. Miss Dallas has long been known to me as an earnest and critical student of psychical phenomena. Her knowledge of this subject is exceptionally wide, and her judgment sane and well informed. In the present volume she has dealt in an interesting and succinct manner with one fragment of the evidence that is slowly accumulating on behalf of survival after death. The service which she has thus rendered is considerable. Few people have the time or patience to read through, and carefully consider, the lengthy, detailed, and therefore often wearisome, re- ports published by the Society for Psychical Research. Hence, whilst the interest in this subject is spreading throughout the Western world with astonishing rapidity, the well in- formed are few and far between. Unfortunately the fascination of the sub- ject is like a candle to moths, it attracts and xiv INTRODUCTION burns the silly, the credulous and the crazy. The natural human longing to lift a corner of the veil that hides the life beyond the grave, renders a dispassionate consideration of the facts, a calm and critical weighing of the evidence, as difficult as it is imperative. Only by the slow and toilsome pathway of rigorous scientific inquiry can any assured results ever be obtained. We cannot hope in this genera- tion or the next to clear away all the per- plexities and pitfalls that confront the in- vestigator in these obscure regions. The methods of science are not the methods of journalism, and though it was to be expected, it is equally to be deplored that the untrained and unscientific have rushed in where many wiser men have feared to tread. Even in ancient times, when, doubtless, there existed a certain esoteric knowledge of some of the psychical phenomena which we have now re- discovered, the approach to this subject was guarded with jealous care. The inquirer needs to be level-headed and to walk warily; whilst the foolish and the fashionable who merely desire a new sensation, the roving journalist and the rapid book-maker, should be warned off so treacherous a ground. INTRODUCTION X v Psychical research, as the author points out, requires to be conducted with care and wise restraint. When this is done we may dis- miss as groundless the fear of any injury being done to the psychic. How far any injury may occur to the unseen communicators on the other side is another matter on which we can only form vague impressions. We are led to infer that, on their part, it is a self-deny- ing act of service, for they speak of being "disturbed/*' "suffocated," "kept earth- bound " by trying to communicate, possibly it" involves a partial loss of their personality. As I have said elsewhere, "indiscriminate condemnation and ignorant credulity are, in truth, the two most dangerous elements with which the public are confronted in connection with Spiritualism. It is because I hold that in the fearless pursuit of truth it is the para- mount duty of science to lead the way, and erect such sign-posts as may be needed in the vast territory we dimly see before us, that I so strongly deprecate the past and (to a less extent) the present scornful attitude of the scientific world towards this subject." The shrinking which some deeply religious minds feel in relation to Spiritualism is, no doubt, partly based upon a mistaken view of xvi INTRODUCTION the subject, but it is not wholly irrational. We instinctively feel, as Archbishop Trench has finely expressed it : — " Where thou hast touched, O wondrous death, Where thou hast come between, Lo ! there for ever perisheth The common and the mean." Whether this be objectively true or not, it is certainly true subjectively to the stricken survivor, and hence the natural recoil from the inane and often vulgar futilities of so many spiritualistic seances. It has, however, long been recognised, and the Society for Psychical Research has clearly demonstrated the fact, that very much of what professes to be communication from an ultra-mundane source is nothing more than automatic ex- pressions of the medium's own mind. And in every case, as might be expected, the com- munications are more or less influenced by the mental equipment, the personality, of the medium. Hence it is that we find Greek and Latin automatically written by a classical scholar like Mrs. Verrall, and in general a high level of thought expressed in the auto- matic writings of those cultured ladies, who have in recent years given so much patience and labour to the experimental investigation of this important field of inquiry. INTRODUCTION xvii In the case of thought transference be- tween those who are now living on earth, the more completely the receiver, or percipient, places his own waking or conscious thoughts in abeyance the more effective is the result, and doubtless this is also the case with tele- pathic communication from the unseen. The larger part of human personality lies below the threshold of consciousness, and this sub- liminal self speaks through involuntary or automatic muscular action, just as our con- scious self speaks through voluntary muscular action. Not only is the occasional intrusion of the latter into the former a source of error in all sensitives, but a more subtle and prolific source of error is the unavoidable intrusion of the sensitive's own subliminal self into the telepathic message from another. Hence it is that messages purporting to come from some ultra-mundane intelligence need to be scrutin- ised with the utmost care. This has been done with increasing knowledge by those engaged in the work of the Society for Psychical Research and by others. Notwith- standing this careful sifting a growing con- viction has been produced in most thoughtful students of this subject that life and intelli- gence demonstrably exist in the unseen, and can get into imperfect communication with xviii INTRODUCTION us. It is true that some of us are not pre- pared to go quite as far as the author in accepting the identity of the unseen intelli- gences as adequately proved. Identity would be enormously difficult to establish even be- tween two widely separated persons on earth, speaking to each other for a few minutes through, say, wireless telegraphy, and still more so if messages from other sources were constantly intermingled. Miss Dallas has, however, given a portion of the evidence which will enable the reader to judge for himself so far as concerns the communications purporting to come from Mr. Myers. Knowing Mr. Myers as I did inti- mately on earth for thirty years, I confess that the collective weight of the evidence now accumulated through the automatic script of Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Piper, has convinced me that in this case it is highly probable that the unseen intelligence is no other than a fragment of the personality of Mr. Frederic Myers. For in all these com- munications purporting to come from dis- carnate human beLigs, it is a sort of dream or truncated personality that presents itself, one largely bereft of self-determination, and with memory and associations strangely limited. INTRODUCTION xix Nor do we ever hear any connected and con- sistent account of their environment or of their life in the unseen. As Mrs. Barrett- Browning said long ago, " We could as well hope to see our faces in a shivered looking- glass as catch a clear vision of a desired truth or a lost friend by these means. What we do see is a shadow at the window, the sign of something moving without." It is all very like a dream picture, bits here and there painted on the medium's own canvas, and with patches of the canvas showing in between. However, such as it is let us be grateful for it, inasmuch as the implications are tremendous and far reaching. At the same time we need to bear in mind that these manifestations, however interpreted, belong to the material plane, and that "our true union with those we love can. only be reached by a common life in God." As Myers himself wrote : — " Live thou and love ! so best and only so Can thy one soul into the One soul flow,— Can thy small life to Life's great centre fiee, And thou be nothing, and the Lord in thee." W. F. Barrett. Kingstown, co. Dublin, December 1909. MORS JANUA VITAE? A DISCUSSION OF CERTAIN COMMUNI- CATIONS PURPORTING TO COME FROM FREDERIC W. B. MYERS CHAPTER I FREDERIC MYERS AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH It was on January 26, 1900/ that F. W. H. Myers delivered his presidential address be- fore the members of the Society for Psychical Research. In this address he reminded them that he had worked for its objects " from days before the Society's formation," and assured them of his determination "to go on thus working " as long as his faculties would allow. {Proceedings of the S. P.R., Part xxxviii, p. in.) No one, perhaps, has ever had a deeper realisation of the importance of the issues in- volved in this research ; to him the main ques- tion to be determined by this means was the question of survival. It is true that it is not 1 Just a year before his death on January 17th, 1901. B % MORS JANUA VITAE? the only one ; for psychical research has led to the discovery of extraordinary human faculties, formerly unrecognised by science, and further investigations into these faculties form an important part of its work ; but men of Frederic Myers' temperament would care little to be assured of the wealth of human endowments if individual consciousness, and all that it includes, are doomed to final and complete extinction. In his opinion the ques- tion of survival is the " only test we can apply to the existence of a Providence. " "It has been doubt as to the value of life and love," he says, "which has made the decadence of almost all civilisations " {Ibid. p. 113). Neither was it the bare fact of survival of which he desired to assure himself. There are two poems on immortality, written by him, which show that there were moments in which he contemplated with repugnance the possi- bility of persistence under conditions devoid of delight, conditions under which the weari- ness of earthly life might be renewed, or at least all sense of personal identity might be lost. . One of these poems will be found in a volume entitled Fragments of Prose and Poetry. In the second stanza he writes: — FREDERIC MYERS 3 Yet if for evermore I must convey These weary senses thro' an endless day And gaze on God with these exhausted eyes, I fear that howsoe'er the seraphs play My life shall not be theirs, nor I as they, But homeless in the heart of Paradise 1 (p. 173). The other poem is in a volume called Renewal of Youth, published in 1882 : — Ah, but who knows in what thin form and strange, Through what appalled perplexities of change, Wakes the sad soul, which, having once forgone This earth familiar and her friends thereon In interstellar void becomes a chill Outlying fragment of the Master Will; So severed, so forgetting, shall not she Lament, immortal, immortality? (p. 55.) We see, therefore, that Frederic Myers did not enter upon this quest with that indiffer- ence as to the result, which some would have us regard as an essential condition for an impartial investigator. Is it true, however, that an attitude of in- difference as to the nature of the issue is the most favourable for successful discovery ? Professor William James evidently does 1 In this poem there are lines obviously related to an Ode of Horace (see I. 28), concerning which Mr. Myers wrote to Dr. Verrall that it had " entered as deeply as any Horatian passage " into his own inner history. (See Proceedings, Part lvii, p. 406.) B 2 . 4 MORS JANUA VITAEr not think so. In an article in the Hibbert Journal, January 1909, he says : — Things reveal themselves soonest to those who passionately want them — Need sharpens wit. To a mind content with little the much of the Universe may always remain hid (p. 294). This only applies, of course, to sincere minds, who honour truth above all things, and are prepared to sacrifice their most treasured hopes if they are convinced that they are illusions. Frederic Myers olid make this great sur- render : and he has told us that to do so was " more grievous " to him than anything else which happened to him in life. 1 Although he did not make the sacrifice with indifference, his passionate desire for assurance of im- mortal life of a worthy and satisfying nature bore a marked effect on his work, for it intensified his perception of all that seems to negative this hope, he became more keenly alive to weak points in the evidence in favour of immortality. "Desire is not necessarily bias" he writes, "and my personal history has convinced myself — though I cannot claim 1 Proceedings, Part xxxvii, p. 113. See also the poem called "Retrospect" (Fragments of Prose and Poetry , p. 119). FREDERIC MYERS 5 that it shall convince others also — that my wishes do not strongly warp my judgment — nay, that sometimes the very keenness of per- sonal anxiety may make one afraid to believe, as readily as other men, that which one most longs for." (Part xxxvii, p. 113.) It was in this spirit, moved by the stimulus of almost passionate but well-nigh hopeless desire, and in an attitude of critical and avowed agnosticism, that Frederic Myers applied himself to the task which occupied the latter half of his life. It was with "little hope — almost with re- luctant scorn "— he says, " but with the feel- ing that no last chance of the great discovery should be thrown aside/' that he turned to this research, and he adds : — It is only after thirty years of such study as I have been able to give that I say to myself at last, Habes totA quod mente petisti — "Thou hast what thy whole heart desired " ; — that I recognize that for me this fresh evidence, — while raising that great historic incident of the Resurrection into new credi- bility, — has also filled me with a sense of insight and of thankfulness such as even my first ardent Chris- tianity did not bestow (Ibid. p. 114). It must not be supposed, however, that Frederic Myers assumed that conviction of truth could only be reached by this process of arduous scientific study, far from it; he 6 MORS JANUA VITAE? did not claim that this method is a substitute for intuition and revelation. He regarded psychical science as a means by which "to prove the preamble of all religions, to demon- strate that a spiritual world exists"; but he did not deny, he was, indeed, eventually assured, that men may be carried by intuition into " even profounder apprehensions of truth — but such apprehensions are not transfer- able." Moreover it is not every one who has this intuitive insight, and those who have such experiences know that they are trans- itory, and there are times when they, too, feel urgent need to seek some scientific basis for the security of their highest hopes. The work of Frederic Myers was to demonstrate that this basis exists. How the idea of this research first origin- ated he has related in his obituary notice of his friend, Professor Henry Sidgwick : — I felt drawn in my perplexities to Henry Sidgwick as somehow my only hope. In a starlight walk which I shall not forget (December 3rd, 1869), I asked him, almost with trembling, whether he thought that when Tradition, Intuition, Metaphysic, had failed to solve the riddle of the Universe, there was still a chance that from any actual observable phenomena— ghosts, spirits, what- soever there might be— some valid knowledge might be drawn as to a World Unseen. Already, it seemed, he had thought that this was possible; FREDERIC MYERS 7 steadily, though in no sanguine fashion, he indicated some last grounds of hope; and from that night onwards I resolved to pursue this quest, if it might be, at his side (Fragments of Prose and Poetry, PP- 98, 99)- It is deeply interesting to compare this passage with his presidential address deli- vered thirty-one years later, in which he was able to affirm : — This persistent analysis of unexplored faculty has revealed to us already far more than I, for one, had ever dared to hope. ... I do not presume to fore- cast what we may come in time to learn ; I only say that for the present hour there will be enough of motive to urge us to utmost effort to rise in the scale of being (Proceedings, Part xxxvii, pp. 118, 123). Further on in this address, after alluding to the " enfranchisement of the blessed dead," he continues : — We know that they are still minded to keep us sharers in their joy. It is they, not we, who are working now. . . . Nay, it may be that our response, our devotion, is a needful element in their ascending joy; and God may have provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. ... I believe that upon our own attitude towards these nascent communications their progress and development depend, so that we cannot too soon direct attention to the high responsibilities opening on our view (Part lvii, p. 123). This confidence in their co-operation with us was one which he held with increasing assurance. 8 MORS JANUA VITAE? In his work on Human Personality he again refers to it : — The experiments that are being made are not the work of earthly skill. All that we can contribute to the new result is an attitude of patience, attention, care ; an honest readiness to receive and weigh whatever may be given into our keeping by intelli- gences beyond our own. Experiments, I say, there are, probably experiments of a complexity and diffi- culty which surpass our imagination ; but they are made from the other side of the gulf by the efforts of spirits who discern pathways and possibilities which for us are impenetrably dark (Human Person- ality, Vol. II, p. 275). This passage is of peculiar interest in view of subsequent developments, developments which bear striking testimony to the correct- ness of the belief he here expresses. In order to be able to estimate the evidence which has accumulated since Frederic Myers* death, and more particularly the facts which claim to show that he is himself striving to bridge the gulf between the two worlds and to prove his identity to his colleagues, it is desirable to be acquainted in some measure with the motives, aims and characteristics which he displayed in this life. Within the limits of a short chapter it is impossible to do more than indicate some of these in briefest manner, but the reader unfamiliar with his writings FREDERIC MYERS 9 can gather enough from this short outline to recognise that if any discarnate spirit can bear witness from the other sphere of existence to the reality and worth of life beyond death, Frederic Myers would, of all men, be the one we should expect to find so doing. CHAPTER II MRS. VERRALL* S AUTOMATIC SCRIPT As this book will probably come into the hands of those who are not familiar with the publications of the Society for Psychical Research, some account must be given of those through whom have come the " com- munications " presently to be discussed. These were principally Mrs. Verrall, Miss Helen Verrall, Mrs. " Holland " (pseudo- nym), Mrs. " Forbes " (pseudonym), and Mrs. Piper, and also Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Verrall is a member of the Council of the S.P.R., a classical scholar and a lecturer at Newnham College. In Proceedings, Part liii, she has given a full account and detailed analysis of her automatic writings, from which we learn the following facts. Mrs. Verrall had never succeeded in any attempt to obtain intelligible automatic writ- ing, and had come to the conclusion that this was impossible for her ; however, in the month IO MRS. VERRALI/S SCRIPT 11 in which Mr. Myers died (January 1901), she resolved to make another and more persistent attempt, but was not successful until March 5. On that day, after a few nonsense words, the pencil, held between her thumb and first finger, wrote rapidly in Latin. She says : — I was writing in the dark and could not see what I wrote; the words came to me as single things, and I was so much occupied in recording each as it came that I had not any general notion what the meaning was. I could never remember the last word; it seemed to vanish completely as soon as I had written it. Sometimes I had great difficulty in recognising what was the word I wanted to write, while at other times I could only get part of it. When I had filled one sheet of paper I turned up the electric light and read what had been written before going on to the next sheet. On this first occasion, March 5, 1901, my hand wrote about 80 words almost entirely in Latin, but though the words are consecutive and seem to make phrases, and though some of the phrases seem intelligible, there is no general sense in the passage. Till the end of March, with a very few exceptions, I continued daily to write fluently in Latin, with occasional Greek words. The writing was not intelligible through- out, but it improved and was very different from the rubbish with which it began. . . . The actual writing was my own normal handwriting. . . . After the first two or three times of writing I never read what had been written till the end, and though I con- tinued to be aware of the particular word, or perhaps two words, that I was writing, I still retained no recollection of what I had just written and no general notion as to the meaning of the whole (Part liii, pp. 9, 10). 12 MORS JANUA VITAE? At any early stage the script assumed the character of conversation, conversation inter- rupted and confused, as if heard through a telephone when the wires " seem to have got into contact, so that the operator hears re- marks not addressed directly to him " (p. 69). This is not an uncommon experience with automatic writers; it is curious and significant. In these conversations the sensitive is some- times spoken of in the third person. For instance, in January 1902, the following was written : — Patience for you both it will come. Three Latin words can she not write them? would give the clue (p. 69). On January 15th, 1903, this was written : — Wait for the word. He said, " I will send the half message to Mrs. Verrall and you have the other half." Tell Hodgson this, but you have not got the word yet (p. 70). This passage suggests an attempt on the part of some one to produce a "cross-corre- spondence," and reads as if it were part of a conversation on the subject between two or more persons. The " communicators " through Mrs. Ver- rall are very various; some are identifiable, and many are unknown, they are distinguished by names or signs. MRS. VERRALI/S SCRIPT 13 One " communicator " appends the Greek cross to his writings. This individuality was specially successful, and seemed to have a particular interest in Mrs. Piper and Dr. Hodgson. This deserves to be noted; for the Greek cross is the sign habitually appended to the script of one of Mrs. Piper's principal controls, called " Rector," and although Mrs. Verrall had read this script, and may therefore have subconsciously noted the fact, she states that she had not con- sciously done so. In view of subsequent developments the incident has some signifi- cance. Another very significant point in her script Is that it frequently makes allusion to the importance of combined efforts. For in- stance : — On March 19, 1902, the script says that, without "something- composite," the whole is not "in good rhythm," makes a statement about what can be "harmonised," and advises me not to guess but to receive what "thought " casts out (Ibid. p. 126). Later (May 31, 1902) : — "None of all this perpetual chatter" is said "to fit together," and some one "versed in Music or the Muses " (or perhaps Musaeus *} is mentioned. 1 Musaeus is a traditional poet or mystic of the same type as Orpheus. 14 MORS JANUA VITAE? The remarks on July 13, 1902, and June 21, 1903 . . . seem to imply that some kind of "combination " is required. The same idea occurs on January 30, 1903, when the script says that what "you have chattered about " and " she has thought " of fit together, " that joint action " is better, and that " those who would separate " are not the best in this matter, though there are occasions when separation must be made (Part liii, p. 126). One further quotation on this point may be made, as it is particularly remarkable : — November 3, 1902 — None the less through others not known speaks the fate, — fatum ineffabile ineluc- table, etsi tu magno contendis corpore contra. 1 I will give the words between you neither alone can read, but together they will give the clue he wants. Comperire . . . redintegratio amoris A nee non secessus (desunt hi alia et alioquin). Redit iam verbum ipsum — Caritatis vocabulum, but hers are in English and will fill the gaps — Wait some time for hers — it is hard to give her words. Tuus — iam nomen habes in mente etsi non in calamo (Ibid. p. 170). When we reach the consideration of Mrs. Holland's automatic script we shall recognise the importance of the references to combined action. We must remember that Mrs. Hol- land was at this time quite unknown to Mrs. 1 Translatio?i. — "The fate unspeakable unavoid- able, although you with your strength fight against it ... to discover . . . the restoration of love and not separation (here (?) and elsewhere (?) words are missing). Now the word itself returns — the term Charity. . . . Yours — you have the name in your mind now though not on your pen." MRS. VERRALI/S SCRIPT 15 Verrall. Her automatic script, unlike that of Mrs. Verrall, was almost entirely written in English, and with reference to the sentence above quoted, " some one versed in music or the Muses," it is interesting to find that Mrs. Holland, when describing her experiences previous to 1903, says, "Any automatic writ- ing that comes to me is nearly always in verse." This introduces the idea of "cross-corre- spondences," a term which has gained a technical meaning. When used in psychical research the term " cross-correspondence " denotes the independent occurrence, at ap- proximately the same time, of the same or obviously related ideas, in the script of two or more automatic writers. In his work on Psychical Research and the Resurrection Professor Hyslop mentions that, before his death, Mr. Myers and also Dr. Hodgson had tried occasionally to make experiments of this kind. The importance of such experiments, if successful, is that, when carried through under strictly test conditions, they narrow the problem to be solved by prov- ing that one and the same intelligence must be controlling two independent minds. It is necessary that the reader should grasp this 16 MORS JANUA VITAE? fact before proceeding to consider the next question, namely, to whom does this con- trolling intelligence belong? Is it that of one or other of the automatists ? Or is there any indication that it is due to the activity of some extraneous mind? If the cross-correspond- ences contain ideas, not identical but related, the hypothesis of telepathy from one of the automatists seems very improbable, and we are compelled to seek for some other intelli- gent agent; and if, in addition, the corre- spondences bear the impress of a selective, intelligent purpose, the conclusion that they originate in an independent mind seems well- nigh unavoidable. Mrs. VerralFs own attitude towards the writing was impartial and critical ; at first she was disposed to feel impatient of the apparent futility of the long, often disconnected, sen- tences, and sceptical as to there being any value in the matter produced. She writes : — May 1 6 and 17 were the dates when first it seemed to me that there was something like evidence for an external cause for the writing, and on June 1 of the same year a distinct step in the progressive opinion of which I have spoken was made (Part liii, p. 92). Her conviction as to the importance of the MRS. VERRALI/S SCRIPT IT script naturally increased with the evidence for its veridical character. In May 1901 the first obvious cross-corre- spondence occurred between her and Mrs, Thompson. The case is an interesting one. It is described in Part liii, pp. 207, 208. Although it is not possible to relate this incident in detail, a summary of it must be given, as it is remarkable. During the early part of May 1901 Mrs. Verrall received an intimation through her automatic writing that before the 17th inst. Mrs. Thompson would say something, of which she would be in- formed through Sir Oliver Lodge. She was also, on May 8th, between 10 and 10.30 p.m., told that a control, claiming to be Mr. Myers, was at that time " communicating " elsewhere. At this period Mrs. Thompson did not usu- ally go into trance or in any way develop her psychic powers; Mrs. Verrall, therefore, ex- pected that anything which Mrs. Thompson might have said would have been said in her normal state. As a matter of fact, however, on the evening of the 8th, Mrs. Thompson, who was dining with Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge, unexpectedly went into trance and purported to be controlled by Mr. Myers, who then made the statement that some 18 MORS JANUA VITAE ? one was calling him elsewhere. This, be it noted, took place at the very hour at which Mrs. Verrall was getting writing from the " Myers control," and was told, " Nc power — doing something else to-night." If this incident stood alone it would be re- markable, but it does not stand alone; it is one of many, even more remarkable, cross - correspondences, some few of which we are about to consider. CHAPTER III mrs. Holland's automatic script Some account must now be given of the experiences of Mrs. Holland. 1 This lady says that she attempted auto- matic writing about the year 1893, obtaining, at first, only short and uninteresting sen- tences. Later the writing nearly always took the form of verses; these, "though often childishly simple in wording and jingling in rhyme, are rarely trivial in subject." She adds, " I am always fully conscious, but my hand moves so rapidly that I seldom know what words it is forming/' (Part lv, p. 171.) In July 1903, when residing in India, she began to correspond with Miss Johnson, the research officer of the S.P.R. In June of that year she read Mr. Myers' 1 The few details given in this chapter are derived from an able report by Miss Johnson (research officer of the S.P.R.), published in Proceedings, Part lv. c 2 19 20 MORS JANUA VITAE? work, Human Personality. She had no recol- lection of having even heard his name before reading it. " But her own experience and her own temperament had specially prepared her for the reception of it, and the person- ality of the author strongly appealed to her " (p. 176). It was not surprising, therefore, that the automatic script should from this date be to a great extent associated with the name of Frederic Myers. Mrs. Holland showed admirable imparti- ality in her own attitude, and Miss Johnson says that she gave her every possible help in her study of the script. Not only has she answered fully and freely a very large number of questions, and herself volunteered much information, which I could not have obtained otherwise, about the sources or possible sources of many of the statements in the script, but she has also accepted with the utmost readiness any sugges- tion of mine as to experiments or methods of pro- cedure. Further, she has consented to remain for months at a time in ignorance of the results of these experiments, and has continued nevertheless to persevere with them (p. 175). In reply to an inquiry as to whether she had seen any of the S.P.R. Proceedings or Journals, Mrs. Holland wrote : — I am delighted to answer any questions that may help me to understand how much of the auto- matic writing I get is due to subconscious memory, MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPT 21 and how much, if any, comes from other influences. I am so afraid of becoming a self-deceiver, charlatan malgre moil I have never seen any of the Proceed- ings or Journals of the S.P.R., and Mr. Myers' Human Personality is the only book on the subject I have ever read (Ibid. pp. 189, 190). She then mentions a few collections of ghost stories that she had read, and some flowery "spirit writings" sent to her in MS. by a friend in 1902, which she says she dis- liked intensely, and adds, " I have never seen any other examples of automatic writ- ing. She then promised to send her script to Miss Johnson, and added, " Please continue not to give me any clue as to the meaning or meaninglessness of anything that I may send you ; I am very anxious not to begin to think of ' hits and misses/ and indeed I feel as if the less I thought of it the less misleading it is likely to be " (p. 190). This will suffice to show the disinterested spirit which animated Mrs. Holland, and any one at all acquainted with the methods of the S.P.R. will not require to be assured that, on her part, Miss Johnson took every pre- caution to avoid the possibility that her correspondent should obtain through her letters any information or hint which would 22 MORS JANUA VITAE? vitiate the experiments. The correspond- ents did not meet until Mrs. Holland came to England in the autumn of 1905. The following review of Mrs. Holland's script must be limited to incidents immedi- ately connected with Frederic Myers; other matters, however striking or evidential, do not come within the scope of this work, and even among such incidents as are relevant to our subject only a small selection can be referred to. In September 1903 Mrs. Holland re-read Human PersonaVdy. On September 16 (1903) the following passage was automatically written by her hand : — (September 16, 7.30 a.m.) F. Friend while on earth with knowledge slight I had the living power to write Death tutored now in things of might I yearn to you and cannot write. 17/ It may be that those who die suddenly suffer no prolonged obscuration of consciousness but for my own experience the unconsciousness was exceedingly prolonged. I 1 The reality is infinitely more wonderful than our most daring conjectures. Indeed no conjecture can be sufficiently daring. MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPT 23 But this is like the first stumbling attempts at expression in an unknown language imperfectly ex- plained. So far away, so very far away, and yet longing and understanding potentialities of nearness. M. (p. 192). Miss Johnson comments on this script as follows : — It is written on two sides of a half-sheet of paper ; the first side begins with the initial "F.," and the second ends with the initial "M." ; the whole passage is divided into four sections, the first three ending respectively in " 17/," " /i " and " /oi." January 17, 1901, was the date of Mr. Myers' death, mentioned in Human Personality ; but the simple device of separating these initials and items from one another was completely effective in its apparent object. I read the passage a good many times before I saw what they meant, and I found that the meaning had entirely escaped Mrs. Hol- land's notice 1 (p. 178). The control calling itself Frederic Myers is characterised by an almost passionate eagerness, and manifests intense longing to be recognised; when the sensitive's incredu- lity was very pronounced (as it sometimes was), or when the communications seemed 1 Other occasions on which the sensitive was kept in ignorance of the significance of her script by ingenious devices of this sort will be found in Part lv, pp. 24 MORS JANUA VITAE ? particularly difficult, the apparent conscious- ness of unavailing effort on the part of the control becomes pathetic. Another control who signs " G " (Edmund Gurney) shows, on the contrary, somewhat brusque annoyance at her lack of persistence and belief, and he reprimands her with much decision; Myers appears more anxious, but gentler, and tries to encourage, sometimes by courteous pleading, sometimes by explana- tions. For instance we read the following : — (M.) It is such a pity to break the chain — Since you were out in the morning yesterday why did you not try in the afternoon — A few minutes steadily each day are not much to ask from you. . . . (G.) I can't help feeling vexed or rather angry at the half-hearted way in which you go in for this — you should either take it or leave it — If you don't care enough to try every day for a short time better drop it altogether. It's like making appointments and not keeping them. You endanger your own powers of sensitiveness and annoy us bitterly. G. . . . (M.) Go on, do go on, you are beginning to establish communication — We shall be able to strengthen your powers of will presently, only do have a little faith and patience (pp. 200, 201). The following is also an interesting bit of script :■ — (M.) I want to make it thoroughly clear to you all that the eidolon is not the spirit — only the simula- MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPT 25 chrum (sic) — If M. were to see me sitting at my table, or if any one of you became conscious of my semblance standing near my chair that would not be me. My spirit would be there invisible but per- ceptive but the appearance would be merely to call your attention to identify me — It fades and grows less easily recognisable as the years pass and my remembrance of my earthly appearance grows weaker — If you saw me as I am now you would not recog- nize me in the least — "All I could never be — All men refused in me This I was worth to God whose wheel the pitcher shaped — " 2 I appear now as I would fain have been — as I desired to be in the very vain dreams of youth — and the time-lined, pain-lined suffering face that some of you remember with tenderness is a mere mask now that I strive to conjure up for you to know me by — But my power is weak and you are not really receptive — . . . Remember once again that the phantasm, the so-called ghost is a counterfeit presentiment pro- jected by the spirit (p. 215). In this script there is a detail worth noting,\ arid that is, the use of the terms eidolon and simulacrum. On this Mrs. Verrall comments as fol- lows : — Homer (Odyssey, XI, 601) describes how Odysseus met in Hades "Great Herakles, his phan- tom (etSoAov) ; himself (avros) rejoices amid the immortals," etc. It is a famous passage, as the 1 Browning, Rabbi ben Ezra; "refused" should be "ignored." 26 MORS JANUA VITAE? question of how Herakles came to be in Hades has been much discussed. It is the passage alluded to by Plotinus, in the extract quoted in Human Personalily, Vol. II, p. 290. But the point as regards Mrs. Holland's script is the scholarly and classical use of the words eidolon and simulacrum . . . While we should not expect this usage to be known to one who was not a classical scholar, it would be likely to be familiar to readers of Homer and Lucretius, and in the quotations from Plotinus in Human Personality, we have direct proof (if it were wanted) that Mr. Myers knew the passage in XI Odyssey, the locus classicus for the special use of ciSwXoy. 1 (p. 216). It is difficult and often impossible to differentiate between the impressions re- ceived by the sensitive and her own inter- pretation of these. Occasionally, however, the distinction can be made without difficulty, and these cases are instructive ; for they show how easily false interpretations of genuine impression may be made, quite in good faith, and therefore with how much reserve and caution mediumistic "messages" should be received, and more particularly if these pro- fess to give guidance for practical conduct. 1 Mrs. Holland cannot have derived the term from Human Personality, for although Myers refers in that work to the above-named passage from the Odyssey, he does not use the term eidolon when so doing. MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPT 27 In a later script (Nov. 7, 1903) occurs a detailed description of a tall man about sixty years of age. Mrs. Holland took this to be a picture of F. W. H. Myers. In this she was quite mistaken. The description applied to Dr. A. W. Verrall, and was correct in almost every particular. On re-reading the description later Mrs. Verrall writes : — The attitude strikes me as particularly good. The trick of leaning forward and gesticulating when interested in what he talks of is very characteristic in the case of Cambridge friends and especially of Mr. Myers (p. 188). Now, although Mrs. Holland was mis- taken in her interpretation of the picture, there was remarkable appropriateness in Myers' friend, Dr. Verrall, being described on this occasion, for the script began with the words : — My dear Mrs. Verrall, I am very anxious to speak to some of the old friends — Miss J.— and to A. W., and it concludes as follows : — Get a proof — try for a proof if you feel this is a waste of time without Send this to Mrs. Verrall, 5, Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge. 28 MORS JANUA VITAE ? This script was prefaced by the initial "F." Referring to this experience Mrs. Holland writes : — I have never been in Cambridge, but in the two pages of automatic writing I enclose, what purports to be an address there is thrice given, and the third time it is stated to be Mrs. Verrall's. I remember that lady's name in connection with experiments with crystal vision in Human Person- ality, but I have no means of knowing if " Selwyn Gardens " is a real place (p. 185). From an evidential point of view the in- cident would be much less interesting if the man described had been like Frederic Myers, for Mrs. Holland might possibly have seen a portrait of him; but Mrs. Verrall tells us that, as far as she knows, no portrait of her husband had ever appeared in an illus- trated paper (p. 188), and the last photo- graph of him represented him at the age of forty, so that it is impossible that Mrs. Hol- land could have known his appearance. On the day after this script reached Miss Johnson (in the autumn of 1903), she men- tioned to Mrs. Verrall that her name and address had occurred in the script of a lady in India; but nothing further was told Mrs. Verrall about this script until October 1905. MRS. HOLLANDS SCRIPT 29 On November 25, 1903, the following sug- gestion was made in Mrs. Holland's script by the control signing " G." Now there is an experiment I want you to make — suggest to the P.R. (to Miss J.) that some one with a trained will — she will have no difficulty in finding some one of the sort — is to try — for a few minutes — every morning for at least a month — to convey a thought — a phrase — a name — anything you like to your mind (p. 206). This suggestion was not immediately acted upon ; a gap occurred in Mrs. Holland's writ- ing whilst she was travelling, and no experi- ment of the kind was tried until March 1905. Miss Johnson then arranged with Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland that they should write once a week on the same day, both scripts being eventually sent to her for com- parison; the writers remained unknown to each other and held no communication what- soever. ' The identity of each writer was first disclosed to the other in October 1905 " (P- 2 52). The suggestion, be it observed, was made by the control in November 1903; but on January 17, 1904, more than a year before the suggestion was acted upon by the sensi- tives, a cross-correspondence occurred in the scripts of Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. 30 MORS JANUA VITAE? It looks almost as if the controls, finding the operators on this side would not attempt the experiment, determined to try and carry it out entirely on their own account. The details of this cross-correspondence must be greatly epitomised. It will suffice to say that Mrs. Verrall's script refers to the "seal of the letter," and added, " The question 1 is answered and the text given." Mrs. Holland's script on the same date is as follows : — Attempt to get a message through. Sealed envelope not to be opened yet. i Cor. xvi. 13. Take the message to you all. (This text had a special association for Mr. Myers and Mrs. Verrall.) Here more follows of an intense and emo- tional nature expressive of yearning to prove his identity "amid unspeakable difficulties." The text, although not the one which had been asked for, and to which Mrs. Verrall supposed that her script referred, is one which had associations for both Frederic Myers and Mrs. Verrall, inasmuch as it is inscribed, in Greek characters, over the gate- 1 To explain what t^is question refers to would involve too wide a digression. MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPT 31 way of Selwyn College, Cambridge, which Mr. Myers must often have passed in going from his house to Mrs. VerralPs. This text turns up in the script again more than a year later, in connection with Mrs. Verrall, and before Mrs. Holland had been informed that there was any significance in its first appearance (p. 253). The fact that we have here a cross-corre- spondence due to something more than co- incidence will hardly be questioned. It is rendered more striking by the fact that a few weeks before, on December 5th, Mrs. Hol- land was told : — I fear you will never be really responsive trying alone — at least not to influences unknown to you while they lived. You need the connecting bond. The subject of the sealed envelope in- volves a perplexing problem which must be dealt with in a later chapter. On March 1 the two sensitives began to experiment together, as above mentioned, and cross - correspondences continued to appear at intervals in the two scripts. Both in Mrs. VerralPs script and in Mrs. Hol- land's the writing frequently urges combin- ing and weaving together, as for instance (March 31, 1901) : : 'To one super-posing 32 MORS JANUA VITAE? certain things on certain things every thing is clear. " This thought seems also to be expressed in the following lines written auto- matically by Mrs. Verrall's hand (July 20, 1904):— So flash successive visions in a glass the while we dreaming scarce behold them pass. Yet all the while on the awakened soul each flitting image helps imprint the whole and superposed on what was first impressed fills so the outline, colour, and the rest, and while we only watch the master's hand, no glimpse vouchsafed us of the building planned, stone upon stone, the battlements arise, till the fair fabric flashes in the skies. (Part lv, p. 378.) CHAPTER IV THE ' SYMPOSIUM ' EPISODE At an early period in the development of Mrs. Verrall's automatic script an idea emerged which formed the subject of a cross- correspondence with Mrs. Forbes, and is of so significant a character that it will be inter- esting to trace it through its various stages. This can only be done by putting together and comparing the pieces of writing in which this idea appears. Some demand must be made on the patience of the reader, as the process of comparing these writings may be rather tedious. The episode in question is associated with a passage in Plato's Sym- posium, in which Socrates says that he will repeat what he learnt from Diotima, a pro- phetess of Mantinea. Love is, says Diotima, one of the race of spirits whose function it is to act as interpreters and mediators between gods and men. (See The Banquet. Also Part liii, p. 311.) d 33 34 MORS JANUA VITAE? Mrs. Verrall's attention was first drawn to this subject in the following manner : — It was on May 31, 1901, that the script made the first recognisable and direct reference to the dialogue in the words " Diotima gave the clue." I looked the passage up to see what Diotima said, and how far it could be described as a "clue." I noted at the time what I conceived" to be intended as the clue, namely, that she told Socrates that Love was neither a god nor a man, but a great spirit, and that the spiritual, being between God and man, had the power of interpreting and conveying messages from God to man and man to God ; that all the intercourse and talk of God to men, whether sleeping or waking, is through spirits, one of these is Love. I was struck with ihe appropriateness of the message in itself and with the form in which it was conveyed — not directly in words, but by an allusion to Plato. I was certain that I had never seen the passage, and therefore that no emergence of for- gotten knowledge could account for its appearance, so that the effect upon me was considerable and lasting (pp. 311, 312). On Sunday, March 17, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Forbes were both writing automatically, not together, but unknown to each other. Mrs. Verrall's writing contained, for the first time, what she regarded as a vague allusion to Mrs. Forbes. Later, on May 11, through Mrs. Thompson, the "Myers control" said, "I tried on Sunday with — I saw the recep- tacle but not this one." Sir Oliver Lodge has suggested that this statement made in Mrs. Thompson's trance, THE 'SYMPOSIUM' EPISODE 35 " may, perhaps, be connected with the sudden impulse on Sunday, March 17, which induced Mrs. Verrall to write automatically, and which produced the first reference to Mrs. Forbes in what eventually became a long series of cross- correspondences between those two auto- matists." If this suggestion is correct it looks as if, already, at this date, Mr. Myers had observed Mrs. Forbes, had noted her capacity as a " receptacle " and had tried to work through her. It was not until September 20, 1901, how- ever, that a definite mention of Mrs. Forbes appeared in Mrs. Verrall's script, thus : — Ask Mrs. Forbes if she has a message for you — something about Gima or some such word. Gima dion looks the length. ye/>ta Aids. Then follows another incoherent attempt to get this word written, and the script con- tinues : — One single word ... I can't get it. As I read this it occurred to me that " Gima dion " may probably represent an early attempt (evidently unsuccessful) to produce a cross-correspondence with Mrs. Forbes in connection with the passage in the Sym- posium. D 2 36 MORS JAN U A VITAE? "Gima dion looks the length" of the name " Diotima," G being substituted for T, and " dion " for " dio." (See Part liii, p. 356 ; compare also the script of December 18, 1901, p. 243.) Noting that in her report Mrs. Verrall re- marks that this bit of her script seemed unin- telligible, I wrote and asked her whether she did not think that it might have this connec- tion with the " single word," " Diotima." With her kind permission I append her reply, which is of considerable interest. 5 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge, Feb. 12, 1909. I am much obliged for your suggestion, which had not occurred to me. I think it is quite possible that you are right, and that the script of September 20, /oi, represents that an attempt is being made to get the word Diotima from Mrs. Forbes. "Gima dion " does "look the length," and the syllables re- versed are not unlike "dio tima." It is also true that in Mrs. Forbes' later attempts, after my mind was attracted to the Symposium, the word Dion actually emerged (Proceedings, Vol. XX, p. 244). It never occurred to me to see this meaning in "Gima dion "; I was probably put off by the Greek yefxa Atos, which follows ; for that makes the vowel after g short e, whereas the i of tima is long J. But the shortening of the vowel may be due to a desire to make a sort of sense of "Gema dion," for the words ye/xaAio? mean — or rather seem to mean — "is full of Zeus." If you are right it certainly makes the Sym- posium episode neater. For then, after the allusion in my script of May 31, comes on September 20, /oi, THE 'SYMPOSIUM 1 EPISODE 37 the suggestion that the word (skilfully disguised) is to be found in Mrs. Forbes' writing. Then, when this came to nothing, and a year afterwards I read the Dialogue, " they " seized the opportunity to draw Mrs. Forbes' attention to my reading, and so, by fixing my attention on the Sym- posium, to get an allusion to the subject and the name " Dio-" in her script. In this case it looks as if the attention of the "controls " had been steadily fixed on that passage in the Symposium, as the subject for what we now call a " correspondence " between Mrs. Forbes and me. Mrs. Forbes' script does not at this date show any reference to the Symposium. The next reference to the subject occurs in Mrs. VerralPs script of June 27, 1902 : — Peace on earth tranquillitas super omnia maria terrasque omnes. 1 Then listen to the fiery news — an arch of light bridges the chasm between earth and sky (p. 314)- This is rather indefinite, but it obviously contains the thought that Love is the bond between the worlds, which is the main idea of the passage in the Symposium. On November 26 Mrs. Forbes' script says : — H. wishes Mrs. Verrall to open the last book she read for him in which is the true word of the test (p. 241). This script ended with the injunction, "let the letter be sent to-night." 1 Translation: "Calm over all the seas and all the lands." 38 MORS JANUA VITAE? This missive reached Mrs. Verrall November 28, and she tells us that it com- pletely puzzled her until at length she re- membered that during November 26 and 27 her thoughts had been much occupied with Plato's Dialogue of the Symposium, having arranged to lecture on it on November 29. On the chance that this was the book referred to in Mrs. Forbes' script, Mrs. Ver- rall deliberately set her mind upon this Dialogue before writing automatically on November 28, hoping that by so doing she might enable Mrs. Forbes to receive a clearer reference to the subject. Had this occurred, thought transference would have been the ready explanation, but no reference was found in either script until nearly a month later, when, on December 18, Mrs. Forbes* script contained an obvious reference to this sub- ject : — (a) . . . word . . . H. make it — . . . with the Dionysus l Dion— (b) Edmund writes to tell the friend — who writes with Talbot — word of the Test will be Dy . . . Will you give the sense of the message write to Mrs. Verrall and say the word will be found in Myers' own . . . will you send a message to 1 Mrs. Forbes marks Dionysus as a guess. THE 'SYMPOSIUM 1 EPISODE 39 Mrs. Verrall to say H. will see 1 with her on Friday — will you be so kind as to send this to-day? (c) . . . Talbot writes to say you can be sure . . . it is one of the most Hymeneal Songs — Love's oldest melody (p. 244). On this Mrs. Verrall makes the following interesting comments : — Not the least interesting point in this script is the dramatisation. The first communicator with great difficulty pro- duces only an attempt at a word. The second describes that word as part of a test, says that it concerns me, and attempts to add a further point for its identification. The third, in a few words, written with comparative ease, gives a description of the book such as suits very well the supposed situation, viz. that of an intermediary not himself acquainted with the passage in question but endeavouring to help in the transmission under difficulties of a some- what technical allusion (p. 245). That Mrs. Forbes herself was completely unaware of the significance of what she wrote is obvious from her letter enclosing the script, in which she said, " If it turns out that you have anything to do with weddings to- morrow, or are reading any special book with a hymeneal song in it, I shall be very much delighted." 1 Or "sit"; word not clear. Sir Oliver Lodge has since stated that "H." represents the "Myers control." When Mrs. Verrall's report was pub- lished it was considered undesirable to publish his name. 40 MORS JANUA VITAE? Mrs. Verrall received this on December 19, 1902, and on that date her script con- tained the sentence : — In the sealed book l is the word the message to men, the new and old Diatessaron. This was followed by the drawing of a book. The interpretation which should be given to the "sealed book" and the "word" is somewhat uncertain. Was the book referred to Myers 5 book in which he proclaimed his "message," his joyful news to men? But if so, why is it called a " sealed book " ? It looks as if there were here an indication of confusion between two distinct subjects. A sealed pamphlet had already been mentioned in the writing, and the incident of the sealed pamphlet may perhaps throw some light on a perplexing circumstance which will be dealt with in the next chapter. On December 26, 1902, Mrs. Verrall was assured by her script, "Mrs. Forbes will get 1 Tatian's Harmony of the Four Gospels is known as Tatian's Diatessaron; of this Mrs. Verrall was aware, but she only subsequently learned that there is also a Pythagorean Diatessaron. This renders the expression "new and old Diatessaron" appropriate. THE 'SYMPOSIUM' EPISODE 41 the word I want/' This assurance was re- peated in January 1903. On January 6 (1903) we find in Mrs. Forbes' script apparent attempts to write the word Symposium : — Son . . . son suspuro suspiro sryseosymon H. eros. 1 Faint scribbles follow, containing a .sug- gestion of Greek letters, but these are, not verifiable. On January 11 unmistakable isolated Greek characters are legible, a>, e, p,