By degrees, I found that many spirits who were unable to influence my hand themselves sought the aid of a spirit "Rector," who was apparently able to write more freely and with less strain on me; for writing by a spirit unaccustomed to the work was often incoherent, and always resulted in a serious drain upon my vital powers. They did not know how easily the reserve of force was exhausted, and I suffered proportionately.

Moreover, the writing of the spirit who thus became a sort of amanuensis was fluent and easy to decipher, whereas that of many spirits was cramped, archaic in form, and frequently executed with difficulty, and almost illegible. So it came to pass, as a matter of ordinary course, "Rector" wrote, but when a spirit came for the first time, or when it was desired to emphasise a communication, the spirit responsible for the message wrote for himself.

It must not be assumed, however, that all messages proceeded from one solitary inspiration. In the case of the majority of the communications printed in this volume this is so. The volume is a record during which "Impera-tor" was alone concerned with me, though, as he never attempted writing, "Rector" acted as his amanuensis. At other times, and especially since that time, communications have apparently proceeded from a company of associated spirits, who have used their amanuensis for the purpose of their message. This was increasingly the case during the last five years that I received these communications.

The circumstances under which the messages were written were infinitely varied. As a rule it was necessary that I should be isolated, and the more passive my mind the more easy the communications. But I have received messages under all sorts of conditions. At first they came with difficulty, but soon the mechanical method appeared to be mastered, and page after page was covered with matter of which the specimens contained in this book will enable the public to judge.

What is now printed has been subjected to revision by a method similar to that by which it was first written. Originally published in the Spiritualist newspaper, the messages have been revised, but not substantially altered by those who first wrote them. When the publication in the Spiritualist was commenced, I had no sort of idea of doing what is now being done. Friends desired specimens to be published, and the selection was made without any regard to continuity. I was governed only by a desire to avoid the publication of what was of personal interest only, and I, perforce, excluded much that involved allusion to those still living, whom I had no right to drag into print. I disliked printing personal matter relating to myself; I had, obviously, no right to print that which concerned others. Some of the most striking and impressive communications have thus been excluded, and what is printed must be regarded as a mere sample of what cannot see the light now, and which must be reserved for consideration at a remote period, when I and those concerned can no longer be aggrieved by its publication.

It is an interesting subject for speculation whether my own thoughts entered into the subject-matter of the communications. I took extraordinary pains to prevent any such admixture. At first the writing was slow, and it was necessary for me to follow it with my eye, but even then the thoughts were not my thoughts. Very soon the messages assumed a character of which I had no doubt whatever that the thought was opposed to my own. But I cultivated the power of occupying my mind with other things during the time that the writing was going on, and was able to read an abstruse book, and follow out a line of close reasoning while the message was written with unbroken regularity. Messages so written extended over many pages, and in their course there is no correction, no fault in composition, and often a sustained vigour and beauty of style.

I am not, however, concerned to contend that my own mind was not utilised, or that what was thus written did not depend for its form on the mental qualifications of the medium through whom it was given. So far as I know it is always the case that the idiosyncrasies of the medium are traceable in such communications. It is not conceivable that it should be otherwise. But it is certain that the mass of ideas conveyed to me were alien to my own opinions, were, in the main, opposed to my settled convictions, and, moreover, that in several cases information, of which I was assuredly ignorant, clear, precise, and definite in form, susceptible of verification, and always exact, was thus conveyed to me. As, at many of the seances, spirits came and rapped out on the table clear and precise information about themselves, which we afterwards verified, so, on repeated occasions, was such information conveyed to me by this method of automatic writing.

I argue from the one case to others. In one I can positively assert and prove the conveyance of information new to me. In others I equally believe that I was in communication with an external intelligence which conveyed to me thoughts other than my own. Indeed, the subject-matter of many of the communications printed in this volume will, by its own inherent quality, probably lead to the same conclusion.

I never could command the writing. It came unsought usually, and when I did seek it, as often as not I was unable to obtain it. A sudden impulse, coming I know not how, led me to sit down and prepare to write. Where the messages were in regular course I was accustomed to devote the first hour of each day to sitting for their reception. I rose early, and the beginning of the day was spent, in a room that I used for no other purpose, in what was to all intents and purposes a religious service. These writings frequently came then, but 1 could by no means reckon upon them. Other forms of spirit-manifestation came too; I was rarely without some unless ill-health intervened, as it often did of late years, until the messages ceased.

The particular communications which I received from the spirit known to me as "Imperator" mark a distinct epoch in my life.

I have noted in the course of my remarks the intense exaltation of spirit, the strenuous conflict, the intervals of peace, that I have since longed for, but have seldom attained, which marked their transmission. It was a period of education in which I underwent a spiritual development that was in its outcome a very regeneration. I cannot hope, I do not try, to convey to others what I then experienced. But it may possibly be borne in upon the minds of some who are not ignorant of the dispensation of the spirit in their own inner selves, that for me the question of the beneficent action of external spirit on my own self was then finally settled. I have never since, even in the vagaries of an extremely sceptical mind, and amid much cause for questioning, ever seriously entertained a doubt.