944. With the even tenor of this straightforward and reputable life was inwoven a chain of mysteries which, as I think, in what way soever they be explained, make that life one of the most extraordinary which vol. II our century has seen. For its true history lies in that series of physical manifestations which began in 1872 and lasted for some eight years, and that series of automatic writings and trance-utterances which began in 1873, received a record for some ten years, and did not, as is believed, cease altogether until the earthly end was near.

These two series were intimately connected; the physical phenomena being avowedly designed to give authority to the speeches and writings which professed to emanate from the same source. There is no ground for separating the two groups, except the obvious one that the automatic phenomena are less difficult of credence than the physical; but, for reasons already stated, it has seemed to me desirable to exclude the latter from detailed treatment in this work. References to accounts of them will, however, be found in 943 A. They included the apparent production of such phenomena as intelligent raps, movements of objects untouched, levitation, disappearance and reappearance of objects, passage of matter through matter, direct writing, sounds supernormally made on instruments, direct sounds, scents, lights, objects materialised, hands materialised (touched or seen). Mr. Moses was sometimes, but not always, entranced while these physical phenomena were occurring. Sometimes he was entranced and the trance-utterance purported to be that of a discarnate spirit. At other times, especially when alone, he wrote automatically, retaining his own ordinary consciousness meanwhile, and carrying on lengthy discussions with the "spirit influence" controlling his hand and answering his questions, etc.

As a general rule the same alleged spirits both manifested themselves by raps, etc, at Mr. Moses' sittings with his friends, and also wrote through his hand when he was alone. In this, as in other respects, Mr. Moses' two series of writings - when alone and in company - were concordant, and, so to say, complementary; - explanations being given by the writing of what had happened at the stances. When "direct writing" was given at the seances the handwriting of each alleged spirit was the same as that which the same spirit was in the habit of employing in the automatic script. The claim to individuality was thus in all cases decisively made.

945. Now the personages thus claiming to appear may be divided roughly into three classes:-

A. First and most important are a group of persons recently deceased, and sometimes, as will be seen, manifesting themselves at the seances before their decease was known through any ordinary channel to any of the persons present. These spirits in many instances give tests of identity, mentioning facts connected with their earth-lives which are afterwards found to be correct.

B. Next comes a group of personages belonging to generations more remote, and generally of some distinction in their day. Grocyn, the friend of Erasmus, may be taken as a type of these. Many of these also contribute facts as a proof of identity, which facts are sometimes more correct than the conscious or admitted knowledge of any of the sitters could supply. In such cases, however, the difficulty of proving identity is increased by the fact that most of the correct statements are readily accessible in print, and may conceivably have either been read and forgotten by Mr. Moses, or have become known to him by some kind of clairvoyance.

C. A third group consists of spirits who give such names as Rector, Doctor, Theophilus, and, above all, Imperator. These from time to time reveal the names which they assert to have been theirs in earth-life. These concealed names are for the most part both more illustrious, and more remote, than the names in Class B, - and were withheld by Mr. Moses himself, who justly felt that the assumption of great names is likely to diminish rather than to increase the weight of the communication. He felt this in his own person; and for a long while one of his main stumbling-blocks lay in these lofty and unprovable claims. Ultimately he came to believe even in these identities, on the general ground that teachers who had given him so many proofs both of their power and of their serious interest in his welfare were not likely to have deceived him on such a point. But he did not count upon a similar belief in others, and he expressly wished to avoid seeming to claim special authority for the teachings on the ground of their alleged authorship.

It must be added also that some of these teachings themselves asserted that when the name of some spirit long removed from earth was given, the recipient must sometimes take this to imply a stream of influence emanating from that spirit, rather than his own presence in person.

As to the relation of the spirits to the telekinetic phenomena, it must be remembered that these phenomena, strange and grotesque as they often seem, cannot be called meaningless. The alleged operators are at pains throughout to describe what they regarded as the end, and what merely as the means to that end. Their constantly avowed object was the promulgation through Mr. Moses of certain religious and philosophical views; and the physical manifestations are throughout described as designed merely as a proof of power, and a basis for the authority claimed for the serious teachings.1

That they were not produced fraudulently by Dr. Speer or other sitters I regard as proved both by moral considerations and by the fact that they are constantly reported as occurring when Mr. Moses was alone. That Mr. Moses should have himself fraudulently produced them I regard as both morally and physically incredible. That he should have prepared and produced them in a state of trance I regard both as physically incredible and also as entirely inconsistent with the tenor both of his own reports and of those of his friends. I therefore regard the reported phenomena as having actually occurred in a genuinely supernormal manner.

1 Spirit Teachings, which includes many of these communications, has been republished with a Life by Mr. Charlton Speer, and most of the remaining communications have been published in Light by Mrs. Speer since Mr. Moses' death.