895. It cannot be reasonably imagined that either Miss Ellis, my friend, or myself suggested this reply, as my friend and myself regretted the result, and it was not the interest of Miss Ellis to lessen the circle. But none of us had the ability to have perceived the numbers indicating the relative position of letters in the alphabetic row, so as to have selected them correctly. It would take some time to associate the letters with the numbers duly, and an unusual strength of memory to recollect them. MODERN PROCESS FOR ALPHABETIC CONVERSE WITH SPIRITS, AS NEW TO MAN AS THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 896. In his instructive work on Spiritualism, the idea is advanced by Capron, that the species of modern spirit communication, of which his book mainly treats, dates back to a period of history so early that no age or country is exempt from accounts of them. 897. To me it seems that I have never read any thing in history in which intellectual communication was established by sounds or mechanical movements with invisible beings. Sight has almost always been the sense most appealed to in evidence of the appearance of ghosts. In the instance of the Witch of Endor, Samuel is made to come from his grave, not like one of our happy spirits from his beautiful abode in the spirit world:— “Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” 1 Sam. xxviii. 11-19.