“On Friday morning, Dr. Maxwell told Professor Richet that he had just obtained more automatic writing through M. Meurice. This writing purported to be a communication from Chappe. The communication concerned Mrs. Stephens, said Dr. Maxwell, but was not to be given to her for the time being. Chappe asked that a sitting might be arranged for on the same afternoon, as he had something to say. The sitting took place; it lasted from two to six o’clock, during the whole of which time Chappe did not once make use of his well-known subterfuges of ‘fatigue,’ ‘silence,’ ‘no power,’ etc.; and, though as the seance wore on M. Meurice was very visibly fatigued, the operating agency manifested absolute indifference to such fatigue. It was as though Chappe had indeed something to say and meant to say it. The messages were given by means of raps without contact to begin with, but in order to diminish the chances of fatigue to the medium, we begged him to use the pencil as a rapping instrument. The light was strong,—an afternoon summer sunlight shining into the room; the pencil did not move when the raps were heard. The latter were given with force and without any hesitation; they were as strong at the end of the seance as at the beginning.” (In order to afford the reader every assistance in his appreciation and analysis of these messages, we will give them in the original.) “Chappe gave his special signal intimating he was present. “Observer: ‘You wish to speak with us, Chappe?’ “Chappe: ‘Je veux demander à vos amis la permission de vous parler de ce qui vous intéresse.’ “Acting on the advice of Chappe, we then traced the ‘magic circle’ in order to prevent, as Chappe said, the intervention of too many influences, and to preserve purity in the phenomena. “Observer, after an interval of ten minutes: ‘Are you ready, Chappe?’ “Much confusion in the raps, and impossibility of obtaining an intelligent answer; after half an hour of confusion came the laboriously spelt out message:— “Chappe: ‘Peut-être que vous êtes isolés.’ “Observer: ‘Why?’ “Chappe: ‘Parce que vous les avez renvoyés, cercle magique.’ “We were led to understand by this that the magic circle had had too good an effect, and prevented even Chappe from communicating with his companions. Once more we followed his instructions, inviting our ‘friends’ into the circle. It was then announced that Robert, one of Mrs. Stephens’s deceased relatives, was present and wished to speak. When asked what he had to say, we received:— “Robert: ‘Bonnes fées qui entourent et qui m’empêchent de vous rejoindre.’ “We begged the ‘good fairies’ to be so kind as to allow this friend to communicate. The raps indicated that the favour was accorded, and that our friend could now communicate with us. “Robert: ‘VOS ESPÉRANCES SONT REÇUES AVEC JOIE PAR TOUS.’ “Observer: ‘What do you mean? Give one significative word.’ “Robert: ‘ENFANT PRÉDESTINÉ À FAIRE SCIENTIFIQUEMENT DE GRANDES CHOSES.’