An incident which occurred in connection with the most sensational case of "levitation" recorded of D. D. Home, is very instructive as illustrating the great care that is needful in estimating the value of testimony regarding spiritualistic phenomena, even of statements made by persons of established reputation and position. The Joint Report of Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, from which extracts were made in Chapter V., says:-- "Lords Lindsay and Adare had printed a statement that Home floated out of the window, and in at another, in Ashley Place, S.W., 16th December 1868. A third person, Captain Wynne, was present at the time, but had written no separate account. Dr. Carpenter, in an article in the _Contemporary Review_ for January 1876, thus commented on the incident:-- "'The most diverse accounts of the _facts_ of a seance will be given by a believer and a sceptic. A whole party of believers will affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window, and in at another, while a single honest sceptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting in his chair all the time. And in this last case we have an example of a fact, of which there is ample illustration, that during the prevalence of an epidemic delusion, the honest testimony of any number of individuals on one side, if given under a prepossession, is of no more weight than that of a single adverse witness--if so much.' "This passage was of course quoted as implying that Captain Wynne had somewhere made a statement contradicting Lords Lindsay and Adare. Home wrote to him to inquire; and he replied ... in the following terms:-- "'I remember that Dr. Carpenter wrote some nonsense about that trip of yours along the side of the house in Ashley Place. I wrote to the _Medium_ to say that I was present as a witness. Now I don't think that any one who knows me would for one moment say that I was a victim to hallucination or any other humbug of the kind. The fact of your having gone out of the window and in at the other I can swear to.'" "It seems, therefore, that the instance selected by Dr. Carpenter to prove the existence of a hallucination--by the exemption of one person present from the illusion--was of a very unfortunate kind; suggesting, indeed, that a controversialist thus driven to draw on his imagination for his facts must have been conscious of a weak case."[71]