"Why," said Vixley, "all sorts o’ ways. It’s like this: I don’t know nothing about your book, but I do know what’s happened before. Take Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, for instance. He predicted that there wouldn’t never be no more wars—he claimed we’d outlived the possibility of it, and everything would be settled peaceably. What happened? Why, Napoleon arose inside o’ fifty years and they was wars like never had been seen on earth. Now, if Gibbon had only been able to put himself in communication with the spirit intelligence, he wouldn’t have made that mistake—the spirits would have told him what was goin’ to happen. Look at Voltaire! He went on record by sayin’ that in fifty years they wouldn’t be no more churches. Now he’s a ridicule and a by-word amongst Christian people. If he’d only consulted the spirit-plane he wouldn’t have made a fool of hisself. But, o’ course, spiritualism wan’t heard of then no more than Voltaire’s heard of now. Now let’s say, for example, you was writin’ a book on evolution ten years ago, thoroughly believin’ in Darwin’s theory o’ the origin of species. Up to that time nobody believed that a new specie had been evolved since man. But look at this here Burbank up to Santa Rosa—he has gone to work and produced some absolutely new species, and what’s more, I predicted his success in this very room ten years ago. If you’d written on evolution then, you might have taken advantage o’ what I could have gave you. Now, for all I know, some man may come along and breed two different animals together, p’raps through vivisection or what not, and develop a bran’ new kind of specie in the animal world. Heart disease and cancer and consumption are supposed by modern science to be incurable, but I wouldn’t venture to write that down in a book till I had taken the means at my disposal o’ findin’ out whether they was or wasn’t." He arose and let up the window-shades; the level rays of the sunshine illuminated his figure and burnished his purpling coat. He shook his finger at Mr. Payson, who was listening open-mouthed, impressed with the glib argument. "Now, my control is Theodore Parker. You’ve heard of him—p’raps you knew him. You wouldn’t hesitate to ask his advice if he was still on the flesh plane, for he was a brainy man; how much more, now he’s passed out and gone beyond, into a fuller development and comprehension of the universe! I don’t know what your subject is, but whatever it is, he can help and he will help. I’m sure o’ that. It’s for you to say whether you’ll avail yourself of his guidance or not. I can give you all the tests you want, but I tell you, you’re only wastin’ your time, while you might be in daily communication with one of the grandest minds this country and this century has produced. I can get into communication with him and give you his messages by means of automatic writin’, or I can develop you so’s you can do it yourself."