* * * * * "Lowther Lodge, Barnes, S.W., December 3, 1878. "DEAR CAPTAIN BURTON, "Your interesting lecture on Spiritualism explains what no one has yet been able to explain, the verse in the 'Persæ' of Æschylus, on the conjuring up of the ghost of Darius, v. 683; (Dind.)-- στένει, κέκοπται, καὶ χαράσσεται πέδον. The effects are _exactly_ what your Tunisian describes, and the inference is that this Eastern magic is a very old and _real_ power. One is utterly perplexed, and can only fall back on what seems the doubtfulness of almost all evidence. "Believe me, very faithfully yours, "F. A. PALEY." * * * * * "SPIRIT GUARDIANSHIP. "A _Spiritualist_ was sent to me yesterday, bearing the date 19th of December, 1879, containing an article signed 'Scrutator.' It contained a description of two incidents in my Syrian life, in which I was moved by some power to do things against my will, which had a useful object in the end. 'Scrutator,' however, says that my husband's farewell note to me reached me at our house, a mile out of Damascus. If that had been so, there would have been nothing extraordinary, but quite natural that I should have joined my husband at Beyrout, as there was only a quarter of an hour's ride between the Consulate and the house. But I was thirty miles away, at the top of a mountain in the Anti-Lebanon, five thousand feet above sea-level, and quite out of reach of news or communication, save the three lines I received by a mounted messenger; and my difficulty was to descend the mountain in the dark, cross the country at dawn, to the probable spot where I could catch the diligence on the road. The power that moved me was therefore so much the stronger, and I think it very well accounted for by 'Scrutator.' However, as I am a Catholic, Catholicism is the _highest order_ of Spiritualism; what to 'Scrutator' is a force of spirit, is to me simply my angel guardian, who is to me an _actual presence_, to whom I constantly refer during the day, and who directs everything I ask him to. When I sit with other Spiritualists they say they can see him. I can't; I only feel the power. However, I am quite sure of one thing, that nothing happens by luck or chance; but that we are moved by our good and bad angels, and that those who are in the habit of meditating or reflecting a good deal arrive at a proficiency in knowing and understanding their calls. "ISABEL BURTON. "Trieste, December 26th, 1879." * * * * * "An answer--not that you long for, But diviner--will come one day: Your eyes are too blind to see it, But strive, and wait, and pray." ----E. M. HEWITT. [1] "'Mandal' is, properly speaking, a Persian word, and means the magic circle in which the necromantist sits when summoning the demons and spirits of the dead."