It is a mistake to suppose that faith in Spiritualism on the part of all present is a necessary condition of success at séances. It is true that it sometimes seems that the presence of particular individuals is fatal to any, or any but the feeblest, manifestations. In such cases it is not their ignorance and disbelief, nor a rational scepticism, that militate against success. On the contrary, Spirits like the visits of honest, candid sceptics or inquirers, who are not inaccessible to evidence, nor so resolutely and bitterly hostile, and so acrid in temper, that they neither can be convinced though one "rose from the dead," nor are worthy of the attempt. They seem to resent the insulting presence and the unworthy mental condition and attitude of such persons, and ill-disposed to cast such pearls before such swine. Also, when sitters come with lies and fraud in their hearts, and trickery in their purposes, they bring with or attract to them lying and fraudulent Spirits who like to give them just what they come to seek. It is perhaps even more true in the Spirit life than in this, that like attracts like, and that birds of a feather flock together. There are many imaginary mediums. They will tell you they see, hear, and speak to you under the influence of Spirits, when it is nothing but an emanation from their own brain, and perhaps from the forces of the circle combined. This I believe to be a self-induced condition, developed by the powerful influence of the human will acting upon their own physical force. Beware how you become ensnared in the meshes of such mediums. They are only fit subjects for the lunatic asylums. There are, I believe, some unexplored regions in the human brain which may be hereafter explained and better understood. I will give you an example of this phase of mediumship. A friend of mine, an excellent man but very ambitious to excel in doing good, and at the same time to take a high position in Spiritualism, was told by Spirits that he would be a medium. He was very sanguine and believed that he could revolutionize the world, if he should become one. He was a clergyman and an honest man. One morning (after having waited a long time for the fulfilment of the promise that he would be a medium), he came to me with a roll of paper in his hand, his face beaming with joy, saying as he entered the room, "At last the prophecy has been fulfilled! See, listen," and he read a beautiful poem signed "Felicia Hemans." He afterward wrote many interesting things, and I have no doubt there were or had been times when he was under the influence of good Spirits; but as soon as he became ambitious to set himself up as "high priest," that innate something which belongs to the natural man performed the office of his own mind. That development is often very disastrous and unreliable, and should not be encouraged. I will give you an illustration in the following communication.