One Sunday afternoon, while sitting in his library, his hand was influenced to write a communication, of which the following is a copy: "I departed this earth-life a few hours ago, in ---- Street, No. ----. You will find my children mourning over my lifeless form. Go to them at once and assist them to bury my body. (Signed) MARY." He read the communication to his wife, who remonstrated, saying that she doubted it; but after considering the matter they both started to find the distressed family. It was not very far from them; but judge of their astonishment when they found no such place as had been mentioned. The _street_ was there, but no _house_, and no number like the place designated. The communication, in its essentials, was _an entire fabrication_. In the evening they both called on me, and desired, if possible, that Spirits would explain through the rappings why he should have been so deceived. The rapping said, "My dear friend, this is an experience which you will not forget. You have been led by ambition, mistaking it for a higher motive. You have besought Spirits to direct you, when you should have acted according to your own best judgment. Thus you have attracted a class of Spirits who are unreliable." This was something which many were necessitated to learn in the school of experience, especially in those early days of Spiritualism. I do not approve of sitting in promiscuous circles for development. I remember several years ago there was a circle held in New York for the purpose of making mediums. Our friend, Mr. George Willets, visited the rooms of the "developers" several times, and reported to us the unfavorable effect it produced upon him. My sister Katie on one occasion went with him. When she returned she felt badly and complained of strange sensations, caused (she believed) by sitting in that circle. It affected her unfavorably for some days. She was sad, and complained of seeing disagreeable things whenever her eyes closed. This gradually changed, but she could never be persuaded to visit such circles again. In the case of the Dr. Phelps's manifestations I think there was abundant evidence to prove that a natural development took place there. And I am sure that we fought against it long enough and hard enough to prove that we were not knowingly instrumental in bringing about anything of our own mediumship. We were all annoyed at the idea of being called mediums.