I have found it so in my own experience, and I never place entire confidence in anything unless the Spirits sanction it to me by sounds in connection with the alphabet, which was their first chosen method with us. Nor do I rely on the rappings unless what is said through them bears in itself the evidence of truth. I regret to see persons too much carried away by this or any _ism_. Give me a good amanuensis, one who can take down each letter as it is indicated (and not interrupt me by asking very often, "What does it say?" which breaks the telegraphic connection, for the time, through which Spirits operate, exactly as the telegraphic wires are affected by a thunder-storm)--give me, I say, such an amanuensis, and I can sit, as I have often sat, for hours at a time, receiving the letters through the raps and alphabet, with no idea of their connection or meaning, nor any such knowledge possible to any listener, and at the close every letter, word, and sentence will be found perfectly correct, and the whole intelligible only when the whole is read in connected sequence. It is impossible for any mortal to sit and reiterate the letters of the alphabet as fast as they can be repeated, hour after hour, and retain in the mind the structure of the sentences and chapters communicated. I defy any one to do it. Even Theodore Parker pronounced it a quietus on the Buffalo doctors. Try it yourselves, dear readers. Under the right conditions, I can sit and call the letters for hours together, and when the message is finished it will be found to be perfect and unbroken from beginning to end--in accordance with the intelligence of the Spirit, not that of the medium. I have seen Spirits walk around the room, furnishing their own light sufficiently bright to show themselves distinctly to all persons present, when every precaution had been taken to lock and seal the doors and windows, to prevent ingress or egress of any person to disturb the circle; and I know hundreds, still living, who can testify to this statement.