"... bent to know, By the worst means, the worst," she required further proof of his identity. There was a pause for a minute or two, and then the spirit seer spoke again--"He has got a scroll in his hand, which he unfolds; there is this inscription on it, in _letters of fire_:-- 'I AM TOM!'" This sublime revelation was received with a degree of solemn awe, and with suppressed throes of well-bred laughter. Other cases not a whit less marvellous have been described by the narrators, who could not be reasoned out of their absurdity, insisting that there could be no deception in the matter, on account of the means employed, and the evident sincerity of the _employés_! These means, they said, required that the person who looked into the crystal should be perfectly _pure_; that is to say, a child free from sin, and by no means given to lying, and that the form of adjuration used was, "_In nomine Domini_," &c.; Latin being, as is well known, the language which spirits of all denominations are most accustomed to. When interrogated after this fashion, the spirit, if evil, fled away howling; if good, it came, when called, unless particularly engaged _in the sun_; for it appears that it is to that planet almost all spirits go when their term of purgatory is over. It seems that the spirits would sometimes get out of breath, travelling so far, and talking so much; and they then had recourse to the expedient of _letters of fire_, which seemed to be _written_ in various ways in the crystal; sometimes on flags, which the spirits hold up, but sometimes they are in _print_. In these letters of fire, the querist was counselled something like the following: "Be merry. Quarrel not. Keep your temper, and your children too. You are a good man, but try to be better. I am wanted. Let me go." We subjoin the following as specimens of conversations heard by large parties of amazed, titled, and believing listeners: "Are you Pharaoh, that was king of Egypt?" "Yes." "Where do you dwell now?" "In Jupiter." "How long have you been there?" "About thirty years." "Where did you dwell till then?" "In the atmosphere, and was undergoing punishment till then." "Were you king of Egypt when Moses was there?" "Yes, _and Aaron too_." "Did you build the pyramids?" "_Some._" "Were any built before your time?" "Yes." "Do you know how long the first was built before Christ?" "About three hundred years after Adam; it was built then." "Do you mean that it was built before the flood?" "No, it was not finished; the flood destroyed them." "What was the principal object of them?" "To hold the kings of Egypt." "Were there kings of Egypt so soon after the creation?" "Yes; that was the first country kings were in." "Were you drowned in the Red Sea?" "_Yes._"