Still others who were present assured me that they saw the same phantom (or materialized form) at the séance, and the evidence of such materialization has the great support of one of our most eminent scientists who has a well-deserved reputation for extreme accuracy of statement and cautiousness, and who has assured me personally that he has both seen, handled, and conversed with such an apparition, which was just as real and clothed with the same flesh and blood as any other human being, and he is as certain of its genuineness as he is of his own existence. Moreover, he has repeatedly photographed both the medium and the spirit-form singly and together, which photographs I have seen. Personally I have never witnessed a materialized form, and can only reserve my judgment as to the reality of the phenomenon. But I feel sure all interpolations and additions will be pardoned by the reader; since the object aimed at was to clothe the real facts with a halo of romance, and thus, without detracting too much from the truth, to render the story much more interesting to the reader. GEO. LINDSAY JOHNSON, _Castle Mansions, Johannesburg_. It is a vulgar mistake, for which science certainly gives no warrant, to assert that things are impossible because they contradict our experience. P. Chalmers Mitchell, M.A., DSc., F.R.S. _Thomas Henry Huxley: A Sketch of his Life and Work_, p. 245. Whatever is intelligible and can be distinctly conceived implies no contradiction, and can never be proved false by any demonstration, argument, or reasoning, a priori. Hume, _On Miracles_. The boundary between the two states--the known and the unknown--is still substantial, but it is wearing thin in places; and like excavators engaged in boring a tunnel from opposite ends, amid the roar of water and other noises we are beginning to hear now and again the strokes of the pick-axes of our comrades on the other side. Sir Oliver Lodge, _The Survival of Man_, p. 337. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Dr. Ochorowicz is professor of Psychology at the University of Lemberg (Lvoff). I am a little uncertain as to the year, as I cannot get access to the _Annals_, but I believe it is the correct date.] CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Café at the corner of the "Boule Mich" 1 II. The Dinner at the Villebois' House 19 III. The Story of The Widow's Mite 29 IV. Payot and Duval 47 V. The Wine Cellar 69 VI. The Analyst 76 VII. Renée's Experience in Storm and Sunshine 88 VIII. Delapine makes an Experiment in Botany 96 IX. Céleste tries to fathom Renée's Secret 104 X. Delapine Interrupts a Fight 115