WITH ITS EVIDENCE.

521

More than a year has passed since then: and, during that period, she has not had the least return of any one of the maladies which had made of half her life one long martyrdom. To describe how gratefully and wonderingly she enjoyed her relief; or with what zest she entered upon her new life, which even day after day seemed to her more like some beautiful dream than any earthly reality-was, she declared to me, impossible.

The allegation, as written by the psychograph, was, that the cure was the result of Mrs. Kyd's strong faith.

,

The particulars of this marvellous case I had, first in somewhat general terms from Monsieur B— the gentleman at whose house the circumstance occurred, and whom I met in London in January, 1859; and afterward, during a visit to Paris, in minute detail, from Mrs. Kyd herself, in the presence of her husband: he confirming the narrative in every point. From earnest desire to serve the cause of truth and in token of gratitude to God for benefit so unexpectedly received, Mrs. Kyd granted me permission, in publishing the case, to give her name; and to this her husband also assented. In view of the peculiarity of the circumstances, I at first felt reluctant to avail myself of so generous an offer; as, indeed I did also in Mrs. Davis's case. But on further reflection I decided that, in the interests of truth and spiritual science, I had no right to refuse such an opportunity of authentication.

I am authorized also to furnish Mr. Kyd's address to any medical man, or other earnest inquirer, who may desire direct testimony for what will usually be deemed incredible.

The public cannot have a better voucher for the sincerity of the narrators. I myself have stronger proof; for I became well acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Kyd, and I have the additional testimony touching their intelligence and uprightness which any one acquainted with the world instinctively derives from daily intercourse with the earnest and the cultivated.

I may add, what has been stated to me by Monsieur B— and confirmed by Mrs. Kyd herself, that he had given her no

522

MRS. KYD'S PSYCOGRAPH.

reason to believe that a cure could be effected through the intervention of the psychograph; nor, though he knew Mrs. Kyd was in bad health, was he apprised of any of the details of the Monsieur B― also stated to me that Mrs. Kyd had paid his family many subsequent visits; and that it was long before she could see the psychograph, inanimate medium though it was, without shedding tears.

case.

It should be stated that a previous cure, though by no means so striking a one, had been, as Monsieur B—————— informed me, Beffected in a similar manner.

Mrs. Kyd also told me that she had since procured a psychograph; that, with her hands and those of one of her daughters upon it, they had, after several weeks' patience, succeeded in getting it to write as fluently as that of Monsieur B—; and that, even up to the present time, if Mrs. Kyd has a headache or other slight indisposition, by placing her hands upon it and retaining them there some time, the effect is to cast her into magnetic sleep and, in every case, to afford relief. Indeed she and her husband seemed to regard the little instrument as a familiar friend and adviser, to whom, when they felt need of information or counsel, they might resort.*

I might go on, filling a hundred pages with the details of cures wrought among us by magnetic or spiritual agency. What are called "healing mediums healing mediums" are to be found, in city and country, by the hundreds; and though, doubtless, many are pretenders and many more often fail to relieve, that is only

* The above narrative, as here written out, was submitted by me, at Paris, on the twenty-third of April, 1859, to Mr. and Mrs. Kyd; and its accuracy in every particular assented to by them.

It may not be out of place here to repeat a caution already given. There is great temptation, when an inestimable blessing has thus been received through spiritual agency, to accept, without scruple or scrutiny, all opinions which may be obtained from the same wonder-working source. But this is dangerous as well as illogical. The power to cure is one thing; the capacity to utter truth unmixed with error quite another. We have proof of the former: we have no proof—indeed fallible creatures can have none-of the latter.

INSANITY CURED BY SPIRITUAL AGENCY.

523

what happens in the case of thousands who have a legal right to add M. D. to their names.

But further detail is needless. The proof that the gift of healing inheres in certain favored natures is as complete, and as readily attainable, as that some men and women are born poets and others musicians.*

And space fails me to touch except on a single additional point. It has been sometimes alleged that Spiritualism tends to produce insanity. I have never known, or found proof, of such a case: yet doubtless such have occurred. We have hundreds of examples of mania caused by religious excitement; as at revivals or camp-meetings: and it would be strange if Spiritualism, when unwisely or extravagantly pursued, should prove an exception to the rule. There have, however, come to my knowledge two cases in which insanity has been cured, or averted, by spiritual influence; the subject, in both instances, being a widow.

For several years previous to 1860, a Mrs. Kendall had been an inmate of the Somerville Lunatic Asylum, near Boston; and she was considered by the resident physician of that institution one of his most dangerous patients. Her lunacy had been caused by the death of her husband, six years before; and she remained insane until January, 1860. At that time she was taken from the asylum, to be received into a family where there were several mediums. With them she remained many months; obtaining, from time to time, communications alleged to come from her deceased husband.

On the tenth of January, 1861, the above circumstances

* I have the full particulars from the patient himself-but no room here to relate them-of a cure effected by the well-known Dr. Newton. The subject was a New York merchant of high standing, and he told me that his case was regarded by friends and physicians as absolutely hopeless; and that he sought Dr. N. in sheer despair. Several manipulations, throughout two weeks, effected a marvellous and radical cure; and for years and until the day I saw him, there had been no relapse.

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INSANITY CURED BY SPIRITUAL AGENCY.

were stated to me by her son, Mr. F. A. Kendall. His mother was then at home, completely cured. He told me that he was not a Spiritualist; not having had what he deemed sufficient evidence: but he freely admitted that his mother's cure was due solely to her residence among Spiritualists, and to the consoling assurance which she there found that the husband to whom in life she had been devotedly attached still lived and still thought and cared for her.

The other lady is personally known to me, though I am not at liberty to give her name. I knew her when her husband was alive; and her devotion to him was such that I shared the fears which I sometimes heard expressed by other friends of hers, that if she lost him, the consequences might be fatal. To her despair, he enlisted when the war was at its height, reached the rank of Major and died in a New Orleans hospital.

When the news, no longer to be withheld, was finally broken to her, it produced a fit of frenzy; and for weeks she was drifting into hopeless insanity. She had never been a Spiritualist; indeed she usually, as I well remember, had treated the subject with ridicule: but a sister, visiting a medium in hopes of getting something for herself, received, instead, a message to the disconsolate widow. It was repeated to her; and it was the first thing that roused her out of brooding despair. She went herself to the medium, received numerous messages embodying incontrovertible tests of identity; brightened day by day and when I met her, many months afterward, she had regained all her cheerfulness; and told me that she felt as if K (his pet name) were living and conversing with her still.

Thus, in our day, as in Christ's time, lunatics may, by spiritual influence, be restored to "their right mind." The time will come when this truth will be acted on by the managers of insane asylums.

CHAPTER II.

OTHER SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

DEEMING it highly important to run out the parallel between the spiritual gifts enumerated by Paul and by the Evangelists, and those which manifest themselves in our times, I had prepared five chapters, with narratives illustrating the general similarity between ancient and modern "signs and wonders;" to be here inserted.* But my manuscript has spread over an unexpected number of printed pages; so that lack of space and a desire that this book should be sold at a moderate price cause their exclusion. If I should live to write another work this omission may be supplied.

Meanwhile a few references, in this connection, may be acceptable.

Of the gift of prophecy, considered by Paul one of the chief ("desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy" f), some very remarkable examples, exhibited during somnambulism, are given by French writers on physiology and vital magnetism of acknowledged reputation. In this volume an

* As will be seen by those who may have looked over a condensed table of contents included in advance specimen-sheets of this volume, already issued by the publishers.

+1 Corinthians xiv. 1.

See, for example, Manuel Pratique du Magnétisme Animal, par ALPHONSE TESTE, D. M. de la Faculté de Paris; membre de plusieurs societés savantes: 4th Ed. Paris, 1853; pp. 120-128. This book has been translated into several languages.

See also Physiologie du Système Nerveux, by Dr. GEORGET, of Paris, vol. ii. pp. 404, 405. As to Georget's character and standing, see Footfalls, pp. 53, 54.