through quite a long series of imaginary but most
striking adventures, and then suddenly find that all his brilliant
surroundings have vanished in a moment, leaving him standing in some
lonely valley or on some wind-swept plain. On the other hand, it is by
no means safe to accept as founded on fact all the popular legends on
the subject, for the grossest superstition is often mingled with the
theories of the peasantry about these beings, as was shown by a recent
terrible murder case in Ireland.

To the same entities must be attributed a large portion of what are
called physical phenomena at spiritualistic _seances_--indeed, many a
_seance_ has been given entirely by these mischievous creatures; and
such a performance might easily include many very striking items, such
as the answering of questions and delivery of pretended messages by
raps or tilts, the exhibition of "spirit lights," the apport of
objects from a distance, the reading of thoughts which were in the
mind of any person present, the precipitation of writings or drawings,
and even materializations. In fact, the nature-spirits alone, if any
of them happened to be disposed to take the trouble, could give a
_seance_ equal to the most wonderful of which we read; for though
there may be certain phenomena which they would not find it easy to
reproduce, their marvellous power of glamour would enable them without
difficulty to persuade the entire circle that these phenomena also had
duly occurred, unless, indeed, there were present a trained observer
who understood their arts and knew how to defeat them. As a general
rule, whenever silly tricks or practical jokes are played at a
_seance_, we may infer the presence either of low-class
nature-spirits, or of human beings who were of a sufficiently degraded
type to find pleasure in such idiotic performances during life.

[Sidenote: Communicating Entities.]

As to the entities who may "communicate" at a _seance_, or may obsess
and speak through an entranced medium, their name is simply legion;
there is hardly a single class among all the varied inhabitants of the
astral plane from whose ranks they may not be drawn, though after the
explanations given it will be readily understood that the chances are
very much against their coming from a high one. A manifesting "spirit"
_may_ be exactly what it professes to be, but on the whole the
probabilities are that it is nothing of the kind; and for the ordinary
sitter there is a