demic of smallpox drove even the doctors away, he
remained faithfully at his post, caring for bodies and comforting souls.
But he had precarious health, and was overworked at Maughold. He
obtained another curacy, where there was less work, at Saint George's,
Douglas, also in the Isle of Man. It was at Douglas that the friendship,
broken only by death, was formed between him and Dr Stanhope Speer. A
throat-affection soon after prevented his preaching, and he left the
service of the Church to give himself up to teaching. He went to London,
where he became tutor to the son of Dr Stanhope Speer, who was living
there. Finally, at the beginning of 1871, he obtained a mastership in
University College School, and there he remained till 1889.

Till 1872 William Stainton Moses knew nothing of spiritualism. If he had
vaguely heard of it, he had no doubt hastened to condemn the new
superstition which carried off sheep from his flock.

However, in 1872, Mrs Speer, being ill and confined to her room, read
Dale Owen's book, _The Debatable Land_. The book interested her, and she
asked Stainton Moses to read it. He did so, but only to please his
friend's wife. Nevertheless he became curious to know how much truth
there might be in the matter. He visited mediums, and took Dr Speer with
him, and both were soon convinced that here was a new force.

It was at the time when spiritualistic phenomena were attracting much
attention in the United States and England, and when learned bodies were
appealed to from all sides to put an end to these phantasmagoria. It was
the period when the materialised apparition of Katie King appeared and
talked to numerous spectators who came from widely separated places. Sir
William Crookes could see her and photograph her as much as he pleased;
heedless of his environment, he published what seemed to him the truth.

Thereupon the man whose brain had till then been considered one of the
most lucid and best organised which humanity has produced, lost
considerably in the opinion of his contemporaries. But no doubt the
future will avenge him.

The Speer family and Stainton Moses now began to hold sittings by
themselves. Stainton Moses[74] at once showed himself to be an
extraordinarily powerful medium. Neither he nor anybody else had
suspected this mediumship till now. Many other mediumships have been
revealed in the same way, suddenly, by experiment. This shows that
faculties, valuable for the study of these di