estimony to the mental tortures which
supra-mundane terrors and mundane cruelties had heaped upon them, the
world was taunting them with imposture and with originating the very
manifestations which were destroying their health, peace of mind, and
good name. They had solicited the advice of their much-respected
friend, Isaac Post, a highly esteemed Quaker citizen of Rochester, and
at his suggestion succeeded in communicating by raps with the invisible
power, through the alphabet (an attempt had been previously made but
without success). Telegraphic numbers were given to signify "Yes" or
"No," "Doubtful," etc., and sentences were spelled out by which they
learned the astounding facts that not only "Charles Rosna" the murdered
pedlar, but hosts of spirits, good and bad, high and low, could under
certain conditions not understood, and impossible for mortals yet to
comprehend, communicate with earth; that such communication was produced
through the forces of spiritual magnetism, in chemical affinity; that
the varieties of magnetism in different individuals afforded "medium
power" to some, and denied it to others; that the magnetic relations
necessary to produce phenomena were very subtle, liable to disturbance
and singularly susceptible to the influence of the mental emotions. In
addition to communications purporting thus to explain the object and
something of the modus operandi of the communion, numerous spirit
friends of the family, and also of those who joined in their
investigations, gladdened the hearts of their astonished relatives by
direct and unlooked-for tests of their presence. They came spelling out
their names, ages and various tokens of identity correctly, and
proclaiming the joyful tidings that they all "still lived," "still
loved," and with the tenderness of human affection and the wisdom of a
higher sphere of existence, watched over and guided the beloved ones who
had mourned them as dead, with all the gracious ministry of guardian
angels.

CHAPTER VIII.

But redolent of joy and consolation as is the intercourse with beloved
friends, at this time when orderly communion has succeeded doubtful
experiment, it must not be supposed that any such harmonious results
characterised the initiatory proceedings of the spiritual movement which
now made its advent in Rochester.

Within and without the dwellings of the medium, all was fear,
consternation, doubt, and anxiety. Fanatical religionists of different