gentleman?" asked the
medium once more.

After a moment's pause, her hand seemed to be seized with a violent
tremor, shaking so forcibly that the table vibrated. She said that a
spirit had seized her hand and would write. I handed her some sheets of
paper that were on the table and a pencil. The latter she held loosely
in her hand, which presently began to move over the paper with a
singular and seemingly involuntary motion. After a few moments had
elapsed, she handed me the paper, on which I found written, in a large,
uncultivated hand, the words, "He is not here, but has been sent for."
A pause of a minute or so ensued, during which Mrs. Vulpes remained
perfectly silent, but the raps continued at regular intervals. When the
short period I mention had elapsed, the hand of the medium was again
seized with its convulsive tremor, and she wrote, under this strange
influence, a few words on the paper, which she handed to me. They were
as follows:

"I am here. Question me.

"_Leeuwenhoek_."

I was astounded. The name was identical with that I had written beneath
the table, and carefully kept concealed. Neither was it at all probable
that an uncultivated woman like Mrs. Vulpes should know even the name
of the great father of microscopies. It may have been biology; but
this theory was soon doomed to be destroyed. I wrote on my slip--still
concealing it from Mrs. Vulpes--a series of questions which, to avoid
tediousness, I shall place with the responses, in the order in which
they occurred:

I.--Can the microscope be brought to perfection?

Spirit--Yes.

I.--Am I destined to accomplish this great task?

Spirit.--You are.

I.--I wish to know how to proceed to attain this end. For the love which
you bear to science, help me!

Spirit--A diamond of one hundred and forty carats, submitted to
electro-magnetic currents for a long period, will experience a
rearrangement of its atoms _inter se_ and from that stone you will form
the universal lens.

I.--Will great discoveries result from the use of such a lens?

Spirit--So great that all that has gone before is as nothing.

I.--But the refractive power of the diamond is so immense that the image
will be formed within the lens. How is that difficulty to be surmounted?

Spirit--Pierce the lens through its axis, and the difficulty is
obviated. The image will be formed in the pierced space, which will
itself serve as a tube to look through. Now I am called. Good-night.