WCP5736

[1] [p. 190]

Grays, Essex

January 11, 1874

The Dell,

Dear Miss Buckley

I am delighted to hear of your success so far, and hope you are progressing satisfactorily. Please keep accurate notes of all that take place...Allow me... to warn you not to take it for granted till you get proof upon proof that it is really your sister that is communicating with you. I hope and think it is, but still, the conditions that render communication possible are so subtle and complex that she might not be able; and some other being, reading your mind, may be acting through you and making you think it is your sister, to induce you to go on. Be therefore on the look out for characteristic traits of your sister's mind and manner which are different from your own. These will be tests, especially if they come when and how you are not expecting them. Even if it is your sister, she may be obliged to use the intermediation of some other being, and in that case her peculiar idiosyncracy may be at first disguised, but it will soon make itself distinctly visible. Of course you will preserve every scrap you write, and date them, and they will, I have no doubt, explain each other as you go on.[2] [p. 191]

If you can get to see the last number of the Quarterly Journal of Science,¹ you will find a most important article by Mr. Crookes², giving an outline of the results of his investigations, which he is going to give in full in a volume. His facts are most marvellous and convincing, and appear to me to answer every one of the objections that have usually been made to the evidenced adduced.

Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace