July 4th.--I left Leamington on Monday, shortly after twelve, having been
accompanied to the railway station by U---- and J-----, whom I sent away
before the train started. While I was waiting, a rather gentlemanly,
well-to-do, English-looking man sat down by me, and began to talk of the
Crimea, of human affairs in general, of God and his Providence, of the
coming troubles of the world, and of spiritualism, in a strange free way
for an Englishman, or, indeed, for any man. It was easy to see that he
was an enthusiast of some line or other. He being bound for Birmingham
and I for Rugby, we soon had to part; but he asked my name, and told me
his own, which I did not much attend to, and immediately forgot.
[Here follows a long account of a visit to Lichfield and Uttoxeter,
condensed in "Our Old Home."]
July 6th.--The day after my arrival, by way of Lichfield and Uttoxeter,
at Liverpool, the door of the Consulate opened, and in came the very
sociable personage who accosted me at the railway station at Leamington.
He was on his way towards Edinburgh, to deliver a course of lectures or a
lecture, and had called, he said, to talk with me about spiritualism,
being desirous of having the judgment of a sincere mind on the subject.
In his own mind, I should suppose, he is past the stage of doubt and
inquiry; for he told me that in every action of his life he is governed
by the counsels received from the spiritual world through a medium. I
did not inquire whether this medium (who is a small boy) had suggested
his visit to me. My remarks to him were quite of a sceptical character
in regard to the faith to which he had surrendered himself. He has
formerly lived in America, and had had a son born there. He gave me a
pamphlet written by himself, on the cure of consumption and other
diseases by antiseptic remedies. I hope he will not bore me any more,
though he seems to be a very sincere and good man; but these enthusiasts
who adopt such extravagant ideas appear to one to lack imagination,
instead of being misled by it, as they are generally supposed to be.