The statements in this paper as to what was written in my
presence purporting to be communications from "spirits," and
as to the circumstances under which it was written, are
scrupulously correct. The "communications," it is certain,
are from an intelligent source. Mrs. Underwood is the person
by whose hand they are put in form. That she is not laboring
under a mistake in thinking that she is unconscious of the
thought expressed until she has read the writing,--if,
indeed, such a mistake in a sane mind is possible,--I am
certain. Sometimes, owing to the illegibility of the
writing, she has to study out sentences. The writing varies
in style, not only on different evenings, but on the same
evening; it is apparently the writing of not fewer than
twenty persons, and generally bearing no resemblance
whatever, so far as I can judge, to Mrs. Underwood's
handwriting, which is remarkably uniform. The communications
are unlike in the degrees of intelligence, in the quality of
thought, and in the disposition which they show. Detailed
statements of facts unknown to either of us, but which,
weeks afterwards, were learned to be correct, have been
written, and repeated again and again, when disbelieved and
contradicted by us. All the writing has been done in my
presence, but most of it while I have been busily occupied
with work which demanded my undivided attention. The views
expressed are often different from my own, and quite as
frequently, perhaps, opposed to Mrs. Underwood's views.
Some will, doubtless, interpret these facts as evidence and
illustrations of the multiplex character of personality, and
will regard these communications, apparently indicating
several distinct intelligences, as manifestations of
different strata, so to speak, of the same individual
consciousness. Knowledge of the facts unknown to our
ordinary consciousness was, nevertheless, some will say, in
the sub-consciousness of one of us, or perhaps of both. On
this theory, of course it must be supposed that the mind has
stored away in its depths knowledge acquired in ways
unknown. By others all the phenomena related by Mrs.
Underwood will be regarded as the work of disembodied,
invisible, intelligent beings who once dwelt in the flesh
and lived on the earth, but who are now in a higher sphere
of existence, yet able under certain conditions to make
their presence and their thoughts known to us. It is not my
intention here to advocate any theory as to the cause of the
phenomena described by Mrs. Underwood. I simply testify now
to the accuracy of all those statements in her paper in
regard to her automatic writing.