THE MEDIUMSHIP OF ARTHUR COLMAN.
Arthur Colman was so intimate a friend of Mr. Eglinton's, and so much
associated with him in my thoughts in the days when I first knew them
both, that it seems only natural that I should write of him next. His
powers were more confined to materialization than Eglinton's, but in
that he excelled. He is the most wonderful materializing medium I ever
met in England; but of late years, owing to the injury it did him in his
profession, he has been compelled, in justice to himself, to give up
sitting for physical manifestations, and, indeed, sitting at all, except
to oblige his friends. I cannot but consider this decision on his part
as a great public loss; but until the public takes more interest in the
next world than they do in this, it will not make it worth the while of
such as Mr. Colman to devote their lives, health and strength to their
enlightenment. For to be a good physical medium means literally to part,
little by little, with one's own life, and no man can be expected to do
so much for the love of a set of unbelievers and sceptics, who will use
up all his powers, and then go home to call him a rogue and a cheat and
a trickster. If, as I am persuaded, each one of us is surrounded by the
influences we gather of our own free-will about us--the loving and
noble-hearted by angels, the selfish and unbelieving by devils--and we
consider how the latter preponderate over the former in this world, is
it to be wondered at that most _seances_ are conducted by an assemblage
of evil spirits brought there by the sitters themselves? Sceptical,
blasphemous and sensual men and women collect together to try and find
out the falsehood, _not the truth_, of Spiritualism, and are tricked by
the very influences that attend their footsteps and direct their daily
lives; and therein lies the danger of Spiritualism as a pursuit, taken
up out of curiosity rather than a desire to learn. It gives increased
power to the evil that surrounds ourselves, and the devil that goes out
of us returns with seven other devils worse than himself. The drunkard,
who, by giving rein to a weakness which he knows he should resist, has
attracted to him the spirits of drunkards gone before, joins a _seance_,
and by the collaboration of forces, as it were, bestows increased power
on the guides he has chosen for himself to lead him into greater evil.
This dissertation, however, called forth by the never-ceasing wonder I
feel at the indifference of the world towards such sights as I have
seen, has led me further than I intended from the subject of my chapter.
Arthur Colman is a young man of delicate constitution and appearance,
who was at one time almost brought down to death's door by the demands
made by physical phenomena upon his strength; but since he has given up
sitting, he has regained his health, and looks quite a different person.
This fact proves of itself what a tax is laid upon the unfortunate
medium for such manifestations. Since he has resolved, however, never to
sit again, I am all the more anxious to record what I have seen through
him, probably for the last time. When I first knew my husband Colonel
Lean, he had seen nothing of Spiritualism, and was proportionately
curious, and naturally a little sceptical on the subject, or, rather let
me say, incredulous. He was hardly prepared to receive all the marvels I
told him of without proof; and Mr. Colman's guide, "Aimee," was very
anxious to convince him of their truth. She arranged, therefore, a
_seance_ at which he was to be present, and which was to be held at the
house of Mr. and Mrs. George Neville. The party dined there together
previously, and consisted only of Mr. and Mrs. Neville, Arthur Colman,
Colonel Lean, and myself. As we were in the drawing-room, however, after
dinner, and before we had commenced the _seance_, an American lady, who
was but slightly known to any of us, was announced. We had particularly
wished to have no strangers present, and her advent proportionately
annoyed us, but we did not know on what excuse to get rid of her. She
was a pushing sort of person; and when Mrs. Neville told her we were
going to hold a _seance_, as a sort of hint that she might take her
leave, it only made her resolve to stay; indeed, she declared she had
had a premonition of the fact. She said that whilst in her own room that
morning, a figure had appeared standing by her bed, dressed in blue and
white, like the pictures of the Virgin Mary, and that all day she had
had an impression that she must spend the evening with the Nevilles, and
she should hear something more about it. We could not get rid of the
lady, so we were obliged to ask her to remain and assist at the
_seance_, which she had already made up her mind to do, so we commenced
our preparations. The two drawing-rooms communicated by folding doors,
which were opened, and a _portiere_ drawn across the opening. In the
back room we placed Mr. Colman's chair. He was dressed in a light grey
suit, which we secured in the following manner:--His hands were first
sewn inside the sleeves of the coat, then his arms were placed behind
his back, and the coat sleeves sewn together to the elbow. We then sewed
his trouser legs together in the same way. We then tied him round the
throat, waist and legs with _white cotton_, which the least movement on
his part would break, and the ends of each ligament were sealed to the
wall of the room with wax and stamped with my seal with "_Florence
Marryat_" on it. Considering him thus secure, without any _possibility_
of escape unless we discovered it, we left him in the back room, and
arranged ourselves on a row of five chairs before the _portiere_ in the
front one, which was lighted by a single gas-burner. I sat at the head
of the row, then the American lady, Mrs. Neville, Colonel Lean and Mr.
Neville. I am not sure how long we waited for the manifestations; but I
do not think it was many minutes before a female figure glided from the
side of the curtain and took a vacant chair by my side. I said, "_Who is
this?_" and she whispered, "_Florence_," and laid her head down on my
shoulder, and kissed my neck. I was turning towards her to distinguish
her features more fully, when I became aware that a second figure was
standing in front of me, and "Florence" said "Mother, there is Powles;"
and at the same time, as he bent down to speak to me, his beard touched
my face. I had not had time to draw the attention of my friends to the
spirits that stood by me, when I was startled by hearing one exclamation
after another from the various sitters. The American lady called out,
"There's the woman that came to me this morning." Mr. Neville said,
"That is my father," and Colonel Lean was asking some one if he would
not give his name, I looked down the line of sitters. Before Colonel
Lean there stood an old man with a long, white beard; a somewhat similar
figure was in front of Mr. Neville. Before the dark curtain appeared a
woman dressed in blue and white, like a nun; and meanwhile, "Florence"
and "Powles" still maintained their station by my side. As if this were
not enough of itself to turn a mortal's brain, the _portiere_ was at the
same moment drawn aside, and there stood Arthur Colman in his grey suit,
freed from all his bonds, but under the control of "Aimee," who called
out joyously to my husband, "_Now, Frank, will you believe?_" She
dropped the curtain, the apparitions glided or faded away, and we passed
into the back drawing-room, to find Mr. Colman still in trance, just as
we had left him, and _with all the seals and stitches_ intact. Not a
thread of them all was broken. This is the largest number of spirits I
have ever seen at one time with one medium. I have seen two materialized
spirits at a time, and even three, from Mr. Williams and Miss Showers
and Katie Cook; but on this occasion there were five apparent with the
medium, all standing together before us. And this is the sort of thing
that the majority of people do not consider it worth their while to take
a little trouble to see. I have already related how successfully
"Florence" used to materialize through this medium, and numerous
friends, utterly unknown to him, have revisited us through his means.
His trance mediumship is as wonderful as his physical phenomena; some
people might think more so. Amongst others, two spirits have come back
to us through Mr. Colman, neither of whom he knew in this life, and both
of whom are, in their way, too characteristic to be mistaken. One is
Phillis Glover the actress; the other my stepson, Francis Lean, who was
drowned by an accident at sea. Phillis Glover was a woman who led a very
eventful life, chiefly in America, and was a versatile genius in
conversation, as in everything else. She was peculiar also, and had a
half-Yankee way of talking, and a store of familiar sayings and
anecdotes, which she constantly introduced into her conversation. She
was by no means an ordinary person whilst in this life, and in order to
imitate her manner and speech successfully, one would need to be as
clever a person as herself. And, without wishing to derogate from the
powers of Mr. Colman's mind, he knows, and I know, that Phillis Glover
was cleverer than either of us. When her influence or spirit therefore
returns through him, it is quite unmistakable. It is not only that she
retains all her little tricks of voice and feature and manner (which Mr.
Colman has never seen), but she alludes to circumstances that took place
in this life and people she was associated with here that he has never
heard of. More, she will relate her old stories and anecdotes, and sing
her old songs, and give the most incontrovertible tests of her identity,
even to recalling facts and incidents that have entirely passed from our
minds. When she appears through him, it is Phillis Glover we are sitting
with again and talking with, as familiarly as we did in the days gone
by. "Francis," in his way too, is quite as remarkable. The circumstances
of his death and the events leading to it were unknown to us, till he
related them through Mr. Colman; and he speaks to us of the contents of
private letters, and repeats conversations and alludes to circumstances
and names that are known only to him and ourselves. He had a peculiar
manner also--quick and nervous--and a way of cutting his words short,
which his spirit preserves to the smallest particular, and which furnish
the strongest proofs possible of his identity to those who knew him here
below. But these are but a very few amongst the innumerable tests
furnished by Arthur Colman's occult powers of the assured possibility of
communicating with the spirits of those gone before us.