University of Virginia Library

3. III.
THE SPIRIT OF LEEUWENHOEK.

TWO evenings after this, thanks to an arrangement by
letter and the promise of an ample fee, I found Madame
Vulpes awaiting me at her residence alone. She was
a coarse-featured woman, with a keen and rather cruel dark
eye, and an exceedingly sensual expression about her mouth
and under jaw. She received me in perfect silence, in an
apartment on the ground floor, very sparely furnished. In
the centre of the room, close to where Mrs. Vulpes sat,
there was a common round mahogany table. If I had
come for the purpose of sweeping her chimney, the woman
could not have looked more indifferent to my appearance.
There was no attempt to inspire the visitor with any awe.
Everything bore a simple and practical aspect. This intercourse
with the spiritual world was evidently as familiar an
occupation with Mrs. Vulpes as eating her dinner or riding
in an omnibus.

“You come for a communication, Mr. Linley?” said the
medium, in a dry, business-like tone of voice.

“By appointment, — yes.”

“What sort of communication do you want? — a written
one?”

“Yes, — I wish for a written one.”

“From any particular spirit?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever known this spirit on this earth?”

“Never. He died long before I was born. I wish
merely to obtain from him some information which he
ought to be able to give better than any other.”

“Will you seat yourself at the table, Mr. Linley,” said the
medium, “and place your hands upon it?”

I obeyed, — Mrs. Vulpes being seated opposite me, with
her hands also on the table. We remained thus for about

a minute and a half, when a violent succession of raps came
on the table, on the back of my chair, on the floor immediately
under my feet, and even on the window-panes. Mrs.
Vulpes smiled composedly.

“They are very strong to-night,” she remarked. “You
are fortunate.” She then continued, “Will the spirits communicate
with this gentleman?”

Vigorous affirmative.

“Will the particular spirit he desires to speak with communicate?”

A very confused rapping followed this question.

“I know what they mean,” said Mrs. Vulpes, addressing
herself to me; “they wish you to write down the name of
the particular spirit that you desire to converse with. Is
that so?” she added, speaking to her invisible guests.

That it was so was evident from the numerous affirmatory
responses. While this was going on, I tore a slip from my
pocket-book, and scribbled a name under the table.

“Will this spirit communicate in writing with this 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 now 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 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 microscopics. 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!

I cannot at all describe the effect that these extraordinary
communications had upon me. I felt completely bewildered.
No biological theory could account for the discovery
of the lens. The medium might, by means of biological
rapport with my mind, have gone so far as to read my questions,

and reply to them coherently. But Biology could not
enable her to discover that magnetic currents would so alter
the crystals of the diamond as to remedy its previous defects,
and admit of its being polished into a perfect lens.
Some such theory may have passed through my head, it is
true; but if so, I had forgotten it. In my excited condition
of mind there was no course left but to become a convert,
and it was in a state of the most painful nervous exaltation
that I left the medium's house that evening. She accompanied
me to the door, hoping that I was satisfied. The
raps followed us as we went through the hall, sounding on
the balusters, the flooring, and even the lintels of the door.
I hastily expressed my satisfaction, and escaped hurriedly
into the cool night air. I walked home with but one thought
possessing me, — how to obtain a diamond of the immense
size required. My entire means multipled a hundred times
over would have been inadequate to its purchase. Besides,
such stones are rare, and become historical. I could find
such only in the regalia of Eastern or European monarchs.