be quite overcome and he will be restored." Then a long and detailed account was given of the medicines and method of treatment, which was to extend over some five weeks. It was then stated that at the end of that time the children would have quite recovered. The lecturer left by the evening train to fulfil his engagements, and did not return to the town in which the clergyman lived for nearly two months, and the matter had quite passed out of his mind. But the day after his return he was reminded of it by seeing the clergyman and his wife approaching the house, and while he was wondering how their children were (their very existence being recalled to his mind by seeing the father and mother), the gentleman and his wife were sho into the room, and quite a scene ensued, for they were completely overcome by agitation in speaking of the blessing which had come to them through his powers; for, as they said, their children had been raised from the grave.

The mention of lecturing leads us to speak of what is really a very remarkable state of things in the present day. None can say that the preternatural is not countenanced in this age, if they will take the trouble to visit Steinway Hall in Lower Seymour-street on Sunday evening. They will there find the ubiquitous Mr. Fletcher (who, as perhaps the most remarkable seer of the time, is mixed up with so many of these strange stories) before the public as a lecturer. His merits as a speaker are of course a matter of individual opinion, and have moreover little to do with our subject.

What does concern us is that the preternatural occupies an important part in this public service. The lecture is an improvisation, and is delivered in

a more or less abnormal state. Towards the close the lecturer

passes into a more pronounced state of clairvoyance, and speaks from the platform of what he sees in relation to individuals

in the company. These visions are said to be presented with great vividness, as the effort

of lecturing appears to produce that electric condition which is necessary for the opening of the inner sight. Extraordinary insight into personal lives and into the past has been shown on these occasions and in order to give some idea of what kind this insight is, we give some instances which have been recorded by one or two persons. One evening a vision was described much in these words: "I can see a young boy-he seems very unhappy-very much disturbed. He has left his home now and is dressed as a sailor. I see him on the water for a long time. Now he has returned home; how changed everything is. I see a street in London; this same young man comes walking down the street; there is a dark shadow over him, and as I speak he falls dead at my feet. His name is

and he comes to that gentleman sitting there (indicating a seat in the hall), and he says he is his brother." There was a long message then given.

The gentleman indicated rose in the hall and said that his brother who was in the navy, when at home on furlough, had dropped down dead in the streets. He had been suffering for some time from heart disease. The message now given to him from this brother was of great importance and interest to himself.

Another evening the lecturer began with great vividness to describe a scene which was passing before him, immediately that he entered the state of clairvoyance.

"I see a ship-I am in the fog -how dense, how dark it is. The ship is going at a fearful rate. Now, I see that they let out a line to take the soundings. Oh! the ship is sinking-sinking!-but the crew have taken to the boats. I see they are all safe, none of them are lost. Now, the waves have closed over the ship, and it is gone. But you will not lose as much as you expect; good news is coming to you.' A gentleman rose among the audience and said that he had just received a telegram stating that a ship of his was lost in the fog. Some papers subsequently received by this gentleman (Mr. John Carson, an Australian merchant) stated that the ship while sailing with great rapidity through a dense fog had struck against the rocks just as the sailors had taken the soundings, which they had neglected to do before; and also that the insurance would be paid in

full.

The searcher after strange things who shall wander into Steinway Hall on Sunday evening will, at all events, find some amusement and interest in looking around him at the audience. Fashion personally supports the preternatural in this materialistic age: it is not afraid to appear in public below the footlights of

the

mysteries. Coronets and tiaras are not satisfied with getting what is popularly supposed to be the best out of this world: they want something of the other, too. Look round and you will recognise lords and ladies, princes and princesses. There is Lord R. and the Princesse de N.; there is the Duchess of St. and the Marquise de L.; there is the Prince M. K. and the Duc de M.P., while ladies abound. You may notice Lady S., Lady H., Lady G., Lady L. O., Lady C., Lady B. Over there is Count R. the army is probably represented

by Major C., Capt. P., Capt. E., Cols. C. H. and E. There is Lord H. and Lady Blanche H., and Mrs. W., who is renowned for her sumptuous entertainments. There is the Countess whose jewels are supposed to vie with the royal possessions in magnificence, and who when out driving has been mistaken for a royal personage. There are operatic stars you may chance to see the great prima donna of the "Trovatore." There are some men of letters, an editor or two of daily papers, a Doctor of Divinity, and even a few men of science, to form a quiet background to this glittering company which follows after the preternatural. There is a fascination in this peep into the inner life, and this bringing of it into intimate personal relations with us, which the world cannot resist. The fashionable clairvoyant of the present day has almost priceless jewels showered upon him in memory of messages which he has handed from the unseen world to the seen; jewels of which the history and the giver would be known to the jewellers well enough.

It is, perhaps, rather a reflection upon the official keepers of the keys of Spirit that here an unlicensed unlocker of the door should so forestall them at the business. Does he open the door more widely or more palpably, or is such ministration as his preferred because it is more direct, and there is less ceremony about it? Then, too, it is so personal, so real, so immediate. You are not to wait for your grave before you get a glimpse into a freer life, or before you shake hands with your old friends who have gone before you. It is all here, at your very side. Life is doubled and trebled to you by a wider vision into the past and future, and by the presence of friends whom you hardly dared

hope ever to meet again, because they had passed beyond the dim gates of death. All this is for you, if you like to follow fashion and believe!

The world has never been able to part with its mystery, its magic, its dreams, and its visions; and in the existence of the fashionable clairvoyant we have palpable proof that the world will not wag on without the preternatural element, even in this materialistic nineteenth century. If one half of society shudders at the terrible thought of the fascinations of superstition, the other half woos

and follows after them. This naturally gives an opening for much fraud and imposture; but the preternatural is of older family than any science, and we must be careful not to confound the possession of any rare gift with fraudulent imitations of it. Whatever exists has the sacredness of fact, and it is idle to profess to ignore it. Though we call it preternatural, if it be fact, it is part of nature, and it is only preternatural because it is beyond that side of nature which is most familiar to

our senses.

M. C.

THE NEW

Now when the blue riband of University scholarship has been carried off by one who, not long ago, was a Board School boy-as it is his honest pride to rememberit is not amiss to take note of the rising need for University teaching, with the increasing demand for University degrees. A degree at one of our Universities is more than ever recognised as an object to be aimed at; and this on many grounds; not only that it shortens the probation for some of the professions, but that it is "the guinea stamp," valued for itself the reward of study and the mark of attainments. The University of London holds examinations for all comers, and grants degrees, but does not teach; Cambridge and Oxford both teach and examine. Without undervaluing the good service of the University of London, or depreciating the worth of the degrees there conferred, it may be fairly said that a greater worth and a higher value attach to combined teaching and examination, and to the degree which follows them; besides that the teaching is valuable even if the degree is not secured. In various ways University extension has been sought, so as to bring University advantages within reach of a larger number fitted to receive them. The two obstacles to University education may be said to be the expenditure of money, and the expenditure of time. Cavendish College has been formed at Cambridge with the object of lessening both. It is proposed to

commence University teaching at an earlier age than is customary, though no earlier than in old time our great scholars "went to college." Men in the army, lawyers, merchants, medical men, all indeed who have a technical education to obtain, or a special business knowledge to acquire, cannot postpone that to the acquirement first of a University education, as at present understood, and the attainment of a University degree.

Cavendish College is designed to meet the case, and enable young men about to enter the active business of life to obtain the advantages, or most of the advantages, of the University, as matriculated members, with less cost of time and money; to put University teaching and examinations, with a University degree, within reach of many to whom it would be a boon, but who are now debarred from both. The plan for doing this is by limiting the annual cost to £84 as a fixed sum, and by receiving the alumni at sixteen years of age, or even earlier, giving them a three years' course of tuition, with the requisite residence, so as to make the Cambridge B.A. degree attainable by those to whom this economy of time and money is a necessary condition for its attainment. In this way our county schools will be enabled to reap the advantage of the University, with its degrees; and middle-class education will at once be advanced to a higher standard. Nor is this premature, seeing that out of a