< Evenings with Indwellers of the World of Spirits (continued from page 8-330) >
oval are the same characters as in the oval of the title. On the other side there is nothing but reading, and the same border as round the title.”
As the book in the crystal was only about two inches long, the reading was necessarily too small to peruse, so I took my oval mirror out of the cabinet, and requested Unian to transfer the vision from the crystal into the mirror, that the seer might read it, for, although extremely distinct and beautifully executed, it was too small to read. The vision, however, did not pass into the mirror, and upon handing Emma a magnifying glass it enlarged the characters, but rendered them less distinct. There appeared to be about two dozen lines upon the page.
I then requested the spirit of the crystal either to transfer the vision or send in the words one by one, and Emma remarked—There is an attempt at something like reading coming under the book in very straggling letters.
9440.—“The book would be shown plainly in an unconsecrated mirror or crystal.”
I asked, “Shall it be a plain glass or silvered mirror?”
9442.—“Tuesday. Like that, but unconsecrated.” “I am engaged on Tuesdays. Cannot it be on some other day?”
9443. —“Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday—Noon.”
“Then we will inspect on Sunday at noon.”
Now it is gone, and the book is gone.
1.45 p.m.
Having duly prepared a mirror, on the following Sunday Emma inspected the mirror.
Jan. 11, 1857.
1.45 p.m.
The seeress immediately said, “Here’s the man who had the book. He has on a brown stuff dress, close round the waist, straight black hair, black eyes, very thin, sallow complexion, his head shaved on the top. He has something like a hood hanging down the back of his dress.”
“May I ask your name?”
9511. —“I have no name now.”
“What was your name when on earth?”
9512. —“D.P.”
“Have you anything to communicate to us before you furnish us with the MS.?”
9513. —“Yes. I made the book you have seen when I was alive. I was a Spaniard by birth, and was received early into the Catholic Church. I took the vows, and was a priest. I became acquainted with many secrets, and read many of the old Spanish manuscripts of the ancient magicians. Such a study was prohibited, but not less desired by me. I had much time, and little to occupy it, and I was devoted with my whole heart and soul to seeking into hidden things. At last my greatest wishes were fulfilled, and I saw beings disembodied.
“I was uneducated in the ways of the world, but u brought up to be conversant with horrors. I was hardened by sights of penance and sufferings, and I was constantly employed in hypocrisy and deceit—my calling obliged me to be so. I saw and conversed with spirits to whom these things were hateful. By them I was persuaded, and I believe helped, to flee from the Brotherhood that, would have persecuted me to death.
“I continued my communion with these spirits. I knew not, except from what they told me, their nature or office. I called them only with intense desire, and they left me when they pleased. I knew of no exorcism—those that I believed to be good then I know now to be different. I went away from the convent, and left the country with my book but half completed, and that I treasured more than my life, and, my spirit companions still attending me, I travelled to Rome. I was introduced by them into the society of the Rosicrucians, some of whom I cannot believe even now were human. If they were they had attained powers that man ought not to possess, for they did things that, callous as I was, and so well acquainted with sights earthly and ghostly, made me tremble with fear, and to believe that they had the working of the universe. At that place my book was completed. I sought the same powers that they possess.
I learned nearly every form that they went through, every ceremony that was used at their meetings.
“I returned, I knew not why—impelled, perhaps, by spirits, careless of my temporal safety—to the town that I had fled from. It was at the time of the Inquisition. With my magic secrets and my talismans of powers, some harmless, and others involving destruction, I performed many marvels before persons, who gave me up to its ‘Justice.’
“I should have been more careful, for I might have saved myself even then, but I relied on the aid that had been given to me before. I did wonders that could not be reconciled with the action of nature. It was evident to all that I did them by the aid of spirits, but I did not know any more than they the nature or the quality of those who helped me.
“I was tried for being possessed by the devil, and for practising black magic. I attempted to deny it, and I solemnly swear that I did not on that occasion, when I knew the sentence would be death, use one word that I knew to be untrue. I would not compromise my dignity sufficiently to evade them or their questions; and when I denied their accusations it was with a sincere conviction of their falsehood. Every spirit that I had seen was of a pleasing form. I believed that the Enemy of Man was. otherwise. The communication that I had with them tended to make me better than I should have been, or rather than I was, without their agency being sought. The knowledge they gave me, though startling and wonderful, was I believed innocent, for they in their charms and talismans did not mention him by any of the names known to me in all my reading of black magic. I had never used a ‘sacrifice,’ and on my conscience I could affirm that I had never used it for the purpose of injury to any living creature. I had never done with it one particle of the injury which they did with it every hour in their dungeons.”
Expecting I should be shortly disturbed, I requested the monk to appear at another time to continue his narration, when he replied—
“I will be as concise as possible. I have not much to say. I was tried and condemned to death by judges hearing only one side; but before death was allowed me —the greatest blessing they could give—I was cruelly tortured, for they had a desire to possess the secrets for which I was punished, and out of the poor wretches they tortured they obtained secrets for which they might have as justly been punished themselves. I had many such companions in the prison, and not until twenty-three days after the sentence did the end come that I had looked forward to and longed for with such agonised delight.
“I had been told that there was an afterlife, and realised it sufficiently peacefully, if not happily, to make me bear with apparent composure the afflictions of my enemies. Up to this time I managed to keep my book undiscovered. I had sewn it in the mattress I had lain upon the first night, and that only after my imprisonment. With my teeth I had unripped, and with a nail found in the wall I put the thread in again, and made it appear the same as before; and when this mattress was taken away from me I may safely say that it caused me more pain, <... continues on page 8-332 >