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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
91
All
this
Mr.
Sparks
wrote
to
Mr.
Gurney
in
the
same
week.
He
was
inviting
instructions
on
hypnotic
experiments,
and
"launched
a
letter
into
space,"
having
read
something
vague
about
Mr.
Gurney's
studies
in
the
newspapers.
The
letter,
after
some
adventures,
arrived,
and
on
15th
March
Mr.
Cleave
wrote
his
account,
Mr.
Darley
and
Mr.
Thurgood
corroborating
as
to
their
presence
during
the
trance
and
as
to
Mr.
Cleave's
statement
when
he
awoke.
Mr.
Cleave
added
that
he
made
experiments
"for
five
nights
running"
before
seeing
the
lady.
The
young
lady's
letter
of
19th
January,
1886,
is
also
produced
(postmark,
Portsmouth,
20th
January).
But
the
lady
mentions
her
first
vision
of
Mr.
Cleave
as
on
last
Tuesday
(not
Friday),
and
her
second,
while
she
was
alone
with
her
little
brother,
at
supper
on
Monday.
"I
was
so
frightened
that
I
nearly
fainted."
These
are
all
young
people.
It
may
be
said
that
all
five
were
concerned
in
a
complicated
hoax
on
Mr.
Gurney.
Nor
would
such
a
hoax
argue
any
unusual
moral
obliquity.
Surtees
of
Mainsforth,
in
other
respects
an
honourable
man,
took
in
Sir
Walter
Scott
with
forged
ballads,
and
never
undeceived
his
friend.
Southey
played
off
a
hoax
with
his
book
The
Doctor.
Hogg,
Lockhart,
and
Wilson,
with
Allan
Cunningham
and
many
others,
were
constantly
engaged
in
such
mystifications,
and
a
"ghost-hunter"
might
seem
a
fair
butt.
But
the
very
discrepancy
in
Miss
---'s
letter
is
a
proof
of
fairness.
Her
first
vision
of
Mr.
Cleave
was
on
"Tuesday
last".
Mr.
Cleave's
first
impression
of
success
was
on
the
Friday
following.
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