862 A. The following is another case of planchette-writing communicated by Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the operators being himself and Mrs. R. The account is quoted from the Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 319 {November, 1890).

Extract from Mrs. R.'s Journal.

October 10th. [1890,] Friday, at --, Mr. Wedgwood and I sitting. The board moved after a short pause and one preliminary circling.

"David - David - David - dead 143 years".

The butler at this moment announced lunch, and Mr. Wedgwood said to the spirit, "Will you go on for us afterwards, as we must break off now?"

"I will try".

During lunch Mr. Wedgwood was reckoning up the date indicated as 1747, and conjecturing that the control was perhaps David Hume, who he thought had died about then. On our beginning again to sit, the following was volunteered:-

"I am not Hume. I have come with [Mrs. V., Mrs. R.'s sister]. I was attracted to her during her life in America. My work was in that land, and my earthly toil was cut short early, as hers has been. I died at thirty years old. I toiled five years, carrying forward the lamp of God's truth as I knew it".

Mr. Wedgwood remarked that he must have been a missionary.

"Yes, in Susquehannah and other places".

"Can you give any name besides David?"

"David Bra - David Bra - David Brain - David Braine - David Brain".

Mr. W.: "Do you mean that your name is Braine?"

"Very nearly right".

Mr. W.: "Try again".

"David Braine. Not quite all the name; right so far as it goes ... I was born in 1717".

Mr. W.: "Were you a native of America?"

"(Illegible) My native land. The Indians knew many things. They heard me, and my work prospered. In some things they were wise".

Mr. W.: "Are you an American?"

"America I hold to be my country as we consider things. I worked at--" (sentence ends with a line of D.'s).

Here Mr. Wedgwood felt tired, and Miss Hughes proposed that she and I should go for a walk while he rested. When we came in Mr. Wedgwood said he thought it had come into his head who our control was. He had some recollection that in the eighteenth century a man named David Brainard was missionary to the North American Indians. We sat again, and the following was written:-

"I am glad you know me. I had not power to complete name or give more details. I knew that secret of the district. It was guarded by the Indians, and was made known to two independent circles. Neither of them succeeded, but the day will come that will uncover the gold".

It was suggested that this meant Heavenly truth.

"I spoke of earthly gold".

Mr. Wedgwood said the writing was so faint he thought power was failing.

"Yes, nearly gone. I wrote during my five years of work. It kept my heart alive".

Mr. Wedgwood writes:-

I could not think at first where I had ever heard of Brainard, but I learn from my daughter in London that my sister-in-law, who lived with me forty or fifty years ago, was a great admirer of Brainard, and seemed to have an account of his life, but I am quite certain that I never opened the book and knew nothing of the dates, which are all correct, as well as his having been a missionary to the Susquehannahs.

In another letter Mr. Wedgwood writes:-

I see the name is Brainerd, not ard, as I had supposed, and this removes a difficulty in the writing. Planchette had written Braine, and said that was right as far as it went, which it would not have been if the name had been Brainard. My daughter has sent me extracts from his life, stating that he was born in 1718, and not 1717 as planchette wrote. But Mrs. R.'s Biographical Dictionary says that he died in 1747, aged 30.

Mrs. R. writes that she had no knowledge whatever of David Brainerd before this.

Extract from Biographical Dictionary sent by Mr. Wedgwood:-

Brainerd, David. A celebrated American missionary, who signalised himself by his successful endeavours to convert the Indians on the Susquehanna, Delaware, etc. Died, aged 30, 1747.

It is perhaps noteworthy in connection with the last sentence of the planchette-writing that in the life of Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards extracts given from his journal show that he wrote a good deal, eg. "Feb. 3, 1744. Could not but write as well as meditate," etc. "Feb. 15, 1745. Was engaged in writing almost all the day." He invariably speaks of comfort in connection with writing.