Masterpieces of Mystery in Four Volumes: Mystic-Humorous Stories
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 
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