My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

396 MY LIFEthe statement that his solicitor and counsel boththought the case might go against him without theevidence which I alone could give ; and further, that inthat case the cause of spiritualism would be greatlydamaged, at length prevailed, and I consented to go.I found Maskelyne's performance to be a ludicrousparody of the actual materialization as both I andArchdeacon Colley described it, and explained inCourt the exact difference between them, pointing outthat all the essential features of the one were omittedin the other, and that, while the actual phenomenawere totally inexplicable by normal causes, Maskelyne'simitation could deceive no one at all familiarwith such performances. The result of the trial wasthat the Archdeacon won his cause, and the contemptand ridicule thrown by the opposing counsel on thealleged phenomena were to some extent neutralizedby my positive evidence.During the whole of this event, and the succeedingdiscussion in the Press, or in my correspondence, Inever once thought of any connection with theprediction. But on reading it again now, I see thatit fulfils the conditions far more exactly than did myattendance at the International Congress of Spiritualists.For the prediction was— " You will come outof this hole. You will come more into the world,and do something public for spiritualism." In 1898 Ihad not " come out of the hole," and attending a congressof spiritualists was hardly " doing somethingpublic." But giving evidence in a Court of Justice,which was more or less reported all over the kingdomand the world, and which was believed to have savedthe reputation of spiritualism on that occasion, wascertainly " doing something public " for the cause, andsomething quite unanticipated by myself or any one