Page:The history of Witchcraft and demonology.djvu/146

 of reason were confirmed by the sense of sight. … On one occasion I witnessed a chair, with a lady sitting on it, rise several inches from the ground. … On another occasion the lady knelt on the chair in such manner that the four feet were visible to us. It then rose about three inches, remained suspended for about ten seconds, and then slowly descended. …

“The most striking case of levitation which I have witnessed has been with Mr. Home. On three separate occasions have I seen him raised completely from the floor of the room. … On each occasion I had full opportunity of watching the occurrence as it was taking place. There are at least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home’s rising from the ground.”

Writing in July, 1871, Lord Lindsay said: “I was sitting with Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a cousin of his. During the sitting Mr. Home went into a trance, and in that state was carried out of the window in the room next to where we were, and was brought in at our window. The distance between the windows was about seven feet six inches, and there was not the slightest foothold between them, nor was there more than a twelve-inch projection to each window, which served as a ledge to put flowers on. We heard the window in the next room lifted up, and almost immediately after we saw Home floating in air outside our window.”

William Stainton Moses writes of his levitation in August, 1872, in the presence of credible witnesses: “I was carried up … when I became stationary I made a mark [with a lead pencil] on the wall opposite to my chest. This mark is as near as may be six feet from the floor. … From the position of the mark on the wall it is clear that my head must have been close to the ceiling. … I was simply levitated and lowered to my old place.”

When we turn to the lives of the Saints we find that these manifestations have been frequently observed, and it will suffice to mention but a few from innumerable examples.

S. Francis of Assisi was often “suspended above the earth, sometimes to a height of three, sometimes to a height of four cubits”; the same phenomenon has been recorded by eye-witnesses in many instances throughout the centuries. Among the large number of those who are known to have