Seen and Unseen | Page 3

expect protection or
immunity on either plane, where we neglect the warnings of that inner
monitor who is always our best guide.
As a final word of warning, I would say: "Beware of your motives in
cultivating psychic capacity." It is so easy to mistake love of notoriety,
even in one's own little milieu, for love of Truth. There is always an
eager, curious crowd anxious to get "messages" or "hear raps," or to see
any other little psychic parlour tricks which we may be induced to play
for their benefit. At first one feels it is almost a sacred duty to satisfy,
or attempt to satisfy, these psychic cormorants; but later, wisdom
comes with experience.
At one time I felt bound to collect my friends and acquaintances round
me and tell them all I knew upon these subjects, and doubtless it was
right to do so whilst I "felt that way," to quote an expressive
Americanism.
But the inevitable day came when I realised that I had spent my

strength and my muffins in vain; for these gatherings generally took the
form of tea-parties, not too large to cope with single-handed--say from
ten to twenty people. They came at 4.30 P.M. and stayed till 8 P.M.,
when most of them remembered they ought to have dined at 7.45 P.M.,
and went away saying "How immensely they had enjoyed themselves,"
and "How interesting it all was."
And so far as any permanent good came of it, there the matter ended.
Believe me, when people are prepared for this development of their
finer senses they will come to you. There is no need to go into the
highways and hedges and compel them to come in. If they do come
they won't stay--why should they? They have not got there yet, to use a
thoroughly hateful and ungrammatical but absolutely accurate sentence.
If you try to carry them on the back of your own knowledge and
experiences, you can do so for a time, but eventually they will struggle
down, or you will put them down from sheer fatigue, and then they will
run back to the spot where you found them, and thence work out their
own psychic evolution either in this or in some future term of
existence.
When their interest is exhausted--to say nothing of your patience--you
will hear that they have called you a crank and lamented your "wasting
your time over such nonsense." That will be your share of the
transaction.
I know this because I have been there--moi qui vous parle.
"Let every man be persuaded in his own mind," but don't try to
persuade anyone else. When the right time comes he will ask your help
and counsel without any persuasion.
Of course, I am speaking only of private work. Lectures and congresses
are of the greatest possible value; for no one knows whom he may be
addressing on these occasions, and the seed may be falling into soil
prepared, but often unconsciously prepared, for its reception.

To sum up the whole matter:
1. Be strong in the conviction that eventually good must always
conquer evil, but remember also that you individually may have a very
bad time meanwhile if you go amongst mixed influences and evoke
that which at present you are not strong enough to withstand.
2. Know when to speak and when to be silent.
3. Receive what comes to you spontaneously, but never allow yourself
to be cajoled or persuaded into developing your mediumship to gratify
curiosity; not even on the plea of scientific duty, unless you are fully
conscious in your own mind that this is the special work which is laid
upon you.
And bearing these three simple rules in mind, we may go forward with
brave hearts and level heads on the Quest which has been so plainly
opened out to us in this twentieth century. E. KATHARINE BATES.

SEEN AND UNSEEN
CHAPTER I
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
Having set myself to write a personal record of psychic experiences, I
must "begin at the beginning," as the children say.
When only nine years old I lost my father--the Rev. John Ellison Bates
of Christ Church, Dover--and my earliest childish experience of
anything supernormal was connected with him. He had been an invalid
all my short life, and I was quite accustomed to spending days at a time
without seeing him. His last illness, which lasted about a fortnight, had
therefore no special significance for me, and my nurse, elder brother,
and godmother, who were the only three people in the house at the time,
gave strict orders that none of the servants should give me a hint of his
being dangerously ill. These instructions were carefully carried out, and

yet I dreamed three nights running--the three nights preceding his
decease--that he