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as freewriting, brainstorming, clustering, and journal writing. These
chapters also include numerous writing exercises to give students
opportunities for immediate practice.
Detailed Coverage of the Patterns of Development
In Part Two, “Readings for Writers,” Chapters 6 through 14 explain
and illustrate the patterns of development that students typically use in
their college writing assignments: narration, description, exemplification,
process, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, classification and
division, definition, and argumentation. Each chapter begins with a
comprehensive introduction that presents a definition and a paragraph-
length example of the pattern to be discussed and then explains the
particular writing strategies and applications associated with it. Next, each
chapter analyzes one or two annotated student essays to show how the
pattern can be used in particular college writing situations. Chapter 15,
“Combining the Patterns,” illustrates how the various patterns of
development discussed in Chapters 6 through 14 can work together in an
essay.
A Diverse and Popular Selection of Readings
Varied in subject, style, and cultural perspective, the sixty-eight
professional selections engage students while providing them with
outstanding models for writing. We have tried to achieve a balance
between classic authors (George Orwell, Jessica Mitford, E. B. White,
Martin Luther King Jr.) and newer voices (Bich Minh Nguyen, Zeynep
Tufekci, Marina Keegan) so that instructors have a broad range of readings
to choose from.
More Student Essays than Any Comparable Text
To provide students with realistic models for improving their own
writing, we include eighteen sample student essays.
Helpful Coverage of Grammar Issues
Grammar-in-Context boxes in chapter introductions offer specific
advice on how to identify and correct the grammar, mechanics, and
punctuation problems that students are likely to encounter when they work
with particular patterns of development.
Apparatus Designed to Help Students Learn
Each professional essay in the text is followed by three types of
8
questions. These questions are designed to help students assess their
understanding of the essay’s content and of the writer’s purpose and
audience; to recognize the stylistic and structural techniques used to shape
the essay; and to become sensitive to the nuances of language. Each essay
is also accompanied by a Journal Entry prompt, Writing Workshop topics
(suggestions for full-length writing assignments), and Thematic
Connections that identify related readings in the text. Also following each
essay is a Combining the Patterns feature that focuses on different patterns
of development used in the essay and possible alternatives to these
patterns. Each chapter ends with a list of Writing Assignments and a
Collaborative Activity. Many of these assignments and activities have
been updated to reflect the most current topics and trends.
Extensive Cultural and Historical Background for All Readings
In addition to a biographical headnote, each reading is preceded by a
headnote containing essential background information to help students
make connections between the reading and the historical, social, and
economic forces that shaped it.
An Introduction to Visual Texts
Every rhetorical chapter includes a visual text — such as a photograph,
a piece of fine art, or panels from a graphic novel — that provides an
accessible introduction to each rhetorical pattern. Apparatus that helps
students discuss the pattern in its visual form follows each image.
Thorough Coverage of Working with Sources
Part Three, “Working with Sources,” takes students through the
process of writing a research paper and includes a model student paper in
MLA style. (The Appendix addresses APA style and includes a model
APA paper.)
What’s New in This Edition
Engaging New Readings
The twenty-five new professional essays treat topics of current interest.
Isabel Wilkerson explores the history of “Emmett Till and Tamir Rice,
Sons of the Great Migration.” Josh Barro explains “Why Stealing Cars
Went Out of Fashion.” Karen Miller Pensiero shows us the “Photos That
Change History.” In all cases, readings have been carefully selected for
9
their high-interest subject matter as well as for their effectiveness as
teachable models for student writing.
Argumentation Chapter Updated
The argument chapter has been revised to focus on issues of particular
importance to college students. It includes two new debates (“Should
Public Colleges Be Free?” and “Does It Pay to Study the Humanities?”)
and one new casebook (“Do College Students Need Trigger Warnings?”).
With Bedford/St. Martin’s, You Get More
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LaunchPad for Patterns for College Writing: Where Students Learn
LaunchPad provides engaging content and new ways to get the most
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Interactive Peer Review Worksheets allow students to type their
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Reading Comprehension Quizzes for every selection in Patterns
help you quickly gauge your students’ understanding of the assigned
reading.
10
Diagnostics and Exercise Central provide opportunities to assess
areas for improvement and assign additional exercises based on
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Pre-built units — including readings, videos, quizzes, discussion
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LaunchPad also provides access to a gradebook that offers a clear
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Use LaunchPad on its own or integrate it with your school’s
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LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers allows students to work on
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LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers features:
Pre-built units that support a learning arc. Each easy-to-assign
unit is composed of a pre-test check, multimedia instruction and
assessment, and a post-test that assesses what students have learned
about critical reading, writing process, using sources, grammar,
style, and mechanics. Dedicated units also offer help for
multilingual writers.
Diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement
on topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic,
class, and student as well as comparison reports that track
improvement over time.
A video introduction to many topics. Introductions offer an
overview of the unit’s topic, and many include a brief, accessible
video to illustrate the concepts at hand.
Twenty-five reading selections with comprehension quizzes.
Assign a range of classic and contemporary essays, each of which
includes a label indicating Lexile level to help you scaffold
instruction in critical reading.
Adaptive quizzing for targeted learning. Most units include
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The ability to monitor student progress. Use our gradebook to see
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Additional reading comprehension quizzes. Patterns for College
Writing includes multiple-choice quizzes, which help you quickly
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are available in LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers.
Order ISBN 978-1-319-14527-9 to package LaunchPad Solo for Readers
12
and Writers with Patterns for College Writing at a significant discount.
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Writer’s Help 2.0 is a powerful online writing resource that helps
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their own or as part of an assignment.
Smart search. Built on research with more than 1,600 student
writers, the smart search in Writer’s Help provides reliable results
even when students use novice terms, such as flow and unstuck.
Trusted content from our best-selling handbooks. Choose
Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version, or Writer’s Help 2.0, Lunsford
Version, and ensure that students have clear advice and examples for
all of their writing questions.
Diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement
on topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic,
class, and student as well as comparison reports that track
improvement over time.
Adaptive exercises that engage students. Writer’s Help 2.0
includes LearningCurve, game-like online quizzing that adapts to
what students already know and helps them focus on what they need
to learn.
Reading comprehension quizzes. Patterns for College Writing
includes multiple-choice quizzes, which help you quickly gauge
your students’ understanding of the assigned reading. These are
available in Writer’s Help 2.0.
Writer’s Help 2.0 can be packaged with Patterns for College Writing at a
significant discount. For more information, contact your sales
representative or visit macmillanlearning.com/writershelp2.
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13
Whether you are considering creating a custom version of Patterns for
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Instructor Resources
You have a lot to do in your course. Bedford/St. Martin’s wants to
make it easy for you to find the support you need — and to get it quickly.
Resources for Instructors Using Patterns for College Writing is
available as a PDF that can be downloaded from macmillanlearning.com.
Visit the instructor resources tab for Patterns for College Writing. In
addition to chapter overviews and teaching tips, the instructor’s manual
includes sample syllabi, suggestions for classroom discussion, and possible
responses for every question in the book.
NEW! A Student’s Companion for Patterns for College Writing
If your students need a little extra support, consider ordering A
Student’s Companion for Patterns for College Writing (ISBN 978-1-319-
12674-2). This text reinforces the most foundational elements in academic
writing. While recognizing and respecting students’ abilities, this
supplement breaks down the steps necessary to excel in college writing,
tackling time management; critical reading skills across print, digital and
professional genres; the essay-drafting process; and the essentials of
grammar. This companion, meant to supplement the coverage in Patterns
for College Writing, gives students the additional support they need to get
or stay on-level in the composition classroom. It is an ideal solution for
accelerated learning programs or co-requisite courses, while the deep
integration with Patterns makes it an ideal resource for any instructor who
wants students to build a strong foundation in academic writing.
Acknowledgments
As always, friends, colleagues, students, and family all helped this
project along. Of particular value were the responses to the questionnaires
sent to the following instructors, who provided frank and helpful advice:
Amelia Magallanes Arguijo, Laredo Community College; Victoria Bryan,
Cleveland State Community College; Thomas Chester, Ivy Tech
Community College; Anne Dearing, Hudson Valley Community College;
14
Jennifer Eble, Cleveland State Community College; Marcus Embry,
University of Northern Colorado; Ulanda Forbess, North Lake College;
Jan Geyer, Hudson Valley Community College; Priscilla Glanville, State
College of Florida; Scott Hathaway, Hudson Valley Community College;
Josh Miller, Cape Fear Community College; Janet Minc, University of
Akron Wayne College; Jennifer Ravey, Lamar University; Cheryl Saba,
Cape Fear Community College; Ana Schnellmann, Lindenwood
University; Dhipinder Walia, Lehman College; and Coreen Wees, Iowa
Western Community College. Additional thanks to Cedric Burroughs at
Marquette University for his valuable suggestions.
Special thanks go to Jeff Ousborne for his help with some of the
apparatus and for revising the headnotes and the Resources for Instructors.
Through fourteen editions of Patterns for College Writing, we have
enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with Bedford/St. Martin’s. We
have always found the editorial and production staff to be efficient,
cooperative, and generous with their time and advice. As always, we
appreciate the encouragement and advice of our longtime friend, Nancy
Perry. In addition, we thank Joan Feinberg, past president of Bedford/St.
Martin’s, for her support for this project and for her trust in us. During our
work on this edition, we have benefited from our productive relationship
with John Sullivan, Program Manager, Readers and Literature, who helped
us make this edition of Patterns the best it could be. We have been
especially lucky to work on this edition with our talented developmental
editor, Sherry Mooney, a real star. We are also grateful to Jessica Gould,
senior content project manager, and Lisa Kinne, managing editor, for their
work overseeing the production of this edition; John Callahan for the
attractive new cover; and associate editor Jennifer Prince for her
invaluable help with tasks large and small. We are fortunate to have
enjoyed our long and fulfilling collaboration; we know how rare a
successful partnership like ours is. We also know how lucky we are to
have our families to help keep us in touch with the things that really
matter.
Laurie G. Kirszner
Stephen R. Mandell
15
Contents
Preface
Thematic Guide to the Contents
Introduction: How to Use This Book
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What’s in a Name?”
Responding to an Essay
Responding to Other Kinds of Texts
PART ONE: The Writing Process
1 Reading to Write: Becoming a Critical Reader
Understanding Critical Reading
Determining Your Purpose
CHECKLIST: Questions about Your Purpose
Previewing
Highlighting
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert
Name)
Moisés Naím, The YouTube Effect
“Although international news operations employ thousands of
16
professional journalists, they will never be as omnipresent as
millions of people carrying cellphones that can record video.”
Annotating
CHECKLIST: Questions for Critical Reading
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert
Name) (with sample annotations)
Reading Visual Texts
CHECKLIST: Reading Visual Texts
2 Invention
Understanding Your Assignment
Setting Limits
Length
Purpose
Audience
Occasion
Knowledge
CHECKLIST: Setting Limits
Moving from Subject to Topic
Questions for Probing
CHECKLIST: Questions for Probing
Freewriting
A Student Writer: Freewriting
Finding Something to Say
Brainstorming
A Student Writer: Brainstorming
Journal Writing
17
A Student Writer: Journal Writing
Grouping Ideas
Clustering
A Student Writer: Clustering
Making an Informal Outline
A Student Writer: Making an Informal Outline
Understanding Thesis and Support
Developing a Thesis
Defining the Thesis Statement
Deciding on a Thesis
Stating Your Thesis
Implying a Thesis
A Student Writer: Developing a Thesis
CHECKLIST: Stating Your Thesis
3 Arrangement
Recognizing a Pattern
CHECKLIST: Recognizing a Pattern
Understanding the Parts of the Essay
The Introduction
CHECKLIST: What Not to Do in an Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
CHECKLIST: Effective Support
The Conclusion
CHECKLIST: What Not to Do in a Conclusion
Constructing a Formal Outline
18
CHECKLIST: Constructing a Formal Outline
A Student Writer: Constructing a Formal Outline
4 Drafting and Revising
Writing Your First Draft
CHECKLIST: Drafting
A Student Writer: Writing a First Draft
Revising Your Essay
Revising with an Outline
Revising with a Checklist
CHECKLIST: Revising
Revising with Your Instructor’s Written Comments
Revising in a Conference
Revising in a Peer-Editing Group
CHECKLIST: Guidelines for Peer Editing
Strategies for Revising
A Student Writer: Revising a First Draft
Peer Editing Worksheet
Points for Special Attention: First Draft
The Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
The Conclusion
A Student Writer: Revising a Second Draft
Points for Special Attention: Second Draft
The Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
19
The Conclusion
Working with Sources
The Title
A Student Writer: Preparing a Final Draft
SAMPLE STUDENT ESSAY: Laura Bobnak, The Price of Silence
(Student Essay)
5 Editing and Proofreading
Editing for Grammar
Be Sure Subjects and Verbs Agree
Be Sure Verb Tenses Are Accurate and Consistent
Be Sure Pronoun References Are Clear
Be Sure Sentences Are Complete
Be Careful Not to Run Sentences Together without Proper
Punctuation
Be Careful to Avoid Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Be Sure Sentence Elements Are Parallel
CHECKLIST: Editing for Grammar
Editing for Punctuation
Learn When to Use Commas — and When Not to Use Them
Learn When to Use Semicolons
Learn When to Use Apostrophes
Learn When to Use Quotation Marks
Learn When to Use Dashes and Colons
CHECKLIST: Editing for Punctuation
Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice
Eliminate Awkward Phrasing
Be Sure Your Sentences Are Concise
20
Be Sure Your Sentences Are Varied
Choose Your Words Carefully
CHECKLIST: Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice
Proofreading Your Essay
Check for Commonly Confused Words
Check for Misspellings and Faulty Capitalization
Check for Typos
CHECKLIST: Proofreading
Checking Your Paper’s Format
CHECKLIST: Checking Your Paper’s Format
PART TWO: Readings for Writers
6 Narration
What Is Narration?
Using Narration
Planning a Narrative Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Including Enough Detail
Varying Sentence Structure
Maintaining Clear Narrative Order
Structuring a Narrative Essay
Revising a Narrative Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Narration
Editing a Narrative Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT: Avoiding Run-Ons
21
EDITING CHECKLIST: Narration
A Student Writer: Literacy Narrative
Erica Sarno, Becoming a Writer (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Narration
Tiffany Forte, My Field of Dreams (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER EDITING WORKSHEET: NARRATION
Visual Text: Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis II (Graphic Fiction)
Junot Díaz, The Money
“The summer I was twelve, my family went away on a
‘vacation’ — one of my father’s half-baked get-to-know-our-
country-better-by-sleeping-in-the-van extravaganzas — and
when we returned to Jersey, exhausted, battered, we found our
front door unlocked. . . . The thieves had kept it simple; they’d
snatched a portable radio, some of my Dungeons & Dragons
hardcovers, and, of course, Mami’s remittances.”
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering
“The task allowed me to camouflage myself; as long as I looked
as though I were doing something smart, my shame and failure
were hidden. The trouble began when I decided to be
dangerously ambitious. Which is to say, I decided to write a
poem.”
Bonnie Smith-Yackel, My Mother Never Worked
“From her wheelchair she canned pickles, baked bread, ironed
clothes, wrote dozens of letters weekly to her friends and her
‘half dozen or more kids,’ and made three patchwork
housecoats and one quilt.”
22
Martin Gansberg, Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the
Police
“For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-
abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a
woman in three separate attacks. . . . Not one person telephoned
the police during the assault; one witness called after the
woman was dead.”
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
“But I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating
his bunch of grass against his knees, with the preoccupied
grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it
would be murder to shoot him.”
Sherman Alexie, Indian Education (Fiction)
“The farm town high school I play for is nicknamed the
‘Indians,’ and I’m probably the only actual Indian ever to play
for a team with such a mascot.”
Writing Assignments for Narration
Collaborative Activity for Narration
7 Description
What Is Description?
Using Description
Understanding Objective Description
CHECKLIST: Using Visuals Effectively
Understanding Subjective Description
Using Objective and Subjective Language
Selecting Details
Planning a Descriptive Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Organizing Details
23
Using Transitions
Structuring a Descriptive Essay
Revising a Descriptive Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Description
Editing a Descriptive Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT: Avoiding Misplaced and Dangling
Modifiers
EDITING CHECKLIST: Description
A Student Writer: Objective Description
Mallory Cogan, My Grandfather’s Globe (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Subjective Description
Mary Lim, The Valley of Windmills (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: DESCRIPTION
Visual Text: Ansel Adams,Jackson Lake (Photo)
Bich Minh Nguyen, Goodbye to My Twinkie Days
“For me, a child of Vietnamese immigrants growing up in
Michigan in the 1980s, Twinkies were a ticket to assimilation:
the golden cake, more golden than the hair I wished I had, filled
with sweet white cream. Back then, junk foods seemed to
represent an ideal of American indulgence.”
Suzanne Berne, Ground Zero
“Like me, perhaps, the people around me had in mind images
from television and newspaper pictures: the collapsing
buildings, the running office workers, the black plume of smoke
against a bright blue sky. Like me, they were probably trying to
24
superimpose those terrible images onto the industrious
emptiness right in front of them.”
Marina Keegan, Stability in Motion
“My car was not gross; it was occupied, cluttered, cramped. It
became an extension of my bedroom, and thus an extension of
myself.”
Heather Rogers, The Hidden Life of Garbage
“There’s a reason landfills are tucked away, on the edge of
town, in otherwise untraveled terrain, camouflaged by
hydroseeded, neatly tiered slopes. If people saw what happened
to their waste, lived with the stench, witnessed the scale of
destruction, they might start asking difficult questions.”
E. B. White, Once More to the Lake
“Summertime, oh summertime, pattern of life indelible, the
fade-proof lake, the woods unshatterable, the pasture with the
sweetfern and the juniper forever and ever . . .”
Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction)
“They did not hear the crashing torrents, and the roar of the
elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms. She was a
revelation in that dim, mysterious chamber; as white as the
couch she lay upon.”
Writing Assignments for Description
Collaborative Activity for Description
8 Exemplification
What Is Exemplification?
Using Exemplification
Using Examples to Explain and Clarify
Using Examples to Add Interest
Using Examples to Persuade
Planning an Exemplification Essay
25
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
kept still and I plainly saw a Hun standing upright on his own
parapet. He straightened up as the light grew bright, and I just
caught sight of the movement and saw him then distinctly.
"The ground out there has been fought over a good deal, and
there are plenty of souvenirs about. I have got one myself—a
Hun rifle. The original owner, who was buried with it—probably
by a shell—happened to lie exactly where we dug our trench,
and we were obliged to move him elsewhere. I brought his rifle
home and put it over the door of my dug-out. That was early
this morning. But the enemy have been putting shrapnel over us
(in reply to a good 'strafing' by our guns), and one piece has
gone clean through the stock.
"Our artillery are going great guns nowadays. It certainly feels
as if the shell supply was all right—or nearly so.
"I don't know whether we shall be wanted for any job to-night,
or whether we shall rest, or whether I can get on with my
projects. I must go round and see Captain T. in the other
trench. By the way, he came to see how I was getting on last
night about midnight, and was very pleased with the work and
with the fact that we were having no casualties.
"That cake was fine, and much appreciated in the Mess. The
little knife you gave me when home on leave is proving most
useful.
"Please thank Lionel for chocolate received and Alec for
gourdoulis.
"I have sent another box of Surplus Kit home addressed to Noël.
Rather late to do it, I know, and I shall want one or two of the
things sent back later, but not for a long time, and it is a relief
to get rid of some of my impedimenta. The socks returned want
mending. That reminds me, thank you and please thank Miss
Leith very much for the socks. They are quite all right for size.
Perhaps not so long and narrow in the foot might be better, but
it doesn't seem to affect the wear; they are most comfortable.
"I am still attached to the Company and not to the machine
guns—much to my annoyance."
"Monday, 6 September 1915, 9.30 p.m.
"Thank you so much for your inspiring and encouraging letter. I
hope I am being useful out here. I sometimes doubt if I am very
much use—not as much as I should like to be. Possibly I help to
keep C Company officers more cheerful! I am very sorry they
have taken me off machine guns for the present, I hope it may
not be long.
"Great happenings are expected here shortly and we are going
to have a share. We are resting at present and have been out a
few days now. We had only two periods of three days each in
the trenches last time in....
"Our last two days in the trenches were appallingly wet. My
conduct would have given me double pneumonia at home. My
rain-coat was soaked, so I had to sleep in shirt sleeves under
my tunic, and the knees of my breeches were wet.
"The next day the rain was incessant, and presently I found the
floor of my dug-out was swimming—the water having welled up
through the ground below and the sandbags.
"I didn't have to sleep on it luckily, because we were relieved
that night. But before we went I had to turn out with fifty men
and work till midnight in water up to one foot deep. So at 8.30
p.m. I got my boots full of cold water and sat out in them till 12,
then marched some eight miles. After nine hours' rest and some
breakfast we came here, another three or four. It was nice to
get a dry pair of boots and our valises and a tent.
"That night I rode into Poperinghe with Captain Taylor, and we
had a really good dinner there—great fun.
"We have a full set of parades here unfortunately, otherwise
things are all right....
"Alec has very kindly had a 'Molesworth' sent me. Most useful.
"I would like a motor paper now and then, I think! The Motor
for preference—or The Autocar. Aren't I young?
"Captain Taylor has sprained his ankle by falling from his horse
one night, and has gone to a rest home near. So I am
commanding C Company at the moment. Hope not for long. Too
responsible at the present time of crisis.
"9 September, 3.30 p.m.
"Must just finish this off for post.
"We have just had an inspection by the Army Corps
Commander, Lieut.-General Plumer [Sir Herbert].
"I am still in command of C Company, and had to call them to
attention and go round with the General, followed by a whole
string of minor generals, colonels, etc. He asked me a good
many questions:—
"First.—How long had I had the Company? Then, how long had
I been out? I said since March. He then asked if I had been sick
or wounded even, and I said no!
"Then he said, 'Good lad for sticking it!' at least I thought he
was going to.
"We are kept very busy nowadays. I must try and write a proper
letter soon. I do apologise.
"A box of cigarettes has arrived from, I suppose, Alec. Virginias,
I mean, and heaps of them.
"We have just got another tent—we have been so short and
have been sleeping five in. Now we shall be two in each. The
new one is a lovely dove-grey—like a thundercloud. After the
war I shall buy one.
"I shall be quite insufferable, I know; I shall want everything
done for me on the word of command. Never mind—roll on the
end of the war!
"Cheer-ho, lovely weather, great spirits! Aeroplane [English]
came down in our field yesterday slightly on fire. All right
though.—Good-bye, much love,
"Raymond [Maurice]."
"Sunday, 12 September 1915, 2 p.m.
"You will understand that I still have the Company to look after,
and we are going into the front-line trenches this evening at 5
p.m. for an ordinary tour of duty. We are going up in motor
buses!...
"Capt. T. thinks he will be away a month!"
Telegram from the War Office
"17 September 1915
"Deeply regret to inform you that Second Lieut. R. Lodge,
Second South Lancs, was wounded 14 Sept. and has since died.
Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy."
Telegram from the King and Queen
21 September 1915
"The King and Queen deeply regret the loss you and the army
have sustained by the death of your son in the service of his
country. Their Majesties truly sympathise with you in your
sorrow."
Footnotes
[3] See Note by O. J. L. at the end of this letter.
[4] This must have been part of my book "The War and
After."—O. J. L.
[5] Thos. Walker & Son, of Oxford Street, Birmingham, had
kindly given me two periscope rifle-stock attachments with
excellent mirrors, so as to allow accurate sighting.—O. J. L.
CHAPTER III
LETTERS FROM OFFICERS
S OME letters from other officers gradually arrived, giving a few
particulars. But it was an exceptionally strenuous period at the
Ypres salient, and there was little time for writing. Moreover, some of
his friends were killed either at the same time or soon afterwards.
The fullest account that has reached us is in the following letter,
which arrived eight months later:—
Letter From Lieutenant William Roscoe
To Sir Oliver Lodge
"7th Brigade Machine-Gun Company,
B.E.F., 16 May 1916
"Dear Sir Oliver Lodge,—When I was lately on leave, a brother of
mine, who had met one of your relatives, encouraged me to
write and tell you what I knew of your son Raymond. I was in
the South Lancashire Regiment when he joined the Battalion out
here last spring, and I think spent the first spell he had in the
trenches in his company.
"Afterwards I became Machine Gunner, and in the summer he
became my assistant, and working in shifts we tided over some
very trying times indeed. In particular during August at St. Eloi.
To me at any rate it was most pleasant being associated
together, and I think he very much preferred work with the
gunners to Company work. Being of a mechanical turn of mind,
he was always devising some new 'gadget' for use with the gun
—for instance, a mounting for firing at aeroplanes, and a device
for automatic traversing; and those of my men who knew him
still quote him as their authority when laying down the law and
arguing about machine gunning.
"I wish we had more like him, and the endless possibilities of
the Maxim would be more quickly brought to light.
"I am always glad to think that it was not in any way under my
responsibility that he was killed.
"During September times grew worse and worse up in the Ypres
salient, culminating in the attack we made on the 25th, auxiliary
to the Loos battle. The trenches were ruins, there was endless
work building them up at night, generally to be wrecked again
the next day. The place was the target for every gun for miles
on either side of the salient.
"Every day our guns gave the enemy a severe bombardment, in
preparation for the attack, and every third or fourth day we took
it back from them with interest: the place was at all times a
shell trap.
"It was during this time that your son was killed. He was doing
duty again with the Company, which was short-handed, and I
remember one night in particular being struck with his
cheerfulness on turning out to a particularly unpleasant bit of
trench digging in front of our lines near the Stables at Hooge, a
mass of ruins and broken trenches where no one could tell you
where you might run across the enemy; but the men had to dig
for hours on end, with only a small covering party looking out a
few yards in front of them.
"The morning your son was killed they were bombarding our
trenches on the top of the hill, and some of the men were being
withdrawn from a bad piece. He and Ventris were moving down
the trench in rear of the party—which I think must have been
seen—for a shell came and hit them both, but I think none of
the men in front.
"Some time later, I don't know how long, I was going up to the
line to visit the guns, when I saw Ventris, who was killed, laid
out ready to be carried down, and presently I saw your son in a
dug-out, with a man watching him. He was then quite
unconscious though still breathing with difficulty. I could see it
was all over with him. He was still just alive when I went away.
"Our regiment was to lose many more on that same hill before
the month was over, and those of us that remain are glad to be
far away from it now; but I always feel that anyone who has
died on Hooge Hill has at all events died in very fine company.—
Yours sincerely,
"Signed William Roscoe,
Lieut. 2nd S. Lancs. Regt., attached
7th Brigade, M.G. Company
Letter from Lieutenant Fletcher,
Great Crosby, Liverpool
"21 September 1915
"Raymond was the best pal I've ever had, and we've always
been together; in the old days at Brook Road, then in
Edinburgh, and lastly in France, and nobody could ever have a
better friend than he was to me.
"I'll never forget the first day he came to us at Dickebusch, and
how pleased we all were to see him again; and through it all he
was always the same, ever ready to help anyone in any way he
could, whilst his men were awfully fond of him and would have
done anything for him."
"24 September 1915
"I hear that we were digging trenches in advance of our present
ones at St. Eloi last week, so it must have been then that he
was hit, as he was awfully keen on digging new trenches, and
heaps of times I've had to tell him to keep down when he was
watching the men working....
"I always thought he would come through all right, and I know
he thought so himself, as, the last time I saw him, we made
great plans for spending some time together when we got back,
and it seems so difficult to realise that he has gone.
(Signed) Eric S. Fletcher."
Letter from Lieutenant Case to Brodie
"Thursday, 23 September 1915
"Yes, I knew Raymond Lodge very well, and he was indeed a
friend of mine, being one of the nicest fellows it has ever been
my privilege to meet. I was with him when he died. This was
how it happened to the best of my knowledge.
"'A' Company (the one I am in) and 'C' Company were in the
trenches at the time. The gunners had sent up word that there
was going to be a bombardment, and so they recommended us
to evacuate the front-line trenches, in case the Hun retaliated,
and it was whilst C Company were proceeding down the
communication trench, till the bombardment was over, that the
shell came which killed your brother. He was in command of C
Company at the time, and was going down at the rear of his
men, having seen them all safely out of the trenches. His
servant, Gray, was hit first, in the head (from which he
afterwards died). Then Lodge went along to tell the Sergeant-
Major, and to see about assistance, farther down the trench.
Whilst talking to the Company Sergeant-Major he was hit in the
left side of the back, by a piece of shell, I think. Lower down the
trench poor Ventris was hit and killed. As soon as I heard about
it I went along to see if I could be of any use. I saw Lodge lying
in a dug-out, with a servant looking after him. I saw he was
badly hit, and tried to cheer him up. He recognised me and was
just able to ask a few questions. That must have been about
twenty minutes or so after he was hit. I think he lived about half
an hour, and I don't think he suffered much pain, thank God.
"I was very, very grieved at his death, for he was one of the
very nicest fellows I have met. That he was universally liked,
both by officers and men, it is needless to say....
"I was for nearly three months in C Company with your brother,
and was thus able to see his extreme coolness and ability in
military matters.
(Signed) G. R. A. Case"
Letter from Lieutenant Case to Lady Lodge
"Friday, 24 September 1915
"Need I say how grieved we all were at his loss? He was hit
about midday, and died about half an hour or so afterwards. I
forget the date, but I have written more fully to his brother. I
don't think he suffered much pain. He was conscious when I
arrived, and recognised me, I think, and I remained with him for
some time. I then went off to see if there was any possibility of
finding the doctor, but all the telephone wires were cut, and
even if we had been able to get the doctor up, it would have
been of no avail. The stretcher-bearers did all that was
possible.... Another subaltern, Mr. Ventris, was killed at the
same time, as was his servant Gray as well.
"(Signed) G. R. A. Case"[6]
Letter from Captain S. T. Boast
"27 September 1915
"First of all I beg to offer you and your family my sincere
sympathies in the loss of your son, 2nd Lieut. Lodge. His loss to
us is very great: he was a charming young fellow—always so
very cheerful and willing, hard working, and a bright example of
what a good soldier ought to be. He was a most efficient officer,
and only recently qualified in the handling and command of
Maxim guns—a most useful accomplishment in the present war.
Briefly, the circumstances which led to his death were as
follows:—
"On 14 September, C Company to which 2nd Lieut. Lodge
belonged, was in position in a forward fire trench. During the
morning the commander of the artillery covering the position
informed 2nd Lieut. Lodge, who at the time was in command of
C Company, that it was intended to shell the enemy's positions,
and as his trenches were only a short distance from ours, it was
considered advisable to withdraw from our trench during the
shelling. 2nd Lieut. Lodge gave orders for his Company to
withdraw into a communication trench in the rear. He and 2nd
Lieut. Ventris were the last to leave the forward trench, and in
entering the communication trench both these officers were
caught by enemy's shrapnel. Ventris was killed—Lodge mortally
wounded and died of his wounds shortly afterwards. These are
the circumstances of his death."
From Captain A. B. Cheves, R.A.M.C.
"22 September 1915
"The Colonel has asked me to write you, giving some idea of the
burial-ground in which your son's grave is. I understand that he
was leading his Company back from one of the communication
trenches when the Germans shelled the front and rear of the
column, killing your son and the officer who was at the rear. At
the same time one man was killed and two wounded. I knew
nothing about this until later in the day, as communication with
my aid post was very difficult, and he was reported to me as
having been killed. I understand that he lived for about three
hours after being wounded, and all the officers and men who
were present speak very highly of his conduct during this time.
His wound was unfortunately in such a position that there was
no chance of saving his life, and this was recognised by all,
including your son himself. When his body was brought down in
the evening the expression on his face was absolutely peaceful,
and I should think that he probably did not suffer a great deal
of pain. He was buried on the same evening in our cemetery
just outside the aid post, side by side with Lieut. Ventris, who
was unfortunately killed on the same day. The cemetery is in
the garden adjoining a ruined farm-house. It is well enclosed by
hedges, and your son's grave is under some tall trees that stand
in the garden. There are graves there of men of many
regiments who have fallen, and our graves are enclosed by a
wire fence, so keeping them quite distinct from the others.
There is a wooden cross marking the head of the grave, and a
small one at the foot. I am afraid that our condolences will be
small consolation to you, but I can assure you that he was one
of the most popular officers with the Battalion, both amongst
the officers and men, and all feel his loss very greatly."
Information sent by Captain Cheves to Mrs. Ventris, mother of the
Second Lieutenant who was killed at the same time as Raymond and
buried with him:—
"He was buried on the right of the Ypres-Menin Road, just past
where the Zonebeke Rail cuts. If you can get hold of Sheet 28,
Belgium 1/40,000, the reference is I. 16. b 2. Any soldier will
show you how to read the map."
RAYMOND, 1915
Letter from a Foreman Workman
[I also append a letter received from a workman who used to be at
the same bench with Raymond when he was going through his
workshop course at the Wolseley Motor Works. Stallard is a man he
thought highly of, and befriended. He is now foreman in the Lodge
Fume Deposit Company, after making an effort to get a berth in
Lodge Brothers for Raymond's sake. He is now, and has been since
the war began, the owner of Raymond's dog Larry, about whom
some local people remember that there was an amusing County
Court case.]
"98 Mansel Road, Small Heath, Birmingham,
17 September 1915
"Dear Mr. Lionel,—The shock was too great for me to speak to
you this afternoon. I should like to express to you, and all the
family, my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy in your terrible
loss. Mr. Raymond was the best friend I ever had.
"Truly, I thought more of him than any other man living, not
only for his kind thoughts towards me, but for his most
admirable qualities, which I knew he possessed.
"The memory of him will remain with me as long as I live.—
Believe me to be, yours faithfully,
"(Signed) Norman Stallard"
Footnotes
[6] Lieutenant Case himself, alas! was killed on the 25th of
September 1915. It was a fatal time. Lieutenant Fletcher also
has been killed now, on 3rd July 1916.
PART TWO: SUPERNORMAL
PORTION
"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep—
He hath awakened from the dream of life."
Shelley, Adonais.
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE made no secret of my conviction, not merely that personality
persists, but that its continued existence is more entwined with
the life of every day than has been generally imagined; that there is
no real breach of continuity between the dead and the living; and
that methods of intercommunion across what has seemed to be a
gulf can be set going in response to the urgent demand of affection,
—that in fact, as Diotima told Socrates (Symposium, 202 and 203),
Love bridges the chasm.
Nor is it affection only that controls and empowers supernormal
intercourse: scientific interest and missionary zeal constitute
supplementary motives which are found efficacious; and it has been
mainly through efforts so actuated that I and some others have
been gradually convinced, by direct experience, of a fact which
before long must become patent to mankind.
Hitherto I have testified to occurrences and messages of which the
motive is intellectual rather than emotional: and though much, very
much, even of this evidence remains inaccessible to the public, yet a
good deal has appeared from time to time by many writers in the
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, and in my
personal collection called The Survival of Man. No one therefore will
be surprised if I now further testify concerning communications
which come home to me in a peculiar sense; communications from
which sentiment is not excluded, though still they appear to be
guided and managed with intelligent and on the whole evidential
purpose. These are what I now decide to publish; and I shall cite
them as among those evidences for survival for the publication of
which some legitimate demand has of late been made, owing to my
having declared my belief in continued existence without being able
to give the full grounds of that belief, because much of it concerned
other people. The portion of evidence I shall now cite concerns only
myself and family.
I must make selection, it is true, for the bulk has become great; but
I shall try to select fairly, and especially shall give in fair fulness
those early communications which, though not so free and easy as
they became with more experience, have yet an interest of their
own, since they represent nascent powers and were being received
through members of the family to whom the medium was a
complete stranger and who gave no clue to identity.
Messages of an intelligible though rather recondite character from
"Myers" began to reach me indeed a week or two before the death
of my son; and nearly all the messages received since his death
differ greatly in character from those which in the old days were
received through any medium with whom I sat. No youth was then
represented as eager to communicate; and though friends were
described as sending messages, the messages were represented as
coming from appropriate people—members of an elder generation,
leaders of the Society for Psychical Research, and personal
acquaintances. Whereas now, whenever any member of the family
visits anonymously a competent medium, the same youth soon
comes to the fore and is represented as eager to prove his personal
survival and identity.
I consider that he has done so. And the family scepticism, which up
to this time has been sufficiently strong, is now, I may fairly say,
overborne by the facts. How far these facts can be conveyed to the
sympathetic understanding of strangers, I am doubtful. But I must
plead for a patient hearing; and if I make mistakes, either in what I
include, or in what for brevity I omit, or if my notes and comments
fail in clearness, I bespeak a friendly interpretation: for it is truly
from a sense of duty that in so personal a matter I lay myself open
to harsh and perhaps cynical criticism.
It may be said—Why attach so much importance to one individual
case? I do not attach especial importance to it, but every individual
case is of moment, because in such a matter the aphorism Ex uno
disce omnes is strictly applicable. If we can establish the survival of
any single ordinary individual we have established it for all.
Christians may say that the case for one Individual was established
nearly 1900 years ago; but they have most of them confused the
issue by excessive though perhaps legitimate and necessary
emphasis on the exceptional and unique character of that
Personality. And a school of thought has arisen which teaches that
ordinary men can only attain immortality vicariously—that is,
conditionally on acceptance of a certain view concerning the benefits
of that Sacrificial Act, and active assimilation of them.
So without arguing on any such subject, and without entering in the
slightest degree on any theological question, I have endeavoured to
state the evidence fully and frankly for the persistent existence of
one of the multitude of youths who have sacrificed their lives at the
call of their Country when endangered by an aggressor of calculated
ruthlessness.
Some critics may claim that there are many stronger cases of
established survival. That may be, but this is a case which touches
me closely and has necessarily received my careful attention. In so
far as there are other strong cases—and I know of several—so much
the better. I myself considered the case of survival practically proven
before, and clinched by the efforts of Myers and others of the S.P.R.
group on the other side; but evidence is cumulative, and the
discussion of a fresh case in no way weakens those that have gone
before. Each stick of the faggot must be tested, and, unless
absolutely broken, it adds to the strength of the bundle.
To base so momentous a conclusion as a scientific demonstration of
human survival on any single instance, if it were not sustained on all
sides by a great consensus of similar evidence, would doubtless be
unwise; for some other explanation of a merely isolated case would
have to be sought. But we are justified in examining the evidence
for any case of which all the details are known, and in trying to set
forth the truth of it as completely and fairly as we may.
CHAPTER I
ELEMENTARY EXPLANATION
F OR people who have studied psychical matters, or who have read
any books on the subject, it is unnecessary to explain what a
'sitting' is. Novices must be asked to refer to other writings—to small
books, for instance, by Sir W. F. Barrett or Mr. J. Arthur Hill or Miss
H. A. Dallas, which are easily accessible, or to my own previous book
on this subject called The Survival of Man, which begins more at the
beginning so far as my own experience is concerned.
Of mediumship there are many grades, one of the simplest forms
being the capacity to receive an impression or automatic writing,
under peaceful conditions, in an ordinary state; but the whole
subject is too large to be treated here. Suffice it to say that the kind
of medium chiefly dealt with in this book is one who, by waiting
quietly, goes more or less into a trance, and is then subject to what
is called 'control'—speaking or writing in a manner quite different
from the medium's own normal or customary manner, under the
guidance of a separate intelligence technically known as 'a control,'
which some think must be a secondary personality—which indeed
certainly is a secondary personality of the medium, whatever that
phrase may really signify—the transition being effected in most cases
quite easily and naturally. In this secondary state, a degree of
clairvoyance or lucidity is attained quite beyond the medium's normal
consciousness, and facts are referred to which must be outside his
or her normal knowledge. The control, or second personality which
speaks during the trance, appears to be more closely in touch with
what is popularly spoken of as 'the next world' than with customary
human existence, and accordingly is able to get messages through
from people deceased; transmitting them through the speech or
writing of the medium, usually with some obscurity and
misunderstanding, and with mannerisms belonging either to the
medium or to the control. The amount of sophistication varies
according to the quality of the medium, and to the state of the same
medium at different times; it must be attributed in the best cases
physiologically to the medium, intellectually to the control. The
confusion is no greater than might be expected from a pair of
operators, connected by a telephone of rather delicate and uncertain
quality, who were engaged in transmitting messages between two
stranger communicators, one of whom was anxious to get messages
transmitted, though perhaps not very skilled in wording them, while
the other was nearly silent and anxious not to give any information
or assistance at all; being, indeed, more or less suspicious that the
whole appearance of things was deceptive, and that his friend, the
ostensible communicator, was not really there. Under such
circumstances the effort of the distant communicator would be
chiefly directed to sending such natural and appropriate messages as
should gradually break down the inevitable scepticism of his friend.
Further Preliminary Explanation
I must assume it known that messages purporting to come from
various deceased people have been received through various
mediums, and that the Society for Psychical Research has especially
studied those coming through Mrs. Piper—a resident in the
neighbourhood of Boston, U.S.A.—during the past thirty years. We
were introduced to her by Professor William James. My own
experience with this lady began during her visit to this country in
1889, and was renewed in 1906. The account has been fully
published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,
vols. vi. and xxiii., and an abbreviated version of some of the
incidents there recorded can be referred to in my book The Survival
of Man.
It will be convenient, however, to explain here that some of the
communicators on the other side, like Mr. Myers and Dr. Richard
Hodgson, both now deceased, have appeared to utilise many
mediums; and that to allow for possible sophistication by normal
mental idiosyncrasies, and for any natural warping due to the
physiological mechanism employed, or to the brain-deposit from
which selection has to be made, we write the name of the ostensible
communicator in each case with a suffix—like MyersP, MyersV, etc.;
meaning by this kind of designation to signify that part of the Myers-
like intelligence which operates through Mrs. Piper or through Mrs.
Verrall, etc., respectively.
We know that communication must be hampered, and its form
largely determined, by the unconscious but inevitable influence of a
transmitting mechanism, whether that be of a merely mechanical or
of a physiological character. Every artist knows that he must adapt
the expression of his thought to his material, and that what is
possible with one 'medium,' even in the artist's sense of the word, is
not possible with another.
And when the method of communication is purely mental or
telepathic, we are assured that the communicator 'on the other side'
has to select from and utilise those ideas and channels which
represent the customary mental scope of the medium; though by
practised skill and ingenuity they can be woven into fresh patterns
and be made to convey to a patient and discriminating interpreter
the real intention of the communicator's thought. In many such
telepathic communications the physical form which the emergent
message takes is that of automatic or semiconscious writing or
speech; the manner of the utterance being fairly normal, but the
substance of it appearing not to emanate from the writer's or
speaker's own mind: though but very seldom is either the subject-
matter or the language of a kind quite beyond the writer's or
speaker's normal capabilities.
In other cases, when the medium becomes entranced, the
demonstration of a communicator's separate intelligence may
become stronger and the sophistication less. A still further stage is
reached when by special effort what is called telergy is employed,
i.e. when physiological mechanism is more directly utilised without
telepathic operation on the mind. And a still further step away from
personal sophistication, though under extra mechanical difficulties, is
attainable in telekinesis or what appears to be the direct movement
of inorganic matter. To this last category—though in its very simplest
form—must belong, I suppose, the percussive sounds known as
raps.
To understand the intelligent tiltings of a table in contact with human
muscles is a much simpler matter. It is crude and elementary, but in
principle it does not appear to differ from automatic writing; though
inasmuch as the code and the movements are so simple, it appears
to be the easiest of all to beginners. It is so simple that it has been
often employed as a sort of game, and so has fallen into disrepute.
But its possibilities are not to be ignored for all that; and in so far as
it enables a feeling of more direct influence—in so far as the
communicator feels able himself to control the energy necessary,
instead of having to entrust his message to a third person—it is by
many communicators preferred. More on this subject will be found in
Chapters VIII of Part II and XIV of Part III.
Before beginning an historical record of the communications and
messages received from or about my son since his death, I think it
will be well to prelude it by—
i. A message which arrived before the event;
ii. A selection of subsequent communications bearing on and
supplementing
this message;
iii. One of the evidential episodes, selected from subsequent
communications,
which turned out to be exactly verifiable.
A few further details about these things, and another series of
messages of evidential importance, will be found in that Part of the
Proceedings of the S.P.R. which is to be published about October
1916.
If the full discussion allowed to these selected portions appears
rather complicated, an unstudious reader may skip the next three
chapters, on a first reading, and may learn about the simpler facts in
their evolutionary or historical order.
CHAPTER II
THE 'FAUNUS' MESSAGE
Preliminary Facts
R aymondjoined the Army in September 1914; trained near Liverpool
and Edinburgh with the South Lancashires, and in March 1915
was sent to the trenches in Flanders. In the middle of July 1915 he
had a few days' leave at home, and on the 20th returned to the
Front.
Initial 'Piper' Message
The first intimation that I had that anything might be going wrong,
was a message from Myers through Mrs. Piper in America;
communicated apparently by "Richard Hodgson" at a time when a
Miss Robbins was having a sitting at Mrs. Piper's house, Greenfield,
New Hampshire, on 8 August 1915, and sent me by Miss Alta Piper
(A. L. P.) together with the original script. Here follows the extract,
which at a certain stage in Miss Robbins's sitting, after having dealt
with matters of personal significance to her, none of which had
anything whatever to do with me, began abruptly thus:—
R. H.—Now Lodge, while we are not here as of old, i.e. not quite, we
are here enough to take and give messages.
Myers says you take the part of the poet, and he will act as Faunus.
Faunus.
Miss R.—Faunus?
R. H.—Yes. Myers. Protect. He will understand.
(Evidently referring to Lodge.—A. L. P.)
What have you to say, Lodge? Good work. Ask Verrall, she
will also understand. Arthur says so. [This means Dr.
Arthur W. Verrall (deceased).—O. J. L.]
Miss R.—Do you mean Arthur Tennyson?
[This absurd confusion, stimulated by the word 'poet,' was
evidently the result of a long strain at reading barely
legible trance-writing for more than an hour, and was
recognised immediately afterwards with dismayed
amusement by the sitter. It is only of interest as showing
how completely unknown to anyone present was the
reference intended by the communicator.—O. J. L.]
R. H.—No. Myers knows. So does ——. You got mixed (to Miss R.),
but Myers is straight about Poet and Faunus.
I venture to say that to non-classical people the above message
conveys nothing. It did not convey anything to me, beyond the
assurance, based on past experience, that it certainly meant
something definite, that its meaning was probably embedded in a
classical quotation, and that a scholar like Mrs. Verrall would be able
to interpret it, even if only the bare skeleton of the message were
given without any details as to source.
Letter from Mrs. Verrall
In order to interpret this message, therefore, I wrote to Mrs. Verrall
as instructed, asking her: "Does The Poet and Faunus mean anything
to you? Did one 'protect' the other?" She replied at once (8
September 1915) referring me to Horace, Carm. II. xvii. 27-30, and
saying:—
"The reference is to Horace's account of his narrow escape from
death, from a falling tree, which he ascribes to the intervention
of Faunus. Cf. Hor. Odes, II. xiii.; II. xvii. 27; III. iv. 27; III. viii.
8, for references to the subject. The allusion to Faunus is in Ode
II. xvii. 27-30:—
'Me truncus illapsus cerebro
Sustulerat, nisi Faunus ictum
Dextra levasset, Mercurialium
Custos virorum.'
"'Faunus, the guardian of poets' ('poets' being the usual
interpretation of 'Mercury's men').
"The passage is a very well-known one to all readers of Horace,
and is perhaps specially familiar from its containing, in the
sentence quoted, an unusual grammatical construction. It is
likely to occur in a detailed work on Latin Grammar.
"The passage has no special associations for me other than as I
have described, though it has some interest as forming part of a
chronological sequence among the Odes, not generally admitted
by commentators, but accepted by me.
"The words quoted are, of course, strictly applicable to the
Horatian passage, which they instantly recalled to me.
(Signed) M. de G. Verrall"
I perceived therefore, from this manifestly correct interpretation of
the 'Myers' message to me, that the meaning was that some blow
was going to fall, or was likely to fall, though I didn't know of what
kind, and that Myers would intervene, apparently to protect me from
it. So far as I can recollect my comparatively trivial thoughts on the
subject, I believe that I had some vague idea that the catastrophe
intended was perhaps of a financial rather than of a personal kind.
The above message reached me near the beginning of September in
Scotland. Raymond was killed near Ypres on 14 September 1915,
and we got the news by telegram from the War Office on 17
September. A fallen or falling tree is a frequently used symbol for
death; perhaps through misinterpretation of Eccl. xi, 3. To several
other classical scholars I have since put the question I addressed to
Mrs. Verrall, and they all referred me to Horace, Carm. II. xvii. as the
unmistakable reference.
Mr. Bayfield's Criticism
Soon after the event, I informed the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, ex-
headmaster of Eastbourne College, fully of the facts, as an
interesting S.P.R. incident (saying at the same time that Myers had
not been able to 'ward off' the blow); and he was good enough to
send me a careful note in reply:—
"Horace does not, in any reference to his escape, say clearly whether
the tree struck him, but I have always thought it did. He says Faunus
lightened the blow; he does not say 'turned it aside.' As bearing on
your terrible loss, the meaning seems to be that the blow would fall
but would not crush; it would be 'lightened' by the assurance,
conveyed afresh to you by a special message from the still living
Myers, that your boy still lives.
"I shall be interested to know what you think of this interpretation.
The 'protect' I take to mean protect from being overwhelmed by the
blow, from losing faith and hope, as we are all in danger of doing
when smitten by some crushing personal calamity. Many a man when
so smitten has, like Merlin, lain
'as dead,
And lost to life and use and name and fame.'
That seems to me to give a sufficiently precise application to the
word (on which Myers apparently insists) and to the whole reference
to Horace."
In a postscript he adds the following:—
"In Carm. iii. 8, Horace describes himself as prope funeratus
arboris ictu, 'wellnigh killed by a blow from a tree.' An artist in
expression, such as he was, would not have mentioned any
'blow' if there had been none; he would have said 'well nigh
killed by a falling tree'—or the like. It is to be noted that in both
passages he uses the word ictus. And in ii. 13. 11 (the whole
ode is addressed to the tree) he says the man must have been a
fellow steeped in every wickedness 'who planted thee an
accursed lump of wood, a thing meant to fall (this is the delicate
meaning of caducum—not merely "falling") on thine undeserving
master's head.' Here again the language implies that he was
struck, and struck on the head.
"Indeed, the escape must have been a narrow one, and it is to
me impossible to believe that Horace would have been so deeply
impressed by the accident if he had not actually been struck. He
refers to it four times:—
Carm.ii. 13.—(Ode addressed to the tree—forty lines
long.)
ii. 17. 27.
iii. 4. 27.—(Here he puts the risk he ran on a
parallel with that of the rout at Philippi, from which he escaped.)
iii. 8. 8.
"I insist on all this as strengthening my interpretation, and also
as strengthening the assignment of the script to Myers, who
would of course be fully alive to all the points to be found in his
reference to Faunus and Horace—and, as I have no doubt,
believed that Horace did not escape the actual blow, and that it
was a severe one."
NOTE BY O. J. L.
Since some of the translators, especially verse translators, of Horace
convey the idea of turning aside or warding off the blow, it may be
well to emphasise the fact that most of the scholars consulted gave
"lightened" or "weakened" as the translation. And Professor Strong
says—"no doubt at all that 'levasset' means 'weakened' the blow; the
bough fell and struck the Poet, but lightly, through the action of
Faunus. 'Levo' in this sense is quite common and classical."
Bryce's prose translation (Bohn) is quite clear— "a tree-stem falling
on my head had surely been my death, had not good Faunus eased
the blow...."
And although Conington's translation has "check'd the blow in mid
descent," he really means the same thing, because it is the slaying,
not the wounding or striking of the Poet that is prevented:—
"Me the curst trunk, that smote my skull,
Had slain; but Faunus, strong to shield
The friends of Mercury, check'd the blow
In mid descent."
Additional Piper Script
Mr. Bayfield also calls my attention to another portion of Piper Script
—in this case not a trance or semi-trance sitting, but ordinary
automatic writing—dated 5 August, which reached me
simultaneously with the one already quoted from, at the beginning of
September, and which he says seems intended to prepare me for
some personal trouble:—
"Yes. For the moment, Lodge, have faith and wisdom [?
confidence] in all that is highest and best. Have you all not been
profoundly guided and cared for? Can you answer, 'No'? It is by
your faith that all is well and has been."
I remember being a little struck by the wording in the above script,
urging me to admit that we—presumably the family—had "been
profoundly guided and cared for," and "that all is well and has been";
because it seemed to indicate that something was not going to be
quite so well. But it was too indefinite to lead me to make any
careful record of it, or to send it as a prediction to anybody for filing;
and it would no doubt have evaporated from my mind except for the
'Faunus' warning, given three days later, though received at the same
time, which seemed to me clearly intended as a prediction, whether
it happened to come off or not.
The two Piper communications, of which parts have now been
quoted, reached me at Gullane, East Lothian, where my wife (M. F.
A. L.) and I were staying for a few weeks. They arrived early in
September 1915, and as soon as I had heard from Mrs. Verrall I
wrote to Miss Piper to acknowledge them, as follows:—
"The Linga Private Hotel,
Gullane, East Lothian,
12 September 1915
"My dear Alta,—The reference to the Poet and Faunus in your
mother's last script is quite intelligible, and a good classical
allusion. You might tell the 'communicator' some time if there is
opportunity.
"I feel sure that it must convey nothing to you and yours. That
is quite as it should be, as you know, for evidential reasons."
This was written two days before Raymond's death, and five days
before we heard of it. The Pipers' ignorance of any meaning in the
Poet and Faunus allusion was subsequently confirmed.
It so happens that this letter was returned to me, for some unknown
reason, through the Dead Letter Office, reaching me on 14
November 1915, and being then sent forward by me again.[7]
Footnotes
[7] Further Piper and other communications, obscurely
relevant to this subject, will be found in a Paper which will
appear in the S.P.R. Proceedings for the autumn of 1916.
CHAPTER III
SEQUEL TO THE 'FAUNUS' MESSAGE
I T now remains to indicate how far Myers carried out his implied
promise, and what steps he took, or has been represented as having
taken, to lighten the blow—which it is permissible to say was a terribly
severe one.
For such evidence I must quote from the record of sittings held here in
England with mediums previously unknown, and by sitters who gave no
sort of clue as to identity. (See the historical record, beginning at
Chapter V.)
It may be objected that my own general appearance is known or might
be guessed. But that does not apply to members of my family, who went
quite anonymously to private sittings kindly arranged for by a friend in
London (Mrs. Kennedy, wife of Dr. Kennedy), who was no relation
whatever, but whose own personal experience caused her to be
sympathetic and helpful, and who is both keen and critical about
evidential considerations.
I may state, for what it is worth, that as a matter of fact normal clues to
identity are disliked, and, in so far as they are gratuitous, are even
resented, by a good medium; for they are no manner of use, and yet
subsequently they appear to spoil evidence. It is practically impossible
for mediums to hunt up and become normally acquainted with the
family history of their numerous sitters, and those who know them are
well aware that they do nothing of the sort, but in making arrangements
for a sitting it is not easy, unless special precautions are taken, to avoid
giving a name and an address, and thereby appearing to give facilities
for fraud.
In our case, and in that of our immediate friends, these precautions
have been taken—sometimes in a rather elaborate manner.
The first sitting that was held after Raymond's death by any member of
the family was held not explicitly for the purpose of getting into
communication with him—still less with any remotest notion of entering
into communication with Mr. Myers—but mainly because a French widow
lady, who had been kind to our daughters during winters in Paris, was
staying with my wife at Edgbaston—her first real visit to England—and
was in great distress at the loss of both her beloved sons in the war,
within a week of each other, so that she was left desolate. To comfort
her my wife took her up to London to call on Mrs. Kennedy, and to get a
sitting arranged for with a medium whom that lady knew and
recommended. Two anonymous interviews were duly held, and
incidentally I may say that the two sons of Madame communicated, on
both occasions, though with difficulty; that one of them gave his name
completely, the other approximately; and that the mother, who was new
to the whole subject, was partially consoled.[8] Raymond, however, was
represented as coming with them and helping them, and as sending
some messages on his own account. I shall here only quote those
messages which bear upon the subject of Myers and have any possible
connexion with the 'Faunus' message.
(For an elementary explanation about 'sittings' in general, see Chapter I.
)
Extracts Relating to 'Myers' from Early
Anonymous Sittings
We heard first of Raymond's death on 17 September 1915, and on 25
September his mother (M. F. A. L.), who was having an anonymous
sitting for a friend with Mrs. Leonard, then a complete stranger, had the
following spelt out by tilts of a table, as purporting to come from
Raymond:—
Tell father I have met some friends of his.
M. F. A. L.—Can you give any name?
Yes. Myers.
(That was all on that subject on that occasion.)
On the 27th of September 1915, I myself went to London and had my
first sitting, between noon and one o'clock, with Mrs. Leonard. I went to
her house or flat alone, as a complete stranger, for whom an
appointment had been made through Mrs. Kennedy. Before we began,
Mrs. Leonard informed me that her 'guide' or 'control' was a young girl
named "Feda."
In a short time after the medium had gone into trance, a youth was
described in terms which distinctly suggested Raymond, and "Feda"
brought messages. I extract the following:—
From First Anonymous Sitting of O. J. L. with
Mrs. Leonard, 27 September 1915
(Mrs. Leonard's control, Feda, supposed to be speaking throughout.)
He finds it difficult, he says, but he has got so many kind
friends helping him. He didn't think when he waked up first
that he was going to be happy, but now he is, and he says he
is going to be happier. He knows that as soon as he is a little
more ready he has got a great deal of work to do. "I almost
wonder," he says, "shall I be fit and able to do it. They tell
me I shall."
"I have instructors and teachers with me." Now he is trying
to build up a letter of some one; M. he shows me.
(A short time later, he said:—)
"People think I say I am happy in order to make them
happier, but I don't.[9] I have met hundreds of friends. I don't
know them all. I have met many who tell me that, a little
later, they will explain why they are helping me. I feel I have
got two fathers now. I don't feel I have lost one and got
another; I have got both. I have got my old one, and another
too—a pro tem. father."
(Here Feda ejaculated "What's that? Is that right?" O. J. L. replied
'Yes.')
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