28 July 1884 – 3 August 1884

Warm — with breeze. H., I and Sonny and Evey to Godalming, by invitation, to the Wallaces,^ Frith Hill, beside the Water Tower. Hot climb. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace in garden. Willy, Violet — children race about. W. shows us round his garden — rare plants and flowers — little ' Californian tulip,' light yellow, three petals — green hairs inside — Canadian lily — Flowers of one day. Eucalyptus, three kinds, very tender. Sit with Wallace under tree and talk a long while on Spiritualism, apparitions, mediums, etc.—' the Cock Lane Ghost was real (as Johnson believed), but they teased the girl into imposture at last.' He said about one person in ten, probably, is a medium. He spoke with unqualified praise of every book and writer on the spiritualistic side — William Howitt, Professor De Morgan, Professor Barrett, F. W. H. Myers, etc. — showed us, in a magazine, drawings done by thought-readers. He gave an account, essentially Swedenborgian, of the state of spirits in the next world — but he does not take Swedenborg for a prophet. I told him of my mentally seeing The Times with a black border one morning before I went into the room where it lay. It was for Prince Leopold's death. He asked do I usually ' visualise ' the things I think of ? ' Yes, always.' ' I do not at all (he said) — my mind has only thoughts.' Then spoke of Galton's division of all minds into the visualising and the non-visualising class.