William T. Stead - After Death, Letters from Julia.pdf

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After Death
OR
LETTERS FROM JULIA.
A Personal Narrative
by the
HON. WILLIAM T[homas]. STEAD
[1849-1912]
A WORK OF PRICELESS VALUE TO SPIRITUALISTS
TENTH EDITION
CHICAGO:
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY
E. CADWALLADER
PUBLISHER'S INTRODUCTION.
We take great pleasure in presenting this volume to the general
public. W. T. Stead is a noted Englishman, standing exceptionally
high as a leader in all reformatory works, and at times his
movements and influence have agitated England from center to
circumference. Such a person, so pre-eminent in all matters,
literary, civic and political, will exert a wonderfully beneficial
influence in the ranks of Spiritualism, through this book. Every
reader thereof will bless him, and thank him, too, for permitting
the, undersigned to publish it. Thousands upon thousands of
copies will be distributed.
M. E. CADWALLADER,
106 Loomis Street. Chicago, Illinois.
PREFACE.
Eight years ago I collected together and published the series of
messages contained in this volume under the title, "Letters from
Julia, or Light from the Borderland, received by automatic writing
from one who has as gone before." Since then the little volume has
been six times reprinted in England, and at least one translation has
appeared abroad. I have received so many grateful letters from
persons in all parts of the world, who, after sorrowing for their
dead as those that have no hope, felt on reading this book as if their
lost ones were in very truth restored to life, that I can no longer
refuse to issue it to a wider public. I have not changed a word or
syllable in the letters themselves. They stand exactly as they were
printed in the original edition where they were reproduced from the
automatic manuscript of the invisible author who used my passive
hand as her amanuensis. I have also left unaltered the introduction
explaining how these letters were written. But I have changed the
title to one which is more challenging than "Letters from Julia," and
which also indicates more explicitly the subject of the book.
It may save me some unnecessary correspondence if, when
introducing this new edition of the communications received from
my friend Miss Julia who "what we call died" on December 12,
1891, I state once for all that the narrative given in the preface is a
simple statement of fact. There is no "dressing" of any kind. The
friend whom I call Ellen is still alive. Miss Julia—was well
6
PREFACE.
known to many who are conspicuous in good works on both sides
of the Atlantic. Many persist in regarding the name Julia as if it
were some fantastic appellation given to an imaginary entity. It
was simply the Christian name given to my friend in infancy when
she was baptized, and as she was known by it while in her former
body, her friends continue to call her by the same name. There is
no more reason for changing one's name because we change bodies
than when we change dresses. I would have no hesitation about
giving my friend's full name with all particulars as to her life
history, were it not for two reasons. Some of her relatives might
object, and if I published her full name I should deprive myself at
once of a very simple test, first, as to the non-authenticity of
messages professing to come from pseudo "Julias," and secondly,
as to the futility of the popular delusion that psychic messages are
always to be explained by thought transference. Her name is, of
course, perfectly familiar to me, but in a dozen years, out of scores
of psychics and mediums of all kinds, all of whom on the
telepathic hypothesis ought to have had no difficulty in reading,
her name in my mind, only two have ever been able to tell me her
surname.
I have not one word to alter or to modify in the statement made
in the original preface, where I vouch for my absolute belief in the
authenticity of the communications received through my hand. I
am positive that the letters did not proceed from my conscious
mind. Of my unconscious mind I am, of course, unconscious. But I
can hardly imagine that any part of my unconscious self would
deliberately practice a hoax upon my conscious self about the most
serious of all subjects, and keep it up year after year with the
utmost apparent sincerity and consistency. The simple explanation
that my friend who has passed over can use my hand as her own
seems much more natural and probable. I have many friends who,
being still in their bodies, can write with my hand automatically at
any

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