The most remarkable of the subjects of this character with whom I became acquainted, which was during the later years of this study, was Mrs. H.K.  Brown, the wife of our ablest sculptor of that day.  Mrs. Brown was, apart from the peculiar powers she possessed, one of the most remarkable women I have ever known, both morally and intellectually, and the peculiar mental powers she manifested were well known to all the large and thoughtful circle of friends which gathered round her.  No physical “manifestation” took place in her presence, and we never “sat” as a “circle,” but her telepathic and thought-reading powers in ordinary social intercourse were most surprising.  She answered readily any questions proposed in the minds of her interlocutors, often even before they were completely formed, and she possessed the power attributed to Zschokke, of reading, or seeing, past events in the lives of those who were placed en rapport with her.  Bryant, the poet, assured me that she had recounted to him events in his past life not known to any living person except himself, and I had, myself, the evidence that in her presence there was nothing in my past life beyond her perception.  On simple contact with a letter from an unknown person she gave me the most remarkable analysis of the character of the writer, and though this evidence is always open to criticism, the disclosures she made were sometimes surprising.  I gave her one day a letter of Ruskin without disclosing the authorship, and in the course of a long analysis she said that the writer was not married, to which I replied that in this she was mistaken, and she rejoined, “Then he ought not to be.”  At that time Mr. and Mrs. Ruskin were, so far as I knew, living together, and no rumor of their incompatibility had come about.

Mrs. Brown explained the possession of her occult powers by a voice in the manner of Socrates’s demon, which, she said, was always present with her, and which she recognized as entirely foreign to her.  She repeated what she heard, word for word as the words came, hesitating and sometimes leaving a sentence incomplete, not hearing the sequence.  When she asked who was speaking to her, she received only the reply, “We are spirit,” and no indication of personality was ever offered.  On one occasion, when Mr. and Mrs. Brown were on a fishing trip into the wild parts of New York State, and, returning, were on their way to the railway station, the wheel of their wagon broke and they had to go to a blacksmith on the road to have it repaired.  She said to her husband that they would lose the train, to which the voice replied that they would be in time, for the train was late and they would arrive with a minute to spare.  And in fact as they drew up at the station the train came in sight and they had a minute to spare.  There were many such instances in which Mrs. Brown showed to the circle of her acquaintances, which was large and included many of the most intellectual minds of the artistic and literary world whose centre was New York, the possession of powers “not dreamed of in our philosophy,” but, as she carefully avoided notoriety, they never came under public notice.  Her husband implicitly and always followed the directions given her through her demon.