Amazon.com description: Product Description: An excerpt of a review from The Union Seminary Review, Volume 32:

THIS is a novel. It is a remarkable one. It deals with the Spiritualism, or Spiritism, which is so marked a feature of present day life in England; and we must add, in our own country also.

The author is, as we understand, a son of the late archbishop Benson, of Canterbury, and a brother of Arthur Benson, a writer perhaps better known to us than this man. It is said, however, that E. F. stands higher in England than Arthur does as a literary man.

The purpose of the author in this story is evidently not merely to entertain an idle hour; he means to read us a lesson. The story, however, is intensely interesting. A young nobleman who has lost a very promising brother, himself develops a very frail physique, and for that reason is treated by his anxious parents with the most solicitous care. Early in youth he discovers that he has a remarkable power, the power to submerge his conscious state. In this state as he gradually learns, he can receive communications from a mysterious visitant whom he calls Martin. For a time he indulges this faculty simply for entertainment. But as he grows older he finds "Martin" ready to offer him counsel, and in a certain grave crisis in his moral life "Martin" becomes his guide. From that day on he is plied with the subtlest sophistry. At first Martin seems to speed like an angel of life. But as Archie follows more and more consistently his counsel he becomes a totally different person. He deteriorates rapidly until those Who love him best are wounded, estranged, and almost in despair. The noble girl who loves him above seems to discern the real root of the mischief, and by the "two-edged sword of love and prayer," vanquishes the evil spirit which has obtained the fatal ascendancy over Archie. The scene in which this victory is won is one of the most weird and vivid we have ever read.

The lesson of the book is: Don't tamper with Spiritualism.

We believe it is a lesson for our times. Some think all that passes under the name is a gross vulgar fraud. Others believe in a reality here but think the communications are from the spirits of the departed dead. The fact seems to be that in the midst of a lot of sheer humbug there is some very real communication going on between living man and woman and the spirit world; but that the communications are not with departed human spirits but with demons "the familiar spirits" of which our Bible speaks. All such intercourse God has forbidden as dishonoring to Him and ruinous to souls. And Spiritualism, judged by its fruits, is of the Devil.