His phenomena were produced in full light, and it was
immaterial to him whether the sittings were in his own rooms or
in those of his friends. So high were his principles that upon
one occasion, though he was a man of moderate means and less than
moderate health, he refused the princely fee of two thousand
pounds offered for a single sitting by the Union Circle in Paris.
As to his powers, they seem to have included every form of
mediumship in the highest degree--self-levitation, as witnessed
by hundreds of credible witnesses; the handling of fire, with the
power of conferring like immunity upon others; the movement
without human touch of heavy objects; the visible materialisation
of spirits; miracles of healing; and messages from the dead, such
as that which converted the hard-headed Scot, Robert Chambers,
when Home repeated to him the actual dying words of his young
daughter. All this came from a man of so sweet a nature and of
so charitable a disposition, that the union of all qualities
would seem almost to justify those who, to Home's great
embarrassment, were prepared to place him upon a pedestal above
humanity.
The genuineness of his psychic powers has never been
seriously questioned, and was as well recognised in Rome and
Paris as in London. One incident only darkened his career, and
it, was one in which he was blameless, as anyone who carefully
weighs the evidence must admit.
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