The greatest practical genius of his time was a frequent attendant at spiritualistic seances; he cultivated personally the society of mediums, and in sickness he usually resorted to mental healers, mesmerists, and clairvoyants.
It's really moving, and I think-- I don't know. I can't picture him saying that in any other seance. I think that's expressly something that he was vulnerable enough to say at that moment.
And during the war, he believed he was in contact with the spirits of his lost loved ones through his children's nanny, who supposedly had psychic powers. And she would hold these seances, and he became a believer.