EDITOR'S TABLE. 



7°3 



has been proved to be an impostor, 

 and the miracle has fallen to the 

 ground. One of the most remark- 

 able cases of the kind is furnished by 

 the history of the Keeley motor, the 

 absolutely fraudulent character of 

 which has lately been brought to 

 light. Keeley professed to transcend 

 all the known laws of physics and 

 mechanics, and he talked a jargon 

 which all acknowledged to be unin- 

 telligible, but the unintelligibility of 

 which was ascribed by his devotees 

 to the fact that he was really work- 

 ing outside of known laws, and could 

 not be expected to translate his ideas 

 into the language of everyday sci- 

 ence. In this way what was really 

 an adjunct to the imposture he was 

 practicing was counted as a proof of 

 the truth of his ideas and the reality 

 of his work. Yet now we know that 

 the whole business was a matter of 

 hidden tubes and wires and pulleys 

 and double axles, one concealed 

 within the other, with a water motor 

 hidden under the floor. Thus it was 

 that the " setheric vibrations " and 

 all the other mysterious phenomena 

 were produced. We remember a 

 sermon that was preached some years 

 ago by an earnest divine, who pro- 

 fessed to see in the alleged effects 

 produced by Keeley an explanation 

 of the miracle of the casting down 

 of the walls of Jericho. Keeley 

 would take his harmonium and, strik- 

 ing a certain chord, would cause his 

 motor to revolve. In like manner 

 Joshua with his trumpets and pitch- 

 ers made precisely the kind of noise 

 required to produce the setheric vi- 

 brations necessary to level the walls 

 of the beleaguered city — a wonder- 

 ful case of the most advanced sci- 

 ence coming to the support of a ven- 

 erable religious tradition ! Unfortu- 

 nately, the walls of Jericho must 

 now be got down in some other way, 

 since it is proved that when Kee- 



ley worked the harmonium he also 

 worked the bulb of an air tube 

 placed under his foot in the floor. 

 But Keeley was so honest a man, so 

 devoted to his profound researches, 

 so true a tj-pe of the indomitable 

 experimenter, that it was impossible 

 for his friends and admirers to doubt 

 him, even when he spoke of "the 

 sympathetic negative attraction of 

 the triune polar stream." 



The lesson of it all is — investigate ! 

 investigate ! investigate ! The more 

 honest a man is, the more he will 

 court investigation. It is to the 

 credit of humanity perhaps that so 

 much reliance is placed upon esti- 

 mates of personal character in these 

 extraordinary cases; but where be- 

 lief is demanded for anything that 

 is absolutely beyond comprehension, 

 character should be put out of court 

 altogether, and the one question 

 should be, What are the facts? In 

 the Keeley case, unfortunately, men 

 of science as well as others were 

 among the deluded. They should 

 have suspected fraud ; at least they 

 should have insisted on making such 

 investigations as a suspicion of fraud 

 would have suggested ; and, if they 

 were not allowed to make them, 

 they should have refused all coun- 

 tenance to the business. As it is, 

 many ignorant persons who lost 

 money through Keeley 's imposture 

 will very properly cast blame on 

 the presumedly competent mech- 

 anicians and physicists who went 

 through the form of examining Kee- 

 ley 's apparatus and afterward spoke, 

 ho w ever guardedly, of his extraordi- 

 nary results. As an object lesson 

 in regard to the need for uncom- 

 promising skepticism when facts 

 which can not be accounted for on 

 understood principles are presented 

 for acceptance, the history of the 

 Keeley motor should not soon be 

 forgotten. 



