SPIRITUALISM AS A SCIENTIFIC QUESTION. 591 



we can conclude from the character of their writings upon slates, can 

 only be described as lamentable. These writings belong throughout 

 to the domain of higher or lower stupidity, chiefly lower i. e., they 

 are absolutely without sense. 



3. The moral condition of the souls seems to be relatively the most 

 favorable. According to all the evidence, the character of harmless- 

 ness can not be denied them. It shows itself particularly in the fact 

 that they hold it to be necessary to make excuses for proceedings of a 

 somewhat brutal nature, in case of becoming guilty of such as, for 

 instance, the destruction of a bed-screen, with a politeness which, in a 

 ghost, is certainly deserving of acknowledgment. This harmlessness, 

 therefore, gives us a right to expect something good of their other 

 moral qualities, concerning which nothing particular is known. 



Pardon me if I seem to joke. You would misunderstand me if 

 you should believe that I had adduced these consequences of your 

 premises with any other intention than that of indicating as forcibly 

 as possible the earnest scientific, moral, and religious anxiety which 

 the views that you represent in your latest essay must necessarily 

 awaken. 



I will not speak of how, even in the most favorable case of your 

 example finding no further following, the science which concerns us 

 both most nearly, philosophy, can not be without danger of having its 

 reputation severely damaged, when one of its distinguished representa- 

 tives, who has treated almost all of its departments and has especially 

 occupied himself earnestly with logical studies, now suddenly throws 

 overboard all principles of scientific investigation, in order to find in 

 the revelations of rapping spirits the means of supplementing our in- 

 sight into the order of the world. The specialist in scientific investi- 

 gation has the prerogative of a certain one-sidedness ; we justify many 

 a freak in his narrower field which can not abide the test of criticism. 

 But what is to become of philosophy, if it abandons the general prin- 

 ciples of knowledge, whose authority it is its office to establish for the 

 special sciences ? Yet even this particular interest is of subordinate 

 importance, compared with the serious consequences which your pro- 

 cedure must have, if, which God forbid, it should find more followers 

 in the scientific world. Whence is the scientific investigator to get 

 courage and perseverance for his work, if the laws of nature, accord- 

 ing to the prospect which you open, are approaching a point where 

 they shall be done away with ? And who will still be inclined to oc- 

 cupy himself with scientific problems, when he is allured by the hope 

 of obtaining an answer to the deepest and highest questions by means 

 of spiritualistic appearances? It is true that the disclosures already 

 won in this way are good for nothing. But how were it possible for 

 individuals and societies to spend their time in these idle occupations, 

 if they did not hope for better results ? A mournful intellectual deso- 

 lation would be the necessary consequence, if views such as you pro- 



