EDITOR'S TABLE. 



701 



dealing with the old superstition in a 

 new form, and which spreads hy the law 

 of contagion rather than that of reason ? 



There are two aspects of spiritual- 

 ism, one of which is entitled to the at- 

 tention of scientific men and the other 

 is not. When it is investigated by com- 

 petent authorities, by men qualified for 

 the task, it is proper to publish the re- 

 sults, and this we have done and are 

 still doing. We have given more promi- 

 nence in the pages of this periodical to 

 psychical' and psychological questions 

 which involve and enwrap the phenom- 

 ena of spiritualism have published 

 more papers bearing upon the philoso- 

 phy of the subject than any other 

 popular magazine either in this coun- 

 try or abroad. 



But there is another aspect of spir- 

 itualism which does not deserve the 

 slightest regard from scientific men, 

 and this is exactly the aspect which is 

 most insisted upon by spiritualists. As 

 its problems are usually presented, the 

 man of science can not for a moment 

 entertain them without committing in- 

 tellectual suicide. Science postulates 

 an inflexible order of nature as the 

 foundation of all its work. It starts 

 from this principle, and assumes it at 

 every step, in every direction. That 

 which makes science possible is the 

 uniformities among the phenomena of 

 the natural world. It is its sole busi- 

 ness to trace out these uniformities in 

 time and space, which form the essen- 

 tial fabric of nature's order. The man 

 of science works them out and formu- 

 lates them as laws. All scientific rea- 

 soning, all induction, deduction, gen- 

 eralization, comparison, classification, 

 are based upon the regularity and con- 

 stancy of natural operations. The first 

 article of a scientific man's faith is 

 that Nature never breaks her regu- 

 larities, but holds true to an unalter- 

 able method of law. He knows that, 

 if he comes upon what appear as 

 breaks or suspensions of this order, 

 it is he who is at fault, and that with 



further knowledge the apparent de- 

 rangement will disappear. 



Now, the spiritualist comes to him, 

 challenging his first principles. He de- 

 nies his order of nature as being unal- 

 terable, and says that he knows of that 

 which is above nature, that is greater 

 than nature, that interferes with it, and 

 breaches all its vaunted stabilities with 

 infinite ease. To this the man of sci- 

 ence must logically reply: "I can not 

 waste time in listening to you. I am 

 limited to nature, you take your stand 

 outside of it, and there is no common 

 ground between us. You come to me 

 denying that which I find demonstrated 

 everywhere. Between your spiritual- 

 ism and my naturalism there is a fun- 

 damental antagonism ; your position is 

 radically anti-scientific, and so let us 

 keep clear of each other." 



That such is the attitude of the honest 

 spiritualist is undeniable. He approach- 

 es the man of science not as an inquirer 

 he does not know what inquiry is 

 but he comes with his mind made up, 

 saturated with credulity, and full of 

 tales about what is going on in tran- 

 scendental spheres, psychic realms, and 

 the supernatural world. Witness the 

 harmonical philosophy of A. J. Davis, 

 based upon intercourse with invisible 

 beings ; witness Mr. Kiddle's late book 

 filled with alleged communications from 

 the spirit-world. The whole mass of 

 modern spiritualistic literature is made 

 up of revelations claiming to be super- 

 natural, and to constitute a modern 

 miraculous dispensation. The assump- 

 tion which underlies all this contradicts 

 the truth which is at the foundation of 

 all science. The believers in astonish- 

 ing revelations ask for " investigation " : 

 their claims have been investigated for 

 five hundred years, and all science is a 

 report against them. 



The state of mind here betrayed is 

 simply lamentable ; in respect of intel- 

 ligence, it is not one whit in advance 

 of the veriest superstitions of the mid- 

 dle ages. Spiritualists are men to 



