756 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



tion. Of course mere reading probably does not convince 

 anybody. It certainly would not convince me. It is experi- 

 ment, personal investigation, that is required. But if a man 

 will not investigate — if he will persist in sitting in an armchair, 

 reading books and complaining that they do not convince him — 

 what can we do with him ? We can only exhort him to be more 

 scientific, to give up talking, and investigate for himself. I am 

 reminded of a clerical acquaintance of mine who "could see no 

 evidence for evolution." There are none so blind as those who 

 won't see. 



Mr. Shelton says that a well-known conjurer " has never yet 

 failed to reproduce every phenomenon credited to ' spirits ' that 

 has been brought before him." A very wild statement ! Mr. 

 Maskelyne (who I suppose is meant) can do remarkable things, 

 on his own stage and with all his concealed apparatus, but I am 

 not aware that he has offered to reproduce the phenomena of 

 Florence Cook in the house of the President of the Royal 

 Society. I should like to see the conjurer who could produce 

 a Katie King in my house (still more in the house of an F.R.S.), 

 with half a dozen of my intimate friends present, with a good 

 light, and the key of the locked door in my pocket. 



As to telepathy, which is " not proven " (that is a matter of 

 opinion, depending partly on what is meant by " proven "), we 

 know well enough that it is a possible alternative (as regards 

 some of the evidence) to the survival hypothesis, and that, if it 

 is a fact, it may be material or etherial in its process. But I 

 agree very cordially that it is " rash folly " to admit an ether- 

 wave telepathy except as a mere guess — a guess, moreover, 

 which the details of the evidence seem to render probably mis- 

 taken. Is it not equally rash folly for Mr. Shelton to say that, 

 when telepathy has explained all it can, "the residuum ceases 

 to be worth investigating"? No doubt this is so, to one who 

 "knows little and cares less" about the subject. But there are 

 others who think that even small residua do not cease to be 

 worth investigating. Rayleigh and Ramsay discovered argon by 

 following up the small residual difference between atmospheric 

 nitrogen and nitrogen obtained from other sources. And as 

 telepathy is " not proven," the spiritistic residuum is not proven 

 to be small. It may turn out very large. It depends on the 

 scope of telepathy. And this is a matter for investigation. 



As to Mr. Shelton's suggestion that Sir Oliver Lodge should 



