EDITOR'S TABLE. 



703 



in ten has had any " occult " experi- 

 ences. Now, what we should like very 

 much to have would be a farther analy- 

 sis of these figures, showing the per- 

 centage of flighty or otherwise ill-bal- 

 anced minds among the "occult" and 

 the " non-occult " (if we may so apply 

 the words) classes respectively. Our 

 own experience would lead us to be- 

 lieve that the proportion would be vast- 

 ly larger in the former class than in the 

 latter. Who has not known many ex- 

 amples of the tremulous, nervous, hy- 

 persensitive, wonder-loving, hysterical, 

 or semi-hysterical type of constitution 

 among the devotees of ghost lore? And 

 if such examples occur, as we believe 

 they must, to the mind of every one, is 

 it not at least a probable inference that 

 " occultism " in its various phases has 

 something to do with that kind of mind ? 

 The ghost may be very ancient, but we 

 do not believe in him the more. The 

 trouble about him is that he has made 

 no progress since the earliest times ; in 

 fact, on the whole, ho has fallen back. 

 We should not be disposed to talk of the 

 "levitation" of Elijah ourselves had not 

 the reverend Mr. Haweis used the term 

 before us; but if, following the reverend 

 gentleman's lead, we consider the proph- 

 et's alleged translation in that light, sure- 

 ly it was a most successful feat in "levi- 

 tation," and a little ahead of anything the 

 modern world can show. And, speak- 

 ing generally, the apparitions and visions 

 and other spiritual or occult phenomena 

 of ancient times had more " body " to 

 them than those of our own day. If, 

 therefore, the ghost has made no prog- 

 ress in the course of three or four thou- 

 sand years, if he is just as uninstructive 

 and inconsequent a phenomenon now as 

 he was when we first encountered him, 

 if not a little more so, we may perhaps 

 be pardoned for thinking that he may 

 be safely and fairly ignored by people 

 who have an average amount of business 

 to attend to. The world is still waiting 

 for the very first message of any practi- 

 cal importance coming from a well-au- 



thenticated ghost, and, considering that 

 ghosts, such as they are, have been 

 coming and going for some thousands 

 of years, it is high time, if they have 

 anything to say, that they said it. 

 We are sadly in want of light on many 

 matters, and a well-informed ghost 

 might conceivably be of very great as- 

 sistance in human affairs. Up to the 

 present, however, all our light and 

 knowledge have come from patient study 

 of the laws of Nature ; and, such being 

 the case, we prefer to stand in the paths 

 that Science has worn and work at the 

 tasks she assigns. Even if the ghosts 

 succeed in getting themselves photo- 

 graphed, we shall not trouble ourselves 

 much about them, till we see what the 

 practical bearing of the whole business 

 is. If we might venture a prediction, it 

 would be that ghost photographs will 

 turn out to be an utter fraud, and that, 

 when the matter has been thoroughly 

 explored, one more lesson will have been 

 given to the world as to the delusive 

 character of " occultism " in all its 

 shapes and forms. 



A SHATTERED ARGUMENT. 

 Many of our readers will remember 

 the very truculent attack made by the 

 Duke of Argyll upon Prof. Huxley in 

 connection with the latter's demonstra- 

 tion of the impossibility of the Noachian 

 Deluge. Among the proofs of that ca- 

 tastrophe adduced by his Grace was the 

 existence high up on the Welsh hills of 

 large beds of comparatively recent ma- 

 rine shells. The sea had been there on 

 the mountain tops, exclaimed the Duke 

 in triumph, and that quite recently. One 

 of two things, therefore, had happened : 

 either the sea had been raised over a 

 thousand feet above its present level, or 

 the land had been suddenly depressed to 

 that extent, either of which occurrences 

 would produce a first-class flood. But 

 what do the most recent investigators, 

 the late Prof. Carvill Lewis and Prof. 

 G. F. Wright, tell us on this point? The 

 answer is furnished in our issue for De- 



