THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM. 727 



fact probably is, that most such claimants are about as competent 

 to form a trustworthy opinion on such a subject as they are to 

 pronounce upon the genuineness of a Syriac manuscript. The 

 matter is as much a technical acquisition as is the diagnos- 

 ticating of a disease. It is not at all to the discredit of the observ- 

 ing powers or the intellectual acumen of any one, to be deceived 

 by the performances of a conjurer, and the same holds true of the 

 professional part of mediumistic phenomena.* Until this homely 

 but salutary truth is impressed with all its importance upon all 

 intending investigators, there is little hope of checking the growth 

 of this vast superstition, f You believe that there will be an eclipse 

 of the moon when the astronomer predicts one, not because you 

 can calculate the time yourself, or even understand how the as- 

 tronomer does it, but because that is a technical acquisition which 



* " I do not think that this unpreparedncss and inobservancy of mind, in the presence 

 of a conjurer, is a thing of which any one who is not familiar with the tricks ah-eady need 

 be ashamed." — Mr. Hodgson. 



Even a conjurer can be nonplussed by a medium's performance if he have no experience 

 in the particular kind of sleight of hand required for the trick. This is the experience of 

 Mr. Harry Kellar. He at first declared himself unable to explain slate-writing as a trick, 

 but now can repeat the process in a variety of ways, and with far greater skill than me- 

 diums. Of course the spiritualists keep on citing his former testimony, and ignore his chal- 

 lenge to repeat by trickery any alleged spiritualistic phenomena witnessed by him three 

 times. 



f The above view ought, perhaps, to be modified somewhat. There is a class of spir- 

 itualistic manifestations, to be deceived by which is a mark of weak iusi^'ht or strong 

 prejudice. To this class belong the materialization of departed friends. On these Dr. 

 Furness writes thus : " Again and again men have led round the circles the materialized 

 spirits of their wives and introduced them to each visitor in turn ; fathers have taken round 

 their daughters, and I have seen widows sob in the arms of their dead husbands. Testi- 

 mony such as this staggers me. Have I been smitten with color-blindness ? Before me, 

 as far as I can detect, stands the very medium herself, in shape, size, form, and feature 

 true to a line, and yet one after another, honest men and women at my side, within ten 

 minutes of each other, assert that she is the absolute counterpart of their nearest and 

 dearest friend ; nay, that she is that friend. It is as incomprehensible to me as the asser- 

 tion that the heavens are green, and the leaves of the trees deep blue. Can it be that the 

 faculty of observation and comparison is rare, and that our features are really vague and 

 misty to our best friends ? Is it that the medium exercises some mesmeric influence on her 

 visitors, who are thus made to accept the faces which she wills them to see ? Or is it, after 

 all, only the dim light and a fresh illustration of la nuii tous les chats sont gris ? " Add to 

 this the confession of an exposed medium, Mr. D. D. Home : " The first seance I held, after 

 it became known to the Rochester people that I was a medium, a gentleman from Chicago 

 recognized his daughter Lizzie in me after I had covered my small mustache with a piece 

 of flesh-colored cloth, and reduced the size of my face with a shawl I had purposely hung 

 up in the back of the cabinet." Cases where different members of a circle instantly recog- 

 nize in the spirit form entirely different persons are not uncommon. Here so much of the 

 trick depends upon the sitter that he must be a firm believer, or very simple, to be deceived. 

 It is this kind of manifestations with which the better class of spiritualists have least to 

 do ; and it is seldom that a conversion of a real investigator begins with such materializa- 

 tions. This preying upon the feelings of simple-minded folk is one of the greatest scandals 

 of the movement. 



