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have my own theories and inclinations towards convictions, but I 
should like all who may take an interest in these matters to admit 
that we have not yet reached the stage for enunciations of theories 
and systems. What people who are interested in the inquiry have 
to do is to register, sift, and catalogue facts. With regard to the 
phenomena themselves, I accept the thesis which most spiritualists 
would accept, namely, “that they have discovered a force unknown 
to science, governed by an intelligence outside a human body.” 
Let us assume, then, what is a fact, that the truth of the phenomena 
is attested, after careful examination, by numbers of intelligent 
men. What is there that should prevent us accepting their 
testimony? Instances of trickery and fraud, common in this as in 
other matters, do not affect those instances where a belief in their 
presence would necessitate an amount of credulity far greater than 
that which is inveighed against. The triviality of the manifestations 
does not shake it. Professor Huxley once said that even supposing 
spiritualism was true, he did not care to listen to spirits whose 
conversation never rose above the level of the gossip of a provincial 
town. A very fair remark, and one in which all frequenters of 
spirit circles must often have felt inclined to concur; but after all, 
the question still is, are the phenomena genuine? and if this is 
attested by the evidence of credible witnesses, what is said or done 
at spirit circles is for the present at least of secondary importance. 
We are not, I suppose, to assume that we are, in virtue of our inner 
consciousness, perfectly acquainted with every possible condition 
of spirit life, assuming its existence, and that everything that does not 
immediately square with these preconceived ideas is to be dis- 
missed at once. We might remember that when a fresh vista of 
discovery is opened to our eyes, we at first see but a portion of 
the realm of fact it may reveal to us. 
Its SIGNIFICANCE. 
What, then, is the value of the discoveries of spiritualism, 
assuming them to be true? ‘Trivial and perplexing as they are for 
the most part in themselves, their value lies in this, that once the 
existence of anything in the nature of spirit is admitted, the whole 
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