80 Notes of an Enquiry into the [January, 
therefore be content on this occasion with an outline only of 
my labours, leaving proofs and full details to another 
occasion. 
My principal object will be to place on record a series of 
actual occurrences which have taken place in my own house, 
in the presence of trustworthy witnesses, and under as 
strict test conditions as I could devise. Every faét which I 
have observed is, moreover, corroborated by the records of 
independent observers at other times and places. It will be 
seen that the facts are of the most astounding character, and 
seem utterly irreconcilable with all known theories of modern 
science. Having satisfied myself of their truth, it would be 
moral cowardice to withhold my testimony because my pre- 
vious publications were ridiculed by critics and others who 
knew nothing whatever of the subject, and who were too pre- 
judiced to see and judge for themselves whether or not there 
was truth in the phenomena; I shall state simply what 
I have seen and proved by repeated experiment and test, and 
‘“T have yet to learn that it is irrational to endeavour to dis- 
cover the causes of unexplained phenomena.” 
At the commencement, I must correct one or two errors 
which have taken firm possession of the public mind. One 
is that darkness is essential to the phenomena. ‘This is by 
no means the case. Except where darkness has been a neces- 
sary condition, as with some of the phenomena of luminous 
appearances, and in a fewother instances, everything recorded 
has taken place in the light. In the few cases where the 
phenomena noted have occurred in darkness I have been 
very particular to mention the fact ; moreover some special 
reason can be shown for the exclusion of light, or the results 
have been produced under such perfect test conditions that 
the suppression of one of the senses has not really weakened 
the evidence. 
Another common error is that the occurrences can be 
witnessed only at certain times and places,—in the rooms of 
the medium, or at hours previously arranged; and arguing 
from this erroneous supposition, an analogy has been 
insisted on between the phenomena called spiritual and the 
feats of legerdemain by professional ‘‘conjurors” and 
‘‘ wizards,” exhibited on their own platform and surrounded 
by all the appliances of their art. 
To show how far this is from the truth, I need only say 
that, with very few exceptions, the many hundreds of fa¢ts 
I am prepared to attest,—facts which to imitate by known 
mechanical or physical means would baffle the skill of a 
