A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 17 
producing muscular contraction, may, by an effort of the will, be transmitted 
to external inanimate matter, in such a manner as to influence in some degree 
its gravitating power, and produce vibratory motion. He calls this the psychic 
force. 
“‘ Now, this is direc and unequivocal anti-spiritualism. It is a theory set up 
in opposition to the supernatural hypotheses of the Spiritualists, and Mr. 
Crookes’s position in reference to Spiritualism is precisely analogous to that of 
Faraday in reference totable-turning. For precisely the same reasons as those 
above quoted, the great master of experimental investigation examined the 
phenomena called table-turning, and he concluded that they were due to mus- 
cular force, just as Mr. Crookes concludes that the more complex phenomena 
he has examined are due to psychic force. 
‘¢ Speaking of the theories of the Spiritualists, Mr. Crookes, in his first paper 
(July, 1870), says :— 
‘“«*The pseudo-scientific Spiritualist professes to know everything. No cal- 
culations trouble his serenity; no hard experiments, no laborious readings; 
no weary attempts to make clear in words that which has rejoiced the heart 
and elevated the mind. He talks glibly of all sciences and arts, overwhelming 
the inquirer with terms like ‘ electro-biologise,’ ‘ psycologise,’ ‘animal mag- 
netism,’ &c., a mere play upon words, showing ignorance rather than under- 
standing.” 
‘* And further on he says :— 
“¢T confess that the reasoning of some Spiritualists would almost seem to 
justify Faraday’s severe statement—that many dogs have the power of coming 
to more logical conclusions.’ 
“T have already referred to the muddled mis-statement of Mr. Crookes’s posi- 
tion by the newspaper writers, who almost unanimously describe him and Dr. 
Huggins as two distinguished scientific men who have recently been converted 
to Spiritualism. The above quotations, to which, if space permitted, I might 
add a dozen others from either the first, the second, or third of Mr. Crookes’s 
papers, in which he as positively and decidedly controverts the dreams of the 
Spiritualists, will show how egregiously these writers have been deceived. 
They have relied very naturally on the established respectability of the 
Quarterly Review, and have thus deluded both themselves and their readers. 
Considering the marvellous range of subjects these writers have to treat, and 
the acres of paper they daily cover, it is not surprising that they should have 
been thus misled in reference to a subje& carrying them considerably out of 
their usual track; but the offence of the Quarterly is not sovenial. It 
assumes, in fact, a very serious complexion when further investigated. 
“ The title of the article is ‘‘ Spiritualism and its Recent Converts,” and the 
‘recent converts’ most specially and prominently named are Mr. Crookes 
and Dr. Huggins. Serjeant Cox is also named, but not as a recent convert ; 
for the reviewer describes him as an old and hopelessly infatuated Spiritualist.* 
* It is due to Mr. Serjeant Cox to state that, so far from being an old Spiritualist, he had 
seen nothing of Spiritualism until he joined the Investigation Committee of the Dialeétical 
Society, confident that he should thus assist in dissipating a delusion or deteGting an impos- 
ture; but by that elaborate examination he was satisfied (as he states in his Report) that many 
of the asserted phenomena are genuine, but that there was no evidence whatever to support 
the theory of Spiritualism ; that he was convinced by what he had seen that the Force was a 
purely psychical one and in no way produced by spirits of the dead. He is, in fact, a decided 
B 
