4 
1875. 
and thoughtful examination of the 
subject by the passing effect of mere 
prejudice or fashion. 
It is necessary to make this remark, 
because the more enthusiastic spirit- 
ualists seem now to be sustained by 
a premature confidence that such 
prejudice and fashion are the only 
obstacles which they have to over- 
come. A cause which is numerically 
weak has some advantage when its 
opponents think that the weakest ar- 
guments against it will suffice. Mere 
laziness, rather than want of capacity, 
must be blamed for the silly things 
which are constantly being said to 
disprove the truth of Spiritualism ; 
but its more thoughtful supporters 
will do well to consider carefully if 
any valid arguments can be produced 
against them. It is with the objec 
of inviting such consideration, Sir, 
that J have written this letter, which 
must be looked upon as an attempt— 
however unsuccessful—to put the 
question in the light in which it is 
likely to be regarded when the 
effe& of prejudice has worn away. 
In the first place, then, I think it 
must be at once conceded that the 
present popular explanation of Spi- 
ritualism cannot be sustained. This 
popular explanation we know is this: 
—All the phenomena are nothing but 
a happy mixture of cheating and de- 
lusion. All those—scientific men and 
others—who have tried experiments 
upon these facts are deceived, just in 
the same way in which the writer or 
‘*the general reader’? would be de- 
ceived by Messrs. Maskelyne and 
Cooke, only with this difference—that 
we should know we had been tricked, 
and they donot. This general opinion, 
I think, must change. To suppose 
that one man after another should 
enter upon the examination of these 
phenomena with a firm determination 
to expose the deception, and a perfect 
confidence of being able to do so, yet 
should end at last by being the victim 
of common trickery ; to find, too, that 
many of these enquirers were well 
trained in the habits of scientific ex- 
periment,—this gives too rude a 
shock to our belief either in the value 
of human testimony or in the power 
of human skill in detecting falsehood 
and discovering truth. For on the 
hypothesis of mere trickery, of these 
three conclusions one :—Either all 
Correspondence. 
267 
those enquirers who are ready to 
vouch for the truth of some of the 
facts of Spiritualism were—excuse 
the discourtesy for the sake of the 
argument—deliberate liars; or else 
they were less capable of investi- 
gating these facts than we—the gene- 
ral public—are ; or, finally, if we had 
investigated them we should have 
been likewise deceived. Now I think, 
without any excessive modesty, we 
may put aside the second hypothesis, 
The dilemma in which we stand, 
therefore, is this :—Either concurrent 
human testimony of the highest 
seeming chara@ter is valueless, for all 
those who give it may be deliberate 
liars ; or else we only preserve our- 
selves from error by not investi- 
gating,—in other words, the use of 
enquiry and reason is not a method 
of discovering truth. It is difficult 
to say which of these two conclusions 
is the most untenable. 
Must we, then, admit the fads, and 
endeavour to discover some natural 
law which shall account for them ? 
If these fas had not been of a 
nature different from those which re- 
warded your earlier enquiries, it would 
seem as if they might be admitted on 
an hypothesis which would give no 
violent shock to our present World- 
Theory. I need hardly say I allude 
to the hypothesis which you yourself 
started under the name of Psychic 
Force. Science is disposed to admit 
the phenomena to which has been 
given the premature and rather mean- 
less name of Ele&ro-Biology. This 
series of phenomena includes the 
action of one mind or brain upon 
another, and through that other brain 
upon the muscles of the body to 
which it belongs. The Psychic Force 
theory extends this notion to the 
affecting of outward material objects 
by the same brain power. In the or- 
dinary experience of life we know of 
but one way of affeGing another 
brain,—by the transmission of ideas 
through the recognised channel of 
speech,—just as we know of but one 
way in which the brain can affect in- 
animate matter,—that is, by the move- 
ment of the muscles of the body. To 
suppose a new exercise of this brain 
power in the second case is scarcely 
more difficult than to grant it in the 
first. Yet this is all the Psychic 
Force theory demands. As in Electro- 
