58 BEING AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



relative examination, that we are in no instance justified 

 in neglecting or dispensing with all the practical verifica- 

 tion in our power. We are entitled to assume nothing 

 where we have the power to test or verify, and neglect to 

 do so. And as corroboration forms the great convincing 

 power of the senses, when more than one of them are 

 brought to bear upon a subject, if the subject be what it 

 appears and the want of corroboration is instantly mani- 

 fested where it appears to be what it is not no charlatan 

 or pretender has a right to demand our credence till he 

 has fully satisfied every right and requisite of true evidence, 

 and every means of possible corroboration^ which the demand 

 upon us, if justifiable, ought to allow. No teacher of real or 

 important truth will ever ask our credence on less fair and 

 fully satisfactory terms; for teachers of truth are not 

 anxious that it should stand on a weak, precarious, or 

 inadequate basis ; their desire, above all things, is that it 

 should be clear and convincing in itself, and as immacu- 

 late in appearance as it is in reality. We may make 

 perfectly certain therefore that whatever claims secrecy or 

 the dark, or partial obscurity for any point or detail of its 

 manifestation, is stamped with deception or imposture. Of 

 this class, Spiritualism or Spirit-rapping, together with all 

 the Seances and their accessories, in which it darkly or 

 dimly delights, is deeply and indelibly tainted by the 

 very obscurity in which it is self-arrayed. Its stain is 

 inherent in its associations. It dare not come forward 

 and challenge full investigation in the open light ; and no 

 pretended or even real disinterestedness in the operator 

 can rescue it from the brand of imposture. Truth does 

 not so proclaim itself : it disdains the aid of the charlatan 

 or the aspect of mystery. Its most glorious attribute is 

 that it is self-assertive, self-demonstrative, and that it 

 claims in the modesty of its noble and immaculate integrity 

 to be nothing but what it is. But when a rap professes to 



