342 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE. 



considered as little short of the miraculous when first 

 perceived. The electric telegraph was a visionary dream 

 among mediaeval physicists ; it has hardly yet ceased to 

 excite our wonder ; to our descendants centuries hence 

 it will probably appear inferior in ingenuity to some 

 inventions which they will possess. Now every strange 

 phenomenon may be a secret spring which, if rightly 

 touched, will open the door to new chambers in the palace 

 of nature. To refuse to believe, then, in the occurrence of 

 anything new and strange would be to neglect the most 

 precious chances of discovery. We may say with Hooke 

 that the believing strange things possible may perhaps 

 be an occasion of taking notice of such things as another 

 would pass by without regard as useless. We are not, 

 therefore, to shut our ears even to such apparently absurd 

 stories as those concerning second sight, clairvoyance, 

 animal magnetism, ode force, table-turning, or any of the 

 popular delusions which from time to time are current. 

 The facts recorded concerning these matters are facts in 

 some sense or other, and they demand explanation, either 

 as new natural phenomena, or as the results of combined 

 credulity and imposture. Most of the statements con 

 cerning the supposed phenomena referred to have been, 

 or by careful investigation would doubtless be, referred to 

 the latter head, and the absence of any appearance of 

 scientific ability or care in many of those who describe 

 them, is sufficient to cast a doubt upon their value. It is 

 mainly upon this ground, and not on account merely of 

 the strangeness and intrinsic improbability of the state 

 ments made that we should hesitate to accept them. Cer 

 tainly in the obscure phenomena of mind, those relating 

 to memory, dreams, somnambulism, and other peculiar 

 actions or states of the nervous system, there are many 

 inexplicable and almost incredible facts, and it is equally 

 unphilosophical to believe or to disbelieve without clear 



