43 2 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



veracity of particular narrators, we may yet not 

 unfairly point out that it is not absolutely impossible 

 that at some stage or other, either in the events 

 related or in the handing down of the story, some 

 degree of deception may have come in. Tricks have 

 been played in these matters, beyond all possibility of 

 question. Untruths have been told also. The person 

 who doubts a narrative of the marvellous is not bound 

 to say where he suspects that some mistake has been 

 made, some deception practised, some statement made 

 which is not strictly veracious. He may not wish to 

 say, or he may even be very far from believing, that 

 the narrator is a trifle foolish or not quite honest. He 

 may put faith in the persons cited as authorities for 

 the narrative ; and he may even carry his faith, as well 

 in the sense as in the honesty of the persons concerned, 

 a step or two farther. Yet he may still find room for 

 doubt. Or again, he may have very little faith, and 

 very ample room for doubt, and yet may have valid 

 reasons for not wishing to state as much. Persons who 

 tell marvellous stories ought not to press too earnestly 

 for their auditor's opinion. It is neither fair nor 

 wise. 



As an instance of a story which has been unwisely 

 insisted upon by believers in the supernatural, I take 

 the marvellous narrative of M. Bach and the old 

 spinet. As given in outline by Professor Wallace, 

 it runs thus : ' M. Leon Bach purchased at an old 

 curiosity shop in Paris a very ancient but beautiful 

 spinet as a present to his father (a great-grandson of 



