VI POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES 195 



In another part of my treatment of the case I 

 have been less fortunate. I was careful to say 

 that, for anything I could "absolutely prove to the 

 contrary," there might be in the universe demonic 

 beings who could enter into and possess men, and 

 even be transferred from them to pigs ; and that 

 I, for my part, could not venture to declare a 

 priori that the existence of such entities was 

 " impossible." I was, however, no less careful to 

 remark that I thought the evidence hitherto 

 adduced in favour of the existence of such beings 

 " ridiculously insufficient " to warrant the belief in 

 them. 



To my surprise, this statement of what, after 

 the closest reflection, I still conceive to be the 

 right conclusion, has been hailed as a satisfactory 

 admission by opponents, and lamented as a peril- 

 ous concession by sympathisers. Indeed, the tone 

 of the comments of some candid friends has been 

 such that I began to suspect that I must be en- 

 tering upon a process of retrogressive metamor- 

 phosis which might eventually give me a place 

 among the respectabilities. The prospect, perhaps, 

 ought to have pleased me ; but I confess I felt 

 something of the uneasiness of the tailor who said 

 that, whenever a customer's circumference was 

 either much less, or much more, than at the last 

 measurement, he at once sent in his bill ; and I 

 was not consoled until I recollected that, thirteen 

 years ago, in discussing Hume's essay on 



