126 GENERAL VIEW AND BASIS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



scientific investigations. If this were not the case, we 

 could neither interpret nor understand the mode of 

 action of the Great First Cause in such matters. An 

 occult phenomenon, therefore, must possess characteristic 

 signs, by means of which we may distinguish it from 

 those which are not occult ; also, if it is due to some new, 

 unknown, or mysterious power, then it must possess that 

 power, in addition to its ordinary natural forces ; or else 

 we must assume that a precisely equivalent amount of- 

 natural force is destroyed at the moment that the occult 

 power is exerted, and this would contradict the great, 

 and, as far as we know, universal law of conservation of 

 energy. 



A person who affirms that a certain material pheno- 

 menon is due to an occult cause (of any kind whatever) 

 might easily, in a suitable case, make an experimental 

 investigation to test it. And if the phenomenon was 

 really due to that cause, he might thereby as readily 

 prove it as a scientific man proves that other material 

 phenomena are due to natural causes. If the phenomenon 

 was really due to the supposed cause, it would be proved by 

 showing that the natural force was liberated, and became 

 free, which would otherwise have been expended, absorbed, 

 and disappear whilst producing the observed effect. In a 

 properly selected case, the result would be as clear as 

 scientific results usually are, provided sufficient care and 

 trouble were taken such as are taken in ordinary scientific 

 researches. It is also at least as much the duty of persons 

 who affirm that certain phenomena are due to new or 

 occult causes, to prove, by proper experimental investi- 

 gations, that they are so, as it is of scientific men to 

 make their researches ; and the question may be asked, 

 why is it not done ? 



It is irrational to assume and promulgate as a fixed 



