444 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



XXII. 



SCIENCE AND THE 'SPIRITS* 



THEIR refusal to investigate 'spiritual phenomena* 

 is often urged as a reproach against scientific men. 

 I here propose to give a sketch of an attempt to apply 

 to the ' phenomena ' those methods of enquiry which 

 are found available in dealing with natural truth. 



Some years ago, when the spirits were particularly 

 active in this country, Faraday was invited, or rather 

 entreated, by one of his friends to meet and question 

 them. He had, however, already made their acquaint- 

 ance, and did not wish to renew it. I had not been 

 so privileged, and he therefore kindly arranged a 

 transfer of the invitation to me. The spirits themselves 

 named the time of meeting, and I was conducted to 

 the place at the day and hour appointed. 



Absolute unbelief in the facts was by no means my 

 condition of mind. On the contrary, I thought it pro- 

 bable that some physical principle, not evident to the 

 spiritualists themselves, might underlie their manifes- 

 tations. Extraordinary effects are produced by the 

 accumulation of small impulses. Galileo set a heavy 

 pendulum in motion ,by the well-timed puffs of his 

 breath. Ellicot set one clock going by the ticks of 

 another, even when the two clocks were separated by a 

 wall. Preconceived notions can, moreover, vitiate, to 

 an extraordinary degree, the testimony of even veracious 



