SCIENCE AND THE 'SPIRITS.' 451 



and the spirits were apparently in their most communi- 

 cative mood. The knocks came from under the table, 

 but no person present evinced the slightest desire to 

 look under it. I asked whether I might go under- 

 neath ; the permission was granted ; so I crept under 

 the table. Some tittered ; but the candid old A. ex- 

 claimed, * He has a right to look into the very dregs of 

 it, to convince himself.' Having pretty well assured 

 myself that no sound could be produced under the table 

 without its origin being revealed, I requested our host 

 to continue his questions. He did so, but in vain. 

 He adopted a tone of tender entreaty ; but the * dear 

 spirits ' had become dumb dogs, and refused to be 

 entreated. I continued under that table for at least a 

 quarter of an hour, after which, with a feeling of 

 despair as regards the prospects of humanity never be- 

 fore experienced, I regained my chair. Once there, the 

 spirits resumed their loquacity, and dubbed me * Poet 

 of Science.' 



This, then, is the result of an attempt made by a 

 scientific man to look into these spiritual phenomena. 

 It is not encouraging ; and for this reason. The present 

 promoters of spiritual phenomena divide themselves 

 into two classes, one of which needs no demonstration, 

 while the other is beyond the reach of proof. The 

 victims like to believe, and they do not like to be un- 

 deceived. Science is perfectly powerless in the presence 

 of this frame of mind. It is, moreover, a state per- 

 fectly compatible with extreme intellectual subtlety 

 and a capacity for devising hypotheses which only 

 require the hardihood engendered by strong conviction, 

 or by callous mendacity, to render them impregnable. 

 The logical feebleness of science is not sufficiently 

 borne in mind. It keeps down the weed of superstition, 

 not by logic but by slowly rendering the mental soil 



