288 MODERN MYSTICISM AND MODERN SCIENCE. 



moved, a sharp crack results, which may be repeated by an 

 operator at pleasure. Equally facile of solution is the oc- 

 currence of raps against the table an agile foot will accom- 

 plish all. 



One great feat of summoned spirits, according to the 

 spiritualists or rather, perhaps, I should say, of the spirit- 

 mediums is the manifestation of a luminous hand ; another, 

 the inscription of the name c John' in red letters upon the 

 human arm. If Mr. Foster's ' sperrits,' in the fulness of their 

 knowledge, should look upon these demonstrations as sufficient 

 for their needs sufficient, that is to say, for mystifying the 

 general public then can I only regret the shallowness of 

 public intelligence. The apparition of a luminous hand could 

 be represented optically in a darkened room the condition 

 required by mediums; and as for the red-letter writing on the 

 arm, I could accomplish that trick, in better caligraphy than 

 Mr. Foster's 'sperrit' clerk, with a little cantharidine, regu- 

 lated as to its action by a perforated oil-skin stencil-plate. 



Amidst the cloudy doubts wherewith the popular mind 

 is oppressed in regard to modern spiritualism, some general 

 reflections may be pondered on with chance of consolation. 

 If the proverb, ( By their fruits shall ye know them,' be not 

 grown obsolete by time, how low and mean will the votaries 

 of modern mysticism appear by comparison with modern men 

 of science ! 



Granted the reality of what the mystics proclaim, how 

 low and grovelling, how mean, the intelligence of spirits thus 

 commanded ! How incomplete the education of a ghost that 

 writes spirit ^sperrit,' and cannot read ' Goethe' if written in 

 German ! 



Are such the destinies of the never-dying soul 1 Is this 

 the highest intelligence to which the portals of death give 

 entrance? Why, at the very best, the ghosts by modern 

 mystics summoned are lower in the scale of intelligence than 

 the goblins of a German fairy-tale. In evil-doing, the utmost 



