296 BARON REICHENBACH'S 



the subject, may suggest or devise. A knowledge or branch 

 of knowledge once conceded as belonging to the category 

 of things demonstrable by experiment, can lay no claim to 

 the position of being accepted as a tenet of dogmatic faith. 

 This is a matter in which no middle course can exist ; as will 

 be obvious to every candid mind addressing itself to the 

 question. 



Whatever the explanation may be, the fact remains the 

 same, viz., as already remarked, that every form of modern 

 mysticism professes to be based upon the testimony of experi- 

 ment; and it seems to be a great point in the estimation 

 of modern mystics to gain acquiescence in the postulate that 

 a physical force or physical forces may yet remain to be dis- 

 covered other than those already known. 



In what way the granting the existence of a physical 

 force as yet unrecognised can promote, or can be assumed 

 to promote, a belief in such manifestations as table-turning, 

 spirit-rapping, rope-knot delivery, and what we may call 

 phantom fiddle-flying, it is not easy to understand ; save and 

 except on the sole assumption that the laws of such physical 

 force have been studied and mastered, just as the laws of 

 gravitation, electricity, and magnetism have been studied 

 and mastered ; that, moreover, the phenomena developed are 

 reconcilable with such laws. In any other case the credence 

 of one in the phenomena lately called preternatural ' would 

 be no more advanced through the concession, for the sake of 

 argument, or even the demonstration of a new physical force, 

 than it would through the concession, or even the demon- 

 stration, of sea-serpents. 



Nevertheless, inasmuch as the demonstration of a new 

 physical force is considered to be so important a matter in 

 relation to phenomena lately termed preternatural, I shall 

 proceed to set forth an outline of experiments conducted not 

 many years ago by Baron Keichenbach, a somewhat distin- 

 guished chemist. By way of introduction it should be remarked, 



