Modern Witchcraft. 121 



the Roman Church fare no better in his hands 

 than the wonderful deeds of the Homes and the 

 Davenports, and of these it is left doubtful 

 whether the most marvellous part is the audacity 

 of the performers or the gullibility of the spec- 

 tators. 



According to Dr. Hammond, spiritualism is for 

 the most part barefaced imposture, the remainder 

 being innocent delusion. By many persons who 

 adopt this view on the whole, yet are unable to 

 realize how great is the capacity of the human 

 mind for being deceived, a reservation is made in 

 behalf of divers phenomena which are alleged to 

 take place in conformity to some undiscovered 

 "natural law," or to require for their explanation 

 some species of "force" other than those with 

 which scientific men are familiar. Dr. Hammond 

 is not inclined to admit any such reservation as 

 this, which, even if it were allowed, would be of 

 small use to the spiritualists. Even if an event 

 were admitted to be inexplicable save by an ap- 

 peal to some " force " other than those that have 

 hitherto been studied, we should still have no sort 

 of reason for assuming any connection between 

 this unknown " force " and the " spirits " of de- 

 ceased persons. Such an assumption could find 

 no warrant whatever, save in a general a priori 



