126 Darwinism and Other Essays, 



searching for some analogous case within the re- 

 gion of experience, is the method of science and 

 common sense, whereas Mr. Crookes's method, of 

 deserting the region of experience in quest of 

 some " psychic force," is the method which char- 

 acterizes alike the barbaric myth-maker and the 

 ill-trained thinker in a civilized community. So 

 long as scientific men are capable of doing such 

 unscientific things, it is not to be wondered at 

 that primitive superstitions still survive. 



Some of Mr. Home's other tricks are suggestive 

 in another way. The feat of making a small 

 table so heavy that the credulous bystander carf- 

 not stir it f rom the floor shows what curious re- 

 sults may be obtained from highly impressionable 

 people by riveting their attention. Dr. Ham- 

 mond has himself performed this trick with entire 

 success. Taking a small Japanese table, weigh- 

 ing less than two pounds, he informed a young 

 man that he was going to make it too heavy to 

 be raised from the floor. For a quarter of an 

 hour he held the tips of his fingers on it, until 

 the young man's attention became riveted, when 

 he removed his hands and challenged the young 

 man to lift the table. It proved immovable, and 

 " I saw," says our author, " that so far from 

 endeavouring to lift it, as he supposed he was 



