SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM. 247 



its gravitating power, and produce vibratory motion. He 

 calls this the psychic force. 



Now, this is direct and unequivocal emh'-spiritualisrn. It 

 is a theory set up in opposition to the supernatural hypo- 

 theses of the Spiritualists, and Mr. Crookes's position in 

 reference to Spiritualism is precisely analogous to that 

 of Faraday in reference to table-turning. For the same 

 reasons as those above-quoted, the great master of experi- 

 mental investigation examined the phenomena called table- 

 turningj and he concluded that they were due to muscular 

 force, just as Mr. Crookes concludes that the more com- 

 plex phenomena he has examined are due to psychic force. 



Speaking of the theories of the Spiritualists, Mr. Crookes, 

 in his first paper (July, 1870), says: " The pseudo-scientific 

 Spiritualist professes to know every thing. Xo calculations 

 trouble his serenity; no hard experiments, no laborious 

 readings; no weary attempts to make clear in words that 

 which has rejoiced the heart and elevated the mind. He 

 talks glibly of all sciences and arts, overwhelming the in- 

 quirer with terms like ' electro-biologise,' 'psychologise,' 

 'animal magnetism,' etc., a mere play upon words, show- 

 ing ignorance rather than understanding." And further 

 on he says: " I confess that the reasoning of some Spiritu- 

 alists would almost seem to justify Faraday's severe state- 

 ment that many dogs have the power of coming to more 

 logical conclusions." 



I have already referred to the muddled misstatement of 

 Mr. Crookes's position by the newspaper writers, who al- 

 most unanimously describe him and Dr. Huggins as two 

 distinguished scientific men who have recently been con- 

 verted to Spiritualism. The above quotations, to which, 

 if space permitted, I might add a dozen others from either 

 the first, the second, or the third of Mr. Crookes's papers, 

 in which he as positively and decidedly controverts the 

 dreams of the Spiritualists, will show how egregiously these 

 writers have been deceived. They have relied very natu- 

 rally on the established respectability of the " Quarterly Ke- 

 view," and have thus deluded both themselves and their 

 readers. Considering the marvelous range of subjects 

 these writers have to -treat, and the acres of paper they 



