FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 247 



prominent advocates of "spiritualism," and our confidence in 

 their honesty, be held to require our assent to what they narrate 

 as their experiences, in regard to a class of phenomena which they 

 declare that they have witnessed, but which they cannot reproduce 

 for the satisfaction of other men of science who desire to submit 

 them to the rigorous tests which they regard as necessary to sub- 

 stantiate their validity, then we must, in like manner, accept the 

 records of Swedenborg's revelations as binding on our belief 

 That they w^ere true to him I cannot doubt ; and in the same 

 manner, I do not question that Mr. Crookes is thoroughly honest, 

 when he says that he has repeatedly witnessed the " levitation of 

 the human body." But I can regard his statements in no other 

 light, than as evidence of the degree in which certain minds are 

 led by the influence of strong " prepossession," to believe in the 

 creations of their own visual imagination. 



All history shows that nothing is so potent as religious enthu- 

 siasm, in fostering this tendency ; the very state of enthusiasm, in 

 fact, being the " possession " of the mind by fixed ideas, which 

 overbear the teachings of objective experience. These, when 

 directed to great and noble ends, may overcome the obstacles 

 which deter cooler judgments from attempting them ; but, on the 

 other hand, may also move not only individuals but great masses 

 of people to extravagances at which sober common sense revolts ; 

 as the history of the Flagellants, the dancing mania, and other 

 religious epidemics of the Middle Ages forcibly illustrate. And 

 nothing is more remarkable in the history of these epidemics, than 

 the vividness with which people who were not asleep, saw visions 

 that were obviously inspired by the prevalent religious notions of 

 their times. Thus, some of the dancers saw heaven opened, and 

 the Saviour enthroned with the Virgin Mary ; whilst others saw 

 hell yawning before their feet, or felt as if bathed in blood ; their 

 frantic leaps being prompted by their eagerness to reach towards 

 the one or to escape from the other. 



In the next place, I would briefly direct attention to the influ- 

 ence of prepossessions on those interpretations of our sensational 

 experiences, which we are prone to substitute for the statement of 

 the experiences themselves. Of such misinterpretations, the 

 records of science are full 3 the tendency is one which besets 



