XXII 



SCIENCE AND THE "SPIKITS 



THEIR refusal to investigate "spiritual phenomena" 

 is often urged as a reproach against scientific men. 

 I here propose to give a sketch of an attempt to 

 apply to the "phenomena" those methods of inquiry which 

 are found available in dealing with natural truth. 



Some years ago, when the spirits were particularly 

 active in this country, Faraday was invited, or rather 

 entreated, by one of his friends to meet and question 

 them. He had, however, already made their acquaint- 

 ance, and did not wish to renew it. I had not been so 

 privileged, and he therefore kindly arranged a transfer 

 of the invitation to me. The spirits themselves named 

 the time of meeting, and I was conducted to the place 

 at the day and hour appointed. 



Absolute unbelief in the facts was by no means my 

 condition of mind. On the contrary, I thought it prob- 

 able that some physical principle, not evident to the spir- 

 itualists themselves, might underlie their manifestations. 

 Extraordinary effects are produced by the accumulation 

 of small impulses. Galileo set a heavy pendulum in mo- 

 tion by the well-timed puffs of his breath. Ellicott set 

 one clock going by the ticks of another, even when the 

 two clocks were separated by a wall. Preconceived no- 

 tions can, moreover, vitiate, to an extraordinary degree, 



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