6 MY LIFE 



many years ago, people can only believe new and extraordinary 

 facts if there is a place for them in their existing " fabric of 



thought/ 1 The majority of people to-day have been brought 



Up in the belief that miracles, ghosts, and the whole series of 

 Strange phenomena here described cannot exist; that they are 

 contrary to the laws of nature; that they are the superstitions 

 of a bygone age; and that therefore they are necessarily either 

 impostures or delusions. There is no place in the fabric of 

 their thought into which such facts can be fitted. When I 

 first began this inquiry it was the same with myself. The facts 

 did not fit into my then existing fabric of thought. All my 

 preconceptions, all my knowledge, all my belief in the suprem- 

 acy of science and of natural law were against the possibility 

 of such phenomena. And even when, one by one, the facts 

 were forced upon me without possibility of escape from them, 

 still, as Sir David Brewster declared after being at first 

 astounded by the phenomena he saw with Mr. Home, ' ' spirit 

 was the last thing I could give in to." Every other possible 

 solution was tried and rejected. Unknown laws of nature 

 were found to be of no avail when there was always an un- 

 known intelligence behind the phenomena — an intelligence 

 that showed a human character and individuality, and an 

 individuality which almost invariably claimed to be that of 

 some person who had lived on earth, and who, in many cases, 

 was able to prove his or her identity. Thus, little by little, 

 a place was made in my fabric of thought, first for all such 

 well-attested facts, and then, but more slowly, for the spirit- 

 ualistic interpretation of them. 



Unfortunately, at the present day most inquirers begin at 

 the wrong end. They want to see, and sometimes do see the 

 most wonderful phenomena first, and being utterly unable to 

 accept them as facts denounce them as impostures, as did 

 Tyndall and G. H. Lewes, or declare, as did Huxley, that 

 such phenomena do not interest them. Many people think 

 that when I and others publish accounts of such phenomena, 

 we wish or require our readers to believe them on our testi- 

 mony. But that is not the case. Neither I nor any other 

 well-instructed spiritualist expects anything of the kind. We 



