THOUGHT-EEADING. 333 



should form no part of the data on which the con- 

 clusion is to rest. We can never call on science to 

 put deception out of court by a belief in any one's 

 integrity. Half of the evidence which has propped 

 up the spiritualistic craze is based on the results 

 obtained through mediums of ' unblemished character' 

 in private families, whose virtuous reputation has been 

 largely sustained by the fact that they did not take 

 money for their trouble; no regard being paid to 

 innumerable other motives and tendencies to decep- 

 tion." (This is very well put.) He then considers 

 the " code of signals " explanation, which " fully 

 serves to cover all the facts in question/' though it is 

 only by straining the evidence that the cases in which 

 no members of the family were present when an object 

 was selected, that Professor Donkin makes out this 

 point. " From the only rational point of view/' he 

 says, " that of scientific scepticism, and, therefore, 

 with total disregard of the personal factor, this con- 

 sideration seems in no way to invalidate the line of 

 comment here taken. It is not clear to how many of 

 the three observers the pronoun ' we ' in the passage 

 [above] refers, but at any rate we miss entirely in 

 the paper any specific quotation of results obtained in 

 the latter set of circumstances. But even if this 

 evidence had been forthcoming, no mere ipse dixit on 

 such a matter could for one moment be admitted. 

 Reason would require us to entertain the great 

 probability of mental bias in some, at least, of the 

 observers, or to discredit the accuracy of their 



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