xxxvii] SPIRITUALISTIC EXPERIENCES 335 



room formed the cabinet In this was placed a mattress and 

 pillow on the bare floor. The medium's wrists were tied 

 securely with tapes, leaving two ; ends a foot or more long. 

 These ends were tacked down to the floor, then covered with 

 sealing-wax and sealed. Under these conditions one or more 

 forms came out from the curtains, sometimes to a consider- 

 able distance and touched each one present. The light was 

 just sufficient to see the figures, which were sometimes those 

 of children, at other times of adults. Other phenomena 

 also occurred in the room. Afterwards the medium was 

 found either awake or still entranced, with the tapes, knots 

 and seals all apparently untouched. 



But this was not thought sufficient to exclude imposture. 

 The medium might have provided herself with tape, tacks, 

 wax, and a copy of the seal, and by practice and ingenuity 

 be able to restore things to their original state after coming 

 out and personating the figures. To render this impossible 

 (or rather much less credible), at each stance the width, quality, 

 or colour of the tape was different, the sealing-wax was of 

 another colour, or a different seal was used, so that on no two 

 occasions were the conditions alike. Yet still the phenomena 

 went on occurring. Then a hammock was procured for the 

 medium to lie in, and this hammock, by means of pulleys, 

 was connected with a weighing machine, so that the medium 

 could not possibly leave it without instant detection. Yet 

 still the phenomena were produced, and the medium was 

 found afterwards comfortably lying in her hammock. 



Of course such phenomena as these, however well estab- 

 lished, were entirely out of place at so early a period of the 

 inquiries of the persons, who soon afterwards founded the 

 Society for Psychical Research. They wanted to create a 

 science — to make sure of the first steps before they went on to 

 the second ; and, above all things, not to go on too fast, so 

 that the educated but sceptical public might be able to follow 

 them. They have now worked in this way for nearly a 

 quarter of a century ; they have published a wonderful collec- 

 tion of well-attested evidence, and yet they are only now 

 beginning to approach very carefully and sceptically even the 



