SCIENCE AND THE "SPIRITS* 



117 



SCIENCE AND THE "SPIRITS" 



[1864] 



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 ques- 

 tion them. He had, however, already 

 made their acquaintance, 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 J;he 

 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 probable that 

 some physical principle, not evident to 

 the spiritualists themselves, might under- 

 lie their manifestations. Extraordinary 

 effects are produced by the accumulation 

 of small impulses. Galileo set a heavy 

 pendulum in motion by the well-timed 

 puffs of his breath. Ellicot set one 

 clock going by the ticks of another, even 

 when the two clocks were separated by 

 a wall. Preconceived notions can, more- 

 over, vitiate, to an extraordinary degree, 

 the testimony of even veracious persons. 

 Hence my desire to witness those extra- 

 ordinary phenomena, the existence of 

 which seemed placed beyond a doubt by 

 the known veracity of those who had 

 witnessed and described them. The 

 meeting took place at a private residence 

 in the neighbourhood of London. My 

 host, his intelligent wife, and a gentleman 

 who may be called X. were in the house 

 when I arrived. I was informed that 

 the " medium " had not yet made her 



appearance ; that she was sensitive, and 

 might resent suspicion. It was therefore 

 requested that the tables and chairs 

 should be examined before her arrival, 

 in order to be assured that there was no 

 trickery in the furniture. This was 

 done ; and I then first learned that my 

 hospitable host had arranged that the 

 stance should be a dinner-party. This 

 was to me an unusual form of investiga- 

 tion ; but I accepted it, as one of the 

 accidents of the occasion. 



The " medium " arrived a delicate- 

 looking young lady, who appeared to 

 have suffered much from ill-health. I 

 took her to dinner and sat close beside 

 her. Facts were absent for a consider- 

 able time, a series of very wonderful 

 narratives supplying their place. The 

 duty of belief on the testimony of wit- 

 nesses was frequently insisted on. X. 

 appeared to be a chosen spiritual agent, 

 and told us many surprising things. He 

 affirmed that, when he took a pen in his 

 hand, an influence ran from his shoulder 

 downwards, and impelled him to write 

 oracular sentences. I listened for a 

 time, offering no observation. " And 

 now," continued X., " this power has so 

 risen as to reveal to me the thoughts of 

 others. Only this morning I told a 

 friend what he was thinking of, and what 

 he intended to do during the day." 

 Here, I thought, is something that can 

 be at once tested. I said immediately 

 to X. : "If you wish to win to your cause 

 an apostle, who will proclaim your 

 principles to the world from the house- 

 top, tell me what I am now thinking of." 

 X. reddened, and did not tell me my 

 thought. 



Some time previously I had visited 

 Baron Reichenbach, in Vienna, and I 

 now asked the young lady who sat beside 

 me whether she could see any of the 



