1870.] Light of Modem Science. 317 



on a subject which I do not pretend to understand. I consider it 

 the duty of scientific men who have learnt exact modes of working, 

 to examine phenomena which attract the attention of the public, 

 in order to confirm their genuineness, or to explain if possible the 

 delusions of the honest and to expose the tricks of deceivers. 

 But I think it a pity that any public announcement of a man's 

 investigation should be made until he has shown himself willing to 

 speak out. 



A man may be a true scientific man, and yet agree with Prof. 

 De Morgan when he says, — " I have both seen and heard, in 

 a manner which would make unbelief impossible, things called 

 spiritual, which cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable of 

 explanation by imposture, coincidence, or mistake. So far I feel the 

 ground firm under me ; but when it comes to what is the cause of 

 these phenomena, I find I cannot adopt any explanation which has 

 yet been suggested. . . . The physical explanations which I have 

 seen are easy, but miserably insufficient. The spiritual hypothesis 

 is sufficient, but ponderously difficult." 



Eegarding the sufficiency of the explanation I am not able to 

 speak. That certain physical phenomena, such as the movement 

 of material substances, and the production of sounds resembling 

 electric discharges, occur under circumstances in which they cannot 

 be explained by any physical law at present known, is a fact of 

 which I am as certain as I am of the most elementary fact in 

 chemistry. My whole scientific education has been one long lesson 

 in exactness of observation, and I wish it to be distinctly under- 

 stood that this firm conviction is the result of most careful investi- 

 gation. But I cannot, at present, hazard even the most vague 

 hypothesis as to the cause of the phenomena. Hitherto I have 

 seen nothing to convince me of the truth of the " spiritual " theory. 

 In such an inquiry the intellect demands that the spiritual proof 

 must be absolutely incapable of being explained away ; it must be so 

 strikingly and convincingly true that we cannot, dare not deny it. 



Faraday says, " Before we proceed to consider any question in- 

 volving physical principles, we should set out with clear ideas of the 

 naturally possible and impossible." But this appears like reasoning 

 in a circle : we are to investigate nothing till we know it to be 

 possible, whilst we cannot say what is impossible, outside pure mathe- 

 matics, till we know everything. 



In the present case I prefer to enter upon the inquiry with no 

 preconceived notions whatever as to what can or cannot be, but 

 with all my senses alert and ready to convey information to the 

 brain ; believing, as I do, that we have by no means exhausted 

 all human knowledge, or fathomed the depths of all the physical 

 forces, and remembering that the great philosopher already quoted 

 said, in reference to some speculations on the gravitating force, 



z 2 



