XXXV] MESMERISM TO SPIRITUALISM 293 



chair on to the exact centre of a large pillar-table, as well 

 as the great surplus of force required to do it almost 

 instantaneously and noiselessly, in the dark, and without 

 pressure on the side of the table which would have tilted it 

 up. Will any of the known laws of nature account for this ? 



" Yours very faithfully, 



"Alfred R. Wallace." 



Of course I did not expect Professor Tyndall to accept 

 such a fact on my testimony ; on the contrary, I described 

 it for the very purpose of arguing that, if he himself had 

 been present, he would probably not have been satisfied that 

 it was not a trick, unless he could have it repeated under 

 varied conditions. Yet he was so illogical as to think that a 

 test phenomenon occurring once only under his or Mr. G. H. 

 Lewes's conditions would settle the whole question — that is, 

 would satisfy the scientific world and the general public that 

 the spiritualistic phenomena were genuine, and that what 

 used to be called " miracles " did happen in our midst 

 to-day. Sir William Crookes's experience, a few years later, 

 proves how totally wrong Tyndall was in this opinion, since 

 his careful experiments, continued for several years, are to 

 this day ignored or rejected by the bulk of scientific and 

 public opinion as if they had never been made ! 



In order to show Mr. Varley's liberal spirit towards 

 opponents, and also for suggestions of great value, I give 

 here some extracts from a letter I received from him in 

 January, 1869 — 



" We spiritualists should remember that the way in which 

 science has reached its present brilliant position has been 

 through our philosophers doubting, disbelieving, and testing 

 everything until further disbelief was impossible. 



*'We privileged ones owe it to the world to present 

 spiritualism to them in a manner so clearly defined and 

 demonstrated, that those who follow us shall be able to 

 make themselves as much masters of the subject as we 

 are. 



"What is wanted is to bring together a large number 



