320 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



been forgotten. In any case, I do not know that you ought 

 to have read them — but am not sorry that you did, if only to 

 show you that, although too credulous in the first instance, I 

 was at any rate not unopen to an honest conviction. 



" Yours truly, 



"Geo. J. Romanes." 



" Parkstone, July 27, 1890. 



"Dear Mr. Romanes, 



"You are mistaken in thinking I wrote under a 

 sense of injury, and I do not think my letter showed it. I 

 merely pointed out that to assume^ without any attempt at 

 proof, that my writings on vaccination and land nationaliza- 

 tion showed incompetence and absurdity was appealing to 

 ignorant prejudice, and was therefore both unscientific and in 

 bad taste. My writings on these subjects are public property. 

 Pray, therefore, refer to them as much as you like, when you 

 have read them and can refer to them and criticize them 

 with knowledge of their facts and arguments. But this is a 

 comparatively small matter. The important part of my letter 

 and your reply refers to the spiritualistic phenomena. ^ 



" You now say you have found Williams to be an impostor. 

 But I presume you did not write to Darwin, trusting to 

 Williams' honesty^ or to any statements that he made. You 

 set forth your own observations and precautions in proof of 

 the facts. Have you found out how the things you saw in 

 your own room and in the presence of your own friends were 

 done } Can you tell me how the bust and face, * with move- 

 able features and eyes,' appeared above your own table while 

 Williams was sitting beside you and firmly held ? Can you 

 tell me how the ' luminous hand ' was formed and worked, 

 which lifted a bell from a distant piano, rang it, and carried 

 it about, your brother walking round the table to see that no 

 wires had mysteriously fixed themselves in the room ? You 

 knew then, as well as you know now, that almost all mediums 

 are accused of imposture ; but you gave your experience as 

 evidence which did not admit of being explained by imposture. 

 How is this altered now, if you can no more explain this to 



