1 8 82O Subjective or Objective ? 63 
c. There is yet a third case : the phenomena are subjective 
rather than objective ; illusions rather than faCts. 
We will address ourselves separately to each of these 
groups. 
The extra-natural agencies will be very readily disposed of 
by adherents of the monistic system. They contend that as 
there are no spirits, embodied or disembodied, human, super- 
human, or infra-human, the phenomena of haunted houses 
cannot find here their cause. The conclusion is most just, 
if only we are certain of the non-existence of spiritual 
beings. But to enter upon the study of the phenomena of 
haunted houses with this preconceived assumption is, I 
submit, illegitimate. A priori , we have no more right to 
proclaim the non-existence of spiritual beings than their 
existence. We must let ourselves be guided and governed 
by faCts observed. But this reservation having been made, 
there are very grave objections to the spiritual theory of 
haunted houses. Foremost comes their comparative rarity. 
If we consider the multitude of persons hourly passing 
away, and leaving generally behind them both friends and 
enemies, — if we reflect that in a very large proportion of 
houses crimes, or at least evil deeds, have been planned or 
perpetrated, we might expeCt that “ haunting,” if due to the 
return of spirits from the invisible world, would be the rule 
rather than the exception. 
We are told that the scene of a murder is haunted some- 
times by the shade of the assassin and sometimes by that of 
his victim. It is probable that every house in long-inhabited 
countries stands on or near the scene of some deed of vio- 
lence committed within the past two or three thousand 
years. But scarce one family in ten thousand find their 
peace disturbed by any occurrence of the ghostly class. 
Another point is that the number of haunted houses, small 
as it is, seems to be on the decrease. I know a district, 
situate to the east and south of Manchester, where, accord- 
ing to the traditions of the past generation, farm-houses, 
lanes, bridges, and valleys had not unfrequently their mys- 
terious shadowy occupants or visitants. But now the popu- 
lation of that part of the country has risen to perhaps fivefold 
what it was at the beginning of the century, cases of 
haunting, instead of having increased in like proportion, 
have died out altogether. Ghosts and goblins evidently 
prefer the country to the town. 
A curious faCt is that Lancashire was, a century ago, ex- 
ceptionally the home of the supernatural as compared with 
