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If True t 
[M arc 
IV. IF TRUE? 
“ We may depend upon it that when Science and Theology are 
both sufficiently awake to see a common enemy in Spiritualism, there 
will be lively times.” — Light. 
HEN a new power makes its appearance in our 
vyr midst all men naturally raise the question of its 
probable bearings upon the existing order of things. 
Such an inquiry is no less pertinent in the case of a new 
and strange philosophy than of a newly founded empire. 
What will it support and befriend ? What will it seek to 
controvert and overthrow ? Is it compatible or incompatible 
with what we know, or think we know, already? Until 
these questions are satisfactorily answered the world of 
thought feels a curiosity largely blended with unrest. 
Such is the attitude of a large proportion — may we not 
say of the majority ? — of educated persons concerning 
Spiritualism. This new body of beliefs is no longer ignored. 
It has evidently tinctured current literature. It would be a 
heavy task to count up the books, or the articles in maga- 
zines and newspapers, which would never have been written 
but for “ table-turnings ” and rappings which originated 
some thirty years ago. Such being the case we may legiti- 
mately ask, What if these things are so ? Supposing — as 
we neither affirm nor deny — that the claims of Spiritualism 
are in the main well-founded, what must follow ? Will it 
come as an addition to our present knowledge, involving, 
perhaps, more or less of the rectifications which every new 
discovery of moment brings about ? or will it run counter to 
our fundamental principles and to our very methods of 
inquiry ? 
A difficult question may be raised at the outset : what are 
the claims and the tenets of Spiritualism, and who are its 
authorised interpreters ? It has no teachers either ordained 
by an infallible Church or examined and “ passed ” by a still 
more infallible “ Department.” But we may fairly accept, 
as parts of its belief, assertions which we find made in its 
organs and not subsequently retracted or disavowed. 
Its first point, the existence of “ spirit ” as a substantive 
essence distinct from matter, and not a modification of 
energy, need not engage our attention. This doCtrine, 
though of course at issue with the monistic interpretation of 
the universe, is accepted by the majority of civilised mankind 
