I 885.j Spiritualism and Science. 401 
of being, in fadt, either half-insane enthusiasts or credulous 
fools. Such denunciations, however, affeCt us little. The 
fadt that Spiritualism has firmly established itself in our 
sceptical and materialistic age, that it has continuously 
grown and developed for nearly forty years, that by mere 
weight of evidence, and in spite of the most powerful 
prepossessions, it has compelled recognition by an ever- 
increasing body of men in all classes of society, and has 
gained adherents in the highest ranks of science and philo- 
sophy, and finally that, despite abuse and misrepresentation, 
the folly of enthusiasts, and the knavery of impostors, it 
has rarely failed to convince those who have made a 
thorough and painstaking investigation, and has never lost 
a convert thus made ; all this affords a conclusive answer 
to the objections so commonly urged against it. Let us, 
then, simply ignore the scorn and incredulity of those who 
really know nothing of the matter, and consider, briefly, 
what are the actual relations of Science and Spiritualism, 
and to what extent the latter supplements and illumines the 
former. 
“ Science may be defined as knowledge of the universe in 
which we live, — full and systematised knowledge leading to 
the discovery of laws and the comprehension of causes. 
The true student of Science negleCts nothing and despises 
nothing that may widen and deepen his knowledge of 
Nature, and if he is wise as well as learned he will hesitate 
before he applies the term * impossible ’ to any faCts which 
are widely believed and have been repeatedly observed by 
men as intelligent and honest as himself. Now, modern 
Spiritualism rests solely on the observation and comparison 
of faCts in a domain of Nature which has been hitherto 
little explored, and it is a contradiction in terms to say that 
such an investigation is opposed to Science. Equally 
absurd is the allegation that some of the phenomena of 
Spiritualism ‘ contradict the laws of Nature,’ since there is 
no law of Nature yet known to us but may be apparently 
contravened by the aCtion of more recondite laws or forces. 
Spiritualists observe faCts and record experiments, and then 
construct hypotheses which will best explain and co-ordinate 
the faCts, and in so doing they are pursuing a truly scien- 
tific course. They have now collected an enormous body of 
observations tested and verified in every possible way, and 
they have determined many of the conditions necessary for 
the production of the phenomena. They have also arrived 
at certain general conclusions as to the causes of these 
phenomena, and they simply refuse to recognise the 
