i88 5 .] 
Spiritualism and Science, 40- 
could aft upon anything outside themselves only where they 
weie personally present, or where there was material phy- 
sical connection between the agent and the object afted 
upon, the limits, too, of human or other animal power 
were supposed to be approximately known. 
. With the advent of Spiritualism all this beautiful simpli- 
city has been swept away. If Spiritualists are not mistaken 
theie are around us numbers of finite invisible beings, of 
unknown powers and of unknown intentions, capable of 
inteifering with the order of Nature. They can raise bodies 
in the air against the force of gravitation. They can kindle 
files at pleasure, or deprive fire of the power of destroying 
organised beings or of occasioning pain. They can hurl 
stones, break furniture to fragments, convey living persons 
from a distance, even through walls ; they can kill human 
beings without any visible agency. To me it seems that if 
these contentions are true, if there exist beings around us 
capable of exerting such powers, there are introduced, so to 
speak, into^ every equation a number of unknown quantities, 
rendering it for ever insoluble. We can only say “ such 
results will follow under such conditions, if no spirits think 
proper to interfere.” It seetns to me that before any harmony 
can be shown between Spiritualism and Science it must be 
ascertained what are the limits of the powers of these 
“ spirits,” and under what conditions can they be exerted ? 
In that manner only can a basis for Science be saved. If 
no limits to interference exist, or if none can be traced, then 
yesterday’s experience or observation is no guide for to-day 
or to-morrow. We are, in short, put to intellectual shame 
and confusion. 
This question has its moral aspect. It will be remembered 
how Oersted congratulates the modern world on its deliver- 
ance from the bondage of the Middle Ages, from the ever- 
haunting dread of the interference of spirits. He shows 
how unfavourable was the ethical influence of this system 
of belief, and how it repressed mental development. He 
was, it seems, premature : if the “ mediums ” of the present 
are merely the witches and sorcerers of the past, and if the 
“ controls ” are a modern form of familiar spirits, we are 
again returning to a “ betooverte Wereld ” — to a world 
dominated and overshadowed by the “ supernatural.” I 
submit, with all deference, that the refutation of Materialism 
and Agnosticism is too dear at such a price. 
To harmonise Science with Spiritualism it will then 
be, in the first place, necessary to discover the limits of 
the power of spirits, under what conditions it is exerted, 
