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into the habit of thinking and speaking in such a manner as to imply that 
the ordinary operations of the universe are automatic, and not the energies 
of God. One word in conclusion on paragraph 33. Professor Challis 
endeavours to account for the pressure of the ether, and the law of its 
variation, as well as other physical operations, by the operation of angels. 
This, like some other positions in this paper, is a pure assumption, of which 
we have already had far too many, both in theology and science. Some 
expressions in this paper have brought strongly to my mind another class of 
phenomena of very serious import, which bear some degree of analogy 
to those here mentioned. I have just completed the reading through of 
Mr. Wallace’s work on Spiritualism, in the marvellous and grotesque 
phenomena of which he not only avows himself a believer, but of some of 
them an actual witness. It was all very well for us to pooh-pooh these 
kind of things as long as the belief in them was confined to weak-minded 
people ; but it seems to me to be impossible to do so with safety any longer, 
when several Fellows of the Eoyal Society, men eminent as lawyers and 
physicians, and persons well known in the literary world, publicly state 
their conviction of their truth. It is impossible to deny that the facts are 
attested by very strong evidence ; yet they are so prodigiously grotesque, 
and absolutely unmeaning, that I cannot accept them as actual occurrences ; 
and I feel firmly persuaded that there is a delusion somewhere. It is im- 
possible to deny that the whole subject has a very intimate bearing on the 
question of miracles. Mr. Wallace affirms that the force of evidence has con- 
verted him from an unbeliever in the existence of spirits, into a believer in 
the reality of these spiritual manifestations and the immortality of man. I 
fail to discern in his work any approach towards Christianity. On the 
contrary, the miracles of our Lord, even the multiplication of the loaves and 
fishes, are assigned to a special form of this spiritualistic influence. To a 
precisely similar influence, the demon of Socrates, the pagan oracles, and 
various other phenomena of the ancient -world are attributed. I regret to 
add that some of the alleged phenomena of witchcraft are also traced to the 
same source. Mr. Wallace is a believer in answers to prayer. But how are 
prayers answered? By prayer ascending up before God? No; but by 
spirits of the departed sympathizing with the offerer of the prayer, and 
making known his wants to those who are able and willing to supply them. 
According to Mr. Wallace, no spirit of the departed knows anything more 
about God or Christ than we do. Surely such are very serious matters 
when they are propounded by men wdiose scientific attainments are un- 
deniable, as well as by men of eminence in other callings. It is high time 
that such delusions, if delusions they are, should be traced to their origin, 
and proved to be delusions. To do so is certainly a work which lies within 
the legitimate functions of a society like ours, which professes to be at 
once both religious and philosophical. Mr. Wallace tells us that there are 
several millions of spiritualists, and that no one who has become convinced 
