28 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
to religious, or rather Biblical authority, the question ceases to be 
a scientific one, and becomes part of the domain of Faith, with 
which we are not immediately concerned. I repeat, from a scientific 
point of view, we know nothing about "spirits," so-called; to say 
that a spirit can knock is just as contrary to all experience or possi- 
bility of conception as to say that a man can fly. There may be 
knocks, and there may be other phenomena, exhibited beyond the 
power of dispute ; but I still fail to understand by what right these 
phenomena are referred to the interposition of spirits. In fact, 
whilst it is quite within our power to conceive that there are laws 
and forces in the world around us of which we know nothing, it is 
not possible to conceive that a hand without flesh or blood can 
hold a pencil, or a being without body, parts, or passions, play on 
a guitar, or sing a song. The power which the will, entirely 
intent on this one purpose, and cleansed or strengthened by ascetic 
austerities and mortification of the flesh, may have on matter 
or others' will, except its own, is one thing ; but that it exercises 
such power by the agency of spirits is altogether another, and 
requires positive proof before it can be even admitted as an element 
in the solution of the question. In making these remarks, I am 
only stating a difficulty which has always offered itself to my own 
mind, not with a view to stifle the inquiry, or even change its 
aspect, but to show how it is impossible to consider the question 
seriously in the light so grotesquely lent to it by the interpellation 
of something we are supposed to know all about, yet about which 
we are in absolute and complete ignorance. 
I wish, lastly, to call your attention to the Congress of Orientalists 
recently assembled at St. Petersburg. It is well known that this 
Congress was the third of the kind held in Europe. The choice of 
St. Petersburg as the place of assembly was carried by a consider- 
able majority of the members of the Society in London in 1874. 
And perhaps not unwisely, for half Russia is in the East ; its terri- 
tory extends in a direct line from Finland on the one hand to Japan 
on the other without a break, and therefore no country has so great 
a claim to be consulted in the examination of all oriental questions. 
But besides this territorial advantage, Russia has long enjoyed the 
reputation of possessing one of the best endowed Universities and 
most extensive Oriental library in the world ; I mean that of St. 
Petersburg; so that on every account the selection of this city for the 
Congress of Orientalists was a happy one. One important question 
