Brighton, I am strongly of
opinion that babies are looking up in the ghost market, and that our
next manifestations may come through an infant phenomenon."

CHAPTER XLI.

A SEANCE FOR SCEPTICS.

"Attracted by the prominence recently given to the subject of
Spiritualism in the _Times_, and undeterred by that journal's subsequent
recantation, or the inevitable scorn of the _Saturday Review_, I
determined to test for myself the value of the testimony so copiously
quoted by believers in the modern marvel. Clearly if certain published
letters of the period were to be put in evidence, Spiritualism had very
much the better, and Science exceedingly little to say for itself. But
we all know that this is a subject on which scientific men are apt to be
reticent. 'Tacere tutum est' seems the Fabian policy adopted by those
who find this new Hannibal suddenly come from across sea into their
midst. It is moreover a subject about which the public will not be
convinced by any amount of writing or talking, but simply by what it can
see and handle for itself. It may be of service, then, if I put on
record the result of an examination made below the surface of this
matter.

"Like most other miracles this particular one evidently has its phases
and comes about in cycles. For a generation past, or nearly so, Modern
Spiritualism has been so far allied with Table-turning and mysterious
rappings as to have appropriated to itself in consequence certain
ludicrous titles, against which it vainly protests. Then cropped up
'levitations' and 'elongations' of the person, and Mr. Home delighted to
put red-hot coals on the heads of his friends. None of these
manifestations, however, were sufficient to make the spiritualistic
theory any other than a huge petitio principii. The Davenports were the
first to inaugurate on anything like an extended scale the alleged
appearance of the human body, or rather of certain members of the human
body, principally arms and hands, through the peep-hole of their
cabinet. Then came 'spirit-voices' with Mrs. Marshall, and aerial
transits on the part of Mrs. Guppy; then the entire 'form of the
departed' was said to be visible chez Messrs. Herne and Williams in
Lamb's Conduit Street, whose abode formed Mrs. Guppy's terminus on the
occasion of her nocturnal voyage. Then came Miss Florence Cook's spirit
faces at Hackney, which were produced under a strong light, which
submitted to be touched and tested in what s