ink that we are but looking on "the two
sides of the shield,"--a shield embossed on either side with devices
so marvellous that no man's interpretation can as yet suffice to
unriddle them.

But on the other hand, I cannot let pass without protest the sentence
(ARENA, January, p. 130) in which Mr. Wallace speaks of the thanks due
to the Society for Psychical Research, "for having presented the
evidence in such a way that the facts to be interpreted are now
generally accepted as facts by all who have taken any trouble to
inquire into the amount and character of the testimony for them,--the
opinion of those who have not taken that trouble being altogether
worthless." Now in the first place I do not think that all those who
have studied our testimony are convinced by it. I received a letter
(for instance) not long ago, from a distinguished American, an old
friend of mine, who wrote in the most cordial terms to say that out of
personal regard for me he had read "Phantasms of the Living" from
beginning to end, and that he did not believe a word of it. Our
readers' scepticism is perhaps seldom quite so robust; but
nevertheless I should say that the attitude of at least half of them
is best described by saying not that they accept our evidence _ex
animo_, but that they have not yet exactly managed to see their way to
upsetting it.

Nor can I possibly treat as unimportant the attitude of that great
majority of _savants_ who have paid no attention at all to the matter.
Naturally, their opinion of our evidence does not affect my own
opinion thereof, but it decidedly affects my view as to what lines our
work ought to follow. Why is it that these men have not studied our
_Proceedings_? It will not do to talk about indolence and prejudice.
All men are more or less indolent and prejudiced; but _savants_ as a
class are certainly less indolent, and probably less prejudiced, than
any other class that one could name. We must not count upon finding
our _savant_ "_semper vacuum, semper amabilem_," any more than Horace
found his young ladies always in that condition of affable
receptivity. The main reason why so many eminent men neglect our work
may be stated in a much less offensive way. The minds of all of us
move in certain orbits, from which we are sensibly deflected only by
the approach of some new body of adequate mass. Now our "psychical"
experiments and observations have plainly not as yet attained
sufficient mass to be able to de