their lives, the information would be unverifiable.
And then the sceptics would cry on the spot, "Folly; these are the
inventions of the medium's secondary personality." The controls may have
still other reasons for not revealing themselves to us. This life, when
once it has been left behind, may seem to the spirit to be a more or
less painful nightmare. There is nothing astonishing in the fact that he
does not care to recall to others the part he played in this nightmare,
even if the part were a distinguished one. We ourselves know nothing but
this life; we do not admit that there is any other. Therefore we all
wish to shine in it like meteors, if possible. Possibly disincarnated
spirits, seeing things from a higher point of view, think otherwise. In
short, the controls, Imperator, Rector, Doctor and Prudens, may refrain
from speaking of their former life simply because they are wise. Would
it not have been wiser of Phinuit to hold his tongue than to tell us a
mass of improbabilities?

Amongst those who study these phenomena there are many who see in the
triviality of the greater part of the messages a strong presumption
against the spiritualist hypothesis. Some of these messages are signed,
it is true, by illustrious names--though that is not the case with Mrs
Piper. But this regrettable fact may be variously explained. In the
first place, there may be rogues, charlatans and fools on both sides,
since it is probable that the soul passes from this world to the other
just as it is, and that, if it progresses at all, it progresses slowly.
How many individuals see in spiritualism only a means of putting forward
their wretched personalities or of exploiting their contemporaries! Such
persons would not shrink from representing their lucubrations as
communications from the next world; they would sign them with the most
august of names if to do so would further their designs. Finally, it is
not even necessary to suppose that these messages are due to dishonesty;
the number of mystifiers may be at least as great on the other side as
on this; a sort of law of affinity which seems to rule the world of
spirits may cause these lower beings to be attracted by uncultured
mediums, while the great spirits are repelled by them. It would be these
larvae of the other world who give the messages which disconcert when
they do not scandalise us. But the man of science should not be rebuffed
by these messages which, in spite of their content