distinguished men are "busying themselves;" also that spiritualism
must be "made subject to the laws of common sense" and controlled by
"common integrity," and if this truth "is at last materializing before
the consciousness of the believers in spiritualistic phenomena some
good may come of it."

That a certain style of "cultivated thought" familiar in Boston has a
"slippery surface" on which neither religion nor philosophy makes much
impression, cannot be denied, and that it is only lately (as she says)
that psychical societies of more or less distinguished men have
allowed spiritual science to encroach on their attention, is very
true. It has always been so. Societies of distinguished men have
always been behind the progress of undistinguished men. Neither Harvey
nor Galvani was honored by societies of distinguished men until the
"slippery surface" of their "cultivated thought" was clutched and
crushed by the power of a widely diffused truth. As a general rule,
the last place in which to find the foremost thought of the age is in
the societies of distinguished men, whether they be politicians,
theologians, or scientists. Hence it is that phenomena as old as
history itself and of late as thoroughly investigated as any branch of
positive science have just begun to encroach upon the attention of the
societies to which the lady desires us to surrender our judgment. No
doubt they have resisted such encroachments as long as decency would
permit, and some very able writers think a great deal longer.

As to the insinuation that "believers in spiritualistic phenomena have
only of late begun to appreciate common sense and common honesty,"
when these believers count by millions, and include many more eminent
men than her infallible psychic societies, the lady has permission to
withdraw the charge, for it is obviously only the _lapsus linguae_ of a
too fluent tongue.

Again she says: "Which of us would not lay down life itself to know
that he had spoken yesterday with the darling of our souls dead years
ago?" Not one of you! The expression is rather hysterical in its
intensity. The majority of your ultra-sceptical class would not even
spend a day or an hour in the pursuit, for you have neglected the
opportunities which have been open to all the world. You might have
held a pair of slates in your own hands, secured in any manner, with
no pencil between them; might have heard the writing in progress, then
opened them and recogn