rena of the inquiring soul of man, came Modern Spiritualism.

It contained little or nothing new, as to methods, aims, or results.

The Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered their warnings, called
it "dealings with the devil," but divested of political authority and
without power to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable to stay
the tide. It swept the country like a whirlwind. The average individual,
desiring to know and to get tidings from departed friends, was
unrestrained and unterrified.

He could not see why, if the gates were really ajar, angels might not
communicate, no less than devils.

Then came the cry of "fraud," often amply justified, and a cloud of
uncertainty and unreliability settled over the phenomena generally.
Unscrupulous men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisticated and
exploited it, and "exposures" of these became common.

But in spite of all this, there remained facts, and groups of phenomena
impossible to explain away.

Finally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up the subject and investigated
the phenomena, not from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, but
from the purely scientific, and rendered their verdict, which, though
frequently ignored or treated with contempt, remains practically
unaltered.

Thousands became convinced of the _fact_ of life beyond the grave, and at
the same time of the unreliability of many so-called "communications."
Finally the "Society for Psychical Research" was formed; phenomena were
searchingly examined, verified, and recorded as a basis for further
research.

The posthumous work of F. W. H. Myers, "Human Personality and its Survival
of Bodily Death," added to the Society's records and many other
publications a record of verified facts in psychic phenomena such as never
before existed, and which nothing short of a cataclysm can destroy.

In the meantime, the "dark circle" went into desuetude, and Spiritualism,
as a cult, declined. Accepting the broad conclusion of a life after death,
and with no very clear demonstration as to exactly where, or how, the case
rested largely.

The reason for this obscurity was to be found in the absence of clear
conceptions as to the nature of the human soul, and what life on the
spiritual plane really signifies.

In other words, the foundation was laid empirically to await
classification and conclusions in a comprehensive Philosophy of
Psychology, consistent with a science of the soul