ialls, that 'good sense and
widely diffused information have driven our ghosts to a few remote
castles in the North of Scotland' (1819). But, however we are to
explain it, the ghosts have come forth again, and, like golf, have
crossed the Tweed. Now this is a queer result of science, common-
sense, cheap newspapers, popular education, and progress in general.
We may all confess to a belief in ghosts, because we call them
'phantasmogenetic agencies,' and in as much of witchcraft as we
style 'hypnotic suggestion'. So great, it seems, is the force of
language! {303}

THE LOGIC OF TABLE-TURNING

Bias in belief. Difficulty of examining problems in which unknown
personal conditions are dominant. Comte Agenor de Gasparin on
table-turning. The rise of modern table-turning. Rapping. French
examples. A lady bitten by a spirit. Flying objects. The 'via
media' of M. de Gasparin. Tables are turned by recondite physical
causes: not by muscular or spiritual actions. The author's own
experiments. Motion without contact. Dr. Carpenter's views.
Incredulity of M. de Gasparin as to phenomena beyond his own
experience. Ancient Greek phenomena. M. de Gasparin rejects
'spirits'. Dr. Carpenter neglects M. de Gasparin's evidence.
Survival and revival. Delacourt's case. Home's case. Simon Magus.
Early scientific training. Its results. Conclusion.

While reason is fondly supposed to govern our conduct, and direct
our conclusions, there is no doubt that our opinions are really
regulated by custom, temperament, hope, and fear. We believe or
disbelieve because other people do so, because our character is
attracted to, or repelled by the unusual, the mysterious; because,
from one motive or another, we wish things to be thus, or fear that
they may be thus, or hope that they may be so, and cannot but dread
that they are otherwise. Again, the laws of Nature which have been
ascertained are enough for the conduct of life, and science
constantly, and with excellent reason, resists to the last gasp
every attempt to recognise the existence of a new law, which, after
all, can apparently do little for the benefit of mankind, and may
conceivably do something by no means beneficial. Again, science is
accustomed to deal with constant phenomena, which, given the
conditions, will always result. The phenomena of the marvellous are
not constant, or, rather, the conditions cannot be definitely
ascertained. When Mr. Crookes m