In his subsequent communication to the 'Spiritualist,' Mr. Crookes records the results of other experiments with this apparatus, one of them being a variation of that which Dr. Hare had made with the watervase. These, he asserts, altogether preclude the possibility that Mr. Home, and the ladymedium who was able to produce the like results, should have done so by their own muscular action; and yet it never seems to have occurred to him to test whether the same results could not be produced by throwing the board into rhythmical vibration by an intentional exertion of muscular action! We must class Mr. Crookes's account of Mr. Home's performances with an accordion with Lord Lindsay's narrative of Mr. Home's moonlight sail. For all these performances took place within a cylindrical cage of hoops, laths, string, and wire, which was placed under a table in a room lighted with gas; the averment being that the accordion, first held in one of Mr. Home's hands, with its keys downwards, emitted distinct and separate notes in succession, and then played a simple air; whilst afterwards, on Mr. Home withdrawing his hand, the accordion floated inside the cage, without any visible support, and went on playing as before. Mr. Crookes's assistant, who looked under the table when Mr. Home had his hand on the accordion, reported that the accordion was expanding and contracting, but did not say whether or not its keys were moving; and though Mr. Crookes, his assistant, and Serjeant Cox afterwards saw the accordion floating unsupported in the cage (Dr. Huggins does not testify to this), they do not give us the slightest information as to whether the keys and the bellows of the accordion were at work while the instrument was continuing to utter its dulcet sounds. It will be quite time for us to consider how this performance is to be explained, when it shall have been repeated in open daylight (without any cage), above instead of under a table, and in the presence of trustworthy witnesses, who should carefully record all the particulars in which Mr. Crookes's narrative is deficient. In the meanwhile, it is worthy of remark that it is the accordion which is usually selected as the favourite instrument of spirit-mediums; point in each trick at which the sleight of hand must have been practised. He then went a second time, with the determination of limiting his attention to these points, without allowing it to be distracted by the devices of the performer; and he was then able to detect a number of the passes" which had previously escaped his observation, admirably trained though this was by his astronomical and mechanical pursuits, 64 and that the performance on this instrument with one hand is a juggling trick often exhibited at country fairs. It is admitted by Mr. Crookes that there is a great obstacle to the scientific investigation of Mr. Home's asserted powers, 'owing to our imperfect knowledge of the conditions which favour or oppose the manifestations of this force, to the apparently capricious manner in which it is exerted, and to the fact that Mr. Home himself is subject to unaccountable ebbs and flows of this force;' so that 'it has but seldom happened that a result obtained on one occasion could be subsequently confirmed and tested with apparatus specially contrived for the purpose.' Now, to us there is no mystery whatever. We have constantly found that when we have gone simply as spectators,-when our sceptical disposition was not known,-when no indication of incredulity or even of doubt was given, either on our own part or on that of others, by word, look, or sign,-when (in fact) the performers had it all their own way, like conjurors at a public performance, at which the spectators are prepared to be taken in,-the conditions are all favourable to the flow of the peculiar force-Mesmeric, Psychic, or Spiritual, as its advocates may choose to designate it. When, on the other hand, the performers are aware that their proceedings are being scrutinised by critical and intelligent eyes; when they know that it would be fatal to their pretensions were they to be detected in deceptions which they can safely practise on the credulous; and when (to save appearances) they have accepted tests which they know must prevent them from even attempting these deceptions, the 'unaccountable' ebb takes place, and the results are entirely negative. This is what happened to a committee of scientific men, which met Mr. Home some months ago at St. Petersburg. Mr. Home's force being at a minimum, no manifestations were vouchsafed. The same thing,' says Mr. Crookes, 'has frequently happened within my own experience. A party of scientific men met Mr. Home at my house, and the results were as negative as those at St. Petersburg. Instead, however, of throwing up the inquiry, we patiently repeated the trial a second and a third time, when we met with results which were positive.' We doubt not that during these séances Mr. Home was taking the measure of those who had met to take his; and that when he found them sufficiently impressed with the reality of his Psychic force to attribute to it the rippling of the surface of water in a basin, which was really produced by the tremor occasioned in Mr. Crookes's house by the passage of a railway-train close to it, he considered them ripe for its further manifestation. Having frequently heard the testimony of Mr. C. E. Varley to the physical marvels of Spiritualism cited as that of an eminent scientific man,' we have made some inquiry into his qualifications as a witness on such matters, and find that they are certainly not superior to those of Mr. Crookes. Though possessing considerable technical knowledge of electric telegraphy, his scientific attainments are so cheaply estimated by those who are best qualified to judge of them that he has never been admitted to the Royal Society, although he has more than once been a candidate for that honour. We quote the following merely as an example of the manner in which minds of this limited order are apt to become the dupes of their own imaginings: 'I have in broad daylight seen a small table with no one near it but myself, and not even touched by me or any visible person, raised off the floor and carried horizontally 10 feet through the air; and I have repeatedly seen a large dining-table lifted bodily off the floor, and when so supported in the air the table has moved in the direction that I mentally requested it to take. In this experiment, not only was the "new force" well developed, but in addition it obeyed my unspoken mental request, to convince me that there was present an "intelligence" that could, and did, read my thoughts. I have on a few occasions been able to see the Spirits themselves, sometimes to talk with them. They have frequently foretold things that were about to happen, and in most instances the events have occurred as predicted.' We are now arrived at the climax-or, as some may perhaps think, the anti-climax of the marvels, which we are gravely called on to accept as well-authenticated facts. On the 20th of May last, Mr. Herne, of 61, Lamb's Conduit Street, was caught away whilst walking in the neighbourhood of Islington, in open day, and conveyed, by invisible agency, into a room in the house of Mr. Guppy, No. 1, Morland Villas, Highbury Hill Park, its doors and windows being all closed. A fortnight afterwards, a return visit was paid by Mrs. Guppy to Mr. Herne; the lady being brought by invisible agency into a room measuring twelve feet by ten, of which the doors and windows were closed and fastened, and coming 'plump down,' in a standing position, upon the centre of a table round which eleven persons were sitting, shoulder to shoulder, in a dark séance. Mrs. Guppy was evidently not a consenting party to this transportation, for she was in a state of complete unconsciousness and of partial deshabille, having neither bonnet, shawl, nor shoes; and she seems to have been rudely interrupted by her spiritual captors whilst making up her household accounts, as she held an account-book in one hand, and a pen with the ink still wet in the other. These astounding phenomena are calmly narrated by a Mr. Benjamin Coleman, who is very severe upon scientific men for their incredu lity, but seems to consider it rather their misfortune than their fault, since he says, 'Had I been fettered by scientific education, I could not have allowed so "preposterous" and "impossible an event to enter my brain.' Being himself perfectly unfettered, however, by any absurd prejudices, he had been led to anticipate and even to predict that these wonders would culminate in Mrs. 6 Guppy-one of the largest and heaviest women of his acquaintance-being carried away; and we cannot but suspect that his prediction had something to do in bringing about its fulfilment. It is obvious that the party of eleven persons, who were sitting in the dark in Mr. Herne's apartments, were in that state of 'expectant attention' which is well known to physiologists to be productive of subjective sensations as well as of movements; and just as, in a circle' of Table-turners, when one leads off all the others follow suit, so any one who heard or felt anything (seeing being out of the question) which could be fancied to indicate Mrs. Guppy's presence on the table would readily excite the same belief in the minds of the rest; just as Theodore Hook, in his celebratsuaded a London crowd not merely that he, ed experiment on popular credulity, perbut that they, could see the lion on the top of Northumberland House wag his tail. How, in a dark séance, it was ascertained that she was in a state of déshabille, and not merely that Mrs. Guppy was present, that the ink was still wet in her pen, we are not informed. The following incident, recorded in another part of the same number of the Spiritualist,' seems to afford some clue to the mystery :— but 'Last Friday week at a dark séance at the resi dence of Mr. Guppy, two live lobsters were placed on the hands of one of the sitters. It was then made known that Miss Thom, of Pendleton, near Manchester, whispered to her mother that she wished the spirits would bring a live lobster instead of flowers. Mrs. Thow, who attended the circle merely as an inquirer, did not think it proper to repeat the request fact communicated to us by a highly intelligent aloud, so neither the medium nor anybody else witness, who was admitted to one of Mr. at the circle knew that a desire for a lobster Crookes's séances. had been expressed.' *This is not an invention of our own, but a Can any rational person doubt that these 'two live lobsters' existed only in the imagination of Miss Thom and her associates? She could not see them in the dark; and if they had made their presence felt by pinching her fingers, she would have most assur edly screamed. In the state of 'expectant attention,' she doubtless experienced, in unusual strength, the creepy-crawly' sensations familiar to many of us in strange beds, and attributed these to the presence of the lobsters she had been wishing for. If she will assure us that they were boiled for supper after the séance, and proved to be substantial, not spiritual, food, we will retract our hypothetical explanation. We might fill another page or two with Mr. Coleman's accounts of Mrs. Guppy's 'mediumistic' endowments, which, as regards her power of bringing in any quantity of fruits and flowers, are only paralleled by those of a Houdin or a Frikell; whilst she goes beyond these accomplished prestidigitateurs in dashing down large quantities of snow, so clear and sparkling that it could not have been touched by human hands, and pieces of ice, as large as the fist, in such quantity as to require the services of a manservant to take it away. This last occurrence is vouched for not only by Mr. Coleman but by the editor of the 'Spiritualist, who further informs us that Mrs. Guppy and her friends had been sitting before a large fire for half-an-hour before the séance began. There is one trifling inconsistency we should like explained before we can accept these narratives as veracious. The invisible spirits at Mrs. Guppy's command can obviously do as much for her as did the obedient Jins for the heroes and heroines of the immortal tales that charm the youth of successive generations. If they can bring in any quantity of fruits, flowers, and ices for a dessert, they must surely be able to furnish forth her breakfast and her dinner-tables. When she wishes to travel, they save her not merely the fatigue of the journey, but the cost of cabs and railway fares. What on earth, then, has Mrs. Guppy got to do with household accounts'? None can be more ready than ourselves to admit that ridicule is not the test of truth;' but there are some subjects-and we believe this to be one of them as to which ridicule has a wholesome power of checking the spread of pernicious error. We have gravely discussed many of the phenomena which are adduced as evidences of 'spiritual' agency, for the purpose of showing that, like others which had previously presented themselves under different names, they are really produced by the unconscious agency of the in dividuals through whose 'mediumship' they are exhibited; and that their occurrence affords new and interesting exemplifications of physiological and psychological principles previously known and accepted. But when we are called on to believe in the levitation' of the human body, and in the power of incorporeal spirits to move heavy masses of matter without any ostensible agency, to make an accordion play tunes without the working of its bellows or its keys, and to evolve fruits and flowers, snow and ice, live lobsters and the hands of departed friends, out of the depths of their own consciousness, the question is one to be decided, not by an elaborate discussion, but by direct appeal to educated common sense. Is it more likely that these marvels actually occurred as narrated, or that the witnesses to them were deceived by their own imaginings? The history of Epidemic Delusions affords such abundant evidence as to the former prevalence of what are now universally regarded as the most absurd beliefs, that those who have no more than a general acquaintance with it can have no difficulty in finding parallels to that on which we have now been commenting. Not more than two centuries ago, for example, the transportation of witches through the air, that they might take part in the unholy orgies of their creed, and hold sexual commerce with evil Spirits, was not only testified in courts of justice by multitudes of witnesses, but was admitted by the culprits themselves, many of whom went to the stake with the heroism of martyrs witnessing a good confession' to what they honestly believed to be true. If we once begin to try such affirmations by the test of reason, we should perchance find ourselves obliged to acquiesce in the dictum of Dr. Johnson, that nothing proves the non-existence of witches; or, in the conclusion of one of our greatest modern logicians-who had devoted himself so exclusively to the science of Reasoning as to be unfitted for that practical appreciation of the value of Evidence, on which we depend in the judgments of everyday life-that the Spiritualist doctrine has a better claim to acceptance than any of the other thousand-and-one explanations that might be given of the phenomena. The insight we have gained in the course of this inquiry into the gullibility, not merely of the average public, but of many of those who command its respect, either as teachers of religion or as successful scientific investigators, has made us reflect seriously as to what it is in our present system of education which constitutes the chief 'predisposing cause' of the Spiritualist epidemic. And after the best comparison we have been able compare the narratives of Dr. Hare and Mr. Crookes with Professor Faraday's 'Letters on Table-turning,' and Professor Chevreul's treatise on the 'Baguette Divinatoire.* The latter are models of scientific inquiry on a subject rendered peculiarly difficult by the interposition of the human element; the former, as we have shown, are conspicuous for the absence of true scientific method. to make between the mental condition of the classes who have most severely suffered from it, and that of the classes who have been least affected, we have come to the conclusion that part, at least, of this predisposition depends on the deficiency of early scientific training. Such training ought to include (1), the acquirement of habits of correct observation of the phenomena daily taking place around us; (2), the cultivation But there is a positive as well as a negaof the power of reasoning upon these phe- tive defect in the prevailing mental organinomena, so as to arrive at general principles sation of our time, which shows itself in the by the inductive process; (3), the study of unhealthy craving for some 'sign' that shall the method of testing the validity of such testify to the reality of the existence of disinductions by experiment; and (4), the de- embodied spirits, while the legitimate inductive application of principles thus acquir- fluence of the noble lives and pregnant saycd to the prediction of phenomena which can ings of the great and good who have gone be verified by observation. We speak with before us is proportionately ignored. Putknowledge when we say that a tenth of the ting aside, as beyond the scope of our pretime which is devoted, in an ordinary school sent inquiry, those questions of high Philo curriculum, to the study of abstractions, will sophy, which arise out of modern ideas of suffice for the culture (if judiciously direct- the relation between Matter and Force, Body ed) of the power of bringing the reasoning and Spirit, we would fearlessly leave it to the faculties to bear on objective realities, not good sense of any right-minded person, only without disadvantage to his other stu- whether he would surrender the enduring dies, but with a manifest improvement in the and inspiring memories impressed on his inpupil's power of apprehending the real mean- ner soul by the counsels and example of a ing of abstractions which had previously per- wise father, by the affectionate sympathy of plexed him. Now it is among purely lite- a tender and judicious mother, by the cordial rary men, whose minds have seldom been unselfishness of a generous-hearted brother, exercised upon anything but abstractions, by the self-sacrificing devotion of a loving that we have witnessed most ready surrender sister, or by the guileless simplicity of an to the seductions of Spiritualism; the dis- innocent child, for any communications they tinction between objective realities and the could send him by rappings or table-tiltings. creations of their own imaginations being Or, to turn from these to influences of a often extremely ill-defined; and the testi- wider scope, who that early felt his intellect mony borne by Science to the want of trust- expanded and his aspirations elevated by the worthiness of what they assume to be the noble thoughts put forth in the 'Discourse evidence of their own senses, being scornfully on the Study of Natural Philosophy,' and repudiated. On the other hand, those who has endeavoured, however imperfectly, to have either gone through the discipline of make them the guide of his own scientific such an early scientific training as we have life; who that recently joined with the most advocated, or have (like Faraday) conscien- eminent representatives of every department tiously imposed it upon themselves at a later of British science in attending to their last. period, are usually the last persons to be- resting-place in the national mausoleum the come 'possessed' by the delusions of this honoured remains of one whom all acknowlpseudo-science; or, if they should have per-edged to be their master, could wish that the chance been attracted by them for a time, they speedily come to discern their fallacy. Our belief that the early education of the scientific witnesses who have come forward to testify to the reality of the Physical manifestations of Spiritualism, was not such as to develope the power of scientific discrimination, is fully justified, as we have shown, by the thoroughly unscientific manner in which they have conducted their investigations, and reported their results. Let any who may accuse us of underrating the competency of these witnesses, merely because we have ourselves come to a foregone conclusion as to the incredibility of their statements, spirit of a Herschel should be asked to give evidence of its continued existence by playing a tune on an accordion or rapping out a line of his Astronomy'? It happened to us within a few weeks after that mournful ceremony to follow to the same resting-place the not less honoured remains of one whom we had come to regard with no inferior veneration, not so much for *This admirable treatise, which was not pub lished until after the appearance of our former article, entirely confirms, by a most elaborate and had ourselves expressed in regard to the Divin conclusive series of investigations, the views we ing Rod.' his great erudition and varied intellectual south-to Russia and Poland, to France, ability as for his rare-we might almost say Italy, and Spain-and consulting the highest unprecedented-combination of unswerving authorities dead and living, printed and oral, justice tempered by the most gracious kind- we arrive at a similar conclusion.. The reliness of perfect unselfishness, animated by sult of our persevering researches and perthe most enlarged philanthropy. Of all the sistent interrogatories is everywhere throughmemories in our spiritual Valhalla that of out Europe, that Byron is deemed the greatGeorge Grote stands pre-eminent for those est poet that England has produced for two qualities which have commanded our respect centuries; and although the same unanimiand inspired our personal attachment. Who ty may not be found across the Atlantic as to that has had the privilege of not only observ- the amount of his pre-eminence, although he ing the public course of our modern Aris- does not there rise so high above his compettides, but of sharing in the amenities of his ing predecessors or contemporaries as private life, could wish anything better for dwarf or overshadow them, he takes precehimself than that the spirit of his departed dence by common consent of all. friend should be his own constant and lifelong guide; so that whenever its close may arrive he too may be deemed worthy of the eulogy so appropriately bestowed on our great historian from the grand old words The just shall be held in everlasting remembrance.' "Tennyson, one of the most distinguished. modern English lyrical poets.' Such is the commencement of the notice of Mr. Tennyson in the Lexicon; and that it will startle his English admirers, we infer from its first effect upon ourselves. But tame and depreciatory as its description may sound to ears ringing with the music of his verse, it is one which would be deemed just and adequate by the bulk of the reading public of Germany, or the reading public of any coun ART. II.-Lord Byron. Von Karl Elze- try that knew him chiefly by translation. It Berlin, 1870. THE book before us, of which an English translation is in hand, is a biographical and critical essay on the noble poet and his works containing a conscientiously accurate summary of his life and an impartial estimate of his genius. It will help to correct many erroneous notions, and it offers the opportunity which we have long coveted of analysing and if possible fixing the existing state of opinion regarding him in especial relation to the living poet whose name is most frequently pronounced in rivalry. 'Byron, indisputably the greatest poetical genius that England has produced since Shakespeare and Milton.' Such is the commencement of the notice of Byron in the last edition of the Conversations-Lexicon,' and we have ascertained by careful inquiry that it may be accepted as the exact representative of enlightened Germany upon this as upon most other subjects of thought, speculation, or philosophy. Herr Elze says, 'In the four head-divisions of poetry, English literature has produced four unapproached men of genius: Shakespeare in the dramatic: Milton in the reflecting, so far as this can be regarded as a peculiar species: Scott in the epic; and Byron in the lyrical-the lyrical understood in the widest sense as subjective poetry. The intended supremacy is clear, although the lines of demarcation are not so well defined as could be wished. Turning to the rest of the continent, whether north or would not satisfy the reading public of the United States, where his popularity is little inferior to that which he enjoys in England, but with this material difference. It is not an exclusive popularity. It coexists with the popularity of other poets whose influence is deemed antagonistic to him amongst us, especially with that of Byron; and the main object of this article is to bring the English mind into better agreement with the AngloAmerican mind on this subject, or, in other words, to reclaim a befitting and appropriate pedestal for Byron without disturbing Mr. Tennyson or his school. It is the comparative, not the positive, reputation of the author of the 'Idylls' that we dispute. Let him be read and applauded as much as ever, by all means; let due meed of praise be ungrudgingly continued to those of his immediate contemporaries who cluster round him as their chief, or have adopted him as their model, or, essentially unlike as they are, have repaired to the same altar for their fire; but let the fitting honour be also vindicated and reserved for those whom they have temporarily superseded in popular estimation, far more by an accidental concurrence of opinions and events than by merits which will stand the test of time and command the judgment of posterity. Foreign nations, in their independence of local influences, resemble and represent posterity: foreign nations have already given their verdict in the cause which we propose to bring before the home tribunal; and be |