i Pill- its ''i^ralli^n^th ii ! ttii IHl i'l W 'H fii'iiilii'i;;' ' iliiiii: jniiHll;! IQlilY IIBRAKI •joh>7"frye CHINESE- LIBRAP.Y Jit UB» TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. BALLANTVNE. HANSON AND CO KUINUl/ROIl ANU LONDON TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. ^n Srrount of ^xprrimrntal 3?nof5:tigaticns. JFrom tJjr Scicnttttr ^Trratisrs JOHAXX GAEL FEIEDEICH ZOLLNEE, 'I Professor of Physical Astronomy at the University of Leijysic : Member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences ; Foreign Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London ; of the Imperial Academy of Natural Philosophers at Moscow : Honorary Member of the Physical Association at Franlfort-on-the-Main . of the " Seient(^^ Society of Psychological Studies," at Paris: and of the " British National Association of Spiritualists," at London. (ZCransIateu from tije (Serman, iuitl) a iprefacc anH appcntJices, bp CHAELES CAELETOX MASSEY, OF I.IKCOLS'S INK, BARRISTER-AT-I.AW. LONDON: W. H. HAEEISON, 33 MUSEUM STEEET, W.C. 1880. ■AIN UBRAftV JOHN FRYER CHINESE LIBRARY BIOLOC £D WMor CONTENTS. Translator's Preface . xvii Author's Dedication to Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S. . . xlv CHAPTER I. Gauss's and Kant's Theory of Space — The Practical Application of the Theory in Experiments with Henry Slade — True Knots pro- duced upon a Cord with its ends in view and sealed together . i CHAPTER IT. Magnetic Experiments — Physical Phenomena — Slate-Writing under Test Conditions 22 ■4' CHAPTER III. Permanent Impressions obtained of Hands and Feet — Proposed Chemical Experiment — Slade's Abnormal Vision — Impressions in a Closed Space — Enclosed Space of Three Dimensions open to Four-Dimensional Beings 48 CHAPTER IV. Conditions of Investigation — Unscientitic Men of Science — Slade's Answer to Professor Barrett 62 751656 roN'TENTS. < M.MTKK \ Pruiliictiitn «f Knots in iin KntllcHH Strin;; — Further Experinientn — Miitorinlisiition of HantlH— DiHnppcnrnnco and HenpiH^nranco of Solid OhjrctM — A Table Vanislu-s, and afterwards IVscondo from tlio Cciliii;; in Full Lirivate house, and under the observed conditions, • That Psycho is not worked by Mr. Ma.skeljTie himself from the stage hy means of a ma^'iict lias been repeatedly demonstrated. t See Appendix C. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXV of wliicli the most noticeable is the apparent pas- sivity of Slade during all these occurrences, are to be ascribed to any conscious operation of his, we can hardly avoid attributing to him scientific discoveries, or the possession of secrets of nature at least equally remarkable. But in that case he could, and it would clearly be his interest to produce these and similar astonishing effects with constant regularity. Pro- fessor Lankester would have witnessed them no less than Professor Zollner, and Slade would long ago have amassed a fortune by his exhibitions. The fact that he cannot command these phenomena, at least the most striking of them, at will, points to conditions of their production varying with his own physical and mental states, and probably with those also of the persons resorting to him. And this is the reason why these phenomena, though as capable of verifica- tion by scientific men and trained observers (by whom they have in fact been repeatedly verified), as by any one else, are not exactly suitable for scientific verification. There is a clear distinction between the two things. Scientific verification supposes that the conditions of an experiment are ascertained, that they can be regularly provided, and the experiment repeated at pleasure. One hears occasionally of offers from men of science to investigate and attest certain phenomena of Spiritualism, selected by themselves, provided they can witness them under conditions of their own prescribing. These, in some cases well- meant overtures, proceed on the assumption that the XXVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE. l>lionomonn, if gcnuiiio, reqiiirc nothing but the mere physical presence of the medium, and that it is only necessary to take adcfpiate precautions (no matter ^vhat these are) against deception hy tlie latter, in order to obtain a scientific demonstration. When such an offer is rejected or neglected, the inference of course is drawn that tlje ** phenomena" only occur when facilities for their fraudulent production are allowed. Yet it is equally consistent with the medium's know- ledge that the conditions (of which he is himself ignorant) cannot be controlled, and with his con- sequent indisposition to be put upon a formal trial which may result in failure and discredit. Syste- matic investigation of this subject by men of science is much to be desired, but it must not be undertaken in a magisterial spirit, with the imposition of a test, and the demand of an immediate result. The only claim which spiritualists make upon scientists is tliat they shall not, in entire ignorance and contempt of the evidence, sanction and encourage the public pre- judice by their authority.* But even this claim can- not be preferred with confidence. Since the Council of the Royal Society refused, by its rejection of J\Ir. Crookes's paper, *' On the Experimental Investigation of a new Force," to be informed of the evidence, it must be considered that the Fellows of that distin- guished body do, in general, dispose of the question on a priori grounds, and hold that no quantity or ♦ For example, by (lcscril)inp; Spiritualism as "a kiud of intellectual whoredom."— I'rofcssor Tyndall. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXVU quality of Iniinan testimony can suffice to establish facts of this description, or even ii prima facie case in favour of them. So far as this peremptory rejection appeals to the principle of incredulity expounded in Hume's celebrated Essay on Miracles, it shows an utter ignorance of the reasoning by which that monstrous fallacy, and the contradictions in which its author involved himself, have been repeatedly exposed. This has never been better done than in the intro- duction to Mr. Alfred Eussel Wallace's book, entitled " Miracles and Modern Spiritualism." There is, how- ever, another proposition commonly put forward to dispose a iJriori of unacceptable testimony, substan- tially, but not logically, equivalent to Hume's, and which embodies a fallacy no less demonstrable, though so widely prevalent as to necessitate particular examination. This proposition is, that evidence, to command assent, should be proportional to the pro- bability or improbability of the fact to be proved. Two years ago the writer dealt with it at some length in a paper read before the Psychological Society, and which is reprinted in an Appendix at the end of this volume.* Inasmuch as the fallacy in question, and the loose and inaccurate phrases, applied to the whole class of facts now in evidence, are in the nature of preliminary objections to the testimony about to be adduced, the reader is urgently referred to that essay, which cannot be conveniently comprised within the limits of a preface. * Appendix A. "On the value of testimony in matters extraordinaiy." -XXVlll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Every opponent who recognises the oLligalion of dealing seriously with evidence, whether by explicitly ohjocting to its admissibility, or by questioning its in- trinsic value, must be fairly and squarely encountered. To writers in the press who never miss an oppor- tunity of discrediting Spiritualism, by derisive articles on the "exposures," real or reputed, of mediums, and on the occasional follies of spiritualists, only a l)assing word can be spared. To the present writer, at least, so-called Spiritualism represents no religious craze or sectarian belief, but an aggregation (not yet to be called a system) of proven facts of incalculable importance to science and speculation. Those who so regard the subject would be unmoved in their convictions of its truth and importance though it were proved that every medium was a rogue, and that many spiritualists were their willing dupes. Much of the evidence on which they rely has pro- ceeded on tljat very assumption, and on the precau- tions which wore accordingly taken, lii none of it which is imparted to the public does the element of personal confidence in the medium enter in the smallest deforce, thoufjh that feelinfr doubtless does and must often exist, especially when the manifes- tations occur, as they often do, in private families, and with persons whose characters are beyond all suspicion. As regards the medium, Henry Sladc, with whom Professor Zollner's investigations were carried on, all the world knows, or did know a few years ago, that he TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXIX was convicted at Bow Street Police Court, under the fourth section of the Vagrant Act, of using " subtle crafts and devices, by palmistry or otherwise," to deceive Professor E. Kay Lankester, F.R.S., and cer- tain others ; that he was sentenced by Mr. Flowers, the magistrate, to three months' imprisonment with hard labour ; and that the conviction was afterwards C[uashed on appeal to the Middlesex Sessions, for a formal error in the conviction, as returned to tliat Court. Professor Zollner gives the whole report of the various proceedings from beginning to end, at length, in his book, but it has not been thought necessary to reproduce it here. It may be stated generally that Professor Lankester had two sittins^s with Slade, at each of which he believed himself to have detected the mode in which the writing was produced on the slate. On the second occasion he was accom- panied by a friend. Dr. Donkin, whose evidence agreed with his own. The modus operandi, accord- ing to these gentlemen, was this : Slade took one of his own slates, and held it for a time, concealed from the view of his visitors, between himself and the table, before placing it " in position," that is, pressed against the under surface of the corner of the table, for the pretended purpose of obtaining " Spirit- writing." During this interval the observers de- tected sounds as of writing, and observed motions of Slade's arm, suggestive that he was employed in writ- ing on the slate, held, probably, between his legs. As to other " messages," obtained while the slate was ZXX TRAXSLATOUS PUliFACE. in position, tlu'y supposed Slatlc to 'iudite them liy mciius of a bit of pencil stuck in the nail of one of his fingers. At length, after hearing writing as first described, Professor Lankester snatched tlie shite from Blade's hand as soon as it was phiccd against the table, and found the message already inscribed upon it. Such was the clumsy trick — if trick indeed proceed- ings so imperfectly disguised can be called — of which a man who, if not a " medium," is unquestionably the most wonderful conjurer and illusionist in the world, was convicted, by inference, to use the magistrate's expression, " from the known course of nature," And there the matter miiiht be left to the reader's reflec- tions. Some few additional facts must, however, bo stated. Previous to Professor Laukcster's visit to him, Slade had been two months in London, being on his way to St. Petersburg, where he was under an engage- ment with a scientific committee of the Imperial University of that city. During this time he had been giving sittings to all comers, including not a few of literary and scientific attainments. We may safely conclude that the great impression he had produced was not the result of proceedings such as those described by his accusei*s. Among those named in the information against him, and whom he was charged, contrary, it was understood, to their express wish, with having deceived, were several well-known gentlemen. Dr. W. B, Carpenter, F.R.S., being one. Only one of these gentlemen, Mr 11 H. Huttou, was TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XXXI called as a witness by the prosecution. His evidence was on the whole favourable to the accused. Of other witnesses called by the prosecution, not one professed to have detected trickery, though all seemed to suspect it. For the defence, it was pro- posed to call a number of witnesses of education and intelligence, for the purpose of giving evidence of phenomena — slate-writing and other — witnessed by them in Slade's presence, of a character and under conditions wholly inconsistent with any agency of his. Four only were allowed to give evidence, one of them being Mr. A. R. Wallace, the eminent naturalist. The present writer had been called by the prosecution (he being counsel in the case for another defendant), but believes that his evidence could not have been entirely satisfactory to that side. The effect of the evidence for the defence was described by the magistrate from the bench as " over- whelming ; " but in giving judgment he expressly excluded it from consideration, confining himself to tlie evidence of the complainant, Professor Lankester, and of Dr. Donkiu, and basing his decision upon " inferences to be drawn from the known course of nature " — a main question in the case being whether there are not some operations in nature not "generally known." An attempt had been made, with the wholly irregular assistance of Mr. John Nevil Maskelyne, the professional conjurer, to show that the table used by Slade, and which was produced in Court by the defence, was a " trick table," and XXXll TIIANSLATOU S rUEFACE. expressly constructed to assist iu the effects at the sCitnccs. This attempt utterly broke down. In order to allow room for the slate to be placed in the position usual for obtainini^ writinf^, a single central support was used for the tlap of the table instead of side ledges. A wedge inserted at the pivot of this suj^port had been pointed out as a most suspicious feature ; it was explained by the carpenter that he had inserted it himself, without orders, for the simple purpose of remedying a defect in his own construc- tion of the table. Professor Lankester, in his evidence, had described the tal)le, before its production in. Court, as without a frame, and as thus enabling Siade to move his legs and knees under it with greater facility. It turned out that the table had a frame of rather greater depth than usual. 1'he table was impounded, and remained for several months in the custody of the Court, and open to inspection and examination for concealed magnets, and so fortli. None were discovered, and the table is now at the rooms of the British National Association of Spiri- tualists, at 38 Great Russell Street, where it can be seen by the curious. Nothing was more prejudicial to Slade, or more tended to produce the impression that he was an impostor than his ascribing the ** messages " on his slates to spirits of the dead. " AUie," his deceased wife ; Professor Lankester's fictitious " Uncle John : " the random names that came, and the messages of recognition to which they were signed, naturally TKANSLATORS PREFACE. XXXUl seemed to the public, little accustomed, or, in this case, disposed to distinguish issues, even more indica- tive of fraud than the direct evidence. The writer, from the intimate kno\Yledge he acquired of Slade, is satisfied that the latter really believed in the identity of his " spirits." Nor was this belief at all unnatural. A large proportion of his visitors do obtain writing signed by the names of deceased friends of whom usually Slade has never heard ; this being often the case with strangers visitino' him for the first time. That there is any "pumping " process applied to his visitors before sitting for the writing is utterly untrue. This suggestion was put forward as part of the case of the prosecution in the opening statement ; and it had its efi'ect on the public mind ; but not one particle of evidence was adduced in support of it ; on the contrary, all the witnesses, upon cross-examina- tion, admitted that no questions were put to them, nor was any attempt made to draw them into conversa- tion before the sittings ; and it was on this ground that a charge of conspiracy against Slade and another defendant, Simmons, broke down and was dismissed. It was a suo-aestion which seems to have been made CO simply because, on the assumption that Slade was an habitual impostor, it ought to have been true, and perhaps it was expected that something of the sort would turn up in the evidence. To the writer, it has always appeared that the presence of a departed friend, in proprid persond, is very insufficiently proved by communications pur- XXXIV TKAN.SLATOU S PUKFACE. I)ortiug to be thus (Icrivcd, even when all knowledge 1)}' the nicdium of the name of the deceiosccl, or of the circumstances callrd to the recollection of the sur- vivor by way of identification, can be conclusively dis- proved. We are so profoundly ignorant of the deeper mysteries of life, that in this region we arc not entitled to accept an explanation as true simply Ijeciiuse it is sufficient, and because we cannot repre- sent to ourselves any other. Usually, in the writer's experience invariably, in these communications any attempt to pursue the test by further probing the memory and intelligence of the supposed spirit results in failure. And the frequency of admittedly deceptive communications proves at least that there are mixed influences abroad, and that the hospitality of the medium's spiritual neighbourhood is shared by very questionable guests. Some time before the com- mencement of the proceedings against Slade, the writer, being extremely sceptical of spirit-identity, wrote a fictitious name on the back of a slate (care- fully concealing the side on which he wrote, and the motions of the peucil), and handiug the slate, clean side uppermost, to Slade, requested that tlie indi- vidual whose name was written would communicate, if present. Slade took the slate without reversing it, and laid a morsel of pencil upon it ; then at once jtressed it against the under surface of the corner of the table, so that the clean side was in contact with that surface, the side on which the name was written being the lower one. Writing was heard directly, TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXXV and the slate being withdrawn and immediately inspected, on its upper side was found a kind little message of friendly remembrance signed by the fictitious name. Never was the writer more satisfied of Slade's integrity than on this occasion, and the circumstance is only mentioned here to show how dis- tinct are issues which were confused in the Slade pro- secution. Such experiments, however, are regarded by spiritualists as highly objectionable. They believe, and they have some grounds in experience for their belief, that fraud in the investigator will, by a subtle attraction, elicit fraud in the manifestations. Some go further, and maintain that the strong animus of prejudice, unconsciously but powerfully willing the very appearances it expects, may mes- merically control the sensitive medium, and force his actions in the direction it dictates. But to return from this disgression : Immediately after the conviction was quashed, Pro- fessor Lankester applied for and obtained a fresh sum- mons against Slade, as it was stated, **in the interests of science." (He had already, in the '* Times," described the proceedings of the British Association as having been "degraded" by the introduction of the subject of Spiritualism, on which Professor Barrett had read a paper.) But meanwhile, Slade had broken down under the pressure of anxiety, and the agitation caused by public contumely and his own indignant sense of wrong. He had resolutely refused to listen to sugges- tions that he should leave the country, by consent of XXXVl TRANSLATORS PREFACE. his bail, before the appeal case came on. As tlic time approached, ho had a slight attack of bruin-fever, as was certified by two physicians. During its continu- ance he wjis occ.'Lsionally delirious, and the writer saw him in this condition. Partially recovered, he with ditli«ulty draggid himsc.'lf to the Court; he appeared apathetic and almost unconscious during its critical proceedings. It was the belief of his friends that further persecution would kill him outright; but independently of this, immediate change of scene and a.«sociations was imperatively necessary to his recovery, lie left Entrhuid with his niece and with his friend o !Mr. Simmons a day or two after the appeal case was determined. From The Hague, after a rest of a few months, he addressed, through j\Ir. Simmons, the followinir offer to his accuser : — O '* Professor E. R. Lankester — Dear Sir, — Dr. Sladc liaving in some measure recovered from his very severe illness, and his engagement to St. Petersburg having been postponed (by desire of his friends there) till the autumn, desires me to make the following offer : — " He is willing to return to London for the express and sole purpose of satisfying you that the slate-writ- ing occurring in his presence is in no way produced by any trickery of his. For this purpose he will come to your house unaccompanied by any one, and will sit with you at your own table, using your owu .slate and pencil ; or, if you prefer to come to his room, it will suit him as well. translator's preface. xxxvii " In tlie event of any arrangement being agreed upon, Slade would prefer that the matter sliould be kept strictly private. "As be never can guarantee results, you sball give him as many as six trials, and more if it shall be deemed advisable. And you shall be put to no charge or expense whatever. " You on your part shall undertake that during the period of the sittings, and for one week afterwards, you will neither take nor cause to be taken, nor countenance legal proceedings against him or me. That if in the end you are satisfied that the slate- writing is produced otherwise than by trickery, you shall abstain altogether from further proceedings against us, and suffer us to remain in England, if we choose to do so, unmolested by you. "If, on the other hand, you are not so satisfied, you shall be at liberty to proceed against us, after the expiration of one week from the conclusion of the six or more experiments, if we are still in England. You will observe that Slade is willing to go to you without witnesses of his own, and to trust entirely to your honour and good faith. " Conscious of his own innocence, he has no malice against you for the past. He believes that you were very naturally deceived by appearances w^hich to one who had not previously verified the phenomena under more satisfactory conditions may well have seemed suspicious. Should we not hear from you within ten days from this date, Slade will conclude that you XXXVlll TRANSLATORS PREFACE. have declined his offer. — I have the honour to 1)0, Sir, your ohcdient servant, J. Simmons." " 37 Spui Stbkct, The Haouk, i/ay jth, 1877. ']'«) this h'ltor no nnswer was ever received. After a h)ng rest on the Continent, Sladc was able to jjive the wonderful s6anccs recorded in this volume. He went on to St. Petersburg and fulfilled his engage- ment there. Returning to London for a day or two in 1878, he embarked for Australia, and made a great impression in the colonies. He returned to America by San Francisco last year, and is now^ once more iii New York. During his travels after leavinfj England, he is said to have suffered from a partial paralysis, induced by his troubles here. "With Slade, as with no other medium known to the writer, the conditions of investigation arc essen- tially simplified by the fact that he invariably sits with his visitors in a full light. " In the interests of science " it is greatly to be desired that he may be able to revisit London, liberated by an imj^roved state of public opinion from all danger of molestation. We who urge the truth of these things are only anxious that the investigation should be conducted in the light of day, and by the most competent persons. So strong is this feeling, that it is believed a fund would easily be raised for the purpose of bringing Slade over to England and placing him in the hands of a scientific committee who should examine this question of the slate-writing with the TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXX IX facilities suo^orested iu the offer of Slade to Professor Lankester. That the Slade prosecution was designed to deal a blow at SjDiritualism, or rather at the serious investigation of facts which are usually included in that term, will hardly be doubted. But without in the least questioning that Professor Lankester had in his own belief, as in that of the vast majority of the public, the strongest justification for the course he took, it is to be trusted that a truer appreciation of the interests of science will shortly prevail. Professor ZoUner in these volumes, speaking from the point of view of a true man of science, expresses his indigna- tion at these transactions in England, and at the unmeasured abuse of Slade in the German press, in strong terms. The translator has thought it better to omit all this, leaving the facts to speak for them- selves, and in the assurance that hereafter, if not at present, public opinion will pronounce a just judgment upon them. Professor Zollner's polemic, referred to in his dedication to Mr. Crookes, has a far wider scope and application than will be apparent from the following translation. He has set himself, in the course of these treatises, to encounter with unspariug force certain tendencies among men of science, and in the Press, which he regards as demoralising in the highest degree. All particular reference to these subjects is here avoided. This is almost exclusively a volume of evidences, and the introduction of other topics of controversy might not be favourable to the judicial xl TIlANSLATOIl's PUEFACE. calmness with which the former should be considerccl. Ncvcrthcles.% the belief may bo avowed that the substantiation of the facts before us, in scientific and public opinion, cannot fail to liiivi-, iiulircctly, a revolutionary effect on many dcpartuK-nts of specula- tion and practice. All that i.s asked at present, how- ever, is a fair judgment on the facts themselves, without regard to the possible extent of their signifi- cance. For further, and very striking evidences of the phenomenon of writing l)y unknown agencies, the reader is referred to a small volume entitled " Psychography," by M, A. (Oxon): (Harrison, London, 1878). Although the popular suggestion, that the pheno- mena of Spiritutdism arc merely conjuring under false pretences, will not find acceptance with any one who seriously considers the evidence, it has been thought worth while to meet it additionally by the testimonies of some well-known experts in the arts of illusion. These will be found in Appendices B and C ; the evidence of Bellachini, Court conjurer at Berlin, who was employed to conduct a systematic investigation of the phenomena in Sladc's presence, is especially remarkable. The literary niorit of the following translation is of such infinite unimportance in coniparison with the matter that the writer hardly cares to disarm criticism on this point, provided the substantial accuracy of the rendering is not impugned, lie is quite sensible of its other defects, and has only to plead that he is teanslator's pbeface. xli almost entirely self-tauglit in German, having never visited countries in which it is spoken, or studied for any length of time under a master. He has only undertaken the work because it seemed that other- wise it would not be done at all, or at least not yet. Nor has he any pecuniary interest in it. He now gives it to the English j)^^blic, in the hope that it may conduce to a more rational appreciation and to a juster treatment of evidence on this subject than has hitherto prevailed. AUTHOR'S DEDICATION. AUTHOR'S DEDICATION To WILLIAM CEOOKES, RE.S. With the feeling of sincere gratitude, and recogni- tion of your immortal deserts in the foundation of a new science, I dedicate to you, highly honoured col- league, this Third Volume of my Scientific Treatises. By a strange conjunction our scientific endeavours have met upon the same field of light, and of a new class of physical phenomena which proclaim to astonished mankind, with assurance no longer doubt- ful, the existence of another material and intelligent world. As two solitary wanderers on high mountains joyfully greet one another at their encounter, when passing storm and clouds veil the summit to which they aspire, so I rejoice to have met you, undismayed champion, upon this new province of science. To you, also, ingratitude and scorn have been abundantly dealt out by the blind representatives of modern science, and by the multitude befooled through their erroneous teaching. May you be consoled by the consciousness that the undying splendour with which the names of a Newton and a Faraday have illus- XlVl Al rUdltS DKIUCATKiN. tratecl the history of the English people can be obscured by nothing, not even by the political decline of this great nation : even so will your name survive in the history of culture, adding a new ornament to those with which the English nation has endowed tlie huniau race. Your courage, your admirable acuteness in experiment, and your incomparable per- severance, will niise for you a memorial in the hearts of grateful posterity, as indestructible as the marble of the statues at Westminster. Accept, then, this work as a token of thanks and sympathy poured out to you from an honest German heart. If ever the ideal of a general peace on this earth shall be realised , this will assuredly be the result not of political speeches and agitations, in which human vanity always demands its tribute, but of the bond of extended knowledge and advancing information, for which w^e have to thank such heroes of true science as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Faraday, Wilhelm Weber, and yourself.* =5= -:= * In the first place it is necessary that the truth should be regardlessly outspoken, in order to encoun- ter lies and tyranny, no matter under what shape they threaten to impede human progress, with energy and effect. In this sense 1 beg you to judge my combat against scientific and moral offences, not only in my own, Init also in your country. * Hero fdllow references to subjects of controversy foreign to the pnr- jmsc uf this translatictii, and whicli occnpy much of this, as of the pre- ceding volumes of the treatises. author's dedication. xlvii Every polemic, even the justest, has in it some- thing uncongenial, like the sight of a battle or of a bloody battle-field. For hereby is man reminded impressively of the imperfections and faults of his earthly existence. And yet are gathered the noblest blossoms of the human heart, in its self-renouncing devotion of the dearest to the Fatherland, round the graves of the fallen warriors. The poetry and his- tory of all peoples glorify these blood-saturated spots with their noblest breath, and the returning spring sees crosses woven with roses and ivy, where a year before the battle raged. So, hereafter, will this literary battle-field appear to the generation growing up. They will have understood the moral necessity of the strife, and in the morning splendour of a new epoch of human culture will have forgotten the repulsiveness {das Unsympathische) of my polemic. But united England and Germany may always re- member the words of your great physicist. Sir David Brewster, who, in his " Life of Newton," reminds us of the indestructibility and immortality of the works of human genius : — " The achievements of genius, like the source from which they spring, are indestructible. Acts of legis- lation and deeds of war may confer a high celebrity, but the reputation which they bring is only local and transient ; and while they are hailed by the nation which they benefit, they are reproached by the people whom they ruin or enslave. The labours of science, on tlie contrary, bear along with them no counterpart xlvui ArrnoKs I)i:i»I("ati«»n, of evil. Tlioy tire the liberal bequests of great minds to every indiviilual of their race, and wherever they are welcomed ami honoured, they become the solace of private life, and the ornament anut under the table suddenly benran to rins:, and was then violently projected before all our eyes about ten feet distance horizontally upon the floor. After a short pause, in which phenomena similar to those already described took place, a small note-table, fixed to a door-post by a movable iron support, began suddenly to move, and so violently, that a chair standing in front of it was thrown down with a great noise. These objects were behind Slade, and at least five feet from him. At the same time, and at the like distance, a book-case, loaded with many books, was violently agitated. A small paper thermometer- case was laid on the slate, which Slade held half under the edge of the table. This disappeared, so that Slade could show the slate empty ; after about three minutes it came again into view upon the slate. Both here, and in the following account, I take no notice of the continually repeated writing between the slates. On the same day, the same persons assembled in the same room for a second sitting. W. Weber placed on the table a compass, enclosed in glass, the needle of which we could all observe very distinctly by the bright candlelight, while we had our hands EXPERIMENTS WITH A COMPASS. 2)9 joined with those of Slade (which were both visible, and over a foot distant from the compass). After about five minutes the needle began to swing violently in arcs of from 40° to 60°, till at length it several times turned completely round. Slade now got up, and Avent from the table to the window ; he hoped that the movements of the needle (which were especially remarkable by reason of the frequent sudden revolu- tions and the resting points) would be continued in his absence : this, however, did not happen. But when, standing, he again put his right hand with ours (always joined to his) in motion (Slade's hand, however, remaining at least a foot and a half from the compass), the peculiar agitations of the needle suddenly recommenced, and were finally changed into rotations. In order to repeat some observations with an accor- dion, in the presence of Home (which were made and published by Crookes and Huggins), besides the above- mentioned large hand-bell, an accordion had been brought by one of my friends. The bell was placed under the table, as in the morning, and Slade grasped the keyless end of the accordion (which he had never had in his hands before, but saw now for the first time) above, so that the side with keys hung down free. "While Slade's left hand lay on the table, and his right, holding the upper part of the accordion above the table, was visible to us all, the accordion 40 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. began sudclouly to pluy, and at the same time the bell on tlie floor to ring violently. The latter could thus not be touching the floor with its edges during the ringing. ITorcupon Slade gave the accordion to Professor Scheibner, and re(juested him to hold it in the manner above described, as it might possibly happen that the accordion would play in his hand also, with- out Slade touching it at all. Scarcely had Scheibner the accordion in his hand, than it began to play a tune exactly in the same way, while the bell under the table again rang violently. Slade's hands mean- while rested quietly on the table, and his feet, turned sideways, could be continually observed during this proceeding. Encouraged by tlie success of this exactly-des- cribed experiment, Slade renewed the repeated attempt, hitherto in vain, to obtain writing on a slate held by another, and not touched at all by himself. He therefore handed to Professor Scheibner one of the slates purchased by myself and kept in readiness, requesting him to hold it at first with his left hand under the table, while Slade held it firmly at the edge with his rifjht hand : Scheibner could thus always judge from a pull or pressure whether Slade was holding the slate close under the table. Scheibner's right hand and Slade's left rested mean- while on the table. After waiting vainly for a short time, Slade remarked that he felt a damj) body APPARITION OF A HAND. 4 1 touching the hand that held the slate, and at the same time Professor Scheibner also testified to the same sensation, which he likened to the touch of a piece of damp felt-cloth. Scheibner then withdrew the slate, which in fact was freely moistened on the upper side, both in the centre and at the edges for a breadth of from two to three inches, as were also the hands, both of Scheibner and Slade, which had held the slate. While we were conjecturing in what conceivable manner this moistening could have happened, and all our hands were on the table, there appeared suddenly a small reddish-brown hand at the edge of the table, close in front of W. Weber, and visible to us all, which moved itself vivaciously and disappeared after two seconds. This phenomenon was several times repeated. In order, conclusively, to establish the elevation above the floor of one body sounding against another, I had suspended a steel-ball, of about three-quarters of an inch diameter, by a silk thread inside a cylindrical glass-bell of one foot in height and one-half foot dia- meter. The bell so formed was placed under the table instead of the other bell, and very soon there began a lively tinkling with unmuffled tones as the steel-ball struck against the glass side. As Slade's hands were on the table, and his feet were observed ; and even in case of an application by the latter, the tone of the bell 42 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. would have been afTected by the contact of another body ; this phenomenon couhl only be brought about by an elevation of the bell to freedom from contact. On the next day, tlic 13th December 1877, Slade proposed to us himself that we should make a direct observation of the movement of the said bell under the table, and thereby make sure that this movement happened without any contact on his part. With this view we sat at a distance of about four feet from the table ; by means of candles suit- ably placed we could conveniently observe everything which happened under the table. The glass-bell was now jilaced under the table, and indeed towards the side facing us, about in the line between the two feet of the table which were nearest us. Slade sat on the opposite side, and had his feet, visible to us all, drawn back under his chair, so that they were about three feet from the bell. After a short time the bell, without any touching on Slade's part, began moving violently, rolling about in an oblique position upon the lower glass edge, the steel ball thereby grinding against the glass side. On this ev^ening occurred writing between a double slate, bound cross-wise by a tight knot, and laid on a corner of the table, and which 7io one touched. This result may be compared with that obtained at SSt. Petersburg, recorded in an English journal, The SLADE AND THE GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE. 43 Spimtualist of March ist, 1878, which contains the following paragraphs under the title, "Dr. Blade's Seances with the Grand Duke Constantine : " — " On Wednesday last week, Dr. Slade, accompanied by M. Alexandre Aksakow and Professor Boutlerof, gave a seance to the Grand Duke Constantine. The Duke gave them a cordial reception, and after a few minutes' conversation, the manifestations began with great power. The Duke held a new slate, alone, and obtained independent writing upon it. "The Grand Duke Constantine has before this shown his appreciation of new branches of science. AVhen Lieutenant Maury was obliged to flee from the United States during the late civil war, the Duke recognised the — then scarcely appreciated — value of his researches on the physical geography of the sea and oceanic currents, so oflered him a home and a welcome in Russia. " Dr. Slade is fully engaged in St. Petersburg, and sometimes obtains messages in the Russian language. At one of his sittings last week he obtained writing in six languages upon a single slate." The above fact is additionally confirmed by the following public testimony by M. Aksakow, Imperial Privy Councillor : — " I can, as a witness, testify that the writing was produced upon a slate which the Grand Duke alone held under and close to the table, while Slade's hands 44 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. were on the tabic and did not touch the slate. Slade has since had the honour of being invited to two stances by the Grand Duke. — Aksakow." The above ex[)criment, described as succeeding with the Grand Duke Constantine, was never success- ful in my sittings, altiiough Mr. Slade with this object has repeatedly given the slate to be held alone by Professor W. Weber and Professor Scheib- uer. On the other hand, tliat of the evening in question (ijtli December 1877) which succeeded with AV. Weber and me was yet more remarkable. Two slates were bought by myself, marked, and care- fully cleaned. They were then — a splinter of about three millimbtrcs thickness from a new slate-pencil having first been put between them — bound tightly together, cross-wise, with a string four millim5tres thick. They were laid on, and close, to the corner of a card-table of walnut wood which I had shortly before purchased myself. While, now, W. Weber, Slade, and I sat at the table, and were busied with magnetic experiments, during which our six hands lay on the table, those of Slade being two feet from the slate, very loud writing began suddenly between the untouched slates. When we separated them, there was upon one of them the following words, in nine lines, ** We feel to bless all those that try (?) to in- vestigate a subject so unpopular as the subject of Spiritualism is at the present. But it will not TEST EXPERIMENT IN SLATE- WRITING. 45 always be so unpopular ; it will take its place among the . . . (?) of all classes and kinds." The slate had the mark (H.2) previously placed by me upon it. There can be no talk here of a trick or of antecedent preparations. In addition, the large hand-bell which was laid on the floor at the side of the table opposite to me, was placed quietly and slowly in my left hand, which I held close under the table ; during this proceeding also, Slade's hands were both visible, and his feet were under our control. Finally, Mr. Slade himself proposed an experiment which should serve as proof that the slates were not previously prepared and the writing already present on them, invisibly, before the apparent production of it. He took as usual the slate which came to hand, laid a bit of slate-pencil of the size of a pea upon it, and asked me, while he pushed the slate half under the edge of the table (so that his hand could be continually observed), what should be written upon it. I said " Littrow, Astronomer." The usual scribbling began immediately, and when Slade drew out the slate, the two above words were per- fectly distinct upon it, with the letters widely apart. If Slade did not write the words himself (at the time), which from the position of his hand and of the letters upon the slate w^as impossible, so likewise could these words certainly not have been produced by means of a previous preparation of the slate, since 46 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. the words themselves had occurred to me f|uitc suddenly for the first time. Friday, 14th December 1877 (i i.io to 11.40 a.m.). To-day, first one of the slates kept always in readi- ness, which I myself selected and cleaned, was laid open with a bit of slate-pencil upon the floor under the taljle. Now, while Slade had both his hands linked with ours upon the table, and his legs, turned .sideways, were continually visible, writing, loudly perceptible by us all, began on the slate lying be- low. "When we raised it, there were on it the words — "Truth will overcome all error 1" Next, two magnetic needles, a larger and a smaller one, both completely enclosed in glass cases, were placed close in front of AV. AVeber. Our hands were linked upon tlie table with those of Slade in the usual manner, and were at least one foot from the magnetic needle. Suddenly the small needle began to oscillate violently, till it got into constant rotation, while the larger one showed only slight agitations, which appeared to proceed from a shaking of the table. Since here, forces were mani- festly at work (no matter what their origin) which were able to act upon the magnetism of bodies, I suggested to Slade the attempt, permanently to magnetise an un- magnetic stecl-ncedle. Slade hesitated at first, and seemed to think our success doubtful. However, he was at once ready to consent to the proposition. I fetched a large number of steel knitting-needles, and MAGNETIC EXPERIMENT. 47 W.Weber and I chose from them one which,immed{ately before the experiment (on the table at which we sat), was ascertained by means of the compass to be wholly immagnetised, inasmuch as both poles were attracted. Slade laid this needle upon a slate, held the latter under the table just in the same way as for writing, and after about four minutes, when the slate with the knitting-needle was laid again upon the table, the needle was so strongly magnetised at one end (and only at one end) that iron shavings and sewing- needles stuck to this end ; the needle of the compass could be easily drawn round in a circle. The origin- ated pole was a south pole, inasmuch as the north pole of the (compass) needle was attracted, the south pole repelled. The needle is still in my possession, and can at any time be tested. ( 48 ) Cljaptcr CfjtrD. PXRUAKSyT IMPRESaiONS OBTAINKD Of HAKD9 AND FEET— PE0PO8KD CHEmCAL EXPEHrMKNT— HLADE'S ABNUKUAL VISION— 11IPUESSI0N8 IN A GLOBED SPACE — KNCLOaSD bPACK OF THKKS DIUKNSIONH OPKN TO POUB-IUUEMblONAL BEINGS. As almost regularly at all the sittings (while Slade's hands rested on the table, visible to all present, and his feet, in the sideways position frequently mentioned, could be at any time observed) we felt the touch of hands under the table, and, as above remarked, had even seen these transiently under the same conditions, I desired to institute an experiment by which a convincing proof of the existence of these hands could be afforded. I therefore proposed to Mr. Slade to have placed under the table a flat porcelain vase filled up to the edge with wheat flour, and that he should then request his " spirits " to put their hands in the flour before touching us. In this manner the visible traces of the touching must be shown on our clothes after the contact, and at the same time Slade's hands and feet could be examined for remains of flour adhering to them. Slade declared himself ready at once for the proposed test. I fetched a large porcelain bowl of about one A TEST WITH FLOUE. 49 foot diameter and two inclies deep, filled it evenly to the brim with flour, and placed it under the table. We did not trouble ourselves at first about the eventual success of this experiment, but continued for over five minutes the magnetic experiments, Slade's hands being all the time visible upon the table ; when suddenly I felt my right knee power- fully grasped and pressed by a large hand under the table for about a second, and at the same moment, as I mentioned this to the others and was about to get up, the bowl of meal was p-^shed fo-rward from its place under the table about fcur feet on the floor. Upon my trousers I had the impression in meal of a large strong hand, and on the^ meal-surface of the bowl were indented the thumb, and four fingers with all the niceties of structwe and folds of the skin impressed. An immediate examination of Slade's hands and feet showed not the slightest traces of flour, and the comparison of his own hand with the impression on the meal proved the latter to be con- siderably larger. The impression is still in my possession, although through frequent shakings the delicacy of the lines is becoming gradually obliterated by the falling together of the particles of meal. Slade was highly pleased at the success of the magnetic experiments, particularly the magnetising of the knitting-needle, an attempt which we oftcu repeated on the following day with always the like D 50 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. result. He expressed in warm terms his liappineps, that lie had, for the first time, succeeded in interesting men of sincere inclination to truth for his peculiar endowments, in such a degree that they had resolved to institute scientific experiments with him. I was now sufticiently encouraged, gradually to set on foot those experiment.s which I had prepared from the stand-poiut of my theory of a space of four dimensions. Since the magnetic experiments had proved that under the influences which invisibly surrounded Slade, the molecular currents, present in the interior of all bodies, could be turned, that is, altered in their position (whereon, according to Ampere's and Weber's theory, the magnetising of bodies principally depends), I entertained the hope that an experiment indicated in the first volume of my Scientific Treatises would succeed ; viz., the con- version, by a four-dimensional diversion of mole- cules of tartaric acid, which diverts the plane of polarised light to the right, into racemic acid, which diverts it to the left. To this end I had kept in readiness one of JMitchell's simple polarising saccharo- meters, the tube of which contained a concentrated solution of tartaric acid. The diversion of the plane of polarisation amounted to about 5°. I intended that the glass tul)e (200 millimetres long and 15 outer diameter), filled with the solution, should be laid on the slate, the latter being held by Slade under the ABNORMAL VISION. 5 I table, as in the case of the knitting-needles wbich were to be magnetised ; in the expectation that after the experiment I should see the tartaric acid changed into racemic acid. Wishing first to explain to Mr. Slade the meaning of the experiment, I began by pointing out to him in the apparatus itself, after removing the tube, the optical effect of two crossed Nicol's prisms. I desired him, while sitting in his chair, to fix his eye on the front prism, and then to look with the apparatus at the clear sky (the experiment took place at my house at II. 45 in the morning of the 14th December 1877), while I slowly turned the front Nicol. I now asked Slade, when the two prisms were about crossed, if he observed the gradual darkening of the field of view. To my great surprise, he said he did not. I supposed him to be deceived by the side light, and therefore disposed the two prisms from the front at right angles, so that neither I nor my friends could see through at all. Slade still asserted that he did not perceive the least change in the clearness of the sky ; and as proof he read an English writing, placed before the two crossed Nicol's, covering his left eye, as we saw, with his left hand. I was not, however, contented with this proof of the fact. Next morning, when we were again assembled at my house, I had two very large Nicol's prisms (for the production of a greater field of view) fixed to turn closely one over the other, and a large circular screen, which completely covered the 52 TIlANSCENDENTAL PnYSTCS. BJ^Wit of tlje observer, so placed in connection witli tlie prisms, that external objects could only be perceived through tlio two Nicol's prisms. I then took an English book, Tyndall's Faraday as a Discoverer, and in Sladc's absence markod by interlineations the following words on page 8i : — "The burst of power uhich had filled the four preceding years with an amount of experimental work unparalleled in the history of Science." "When I again made Slade look through the two crossed Nicol's at the sky, and he declared, as on the day before, that he did not remark the least change in the clearness of the sky when the prisms were turned, I requested him to sit on a chair, and to read to me the underlined words from the book, held at a distance of about two feet from his sight. To the great astonishment of us all, he immediately read the above w^ords with perfect accuracy. When, about ten minutes later, I held the two prisms crossed again before Slade's eye, he was no longer able to sec, and the experiment was not more successful in the evening of the same day by candlelight. He informed me that in the morning, soon after the experiment in question, he had perceived "an influence," to which he ascribed the change of his condition. In connection with what lias been quoted above, from Professor Fechner, wuth reference to the change in the magnetic condition of a sensitive, this alteration in Slade's oj^tical powera FALL OF OBJECTS. 53 may afford an interesting confirmation of tlie transitory ■character of such anomalous organic functions. The originally intended experiment with the tartaric acid was discontinued in consequence of the above extra- ordinary observations. I purposed to carry it out at a future investigation of Slade's peculiarities. On Saturday, the 15th December 1877, at eleven in the morning we assembled again at my house. While we were taking a small breakfast, standing in my work-room, and I was talking to Slade near my book- case, some twenty feet from the stove, about the ex- periment with the crossed Nicol's prisms (which Slade designated a "clairvoyant experiment"), there fell suddenly from the ceiling of the room a piece of coal the size of a fist. A similar incident happened half- an-hour later, when my colleague Scheibner, in con- versation with Slade, was on the point of leaving the sitting-room ; a piece of wood, instead of coal, falling suddenly from the ceiling. On the morning of the I ith December w^hen we stood talking, after the sitting, and I was standing near Slade, we suddenly saw my pocket-knife, fortunately shut, fly through the air, and strike the forehead of my friend Scheibner with some force, the scar remaining visible on the following day. Since at the time of the incident I was conversing with Slade, and the latter had his back turned to my friend at a distance of about ten feet, Mr. Slade, at any rate, could not have thrown the knife at my 54 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. friend's head. I only cito this incident because it appears to me to Ixjlong to the same class as tlie above-mentioned facts. Those experiments seem to me far more important, liowever, in which permanent impressions of contact were left behind, as was tlie case with the impression of tlie hand in the bowl of flour. With this view I stuck half a sheet of common letter- paper upon a somewhat larger board of wood ; it was the cover of a wooden box, in wliich Herr Merz had sent me some large prisms for spectroscopic purposes from Munich four days before. By moving the paper over a petroleum lamp without a cylinder it was spread all ov( r with soot (lamp black), and then placed und«^r the t;ible at which W. "Weber, Slade, and I had taken out seats. Hoping to obtain upon the sooted paper the impress of the hand, as on the previous day, we at first directed our attention again to the majr- netic experiments. Suddenly the board was pushed forward with force under the table about the distance of one meter, and on my raising it, there was on it the impression of a naked left foot. I at once desired Slade to stand up and show me both his feet. He did this most willincflv ; after he had drawn off his shoes, we examined the stockings for any adhering particles of soot, but without finding anything of the sort. Then we made him put his foot on a measure, from which it appeared that the length of his foot IMPRESSION OF A FOOT. 55 from the heel to the great toe was 22*5 centimetres, whereas the length of the impression of the foot be- tween the same parts amounted only to i8'5 centi- metres. Two Jays later, on the 17th December 1877, at eight o'clock in the evening, I repeated this experiment, only with the difference that instead of a board 46 centimetres long by 22 broad, a slate was used, whose surface, not covered by the wooden frame, was 1 4 '5 centimetres broad and 22 long. Upon this free surface I stuck a half sheet of letter-paper (Bath) cut down to exactly the same dimensions. Immedi- ately before the sitting, I myself, in the presence of witnesses, sooted the paper in the manner above des- cribed. The slate was then, as before the board, laid under the table at which we sat, with the sooted side uppermost. Upon a given sign we got up after about four minutes, and upon the slate was again the im- pression of the same left foot which we had obtained two days earlier upon the board. I have had this im- pression reproduced photographically on a reduced scale. I learned subsequently, from my colleague Coun- cillor Thiersch, that the method of taking impressions of human limbs on sooted paper was already fre- quently applied for anatomical and surgical purposes. In the judgment of Herr Thiersch, who had taken a great number of such impressions of feet of different 56 TKANSCENDLNTAl. I'llVSlCS. persons for comparison with that obtained by us, the impression produced in the presence of Mr. Shule is that of n man's foot wliioli had been tightly compressed by the make of the shoo, so tliat, as often liappens, one toe is pressed over the two next, and thus only four toes touch the sooted surface on imposition of the foot, as is also the case on the photograpl). Ilorr Thiersch showed me the impression of a human foot in which likewise only four toes appeared in the way de- noted. To fix these soot-impressions, it is only requisite to pass them through a thin alcoholic solution of shell- lac. With reference to the greatly abbreviated length of the foot in proportion to its breadth, Herr Thiersch remarked that this could be efTectcd by not putting down the heel and the fore part of the foot at the same time. In fact, he showed me an impression of a foot in which a nearly similar abbreviation had been produced in this way. If ui)Oii these observations it should be supposed that Mr. Slade had himself pro- duced the impression by putting on his foot in this way, it must first be assumed that he was able to draw oflf and on his shoes and stockings without application of his hands (which were all along observed by us upon the table) ; and secondly, that he was so expert in the imposition of his foot on a narrowly limited space (the surface of the slate), that, without seeing this surface, he could, nevertheless, always hit upon it with accuracy. Tiiis, certainly, SLADE NOT AN ''EXPERT. 57 would presuppose a large practice in Mr. Slade for tlie object intended, and thereby it must be conjectured that lie bad been used to bring forward this experi- ment. Putting aside bis lively astonishment and his assurance that such phenomena had never yet been observed in his presence/'" up to the present time I am not aware of any published accounts of Mr. Slade's production of similar facts, t That Slade's stockings had not been cut away underneath for this purpose — as was conjectured by some "men of science" in Leipzig, who in unimportant things accept our physical observations with absolute confidence, but in reference to the foregoing have not hesitated to in- struct us in the elementary rules for instituting exact observations — of that, as already mentioned, we satis- fied ourselves immediately after the experiment. Meanwhile, to meet all such doubts (and the at- tempts at explanation are scarcely less wonderful than are the facts themselves), I proposed to Mr. Slade an experiment which, according to the theory of the four- * With reference to this statement, the translator may ohserve that he hashiniself had many sittings with Slade, previous to that time, has received accounts of the phenomena occurring in his presence from many -who have had equal or greater experience of them, and has read many records of them ; yet the above, and nearly all other of the special experiments described in the text (Professor Zollner's), are "wholly new to him. t To appreciate the importance of this, with reference to the suggestion that Slade is an expert, it is necessary to bear in mind that he has been for many years following his vocation as a medium in the light of the utmost publicity ; the Spiritualist journals (which are numerous) of America and England having printed innumerable accounts of his stances. — Te. 5^ TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. dimensional apace, must easily Buccccd. In fact, if the cflects observed by us proceed from intelligent beings occupying {ivelche sick hefinden), in tlie ((hsolute space, places which in (ho direction of the fourth dimension lie near the places occupied by Mr. Siade and us in the three-dimensional space,* and therefore necessarily invisible to us, for these beings the interior of a figure of three-dimensional space, enclosed on all sides, is just as easily accessible as is to us, three-dimensional beings, the interior of a surface enclosed on all sides by a line — a two-dimensional fifTure. A two-dimensional beinfj can represent to itself a straight line with only one perpen- dicular (Nonnale) in the respective two-dimensional regions of space (to which it belongs phenomenally). "We, on the contrary, as three-dimensional beings, • The conception of the juxtaposition of different, infinitely extended regions of space (Raiimgehktc) necessarily ]>rc8npposos the conception of the next hij,'her region of space. Tlius a two-dimensional being could inilced conceive any nuniljer of parallel infinite straight lines ; that is, infinitely extended spaces (liaumgcbictc) of one dimension, but the infinite jilanc in which it moves, as we with our bodies in the infinitely extcndcil //(rcfdimcnsional space, could rcjircscnt to itself only oticc, although we, as three-dimensional beings, know that there can be any number of infinitely extended parallel planes, which according to a per- pendicular direction, that is, according to the third dimension, can be arranged in juxtaposition. All these planes would represent infinitely extended two-dimensional worlds, whose occurrences in each region of space are completely 8ei)aratcd from those in another. If, however, under certain anomalous conditions, a two-dimensional being of the one plane were causally connected with more two-dimensional beings of another T)lanc, so that these beings by movements according to the third dimen- sion could produce effects in the two-dimensional region of the first plane, this would seem just as wonderful to the moving beings in the latter as do to us the effects witnessed in the neighbourhood of Mr Slade. A HYPOTHESIS AND AN EXPERIMENT. 59 know that there are infinitely many perpendiculars {Normale) to a straight line in space, which collec- tively form the two-dimensional geometrical place of the perpendicular plane of that straight line. Analo- gously, we can conceive only one perpendicular to a plane ; a being of four dimensions would, however, be able to conceive infinitely many perpendiculars to a plane, collectively forming the three-dimensional place Avhich in the fourth dimension stands perpendic- ular to that plane. By our nature as three-dimensional beings we could form for ourselves no representa- tion of these space relations, although we are in the position to discover ideally (hegiifflich), by analogy, the possibility of their real existence. The reality of their existence can only be disclosed through yac^s of observation. In order to obtain such an observed fact, I took a book-slate, bought by myself; that is, two slates con- nected at one side by cross hinges, like a book for folding up. In the absence of Slade I lined both slates within, on the sides applied to one another, with a half sheet of my letter-paper which, immediately before the sitting, was evenly spread with soot in the way already described. This slate I closed, and remarked to Mr. Slade that if my theory of the exist- ence of intelligent four-dimensional beings in nature was well founded, it must be an easy thing for them 6o TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. to place on the iutcrior of the closed slates the impres- sions of feet hitherto only produced on the open slates. Slade laughed, and thought that this would bo absolutely impossible ; even his " spirits," which he questioned, seemed at first much perplexed with this proposition, but finally answered with the stereo- typed caution, "We will try it." To my great sur- prise, Slade consented to my laying the closed book- slate (which I had never let out of my hands after I had spread the soot) on my lap during the sitting, so that I could continually observe it to the middle."*^ We might have sat at the table in the brightly-lighted room for about fiv^e minutes, our hands linked with those of Slade in the usual manner above the table, when I suddenly felt on two occasions, the one shortly after the other, the slate pressed down upon my lap, without my having perceived anything in the least visible. Three raps on the table announced that all was completed, and when I opened the slate there was within it on the one side the impression of Siright foot, on the other side that of a left foot, and indeed of the same which we had already obtained on the two former evenings. My readers may judge for themselves how far it is possible for me, after witnessing these facts, to con- • In the previous experiments the board and the slate had been laid open upon the floor under the table. A CLUE TO RESEARCH. 6 1 sitler Slade either an impostor or a conjurer. Slade's own astonisliment at this last result was even o-reater o than my own. Whatever may be thought of the cor- rectuess of my theory with regard to the existence of intelligent beings in four-dimensional space, at all events it cannot be said to be useless as a clue to research in the mazes of Spiritualistic phenomena. ( 62 ) Chapter JTourth. ooNDmoNs or invkstioation— unscientific men ok science— blade's AN8WEB TO PROFESSOR BAURKTT. Passing over tlic numerous other pliysical plicnomeiia, such as violent movements of quite unattached chairs niid tlic like, since the same have been so often observed and circumstantially described by others, I may next discuss the question how far it is justifiable and reasonable in dealing with new phenomena, the causes of which are entirely unknown to us, to impose conditions under which these new phenomena should occur. That for the production of electricity by fric- tion on the surfaces of bodies the driest possible air is requisite, and that in a damp atmosphere these experi- ments fail entirely, are also experimental conditions, which could evidently not be prescribed a priori, but have been discovered only through careful observa- tions among those relations under which Nature in individual cases willingly otfors us these phenomena. Just therein, indeed, consists the acuteness and skill of an observer, that without arbitrary meddling with the course of the phenomena, he so prepares his obser- vations that the conclusions drawn from them exclude the possilnlity of every error and every deception. THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR IGNORANCE. 63 Would it have been possible to dictate conditiong under wliich the fall of meteorolites should be observed, upon those who first asserted the reality of those phenomena ? On entering new provinces one must always take to heart the words of Virchow, which he uttered at the last meeting of scientific men at Munich, in his speech " Upon the Freedom of Science in the Modern State." " That which I pride myself on is just the know- ledge of my ignorance. Since, as I imagine, I know ■with tolerable accuracy what it is that I do not know, I always say to myself, when I have to enter upon a province as yet closed to me, ' Noiv must thou begin again to learn ! ' " How far Herr Virchow himself, when the occasion is forthcoming, makes use of the teachings of modesty ■which he imparts to others, we may learn from the following ^vords of Herr State Counsellor Aksakow :^'' — "The attempts which I caused to be made by Herr "Wittig in Berlin for a scientific examination of Mr. Slade by Professors Helmholtz and Virchow have failed ; and I will take this opportunity to show by an example how right I was in speaking of the diffi- culties which we still have to experience with the learned, even when it is a question of simply putting • Psychische Studien, monthly journal devoted principally to the investigation of the little-known phenomena of the soul-life. Published and edited by Alexander Aksakow, Russian Imperial Counsellor of State, at St. Petersburg, — January number, 1878. 64 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. tlic modiumistic phenomena to tlie proof, and this solely by reason of their disinclination for this pro- vince of investigation. Thus, Hcrr Virchow is willing indeed to see Mr. Sladc, but only upon the terms that the latter submits himself to all conditions which Herr Virchow shall please to lay upon him. Here now is a man of science {Gelchrtcr) who, not knowing even the A B C of the phenomena which he under- takes to make an object of his study, at the outset imposes upon them his own conditions of observa- tion ! Could a similar method have been at all approved or endured in the study of any branch of natural science whatsoever ? ... So the first false step ! And then what w^ere these conditions ? ]\Ir. Slade should allow Professor Virchow to bind his hands and feet, and to place an observer two feet from the table. These are the conditions required by a German man of science of great renown, and, never- theless, how * illogical and inconclusive ' (' unlogisch und heweis-unhrdftUj ') are they ! Take it that Mr. Slade submits to these conditions, and the seayice is successful. Plerr Virchow will be the first, and with him the whole great multitude, thence to conclude that he had tied hadJy, that his sentinel had observed hadli/, and that the adroitness of the conjuror had taken him at a disadvantage. At a second seance Herr Virchow will bind the medium in a different manner, and will a])point two sentinels ; the same ARBITRAEY COXDITIOXS. 65 result, the same conclusion ! At the third seance he will discover yet another system of fastening and pre- cautions much more elaborate and ingenious ; the same result, the same conclusion, and so on for ever ! * * Even if the above supposition is thought unjust to Professor Viicliow (as it perhaps is), it is one -which Slaile's past experience made a reason- able ground for the rejection of the Professor's conditions. "When Slade ■was in London in 1876, a distinguished man of letters -was anxious to obtain ■writing in a new book-slate furnished with a padlock, and locked before it was brought to the stance. Slade declined the attempt, greatly to the dissatisfaction of the gentleman referred to, -svhose distrust on this account ■was reflected in the tone of his evidence at Bo-w Street, on the charge against Slade by Professor Lankester, though otherwise he ■was ■witness to inexplicable manifestations. On my urging Slade subsequently to comply, he told me that this very test had once been successfully allowed, but that the fact getting known, it had led to other new contri- vances being devised and insisted on, with an utter disturbance of the usual conditions. He never could be sure beforehand that askance would succeed (the manifestations being wholly out of his o^^'n power or control), and the failure of a test imposed by the investigator was regarded as more suspicious than many merely weak and inconclusive seances under ordiuarj^ conditions. (See also Slade 's letter to the Times, page 67 post.) There is also the fact, Avell recognised amongst Spiritualists, that the influ- ence of some persons is far more favourable to the evolution of phenomena through mediums than that of others. One investigator will witness the most extraordinary manifestations at his first seance, whereas another will be long in obtaining anything like satisfactorj' evidence, as was the case with myself before I saw Slade. This interaction of medium and sitter is a fact that should never be left out of sight ; especially in esti- mating testimony to facts far exceeding our own or general experience of similar phenomena. It by no means followed from Professor Zolluer's success in nearly all the experiments he instituted with Slade, that another man of science, of perhaps altogether different constitution, physical or psychical, ■would be equally fortunate. The true cause of scientific complaint against Prof. Virchow appears to be that he would not even in the first instance witness the phenomena under the ordinary conditions of their occurrence ; assuming that there could be only one mode of demonstrating them to be genuine, or that, out of many modes, that which occurred to him must also be agreeable to nature. Probably he only thought how he could baffle a conjurer, not entertaining the possibility that the very course and nature of the phenomena themselves might put the hj-pothesis of conjuring out of the question. — Translatok. B 66 TUANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. Mr. Shidc (lid well to decline lien* Vircbow's condi- tions; for ill in)j)08iijg tlicm the latter Lad given ]>ru()f of an utter ignorance of the suliject which he professed iiis willingness to engage in. The history of all the systems of fastening by which mediums liave been tortured would alone fill a thiek volume. The Martijrolofjtj of Mediums is a book of the future. . . . Professor Virchow need only open the book by Colonel Olcott — Pt'opJe from the other World — at page 39, to see a pictorial representation of the tortures to which mediums have been subjected in the name of science and truth. There is represented the medium Eddy, with every finger of the hand separately fastened by a string nailed to the floor. Eddy's hands are in consequence of these bindings, to which they have been subjected for years, quite disfigured. And have all these bindings ever convinced any one ? The conditions dcvi.sed by Professor Virchow would have the same fate. " Blade's great merit is to have simplified the con- ditions of his seances in such a manner that it is suflicient for any one to come to him armed only with his sound senses and with his sound reason to be convinced — if he will be convinced. In ftict, the phenomena take place in full light, and while the medium's hands and feet are held,''" or, also, when the * Tliftt is, •wlicn Sialic tlocs not liimself linld the slate partly iiixlcr the tabic. He ia always williiiy to use ucw blatcs, Irouyht by the visitor, SLADE's reply to professor BARRETT. 6/ medium does not even toucli the object upon which the mediumistic phenomena are accomplished, and while the observer does not cease to hold both his hands, and to see with his own two eyes ! What more is necessary ? " I cannot refrain from setting down here the letter, full of sound manly sense, which Mr. SUide sent to the Times in London, in reply to some points raised by Professor Barrett of Dublin : — Dr. Slade's Answer to some Points of the Letter OF Professor Barrett. *' LoNiJON, 8 Upper Bedford Place, ^^ Se%Uemher 22nd, iZj6. *'SiR, — In Professor Barrett's statements published in the Tiines to-day I think he erred (I hope unin- tentionally) in saying : — ' Slade failed to procure the writing on a slate enclosed, along with a fragment of pencil, in a sealed, box ; he also failed when I used a box with a tortuous passage to allow the introduction of such bits of pencil as suited his fancy ; he declined to try and get writing within a hinged slate that was sealed, but succeeded when the hinged slate was unfastened ; and again he failed, according to the on -which writing is often obtained above the tahle. The full light is an invariable condition. The most conclusive tests cannot, however, be in- sisted on arbitrarily, at once, always, and by any one, but are usually given in the course of a few sittings. — Tkanslator. 68 TRANSCENDENTAL rnYSIC3. writer of an article in the Spectator^ when a spring lock was used.' "Instead of trying to obtain writing on the Pro- fessor's boxed slates, I declined using them at all. I assured him they would not be used, and gave him my reasons for objecting. lie urged me strongly to make the experiment, and placed the box containing the slate on the table, where it remained undisturbed until he put it on the slate, which I held, with the box on it, under the table for a short time, when, as I had hoped, nothing occurred. This he calls a failure. " ]\rr. Simmons says that Professor Barrett, on entering the drawing-room after the sitting, told him that Dr. Slade had refused to use the boxed slates ; that he had left them in the room where the sitting was held, hoping he (Dr. Slade) would make the trial at some future time. " Having liad at least fifteen years' experience in demonstrating the fact of various phenomena occur- ring in my presence, I claim to know something of the conditions required. At the same time I do not know how they are produced. I do not object to persons bringing an ordinary slate, either single or folding, but I do object to using locks, boxes, or seals, for this reason — I claim to be as honest and earnest in this matter as those who call upon me for the \)\xv- pose of investigation. Therefore I shall continue to SLADE's reply to professor BARRETT. 69 object to all such worthless appliances whenever they are proposed. '' Mark the following, which Professor Barrett also says : — ' Taking a clean slate on both sides, I placed it on the table so that it rested above, though it could not touch, a fragment of slate-pencil. In this posi- tion I held the slate firmly down with my elbow. One of Slade's hands was then grasped by mine, and the tips of the fingers of his other hand barely touched the slate. While closely watching both of Slade's hands, which did not move perceptibly, I certainly was much astonished to hear scratching going on, apparently on the under side of the slate, and when the slate was lifted up I fouud the side facing the table covered with writing. He also says a similar result was obtained on other days ; further, an emi- nent scientific friend obtained writing on a clean slate when it was held entirely in his own hand, both of Slade's being on the table.* "The above being true, would the fact of the writ- ing being produced by some agency foreign to myself have been more strongly established had it occurred on the Professor's boxed slate ? I think the reader will agree with me in saying it would not. *' On the other hand, had it so occurred and a state- ment of it been published, it would only have served as an incentive for others to conjure up some plan whereby they might prevent an occurrence of phe- 70 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. uomcna, instead of being content to witness them in the simple manner in wliich they do occur. To my mind it woukl be as reasonable to sever the wire and then ask the operator to send your message, as it is to violate the conditions which experience has taught me are essential in these experiments in order to ob- tain successful results ; and when the investigator comes in the spirit of a seeker for truth instead of trying to prove me an impostor, I shall be most happy to unite with him in the further pursuit of these experiments. — Very truly yours, "Henry Slade." The above letter, in which the so severely calum- niated American medium recalls — in a manner no less urjicut than civil — to the recollection of our modern "men of science" the first rules of experimentation in natural science, may suffice for the present to aflford the reader an idea of the intellectual w^orth of the man who was sentenced to three months' imprison- ment with hard labour, on the charge of fraud brought against him by a young " man of science." ( 71 ) CJapter jTtftl).* PRODUCTION OF KNOTS IN AN ENDLESS STRING — FURTHER EXPERIMENTS — MATE- RIALISATION OF HANDS — DISAPPEARANCE AND REAPPEARANCE OF SOLID OBJECTS — A TABLE VANISHES, AND AFTERWARDS DESCENDS FROM THE CEIL- ING IN FULL LIGHT. The establisliment {Constatirung) of physical facts falls witliin the domain of the physicist ; and if men of such distinguished eminence as Wilhelm Weber, Fechner, and others, after thorough experimental investigation, publicly attest the reality of such facts, it is evidently nothing but an act of modern presumption for un- scientific people, at their pleasure, to accept as facts absurd conjectures concerning the possibility of trickery without more inquiry, and thus to deny the capacity of these men for exact observations. I have already described in detail the conditions under which the knots [represented in Plate I.] occurred in the string fastened by a seal, in the pres- ence of Mr. Slade, without the string being touched. Every possibility that these knots were in the string already, before the sealing of the ends, and had only been brought to another part of the same by pushing, is hereby definitely excluded. * Wiss. Abh., Vol. ii., part 2, p. 905. 72 TllAN'SCE.VDENTAL PHYSICS. It will ill the first place interest my readers to learn that this experiment succeeded four mouths later in London in presence of another medium. Under the title, " Remarkable Physical Manifestations," Dr. Nichols has published the following in two letters to the London Sj/lritualist of April 12th and 19th, 1878:— Remarkable Physical ^Ianifestatioks. " It may seem tiresome to you to repeat fiicts, and cumulate evidence, but this appears to be the only way to convince the sceptical. Then you are to con- sider that each number of the S/nrituaUst falls into the hands of some who have seen no other. So I give you some fa(;ts new to me, though they may be familiar to you and most of your readers. " Busy at my writing the other day in my study, at about two P.M. tlie housekeeper came with her eyes ' round ' with wonder, and begged me to go instantly to the drawing-room over my head. It seemed an urgent case, and I ran upstairs and found every chair but three turned upside down ; the large and heavy sofa lying forward in the room, legs upward; and the upright pianoforte prone upon the carpet, flat upon its face. The windows are sixteen feet from the ground ; no person in the house had visited the room that morning ; uo one could by any possibility have come in from MANIFESTATIONS IN A PHYSICIANS HOUSE. 73 tlie street to do this work, and it certainly was not done by any of the inmates of the house ; at my desk I can hear every footstep in the drawing-room ; in a word, it is certain that no visible being had done it. It required two strong men to lift up the pianoforte and restore it to its proper position. The houleverse- ment seems to have been accomplished while most of the family were at lunch, between one and two o'clock ; with them were Mr. W. Eglinton and Mr. A. Colman. Mrs. Nichols was with them at table, and reports that, as they were conversing, loud raps responded, and the heavy table, loaded with dishes, when no one touched it, rose up some inches from the floor, and so remained, while she stooped down to see that all its feet were in the air. This is common enough in the presence of mediums, but the very powerful action in the drawing- room, in the light of mid-day, with no person near, seems to me novel and remarkable. ** I gave you some account, I think, of chairs being ' threaded ' on the arms of persons while they were firmly holding the hands of others. This is as great a wonder as that reported by the German astronomer at Leipsic — the tying of knots in a cord, the ends of which were sealed together. I have seen the chairs on the arms of seven persons, whose word I could perfectly trust, but I wished to make assurance doubly sure ; so at a recent stance I tied the two wrists together with cotton -thread. In three seconds the 74 TRANSCENDENTAL mYSirS. cliair was lianging upon tljc arm of one, and I found tlic thread unl)roken. I thon held tlie liaiid of ^Ir. Eglinton a.s firmly as possil)lc in mi no, and in an instant the cLair, one of our cane bottoms with bent backs, was hanging on my arm. Tliis, beyond all doubt, was matter passing through matter, but whether the wood passed through flesh and bone, or flesh and bone through wood, I have not yet been able to determine. " On Saturday, by special appointment, four of us sat at noon — Eglinton, Colman, Mrs. Nichols, and myself. Sujiposing there might be writing or draw- ing, I laid a sheet of marked note-paper and pencil on the table around which we sat. It is a small room, and sitting in a good light, we heard a slight noise of something moving, of light raps or knocks in one corner. Looking, we all saw a light cane- bottom cliair, about six feet from the table, tilting itself upon two legs, rocking backward and forward, tilting back and balancing on its hinder legs, answer- ing our questions with its movements ; and finally, at our request, it walked forward on two of its legs and placed itself at the table, pressed against my knee caressingly, and behaved in all respects like a chair gifted with sense and locomotion. It was a weird spectacle ; but it was also a very interesting fact, seen for ten or fifteen minutes by four persons, with- out the possibility of trick or hallucination. I ex- THE KNOT EXPERIMENT REPEATED. 75 amined the chair carefully, though it was quite need- less to do so, for no conceivable machinery could, under the circumstances, have produced the pheno- menon. " Then the light was turned off for a minute or so, during which we heard rapid movements of a pencil, and on relighting the gas, we found on the marked sheet of paper the portrait of a deceased friend, and a letter of more than a page in the well-known hand- writing of a beloved child whose spirit often visits ns. I have now from her hand five elaborate drawings and four letters, no one of which occupied two minutes nnder absolute test conditions. No livinor artist could o make them in from ten to twenty times the time occu- pied in their production. " Your readers may be glad to know that, on the night of April 7th, we had repeated, in my house, in the presence of six persons, including Mr. AV. Eglin- ton and Mr. A. Colman, Professor ZoUner's marvel of tying knots in a cord, the ends of which were tied and sealed together. I have the sealed cord, which I pre- pared myself, with the knotted ends firmly sealed to my card, on which the fingers of every person present rested while five knots were tied, about a foot apart, in the central portion of the cord. I have no doubt that this splendid manifestation can be repeated at any time under like conditions. '' April I2th, 1878." 76 TRANSCENT)ENTAL PnYSICS. Tying Knots in an Endless Corn. To th« Editor of iht " SpirUuaU'tt ," April igth, 1878. " Sir, — I am sorry to learn that my account of the repetition in London of the great Leipsic experiment of tying knots in a cord whose ends were firmly sealed together, was not so accurate as should have been the record of so astounding a phenomenon. "Permit me to say, therefore, that after reading the account by Professor Zollner in the Daily TeJcoraph, I asked, at the first opportunity, our spirit-friend, ' Joey,' if he could do the same thing here. He said, 'We will try.' ** I then cut four yards of common brown twine — such as I use for largo book packets^from a fresh ball, examined it carefully, tied the two ends together by a single knot, which included both, then passed each end through a hole in my visiting card, tied a square knot, and firmly sealed this knot to the card, and asked a gentleman to seal it with his seal ring. On this card I also put my signature and the date. The loop of the string, whose two ends were thus sealed on the card, I again examined, and found it free from knots. "Six persons, including Mr. Eglintou and Mr. Colman, sat round a small table. The sealed card was placed ou the centre of the table, and the fingers KNOT EXPERIMENT WITH ANOTHER MEDIUM. 'J'] of eacli person present placed upon it, while the loop hung down upon the floor. " This position was maintained for about a minute, when raps were heard, and I examined the string. The ends were firmly fastened and sealed as before, and five single knots were tied upon it, about a foot apart — on the single endless string, observe, whose perfect fastening had never left my sight — where they now remain. " It is certain that no mortal man could have tied these knots — equally certain that all the philosophers and all the 'magicians' of Europe cannot now untie them under the same conditions. " Here is a fact which can be proven in any court of justice, and for which any conceivable number of dimensions of space cannot acount. ' " T. L. Nichols, M.D. " 32 FopsTONE Road, London, S.W." I now pass on to relate, from my numerous success- ful experiments with Mr. Slade, during his further presence in Leipsic, from 4th to loth May 1878, those in the first place which represent a modification of the experiments with knots, and which may be regarded as an experimental confirmation of the reality of a fourth dimension of space. At his third residence in Leipsic, Mr. Slade had again received the hospitable invitation of my friend 78 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. Oscar voii IfulVmann, and therefore lived iii bis house (luring the time from the 2ntl to the loth May. To protect him from the rudeness of the learned and unlearned public (scientific and unscientific people), as well as of the press, and to prevent a possible repetition here of his expulsion l^y the police * at the demand of the public, we had taken care, as at his second visit in December of hist year, wholly to seclude him from the public. As regards the following experiments witli Mr. Slade, I describe them in the first place for j^^jj^ici^fs, that is, for scientific men who are competent to understand my other physical investigations and experiments, to which, during the space of twenty years, I have given publicity in scientific journals. Such men alone are able to form an independent judgment, on the ground of my antecedent work, as to how far confidence should be extended to me as a physical experimentalist. For though the theoretical considerations — by w^hich the facts of observation so imparted by me during that space have been con- nected hitherto — deviate in many respects from my own, the facts themselves so observed by me Ijave up to this time received only confirmation in their entirety. As regards such men, also, who on the ground of my labours heretofore are able to form their own independent judgment on my reliability and * That had happened at Vienna.— Tr. CONFIDENCE DUE TO TRAINED EXPERIMENTORS. 79 credibility, I am relieved from the useless trouble of describing more minutely and circumstantially than is necessary for intellectual and scientific men, the conditions under which the following phenomena were observed by me. Suppose, for example, I observed during a physical investigation (as in that concerning the electric fluid) deviations of the magnetic needle under hitherto unusual conditions. If now a physicist, wishing to bring my observations into contempt, were to suggest that I had perhaps accidentally had a magnetic knife on the table, or had not duly taken into account the daily varia- tions of the earth's magnetism, such suppositions might be entertained with respect to a student or beginner in the province of physical observations, but I myself should feel them, coming from a scientific colleague, as an insult, and should hold it beneath my dignity as a physicist to reply to tliem.^'' I assume entirely the same position in describing the following experiments Avith Mr. Slade, which I * The above protest recalls that of Mr. Crookes, in referring to a suggestion that, in his researches with Mr. Home, he had possibly allowed the latter to supply a board forming an essential part of the apparatus emploj'ed, " Is it seriously expected," says Mr. Crookes, "that I should answer such a question as ' did Mr. Home furnish the board ? ' Will not my critics give me credit for the possession of some amount of common sense ? And can they not imagine that obvious precautions, which occur to them as soon as they sit down to pick holes in my experiments, are not unlikely to have a^so occurred to me in the course of prolonged and patient investigation t " — Tr. So transcp:n'dental physics. cotuluctcd partly alono, partly in company with my above-named friend Oscar von HdfTinaim, as in describing the greater number of my former physical investigations. With respect to the preposterous demand, on enter- ing a new, and to us wholly unfamiliar, province of physical phenomena, to impose d ^)7'/ori conditions under which these phenomena '^oufjht" to occur, I refer to the strictures contained in the above letter of Slade, and in the previous remarks of Ilerr Aksakow to Herr Geheimrath Virchow at Berlin on the first principles of exact investigation. After this necessary jircface I pass on to describe some experiments which I had devised with a view to the confirmation of my space-theory. The experiments formerly described (i/tli Decem- l»er 1S7S) with the knotted cord suggest two expla- nations, according as one supposes a sj^ace of three or of four dimensions. In the first case there must have been a so-called passage of matter through matter ; or, in other words, the molecules of which the cord consists must have been separated in certain places, and then, after the other portion of cord had been passed through, again united in the same posi- tion as at first. In the second case, the manipulation of the flexible cord being, according to my theory, subject to the laws of a four-dimensional region of space, such a separation and re- union of molecules KNOTTING TOGETHER OF LEATHER BANDS. 8 1 would not be necessary. The cord would, however, certainly undergo during the process an amount of twisting v/hich would be discernible after the knots were tied. I had not paid attention to this circum- stance in December last year, and had not examined the cords with regard to the size and direction of the twist. The following experiment, however, which took place on the 8 th of May this year, in a sitting of a quarter of an hour's duration with Mr. Slade in a well-lighted room, furnishes an answer to the above question in favour of the four-dimensional theory without separation of material particles. The experiment was as follows : — I took two bands cut out of soft leather, 44 centimetres long, and from 5 to 10 millimetres broad, and fastened the ends of each together, as formerly described with the cords, and sealed them with my own seal. The two leather bands were laid separately on the card-table at which we sat ; the seats were placed opposite to one another, and I held my hands over the bands (as shown on Plate 11.) Slade sat at my left side, and placed his right hand gently over mine, I being able to feel the leather underneath all the time. Slade asserted that he saw lights emanating from my hands, and could feel a cool wind over them. I felt the latter, but could not see the lights. Presently, while I still distinctly felt the cool breeze, and Slade's hands were not touching mine, but were removed from them about two or three 82 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. decimetres, I felt a movement of the leather bands under my hands. Then came three raps in the table, and on removing my hands the two leather bands were knotted together. The twisting of the leather is distinctly seen in Plate II (copied from a photo- graph.) The time that the bands were under my hands was at most three minutes. A pair of uncon- nected strips of leather are also represented on the Plate for clearness of apprehension. Much pleased, I examined the connected strips of leather for a long time with my friends. I then took a slate myself, and held it with my right hand under the table, in order to repeat the experiment which had succeeded with the Grand Duke Constantino of Eussia.^^ AVliilc now, as I did so, Slade's hands, con- tinually visible to me, lay quietly on the table, there appeared suddenly a large hand close in front of me, emerixins: from under the edlo and tangible human limbs, by suppositions of possible deception by means of gutta- percha hands, and so forth, treat the matter without consideration, since they judge of phenomena which they have neither seen nor examined referably to the conditions of their occurrence. That such visible and tangible human limbs can, under suitable circum- stances, leave behind visible impressions, as, for instance, on flour or sooted paper, will no longer appear surprising after the last-mentioned facts.* Should the foregoing experiments have afforded proof that there are, outside our perceptible world of three dimensions, things furnished with all the attri- butes of corporeity which can appear in three-dimen- sional space and then vanish therefrom, without our being able, from the standpoint of our present space- perception, to answer the questions whence they come and whither they go, then should the following experiment complete this proof, by establishing the appearance and disappearance of bodies which do, in • I may lierc call attention to the results obtained in London by one of our countrjmcn, Hcrr Christian Keinicrs, and published in " Psychisrhe Studieti," which results, obtained partly in the presence of Mr. Alfred Ruiisel Wallace, justify the boldest expectations for the future. DISAPPEAEANCE OF PONDERABLE OBJECTS. 87 fact, belong to our three-dimensional world of space. I have already mentioned (p. 38) the disappearance and reappearance of a small cardboard thermometer- case, and also (p. 53) the sudden appearance of a piece of coal and of wood at a particular place where these bodies had not previously been. Similar and almost more surprising phenomena happened during Slade's residence at Vienna. Baron Yon Hellenbach writes me as follows : — "The disappearance of the book was only super- ficially treated in my pamphlet,"^^ since therein I only concerned myself with those occurrences which took place beyond the reach of Slade's limbs, as I wished to meet the thoughtless objection, "He did it somehow." The thing happened in the following manner : Slade laid a book and a bit of pencil (at a spot exactly marked) on the slate, which he then conveyed under the surface of the table. The book vanished, and having often been looked for everywhere, fell several times from the ceiling of the room upon the table between the globes of the three-branch chandelier. Once it struck the chain off the roller by which the chandelier was drawn up. A projection by the hand under the table is altogether impossible, since a pro- jected book cannot describe this curve. Slade's upper * "Mr. Slade' s Besidence in Vienna. An open letter to my friends. " (Anonym.), Vienna. Printed and published by T. C. Fischer & Co., 1 878. Compare also * ' Individualism in the Light of the Biology and Philo- sophy of the Present," by Lazar B. Hellenbach, Vienna, 1878 (Braumiiller). 88 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. aufl under arm were visible and quiet, and a projection by the foot would as certainly have been remarked as the rise of the book. The experiment was too often repeated, and our attention was too great. I regard as very important a demonstration on your part of a similar disappearance ; for if the seen and felt ascent of the slate at my foot proves an unpcrceived mechanical agency, and the production of knots in the endless cord a. foiir-cUmcnsional agency, so would the entrance and exit of an object prove another space-dimension, as it were iu our immediate neigh- bourhood, in so stupendous a manner, that it could uot be for a moment doubted in my opinion, which is that our illusion of consciousness is nothing but a three-dimensional intuition of a more-dimensional world, brought about by a strange organism. Should your endeavours be similarly successful, I beg you kiudly to inform me. B. Hellenbach." I had received the above letter at eiirlit in the morning of the 5th May. "Without having mentioned it to Slade or to Herr 0. von Hoflfmann, I expressed the wish, at the sitting which took place with Mr. Slade at eleven o'clock, to have the opportunity of observing again, as iu December of the year before, the disappearance and reappearance of a material body in some very striking manner. Ready at once for the experiment, Slade requested Herr von Hoffmann to A BOOK VANISHES AND REAPPEARS. 89 give him a book ; the latter thereupon took from the small bookshelf at the wall a book printed and bound in octavo. Slade laid this upon a slate, held the same partly under the edge of the table, and immediately withdrew the slate again luithout the hook. We searched the card- table carefully everywhere, out- side and inside. So also we searched the small room, but all in vain ; the book had vanished. After about five minutes we again took our places at the table for the purpose of further observations ; Slade opposite me, Von Hoffmann between us on my left. We had scarcely sat down when the book fell from the ceiling of the room on to the table, striking my right ear with some violence in its descent. The direction in which it came down from above seemed from this to have been an oblique one, proceeding from a point above and behind my back. Slade, during this occurrence, was sitting in front of me, and keeping both his hands quietly on the table. He asserted shortly before, as usual on occasions of similar physical phenomena, that he saw lights either hovering in the air or attached to bodies, whereof, however, neither my friend nor myself were ever able to perceive anything. In the sitting of the following day, the 6th May, at a quarter-past eleven, by bright sunshine, 1 was to be witness, quite unexpectedly and unpreparedly, of a yet far more magnificent phenomenon of this kind. I had, as usual, taken my place with Slade at the 90 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. canl-taUe. Opposite to me stood, as was often tlie case in other experiments, a small round table near the card-table, exactly in tlie position shown in the photo- graph (taken from nature) upon Plate III [see page 1 06], illustrating the further experiments to be de- scribed below. Tlio height of the round table is 77 centimetres, diameter of the surface 46 centimetres, the material birchen-wood, and the weight of the whole table 45 kilogrammes. About a minute might have ])assed after Slade and I had sat down and laid our hands joined together on the table, when the round table was set in slow oscillations, which we could both clearly perceive in the top of the round table rising above the card-table, while its lower part was concealed from view by the top of the card-table. The motions very soon became greater, and the whole table approaching the card-table laid itself under the latter, with its three feet turned towards me. Neither I nor, as it seemed, Mr. Slade, knew how the phenomenon would further develop,* since during the space of a minute which now elapsed nothing whatever occurred. Slade was about to take slate and pencil to ask his "spirits" whether we had anything still to expect, when I wished to take a nearer view of the position of the round table lying, as I supposed, under • The movement of heavy objects without any possible contact by 81a(lc was so common that m-c looked on the movement of the table as only the beginning of a further succcssiou of phenomena. A TABLE VANISHES AND REAPPEARS. 9 1 the card-table. To my and Slade's great astonish- ment we found the space beneath the card-table com- pletely empty, nor were we able to find in all the rest of the room that table which only a minute before was present to our senses. In the expectation of its re- appearance we sat again at the card-table, Slade close to me, at the same angle of the table opposite that near which the round table had stood before. We might have sat about five or six minutes in intense expectation of what should come, when suddenly Slade again asserted that he saw lights in the air. Although T, as usual, could perceive nothing whatever of the kind, I yet followed involuntarily with my gaze the directions to which Slade turned his head, durina; all which time our hands remained constantly on the table, linked together (ilher-einander liegend) ; under the table, my left leg was almost continually touching Slade's right in its whole extent, which was quite without design, and owing to our proximity at the same corner of the table. Looking up in the air, eagerly and astonished, in different directions, Slade asked me if I did not perceive the great lights. I answered decidedly in the negative ; but as I turned my head, following Slade's gaze up to the ceilino- of the room behind my back, I suddenly observed, at a height of about five feet, the hitherto invisible table with its legs turned upwards very quickly floating down in the air upon the top of the card-table. Although 92 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. WO involuntarily drew l>ack our heads sideways, Slado to the left and I to the right, to avoid injury from the falling table, yet we were both, before the round table had laid itself down on the top of the card-table, so violently struck on the side of the head, that I felt the pain on the left of mine fully four hours after this occurrence, which took place at about half-j^ast eleven. ( 93 ) CJaptcr ©irfb. THEOBETTCAL CONSIDERATIONS — PROJECTED EXPERIMENTS FOR PROOF OF THE POHRTH DIMBNSION — THE UNEXPECTED IN NATURE AND LIFE — SCHOPEN- HAUER3 "TRANSCENDENT FATE." The foregoing facts of observation are tlius empirically at variance witli the dogma of the unchangeableness of the quantity of matter in our three-dimensional world.* Since, however, that dogma of the constancy of substance cannot derive its dogmatic character from experience, but merely from the principles of our reason, which are inherent in our mind just as in the ct priori law of causality, that is to say, before all experience : there is thus imposed on our reason the task of freeing our understanding from the above contradiction between the facts of observation and a principle of our reason. I have already shown iu detail, in the first volume of these treatises, how very easily this problem is solved by the acceptance of a fourth dimension of space. The table which dis- * Not altogether : as it might he suggested that the vanished objects only assumed a gaseous form — the c^uantity of matter thus remaining the same, as in the case of combustion. — Tr. 94 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. appeared iluring six minutes must nevertbeless have existed somewhere, and tlie quantity of the substance constituting it must, according to the above principle of reason, have remained absolutely constant. If, liowever, we can only answer the question " where ? " by assigning a place — and it has been empirically shown that this place cannot lie in the region of space of three dimensions perceptible to us, — it follows of necessity that the answering of the question " where 1 " hitherto so easy to us, must be an incomplete answer, and therefore one both requiring and capable of ampli- fication. How by this means also the conception of juxtaposition obtains an extension by help of the fourth dimension of absolute space, I have already above explained at length in a note,^' to which I may refer my readers. So also I have already shown in the treatise " On Action at a Distance," vol. i. p. 269, that the so fruit- ful "Axiom of the Conservation of Energy " retains all its validity for space of four dimensions, while at another place I remarked, " If one regards the distance of two atoms and the intensity of their interaction, in our three-dimensional space, as projections of similar magnitudes from a space of four dimensions, a change would be effected in the magnitudes, form, and supply of kinetic energy of the three-dimensional projection (the material body), simply through alterations in the • Ante, p. 58. THEORETICAL. 95 relative positions of the four-dimensional object, with- out these properties in the latter undergoing any change. The axiom of the conservation of a constant amount of energy thus retains its full validity for space of four dimensions, nay, on closer consideration, it is even the premiss on ichich rests the correspondence of the extended conceptions of space to physical occur- rences" * To the considerations offered in the early part of this treatise concerning the " actual" or " real " lying at the ground of space, I may here add the following words of Riemann : t — " The question of the validity of the postulates of geometry in the infinitely little is connected with the question of the inner principles of the mass-relations of space. In this question, which can well be accounted as still belonging to the doctrine of space, the above observation has the application that in a discrete diversity (Mannigfaltigkeit) the principle of mass- relations is already contained in the conception of this diversity, w^iereas, in a continuous diversity, this principle must come to it from wdthout {cinders ivoher hinzukommen muss). Thus, either the reality under- lying space must form a discrete diversity, or the principle of mass-relations must be sought ivithout t Eiemann's collected mathematical and posthumous scientific -works, edited, with the assistance of R. Dedekind, by H. Weber, Leipsio : (Teubner), 1876. 96 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. {ausso'Jialh *), in binding forces acting thereon (in darauf wirkcnden hindenden Krdften). " The decision of these questions can only be found by transcending the hitherto empirical conception of phenomena, of whicli Newton estaljlished the prin- ciple, and, impelled hy facts ivhich cannot he explained hy it, gradually reforming this conception. Such researches, which, like the present, transcend common conceptions, can only serve to prevent this work being hindered hy the narrowness of ideas, and advance in knowledge of the connection of things heing impeded hy traditional 2^rejudices. This carries us over into the province of another science, that of Physics, which is not permitted by the nature of our present subject." These words of Riemann prove incontrovertibly that he, as one of those acute founders of the theory of an extended space-conception, recognised as thoroughly necessary the introduction (Hinzuziehung) oi physical elements [Monientc) ; that is, derived from observed facts, t • The word " ausscrhalb " in relation to the whole circuit of the three- dimensional region of space given perceptibly to us has only one sense, if for the centre of those " binding forces, acting thereon " is presupix)scd a fourth dimension. t The recently introduced "conception of solidity" or "rigidity" {dcr Fcstigkcit odcr Starrhcit) is only another expression for this physical side of the problem. For though the geometrical conception of solidity can l)C dcjincd .is the unchangcablcness of the distance of the points of a system of points, yet the intuition underlying this "conception " is only derived from experience, ju>t as the conception of motion is abstracted from experience. Compare Ilelniholtz " On the Origin aud Meaning of Geometrical Axioms" {Popular Scientific Essays, November 3rd, 1876). So PROJECTED EXPERIMENTS. 97 I now proceed to the description of further success- ful experiments in the presence of Mr. Slade, which will partly confirm those already mentioned, partly establish them more thoroughly by new modifications. In order to exclude as far as possible the depen- dence of to us inexplicable phenomena upon human testimony, I desired to devise experiments such that the permanent effect, as final result, should be com- pletely unexplainable according to the conceptions we have hitherto entertained of the laws of nature. With this object, I had arranged the following experiment : I. Two wooden rings, one of oak, the other of alder- wood, were each turned from one piece.'"" The outer diameter of the rings was 105 millimetres, the inner 74 millimetres. Could these two rings be interlinked without solution of continuity, the test would be additionally convincing by close microscopic examina- tion of the unbroken continuity of the fibre. Two different kinds of wood being chosen, the possibility of cutting both rings from the same piece is likewise excluded. Two such interlinked rino;s would conse- quently in themselves represent a " miracle," that is, a phenomenon which our conceptions heretofore of Wilhelm Fiedler, " Geometry and Geomechanics, " in the " Fourth Yearly Journal of the Society of Natural Philosophy at Zurich," 21st yearly vol., 1876, same number " On Sj^mmetry " by Fiedler, number 2, p. 186 et seq. ' Both these rings I received in February of this year, through the kindness of Herr G. De Liagre. I take this opportunitj' publicly to thank this gentleman, as also the frequently-mentioned Herr Oscar von Hoff- mann, for their energetic assistance in the experiments with Mr. Slade. G 98 TUA.N^etN DENTAL I'lIVSICS. jihysical and organic processes would be absolutely incompetent to explain. 2. Since among products of nature, the disposition of whose parts is according to a particular direction, as with snail-shells twisted riglit or left, this disposi- tion can be reversed by a four-dimensional twisting of the object, 1 had provided myself with a large number of such shells, of different species, and at least two of each kind. 3. From a dried gut, such as is used in twine-fac- tories, a band without ends (in sich gescldossenes) was cut, of a breadth of from four to five millimetres, and a circuit of 400 millimetres. Should a knot be tied in this baud, close microscopic examination would also reveal whether the connection of the parts of this strip had been severed or not. 4. lu order to demonstrate yet more evidently the so-called penetration of matter, which comes in ques- tion in all these experiments, I had a glass ball, enclosed on all sides, of 40 millimetres diameter, blown by the glass-manufacturer, llerr Gotze, of this place. From a paraffin caudle I had then cut oflf with a sharp knife a piece of such a length that it just fell short of that of the interior of the ball. I asked Herr Gotze if he thought it possible to blow a glass ball of the prescribed size round such a piece of paraffin provided with sharp edges, without melting the paraffin, at least at the edges. He replied most decidedly in the nega- SCIENTIFIC PASSIVITY. 99 tive ; and even independently of his authority, I believe I do not risk contradiction in asserting that such a piece of paraffin with sharp unmolten edges in the interior of the said glass ball would be, according to our heretofore limited conception of the laws of nature, an inexplicable miracle. The foregoing preparations sufficiently show what sort of phenomena I tvished to see in Slade's presence. Since, however, in the course of more than thirty sittings with Mr. Slade, I had come to the conviction that he did not himself " do " the mysterious things which happened near him, I could not rationally demand of him that he should "show" me all the above-mentioned experiments. Far more unreasonable still must I have hence considered the desire on my part to impose " conditions " on Mr. Slade, under which he should effect these to himself inexplicable proceed- ings. I preferred therefore to comport myself towards Mr. Slade and the phenomena occurring in his pre- sence just as I did towards nature in my physical discoveries up to that time, or to the previously anticipated fall of meteors, which happened when our earth crossed the path of Biela's comet, on the 27th November 1872. I accordingly remained patient, and in a passive receptive disposition for the things which should come, and left it confidently to nature of her own free-will to reveal to me as much of her secrets as seemed fitting to her without blinding my ICX) TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. intellectual eyes by the spleiKlour of her majesty ; mindful always of Goethe's words : — " Geheimuissvoll atis lichten Tng Lasst tick Xalnr lUs Sch/eicr$ nicht herauhm, Und teas tie deineni O'tigt nuht nfenbaren maff, Das Ztoingttdu ihr nicht ahviit Htbeln uiul mit Schrauhtn.'' * *' Inscrutable in noon-day's blaze, Nature lets no one tear the veil away ; And what herself she does not choose Unasked before your soul to lay, You shall not wrest from her by levers or by screws." — Theodore Martin t iraualation. And in fact, I know no better comparison whereby to indicate the character of the constantly unexpected occuiTenccs in their succession and ingenious connec- tion, than the manner in which men are led by fate. Seldom happens just that which we, according to the measure of our limited understanding, wish ; but if, looking back on the course of some years, we regard • Faust alone, after WagtJli.- Bugg'ists, perhaps, to every one once ; and which has not only'mucli that is consola- tory, but it may be also much that is true ; and therefore has it at all times been affirmed, even as doijma. Neither our conduct nor our career is otir work ; but that, indeed, which nobody supposes to be 80 — our nature and existence {unser Wesen iincl Dasein). For on the foundation of these, and of the circumstances and external events occurring in the strictest causal connection, our actions aule, the two wooden rings were not linked together, but instead, were transferred within five minutes from the sealed catgut to the leg of the round birchen table. Since the seal was not loosened, and the top of the table was not at any time removed — it is still tightly fastened — it follows, from the stand- point of our present conception of space, that each of the two wooden rings penetrated, first the catgut, and then the birch wood of the leg of the table. If how- ever, I ask whether, in the eyes of a sceptic, the experi- ment desired by me, or that which actually succeeded, is most fitted to make a great and convincing impres- sion, on closer consideration every one will decide in favour of the latter. For the demonstrative force of FAILURES AN ARGUMENT AGAINST TRICKERY. II 5 the interlinked rings would rest merely on the credi- bility of the botanically-ediicated microscopist, who must have been my witness (as the Imperial Court con- juror, Bellachini, was for Mr. Slade), that the natural conformation of the rino;s had never been disturbed. How wholly useless, however, such testimonies are at present, when, according to Goethe's expression, " in- credulity has become like an inverted superstition for the delusion of our time," we have seen in the sort of criticism which Bellachini's testimony has undergone at the hands of the Berlin literati.'^ The question will moreover be asked, why just here in Leipzic the experi- ments with Mr. Slade have been crowned with such splendid success, and yet the knot experiment, for example, has not once succeeded in Russia, notwith- standing so many wishes. If it is considered how great an interest Mr. Slade must have in seeing so simple and striking an experiment everywhere and always successful, every rightly judging and unprejudiced person must see just in this very circumstance the most striking proof that Mr. Slade is no trickster who by clever manipulations makes these knots himself. For such an one would evidently be at the trouble so to increase his expertness, by frequent repetition of the experiment, as to be able to rely with certainty on his art to deceive other " men of science." That, never- * Mere contemptuous abuse — Professor Zollaer gives the articles at length in an earlier part of his volume. — Tr. 1 I 6 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. theless, this obvious consideration has not suggested itself, the above-mentioned failure being regarded, on the contrary, as just the proof that ]\lr. Slade has only deceived uh at Leipsic, "svhich he could not do with the higher intelligence of the Russian learned, is shown by the following words of a scientific friend from Russia, to whom I had sent my " Scientific Treatises." *' February 22, 1878. " Perhaps the following fact may open your eyes. Two days ago, in consequence of your letter and in dependence on it, two scientific friends visited Mr. Slade, and requested him to undertake in their presence the striking operation of the four knots. Mr. Slade's answer was, ' This operation has only succeeded twice (in Leipsic ■?) ; at present my medium is not strong enough for it' After this can you look upon that operation as an actual proof of the existence of the fourth dimension ? " It has further been asked, why the communications which are written for IVIr. Slade on his slates, as is supposed by invisible spirits, are for the most part so commonplace, and so completely within the compass of human knowledge ; high spirits must yet necessarily write with more genius, and also spell properl}'. A private teacher of philosophy at Berlin having made this objection to me personally, on his visit to Leipsic, I observed to him that any communication transcend- A NAIVE MISCONCEPTION. I I 7 ing the present horizon of our understanding must necessarily appear to us absurd and incomprehensible, and r quoted to him the following words of Lichten- bero; : — * " If an ang-el were to discourse to us of his philosopliy, I believe that many propositions would sound to us like *2 and 2 make 13.'" Far from understanding me, that young philosopher asked me quite seriously, and with an expression of the highest curiosity, whether such propositions, then, ever ap- peared on Mr. Slade's slates to attest their angelic origin. Completely unprepared for such a naive ques- tion, I was silent, and looked with some astonishment at my young philosopher, who had even already published a book on the new theory of space. Without replying, I thought, " Only wait ; soon thou also wilt be at rest " (" Warte nui\ halcle ruhest audi du "), as regular professor of philosophy in the bosom of some famous German university, and then will it be with thy students just as with us " if an angel discoursed to us of his philosophy ; " for Lichtenberg says, " We live in a world where one fool makes many fools, but one wise man only a few wise men." t The fact that, just here in Leipsic, experiments devised from the standpoint of a definite theory have been so surprisingly successful in the presence of Mr. Slade, I regard as one of the most striking proofs of the * Miscellaneous Wi-itings, vol. i. p. 105. + Thoughts and Maxims, p. 46. Il8 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. gro;it intelligence of the invisible beings suiToinuling him. For if, without appearing presumptuous, I may include myself in that class of intelligent beings in which indeed all my fellow-men also number themselves, by the name of their species "homo sapieiis," yet would I make more precise communications and explanations concerning my physical observations only to such men as I hold to be sufficiently trained. In a society of social democrats, or in one of German or English scientists, where Mr. Tyndall or Sir W. Thomson finds such a ready sale for their wares* — yes, even in the Berlin Academy, I would refrain from speaking or experimenting on my theory of space. Were I, for example, myself one of those invisible spirits who hover round INIr. Slado, and were my medium invited to a "scientific" examination by the Berlin academi- cians, it would be easy for me to write on the slate the following proposition — for instance, ** We are the play of our brain-molecules," or, " The first life on the earth took its rise in germs enclosed in the cool folds of a meteoric stone." These pro^iositions would evidently have been greeted wdth joy by Mr. E. du Bois-Eaymond and Herr Ilelmholtz as striking proofs of the high intelligence of those invisible beings, and would certainly have * To make this allusion intelligible, it slioiild be mentioned that much of these volumes is devoted to criticism of the atomic and other specula- tive iiypothcscs of these scieutilic gentlemen. — Tr. MOEAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDIUMS. I 1 9 brought much honour and glory to my medium. As an invisible spirit, I might perhaj)S have perpetrated in good-humour such a jest with the Berlin academi- cians, just as Sir W. Thomson did with his " unscien- tific people " at the Edinburgh meeting of scientists seven years ago.* Since, however, in the higher w^orld of spirits truth is held as something sacred, with which only lower spirits permit themselves to jest, so by such purport of my slate- writing should I have made myself guilty of an injury to the moral law, which, according to the laws of divine and eternal justice, would bring its own punishment. May not possibly similar considerations have prevailed to hinder Slade's invisible beings from displaying at another place their treasures, which have been shown to us partly here in Leipzic in such wonderful abun- dance "? Lastly, a circumstance may be briefly noticed which relates not so much to the moral and intellectual quali- ties of the invisible spirits as to those of the visible mediums, whom those spirits need for their manifesta- * "When he made the suggestion that the first life on this earth origin- ated in germs enclosed in meteorites. This idea was for a long time discussed quite seriouslj'' bj", among other scientific authorities, E. du Bois Raymond, Helmholtz (who claimed priority of it for himself , and by Zollner. But in " Nature " of 4th July 1874 appeared the following, in a criticism of Zollner's book, ^' On the Nature of Comets:" — "The celebrated moss-gi'own fragments from the ruins of another Avorld was only a jest, taken in earnest even by many of our own countrymen, so we can scarcely reproach Professor Zollner for falling into the same mis- take."— Tr. I20 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. tions. It liiOs been alleged as a characteristic of all such mecliums, that notwithstanding the most wonder- ful occurrences in their proximity, they have yet the inclination to deceive, that is, when opportunity oflfers, to produce the desired effect by such operations as they consciously endeavour to hide from observation. Having regard to the great danger of such attempts to the medium, and to the entire disproportion be- tween the effects which can be so produced by an inexperienced trickster and those resulting from genuine mediumship, tlie question arises whether, ■when this is the case with a medium who has been proved with certainty to be really such, the same consideration does not apply as with persons suffering under so-called kleptomania? It is asserted that a well-known and highly-gifted lady in distinguished circles of Berlin society suffers from this disease. For example, after making large purchases at a jeweller's sliop, she will secretly abstract an ornament, which, 'vhen she has got home, she will return by her servants to the proprietor. Sometimes a similar perversion of the moral instinct appears with women in the state of pregnancy. In all these cases we do not hold the persons in question morally accountable for these pro- ceedings, since the end attained thereby is out of all proportion, considering the innocent and suitable means at hand. Although I never, during my thirty sittings and other intercourse with Mr. Slade, per- PHENOMENA INCONSISTENT WITH TRICKERY. 12 1 ceived anything of sucTi perverse methods, yet I ask every unprejudiced person whether, if this has been the case elsewhere, the above morally and legally admissible judgment in relation to kleptomaniacs is not here also exculpatory, considering the certainly anomalous physiological constitution of such mediums. Eeserving till later on in these treatises the detailed communication of further and not less remarkable phenomena which happened in Blade's presence, I will here add an observation to the accurate description (supra, p. 34) of the physical manifestation which occurred on the occasion of Blade's first visit, on the 1 6th November 1877, in my house and in the presence of my friends and colleagues, Wilhelm "Weber and Scheibner."'^ In all phenomena in the presence of spiritualistic mediums hitherto observed and published, it is almost exclusively the modus operandi that has led to controversies concerning the explicability of the phenomena from the standpoint of our concep- tion of nature heretofore. An argument has been founded on the fact that things occur also in the presence of conjurers, in which the modus operandi of the performer is concealed from us, and thus the causal connection between the muscular movements of the artist and the effect produced by him is so inter- rupted (apparently), that for the spectator there arises * The sudden rending of the wooden frame of a bed-screen at least five feet from Slade, 122 TRANSCENDENTAL rnVSICS. tlie impression of the inexplical)le, and therefore of the miraculous. Tliis argument, liowever, has for its premiss tlic understood and thus unexpressed presup- position that the muscular force requisite for the pro- duction of these tricks of the conjurer remains within those limits which according to experience are pre- scribed to human beings by the organisation of their bodies. If, for example, one man alone were to perform a trick requiring the strength of two horses, in relation to such a result the above argument would be no longer admissible, since then there would be no conceivable ?Hoc/«5 operandi Mq to produce the effect. In the case of my bed-screen — the manifestation mentioned at p. 34 — I am fortunately able to establish such an instance. The material of the frame was alder wood ; the screen was new, and had been bought by me about a year before at the furniture shop already mentioned (p. 36). The cross-cut of the two pieces of wood which were longitudinally* and simultaneously rent, above and below, amounted to 3" 142 cubic centimetres. * Tluit tlic pull [z>ig) upon the screen has in fact acted loiiyitmlinally only is still oviilenceil quite inilependcntly of the above-mentioned direction of the lihrcs at the jdaces of division (p. 34). For between the two strong beams for connecting the movable parts of the frame are two thin, parallel pieces of wood for securing the green, woollen stuff with which the screen is overlaid. These thin jiieces arc fastened without glue to the vertical supports loosely in holes about 25 millimetres deep ; if, there- fore, instead of a longitudinal pull, a rupture [briich) had taken place, these two pegs must have been broken away, which was not the case. THE LIMITS OF PHYSICAL HUMAN STRENGTH. 1 23 According to the experiments of Ettelwein/'' tlie amount of pull requisite for the longitudinal rending of such apiece of alder wood is 4957 kilogrammes, or about 99 cwts ; since, therefore, two such rods have been simultaneously rent, for the production of this effect a force of pull (Zugkmft) amounting to 198 cwts. must have been used. In order, now, to compare the force here given with that exercised by men, in what follows I quote literally the appended information from Gehler's Dictionary of Physics, vol. ii. p. 976 : — " The muscles of the thigh hold upright the body, whose weight can be put at 150 lbs. ; and since there are muscles which bear 300 lbs. in addition, the weiglit of pressure already amounts in itself to 450 lbs. To cite, however, some examples only of extraordinary strength, I have myself known a man who without preparation and on an accidental occasion carried six Ehenish cubic feet (Brunswick bushels) of wheat, and upon this a large, strong man, up a flight of about eight steps. This weight of itself can be estimated at 450 lbs. and, with the added weight of the bearer, in the whole at 600 lbs. restino- on the feet and leo-s of that man. " There are, moreover, many instances of a vastly * Handbook of Statics of Solid Bodies, with pai-ticular regard to their application to Architecture, vol. iii., Berlin, 1808. A very complete review of earlier experiments is given in the "Edinburgh Enci/cIoj:)(edia." Compare Gehler's Dictionary of Physics, vol. ii. p. 138. 124 TRANSCENDENTAL mYSICS. greater exertion of strength produced by the extensor muscle of the leg, like that mentioned by Desaguliers, of a man who thus tore a rope which sustained a weight of 1800 lbs. = 18 cwts. ; he himself and some others having raised 1900 lbs. weight by means of a strap hanging down over the hips, by bringing the somewhat bent leg into a straifjht direction. "I have myself seen a strong man raise 2000 lbs., by placing himself in a bent posture under a board, whereon this weight rested, bringing its point of gravity somewhere near the hips, supporting the arms on the knees, and then straightening the bent legs. Tiie muscles here applied are, among all in the human body, able to overcome the greatest weights, and so therefore a man raises much heavier burdens in the way described than on the shoulders or with the upper part of the body, if at the same time the back- bone has to be straightened. " I myself knew a man who raised a cwt. from the chair on to the table on the little finger of the right hand with outstretched arm ; and even this instance is by no means the strongest, judging from credible narratives ; so I saw the above-mentioned Hercules, who raised the 2000 lbs., grasp with his right hand a perpendicular rod of iron, sufficiently secured, and with outstretched arm keep his whole body sustained in a horizontal position for about five seconds without other support." THE STRENGTH OF TWO HORSES. 1 2$ Comparing the above with the force of 198 cwts. requisite for the rending of my bed-screen, it will be seen that the strength of the " Hercules " referred to would have to be multiplied by nearly 10 — applied in a favourable position — to produce the physical mani- festation which took place in Slade's presence without contact. Since '* the force in the movement of weights by carrying on the flat " is with a horse on the average about five times greater than that of a man,^'* so for the production of the mechanical effect in question in Slade's presence, about two horses would have been necessary. Even if Slade should be assumed to be a giant, and the faculty ascribed to him of moving so swiftly in space that my friends Wilhelm Weber, Scheibner, and I myself, were prevented by this rapidity from perceiving how he tore asunder the screen by his own action, yet will rational sceptics be disposed to renounce such an " explanation " after the statements just given. But in case I should be reproached with having in the above supposition caricatured the so-called " rational " attempt at explanation, I may observe that one of my esteemed colleagues who, on the day after the sitting in question, was himself present with two other of our * Gehler's Dictionary of Physics, vol. v. p. 1004. Literally "There is, therefore, in the movement by carrying of weights on the flat, a force, Of a man= I according to Coulomb. Of a horse = 4. 8 according to Brunacci. Of a horse := 6. i according to Wessermaun." 126 TKAXSCENnKNTAL niYSICS. colleagues at a sitting with Mr. Slade, sought quite seriously to appease his scientific conscience by the supposition that Slaile carried dynamite al)Out witli him for the purpose of such strong niccluinical mani- festations, concealing it in some clever fashion in tlio furniture, and then with equal adroitness exploding it by a match. This explanation reminded me of one by wliich a peasant in a remote part of Lower Pomerania attempted to account for the motion of a locomotive. To mitiGrate in some deforce the terror which the first sight of a self-moving locomotive must naturally excite in rude and ignorant men, the priest of the village in question tried to explain to his parishioners the mechanism and effect of a steam- engine. When now the pastor had conducted his peasants, enlightened by this "popular lecture,"* to the railroad just as the first train rushed by, they all shook their heads incredulously, and answered the priest, "No, no, parson, there are horses hidden inside!" That, in fact, within all bodies electrical forces are potentially latent, which, suddenly released, could exceed the strongest effects of a charge of dynamite, I have already remarked in the first volume, as follows : " It is proved that the electrical energy present in the mass of one milligram t of water (or any other body) would be able, if it could be suddenly set free, to * For reasons given in other parts of his treatises, Professor ZuUner holds popular cxjiositions of scientific subjects in small esteem. — Tr. t =0.01543 grains. CATALYTIC FORCES. I If produce the amount of motion which the explosion of a charge of 167 kilogrammes"' of powder in the largest of cannons now existing can impart to a shot of 520 kilogrammes." In the presence of spiritualistic mediums there must therefore have been operative so-called catalytic f * I kilogram =^ lbs. 2.2046213. t That the ordinary chemical and physical processes require for their explanation the supposition of such catalytic forces was first recognised by Berzelius, -with -whom, as is well known, the designation of these forces originated. It is certainly a proof of the great acuteness of Wilhelm Weber, and of the universal significance of his laiv, that already, thirty-two years ago, immediately following the discussion of the analytical expression of his law (compare my Principles of an Electro-Dynamic Theory of Matter, vol. i.), he expressed himself concerning the existence of catalytic forces in nature as follows : — " Thus this force depends on the quantity of the masses, on their distance, on their relative velocity, and further on that relative accelera- tion, which comes to them partly in consequence of the persistence of the motion already present in them, partly in consequence of the forces acting upon them from other bodies." "It seems to foUow from thence, that direct interaction between two electrical masses depends not exclusively upon these masses themselves and their mutual relations, but also in the presence of third bodies. Now it is known that Berzelius has already conjectured such a depend- ence of direct interaction of two bodies in the presence of a third, and has designated the force thence resulting by the name of catalytic. Adopting this name, it can therefore be said that even electrical pheno- mena proceed in part from catalytic forces. ' ' This proof of catalytic forces for electricity is not, however, strictly speaking, a consequence of the discovered principles of electricity. It would only then be so, if with these principles was necessarily connected the idea that only the forces by which electrical masses act directly on each other from a distance Avere thereby determined. It is, however, conceivable that among the forces comprehended under the discovered principles are some exercised mediately by electrical masses on one another, which must therefore depend, in the first instance, on the interposing medium,' and furthermore on all bodies acting on this medium. Such mediately exercised forces, if the interposing medium is withdrawn from our view, maj^ easily passfor catalytic forces, although in fact not so. The conception of catalytic 128 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. forces, hitherto concealed from us, which were able to release and convert into active force a small part of the potential energy laid up in all bodies. That fifty years ago a physicist could venture with impunity publicly to declare the possible existence of " forces, up to the present unknown to us," without on that account having dirt thrown upon him by anonymous writers in (so-called) " respectable " journals, is proved by the following words of the then professor of physics in the University of Heidelberg in the year 1829 :* "Not a few, and among them, moreover, advan- tageously known scholars, have supposed different vnknoirn forces in nature, and especially in man. That there may be such, from whose action many as yet mysterious phenomena of vegetable and animal vital processes could be explicable, certainly cannot be denied generally and a priori; but, on the other hand, it is quite certain that the greatest circumspec- tion and a scepticism much to be recommended to a physicist should be exercised in this supposition." How far the paternal counsel here given to un- critical physicists is justifiable and decent when forces must at least be essentially modified in speaking of them in such cases. That is to say, niulcr catalytic force must then be understood Buch a nudiately exercised force as can be dehned according to a general rule through a certain knowledge of the bodies to whose inlluence the inteqiDsing uiedium is subjected, although without knowledge of this medium itself. The discovered fundamental law of electricity gives a general rule for the determination of c;italytic forces in this sense." • Muncke iu Gehler's Dictionanj of Physics, vol. v. ji. 1007. I GALILEO ON PERVERSENESS OF LEARNED MEN. 1 29 applied to men of the scientific eminence of Willielm Weber or Feclmer, particularly from the mouths of literati a.nd pretended {so-genannten) "men of science," posterity may judge. In the meanwhile we console ourselves with words addressed by Galileo to Kepler : — " What will'st thou say of the first teachers at the Gymnasium at Padua, who, when I ofi'ered it to them, w^ould look neither at the planets nor the moon through the telescope ? Tliis sort of men look on philosophy as a book like the JEneid or Odyssy, and believe that truth is to be sought not in the world or nature, but only in 'comparison of texts.' How would'st thou have laughed, when at Pisa the first teacher of the Gymnasium there endeavoured, in the presence of the Grand Duke, to tear away the new planets from heaven with logical arguments, like magical exorcisms ! " Kepler, however, hereupon answered Galileo : — " Courage ! Galileo, and advance. If I see rightly, few of Europe's eminent mathematicians will fall away from us; so great is the power of truths ( >30 ) Cl)optcr (Eigljtij. THE PHENOMENA SriTABI.E FOR SCIENTIFIC REaEARCH— THEIR RETRODCCTION AT DIFKEKEST TIMES AN!) PLACES— Dll. FRIESE's AND PHOEKSSOR WAGNERS EXPERIMENTS IN CONFIRMATION OF THE ACTUOR'S. Before passing ou to the description of further experi- ments and observations wliicli I conducted with ^fr. Slade, I may mention that the essential facts (and of these just the most wonderful and incrediljle) have already been repeated, not in presence of Slade, but among private individuals with medial gifts, under the most stringent conditions. This circumstance disposes first of the argument that Mr. Slade is a swindler and impostor merely on the ground that as a "professional " medium he makes a "business" of his powers like any other conjurer ; and secondly, it divests spiritistic phenomena of the exceptional character which might seem to unfit them for becoming objects of scientific research. For the characteristic of natural phenomena is that their existence can be confirmed at difi'orent places and times. Thus is proof afforded that there are general conditions (no matter whether known or unknown to us, or whether we can provide them or not • Wiss. Ahh. vol. iii. (Tra)i4ccndciitalc Phi/si/^), y. 215. EXPERIMENTS WITH PEIVATE MEDIUIVIS. 131 at pleasure) upon which these phenomena depend. It is in the discovery and establishment of these condi- tions under which natural phenomena occur, that the task of the scientific observer and experimenter con- sists. . The method applied by me for demonstrating the appearance and disappearance of human limbs by means of sooted paper has proved particularly successful. Paper so treated is like a photographic camera ohscura which can be placed unobserved and well guarded in the neighbourhood of the medium, so that deception becomes a physical impossibility. In this way Dr. Eobert Friese, of Breslau, sitting with a family of that place, a lady with mediumistic powers being present, obtained the impression of a hand upon sooted paper fixed to a slate, which was placed on a stove and covered with a sheet of paper to protect it from dust. The impression was obtained while the medium sat on a sofa between Dr. Friese and a friend of his, and was held by them both. The medium in a state of trance distinctly saw the figure which mounted on the stove and made the impression of the hand, so that the whole operation was described by her during the process, Dr. Friese and his friend perceiving nothing. The slate was taken down from the stove directly the medium awoke, and on it was found the impression of the hand just as she had described it. But the most brilliant repetition of one of my ex- 132 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. periments with sooted slates was acliieved in the autumn of last year ^'' with a private medium in St. Petersburg. It has been published by Dr. Nicolaus Wagner, Professor of Zoology, and honorary member of the University there, in the June number of Psf/chiscJie Stialic)), with a photo-lithographic repre- sentation of the impression obtained. I reproduce this account here literally, since it also illustrates the ecclesiastical and religious prejudices which now, as in the age of Galileo, attempt to obstruct the work of the scientific invest iiiator. REPETITION OF ONE OF PROFESSOR ZOLLNER'S^EXPERI- MENTS WITH PRIVATE MEDIUMS. By Nicolaus Wogtift; Professor of Zoology, and Honorary Member 0/ the I Imperial University at S(. Petersburg. "The reaction against the spiritual movement runs its course with the same violence as every fanatical opposition. If " blind faith " is the motive power of religious fanaticism, so also is the direction of the con- trary movement determined by a force which is quite as illogical — " blind scepticism." In the one and the other the cause is the same — feeling, passionately excited, and resisting every cool, matter-of-fact (objec- tive) consideration. There is no better proof of this than the attacks of the savans upon those of their colleagues who had the inexcusable temerity to satisfy ♦ 1S78.— Tr. PROFESSOR WAGNER ON "BLIND SCEPTICISM. I 33 themselves of the reality of mediumistic phenomena, and to publish their experiences to the world. Until their fall into Spiritualism the work and opinions of these men were recognised as entirely logical, accurate, and satisfying the conditions of scientific inquiry. But scarcely have these same scientists carried their re- searches into the region of mediumistic phenomena, than they are forthwith encountered by the feeling of antipathy ; and that even before the phenomena them- selves have been adjudicated upon by sound reason.* * This reminds us of Mr. Crookes : " It is edifying to compare some of the present criticisms with those that were written twelve months ago. When I first stated in this journal (Quarterly Journal of Science) that I was about to investigate the phenomena of so-called Spiritualism, the announcement called forth universal expressions of approval. One said that my 'statements deserved respectful consideration ; ' another expressed 'profound satisfaction that the subject was about to be investigated by a man so thoroughly qualified as,' &c. ; a thii-d was 'gratified to learn that the matter is now receiving the attention of cool and clear-headed men of recognised position in science ; ' a fourth asserted that ' no one could doubt Mr. Crookes' ability to conduct the investigation with rigid philosophical impartiality ; ' and a fifth was good enough to tell its readers that ' if men like Mr. Crookes grapple with the subject, taking nothing for granted until it is proved, we shall soon know how much to believe. ' " These remarks, however, were written too hastily. It was taken for granted by the writers that the results of my experiments would be in accordance with their preconceptions. What they really desired was not the truth, but an additional witness in favour of their own foregone con- clusion. When they found that the facts which that investigation estab- lished could not be made to fit those opinions, why, — ' so much the worse for the facts,' — they try to creep out of their own confident recommenda- tions by declaring that ' ]Mr. Home is a clever conjurer, who has duped us alL' 'Mr. Crookes might, with eqiial propriety, examine the per- formances of an Indian juggler.' ' Mr. Crookes must get better witnesses before he can be believed. ' ' The thing is too absurd to be treated seriouslj'.' 'It is impossible, and therefore can't be.' 'The observers have all been biologised (!), and fancy they saw things occur which never really took place,'" &c., &c. — Crookes's Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism, p. 22. — Note by Translator. 134 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. Impelled by tliis antipathy, even the strougest under- Btanding is blind ; it seeks support from and attaches itself to such strangely childish arguments and suppo- sitions, as to any sound thinking and unprejudiced person are in the liighest degree absurd. "In the relations of the savans to my colleague, Professor Zollner, "who lately experimented in the mediumistic field, we have the most complete evidence of the justice of the above observation. Satisfied through the force and reality of facts of the entire genuine objectivity of the mediumistic phenomena, he detailed his investigations. But as in the case of the investin-ations of Crookes and Boutlerow, so were these also forthwith exposed to suspicion, and set down to clever conjuring ; and the name of the cautious and accurate investigator swelled the sad list of scientists who had been deceived by (so-called) charlatans. " Now, since the whole weight of this charge rests on the merely supposed fraud of the mediums, it will not be superfluous if I give to the Press the results of some investigations, analogous to those of Zollner, which I have made with non-professional mediums. I do not in the least expect that this narrative, any more than hundreds such, will make the slightest impression on the fanaticism of the sceptic : on the other hand, I have the strongest belief that it will serve to confirm the growing conviction of those who INVESTIGATION IN A PEIVATE FAMILY. I 3 5 are not disinclined to be convinced by tlie trutb of things. " Since the force of the evidence chiefly depends on the confidence in the mediums, and in the persons composing the circle among whom the seances took place, I consider it essential first of all to discuss this question, and to follow it up with some historical statements. Moved by my and my colleague Boutlerow's writings in certain Eussian periodicals, the family of the engineer and chemist E , as also some of their intimate friends and relatives, desired to convince themselves of the reality or otherwise of the mediumistic phenomena. It must further be remarked that in these families earlier cases of a mediumistic character had been already observed, but had been ascribed to difierent causes, such as accident or hallu- cination. "Three ladies took part constantly in the sittings — the wife of the chemist, Sophia E ; her sister, A. M ; and her friend, A. L , who had for years been united with Mrs. E in the most genuine friendship and sympathy. Of these ladies the two first were gifted with very remarkable mediumistic aptitudes. All three were distinguished b}'- deep reli- gious feelings, and every deception, even for a good end, is abhorred by them as a heavy sin. The mani- festations occurring almost from the very first were regarded by them as miraculous, and this feeling was 136 TUANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. confirmed as tlie phenomena became more and more developed. " Tlio fourth Lidy, avIio was likewise constantly j^resent, was Miss Catherine L ; one of the greatest friends of Sophia E the wife of the chemist E . At the commencement of the seances she was an atheist ; all her convictions leaned to materialism. She held the principles of the well-known Russian publicist, Ilerr Pisaref, as irrefragable dogmas. The power of the manifestations shook, and at length overthrew, tliis fanaticism of hers. '* This small circle was formed with the firm expec- tation that it would succeed in demonstrating the mediumistic manifestations to be simply a further development of already-known physical phenomena. With this object the tal)le at whicli they sat was jtlaced upon glass supports, and round the feet of the table was wound a wire, the ends of which were attached to a galvanometer. Instead, however, of the expected physical phenomena, the table at the very first sauce urgently demanded the alphabet, and by means of blows with the foot of the table the followins sentence was spelled out : — "'I suffer because thou believest not.* "* To whom does that refer ? ' asked those present. " * To Catherine L .' " ' Who, then, art thou 1 ' asked L . " 'I am thy friend, Olga N .' PHENOMENA IN A PRIVATE FAMILY. 1 37 " This dearly-loved friend, also an atheist, had died about a year before, and on this account Catherine L was deeply astonished and moved by the infor- mation communicated throuo;h the table. This infor- mation, given in the same 'seance, referred to different particulars of an event known only to Catherine L , and thoroughly convinced her of the existence of the soul of her beloved friend, even though in another world. " Henceforth, the before-mentioned physical experi- mentation was laid aside, the conversations were more and more striking, and confirmed their faith in the reality of another world. This faith soon became a firm conviction with all. To show the relations of the circle, and especially of Catherine L , to the phenomena, I here add some extracts from her diary, which was written for her own eye only, and com- nmnicated to me after her death, which happened somewhat later. " ' 29th March, 1876, 1.30 a.m. Scarcely had S and I retired to rest, and left off talking that we might sleep, than suddenly there sounded a beating on the wall at the head of my bed. I supposed at first that some one was probably passing on the stairs adjoining my wall, but after some minutes the knock- was repeated, and with such force that S also beS^me attentive, and asked me if I had knocked. Now I guessed what it was. 13S TRAXSCENDEMAL TUYSICS. " 'Prol3al>ly my Olga is now come to me,' sa'ul I. In assent sounded immediately three times, one after the other, a muiHed blow, as if a soft wall had been struck with a hammer wrapped up in something soft. *' * Is it thou, Olgchen ? ' I asked the spirit aloud. Three regular knocks answered. ** *Can I sleep quietly this night V Again the like three knocks. " 30th March, 6. 45 p.m. ** * Wliy did you knock at my wall yesterday* Olinkar "'Evil spirits prevent you going to the supper. Thou wouldst do it, and hast abandoned this inten- tion. I came yesterday to say to thee that thou, dear one, shouldst not obey them. I will not come for a whole week. I have much to do. On Thursday, after the supper, I will visit thee.' *" So, if I take the supper, thou will'st come to meV *' * Yes ! and I will make thee a present.' *' * What sort of a present 1 ' " 'Thou canst show it to every one.' " ' Thou will'st give it to me on the day of the Com- munion ? ' " * Yes, in the church.' " 'First of AjiriL I have confessed. After the supper I went and took my place in the church. Suddenly in my hand there came a nosegay of white rose and A SPIRIT FEIEND. 1 39 myrtle, tied with a lock of the dear and well-known hair ! That was the promised present. " * Come home from church, we sat ourselves at the table. Our heavenly friend was already among us. Her first words were — " * I wish you all happiness. I am happy for you. My darling ! art thou content with my present ? ' " * "What significations have the rose and myrtle ? ' *' ' Pure love. Eternity.' " * I could scarcely restrain my tears. "•30th April, 10 o'clock. S. E , sitting on a chair, fell into a trance, of which the spirit informed us. Afterwards a hand was shown to us, one after the other ; at our wish it touched our hands, and came close to the sioht of those of us who had not been able to distinguish it clearly enough. I asked the spirit whether I could kiss this hand 1 The spirit replied that its hand would be between the table and the cloth, and that I might kiss it through the cloth. Twice I kissed the dear hand, and convinced myself thereby thoroughly of its reality : it was a living, flexible hand,' " I have given these extracts to show the genuine and cordial relations of the deceased to these observers of the phenomena which took place before their eyes. Again, I repeat, that she wrote her diary for herself alone, and probably never thought of the possibility that extracts from it might appear in the Press. The I40 TKANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. circle itself, in the sittings of whicli she took part, was exclusively interested in the phenomena for their own sake, and was utterly and altogether unconcerned with the spiritualistic propaganda. All the usual medium- istic phenomena, such as the self-moving of objects, lights, ajipearance of hands, &c., took place at these seances. Especially often were objects brought to the circle, most frequently pictures of saints, hair, and flowers. During a seance in tlie s|)rinf>: the whole tabic \vas literally covered with flowers. During another sw cleft. This would moreover have been altogether impossible without injury to the seals, since the extent of the edges of the frame left free between my seals and the strips of paper employed for fastening by Professor AVach — quite apart from their tight adhesion to each other — amounted at the maximum to only So milli- metres, whereas the narrowest side of the folded sheet of letter paper amounted to 1 19 millimetres. The often- mentioned two brass spirals on the front side of the slate clasped one over the other in such a manner that every possibility was excluded of shoving in a piece of paper from this side. After opening the slate, I took from my purse the two bits of paper torn off on the evening before and satisfied myself and my friends of their perfect adaptation to the sheet of paper found. All little irregularities of the edojes fitted into each other so exactly, that not the slightest doubt couhl prevail that the torn-off bits of paper formed the com- pletion of the half sheet of letter paper. I reproduce here the writing obtained, so far as it is possible for me to read it. Gottes Vaterlreue geht Ueher alU Welt hinaus Jiete (lass sie (?) kehrt Ein in unser arvies llaus VERIFICATION. 189 Wh' mussen alle sterbeu Ob arm wii' oder reich Und werden einst erwerhen Das schdne Himmelreieh. Now, is the 4th dimension proven f We are not ivorhing ivith the slate-peneil or on the slate, as our powers are noiv in other directions. The strange writing is unknown to me. (Javanese V) Thus was fully established the correctness of that which Slade had said in the state of trance about the contents of the writing three hours before opening the slate. If I had not had the sealed slate from the end of the sitting continually in my custody, it would be possible, by disregarding the circuoistances described by me above with the utmost exactitude, under which the sheet of paper disappeared and was written upon, just on this account to raise suspicion against Slade, as was in fact the case with my colleagues Thiersch and Wach. Already the circumstance that the writ- ing was not, as expected, with the slate-pencil on the inside of the sealed slate had awakened their distrust, and was looked upon by them as a violation of the conditions prescribed by them. I myself, who had personally witnessed all the above-described manifes- tations, and was accustomed to similar deviations, was exceedingly pleased with the result obtained. It was also in fact far more instructive for me than slate- writing produced between the slates would have been. I90 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. For of the reality of that fact I had satisfied myself* so often, and under such stringent conditions, partly alone, partly with my honoured friend W. Weber that I my- self could have learned absolutely nothing new thereby. On the other hand, through the modification of the ex- periment, first, my wish was fulfilled of getting writing with lead-pencil upon paper instead of on a slate ; secondly, I obtained a splendid proof of the apparent penetration of matter ; thirdly, an equally cogent proof of clairvoyance, since Slade, to whom nothing of the contents of the sealed slate could be conveyed by his senses, was nevertheless able to make a correct state- ment concerning them in his state of trance. TIlis admirable economy of instruction, which is evidenced in the whole arrangement and progress of the phenomena that I was so fortunate as to observe in Slade's presence, proves for me, more than all other circumstances, the high intelligence and friendly dis- position of those invisible beings, under whose guid- ance these experiments were. I can here only thankfully express that conviction by again referring to the comparison already made between these unexjx'cted occurrences and the provi- dential fatality observed in life.t • Compare the experiment in presence of W. Weber (described aufe, p. 44), in wbich a b»ng wriliiiy myself, and first carefully cleaned, and laid them down l)efore me on the card-table, at which we at once took our places. ►Scarcely were we seated, when Slade fell into a trance, which till then had never happened so immediately after our sitting down, folded his hands, and uttered, with altered voice and head upturned, so fine a prayer, that I never shall forget the impression which the noble speech and the fervour with which the prayer was spoken made upon me. The impression was to me so unex[)ected, and interested me, by the lesthetic in the whole demeanour of Slade with his almost transfigured countenance, so highly, that I. did not remember to write down the words. The sub- stance of the prayer was a petition to God further to vouchsafe His blessing on our experiments, and to AWAKING FROM TRANCE. I 97 suffer the Avork undertaken to end happily for the good of mankind. As usual with Slade, on waking out of such states of trance, there was first a rolling motion of the head, and then he awoke suddenly with a spasm, which shook his whole body, and there was always, before opening of the eyes, a peculiar cracking of the muscles of his neck and jaw. Of what he had spoken in trance, Mr. Slade asserted that he knew absohitely nothing. Those who have been witnesses of the experiments of the magnetiser Hansen will be able most clearly to represent to themselves the demeanour of awaking out of these trance-states, if they recal the expression of the " sensitive " at the summons — "Awake ! " of the magnetiser. After Slade had awoke, his glance fell upon the newly-added oblong slates. His question, for what purpose they were designed, I answered evasively. Hereupon he proposed to try again whether spontane- ous writing would be produced upon two slates laid one over the other, not touched by either him or me, as in the experiment. which had succeeded so splendidly in the presence of William Weber and me on the 13th December 1877, when between two slates bound to- gether crosswise with strong pack-thread, and which lay quietly on the card-table, neither Slade nor we touching it, a writing was suddenly produced, per- ceptible to us all.'" * See ante, p. 44. 198 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. Slade now desired mc to take two of the new slates, to lay a Kpl inter of slate-pencil between them, and then to seal these two slates firndy together. I did this, after having again satisfied myself that the slates were perfectly clean. The sealing was in four jilaccs on the long sides, and now I laid these slates, with the bit of pencil between them, on the corner of the card-table most remote from our hands. The latter we joined over one another on the table, so that Slade's hands were covered by mine, and were thus prevented, from moving. Scarcely had this happened when the untouched slates were raised many times upon one of the edges, which was clearly perceived by us both by the bright light diffused by a candle standing on the middle of the card-table. Then the two slates laid themselves down ao-ain on the card- table in a somewhat altered position, and now writing between the slates began to be immediately audible, as if with a slate-pencil guided by a lirm hand. After the well-known three ticks had announced the conclusion of the writing, we sundered our hands, which up to this time had been continually and firmly joined, closed the sitting, and betook ourselves with the double-slate, which I had immediately seized, to the next room, where Herr von Hoffmann and his wife awaited us. In presence of these persons the slate shortly before sealed by mc was opened. Botli sides were completely written over in English. (IMate VIII. Plate VI 1 1. [Copied from a Photograph.) LONG MESSAGE ON A NEW SLATE. 203 represents a photographic reproduction of the two slates in reduced scale. By clapping together the slates, the two inscribed sides, lying one over the other, show the position in which these surfaces were in fact written over.) Here follows the English orjoinal. " This is a truth — not for select — but for all man- kind — without respect of rank or race — no matter how one may be insulted or persecuted by his investi- gation — it will not take from them the truth, no more than a blind man's words ; by saying there is no sun- shine, it does not prevent the sun from shining or bring darkness at noonday; the blind man can sa,y there is no sunshine, for he cannot see the light of the sun. The man that says this is not true, he says so because he has not had proof of its being true ; people that cannot see, do not chide them, but help them, by showing them the way to this divine truth ; we are not able to say more now as our space is now full ; go on in your investigation and you will receive your reward." ( 204 ) Cftaptcr iEloclftfj. A "FAILT" in the CAni.K — A JKT OF WATER— SMOKE— *' FIRE EVERTWHEBK " — ABX(»KMAL SHAnnWS— EXPLANATION T PON THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE FOCKTH DIMENSION— A sLvNCE IN DIM LIGHT— MOVEMENT OK OBJECTS— A LLMINOl'S BODY. I PASS now to tlie account of further facts observed by me, which prove the intimate connection of an- other material world witli our own, and may be con- sidered in general as a confirmation of the numerous observations of ]\Ir. Crookes and other physicists. Generally, hitherto, my accounts have had reference to the sudden disappearance and return of solid bodies : the followinor facts will show the advent (Eintritt) of bodies in the fluid and gaseous condi- tion, without our being able, from the standpoint of our ordinary and limited conception of space, to give an answer to the question, " whence ? " On the /th IMav, 1878, at fifteen minutes past eleven in tlic morning, I liad taken my place with Shide at our card-table. In order that we miiiht first learn something of what we were to expect, I took one of the slates kept in readiness, cleaned it, laid a small bit of slate-pencil upon it, and handed it AN IMPORTANT FACT. 205 to Slade to hold, as usual, lialf under the edge of the table, that it might be written on by his invisible beings. Slade proposed, as a variety in this pro- ceeding, the following modification. He desired me to press the slate from below against the table with my left hand, as is shown in the above wood-cut,* while he grasped the slate at the other corner with his right hand, and pressed it in the same manner against the table. His left hand Slade laid extended on the middle of the table, and I covered it with my right hand. Scarcely was this done when writing began on the slate ; this gave the opportunity of confirming a phenomenon observed also at other times by myself, and frequently by others, that the distinctly audible sound of writing immediately ceased as soon as by raising my right hand I removed it somewhat from Blade's left. As soon as the con- nection was re-established, the writing immediately recommenced, t Three ticks on the surface of the slate having declared the writing ended, the follow- ing was found on the slate on its upper surface, which had been pressed against the table : — " To-morrow morning we would be pleased to have Baron H. sit with you — and shall begin a new power, and give you more proof of what can be done ; please * Ante, p. 193. t The translator observed this on several oecasions~'when sitting -with Sla(ie_in London, in 1876. Tlie same fact is also recorded by the late Mr. Serjeant Cox in the " Spiritualist," August 1876. — Tr. 206 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. nsk us no question, or make any more requests ; we will do all in our power fur you — we wish to say more to-morrow morning by controlling the medium." Blade and I then rose to look in a closet near for a somewhat larger piece of slate-pencil, but before this could be done, almost in the moment when we rose, we were sprinkled from above by a sort of drizzle. AVe were both wet on the head, clothes and hands, and the traces of this shower — of perhaps one-fourth of a second duration — were afterwards clearly percep- tible on the floor of the room. Remains of the liquid being especially on the upper side of my right hand, I touched it with the tip of my tongue ; so far as taste could inform, the moisture was pure water. I should mention here, that in the room in which we were there was no vessel with water, although there was in that immediately adjoining. After the above-related fixcts concerning the transport of solid bodies from three- dimensioually enclosed spaces, such a conveyance of water from one room to another would appear to be a phenomenon of the same kind. Surprised at this unexpected phenomenon, and yet busied in drying our clothes, we took our places again at the table, and were about to join hands, when suddenly the same thing was repeated almost more strongly. This time the ceiling and walls of the room were also moistened, and there seemed, JETS OF WATER. 20/ judging from the direction and form of the traces of water, to have proceeded several different jets of water at the same time from a point in the middle of the room, perhaps four feet high above our heads ; as if a jet of water were to be discharged perpendi- cularly upon a plane, where it would then spread itself out radially in all directions in this two-dimen- sional region of space, from the point at which it reached the ground. If one applies this analogy to a jet of water discharged from the fourth dimension into the three-dimensional region of space, the water would then appear at a particular spot of this space, and under suitable conditions must extend itself thence radially to all three dimensions. I may further remark that I met with the same phenomenon in just as unexpected a manner, at a sitting with Slade, at which Herr Gillis of St. Petersburg was present.'" Since that sitting took place in the sitting-room of the restaurant-keeper of the Thuringian railway station, which Slade had set foot in shortly before for the first time, the possibility of a conjuring apparatus is excluded ; and independently of this, the same phenomenon in the presence of Slade has since been confirmed by numerous other observers. On the next morning (8th May 1878, eleven o'clock), Herr 0. von Hoffmann took part in the * Referred to, but not described, in an earlier part of the volume. — Tr, 2o8 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. sitting; he sat at my riglit, Slade in Lis usual place at my left. After some short writings on the slate had been ohtainetl in the usual maimer, and Slade had joined his hands with ours again on the middle of the table, there rose suddenly, in three dilTerent places above the edge of the table from l^ucath, a smoke, which, judging from the smell, contained some acid of sulphur and saltpetre. We imme- diately looked under the table, but saw nothing further tluui the still present remains of this smoke, as after the lighting of a lucifer match. Scarcely had we again joined our hands, to await the further development of the phenomena, when the same thing was repeated yet more strongly. Almost at the same time Slade proposed to me to place a caudle under the table, to see if the invisible beings were able to light it. Thereupon Herr von Hoffmann took two candlesticks, provided with new unused candles, from his writing-table, and placed them both on the floor under the table,* at which we immediately resumed our seats, and joined our hands in the manner already mentioned. After we had waited for some minutes, smoke rose up again from under the table, almost from all sides ; and at the same time one of the candlesticks with the candle burning hovered up above the edge of the table • Not under the middle of the tahle, hut under the edge at his right, tlio place furthest removed from Slade'a feet. ^ " FIRE EVERYWHERE. 209 opposite to me ; after a few seconds it sunk down again ; and wlien we looked under the table one of the candles was lighted, and under the middle of the table. To refute the suo-o-estion of a transient hallu- cination or "unconscious cerebration," a half sheet of writing-paper was taken, held close over the burning candle, and in this way a hole was burned through the paper. I then took a stick of sealing- wax, held it in the same light, and let a part of the melted wax drop on the paper, and then impressed the seal with my signet. The half sheet of paper with the seal under the in-burnt hole is still safe in my possession. After our agreeable astonishment at this unexpectedly successful experiment had somewhat sub- sided, we sat again at the card-table, and placed the burning light in the middle of it. Scarcely had this been done when Slade fell into a trance, and with closed eyes uttered an address, of which Herr von Hoffmann took down the following words, while Slade was slowly speaking them : — "All seems strange that is not understood ; fire is everywhere. Think of the flint from which you draw it ; it is in all the elements around you. Let this light be a beacon light in the path of investigation, let it be symbolical of the light that must break through the darkness of the w^orld. The light of the brain wnll light thy pathway ! This evening we will enter into a new phase ; to-morrow morning we will replenish 2IO TRATfSCENDETH'AL PHYSICS. tlie forces, and in the evening show you another i)hase, if the atmosphere be favourable." In fact, our invisible friends kept their promise of the morninf; in a manner astonishinij to us all. We were sitting at half-past seven in the evening, at the tea-table in the dining-room. On the table burned a large lamp ; Slade sat opposite rne, his back turned to the window, the curtains of which were let down. At my left, on one side of the table, sat Frau von Hoffmann ; opposite to her, on the other side of the large tea-table, Herr von Hoffmann ; I myself had my back turned to the great folding-doors, provided with a brown curtain, by which one entered the room from the corridor. Since in general we had never ol)served remarkable manifestations with Slade during meals— I leave quite out of sight particular risings of tlie table and movement of detached chairs — we naturally were not expecting anything surprising on this evening. Suddenly, however, Frau von Hoflmann cried out, and said that she saw on the wall and on the door to which my back was turned the reflection of a bright light which appeared to issue from a place under the table at which we sat. Slade, who from his place was facing the side of the room referred to, confirmed this assertion. We looked first under the table, examined everything narrowly, but found nothing which could explain the origin of sucli a light. In the expectation that this pheuo- SHADOW CASTING. 211 menon would perhaps be repeated, we frequently looked at the side in question, and for easier obser- vation I had placed my chair somewhat obliquely. Suddenly this phenomenon occurred again, and then, immediately afterwards again. The colour of the light was bluish-white, as if proceeding from a suddenly kindled electrical light, and, what was for me the most remarkable, the shadows of the feet of the table were sharply projected, nevertheless, so far as I could ascertain in the short time, perceptibly of the same size cts the objects casting the shadows. Although I might consider this phenomenon, owing to the want of sufficient test -conditions (Controle), as a oiot scieiitijically established fact, raised above all doubt, yet I hold it, nevertheless, for my scientific duty to make mention of it, in order that other observers may be attentive to its extraordinary importance. If, for instance, the origin of this ray was a luminous point in the space beneath the table, the shadows of the feet of the table must, accordino; to the laws of shadow-casting, have been considerably larger on the wall than the feet themselves, as any- one can easily prove by placing a lighted candle under a table having several feet. The size and form of the shadow-projection of an object ap- proximates, as one knows, more to the size of the shadow-casting object, the further the source of light 212 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. is removed from the latter, or in otlier words, the nearer the rays are to the parallel. The sharjyness in the outline of the shadcjw afTords, moreover, an inference as to the apparent size of the light-source ; if, for example, the apparent diameter of the sun's disc were twenty times greater than is in fact the c;ise, the shadows cast by opaque l»odies in sunlight would be effaced at the edjies to a far jrreater extent than actually hapjxjns. Apart from the phenomena of refraction, a l)ody would cast an absolutely sharp shadow of absolutely similar size with the shadow- casting object, if the rays proceeded from an injinitclif remote jx)iut. Since, now, in the alx)ve-mentioned case, surprisingly sharp shadows of the feet of the table of perceptibly similar size to the feet themselves were observed, it follows from this that the rays which produced that projection of shadow, must have issued from a light source, first, {wssessing a very email apparent size, and, secondly, being at a great distance. No place underneath the table could have satisfied the second condition, and since the remain- ing space of the room was observed, and even the distance of the nearest wall at Slade's back, would not have sufficed to comply with the above condition, the said phenomenon would thus point to another place as the point of issue, which cannot lie at all in our three-dimensional space. This contradiction is solved as soon as one presupposes the reality of a LIGHT FEOM THE FOUETH DIMENSION. 2 I 3 foiir-dimensional region of space, and admits that it is possible for those invisible intelligent beings, who have showed ns so much of their powers, also to divert rays of light, Avhich are diffused in the direc- tion of the fourth dimension, so that they fall in our three-dimensional region of space. AVe are, indeed, likewise able, by reflection and refraction of light, to divert rays in such a manner as to transfer their point of issue to another than the true place. Upon this diversion of rays of light depends most of the physical-optical illusions. Since similar phenomena of lights are very frequently observed at spiritual- istic sittings, and among others, Mr. Crookes has also given detailed testimony to them,* I may be * ^^ Notes of an Inquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual," by William Crookes, F.R.S. London, 1874. Mr. Crookes enumerates and describes thirteen classes of phenomena observed and verified by himself in his own house, and with only private friends present, besides the medium. Of Class viii. " Luminous Appearances," he says : " These, being rather faint, generally require the room to be darkened. I need scarcely remind my readers again that, under these circumstances, I have taken proper precautions to avoid being imposed upon by phosphorised oil, or other means. Moreover, many of these lights are such as I have tried to imitate artificially, but cannot. " Under the strictest test conditions, I have seen a solid self-luminous body, the size and nearly the shape of a turkey's egg, float noiselessly about the room, at .one time higher than any one present could reach standng on tip-toe, and then gently descend to the floor. It was visible for more than ten minutes, and before it faded away it struck the table three times with a sound like that of a hard, solid body. During this time the medium was lying back, apparently insensible, in an easy chair. ' ' I have seen luminous points of light darting about, and settling on the heads of different persons ; I have had questions answered by the flashing of a bright light, a desired number of times in front of my face. I have seen sparks of light rising from the table to the ceiling, and again falling upon the table, striking it witli an audible sound. I have had an alpha* 214 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. IMjrmittcd to call the attention of other observers to the circumstance mentioned. For approximate deter- mination of the point of divergence of the rays of such luminous phenomena, the following proceeding may be recommended as the simplest Phenomena of light are observed by aid of an opera-glass, by the adjustment of which the object may be removed as far as possible. Objects at so short a distance as those in a room, require, to appear in sharp outline, a special adjustment of the glass, and this adjustment — the determinate distance of the eyepiece from the objective — enables us, according to simple optical laws, to determine the distance of the object, that is, of those luminous points, from which the rays extend themselves in space. If, now, it should really appear, with respect to these spiritualistic luminous pheno- mena, that the distance of the point of divergence of the rays does not agree with the distance of the luminous object, the difference of these two distances would determine the length of a tract (Strecke) falling in the fourth dimension, and hereby would be made the first step towards quantitative determinations in betic coniniunication given 1»y luminous fliuslics occurring before me in the air, whilst my liaud wjis nioviM;j; about amongst them, I have seen a luminous cloud tloating upwards to a picture. Under the strictest test conditions, I have more than once had a solid, self-luminous, crystal- line body jdacc'd in my hand by a hand which did not belong to any ])erson in the room. In the li'jht I have seen a luminous cloud hover over a hoi i»»t rope on a side table, break a sprig ofl", and carry the sprig to a laily ; and on some occasions I iiave seen a similar luminous cloud visibly condense to the form of a hand and carry small objects about." REPETITION OF THE PHENOMENON. 2 1 5 the four-dimensional field of space. Such an observa- tion would, in the history of transcendental physics, be comparable to the first determination of parallaxes in the history of astronomy, whereby we obtained the first approximate conception of the distance of our moon, the nearest to us of the heavenly bodies. I may mention, that the above-described luminous phenomena were repeated on two other evenings (9th May, and 19th May) under similar circumstances, and in presence of others who were sitting at tea at the same table. On these evenings, however, for the sake of a better control over Slade, and for more convenient observation of the shadow-projection on the opposite side, I had taken my place close beside Slade, so that he sat at my left. The only difi'erence of the phenomenon from that observed on the first evening consisted in the colour of the light being yellowish-red, instead of a bluish-white. It will therefore be useful in future at similar sittino;s to have with one a pocket spectroscope, to examine the nature of the light, as opportunity offers. Finally, I mention here a sitting with Slade which took place at five o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th December, 1877, in the usual sitting-room of the house of my friend 0. von Hoffinann, whose wife was present. It was the only one in which the room was partially darkened, to try whether in Slade's presence, as in that of the young lady of fifteen (Miss 2l6 TUANSCENDENTAI, PHYSICS. Cook), a liunian form, or at least a "phantom form," as Mr. C'rookcs describes it in liis Ijook, iiinlcr the hcadinfT " Piiantom Forms aiul Faces," would be evolved. Ill order to improvise a cabinet, a string was drawn ol)li(iue]y across the part of the room opposite my usual place, at about two metres* above the floor, and of a breadth corresponding to tliat of the edge of the table, a dark green curtain being fixed to it. Slade sat at his usual place, at his ri^lit Frau von IIofTmann, I next, and Herr von Holfmann at my right. AVe had already laid our hands, linked together, on the tabic, when I remarked it was a pity we had forgotten to place a small hand-bell on the table. At the same moment it boiran rinirinir in the corner of the room at my right front, at least two metres from the middle of the table ; and the room being faintly illuminated by gaslight from the street, we saw a small hand-bell slowly hover down from the stand on which it stood, lay itself down on the carpet of the floor, and move itself forward by jerks, till it got under our table. Here immediately it began ringing in the most lively manner, and while we kept our hands joined together as above described on the table, a hand suddenly appeared through an opening in the middle of the curtain with the bell, which it placed on the middle of the table in front of us. I hereupon expressed the wish to be allowed * About 65 feet.— Tr. A TRIAL OF STREXGTH. 2 I 7 to hold that hand ODce firmly in my own. I had scarcely said this, when the hand appeared again out of the opening, and now, while with the palm of my left hand I covered and held fast both Slade's hands, with my right I seized the hand protruded from the opening, and thus shook hands with a friend from the other world. It had quite a living warmth, and returned my pressure heartily. After letting go the hand, I reached it a slate and challenged it to a small proof of strength ; 1 would pull to one side and it should pull to the other, and we would see which of us kept the slate. This was done, and in the frequent give-and-take, I had quite the feeling of an elastic tuo- as thouQ-h a man had hold of the slate at the other side. By a strong wrench I got possession of it. I again remark that during all these proceed- ings Mr. Slade sat quietly before us, both his hands being covered and detained by my left hand and by the hands of the two others. I may here point out that such a pull on one side by a human hand or other solid body, as a slate, would be a violation of the principle of the equality of action and reaction, if no material object under- going the equal, but resisted, pull were to be found in three-dimensional space. But no such object being to be found in the space ordinarily perceivable by us (in unserem gewdhnlichen Anschauungsraum), it must occupy a position in absolute space, falling in the p 2 I S TUAXSCENDENTAL PUYSICS. next liiublished a short account in a letter to Psychische Studii-n (July 187S). For the following detailed descrii)tion I am indebted to Herr Heinrich Goss- niann, Herr Schmid's bookkeeper, who witnessed all the phenomena during Slade's residence with Herr Schmid, and gave me a verbal account of them when on a visit to Leipsic. In accordance with my request, and by pennission of Herr Schmid, he after- wards furnished me the followin^j written account.* "Mr. Slade arrived here on the 14th ^lay, last year {1878), but was too tired by his journey to give us a sitting on that day. Notwithstanding which, to the surprise of us all, on his entering the room, we heard thunderino; blows on the 3ofa, for which Mr. Slade could certainly have made no preparations, as lie had never been in the room before. To the question whether this was a manifestation, Mr. Slade replied in the affirmative, remarking that the spirits could not wait till the next day to announce them- selves, and that he had often found this to be the case where harmony prevailed. AVe took our seats at the table, without intendini; a regular sittinix, and had scarcely done so when all at once a seat at some distance, near the piano, put itself in motion, and • Tlic introductory and concludiug parts of this letter are here omitted, as nut niutcriul. Tit. VARIOUS PHENOMENA. 2 2 I came np to the table of its own accord. Continaally as our astonishment increased, we did not nealect to watch Mr. Slade closely and attentively. I was sitting next him, and after some time was swiftly and unexpectedly swung round in a half circle, with the chair on which I sat, so that I nearly fell off it. Others at the table were now touched, sometimes softly, sometimes powerfully, and to me this hap- pened often. ''One manifestation now followed another, chairs moved up to the table, touches on our knees Avere constantly felt, a knife and fork were put across each other on a cloth at the lower end of the table, as if they were cutting meat, then from another side of the table a fork flew off on to the floor in a slioht curve. " On the next and two following daj^s seances were held in another room at a table appropriated to them. Many persons, sceptics and the like, to whom Spiritu- alism was as yet unknown, took part in them. A chain was formed, and we gave Mr. Slade a slate which he had never had in his hands before. He laid on it a small bit of pencil, and asked the spirit of his deceased wife to tell them, by direct writing, if it was possible for any of the departed relatives of the family to communicate in the same way; to which an affirmative answer was returned. Mr. Slade now put the pencil on the table, showed us that 222 TRANSCENDENTAL TllYSICS. the slate was quite clean and witliout writing, and then laid it on the table over the pencil. Writing under the slate was at once heard ; wc could distinctly follow the scribbling and taking off of the pencil. This sitting, as all the rest, was in bright daylight ; the slate lay there free, before all our eyes, when we formed the chain, and Slade laid one hand on the slate. The conclusion of the spirit-writing was denoted by three sharp raps ; and the slate being lifted up, we found the whole under side of it written over, first by an address from Slade's wife in English, and next by a message in German from a spirit-relative. A communication from the deceased father of the lady of the house was especially striking, as his characteristics and habitual expressions when on earth were quite distinctly recognisable in it. Besides the great resemblance of the writing on the slate to that of the deceased, his identity was apparent from a certain manner of speech, and such phrases as * We must all die,' which came upon the slate. And in many of tliese communications the like resem- blances were observable. Among others, the brother of the lady of the house communicated, and in vcrsCy a custom he had when on earth, especially in writing to his sister, whom he generally addressed in rhymes. She recognised her brother very clearly in this, and on comparing the writing with that of his letters, just the same strokes were found in them. SLATE WRITING. 223 This communication was obtained in the foUowinir manner : — " A young lady (a relative of the family) who sat at the lower end of the table, opposite Mr. Slade, took in her left hand, by his direction, two slates connected by hinges ; a small pencil was laid between them, and she joined her right hand to the chain of hands on the table. Mr. Slade sat quite away from the slates, and his hands were likewise joined in the chain ; and under these conditions, to our great astonishment, writinsf beo;an between the slates. The young lady, according to Mr, Slade, was mediumistic, therefore it was that she could obtain writing while holding the slate herself alone, which was not the case with the others ; she also perceived the pressure upon the under side of the slate while it was being written upon. . . . " Such direct writings covered at least twelve slates, which were bought here, and came to Mr. Slade's hands for the first time, before all eyes, without his having any possible opportunity for "preparing" them, or for writing upon them without continual observation. Mr. Slade often held the slate quite sloping, at an oblique angle, and yet the pencil upon it did not slip to the edge, but wrote quietly on. The supposition one so often hears that the slates are "prepared" by Mr. Slade will not stand examina- tion, because he washes out the answers, given to 2 24 TUANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. liis questions by the spirits, on the slate, which (the same one) is again written upon ; this also, as always, happening under observation. Wlien once during a sikmcCy at which writing was going on under a slate, one of tlic circle raised his hand quietly and without being observed, from tliat of his neighbour, the writing suddeidy ceased, the connection lx;ing thus disturbed. j\Ir. Slade looked up, and seeing what had happened, requested the gentleman referred to, to try the experiment frequently, and each time the writing; ceased, and be^an afjain as soon as the chain was re-closed. There were many other manifesta- tions. For instance, a bell under the table came out of its own accord, ringing, rose high up in the air, and let itself gently down, still ringing, on the table. A slate placed under the table was shivered into small a pieces, as by lightning, and the fragments flew in curve over our heads and so on to the floor. During a seance, another heavy table which stood at some distance from the one at which we sat, came with a rush of extraordinary speed and force to the side of a gentleman among us, whom we thought must have been hurt ; but it only touched him quite gently. The spirits gave to a hydropathic doctor, who was present, a token of esteem for his practice by wetting him with a jet of water, which came from a corner of the ceiling opposite him. Just afterwards ray knee was tightly grasped by a w^et hand, so that I felt the QUASI-MAGNETIC FORCE. 225 wet fingers sharply, and on examination I found the moisture on ray trouser. (Mr. Slade, during this, had his hands linked in the chain formed by those of all present.) " Another interesting fact is, that when my Principal (Herr Schmid), Mr. Slade, and I, were holding our hands lightly on the table, the latter went up, hover- ing in the air, and turned itself over above our heads, so that its legs were turned upwards. " What an enormous force Mr. Slade must have applied to evoke these manifestations deceptively, is shown by the following case. When I was sitting, a little distance from him, he likewise sitting, he stretched out his arm, and laid his hand on the back of my chair. All at once I was raised, with the chair, swaying in the air about a foot high, as if drawn up by a pulley, without any exertion whatever by Slade, who simply raised his hand, the chair following it as if it were a magnet. This experiment was often repeated with others. *'Mr. Slade held an accordion under the table, grasping it by the strap at the side ; his other hand lay on the table. Immediately we heard the falling- boards move, and a fine melody was played. " The experiment with two compasses was also tried ; these were placed close together, and when Mr. Slade held his hand over them, the magnetic needle in one of the compasses began quickly swing- 2 26 TRANSCENT)ENTAL PHYSICS. ing round in coniplcto rotations, while tho needle in the other compass remained at rest, and so also con- versely. According to the laws of physics known hitherto, if ]\Ir. Slade had l^een secretly applying a magnet, as is so frequently alleged by ojiponents, both needles must have been set in motion, as they were quite close together, yet this was not the case. " One of the most wonderful manifestations was the fullowins; : — I\Ir. Slade stood in the middle of the room, I on his right, on my right my Principal, and behind us, at the window, stood a young lady. While in this position we w^ere conversing, and my Principal was about to go into the next room to fetch some- thing, a heavy stone, as if originating in the air, fell before all our eyes with a very heavy blow upon the floor, so that a regular hole was made in the latter ; the stone fell quite close to my Principal's feet. Immediately afterwards there fell a second stone, the fall of which, as of the first, we saw very distinctly. This did not happen close to Slade, for I and my Principal were both between him and the place. " Occasionally at a sitting we saw a materialised hand ; it would tear the slate forcibly out of Slade's hand under the table ; it appeared suddenly at the side of the table, and quickly vanished again ; it was a strong hand, quite like one of flesh and blood. "A slate was regularly wTcnched out of my Principal's hand ; it then made the round of the SLATE WHITING AT BERLIN. 227 table, hovering free in the air before all eyes. . . . Slade came here alone without any companion." Professor ZoUner next refers to the manifestations obtained through Slade at Berlin, of which he had received information from visitors and correspon- dents. Amono; the slates which were broiio;ht or forwarded to him, was one written upon in six different languages, and which Professor Zollner ascer- tained, upon examination, to be free from the " pre- paration " by artificial means, so often suggested as the probable explanation of the long sentences coming upon apparently clean slates during Blade's seances. In this case, moreover, as will be seen, the slate was brought by the investigators, and was never in SJade's custody at all ; nor was there the smallest opportunity afforded for effecting an exchange. The correspondent from whom the author received the account was a " Herr Director Liebing," of Berlin, who obtained the details from the owner of the slate, in whose presence it was written upon, with full authority to transmit them to Professor Zollner for publication, with the slate. Although it would have been preferable to have had the account direct from this gentleman, it appears from the correspondence in the text (which it is not thought necessary to reproduce literally and at length in this translation), that the statement was submitted to him for correc- tion, was in fact corrected by him, and is thus, as 2:8 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. here given, in ellVct liis own. IIo was a Ilerr Klccberg, residing at No. 5 Schmied Street, Berlin, nn i? s "^Hc7 cv^a^^iix^ ^^ y'f?-V:.jen5jt6a5 r. 230-31- € y:^^j/' cw-^C t.-v^W^ V^JTc^f^^ H > i.TE IX. WEITIXG IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. 233 3. Que la gr^ce soit avec vous tons qui etes en Jesus Christ. Amen. (The grace of God be with you all who are in Jesus Christ. Amen.) 4. Ol TTOVTjpot, eh TO K€pBo<; fjLovov aTTo^XeTTOvcriv. (Bad. men look only to their own advantage.) 5. Die het zaadije wasdom geeft, En verzadigt al wat leeft. (Who to the seed-corn increase gives, nourishes all that therein lives.) The last sentence, supposed to be Chinese, was not understood. APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. THE VALUE OF TESTIMONY IN MATTERS EXTRA OR DINAR Y.* BY CHARLES CARLETON MASSEY. The proposition that evidence, to command assent, should be proportioned to the probability or improba- bility of the fact to be proved, is constantly appealed to as the rational foundation of sceptical or negative judgment. I ask you this evening to come to close quarters with it, to consider what it means, and whether it is legitimately applied. There are perhaps no two words in the language more liable to abuse, or more frequently abused, than probability, and the w^ord expressing that upon which probability is said to be founded, namely, experience : for there is here no question of those definitely-ascertained j)robabilities which result from the computation of known chances, and which are, therefore, not matters of experience at all. It is by reference to these, however, that we shall have the principle in question most clearly before us. Suppose, for example, evidence of such a character and amount that the chance ae-ainst its beino- forth- coming for what is not true is as 5 to i, and that it is given for an event against which the chance is as 10 to I, the resulting probability is 2 to i against the ♦ A Paper read before the Psychological Society of Great Britain, on Thursday, June 6th, 187S. J S APPENDIX A. evidence. Now it is said tliat the inductions from experience afford us a similar, tliougii not equally dc'linite, measure of proportion between tiie probability of facts and the value of evidence. And as to a large class of alleged facts, we are met at the outset of our inquiry by the previous question, whether testimony in relation to them has any value whatever 1 The probability in favour of testimony, even at its best, it is said, can never equal that Avhich results from the uniform negative experience of man- kind. Our faith in testimony is based on the same j)rinciple of experience, and therefore testimony can never prove a fact which is contrary to a wider induc- tion. This is the extreme api)lication of the principle, as we find it in Hume's celebrated argument against miracles. It is not quite the same, though })ractically it has the same effect, as that absolute a priori denial of the possibility of the facts attested to which few. scientific minds will ex})licitly commit themselves. It does not say that our inductions as to what is possible, or in renim Jiaturd, are certain, but that they have a greater force than any testimony which can be adduced against them, which therefore is not entitled even to consideration. Now, in the first place, I would invite you to con- sider when it can and when it cannot be said with accuracy that an alleged fact contradicts experience, lu one sense, of course, it cannot be accurately said at all. Your experience that contact with fire has always Inirued you remains unchallenged au'l uncontradicted by any assertion of mine that on one occasion or on half-a-dozen occasions it has not burned me. But experience is a term used loosely to denote our induc- tions from experience ; and this is the first thing I ask you to mark. What, again, is a fact in relation to experience ? If you and I have seen the same object, and you describe it as of one ap[>arent dimeu- APPENDIX A. 239 sion, and I describe it as of another and vastly- different apparent dimension, does my experience con- tradict yours ? Not necessarily ; for we may have both described the ajDparent object abstracted from the conditions of distance under which we severally saw it. This tendency to abstract from the context of experience, in other words, to ignore conditions, is just what distinguishes the popular from the scien- tific conception of a fact. And until we know all the conditions under which anything is said to have occurred, Ave cannot properly speak of it as opposed to our own experience. The next remark I have to make is that, a priori, we do not know which of the circumstances attending even the most familiar facts of experience are conditions, and which are en- tirely irrelevant. Transport yourself to an imagined infancy of experience, and you could not predict from the fact that fire had burned you in one place or time that it would burn you in another, or that it would burn me. Difference of place, time, or person might, for all you could know beforehand, . provide entirely new conditions. Now if it was asserted, as in fact it is asserted with regard to a large class of alleged phenomena, that personality, that specialities of human or2;anism do introduce new conditions, re- suiting in these unusual phenomena under certain other conditions not scientifically known, this would not be and is not to contradict the common experience which, ex hypothesi, knows nothing of these exceptional personalities. Bearing in mind, then, that no experi- ence or amount of experience has the least relevance to an alleged fact except under the exact conditions, inclusive and exclusive, of its occurrence, and that we cannot say beforehand what are conditions and what are not, the experience argument, in relation to the phenomena in question, resolves itself into this : that inasmuch as the alleged personalities which, as the one 240 APPENDIX A. constant clement must be regarded as the condition, are exceptional and ahnornial, tlicrefore their existence is so inij)rol)able tiiat testimony cannot prove it. What is this but to say that the abnormal can never be proved by testimony *? Nay, more, tliat testimony can never make such a provisional and jfrinid facie case, as to justify a reasonable man in seeking for the higher evidence of his own experience ; in otlicr words, in investigating for himself? For such a i)rhiid facie case is a probable case, and here it is said that the balance of proliuljility is largely .against the fact. I am endeavouring to get at the precise point in issue ; and 1 say tliat the man who exclaims, " Objects mov- ing without physical contact ! writing read without ej-es ! matter passing through matter! writing without hands ! these things are opposed to all human experi- ence 1 " — is talking M'ildly and loosely. What, if he would condescend to be exact and logical, he really means is that it is opposed to a negative induction from the (O)sence of experience that indiridHals should exist ivho can provide new conditions of plnjsical operation. But the question is. Is this 'induction to be refjarded as final '{ And as we are dealinir with the experience school solely with its own weapons, let us see what experience says to that. And I should have thou2;ht that if there was one induction from experience historically and scientifically valid it was that other inductions from experience — and especially necjative inductions — are not final. Our widest indue- tions are precisely those which we make in the infancy of experience and science. Science advances by the discovery of new conditions which limit general rules. What was rejected as abnormal yesterday is found to . have a law of its own to-day. In a word, if the widest and highest experience of mankind can afford us a canon of probability it is tiiis — that testimony, otherwise suilicieut, to the exceptional, the abnormal, APPENDIX A. 241 the strange, and tlie new, is probably true, and not probably false. Set side by side the cases in which new facts of nature have been asserted and jDroved to be true with the cases in which they have been well asserted and yet disproved, or not proved, and who that is acquainted even superficially with the history of science and discovery would hesitate to say which list affords us the best foundation for an induction 1 I submit, then, as the results of the foregoing con- siderations — I. That testimony to the extraordinary, of which the phenomena referred to may be taken as a type, is falsely opposed to experience. 2. That what it is opposed to is simply a negative induction from the absence of experience. 3. That a more general experience teaches us that such negative inductions cease to be probably true, so soon as they are opposed to testimony of a character sufficient to establish any other fact. It is a great satisfaction to me to be able to state that since the above was written, I have found the distinction between positive and negative experience, and the character of the inductions from each, very ably and elaborately explained in a long note by Mr. Starkie, in his Treatise on the Law of Evidence. I do not quote this note in extenso, because I hope the distinction is already obvious to all. Mr. Starkie's observations refer expressly to Hume's principle of incredulity ; and he shows, as Mr. A. R. Wallace has also shown, that pushed to its logical consequences that principle would be absolutely fatal to all scientific progress. One could almost imagine the following passage to have been written in prophetic protest against the appeals to Hume by the sceptics who treat with contumely and derision every testimony to the occult phenomena of the present day. "Experience, then, so far from pointing out any unalterable laws of nature, to the exclusion of events or phenomena which 2^2 APPEXDIX A. liavc never before been experienced, and wliicli cannot be accounted for by tlie laws already observed, shows tlio very contrary, and proves that such new events or phenomena may l)ec-ome tlie foundation of more en- larojed, more general, and therefore more perfect laws." And in the text Mr, Starkie says — "As exjtcrience sliows that events frequently occur which would ante- cedently have been considered most improbable, and as their improbability usually arises from want of a more intimate and correct knowledfie of the causes which produced them, mere improbability can rarely supply a suflic'icnt ground for disbelieving direct and unexceptionable witnesses of the fact, where there was no room for mistake." And again, " Mr. Hume's conclusion is highly objec- tionable in a philosophical point of view, inasmuch as it would leave phenomena of the most remarkable nature wholly unexplained, and would operate to the utter exclusion of all inquiry. Estoppels are odious even in judicial investigations, because they tend to exclude the truth ; in metaphysics they are intolerable. So conscious was ]\Ir. Hume himself of the weakness of his general and sweeping position, that in the second part of his loth section, he limits his inference in these remarkal)le terms, * I beg the limitations here made may be remarked when I say that a miracle' can never be proved so as to be the foundation of a system of religion ; for I own that otherwise there may possibli/ be miracles or violations of the usual course of nature of such a kind as to admit of proof from human testimony." Now this limitation, by which Hume reduced the breadth of his original proposition, is simply a too arbitrary application of a principle of criticism of tes- timony, in itself entirely unobjectionable, and upon ■which, indeed, it is one of the objects of this paper most strongly to insist. Obviously, what is regarded APPENDIX A. 243 in the proposition thus limited is not the improbability of the fact at all, but the temptation of the witnesses to deceive, or their liability to be deceived. That is a legitimate and necessary consideration, resulting from our experience of human motives and of the effect of prepossessions, in the estimation of testimony. If the object of the witness, as of the early Christian, for example, is to persuade the world of the divine authorship of a religion, that object, and the heat and zeal with which it would probably be pursued, might undoubtedly supply a motive, proper to be taken into account, for statements of miracles performed by the author of the religion. And so the preconception of His divine powers would predispose to a facility of accepting appearances as miraculous, quite inconsistent with the cool and scientific observation which we desiderate in the witnesses. These considerations undoubtedly go to weaken the force of testimony ; whether they do so in such a degree as to deprive it of all value is really a matter of individual opinion, and certainly, apart from the circumstances of each case, cannot pretend to the dignity of a universal principle of judgment. Hume has few greater ad- mirers than myself ; but I am forced to the conclusion that the celebrated Essay on Miracles, which he put forth with almost exulting confidence, is one of the weakest, the most ill considered, and the most incon- sistent pieces of reasoning with which I am acquainted. It has been completely overthrown by three writers who have dealt with it, and of whom the later do not appear to have met with the earlier refutations ; by Mr. Starkie, by Mr. Babbage, in the Ninth Briclg- ivater Treatise, and by Mr. A. R. Wallace, in the Intro- duction to his Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. I have endeavoured to point out the fallacy of what seems to me a false application of the principle that evidence should be proportioned to probability. I 244 APPENDIX A. will now attempt to state, in an abstract form, what I submit is its true result in our experience of testi- mony. If it is j>()ssible to assign a ratio of prol)ability to a fact, not being one subject to exact computation, it is also possible to assign a similar ratio to the value of eviilence, for tlie value of evidence is just the proha- hilitij (Ujninst its being forthcoming for that which is hot a fact. If it is legitimate to consider the proba- bility of a fact apart from the evitlence for it, so it is legitimate to consider the general value of a particular cpiality and amount of testimony apart from the ])ro- bability of any special fact to which it may be api)lied. No antecedent preference is due to the one probability over the other if they are equal, but the result is that precisely in proportion as both the fact is improbable and the evidence is probable, you will not get the evi- dence for the fact, that is to say, just in that proportion you are unlikchj to get it. And if we find, and find often, evidence which we deem to be good, for a fact which we deem to be improbal)lc, of one of two things we may be certain, either we have miscalculated tlie value of the evidence or the probability of the fact. Now in relation to facts new to our experience, to facts of which the proof of their possibility is also the proof of their existence, which of these alternatives is the most probable ^ Whatever induction experience may artord of] what may be called the abstract value of evidence — that is without reirard to the antecedent [•robabilities of the fact to be jiroved — is positive and afHrmative. It is constantly being verified. ' It depends on tests and criteria, the efficiency of which are also being constantly guaranteed by exj)erience. How stands the case with that other negative induction to which it is opposed'? lite jyrohahiliti/ in its favour is just the 2^^'ohahirttii that good evidence will not he forthcoming to contradict it. It is a probability which arises entirely from the absence of evidence. It is APPENDIX A. 245 impossible to conceive more vicious reasoning than that which would make it a ground of rejecting evi- dence. It depends on the proposition : "If this were true, we should have had the evidence before " — which amounts to this, as has been pointed out by Mr. Starkie, and by Mr. A. R. AYallace, in the admirable Introduction to his book, Miracles and Modern Spiritual ism, that no new fact can ever be proved by testimony. And I cannot conclude this part of the argument better than by quoting that writer's neat dilemma in reply to Hume : " If the fact were possible, such evidence as we have been considering would prove it ; if it were not jDOSsible, that evidence would not exist." Somethino- remains to be said on the ejQfect of cumulative evidence. The late Mr. Babbage, in the Ninth Bridgiuater Treatise, has worked out an ela- borate mathematical refutation of Hume's principle. And he concludes that if any definite measure of improbability, however large, be adopted, that is to say, if the improbability be short of infinite (and no one has ever contended that it is this — or, in other words, that the fact is impossible), a miracle, so called, can be proved by testimony. Taking rn as the measure of improbability, he says, " It follows, there- fore, that however large m may be, however great the quantity of experience against the occurrence of a miracle (provided only that there are persons whose statements are more frequently correct than incorrect, and who give their testimony in favour of it without collusion), a certain number, n, can always be found, so that it shall be a greater improbability that their unanimous statement shall be a falsehood than that the miracle shall have occurred." Taking the case of only six witnesses who will speak the truth, and are not themselves deceived in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, Mr. Babbage deduces the result that the 2. 1 6 APPENDIX A. improbability of their independent concurrence in testifying to what is not a fact is five times as great as an assumed improl)aI»ility of two hundred tliousand millions to one against the miracle which they are supposed to attest, or it is one hillion to that inimber. And it hardly needs demonstration that the same result is arrived at by increasing the number of witnesses in proportion to any definite numerical deduction from the value of the individual testimony of each. To this scientific authority I will add a legal one to the same efiect. " It would," says >rr. Starkie, in his treatise on the Law of Evidence, " tlieoretically speak- ing, be improper to omit to observe that the weight and force of the unitclication." Now it is obvious that in applying these principles to a class of alleged facts denied on the ground of antecedent improba- bility, we ought to take, in computing the cumulative force of testimony, not simply the testimony which this or that fact of the class can adduce, but all the testimony which exists for all similar alleged facts comprised in the class. Let M represent the class, comprising under it a h c d, particular alleged instances. We may state the result in either one or two ways. Either we may oppose the improbability of (class) ]\I to the cumulative evidence oi a h c d, taken together ; or, taking a by itself, we may say that the improbability against a is the improbability of M, the class, minus the probability resulting from the cumulative testimony iu favour of h, c, and c/, APPENDIX A. 247 taken together. Now to apply the foregoing con- siderations to cases of actual occurrence. I could not go into details here without protracting this paper beyond reasonable limits, but the cases I shall take are already familiar to many in this room, and as they are on record, with the utmost particularity of descrip- tion, others may be referred to the printed accounts. I select then a number of testimonies to distinct facts of the same class, namely, of physical effects produced by means nnknown to science, and each depending on the introduction of new physical conditions by special human organisms, which, as before stated, and not any particular effect, is the fact really, if at all, opposed to experience. Let me again request you to keep this clearly in mind. If I say that an effect depends upon the powers of a certain person, your experience is evidently not opposed to the effect except so far as it is opposed to the existence of such powers in members of the human race. Your ex- perience of the uniform course of physical nature is wholly and absolutely irrelevant. Nobody has ever asserted that these things would occur in your presence alone. If yon are to bring the experience argument to bear at all, it must be in denying the alleged conditions of their occurrence — the chief of these conditions, in this case, relating to the personality of individuals. That premised, the several alleged facts, I take, belong to the same class — namely, those that depend on the presence of persons reputed to be 2')sychics, or mediums. The first is the experiment recorded in the April number of the Quarterly Journal of Science of Professor Zollner and other German scientists with Dr. Slade. In this, as in the other cases to be presently mentioned, I have taken the testimony of well-known men of scientific emi- nence, because, although their veracity may not be worth more than that of other witnesses to these facts, 243 APPENDIX A. it may bo called & known quantity. The improbability of Zollncr's hjuKj would, I imai^ine, be admitted to exceed jSlr. JJabbagc's lOO to i. And so also of the others to be named. Jiut how are we to assign a value to the improbability of his being deceived ? Now here, I must remind you, the improbability of the fact attested is wholly beside the question. That is a matter to be taken into calculation subsecjuently. For the present i)urpose the probability of his being deceived or mistaken is just what it would have been if he was performing the most ordinary experiment in the world, under the same conditions of observation, and with, of course, the same suppositions of a motive and design to deceive him. AVhen we have got this value, then we will set off against it the improbability of the fact. But to consider the latter at present would be just as if, having to subtract an unknown quantity, x, from a given number, say lo, we began by subtracting lo from x, and so made the problem lo — (x-io) instead of lo-x, an algebraical begging of the question. Regarding, then, the experiment without this prejudice, I should say no numeral would be considered (|uite high enough to express the im- probability of Zollner's being deceived. Add to this, the improbability of his colleagues also being deceived. But whatever value we determine upon, is it to bo opposed by itself to the imjn-obability of the fact, which would then be proper to be considered 1 No ; for look at the next case of the same class. Tiiat shall be the electrical test experiment of Mr. Crookes with Mrs. Fay, at his own house, assisted by several Fellows of the lloyal Society, as well as by our president, Mr. Serjeant Cox, who all agreed in the conclusive nature of the experiment. Lying again is out of the question, practically. Deception by the medium 1 Inaccuracy of observation 1 A scientific test, devised by the most competent experts, the APPENDIX A. 249 nature of it not explained to the medium till she, who may almost be assumed to be a scientifically ignorant young woman, is in the house (that of Mr. Crookes), the apparatus unknown to her, and its working watched and recorded from minute to minute. The results beyond all explicable power of production, even had the medium been herself an accomplished electrician, and intimately versed with the apparatus. In calculating probabilities, the same observations are applicable here as to the case of Professor Zollner. But the improbability of deception here must be added, in the ratio pointed out by Mr. Babbage and Mr. Starkie, to that of the former case. Take yet another, and here ao-ain one at least of the witnesses is a man of high scientific standing — Lord Lindsay, who has recently been elected on the Council of the Royal Society. He describes the levitation of Mr. Daniel Home, and his floating in and out of a window seventy feet from the ground by bright moonlight. I will read the account in Lord Lindsay's own words : — • *' I was sitting with Mr. Home and Lord Adare, and a cousin of his. Durins; the sittius; Mr. Home Avent into a trance, and in that state was carried out of the window in the room next to where we were, and was brought in at our window. The distance between the Avindows was about 7 feet 6 inches, and there was not the slightest foothold between them, nor was there more than a 12-inch projection to each window, Avliich served as a ledge to put flowers on. " We heard the window in the next room lifted up, and almost immediately after we saw Home floating in the air outside our window. " The moon was shining full into the room ; my back was to the light, and I saw the shadow on the wall of the window-sill, and Home's feet about six inches above it. He remained in this position for a few 250 APPENDIX A. secomls, then raised the window and glided into the room, feet foremost, and sat down. *' Lord Adare then went into the next room to look at the window from which he had been carried. It was raised about 18 inelies, and he expressed liis wonder how Mr. Home had been taken throuirh so narrow an o aperture. " Home said, still entranced, 'I will show you.' and then with hin back to the wiiuloiv he leaned hack, and tvas shot out of the aperture, head first, with the body r if/id, and then returned quite quiethj. " The window is about 70 feet from the ground. I very much doubt whether any skilful tight-rope dancer would like to attempt a feat of this description, where tliu o.idy means of crossing would be by a perilous leap, or being borne across in such a manner as I have described, placing the question of the light aside. " Ll^•DSAY. ''Juhj \j^th, 1 87 1." I will call one other witness before you, likewise of scientific position and attainments, begging you to reinember that these are only specimen cases. It is Dr. Lockhart Robertson, one of the Visitors in Lunacy. Among other phenomena which took place in his own house, in the presence of himself and his own friends, the medium being a Mr. fSquire, Dr. llobcrtson de- scribes the following: — " A heavy circular chair, made of birch and strongly constructed, was lifted a somer- sault in the air and thrown on the bed, the left hand only of Mr. Squire being held on the surface, his other hand held, and his legs being tied to the chair on Avhich he sat. The table was afterwards twice lifted on to the head of the writer and of Mr. Squire At the writer's request this table was afterwards smashed and broken, and one fragment thrown across the room, the table at the time being held by the APPENDIX A. 251 writer and Mr. Squire. This occurred in half a minute. The writer has since vainly endeavoured with all his streuoth to break one of the remainino- leg-s. The one broken was rent across the grain of the wood." Dr. Eobertson states that all this took place in the dark, but probably, looking at the nature of the phenomena and the conditions described, most candid persons would be of the opiniou, lie concludes by expressing, " that fraud was utterly and entirely impossible and impracticable." I will add just one other testimony of Lord Lindsay : — " A friend of mine was very anxious to find the will of his grand- mother, who had been dead forty years, but could not even find the certificate of her death. I went with him to the Marshall's, and we had a seance; we sat at a table, and soon the raps came. My friend asked his questions mentally ; he went over the alphabet himself, or sometimes I did so, not knowing the question. We were told the will had been drawn by a man named Walker, who lived in Whitechapel ; the name of the street and the number of the house were given. We went to Whitechapel, found the man, and subsequently, through his aid, obtained a copy of the draft. He was quite unknown to us, and had not always lived in that locality, for he had seen better days. The medium could not possibly have known anything about the matter, and even if she had, her knowledge would have been of no avail, as all the ques- tions were mental ones." If you would be rational, do not laugh at these cases one by one, but study the evidence for each of them separately, and then appreciate their cumulative force, as belongiug to the same class. Then, if you please, set ofi" the improbability arising from your own and others' ignorance. I don't know^ if you Mill estimate that at Babbage's two hundred thousand millions, but if so, you are bound to show— mind, once 252 APPENDIX A. more, ^vithollt any reference, express or tacit, to the inii>rol)al»ility of the facts— Avliy the evidence should l)e estimated at less than lialdiage's billion, or ratiier, since we have liere more than six witnesses whose testimony for any ordinary fact would have so great a value, at tins hillion multiplied in a greater ratio than my small mathematical powers conld easily calculate. But, in fact, I place the argnmcnt far higher than cither Mr. Starkic or Mr, r.abijage, though 1 believe I am in accord ^vilh Mr. Wallace. Both the former assumed that there is an antecedent improbability to be deducted from the value of the positive testi- mony. I deny that altogether. I say that an im- probability arisiug from want of evidence — which is the nature of these negative inductions — is just the improbahility that evidence will he forthcoming. AVhcn you have got the evidence the improbal)ility vanishes just in proportion to the value of the evidence 2)€r se. What you mean by the improbability of a fact beyond experience is that it is probably imjjossible or not in rerinn natura. What conceivably legitimate measure of this probability can you adopt than that which also determines the relation between evidence and fact ? The fallacy consists in assuming any numerical value whatever for such antecedent im- probabilities apart from this relation. Say that the best single human testimony has a value of 100 to i. Now to-day, because I have never had that evidence, I say the probability against the fact is represented in my mind as 1000 to i. To-morrow 1 get the evidence of that intrinsic value of 100 to i, and I say, " Oh, but the adverse probaliility is 1000 to i, and the value of this evidence must be reduced accordingly to a minus quantity." This surely is un- reasonable. But I may quite logically say, " Inas- much as this 100 to I evidence has never been forth- coming, it raises in my mind a presumption worth APPENDIX A. 253 1000 to I that such evidence never will he forth- coming." If the evidence arrives after all, there is no presumption against its truth. We have a right to our surprise, but not to our incredulity. Because there was no evidence, we thought there was no fact. We had a rio;ht to think so. But the moment we have evidence we are in the reo;ion of evidence whose intrinsic value we have to estimate, all presumptions being henceforth merely impertinent. The case is, of course, very different when we are dealing with actual, ascertainable probabilities, as the probability of a given ball being drawn by chance from a hundred others. Then the chance being real, and not merely supposititious, we properly set it off against the evi- dence. But iu the other case the evidence destroys the supposition, precisely in proportion to its own intrinsic value. But even allowing the presumption to co-exist with the evidence, it has appeared that if no other evidence of similar facts had existed from the beo-innino; of recorded time to the present besides these three cases I have mentioned, the probability in their favour would still be greater than the probability against them. You are instinctively repelled by this state- ment ; so am I. We all feel that there must be something; wrono; somewhere. And so there is. It is not that the hypothesis is an impossible one. Mr. Babbage has made a very ingenious supposition. He has conceived the course of nature to be like a machine constructed on the principle of his own calculatino; engine. A thousand revolutions of the wheel shall bring up only square numbers, but the machine shall be constructed so that the thousand and first shall show a cube number — a *' miracle." AVe can conceive that certainly. And so a man might be born to-day who should be the first of mankind born with these abnormal powers we have been consider- R 254 APPENDIX A. iiii:;. But all observed analogies protest against this supposition of a purely exceptional fact, even though wc may conceive such a fact to be subsumed under a higher law of extremely rare application. If we have once i)roved the fact under its own conditions, it is in the highest degree propable that the law of its occurrence is in constant operation. To su]>posc that it is not is to encounter a new improbability, and it is this new improbability which repelled us just now in the supposition that no other similar cases hail existed in human experience. We should expect to find them in every age. See now how we have shifted the onus of improbability. The proved case in the present makes such cases in the past higldy pro- bable ; in other words, experience cannot have been truly opposed to that which has just been proved on the assumption that experience is opposed to it. And what do we find in fact 1 Why, that records of occult phenomena, and especially of such as occur through the mediation of particular individuals, form an appreciable part of the literature of every generation of men since the invention of printing, and anterior to that we have, besides the manuscript accounts of antiquity, the universal belief of mankind, which must presumably have rested on experience. Addison, indeed, speaks of the "general testimony of mankind " in favour of those facts to which eighteenth century scepticism — a product of intellectual causes which have been traced by ^Ir. Lecky — has unwarrantably oi)posed that very general testimony. I have said notliino; of the innumerable mob of witnesses in the present time, and in almost every country in the world, to whose separate and individual testimony we are unable to assign a positive value. I have said nothing even of that respectable array of known and in various ways distinguished witnesses whom we have still among us, or who have recently APPENDIX A. ■05 deceased. I have said nothing of the admission of experts in the art of conjuring — that art to which such illimitable powers are ascribed by tlie credulity of the incredulous — of the celebrated conjurer Houdin, of the celebrated conjurer Bellachini, of the celebrated conjurer John Nevil Maskelyne, the latter of whom I pitblicly challenged in the Examiner newspaper to explain away, if he cottld, certain printed and pub- lished admissions of his own to the existence of pheno- mena of this class not produced by trickery.* I am not attempting the prodigious task of estimating in figures the cumulative evidence for the phenomena called spiritualistic, a Pelion piled upon an Ossa of testimony, and which would crush any logical resist- ance, but not the illogical power of that against whicli, it is said, the very gods strive vainly. I charge this sttipidity with gross ignorance of the principles upon which evidence should be estimated ; and I have traced this ignorance to four fallacies ; First, to the confusion of the positive affirmative induction which Ave legitimately draw of the course of nature under ordinary conditions of observation, with the negative induction from inexperience, of the non-existence of other conditions. Secondly, to the assumption that this inexperience, in fact, exists, as the ground even of this negative, far more limited, and far less valid in- duction, an assumption which is made by an arbitrary rejection of historic evidence. Thirdly, to the assump- tion that antecedent improbability thus arising can co-exist with testimony of a certain assigriable value. Fourthly, to neglecting to estimate the cumulative force of testimony. That these fallacies are, nevertheless, sanctioned by * Notice of the terms of the above reference to !Mr. ^laskelyne •was sent to the latter, with a card of admission to hear the i)aper read, a^-ailahle for Maskelyne himself, or for any friend by Avhom Jie might wish to lie represented, and who might make any statement b}- permission of the chairman. For Mr. ]Maskelynes admissions see Appendix C. 256 Al'l'liNDIX A. itnuinou consent, and by authority, need not surprise us. It is a po[>ular error tliat priests have been tlic greatest cneujies to scienee. It has been the " common sense" of each generation, sup[)<)rted and sanctioiuil by the liighest scientific autliorities of the day, that lias always been found opposed to the reception of ♦•vidence conllicting wiili j>resumplions mIiIcIi have their origin in ignorance. It was not a Churchman, but a very learneopular and scientific ridicule that Harvey, Jenner, Franklin, Young, Stephenson, Arago, and Gregory, encountered for i heir respective discoveries and ideas ? It is significant that in an American book, called the Wdifare 0/ Science, that was republished in England last year under the avowed patronage of Professor Tyndall, there is much that is well and eloquently told of the wrongs of science at the hands of religious bigotry, but not one word of the constant and deter- mined obstruction of scientific men. To avoid misapprehension 1 wish to add one remark. In speaking of the abstract value of testimony I have not for a moment meant to im})ly that testimony, or evidence generally, can be appreciated without refer- ence to the nature of the fact attested. It is only the assumed improbability of the fact which I have regarded as a sep:iral)lc factor. But in accounts of the extraordinary there are undoubtedly elements of fallacy which only a very inexi>erienced judge of testimony would ignore. For instance, we may almost appropriate a special set of motives to such narrations. The mere vanity of producing an impression of wonder, or of making out an unanswerable case, is responsible for many a false or highly coloured account. There is the temj)tation to support a hasty exaggeration i»y a specific falsehood, or by suppression APPENDIX A. 257 of truth. Then, again, the fact may be of such a nature that the whole value of the testimony depends on minuteness and accuracy of observation. Eegard to time prevents my doing more than advert to these considerations. Only to each case as it arises can their proper weight be assigned. Unfortunately there is assigned to them an enormously exaggerated weight in general, without reference to particular cases at all, and this because it is assumed to be more probable that the evidence is thus vitiated than that the facts attested are true. No doubt the presumption that evidence is not good is a far more rational j^re- SLimption than that evidence, however good, is false. And, moreover, it is one which can be brought to the test of examination, whereas the latter cannot. We can show whether evidence does or does not come up to a certain standard, and if it does, the presumption is falsified ; but to the man who says, " I won't listen, and I dont care how good your evidence may be," we can have nothing further to say. In conclusion, I w^ill lay down tLe following pro- position broadly. A negative probability, by which I mean an inference of non-existence from the absence of evidence, cannot in the least affect the value of positive evidence of existence. It is only provisional. It vanishes at the touch of sufficient evidence ; and sufficient evidence I define, for this purpose, to be evi- dence which would establish a fact — havin(y strict rcQ-ard to the nature of the fact — as to which there was no antecedent presumption or probability for or against. Would I therefore accept the statement of a casual stranger as to some unheard-of marvel with the same facility that I would accept his statement as to its having rained somewhere yesterday — a fact which may be said to answer the description of having no antecedent presumption either way ? Certainly not, for I have said that the nature of the fact is to 2 58 APPENDIX A. l»o regank'tl, not as probable or iin[»rol)able, but as rommunicatiug elements of fallacy to testimony. Thus uuderstuud, I say that the evidence is our whole concern, and that if it stood every test and every criticism which experience could suggest, I would aecept on the stniiL^'th of it any marvel in the Andjian Xiijhts, or Gid/trrr's Trairh. And I submit that the ni.in who would not is the creature of prejudice and the victim of prepossessions. ( 259 ) APPENDIX B. EVIDENCE OE SAMUEL BELLACHINI, COURT CONJURER AT BERLIN The following is a translated copy of an official document : — No. 482 Notary's Register for 1877, drawn at Berlin, the 6th day of December one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, in presence of the under- signed notary, residing at Tauben-strasse, No. 42, in the jurisdiction of the Royal Supreme Court of judica- ture, Gustav Haagen, Counsellor, and in presence of the undersigned witnesses, personally known to the notary, of full age, who can read and write, and are residents here. Carl Trlimper, Letter Carrier, Gustav Grlintz, Letter Carrier, who as well as the notary, as notary and witnesses both hereby declare they have no connection wit the case, which according to ^^ages five to nine of the Act of July the eleventh, eighteen hundred and forty- five, would exclude them from participating in this document, Did appear this day personally before the under- signed notary, known to him and found duly qualified to act. The 2^'^^stidigitat07^ and Court Conjurer to his Majesty the King and Emperor William I ]\Ir. 26o APPENDIX B. Samuel Bu'llaoliini, resit] inu; at Grossbaaron-f?trasse, No. 14, which gontlemau did ])rcfer tlie followiui; Btatcmcnt, under date lierlin, tlio 6tli of December, in tliis year, and that lie certified, That the signature of my name, hereby api)ended, Avas written by me in due form 1 hereby ackiiowlets to an alarming extent." Here, again. Mr. ^la.skelyno appears to be speaking merely of an explanation which he holds to be false, and which he believes that professed mediums must know to be false. ]>ut in urging these phenomena upon public attention we have nothing to do with spiritualistic explanations, true or false ; it is the fact only tliat is in fpiestion. AVliat Mr. Maskelyne means by saying that he tells his audience at every performance that he produces or assists in producing phenomena "in a genuine manner " (by which, as will be .seen, he excludes the notion of trickery) is very doubtful. The writer has attended the performances at the Egyptian Hall fre- quently, but with the exception of some words at the conclusion of the cabinet seance which could convey no meaning to an inexperienced audience, Mr. ]\Iaske- 13'ne certainly said nothing to which his above state- ment could apply. These occasions, however, were of much later date than the correspondence. His correspondent replies on July 8th — " You say you tell your audience at every perform- APPENDIX C. 265 ance that you admit that we have some genuine phenomena. I confess that I have never been able to understand distinctly your remarks on this head. You seem to me to say that most of the so-called phenomena are humbug, but some few genuine ; that the genuine ones are produced by trickery, exactly as your own stage performance is. Nor can I gather any more from the admissions in your letters." In a postscript to his next letter, Mr. Maskelyne says, in reference to the above, " How genuine pheno- mena can be produced by trickery I am at a loss to know. If you understand me thus, my remarks must be a contradiction, and I must look to them." Kobert Houdin, the great French conjurer, investi- gated the subject of clairvoyance with the sensitive, Alexis Didier. In the result he unreservedly admitted that what he had observed was wholly beyond the resources of his art to explain. See " Psychische Studien" for January 1878, p. 43. " Licht, mehr Licht," a German paper published in Paris, in its number of i6th May 1880, contains a letter from the well-known professional conjurer, Jacobs, to the Psychological Society in Paris, avowing himself a S^^iritualist, and offering suggestions for the discrimination of genuine from spurious manifesta- tions, i ( 266 ) APPENDIX 1). Pl-ATK X. PRINTED nV UALLANTVNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINULKCH AND LONt>ON LM::zzA-f'2^ >^€-^«^ Y STANDARD BOOKS ON SPIRITUALISM, MESMERISM, PSYCHOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND KINDRED SUBJECTS, PUBLISHED BY W. H. HARRISON, 33 MUSEUM STREET, LONDON, W.C. Lists of the Books are Advertised in every Number of the ' ' Spiritualist " Newspaper. Mr. W. H. Harrison's Publications may be obtained from Mr. W. H. Terry, 84 Russell Street South, Melbourne, Australia. THE "SPIRITUALIST" NEWSPAPER A Record of the Progress of the Science and Ethics of Spiritualism. published weekly, price tivopence. Established in 1869. The Spiritualist, published weekly, is the oldest Newspaper con- nected with the movement in the United Kingdom, and is the recognised organ of educated Spiritualists in all the English-speak- ing countries throughout the Globe. It also has an influential body of readers on the Continent of Europe. The Contributors to its pages comprise the leading and more experienced Spiritualists, including many eminent in the ranks of Literature, Art, Science, and the Nobility of Europe. Among those who have published their names in connection Avith their communications in its columns are — His Imperial Highness Nicholas of Russia, Duke of Leuchtenberg ; Prince Emile de Sayn Wittgenstein (Wiesbaden) ; the Lord Lindsay ; the Count de Bullet ; the Right Hon. the Countess of Caithness ; the Hon. J. L. O' Sullivan, formerly American Minister at the Court of Portugal ; the Baroness Von Vay (Austria) ; M. Adelberth de Bourbon, First Lieutenant of the Dutch Guard to H.M. the King of the Netherlands ; the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, formerly American Minister at the Court of Naples ; M. L. F. Clavainsz (Leon Favre), Consul-General of France at Trieste ; the Hon. Alexandre Aksakof, St. Petersburg ; Baron Von Dirckinck-Holm- [advertisements.] W. n. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. fclil (Ilolstcin); Sir Chailcs Isliam, Bart.; William Crookcs, Esq., K.K. S., editor of The Quarterly Journal of Scieiue ; Captain R. v. Burton, F.R.G.S. (Discoverer of Lake Tanganyika); C. F. Varley, Ksq.. C.E., F.R.S. ; Alfred Russcl Wallace, Esq., F.R.G.S. ; .Miss Florence Marryat ; C. C. Msissey, E».q. ; St. George W. Slock, Esq., MA, (Oxon) ; Mr. Serjeant Cox, I'rcsi- dcnt of the I'.sychological Society of Great Britain ; J. M. Gully, Esq., M.I).; Alcx.inder Calder, Esq., Trcsident of the British National Association of Spiritualists ; i'ipes Sargent, Esq. ; Colonel II. S. Olcott, President of the Thcosophical Society of New York ; Dr. George Wylil ; Mrs. Makdougall Gregory ; W. Lindcsay Richardson, Esq., M.D., Melbourne ; Geiald Masscy, Esq. ; J. C. Luxmoorc, Esq., J. P. ; .Mrs. Wcldon (.Miss Trehcrne) ; C. Carter Blake, Esq., Doc Sci., Lecturer on Comiiarative .\natomy at Westminster Hospital; S. C. Hall, Esq., F.S..\. ; Henslcigh Wed-wood, Esq., J.P. ; Mrs. S. C. Hall; H. .M. Dunphy, Esq.; Eufjene Crowed, Esq., M D., New Vork ; Alucrnon Joy, Esq., M. Inst. C.E. ; Stanhope T. Spcer, Esq., M.D., Edinburgh ; Desmond FitzGerald, Esq., M.S. Tel. E. ; Robert S. Wyld, Esq., LL.D. ; J. A. Campbell, Esq. ; Captain John James ; D. H. Wilson, Esq., .M.A., LL.M. (Cantab.); the Rev. C. Maurice Davies, I). D., author of Unorthodox London; T. P. Barkas, Esq., F.G.S. ; H. D. Jencken, Esq., M.R.I. ; J. N. T. Martheze, Esq.; Charles Blackburn, Esq.; Mrs. Showers ; Miss Kislingbury ; William Newton, Esq., F.R.G.S. ; John E. Purdon, Esq., M.B., India; H. G. Atkinson, Esq., F.G.S., author oi letters to Miss Martineau ; and William White, Esq., author of The Life of S-wedenhorg. Annual Subscription to Residents in the United Kingdom, lOs. ickI. ; in the United States and Australia, 13s., post-free. The Spiritualist is regularly on sale at the following places : — LoNDo.N — II Ave Maria Lane, .St. Paul's Churchyard, E. C. ; Pari.s — Kiosque, 246 Boulevard des Capucines, and 5 Rue Neuve dcs Petits Champs, Palais Royal ; Leipzig — 2 Lindenstrasse ; Florence — .Signor G. Parisi, Via della Maltonnia ; Rome — Signor Bocca, Libraio, Via del Corso ; Naples — British Reading Rooms, 267 Riviera de Chiaja, opposite the Villa Nazionale ; Liege — 37 Rue Florimont ; Buda-Pesth — Josefstaadt Erzherzog, 2;? Alexander Gasse ; Melboi'RNE — 84 Russell Street South; Shanghai — Messrs. Kelly & Co. ; New York — 51 E.-ist Twelfth Street ; Bcjston, U.S. — Banner of Light Office, 9 Mont- gomery Place ; Chicago — Religio- Philosofhidil Journal Office ; .San Francisco — 319 Kearney Street; Philadei.phia — 325 North Ninth Street ; and Washington— loio Seventh Street. All communications on the business of the Spiritualist should be addressed to W. H. Harrison, Spiritualist Newspaper Branch Office, 33 Museum Street, London, W.C. [advertisements. ] W. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. MESMERISM AND ITS PHENOMENA; OR, ANIMAL MAGNETISM. By the Late WM. GREGORY, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University. Dedicated by the Author by Permission to His Grace George Douglas-Campbell, Duke of Argyll. This second and slightly revised and abridged Edition is for its quality and size one of the Cheapest Large Works ever Published in England in connection with Spiritualism. THE CHIEF STANDARD WORK ON MESMERISM. Price 5^., or f^s. 6d. post-free. CONTENTS. Chapter I. — First Effects Produced by Mesmerism — Sensa- tions — Process for Causing Mesmeric Sleep — The Sleep or Mes- meric State — It Occurs Spontaneously in Sleep - Walkers — Phenomena of the Sleep — Divided Consciousness — Senses Affected — Insensibility to Pain. Chapter II. — Control Exercised by the Operator over the Subject in Various Ways — Striking Expression of Feelings in the Look and Gesture — Effect of Music — Truthfulness of the Sleeper — Various Degrees of Susceptibility — Sleep Caused by Silent Will, and at a Distance — Attraction towards the Operator — Effect in the Waking State of Commands given in the Sleep. Chapter III.— Sympathy — Community of Sensations ; of Emotions — Danger of Rash Experiments — Public Exhibitions of Doubtful Advantage — Sympathy with the P)ystanders — Thought- Reading — Sources of Error — Medical Intuition — Sympathetic Warnings — Sympathies and Antipathies — Existence of a Peculiar Force or Influence. Chapter IV. — Direct Clairvoyance or Lucid Vision, without the Eyes — Vision of Near Objects : through Opaque Bodies : at a Distance — Sympathy and Clairvoyance in regard to Absent Persons — Retro vision — Introvision. Chapter V. — Lucid Prevision — Duration of Sleep, &c., Pre- dicted — Prediction of Changes in the Health or State of the Seer — Prediction of Accidents, and of Events Affecting Others — Spontaneous Clairvoyance — Striking Case of it — Spontaneous Retrovision and Prevision — Peculiarities of Speech and of Con- sciousness in Mesmerised Persons — Transference of Senses and of Pain. fADVKRTISF.MKNTS.] \V. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. CliAPTRR VI. — Mesmerism, Electro- Biolopy, Electro- Pnycho- lofjy ami Ilyjinolism, essciitinlly the same — I'licnomcnn of Sug- gestions in the (Onscious or Waking State — l>r. Darling's Mcthrnl anil its KfTccts — Mr. Lewis's Method and its Results — The Impressible State — Control Exercised by the Operator — (lazing — .Mr Uraid's Hypnotism — The Author's Experience — Importance of Terscverance — The Subject must be Studied. CiiAiTKR VII.— Trance, Natural and Accidental ; Mesmeric — Trance Produced at Will by the Subjects — Colonel Townscnd — Kakecrs — Ext.isis — Extatics not all hnpostors — Luminous Emana- tions — Kxtasis often Predicted — M. Cahagnet's Extatics — Visions of the Spiritual World. CitAPTER VIII. — Phrcno-Mcsmerism — Pro;,'ress of Phrenology — ElTfcts of Touching the Head in the Sleep — Variety in the Phenomena — Suggt-stion — Sympathy — There are Cases in which these Act, and others in which they do nut Act — Phenomena Dcscriljed — Tiic Lower Animals Susceptible of Mesmerism — Fa-icination among Animals — Instinct — Sympathy of Animals — Snail Tciegrajih Founded on it. Chapter IX. — Action of Magnets, Crystals, Sec, on the Human Frame — Researches of Rcichenbach — His Odyle is Identical with the Mesmeric Fluid of Mesmer, or with the Influence which Causes the Mesmeric Phenomena — Odylic or Mesmeric Light — Aurora Borealis Artificially Produced — Mes- merised Water — Useful Applications of Mesmerism — Physiological, Therapeutical, &c. — Treatment of Insanity, Magic, Divination, Witchcraft, &c., explained by Mesmerism, and Traced to Natural Causes — Apparitions — Second Sight is Waking Clairvoyance — Predictions of Various Kinds. Chapter X. — An Explanation of the Phenomena Attempted or Suggested — A Force (Odyle) Universally Diffused, Certainly Exists, and is Probably the Medium of Symjjathy and Lucid Vision — Its Characters — Difficulties of the Subject — Effects of Odyle — Somnambulism — Suggestion — Sympathy — Thought -Read- ing — Lucid Vision — Odylic Emanations — Odylic Traces followed up by Lucid Subjects — Magic and Witchcraft — The Magic Crystal, and Mirror, &c., Induce Walking Cl.-iirvoyance — Universal Sympathy — Lucid Perception of the Future. Chapter XL — Interest felt in Mesmerism by Men of Science — Due Limits of Scientific Caution — Practical Hint< — Conditions of Success in Experiments — Cause of Failure — Mesmerism a Serious Thing — Cautions to the Student — Opposition to be Expected. Chapter XII. — Phenomena Observed in the Conscious or Waking State — EfTects of Suggestion on Persons in an. Im- pressible .State — Mr. Lewis's Experiments with and without Suggestion — Cases — Dr. Darling's Experiments— Cases — Con- scious or Waking Clairvoyance, Produced by Passes, or by [advertisements.] W. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. Concentration — Major Buckley's Method — Cases — The Magic Crystal Induces Waking Lucidity when Gazed at — Cases — Magic Mirror — Mesmerised Water — Egyptian Magic. Chapter XIII. — Production of the Mesmeric Sleep — Cases — Eight out of Nine Persons Recently Tried by the Author Thrown into Mesmeric Sleep — Sleep Produced without the Knowledge of the Subject — Suggestion in the Sleep — Phreno-Mesmerism in the Sleep — Sympathetic Clairvoyance in the Sleep — Cases — Percep- tion of Time — Cases; Sir J. Franklin; Major Buckley's Case of Retrovision. Chapter XIV. — Direct Clairvoyance — Cases — Travelling Clairvoyance — Cases — Singular Visions of Mr. D. — Letters of Two Clergymen, with Cases — Clairvoyance of Alexis — Other Cases. Chapter XV. — Trance — Extasis — Cases — Spontaneous Mes- meric Phenomena — Apparitions — Predictions. Chapter XVI. — Curative Agency of Mesmerism — Concluding Remarks, and Summary. SPIRIT-PEOPLE: A Scientifically Accurate Description of Manifestations Recetitly Produced by Spirits, Simultaneously Witnessed by the Author and Other Observers in London. BY WILLIAM H. HARRISON. Limp cloth, red edges, price is. ; post-free, Is. id. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. "As a dispassionate scientific man, he appears to have investigated the sub- ject without preconceived ideas, and the result of his examination has been to identify his opinions with those of Messrs. Varley, Crookes, and Wallace, in favour not only of the absolute reality of the phenomena, but also of the genuineness of the communications alleged to be given by the spirits of the departed." — Public Opinion. " At the outset of his booklet Mr. Harrison disclaims any intention of proselytising or forcing his opinion down non-Spiritualistic throats, and it is only fair to admit that the succeedinsr pages are remarkably free from argument and deduction, albeit bristling wiih assertions of the most dumbfounding nature." — London Figaro. " He neither theorises nor dogmatises, nor attempts to make converts to his views. He states occurrences and events, or what he believes did really happen, in a remarkably clear and narrative style, without any attempt at advocacy or argument." — South IVaies Daily News. [ADVr.RTISEMENTS.] W. H. HARRISONS PUBLICATIONS. I'licc 5s,, trowii Svo, richly gilu THE LAZY LAYS, AND PROSE IMAGININGS. By WILLIAM II. HARRISON. An Elegant and Amusing Gift- Hook of Poetical and Prose Writings, Grave and Gay. The Gilt Device on the Cover designed by FLORENCE Claxton and the AuriiuK. CONTENTS. Part I. — Miscellaruous Poems and Prose Writings. I. The Lay of the Lazy Author. — 2. The Song of the News- paper Editor. — 3. The Song of tlie Pawnbroker. — 4. The Castle. — 5. The Lay of the Fat Man. — 6. The Poetry of Science. — 7. How Hadji Al Shacabac was I'liotographed (a letter from Hadji Al Shacabac, a gentleman who visited London on I usiness con- nected with a Turkish lx)an, to Ali Muslapha Ben Huckram, Chief of the College of Howlini^ Dcrvisliesat Constantinople). — 8. The Lay of tlie Broad-Urimmcd Hat. — 9. St. Bride's Bay. — 10. The Lay of the -Market Gardener. — 11. "Fast Falls the Eventide." — 12. Our Raven. — 13. Materialistic Religion. — 14. The Lay of the Photographer. — 15. How to Double the Utility of the Printing Press. — 16. The Song of the Mother-in-Law. — 17. IVirbel-be'.uei.^itng. — 18. "Poor Old Joe!" — 19. The Human Hive. —20. The Lay of the Mace- Bearers. — 21. A Love .Song. — 22. A Vision. — 23. " Under the Lines." — 24. The Angel of Silence. I Part II. — The IVobblejaw Ballads, by Anthony Wobblcjaws. 25. The Public Analyst. — 26. General Grant's Reception at F"oikestone. — 27. The Rifle Corps. — 28. Tony's Lament. — 29. The July Bug. — 30. The Converted Carman. From the Grapkie. "Those who can appreciate penuinr, iinfmced humour should not fail to read 'The Lazy Lays and Prose Imagining-i.' Written, print'-d, piiblrshrd, and reviewed by Wiliiani H. Harrison (38 Gieal Russell Street). Both the verses and the short ess.iys are really funny, and in some of the latter there is a vein uf geuial satire which adds piquancy to the fun." [advertisements. ] W. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. Price 5s., crown 8vo, cloth, red edges. PSYCHOGRAPHT. BY M.A., OX ON. A Work dealing with the Psychic or Spiritual Phenomenon of the production of written messages without mortal hands. Full of well-authenticated examples. SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. List of Works Bearing on the Subject. Preface. Introduction. PsYCHOGRAPHY IN THE Past : Guldenstubbe — Crookes. Personal Experiences in Private, and with Public Psychics. General Corroborative Evidence. I. That attested by the Senses — 1. Of Sight. Evidence of Mr. E. T. Bennett. „ a Malvern Reporter. ,, Mr. James Burns. ,, Mr. H, D. Jencken. 2. Of Hearing. Evidence of Mr. Serjeant Cox. ,, Mr. George King. ,, Mr. Hensleigh WedgAvood. ,, Miss * * * * J, Canon Mouls. ,, Baroness Von Vay. G. H. Adshead. W. P. Adshead. E. H. Valter. ,, J. L. O'Sullivan. ,, Epes Sargent. ,, James O. Sargent. ,, John Wetherbee. H. B. Storer. ,, C. A. Greenleaf. ,, Public Committee with Watkins. II. From the Writing of Languages Unknown to the Psychic. Ancient Greek — Evidence of Hon. R. Dale Owen and Mr. Blackburn. (Slade.) Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese. (Slade.) Russian — Evidence of Madame Blavatsky. (Watkins.) Romaic — Evidence of T. T. Timayenis. (Watkins.) Chinese. (Watkins.) [advertisements.] W. IL HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. III. From .Special Tests which Preclude Previous Preparation of the Writiiif;. Psychics and Conjurers Contrasted. Sladc l)cforc the Kcscirch Committee of the_British Na- tional As'^ociation of Spiritualists. Sladc Tcsttd by C. drier Hlake, Doc Sci. Evidence of Kcv. J. Page Hopps. (SLidc.) „ W. 11. Harrison. (Slade.) ,, J. .Seaman. (Slade.) Writing within .Slates securely screwed together. Kvidence of Mrs. Andrews and J. Mould. Dictation of Words at the Time of the Kxpcrimciit. Evidence of A. K. Wail.nce, F. R.G.S. ,, Ilonslcigh Wedgwood, J. P. ,, Kcv. Tliomas Colley. W. Oxlcy. George Wyld, M.D. ,, Miss Kislingliury. Writing in Answer to ()uestions Inside a Closed Box. Kvidence of Messrs. Ad>he.nd. Statement of Circumstances under wliich Experiments with F. W. Monck were conducted at KciL;liley. Writing on Glass Coated witl> While Paint. Evidence of Benjamin Colenlan. Letters Addressed to the Times on the Subject of the Prosecution of Henry Slade by Messrs. Joy, Joad, and Professor Barrett, F.R.S.E. Evidence of W. H. Harrison, Editor of the .S^/'nVwa/ij/. Summary ok Facts Narrated. Deductions, Explanations, and Theoriks. The Nature of the Force : Its Mode of Operation. Evidence of C. Carter Blake, Doc. Sci., and Conrad Cooke, C.E. Detonating Noises in Connection with it. Evidence of Ilensleigh Wedgwood, J. Page Hopps, Thomas Colley. Method of Direction of the Force. Dr. Collyer's Theory. Dr. George Wyld's Theory. The Oculist's Theory. The Spiritualist's Theory. Appendix. The Court Conjurer of Berlin on Slade. Slade with the Grand Duke Constant;ne. Recent Experiment wiiii Monck. [advertisements.] W. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. Price 5s., richly gilt, cloth ; or 3s. 6d., red edges, cloth, imperial 8vo. RIFTS IN THE VEIL." A Collection of Choice Poems and Prose Essays given through Mediumship, also of Articles and Poems written by Spiritualists. A useful book to place in Public Libraries, and to present or lend to those who are unacquainted with Spiritualism. The 3s. 6d. Edition consists of one of the cheapest works of very high quality ever published in connection with Spiritualism ; the book contains much about the religious aspects of the subject, and its relation to Christianity. CONTENTS. 1. Introduction : The Philosophy of Inspiration. 2. "O! Beautiful White Mother Death." Given through the Trance-Mediumship of Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond. 3. The Apparition of Sengireef. By Sophie Aksakof. 4. The Translation of Shelley to the Higher Life. Given through the Trance-Mediumship of T. L. Harris. 5. Gone Home. Given through the Trance-Mediumship of Lizzie Doten. 6. The Birth of the Spirit. Given through the Trance-Medium- ship of Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond. 7. Angel Guarded. 8. An Alleged Post-Mortem Work by Charles Dickens. How the writings were produced ; The Magnificent Egotist, Sapsea ; Mr. StoUop Reveals a Secret ; A Majestic Mind Severely Tried ; Dwellers in Cloisterham ; Mr. Peter Peckcraft and Miss Keep ; Critical Comments. 9. The Spider of the Period. By Georgina Weldon (Miss Tre- herne) and Mrs. . 10. Margery Miller. Given through the Trance-Mediumship of Lizzie Doten. 11. Ode by " Adamanta." 12. Swedenborg on Men and Women. By William White, author of " The Life of Swedenborg." 13. Resurgam. By Caroline A. Burke. [advertisrments.] W. H. HARRISONS TUliLICATIONS. 14. Abnormal S|)cctrc» of Wolves, D<>g%, and other AniniaU. By Kinilc, I'rince of Wuijjcnsicin. 15. To You wlio l><)ve) Ahrah.im I'lorentine. {c) Charlotte Duckworth. Appendix IV. — Evidence from spirit-photography. Appendix V. — On some difficulties of inquirers into Spiritualism. Appendix VI. — Spirit-Identity — Evidence of Dr. Stanhope Spcer. [advertisements.] W. H. HARRISON'S PUBLICATIONS. Price IS., cloth, red edges. A CLERGYMAN ON SPIRITUALISM. D. CLERICUS. With a Dedication to the REV. SIR WILLIAM DUNBAR, BART.; And Some Thoughts for the Consideration of the Clergy, By LISETTE MAKD0UG.\LL GREGORY. This Booklet contains the experiences of a Clergyman, who prayerfully and continuously investigated Spiritualism for a long series of years. Price I2s. 6d., cloth, red edges ; demy 8vo. Illustrated by various Full-page and Double-page Engravings. TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS. By F. ZOLLNER, Professor of Physical Astronomy at Leipsic University. TRANSLATED BY C. C. MASSE Y. This illustrated work is unique in its character, and is one of the most remarkable and philosophical books ever published in con- nection with Spiritualism. Price 5s., crown 8vo, cloth, red edges. PSYCHIC FACTS. Contains striking Selections from the Writings of Mr. William Crookes, F.K.S., Mr. C. F. Varley, F.R.S., Mr. A. R. Wallace, F.R.GS., the Committee of the Dialectical Society, Pro- fessor Hare, of Philadelphia, Professor Zoi.LNER, Mr. Serjeant Cox, Captain R. F. Burton, The Lord Lindsay, Dr. A. Butlerof, J. W. Edmonds (Judge of the Supreme Court, New York), and other iauthors, demonstrating the reality of the pheno- mena of Spiritualism. The work contains some useful information for inquirers. [advertisf.ments.] \V. n. HARIRIS ^\*S PUBLICATIONS. Price 5s. 6d., crown 8vo, cloth, red edges. THE FIRST VOLUME OF SPIRITS BEFORE OUR EYES. BY WILLI.\M H. HARRISON. This Book deals with the nature, characteristics, and philo- sophy of Apparitions, and how to reproduce experimentally some of the phenomena connected with them. It is also full of evidence of Spirit-Identity. • Price 2s. 6cl., cloth, crown Svo, red edges. MESMERISM, WITH HINTS FOR BEGINNERS. BY JOHN JAMES {Formerly Captain^ ^th Light Infantry), An excellent Text-Book by a writer who h.is had thirty years' experience in the subject. W. II. HARRISON, 33 MUSEUM STREET, LONDON. i RETURNTO: "rd^aUion - P^y^V^^ojj U^^^ LOAN PERIOD 1 Home Use 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW. SENT ON ILL NOV 1 9 2002 U. C. BERKELEY KAK 2 1 2003 ILS: DD99 2M 3-02 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Berkeley, California 94720-6000 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES viif;i.5T'n