Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/604

586 concerning the reality or non-reality of the spiritualistic phenomena that we must take some sort of attitude toward it. I confess that, after all I have observed, this question would be for me an extremely painful one if, with you and the eminent men whose authority you follow, I had to regard as excluded every possible explanation of the phenomena in a natural way—in a way which leaves the universal law of causation untouched.

As to the experiments which I saw myself, I believe that they will not fail to produce upon every unprejudiced reader, who has ever seen skillful prestidigitateurs, the impression of well-managed feats of jugglery. You certainly, respected sir, as I think I may conclude from your article, appear scarcely to have accumulated experiences in this direction. This is perfectly intelligible in the case of one whose time has been occupied in earnest studies. But, before you pronounced judgment upon this question with so great precision, it would perhaps have been not altogether out of order, if I may venture to say so, to see and study the performances of a skillful magician. If, indeed, the independent experimental cultivation of this field is closed to us by the direction of our studies, we should still not neglect, before pronouncing a judgment, to become acquainted with phenomena which the most zealous disciples of spiritualism admit to have a close external relation to the spiritualistic manifestations. I can not find that any one of the experiments which I saw with Mr. Slade was above the powers of a good juggler. If the latter has, by means of a place chosen by himself, more extensive apparatus and assistants, more favorable conditions, so, on the other hand, it is not to be denied that Mr. Slade, by reason of the restriction to a smaller number of experiments, the fixing of the participants to a single table, and especially the fact that he does not need to keep to any programme, and that an experiment can occasionally miscarry without damaging his reputation, has advantages on his side. If the "professor of magic" now and then makes use of glitter and parade, in order to distract attention, Mr. Slade attains the same end, in perhaps a still more effectual manner, by means of the subjective fits to which he is exposed.

In my absence certainly much more astonishing performances took place than those which I saw myself. For my judgment of these performances, though other observers were convinced of their trustworthiness, is decisive. One who enters upon observations with this presupposition, will naturally regard as superfluous the precautions which another deems indispensable; he can leave unmentioned some incidental circumstances of the experiment, the knowledge of which would essentially change the estimate of it. This does not involve the slightest reproach against the observer; he acts in his good faith in the trustworthiness of his objects, in a faith which does honor to his feelings, to the same extent that it robs his observations of convincing power. Therefore, respected sir, there remains for me no