Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/193

Rh to the rival attractions of Theosophy and the thaumaturgic feats of Madame Blavatsky. Further, some of the most noted mediums of the earlier generation had withdrawn from the active pursuit of their profession. D. D. Home had retired into private life some years before. Mr. Moses' physical phenomena had ceased in 1880 or thereabouts. Slade was, indeed, willing, it was understood, to give sittings, but was prevented from coming to England by reason of the legal proceedings which Professor Lankester had instituted against him in 1876, and which were still pending. But the phenomena still continued, though the performers came somewhat less prominently before the public eye. Eglinton continued to give slate-writing performances for some years; and both he and other physical mediums exhibited materialisations—sometimes in surprising variety—at dark séances. Indeed, dark séances for materialisation, though now much more difficult of access to those who have given no pledges of fidelity, have continued down to the present time.

In 1882, therefore, though the physical phenomena of Spiritualism were certainly less startling and less abundant than they had been for some years previously, there seemed still no reason to doubt that there would be ample material for investigation. Indeed, Professor H. Sidgwick, in the course of his first Presidential address to the nascent Society, delivered at Willis's Rooms in July, 1882, after explaining that the Society would