Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 7.pdf/368

 told Chaffery you were beginners. He treated you as beginners—arranged a demonstration."

"It was a demonstration," said Smithers.

"Precisely. If it had not been for your interruptions"

"Ah!"

"He forged elementary effects"

"You can't but admit that."

"I don't attempt to deny it. But, as he explained—the thing is necessary—justifiable. Psychic phenomena are subtle, a certain training of the observation is necessary. A medium is a more subtle instrument than a balance or a borax bead, and see how long it is before you can get assured results with a borax bead! In the elementary class, in the introductory phase, conditions are too crude"

"For honesty."

"Wait a moment. Is it dishonest—rigging a demonstration?"

"Of course it is."

"Your professors do it."

"I deny that in toto," said Smithers, and repeated with satisfaction, "in toto."

"That's all right," said Lagune, "because I have the facts. Your chemical lecturers—you may go downstairs now and ask, if you disbelieve me—always cheat over the indestructibility of matter experiment—always. And then another—a physiography thing. You know the experiment I mean? To demonstrate the existence of the earth's rotation. They use—they use"

"Foucault's pendulum," said Lewisham. "They