ing it, perhaps for a nefarious purpose. You write a document of the most private character; you shut it up in a locked drawer; it affects the character of many persons; it would be treason to morality to publish that document in the newspapers. There is nothing to hinder, so far as we know the laws of this newly invented spirit world—[1] there is nothing to hinder any disembodied spirits who are about from getting access to the paper, and having it published in the newspapers. But here I say on the other hand—and this is the result of experience—it has been shown that this can not be done.
Having alluded to the incident of a £100 note being left in a sealed envelope in the Bank of England, the owner having promised to give it up to any spiritualist who could tell the number, but for which no application was received, Professor Gairdner proceeded: It was in some way or other impossible, apparently, for the spirits, greater or less, although it was asserted that they were able to reveal the secrets of one man's heart to another, to read the number of that note in these circumstances. I say that it was not only in fact impossible, but I say this, that, had it in fact been possible, it would have shown a state of matters which, humanly speaking, would have been subversive of the divine order. It would have entirely destroyed that system of law by which we know that, in a way which is absolutely wonderful and absolutely inscrutable, spirit does communicate with matter, as we know, every day of our lives in this world. The state of mind of the persons who come prepared to believe these things—who come to the investigation of them with previously established ideas, who regard doubt or hesitation as I would say, a sin, but let us rather say an error, and a sure way of keeping manifestations back, while openmouthed credulity is the only frame of mind in which to come to the investigation; the state of mind of such persons—who, I believe, may be numbered in thousands, and possibly in millions, in this country and in America—is, to my idea, a diseased state of mind. I admit fully that many of these persons are apparently able to conduct their own affairs. I freely admit that many of them are very moral and well-intentioned persons. I am equally inclined to believe that this Mr. Allan Kardec, within certain limits which I can not attempt to define, was a truthful man. But that does not hinder me from believing that there is disease at the bottom of these things, and it is a disease of the faculty of wonder, by which that faculty, intended for the noblest purposes in the organization of the human mind, is perverted to some of the lowest of all purposes, and even to the abetting
- ↑ The preceding portion of the lecture shows by extracts from the works of spiritualists, and especially of Allan Kardec, that according to these authorities lying, mischievous, and impish spirits everywhere abound, and are permitted to play their pranks freely for the delusion of those who are willing to be deluded; whereby the thorough going spiritualist finds no difficulty in explaining, according to his theory, proved instances of absurdity or imposture.
