mages actually so received. The whole thing is strange,
of course, but not stranger than wireless telegraphy. It may be that
the conditions of telepathy may some day be scientifically defined; and
in that case it will probably make a clear and coherent connection
between a number of phenomena which we do not connect together, just as
the discovery of electricity connected together phenomena which all had
observed, like the adhering of substances to charged amber, as well as
the lightning-flash which breaks from the thunder-cloud. No one in
former days traced any connection between these two phenomena, but we
now know that they are only two manifestations of the same force. In
the same way we may find that phenomena of which we are all conscious,
but of which we do not know the reason, may prove to be manifestations
of some central telepathic force--such phenomena, I mean, as the
bravery of armies in action, or the excitement which may seize upon a
large gathering of men.

We ought, I think, to admire and praise the patient work of the
Psychical Society,--though is common enough to hear quite sensible
people deride it,--because it is an attempt to treat a subject
scientifically. What we have every right to deride is the dabbling in
spiritualistic things by credulous and feeble-minded persons. These
practices open to our view one of the most lamentable and deplorable
provinces of the human mind, its power of convincing itself of anything
which it desires to believe, its debility, its childishness. If the
professions of so-called mediums were true, why cannot they exhibit
their powers in some open and incontestable way, not surrounding
themselves with all the conditions of darkness and excitability, in
which the human power of self-delusion finds its richest field?

A friend of mine told me the other day what he evidently felt to be an
extremely impressive story about a dignitary of the Church. This
clergyman was overcome one day by an intense mental conviction that he
was wanted at Bristol. He accordingly went there by train, wandered
about aimlessly, and finally put up at a hotel for the night. In the
morning he found a friend in the coffee-room, to whom he confided the
cause of his presence in Bristol, and announced his intention of going
away by the next train. The friend then told him that an Australian was
dying in the hotel, and that his wife was very anxious to find a
clergyman. The dignitary went to see the lady,