man living has not made a
hundred such mistakes? In order to explain the phenomena we are studying
by the telepathic hypothesis, we must suppose that telepathy has
infinite power with which no obstacle can interfere. Then why does it
make mistakes? And why does it make just the mistakes that an imperfect,
finite spirit would make? Must we suppose that Dame Telepathy is a mere
incarnation of the demon of fraud and deceit?

FOOTNOTES:

[84] Evidently addressing George Pelham.

[85] _Proc. of S.P.R._, vol. xiii. p. 519.

CHAPTER XVIII

Difficulties and objections--The identity of Imperator--Vision at a
distance--Triviality of the messages--Spiritualist Philosophy--Life in
the other world.

Up till now I have said a great deal of evil of telepathy. I believe
that I have demonstrated, not that the theory is false, but that it is
an unlikely explanation of the facts. Shall we say, then, that the
spiritualistic hypothesis, the only reasonable one after the dismissal
of telepathy, can be accepted without difficulty and without objections?
Not at all. Many objections, more or less serious, are still made to the
spiritualistic hypothesis. To my mind there is only one that is serious;
I will speak of it in conclusion. Many of the others are raised by
persons who have a merely superficial acquaintance with the problem;
their arguments are more polemical than scientific.

To begin with, some of them want to know why the controls, Imperator,
Doctor, Rector, Prudens, conceal themselves under these pseudonyms. If
they are, as they say, disincarnated spirits, who formerly lived in
bodies, why do they not say who they were? Does not their silence on
this point indicate that they are only secondary personalities of the
medium?

This objection is not very serious. In the first place, the controls
told Stainton Moses their names. If they do not wish these names
revealed, it is without doubt for excellent reasons, which it is not
difficult to imagine. There is every indication that these controls
belonged to a generation considerably remote from ours; their language,
the turn of their minds, and some of their assertions, all point to
this. If they were well-known men, and had revealed their names, the
critics would merely see a reason the more for crying fraud. They would
say, "The medium has read all that, and repeats it to us in hypnosis."
If, on the other hand, they were obscure persons, and had given
information about