he contrary, there may be spiritual things capable of the same
transmigration, with like effects. Moreover I am bound to add that
perfectly truthful persons, for I have the greatest respect, believe in
stories about spirits of the present day, quite as improbable as that we
are considering.

So I declare, as plainly as I can, that I am unable to show cause why
these transferable devils should not exist; nor can I deny that, not
merely the whole Roman Church, but many Wacean "infidels" of no mean
repute, do honestly and firmly believe that the activity of such like
demonic beings is in full swing in this year of grace 1889.

Nevertheless, as good Bishop Butler says, "probability is the guide of
life"; and it seems to me that this is just one of the cases in which
the canon of credibility and testimony, which I have ventured to lay
down, has full force. So that, with the most entire respect for many (by
no means for all) of our witnesses for the truth of demonology, ancient
and modern, I conceive their evidence on this particular matter to be
ridiculously insufficient to warrant their conclusion.[36]

After what has been said, I do not think that any sensible man, unless
he happen to be angry, will accuse me of "contradicting the Lord and His
Apostles" if I reiterate my total disbelief in the whole Gadarene story.
But, if that story is discredited, all the other stories of demoniac
possession fall under suspicion. And if the belief in demons and
demoniac possession, which forms the sombre background of the whole
picture of primitive Christianity, presented to us in the New Testament,
is shaken, what is to be said, in any case, of the uncorroborated
testimony of the Gospels with respect to "the unseen world"?

I am not aware that I have been influenced by any more bias in regard to
the Gadarene story than I have been in dealing with other cases of like
kind the investigation of which has interested me. I was brought up in
the strictest school of evangelical orthodoxy; and when I was old enough
to think for myself I started upon my journey of inquiry with little
doubt about the general truth of what I had been taught; and with that
feeling of the unpleasantness of being called an "infidel" which, we are
told, is so right and proper. Near my journey's end, I find myself in a
condition of something more than mere doubt about these matters.

In the course of other inquiries, I have had to do with fossil remains
which looke