it cannot be
supernatural. Nothing is supernatural. Am I right, Miller?"

"We explain each mystery by a deeper mystery," he replied.

"All depends upon the point of view. I am interested in these obscure
phases of human life. If they are real they are natural. To me the
spiritistic 'demonstrations' are intensely human and absorbingly
interesting as dramatic material, and yet I hope I am sufficiently the
scientist to be alive to the significance of these telekinetic
happenings, and enough of the realist to remain critical in the midst of
the wildest carnival of the invisible forces."

"Don't you believe in them?" asked Mrs. Miller, with a note of surprise
in her voice.

I replied, cautiously: "I am at this moment convinced of the reality of
_some_ of these phenomena by reason of my own experiments; but leaving
one side my personal investigation, I must believe that Crookes,
Maxwell, and Flammarion are competent witnesses. As to
spiritualism--well, that is another matter."

"But where does all this lead to if not to spiritualism?" asked Mrs.
Miller.

"As to the exact country, no one knows," I answered; "but the best of
our experimenters are agreed that the gate opens upon a new field of
science. These powers seem to be in advance of us and not a survival,
and they may prove of value in the evolution of the race. That is why I
want to enlist men like your husband in the work. Mediumship needs just
such critical attention as his. Nothing like Maxwell or Richet's
thoroughness of method has ever been used by an American physicist, so
far as I know. On the contrary, our leading scientific men seem to have
let the subject severely alone."

"Why?" asked Mrs. Smiley.

"Partly because of inherited prejudice, and partly because of their
allegiance to opposing theories; and finally, I suspect, because they
are connected with institutions that would not sanction such work. You
can imagine how the physical department of a denominational college
would investigate spirit phenomena! It was much the same way in England
during the early part of last century, but they are far in advance of us
now. The first notable step in the right direction was taken--as perhaps
you may know--in 1869, by the Dialectical Society of London, which
appointed a committee to look into the subject of spiritualism, with the
expectation, no doubt, of being able to stop the spread of the delusion.

"The investigations which followed were under the espec