of Morselli and Bottazzi. I am aware that many
investigators discountenance such experiments, but I believe with
Venzano that the physical phenomena of mediumship cannot be, and ought
not to be, considered trivial. It was the spasmodic movement of a
decapitated frog that resulted in the discovery of the Voltaic Pile.
Furthermore, I intend to try every other conceivable hypothesis before
accepting that of the spiritists."

"What is your reason for that?" asked Fowler.

"Because I am a scientist in my sympathies. I believe in the methods of
the chemist and the electrician. I prefer the experimenter to the
theorist. I like the calm, clear, concise statements of these European
savans, who approach the subject, not as bereaved persons, but as
biologists. I am ready to go wherever science leads, and I should be
very glad to _know_ that our life here is but a link in the chain of
existence. Others may have more convincing knowledge than I, but at this
present moment the weight of evidence seems to me to be on the side of
the theory that mediumship is, after all, a question of unexplored human
biology."

"I don't see it that way," rejoined Fowler, calmly. "Suppose your
biologists prove that the psychic can put forth a supernumerary arm, or
maintain, for a short time, a complete double of herself. Would that
necessarily make the spiritist theory untenable? Is it not fair to
conclude that if the soul or 'astral' or 'etheric double' can act
outside the living body, it can live and think and manifest after the
dissolution of its material shell? Does not the experimental work of
Bottazzi, Morselli, and De Rochas all make for a spiritual
interpretation of life rather than for the position of the materialist?
I consider that they have strengthened rather than weakened the mystic
side of the universe. They are bringing the wonder of the world back to
the positivist. Let them go on. They will yet demonstrate, in spite of
themselves, the immortality of the soul."

"I hope they will," I replied. "It would be glorious at this time, when
tradition begins to fail of power, to have a demonstration of
immortality come through the methods of experimental science. Certainly
I would welcome a physical proof that my mother still thinks and lives,
and that Ernest and other of my dearest friends are at work on other
planes and surrounded by other conditions, no matter how different from
the conventional idea of paradise these environments might