them with careful questions intended to increase our
modest store of knowledge. The replies were unsatisfactory, commonplace,
sometimes ludicrous. Attempts to write a passable textbook on life in
the spirit world have failed lamentably. The indignation of the sorely
disappointed scientist was voiced by the late Professor Hugo
Muensterberg, of Harvard, in his _Psychology of Life_:

Thousands and thousands of spirits have appeared; the ghosts of
the greatest men have said their say, and yet the substance of it
has always been the absurdest silliness. Not one inspiring
thought has yet been transmitted by this mystical way; only the
most vulgar trivialities. It has never helped to find the truth;
it has never brought forth anything but nervous fear and
superstition.

His denunciation embraces the whole subject of spiritualistic evidence
and ends in utter pessimism--

Our belief in immortality must rest on the gossip which departed
spirits utter in dark rooms through the mouths of hypnotized
business mediums, and our deepest personality comes to light when
we scribble disconnected phrases in automatic writing. Is life
then really still worth living?

I have every sympathy with the complaint. But our psychologist forgot
that life is largely made up of trivialities, and that the spirits of
the dead, if they really wish to make themselves known to us, can do so
with greater certainty of being recognized by reminding us of events
and objects with which they are associated in our memory than by
presenting us with a corrected version of the nebular theory. The
average medium and the average gathering of inquirers are not
distinguished by any great intellectual achievement. The general
educational level may be low and the total capacity to sift and weigh
evidence may fall short of that of an undergraduates' debating society.
Yet the evidence produced may not only be entirely soul-satisfying to
the participants, but perfectly acceptable to a critic contented with
the average quality of evidence current in a court of law. It may even
be true that the evidential value rises with the number of trivialities
recorded.

And "the truth" which Professor Muensterberg sought in vain is
demonstrated to others through the same trivial evidence, as is shown by
the verdict of Alfred Russel Wallace:

Spiritualism demonstrates by direct evidence, as conclusive
as the nature of the cas