le definite can be said. Thus, Professor E. B. Wilson, on p. 434 of
his work _The Cell_, says: "The study of the cell has, on the whole,
seemed to widen rather than to narrow the enormous gap that separates
even the lowest forms of life from the inorganic world." It will thus be
seen that the uncertain and unsatisfactory condition of psychics is
shared also by other branches of scientific investigation, and it is as
yet too soon to say whether or not the ultimate verdict will swing in
this direction or in that. We can only hope, and continue to experiment!

5. Psychical research, therefore, may continue to progress, in spite of
the innate difficulties and the obstacles with which the subject is
surrounded. It is our duty to see that it does! For it is certain that
the subject will receive serious set-backs, from time to time, in the
shape of unjust misrepresentations or bitter attacks from the outsiders,
determined to "prove a case," even if the cause of truth be abandoned in
order to do so. Take, e.g., the recent volume of Dr. Tanner and Dr. G.
Stanley Hall (_Studies in Spiritism_). They received certain "lying
communications," in spite of Professor William James' warning that "the
personalities are very suggestible" and that "every one is liable to get
back from the trance very much what he puts into it." Even Deleuze could
have told Drs. Tanner and Hall this fact--having ascertained it nearly a
hundred years before (1813); for he wrote in his _Critical History of
Animal Magnetism_ (pp. 134-5), in reply to those who would question the
somnambulist upon points of practical advantage:

"You will gain nothing; you will even lose the advantages which you
might derive from his lucidity. It is very possible that you could
make him speak upon all the subjects of your indiscreet curiosity;
but in that case, as I have already warned you, you will make him
leave his own sphere and introduce him into yours. He will no
longer have any other resources than yourself. He will utter you
very eloquent discourses, but they will no more be dictated by the
internal inspirations. They will be the product of his
recollections or of his imagination; perhaps you will also rouse
his vanity, and then all is lost; he will not re-enter the circle
from which he has wandered.... The two states cannot be
confounded.... These somnambulists are evidently influenced by the
persons who su