United States Senate."

Up to the present time, it is not probable that the number of
Spiritualists has been much reduced by apostasies from the faith, if such
it may be called; while the movement itself has been growing more
prominent and becoming more widely known every year. The conclusion would
therefore inevitably follow that its adherents must now be more numerous
than ever before. A letter addressed by the writer to the publishers of
the _Philosophical Journal_, Chicago, on this point, received the
following reply, dated Dec. 24, 1895:--

"Being unorganized, largely, no reliable figures can be given.
Many thousands are in the churches, and are counted there. It is
_claimed_ that there are about five million in the United States,
and over fifty million in the world."

The _Christian at Work_ of Aug. 17, 1876, under the head of "Witches and
Fools," said:--

"But we do not know how many judges, bankers, merchants, prominent
men in nearly every occupation in life, there are, who make it a
constant practice to visit clairvoyants, sightseers, and so-called
Spiritual mediums; yet it can scarcely be doubted that their name
is legion; that not only the unreligious man, but professing
Christians, men and women, are in the habit of consulting spirits
from the vasty deep for information concerning both the dead and
the living. Many who pass for intelligent people, who would be
shocked to have their Christianity called in question, are
constantly engaged in this disreputable business."

The following appeared some years ago, in the San Francisco _Chronicle_:--

"Until quite recently, science has coldly ignored the alleged
phenomena of Spiritualism, and treated Andrew Jackson Davis, Home,
and the Davenport brothers, as if they belonged to the common
fraternity of showmen and mountebanks. But now there has come a
most noteworthy change. We learn from such high authority as the
_Fortnightly Review_ that Alfred R. Wallace, F. R. S.; William
Crookes, F. R. S. and editor of the _Quarterly Journal of
Science_; W. H. Harrison, F. R. S. and president of the British
Ethnological Society, with others occupying a high position in the
scientific and literary world, have been seriously investigating
the phenomena of spiritism. The report which those learned
gentlemen make is simply astounding. There is no fairy tale, no