story of myth or miracle, that is more incredible than their
narrative. They tell us in grave and sober speech, that the spirit
of a girl who died a hundred years ago, appeared to them in
visible form. She talked with them, gave them locks of her hair,
pieces of her dress, and her autograph. They saw her in bodily
presence, felt her person, heard her voice; she entered the room
in which they were, and disappeared without the opening of a door.
The savants declare that they have had numerous interviews with
her under conditions forbidding the idea of trickery or imposture.

"Now that men eminent in the scientific world have taken up the
investigation, Spiritualism has entered upon a new phase. It can
no longer be treated with silent contempt. Mr. Wallace's articles
in the _Fortnightly_ have attracted general attention, and many of
the leading English reviews and newspapers are discussing the
matter. The New York _World_ devotes three columns of its space to
a summary of the last article in the _Fortnightly_, and declares
editorially that the 'phenomena' thus attested 'deserve the rigid
scientific examination which Mr. Wallace invites for them.' This
is treating the matter in the right way. Let all the well-attested
facts be collected, and then let us see what conclusions they
justify. If spirit communication is a fact, it is certainly a most
interesting one. In the language which the World attributes to
John Bright, 'If it is a fact, it is the one besides which every
other fact of human existence sinks into insignificance.' "

One of the reasons why it would be quite impossible to state the number of
real Spiritualists in our land to-day has already been hinted at in a
foregoing extract. It is that "many thousands," and we think the number
might in all probability be raised to millions, who are in reality
Spiritualists, do not go by that name. They are in the various churches,
and are counted there. Yet they believe the phenomena of Spiritualism,
accept its teachings in their own minds, and quietly and constantly, as
the _Christian at Work_ avers, consult clairvoyants and mediums, in quest
of knowledge. The grosser features of the teachings of Spiritualism which
were painfully prominent in its earlier stages, which there is no reason
to believe are discountenanced or abandoned either in theory or practice,
are relegated