ed nations. This belief, known as spiritism, with the
manifestations upon which it is founded, lies open, therefore, to modern
scientific investigation; and this has been, to some extent, applied to
it, with, in various instances, rather startling results.

It is certainly of significance to find that a number of prominent
scientists, thoroughly skilled in the arts of investigation, have
attacked this problem with the purpose of annihilating it, and have
ended in becoming convinced of the truth of spiritism. It may suffice
to mention two of the most striking instances of this. In the early days
of the spiritist propaganda, Robert Hare, a famous chemist of
Philadelphia, entered upon an investigation of the so-called spiritual
phenomena with the declared purpose of proving them to be fraudulent.
His observations were long continued, his tests varied and delicate, and
he ended by himself ardently adopting the belief he had set out to
abolish. Somewhat later William Crookes of London, an equally famous
chemist and physicist, entered upon a similar investigation, and with
like results. The tests applied by these men were strictly scientific,
and of the exhaustive character suggested by their long experience in
chemical investigation; and their conversion to the tenets of spiritism,
as a result of their experiments, was a marked triumph to the advocates
of the doctrine. Various others of admitted high intelligence, who made
a similar investigation and were similarly converted, might be named.
Two of the best known of these were Judge Edmonds, of the circuit court
of New York, and Alfred Russel Wallace of England, who shared with
Darwin the honor of originating the theory of natural selection.

While these, and others of scientific education, were converted to
spiritism, many investigators came to an opposite conclusion, while a
similar negative result was reached in the investigations of several
committees of scientists. The latest and most persistent attempt to
search into the reality of phenomena of this character has been that
made by the London Society for Psychical Research, whose investigations
have extended over years and have yielded numerous striking and
suggestive results. The most important conclusion at which the members
of this society have so far arrived is the hypothesis of Telepathy, or
the seeming power of one mind to influence the thoughts of another,
occasionally over long distances, in a method that appear