ce
to our inquiry if it can be proved that the true head of the Grand Lodge
in England is the Princess of Wales and not her royal husband; while
concerning the existence of Devil-Worship M. de la Rive has nothing new
to tell us, and nothing at first-hand. I therefore ask leave to dismiss
him, hoping that he will devote another laborious year to the reissue of
Masonic rituals, authentic or not, at the extremely moderate price which
he asks for his first volume; originals are scarce and costly, and
invention is a pleasant faculty. The interpretation which he chooses to
put on them is an interpretation of no consequence, and can never have
misled any one who is in any sense worth misleading.

CHAPTER XII

THE PASSING OF DOCTOR BATAILLE

The most obvious line of criticism in connection with the memoirs
entitled _Le Diable au XIX^e Siecle_ would be the preposterous and
impossible nature of its supernatural narratives. To attribute a
historical veracity to the adventures of Baron Munchausen might scarcely
appear more unserious than to accept this _recit d'un temoin_ as
evidence for transcendental phenomena. I need scarcely say that I regard
this reasoning as so altogether sound and applicable that it is almost
unnecessary to develop it. The personal adventures of Doctor Bataille as
regards their supernatural element are so transparently fabulous that it
would be intolerable to regard them from any other point of view. That
an ape should speak Tamil is beyond the bounds of possibility; it is
impossible also that a female fakir or pythoness, aged 152 years,
should allow herself to be consumed in a leisurely manner by fire; it is
impossible that any ascetics could have maintained life in their
organisms under the loathsome conditions prevailing within the alleged
temple at Pondicherry; it is impossible that any person could have
survived the ordeal which Dr Bataille pretends to have suffered at
Calcutta,--to have relished and even prolonged; it is impossible that
tables and organs should be found suspended from a ceiling at the close
of a spiritual seance; it is impossible that the serpent of Sophia
Walder should have been elongated in the manner described. When I say
that these things are impossible I am speaking with due regard to the
claims of transcendental phenomena, and it is from the transcendental
standpoint that I judge them. Genuine transcendental phenomena may
extend the accepted limits of probability, but