"The clergy, full of holy zeal and pious indignation, have favoured me with denunciatory epistles teeming with mild promise of everlasting torment, as a fitting reward for the performance of my duty as a truth-seeker; and this reward was promised me in the name of the ever-loving Father of all humanity.

"On the other hand, my spirit has been cheered and gladdened by the receipt of many letters from the true followers of the meek and loving Jesus—seeking through spirit intercourse a confirmation of the doctrines taught by the Great Medium of old, who set us the glorious example of holding commune with the spirits of those who had gone before; insasmuch as he invited his disciples to be present at the grand spiritual seance held upon the Mount, conferring upon them the gift of spirit sight, by which they were enabled to see Moses and Elias.

"I rejoice to be able to add that I have also received the written testimony of many ministers, generously and candidly acknowledging that through spirit teaching they were able morre clearly to distinguish the true and legitimate meaning of the inspirational records of the past, and had now got a firmer, higher, holier, and truer trust in the love and wisdom of the Great 'I Am, who said, 'Let there be light and there was light.'

"Mr Etchells says—' Our library has been a great lever in the spread of our great spiritual life truths, and has silently by the quiet fireside turned the thoughts of many hardened minds upward; and we cannot do better than recommend every circle of friends to read over the thoughts of those labourers who have passed on before on the road leading upward.'

In a hall capable of containing about 150, they (Nottingham Society,) held on an average three weekly meetings, to which the public are admitted, the attendance being so great as to necessitate the sending away, for want or room, many inquirers. In addition to the public meetings, six or eight private circles are held, where very superior spirits are gradually developing the minds of their disciples by enabling them to comprehend the grand secret of nature's laws, and gently guiding them in the paths of our harmonic philosophy.

"For brevity's sake I omit to read the names of the different places in which circles are held."

• The Report of the First Convention held at Darlington, 60 pp., price 6d.
• The Report of the Second Convention, held at Newcastle, 71 pp., price 6d.
• The Report of the Third Convention, held in London, 60 pp., price 1s.
• The Report of the Fourth Convention.

These four Reports may be had for 1s, 1s 2d post free, on application to

J. Burns, Progressive Library, Camberwell, London.

where all works on Spiritualism may be obtained. These Reports contain much excellent matter. They are the cheapest spiritualistic literature published, and, as there is a large quantity on hand and a heavy debt on them, friends would effect several good purposes by distributing them freely. page 5 private correspondence, indicates that scientific men almost invariably assume, that in this inquiry they should be permitted, at the very outset, to impose conditions; and if, under such conditions, nothing happens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. But they well know that, in all other branches of research, nature, not they, determines the essential conditions without a compliance with which no experiment will succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a patient questioning of nature, and they are different for each branch of science. How much more may they be expected to differ in an inquiry which deals with subtle forces of the nature of which the physicist is wholely and absolutely ignorant! To ask to be allowed to deal with these unknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena, is practically to prejudge the question, since it assumes that both are governed by the same laws.

From the sketch which has now been given of the recent treatment of the subject by popular and scientific writers, we can summarise pretty accurately their mental attitude in regard to it. They have seen very little of the phenomena themselves, and they cannot believe that others have seen much more. They have encountered people who are easily deceived by a little unexpected trickery, and they conclude that the convictions of spiritualists generally are founded on phenomena produced, either consciously or unconsciously, in a similar way. They are so firmly convinced on a priori rounds that the more remarkable phenomena said to happen do not really happen, that they will back their conviction against the direct testimony of any body of men; preferring to believe that they are all the victims of some mysterious delusion whenever imposture is out of the question. To influence persons in this frame of mind, it is evident that more personal testimony to isolated facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable expression of Dr. Carpenter, "no place in the existing fabric of their thought into which such facts can be fitted." It is necessary therefore to modify the "fabric of thought" itself; and it appears to the present writer that this can best be done by a general historic sketch of the subject; and by showing, by separate lines of inquiry, how wide and varied is the evidence, and how remarkably these lines converge towards one uniform conclusion. The endeavour will be made to indicate, by typical examples of each class of evidence and without unnecessary detail, the cumulative force of the argument.