and Adolphe under test-conditions, disproves the reality of clairvoyance; but my position is, that since the choicest examples of its manifestation are found to break down when thoroughly investigated, not one of the reported instances in which no such thorough investigation has been made, has the least claim to be accepted as genuine. It must, I think, have become abundantly obvious to you, that until the existence of the clairvoyant power shall have been established beyond question, by every test that the skill of the most wary and inveterate sceptic can devise, the scientific expert is fully justified in refusing to accept the testimony of any number of witnesses, however honest, but of no special intelligence in regard to the subject of the enquiry, as to particular instances of this power. George Goble's master would have recounted the performances of his protégé in perfect good faith, and would have been very angry with anyone who should express a doubt either of his veracity or his competer.ce. And not only Mr. Hewes, but a large body of lookers-on, would have stoutly contended for the impossibility of 'Jack' having read with his eyes, when they had been carefully covered by a surgeon with plasters and leather. But to me it seems the 'common sense' view of the matter, that the fact of 'Jack' having read with his eyes covered, should have been accepted as a proofnot of his clairvoyance-but of his eyes not having been effectually covered; and that the very fact of George Goble having found out the words in certain boxes which he might have opened, while he did not

find out any in the boxes he could not open, should have been accepted as valid evidence-not of his clairvoyance-but of his having taken a furtive peep with his natural eyes into the unsecured boxes. And in each case, 'common sense' would have been justified by the result.

The ordinary rules of Evidence, as I have endeavoured to show you, apply only to ordinary occurrences. To establish the reality of such an extraordinary condition as clairvoyance, extraordinary evidence is required; and it is the entire absence of this, which vitiates the whole body of testimony put forward by Prof. Gregory (Letters on Animal Magnetism), doubtless in the most complete good faith, regarding the performances of Major Buckley's clairvoyantes; whom he states to have collectively read the mottoes enclosed in 4,860 nut-shells (one of them consisting of 98 words), and upwards of 36,000 words on papers enclosed in boxes, one of these papers containing 371 words. Now, that Professor Gregory lent not only himself, but the authority of his public position, with reprehensible facility, to the attestation of Major Buckley's statements, might be fairly anticipated from his eager endorsement of Reichenbach's doctrines, and his credulous acceptance of Mr. Lewis's claims, of which I spoke in my previous lecture; and the complete untrustworthiness of his statements in regard to clairvoyance becomes obvious to any sceptical reader of his 'Letters.' For not only is there an entire absence of detail, in regard to the precautions taken to prevent the ingenious tricks,

to which (as all previous experience had indicated) the claimants to this power are accustomed to have recourse; but the narrative of one of his cases shows such an easy credulity on the very face of it, as at once to deprive his other statements of the least claim to credence. I refer to that (Op. cit., p. 364) in which folded papers or sealed envelopes were forwarded to the clairvoyantes, who returned them-the seals apparently unbroken-with a correct statement of the contained words. Now the unsealing of sealed letters, and the resealing them so as to conceal their having been opened, are practised on occasion in the Post-office of probably every Continental capital, if not in our own; and, as some of you have probably seen in the public prints, the doings in this line of a 'medium' who professed to be able to return answers under spiritual influence to questions contained in sealed letters, have lately been exposed in the Lawcourts of New York; the medium's own wife disclosing the manner in which the unsealing and resealing of these letters were effected. Common sense, it might have been thought, would dictate that if the contents of a sealed letter had been made known by a person in whose possession it had lain, that letter had been opened and resealed. Yet Prof. Gregory prefers to believe that these letters had been read by clairvoyance; and numbers of persons in various parts of the Union, including many of high social consideration, were found to have placed such confidence in the spiritual' pretensions of the New York swindler, as to submit to him questions of the most private

nature, with fees that gave him an annual income of more than a thousand pounds!

It was to put the value of Professor Gregory's evidence in support of clairvoyance to the test, that his colleague, Dr. (afterwards Sir James) Simpson, offered a bank-note of large value, enclosed in a sealed box and placed in the hands of a public official in Edinburgh, as a prize to anyone who could read its number; and I am informed by Sir Dominic Corrigan, M.P., that Sir Philip Crampton (Surgeon to the Queen in Ireland) did the like in Dublin. Though these rich prizes remained open to all comers for at least a year, none of Major Buckley's one hundred and forty-eight clairvoyantes succeeded in establishing a claim to either of them; in fact, I believe that not even a single attempt was made. And yet there are even now men of high scientific distinction, who adduce Professor Gregory's testimony on this subject as unimpeachable!!

Still more akin to the powers claimed for Spirit

It was publicly suggested by Mr. Wallace at the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association, that the failure of the clairvoyantes in the case of Dr. Simpson's bank-note might be due to there having been really no note placed in the box. This suggestion I indignantly repudiated at the time, as an unworthy imputation upon the character of a public man whose honesty was above all suspicion. But I might have replied that if the fact had been so, some of Major Buckley's 148 clairvoyantes ought to have found it out. Dr. Simpson informed me that Dr. Gregory, on being asked the reason of their complete abstention, could give no other account of it, than that the very offer of the reward, by introducing a selfish motive for the exercise of this power, prevented its access; as if Alexis, Adolphe, and numerous other professors of the art of reading without eyes, had not been daily practising it for the purpose of pecuniary gain.

ualistic mediums,' is that form of alleged Mesmeric clairvoyance which consists in the vision of scenes or occurrences at a distance; so that they are described exactly as they are at the time, and not according to the expectation of the questioners. Numerous cases of this kind have been very circumstantially recorded; and I most freely admit that a body of thoroughly well-attested and well-sifted evidence in their favour would present a strong claim to acceptance. Every one knows, however, that plenty of marvels of the same class have been current as 'ghost stories;' and that even some of what were regarded as the best attested of these, have faded out of the credit they once enjoyed, under the advancing light of a healthy rationalism. And while such as have a 'transcendental' turn of mind will accept the most wonderful story of clairvoyance at a distance with little or no hesitation, those of a more sceptical habit will admit none that has not been subjected to the test of a searching cross-examination; thinking it more probable that some latent fallacy is concealed beneath the ostensible facts, than that anything so marvellous should have really happened.

My own attention was very early drawn to this subject by certain occurrences which fell under my immediate observation. A Mesmeric 'somnambule' said to be possessed of this power of 'mental travelling being the subject of a séance at my own house, and being directed to describe what she saw in the rooms above, gave a correct and unhesitating reply as to the occupants of my nursery; whilst in regard to the