Of course spiritual impressions are of no more value than the stigmata on hysterical girls, in whom the emotional element was over developed, and the religious understanding too little developed.  The reversion to ancestor worship in spiritism seems more clear, and dinners at Kensal Green with five shillings tomb money, after the system of some low-caste Indian tribes, should be instituted by the spiritists.  But the Chinaman also conciliates other spirits—­those of friends or patrons or the great men of past generations; why do not the spiritualists sacrifice gold leaf and roast pork like the inhabitants of the Far East?

The Catholic Church has exorcised spirits and put them in their place as improper and disturbing elements.  It thereby told its members that spirits were conjurable:  of course really the minds of the members were strengthened, but the toleration of the idea of spirits, whether lazy and trifling, pernicious or beneficial, is of course wrong.  However, as they were considered the servants of sorcerers, the idea was in some respects sufficiently accurate.

The Lutheran Church in Denmark, in the last century, had many famous exercisers who banned ghosts into Schleswig-Holstein.

One hypnotiser against another, the battle-field a stupid peasant.  M. Flammarion’s book, just published (July 1900), contains an instance or two of French peasants bewitching one another.  The cure for this witchcraft is found in science, the criminal law, and the mutual kindness that, derived from Christianity, though often promoted by men whom we can only call God-fearing unbelievers, has grown so much in this century, and more elsewhere even than in Britain.  Thousands of poor people perished in the days of old, guiltless victims, whilst some scoundrelly hypnotists went free.  In modern times some poor people, bothered by hypnotists, have been sent to lunatic asylums and have fallen victims of the greed, cruelty, and neglect that so often prevail there.  One must give Dr. Savage his due, that he describes a case in his book on insanity where a lady hearing voices (cheating hypnotic voices, perhaps), and believing herself insulted, left one lodging after another perfectly quietly, and he admits that this case was not suitable for a lunatic asylum.

The “spirits” of spiritists are, of course, not impressive, if their somewhat startling amount of information be excepted.  The language used by George Pelham is pure twaddle.  One member of the society seems to have been hypnotised, and the rest studied by the Piper gang through him.

If all a man feels, sees, and hears be noted, the information gathered, coming from a stranger, will be startling to people who belong to his circle of friends.

This information was imparted to Mrs. Piper, where it had not been collected by her.  All she saw was seen by her accomplices, who advised her accordingly.  They were doubtless too busy to study the eminent statesman whom she told that he had money transactions with a person called George.[28]