Published in 1902 | 368 pages | PDF reader required
PREFACE
My chief amongst many and weighty obligations for help and counsel given is to Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, who kindly placed at my disposal the material collected for her article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica on "Spiritualism." At a later stage Mrs. Sidgwick read a great part of the following pages in typescript, and gave me many valuable suggestions. To the late Henry Sidgwick I am indebted for some wise counsel in the writing of the earlier part of this work; that I could not submit to his clear judgment some of the delicate questions dealt with in the last Book I regard as an irremediable loss.
To Dr. R. Hodgson also I owe much. Alike by natural endowment and by his unrivalled experience, Dr. Hodgson is probably better qualified than any living person to deal critically with the history of Spiritualism; nor did I venture to set about the present work until I had ascertained that he was not prepared to undertake the task himself. I had hoped, however, that he would have been able to contribute to the book his own version of his investigations in slate-writing, and an account of the Eusapia séances, with his own criticisms. Pressure of other work prevented the fulfilment of this scheme; but my own account of these matters is based, as the reader will see, almost exclusively on Dr. Hodgson's writings, supplemented by his criticisms and suggestions on the completed chapters.
Not to Dr. Hodgson alone, but also to the late Frederic Myers, I, in common with all others who are engaged on the investigation of these obscure and widely neglected problems, am indebted not only for much of the material used, but for the means of using it.
I have ventured to dissent from some of the conclusions formed by these writers, each of whom can claim a wider experience and a more intimate first-hand knowledge of some, and not the least important, aspects of the case. In the very act of combating their views I am forced to rely upon weapons which they have helped to forge. I gladly acknowledge the debt.
To other colleagues and friends who have helped me in various ways I tender my cordial thanks; and especially to Mr. Dawson Rogers and the Council of the London Spiritualist Alliance, who have placed unreservedly at my disposal the valuable collection of books included in their library. I am the more sensible of my obligations in this particular instance, seeing that the Council cannot but have been aware that my views differed widely from their own. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. I have tried to profit by the example of tolerance and fair play set by my adversaries in the argument.
F. P.
July, 1902.
