My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

338 MY LIFEthen editor of the Fortnightly Review, to write anarticle on " Spiritualism " for that periodical. Muchpublic interest had been excited by the publicationof the Report of the Committee of the DialecticalSociety, and especially by Mr. Crookes's experimentswith Mr. Home, and the refusal of the Royal Societyto see these experiments repeated. I therefore acceptedthe task, and my article appeared in May andJune under the title, " A Defence of Modern Spiritualism."At the end of the same year I includedthis article, together with my former small book," The Scientific Aspects of the Supernatural," and apaper I had read before the Dialectical Society in1 87 1, answering the arguments of Hume, Lecky, andother writers against miracles, in a volume which hashad a very considerable sale, and has led manypersons to investigate the subject and to becomeconvinced of the reality of the phenomena.The publication of my book in 1874, not onlybrought me an extensive correspondence on thesubject, but led to my being invited to take part inmany interesting stances, and making the acquaintanceof spiritualists both at home and abroad. As what Iwitnessed was often very remarkable, and forms a sortof supplement to the " Notes of Personal Evidence "given in my book, and also because these phenomenahave had a very important influence both on mycharacter and my opinions, it will be necessary hereto give a brief outline of them.I attended a series of sittings with Miss KateCook, the sister of the Miss Florence Cook withwhom Sir William Crookes obtained such very strikingresults. The general features of these stances werevery similar, though there was great variety in details.They took place in the rooms of Signor Randi, a