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

MESMERISM TO SPIRITUALISM 355the account of my early investigations in my book onthe subject, and add to them all that I have indicatedhere, will see that I have reached my present standpointby a long series of experiences under such variedand peculiar conditions as to render unbelief impossible.As Dr. W. B. Carpenter well remarked manyyears ago, people can only believe new and extraordinaryfacts if there is a place for them in theirexisting " fabric of thought." The majority of peopleto-day have been brought up in the belief thatmiracles, ghosts, and the whole series of strangephenomena here described cannot exist ; that theyare contrary to the laws of nature ; that they are thesuperstitions of a bygone age ; and that thereforethey are necessarily either impostures or delusions.There is no place in the fabric of their thought intowhich such facts can be fitted. When I first beganthis inquiry it was the same with myself.The factsdid not fit into my then existing fabric of thought.All my preconceptions, all my knowledge, all mybelief in the supremacy of science and of natural lawwere against the possibility of such phenomena. Andeven when, one by one, the facts were forced upon mewithout possibility of escape from them, still, as SirDavid Brewster declared after being at first astoundedby the phenomena he saw withMr. Home, "spiritwas the last thing I could give in to." Every otherpossible solution was tried and rejected. Unknownlaws of nature were found to be of no avail whenthere was always an unknown intelligence behind thephenomena—an intelligence that showed a humancharacter and individuality, and an individuality whichalmost invariably claimed to be that of some personwho had lived on earth, and who, in many cases, wasable to prove his or her identity. Thus, little by