observed.

The late Mr. Henry Seybert during his lifetime was known as an
enthusiastic believer in Modern Spiritualism, and shortly before his
death presented to The University of Pennsylvania a sum of money
sufficient to found a chair of Philosophy, and to the gift added a
condition that the University should appoint a Commission to investigate
'all systems of Morals, Religion, or Philosophy which assume to
represent the Truth, and particularly of Modern Spiritualism.'

A Commission was accordingly appointed, composed as follows: Dr. William
Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George A. Koenig, Professor Robert Ellis
Thompson, Professor George S. Fullerton and Dr. Horace Howard Furness;
to whom were afterwards added Mr. Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White,
Dr. Calvin B. Knerr and Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Of this Commission Dr.
Pepper, as Provost of The University, was, _ex-officio_, Chairman, Dr.
Furness, Acting Chairman, and Professor Fullerton, Secretary.

As a befitting preliminary, at one of our earliest meetings each member
in turn expressed his entire freedom from all prejudices against the
subject to be investigated, and his readiness to accept any conclusion
warranted by facts; one of our number, the Acting Chairman, so far from
being unprejudiced confessed to a leaning in favor of the substantial
truth of Spiritualism.

We deemed ourselves fortunate at the outset in having as a counselor
the late Mr. Thos. R. Hazard, a personal friend of Mr. Seybert, and
widely known throughout the land as an uncompromising Spiritualist.

By the advice of Mr. Hazard we addressed ourselves first to the