More than twenty years ago an attempt was made by a body called the
'Dialectical Society,' to investigate the phenomena styled
spiritualistic. This well-meant essay had most unsatisfactory
results. {17b}

First a committee of inquiry was formed, on the motion of Dr.
Edmunds. The committee was heterogeneous. Many of the names now
suggest little to the reader. Mr. Bradlaugh we remember, but he
chiefly attended a committee which sat with D. D. Home, and it is
admitted that nothing of interest there occurred. Then we find the
Rev. Maurice Davies, who was wont to write books of little
distinction on semi-religious topics. Mr. H. G. Atkinson was a
person interested in mesmerism. Kisch, Moss, and Quelch, with Dyte
and Isaac Meyers, Bergheim and Geary, Hannah, Hillier, Reed (their
names go naturally in blank verse), were, doubtless, all most
estimable men, but scarcely boast of scientific fame. Serjeant Cox,
a believer in the phenomena, if not in their spiritual cause, was of
the company, as was Mr. Jencken, who married one of the Miss Foxes,
the first authors of modern thaumaturgy. Professor Huxley and Mr.
G. H. Lewes were asked to join, but declined to march to Sarras, the
spiritual city, with the committee. This was neither surprising nor
reprehensible, but Professor Huxley's letter of refusal appears to
indicate that matters of interest, and, perhaps, logic, are
differently understood by men of science and men of letters. {18}
He gave two reasons for refusing, and others may readily be imagined
by the sympathetic observer. The first was that he had no time for
an inquiry involving much trouble, and (as he justly foresaw) much
annoyance. Next, he had no interest in the subject. He had once
examined a case of 'spiritualism,' and detected an imposture. 'But,