witchcraft, to deny its existence, and even, in the works of
Wagstaff and Webster, to minimise the leading case of the Witch of
Endor. Against the 'drollery of Sadducism,' the Psychical
Researchers within the English Church, like Glanvill and Henry More,
or beyond its pale, like Richard Baxter and many Scotch divines,
defended witchcraft and apparitions as outworks of faith in general.
The modern Psychical Society, whatever the predisposition of some of
its members may be, explores abnormal phenomena, not in the
interests of faith, but of knowledge. Again, the old inquirers were
dominated by a belief in the devil. They saw witchcraft and
demoniacal possession, where the moderns see hysterics and hypnotic
conditions.

For us the topic is rather akin to mythology, and 'folk-psychology,'
as the Germans call it. We are interested, as will be shown, in a
most curious question of evidence, and the value of evidence. It
will again appear that the phenomena reported by Glanvill, More,
Sinclair, Kirk, Telfair, Bovet, are identical with those examined by
Messrs. Gurney, Myers, Kellar (the American professional conjurer),
and many others. The differences, though interesting, are rather
temporary and accidental than essential.

A few moments of attention to the table talk of the party assembled
at Ragley will enable us to understand the aims, the methods, and
the ideas of the old informal society. By a lucky accident,
fragments of the conversation may be collected from Glanvill's
Sadducismus Triumphatus, {88a} and from the correspondence of
Glanvill, Henry More, and Robert Boyle. Mr. Boyle, among more
tangible researches, devoted himself to collecting anecdotes, about
the second sight. These manuscripts are not published in the six