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Cecilia de Noël by Lanoe Falconer
page 65 of 131 (49%)

"Preposterous! perfectly preposterous!" cried the Canon. "The Education
Act in operation for all these years, and our lower orders still believe
in bogies and hobgoblins! And yet it is hardly to be wondered at; their
social superiors are not much wiser. The nonsense which is talked in
society at present is perfectly incredible. Persons who are supposed to
be in their right mind gravely relate to me such incidents that I could
imagine myself transported to the Middle Ages. I hear of miraculous
cures, of spirits summoned from the dead, of men and women floating in
the air; and as to diabolic possession, it seems to have become as
common as colds in the head."

He had risen, and now addressed us from the hearthrug.

"Then Mrs. Molyneux and others come and tell me about personal friends
of their own who can foretell everything that is going to happen; who
can read your inmost thoughts; who can compel others to do this and to
do that, whether they like it or no; who, being themselves in one
quarter of the globe, constantly appear to their acquaintances in
another. 'What!' I say. 'They can be in two places at once, then!
Certainly no conjurer can equal that!'"

"And what do they say to that?" asked Atherley.

"Oh, they assure me the extraordinary beings who perform these marvels
are not impostors, but very superior and religious characters. 'If they
are not impostors,' I say, 'then their right place is the lunatic
asylum.' 'Oh but, Canon Vernade, you don't understand; it is only our
Western ignorance which makes such things seem astonishing! Far more
marvellous things are going on, and have been going on for centuries, in
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