My Library

The chiefs^of this lodge, though they have always kept themselves and their society strictly in the background,have nevertheless done what they could from time to time to assist the progress of truth in the world. Some half- century ago, in despair at the rampant materialism which seemed to be stifling all spirituality in Europe and A'merica, they determined to make an attempt to combat it<by somewhat novel methods—in point of fact Iro offer opportunities by which any reasonable man could acquire absolute proof of that life apart from the physical body which it was the tendency of science to deny. The phenomena exhibited were not in themselves absolutely new, since in some form or other we may hear of them all through history; but * their definite organization—-their production as it were to order—these were features distinctly new to the modern world. *
The movement which they thus set on foot gradually grew into the vast fabric of modern spiritualism,and though it would perhaps be unfair to hold the originators of the scheme directly responsible for many of the results which have followed, we must admit that they have achieved their purpose to the extent of converting vast numbers of people from a belief*in nothing in particular to a firm faith in at any rate some kind of future