THE " POLTERGEIST."
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " spEareTon."1 SIR,—Your view of the Poltergeist, in the Spectator of October 28th, seems the most reasonable way of accounting for phenomena that cannot be explained as due to physical causes. It is interesting to observe that it is the view adopted more than forty years ago by Isaac Taylor in his " Wesley and Methodism." Writing of " Jeffery" he says :— "Almost while intent upon these quaint performances, one seems to catch a glimpse of a creature, half-intelligent or idiotic, whose pranks are like those of one that, using a brief opportunity given it by chance, is going to the extent of its tether in freaks of bootless mischief. Why may not this be thought P Around us, as most believe, are beings of a high order, whether good or evil, and yet not cognisable by the senses of man. But the analogies of the visible world favour the supposition that besides these there are orders, or species, of all grades, and some perhaps not more intelligent than apes or than pigs. That these species have no liberty ordinarily to infringe upon the solid world is manifest; nevertheless chances, or mischances, may, in long cycles of time, throw some (like the Arabian locust) over his boundary, and give him an hour's leave to disport himself among things palpable."
May not this suggestion have a wider scope than Isaac Taylor intended, and account for some other so-called "supernatural" appearances quite as senseless as the noisy doings of " Jeffery " P
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