MASKELYNE v. SPOOK.*
IT is with no wish to disparage Dr. Weatherby's share in this very readable little volume, that we have given our notice the above heading. But, as Dr. Weatherby himself most frankly owns, it is the collaboration of the famous Wizard of the Egyptian Hall that lends the work its chief attraction, and none but the most extraordinarily conscientious of readers will be able to resist the temptation of skipping the pages that precede the section contributed by Mr. Maskelyne. That they will be satisfied, we cannot honestly guarantee. Nine persons out of ten will probably turn to the chapters in ques- tion, hoping against all legitimate ground for hope, that Mr. Maskelyne will take them behind the scenes, so to speak, and reveal the mod= operandi which enables him to play those tricks each of which is worth any two of the marvels achieved by the most magical of mediums. It is needless to say that in these expectations they will be grievously disappointed. Mr. Maskelyne has not the slightest intention of showing his hand, or placing his stock-in-trade at the disposal of the public. He takes his cue faithfully from his colleague, as who should say,—
" There are few things in heaven and earth, 0 Weatherby, Beyond the ken of our philosophy,"
and proceeds with perfect impartiality to turn the cold douche of scepticism and destructive analysis on Oriental Magic, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. As to the first-named class of phenomena, Mr. Maskelyne dwells at the outset with con- siderable force on the unhinging and distorting effect exerted upon the faculties of the average individual by the mere magic of the words "the East." He would say, in fact—only that Latin is not his strong point—here, if ever, is a case of omne ignotum pro magnifico. People believe, or are prepared to believe, the tales of the astounding feats of the Oriental jugglers before they see them performed; so that in many cases they are as good as hypnotised. As to the tricks themselves, Mr. Maskelyne gives a careful analysis of the two most famous and best authenticated of all—the basket trick and the mango trick—which he reduces to the level of good Western conjuring. The point of the former is that the child who is put in the basket never leaves it, but assumes a posture which enables the operator to thrust the sword through the basket without touching it; while the child who comes running on at the end of the trick, is another child altogether, often a twin brother or sister of the subject. The mango trick is simply good sleight-of-hand, the plant in its successive stages being contained in the pockets of the cloth which is not given for examination. As to the more miracu- lous tricks—such as the chair thrown into the air and remaining fixed, up which various beasts are made to ascend and vanish —Mr. Maskelyne contents himself with observing that no trustworthy evidence as to their performance has ever been available. Briefly summed up, then, his attitude is this. Oriental jugglery, robbed of its atmosphere of romance and sentiment, has nothing in it to excite the envy of a good European conjurer. Travellers' tales, and the wish to believe what is wonderful, especially when it is a long
• The Supernatural 7 By Lionel Weatherby, M.D. With Chapter on Oriental Magic, Spiritualism, and Theoaophy, by J. N. Maskelyne. Bristol: J. W. Arrow- smith. London: Simpkin, Marshall. and Co.
way off, account for the traditional glamour in which the whole subject is enwrapped.
Mr. Maskelyne's chapter on "Modern Spiritualism" is, we nee I hardly say, a very lively performance. When Mr. Maskelyne exposed the Davenport Brothers, they retorted by asserting that the " manifestations " at the Egyptian Hall were proof positive that Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke were themselves in league with the spirits. This tribute to his powers, however, has not softened Mr. Maskelyne's heart, as may be gathered from the statement at the outset of this chapter : "There does not exist, and there never has existed, a professed 'medium' of any note who has not been con- victed of trickery or fraud ;" and certainly Mr. Maskelyne's own experience has not been calculated to induce in him a high opinion of the integrity of the race of mediums. His contempt for them is excessive, but it is not to be wondered at when one reads the story of Miss Fay. This once cele- brated medium, finding that her business was seriously affected by Mr. Maskelyne's exposure of her tricks, made him an offer, through her manager, to come to London and explain publicly, for a sum of money, how she performed her tricks and imposed upon an eminent man of science. Mr. Maskelyne says he has her letter still in his possession. We cannot help regretting that Mr. Maskelyne did not see his way to close with her offer. At any rate, it is a pity that he did not reproduce it in these pages. On the exposure of Dr. Slade, Mr. Maske- lyne dwells with pardonable complacency, inasmuch as he was called as an expert in the case, and performed Slade's tricks in the witness-box. With regard to the feats performed by Eglinton, Slade's successor, Mr. Maskelyne relates how Eglinton was once invited by an old lady to meet Mr. Glad- stone, an invitation which he promptly accepted. "On this occasion, upon a prepared slate, the property of a medium, some writing appeared, and, as a matter of course, the ex-Premier failed to discover the trick." We take this to imply no special disparagement of Mr. Gladstone's vigilance ; Mr. Maskelyne probably means that to catch out a medium you must undergo a special training. Coming to the question of " Materialisations," Mr. Maskelyne makes a good point by insisting on the incongruity of the union of spirit and matter presented by their dress. 4. When spirits appear they never come in nuda veritas [sic]; they are always clothed in more or less light and gauzy raiment befitting their spiritual condition." Are we to imagine, continues Mr. Maskelyne, that these robes are themselves the ghosts of those worn by the spirits when they were in the flesh P For the alternative sup- position, that spirits are clothed in garments which can be handled, torn, and cut into relics, he dismisses as something at which the reason revolts. Table-turning and thought. reading, Mr. Maskelyne ascribes entirely to physical causes, the secret in both instances being the same,—viz., tired muscles and rapt attention. Spirit-photography is a very simple pastime, and an excellent instance of it is given on the frontis- piece. Finally, Mr. Maskelyne quotes at considerable length from the Seybert Commission,—the trump-card of his indict- ment. For this Commission owed its existence to the bequest of an enthusiastic American spiritualist, and instead of estab- lishing the truth of his creed, dealt it a most deadly blow. The Commissioners were so far above suspicion that even the mediums consulted were forced to admit their fairness. But in the result, they failed to discover a single genuine manifesta- tion. Spiritualism was thus fairly hoist with its own petard. Mr. Maskelyne calls attention to the very negative issue of the investigations of the Society of Psychical Research, and in view of the facts of the case and the character of the mediums, de- clares that it would be "better to suspect and be mistaken than to trust and be deceived." The gist of his chapter on " Theosophy " resides in the challenge,—" Why don't they do something that cannot be imitated by trickery P They accuse us," continues Mr. Maskelyne, "of wishing to acquire know- ledge of these powers when our minds are not trained to a standard sufficiently high to enable us to use them properly. But we don't want to know how these things are done ; only that they can be done ; otherwise we have no sort of guarantee that the study of the doctrines, the self-abnegation and con- tinued striving in the paths we are instructed to take, in order to attain to the high Theosophical level, will not be just so much time and effort wasted in the fruitless search for a mare's nest." That is excellently put. It is a pity, however, that Mr. Maskelyne did not see his way to abstain from his
rather savage personal allusions to the late Madame Blavatsky. His position is so strong, that it is gratuitous to adopt the historic procedure recommended to the barrister with "no case."
Dr. Weatherby's chapters call for no comment, as they make no pretence to originality. He has boiled down the results arrived at by such authorities as Drs. Maudsley, Hack Tuke, Symonds, Carpenter, and others, and served them up in a very palatable rechauffe. His own comments are generally very much to the point ; but musicians will be amused at the following paragraph :—" During the last years. of his life Beethoven became absolutely deaf, but be heard his compositions as distinctly as when he bad actually listened to. them. This is another case proving that Brewster's theory that a sense organ is always involved in hallucination is not a correct one." All composers worth the name, deaf or not, hear their compositions in the "mind's ear" in this way. To call it a hallucination is rather a large proposition when you have the tangible results in the shape of such a work as Schubert's great Symphony in C, of which, as of scores of his scores, he never heard a note sounded in his lifetime.
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