The triumph of Darwin was signalized by the
invention of that happy word Agnostic, which had great vogue. But
agnosticism, as a fashion, was far too reasonable to endure. There came
a rumour of Oriental magic, (how the world repeats itself!) and presently
every one who had nothing better to do gossipped about "esoteric
Buddhism"--the saving adjective sounded well in a drawing-room. It did
not hold very long, even with the novelists; for the English taste this
esotericism was too exotic. Somebody suggested that the old
table-turning and spirit-rapping, which had homely associations, might be
re-considered in a scientific light, and the idea was seized upon.
Superstition pranked in the professor's spectacles, it set up a
laboratory, and printed grave reports. Day by day its sphere widened.
Hypnotism brought matter for the marvel-mongers, and there followed a
long procession of words in limping Greek--a little difficult till
practice had made perfect. Another fortunate terminologist hit upon the
word "psychical"--the _p_ might be sounded or not, according to the taste
and fancy of the pronouncer--and the fashionable children of a scientific
age were thoroughly at ease. "There _must_ be something, you know; one
always felt that there _must_ be something." And now, if one may judge
from what one reads, psychical "science" is comfortably joining hands
with the sorcery of the Middle Ages. It is said to be a lucrative moment
for wizards that peep and that mutter. If the law against
fortune-telling were as strictly enforced in the polite world as it
occasionally is in slums and hamlets, we should have a merry time. But
it is difficult to prosecute a Professor of Telepathy--and how he would
welcome the advertisement!

Of course I know very well that all that make use of these words are not
in one and the same category. There is a study of the human mind, in
health and in disease, which calls for as much respect as any other study
conscientiously and capably pursued; that it lends