In spite of all the light that has been shed upon obscure processes, and all the triumphs of the knowledge of "the order of Nature," there remains to this day in this country a surprising amount of ignorance, accompanied by blind unreasoning devotion to traditional beliefs in magic, and a love of the preposterous fancies of a barbarous past, simply because they are preposterous! "There is something in it," is a favourite phrase, and the words put by Shakespear into the mouth of the demented Hamlet, who thinks he has seen and conversed with a ghost, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy," are gravely quoted as though they were applicable to the Horatios of to-day. We have no reason to suppose that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. Those who inappropriately quote this saying as though it were proverbial wisdom are usually persons of very small knowledge, and mistake their own limitations for those of mankind in general. The real and effective answer to all such head-shakings and airs of mystery is to demand that the reputed marvel shall be brought before us for examination. The method of the disciples of the founders of the Royal Society is not to deny or to assert possibilities. They hold it to be futile to discuss why such and such a thing should _not_ exist, and still worse to conclude that it does exist, or to hold its existence to be probable, because you cannot say why it should not exist. The real question is, "Does it exist? Is it so?" And the only way of dealing with that question is to have the marvel brought before you and subjected to examination and test. "Nullius in verba!" The mere statement of dozens of witnesses merely gives you as a thing to explain or account for, not the marvel reported, but the fact that certain persons say or are reported to say that it does. What you have to examine, in the absence of the marvel itself, is, "How is it that these people make this statement?" You must inquire into the capacities and opportunities of the witnesses. There are several possible and probable answers to that inquiry. For instance, it may be that the witnesses are merely inaccurate, or are self-deceived, or deceived by the trickery or credulity of others, or are insane, or are deliberately stating what is false. Another and often the least probable answer is that the witnesses or reporters state what they do because it is the simple truth. The statements made have to be accounted for by one or other of these hypotheses or suggestions, and each suggestion as to the origin of the statements must be tested by reference to independent facts in order to dismiss or to confirm it.