Why should it appear so impossible that when the spirit is once separated from its body, it may have the power to animate some evanescent form, created out of that magical “psychic” or “ectenic” or “ethereal” force, with the help of the elementaries who furnish it with the sublimated matter of their own bodies? The only difficulty is, to realize the fact that surrounding space is not an empty void, but a reservoir filled to repletion with the models of all things that ever were, that are, and that will be; and with beings of countless races, unlike our own. Seemingly supernatural facts—supernatural in that they openly contradict the demonstrated natural laws of gravitation, as in the above-mentioned instance of levitation—are recognized by many scientists. Every one who has dared to investigate with thoroughness has found himself compelled to admit their existence; only in their unsuccessful efforts to account for the phenomena on theories based on the laws of such forces as were already known, some of the highest representatives of science have involved themselves in inextricable difficulties! In his _Resumé_ de Mirville describes the argumentation of these adversaries of spiritualism as consisting of five paradoxes, which he terms _distractions_. _First distraction_: that of Faraday, who explains the table phenomenon, by the table which _pushes_ you “in consequence of the resistance which _pushes it back_.” _Second distraction_: that of Babinet, explaining all the communications (by raps) which are produced, as he says, “in good faith and with perfect conscientiousness, correct in every way and sense—by _ventriloquism_,” the use of which faculty implies of necessity—_bad faith_. _Third distraction_: That of Dr. Chevreuil, explaining the faculty of moving furniture _without_ contact, by the preliminary acquisition of that faculty. _Fourth distraction_: that of the French Institute and its members, who consent to accept the miracles, on condition that the latter will not contradict in any way those natural laws with which they are acquainted. _Fifth distraction_: that of M. de Gasparin, introducing as a very _simple_ and perfectly _elementary_ phenomenon that which every one rejects, precisely because no one ever saw the like of it.[217] While the great, world-known scientists indulge in such fantastic theories, some less known neurologists find an explanation for occult {117} phenomena of every kind in an abnormal effluvium resulting from epilepsy.[218] Another would treat mediums—and poets, too, we may infer—with assafœtida and ammonia,[219] and declare every one of the believers in spiritual manifestations lunatics and hallucinated mystics.