Ancient cryptic science 7 Priceless value of the Vedas 12 Mutilations of the Jewish sacred books in translation 13 Magic always regarded as a divine science 25 Achievements of its adepts and hypotheses of their modern detractors 25 Man’s yearning for immortality 37 CHAPTER II. PHENOMENA AND FORCES. The servility of society 39 Prejudice and bigotry of men of science 40 They are chased by psychical phenomena 41 Lost arts 49 The human will the master-force of forces 57 Superficial generalizations of the French _savants_ 60 Mediumistic phenomena, to what attributable 67 Their relation to crime 71 CHAPTER III. BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND. Huxley’s derivation from the _Orohippus_ 74 Comte, his system and disciples 75 The London materialists 85 Borrowed robes 89 Emanation of the objective universe from the subjective 92 CHAPTER IV. THEORIES RESPECTING PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. Theory of de Gasparin 100 “ of Thury 100 “ of des Mousseaux, de Mirville 100 “ of Babinet 101 “ of Houdin 101 “ of MM. Royer and Jobart de Lamballe 102 The twins—“unconscious cerebration” and “unconscious ventriloquism.” 105 Theory of Crookes 112 “ of Faraday 116 “ of Chevreuil 116 The Mendeleyeff commission of 1876 117 Soul blindness 121 CHAPTER V. THE ETHER, OR “ASTRAL LIGHT.” One primal force, but many correlations 126 Tyndall narrowly escapes a great discovery 127