"That great and intelligent traveller, Captain Burton, a man who will not flinch from telling the truth because it is unpopular, wrote to the _Times_ a letter which disturbed the equanimity of that susceptible organ greatly some time back. In his letter Captain Burton said: 'An experience of twenty years has convinced me that perception is possible without the ordinary channels of sensation.' In a leader of the _Times_ of the date November 14th, 1876, Captain Burton was answered, and that Journal seemed to imagine it had flung its last shaft of scorn, when, in reply to the above assertion of Captain Burton, it cynically, but in all-unconscious sapience, remarked: 'Captain Burton deserves a reward of merit for discovering for us the sixth sense of perception, which is neither seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, nor tasting, but something superior to all five.' That is just what Captain Burton does deserve, but I am sure the _Times_ will be the last to give it to him. And, really, the _Times_ in its scornful exaltment also a second time spoke above its knowledge; for this is just what the sixth sense is--it _is_ superior to all the five senses, because it is less gross; it is psychical and they are only corporeal; but both categories, I believe, are equally perceived and real. 'Tell us,' said the _Times_, apostrophizing Captain Burton, 'how investigators could, for themselves, "perceive" this mysterious entity without recourse to the ordinary channels of sensation.' I fear that even Captain Burton would have been forced to answer thus: You must first get the power of a perception before you can make use of it; and if you do not possess it, or understand about it, you must, in order to obtain a conception of it, be treated as you would treat blind men when you try to explain to them the beautiful mystery, to them, of ocular demonstration. And you must take us on trust, just as you expect men to take you on trust when you explain to them honestly and to the best of your ability that which you see. And what would you think of the blind man who should answer you, as you, in that article, answered Captain Burton, and said, as you did to him, 'This, of course, is mere fancy, and if indulged in, develops itself into hysteria, and finally, as Dr. Forbes Winslow can tell you, into confirmed insanity'? Why, you would think the blind man very ungrateful and very impertinent. But I will, in pity, spare you that last impeachment, and will only call you ignorant, because this perception spoken of by Captain Burton is not a perception that can be said to be indulged in; it is like the wind, it cometh when and where it listeth; and, moreover, can no more appropriately be said to be a thing indulged in than our natural sight; both have to put the term indulgence aside and to see that which they come across. Both eyesight and physical perception are a gift of God, only one is more common than the other."