The Jewish priests had a prescribed orthodox method of consulting spirits, which contributed handsomely to their income, and it was scarcely to be expected that they would tolerate the piratical competition of hideous old women like the Witch of Endor. Hence that command in the law of Moses, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," which has been the cause of so much cruelty and bloodshed. Science and Experience. When science says a thing cannot be done, experience proves that she speaks prematurely almost always. We may as yet have no evidence of the reality of a future life, but that by no means demonstrates that we never shall have such evidence. A century ago we had no evidence of the X-rays, of the telephone, of the new theory of non-atomic matter. That men have been trying from the beginning of time to demonstrate another existence and have always failed is of no significance. Perhaps they have not tried in the right way. The objection that most of the things purporting to be said and done by spirits are absurd or trivial has no weight. The only way to find out how a spirit will act under given conditions is to place him under those conditions and watch the results. What seems absurd to us may not seem so to him. If he exists at all, his norms of worth may be, and probably are, very different from ours. According to the valuations of the spirit world, rapping on a table may be as exalted a function as heading an army is with us. How silly it was for Galvani to make a frog's leg twitch with his bits of zinc and copper! Yet something has come of it. How trifling a thing was the fall of Newton's apple! Yet he could see in it the revolutions of the stars. Perhaps some day another Newton will appear who can discern some law of universal import in those occult trifles which now merely puzzle without edifying us. As the course of the falling apple involves the trajectory of Arcturus, so the foolish raps upon a kitchen table which mystify a superstitious circle of devotees may imply the immortality of the soul. Let us wait and see. The _Oregonian_ appears to argue simply for an open mind--which is the right attitude for investigators. THAT GREAT MYSTERY, THE COMMON TABBY. There Must Be Something Esoteric About the Cat, to Judge from Her Astounding Performances. However cozily she may sleep upon the rug, however certain her knowledge of the quickest route to the milkpans on the closet shelf, the cat is ever but a guest in the house. Though occasionally she permits herself to be stroked, it is only when a stroking accords with her own desires. She never makes concessions as the dog does; she is selfish and independent; so canny in her policies as to be almost uncanny; aloof, full of indirections.