I have not attempted to be profound or mystical or even scientific, but I have tried to present clearly, simply, and as nearly without bias as possible, an account of what I have seen and heard. The weight of evidence seems, at the moment, to be on the side of the biologists; but I am willing to reopen the case at any time, although I am, above all, a man of the open air, of the plains and the mountains, and do not intend to identify myself with any branch of metapsychical research. It is probable, therefore, that this is my one and final contribution to the study of _the shadow world_. HAMLIN GARLAND. CHICAGO, _July, 1908_. THE SHADOW WORLD I A hush fell over the dinner-table, and every ear was open and inclined as Cameron, the host, continued: "No, I wouldn't say that. There are some things that are pretty well established--telepathy, for instance." "I don't believe even in telepathy," asserted Mrs. Quigg, a very positive journalist who sat at his right. "I think even _that_ is mere coincidence." Several voices rose in a chorus of protest. "Oh no! Telepathy is real. Why, I've had experiences--" "There you go!" replied Mrs. Quigg, still in the heat of her opposition. "You will all tell the same story. Your friend was dying in Bombay or Vienna, and his spirit appeared to you, _a la Journal of Psychic Research_, with a message, at the exact hour, computing difference in time (which no one ever does), and so on. I know that kind of thing--but that isn't telepathy." "What is telepathy, then?" asked little Miss Brush, who paints miniatures. "I can't describe a thing that doesn't exist," replied Mrs. Quigg. "The word means feeling at a distance, does it not, professor?" Harris, a teacher of English, who seldom took a serious view of anything, answered, "I should call it a long-distance touch." "Do you believe in hypnotism, Dr. Miller?" asked Miss Brush, quietly addressing her neighbor, a young scientist whose specialty was chemistry. "No," replied he; "I don't believe in a single one of these supernatural forces." "You mean you don't believe in anything you have not seen yourself," said I. To this Miller slowly replied: "I believe in Vienna, which I have never seen, but I don't believe in a Vienna doctor who claims to be able to hypnotize a man so that he can smile while his leg is being taken off." "Oh, that's a fact," stated Brierly, the portrait-painter; "that happens every day in our hospitals here in New York City." "Have you ever seen it done?" asked Miller, bristling with opposition. "No." "Well," asserted Miller, "I wouldn't believe it even if I saw the operation performed." "You don't believe in any mystery unless it is familiar," said I, warming to the contest.