i6
PLANCHETTE.
then' effect; and he signified his desire to see for himself. A
meeting was accordingly arranged for him by Sir Emerson
Tenftant, at which Mr. Home, the medium, was to be present.
But, lo ! the day before the sitting was to have been held, Fara¬
day demanded a programme of what was to take place !
In a letter dated June 14, 1861,, he says, “It would be a con-
descensio?i on my part to pay any more attention to them [the
occult phenomena] now.” He asks, “Does Mr. Home wish me
to go? Is he willing to investigate as a philosopher, and, as
such, to have no concealments, no darkness? . . . Does he make
himself x-esponsible for the effects, and identify himself more or
less with their cause? Would he be glad if their delusive charac¬
ter were established and exposed ; and would he gladly help to
expose it, or would he be annoyed and personally offended?
Does he consider the effects natural or supernatural ? If natural,
what are the laws which govern them? or does he think they
are not subject to laws? If supernatural, does he suppose them
to be miracles or the work of spirits ? If the work of spirits,
would an insult to the spirits be considered as an insult to him¬
self? If the effects are miracles, or the work of spirits, does he
admit the utterly contemptible character, both of them and their
results, up to the present time, in respect either of yielding
information or instruction, or supplying any force or action of
the least value to mankind?”
Such was the spirit in which the great scientist approached
the subject. And Mr. John Tyndall, the eulogist of Faraday,
and hardly his inferior as a man of science, makes the follow¬
ing announcement, under date of May 8, 1868 : “ I hold myself in
readiness to witness and investigate, in the spirit of the forego¬
ing letter, such phenomena as Mr. Home may wish to reveal to
me during the month of June.”
Mr. Tyndall, echoing Faraday, calls upon Mr. Home, as pre¬
liminary to the “condescension” of an investigation by Mr.
Tyndall, to “ admit the utterly contemptible character of the
manifestations and their results ” !
In his reply to Mr. Tyndall, Mr. Home writes, “ I would ask