_Secretary_.
* * * * *
The following correspondence explains itself:
PHILADELPHIA, January 26th, 1885.
DEAR DR. SLADE:--I think you need no assurance that the Seybert
Investigating Committee have been anxious to deal with you in the
fairest spirit of impartial, unbiased, scientific investigation, and I
think you will bear witness to their uniformly considerate courtesy
throughout our intercourse.
You know how very deaf I am, and do not therefore need to be reminded
that one should trust scarcely more to what a deaf man hears than to
what a blind man sees.
Wherefore, I want you, for my sake, and that the Committee may feel sure
of their ground, to confirm in writing what you have more than once said
to me, namely, that the Committee must conform to the conditions which
the Spirits impose; that you cannot consent to submit to any tests, and
that rather than do so you will return at once to New York; that we must
accept the manifestations as given by the Spirits; and that, since these
manifestations are the result of a gradual growth, it is impossible, in
the space of six séances, to repeat or to verify Professor Zoellner's
experiments; and, lastly, that, if on your return to New York, the
Spirits so authorize it, you will be willing, if desired, to make
arrangements for another series of séances with us of a higher order of
manifestations.