ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

Additional·Notes on Two Books. 617
lump of cinder red hot at the lower part and placed the red part
on the hail,dkerchief." How does Clodd know that Home put his
left hand in the fire? What is worth while stating so particularly
is worth while having authority for.
Again, he declares that " Sir William tells us that on another
occasion Home' took a good-sized piece of red-hot coal from the
fire, put it in his right hand and carried it with the other hand'."
This, too, counterfeits a direct quotation. But what Sir William
wrote was this (English Proceedings, VI, 103): "took out a
red-hot piece nearly as big as an orange, and putting it on his
right hand, covered it over with his left hand." Clodd goes on
with his vain attempts to quote Crookes: " Then ' he blew the
small furnace thus extemporized till the lump was nearly at white
heat '," in place of " then blew into the small furnace thus extemporized
until the lump of charcoal was nearly white hot."
Small divergences, but what Clodd says that Crookes wrote
Crookes did not write.
Other quotations are misapplied. He speaks of the cold air,
sometimes amounting to a decided wind, "which frequently preceded
the manifestation of the figures" [materializations]. But
Crookes did not mention this in connection with materializations.
He was talking of Home's phenomena, in which materializations
bore little part, and particularly of the movement of objects
without contact. His language was (Notes of an Enquiry into
the Phenomena Called Spiritual): "These movements (and indeed
I may say the same of every kind of phenomenon) are generally
preceded by a peculiar cold air, sometimes amounting to a
decided wind." The reports by Crookes are short, and if Clodd
cannot get them straight, what ability would he be likely to have
of dealing correctly with, or of even understanding (if we are to
acquit him of dishonesty), the voluminous Piper records?
Insinuation often takes the place of argument, and a peculiarly
vicious form of insinuation dares not face the facts of
record. Referring to the famous experiments with the spring
balance, he slyly suggests that a hair may have been used (88).
But the pull indicated was sometimes 3 0 poWlds. If Mr. Clodd
has in mind a human hair, he might have experimented and found
that no human hair will bear such a weight. If he means a horsehair,
not only would that increase visibility, but he should, to be
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