Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

20 MODERN SPIRITISM
when the Rev. W. Stainton Moses, B. A. Oxon.,
a member of the S.P.R.,* a man of undoubted integrity
and the highest character, a college master at
University College, London, and a Mr. D. D. Home,
a nephew of the Earl of Home, also a man of high
character, joined the ranks of the new science as
mediums.
This is not the place for recounting their marvels;
but their advent and, at the same time, the wonderful
talents of the Rev. Henry Irving, the founder of the
Latter Day Saints, or so-called Holy Apostolic
Church, with all the wonders enacted in his services,
combined to interest all society, from the Throne
downwards, in this new cult.
Society for
Psychical Research
Such a science, claiming such unheard-of powers,
demanded authoritative investigation; and Sir
Wm. Barrett, Mr. Ed. Gurney, and others joined, in
1891, in founding the Society for Psychical Research,
of which Mr. Arthur Balfour, Sir Wm. Crookes,
Professor Henry Sidgwick, and other most distinguished
men have been presidents. Mr. Gladstone,
Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Professor Henri Bergson
were also active members. Its business was
closely to investigate all alleged phenomena of
the borderland, which it has continued to do
for nearly thirty years from its offices in Hanover
Square. So far as I am aware, however, it has
made no definite pronouncement upon Modern
Spiritism, for such is not its object; but it has
established as facts beyond question, the existence of
* Society for Psychical Research.