is better perhaps not to treat them, for the very good
reason that they are small details. We will learn them
all soon for ourselves, and it is only vain curiosity
which leads us to ask for them now. One thing is
clear: there are higher intelligences over yonder to
whom synthetic chemistry, which not only makes the
substance but moulds the form, is a matter of
absolute ease. We see them at work in the coarser
media, perceptible to our material senses, in the
seance room. If they can build up simulacra in the
seance room, how much may we expect them to do when
they are working upon ethereal objects in that ether
which is their own medium. It may be said generally
that they can make something which is analogous to
anything which exists upon earth. How they do it may
well be a matter of guess and speculation among the
less advanced spirits, as the phenomena of modern
science are a matter of guess and speculation to us.
If one of us were suddenly called up by the denizen of
some sub-human world, and were asked to explain exactly
what gravity is, or what magnetism is, how helpless we
should be! We may put ourselves in the position, then,
of a young engineer soldier like Raymond Lodge, who
tries to give some theory of matter in the beyond--a
theory which is very likely contradicted by some other
spirit who is also guessing at things above him. He
may be right, or he may be wrong, but be is doing his
best to say what he thinks, as we should do in
similar case. He believes that his transcendental
chemists can make anything, and that even such