"When an Englishman once offered to light the streets of London by means of coal-gas conducted through pipes, everyone said that he was mad, and the Chancellor (Lord Brougham), writing to a friend in Edinburgh, said, 'There is an idiot here in London who says that he can light the city with coal-gas conducted through a tube.' Sydney Smith even asked the inventor whether he would not like to store his gas in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral?
"But before long all the streets of every capital in Europe were lit up by this very means.
"Galvani happened to hang some skinned frogs on an iron railing, with the intention of making them into soup, and, as chance would have it, tried the experiment of connecting the spinal column with the nerve of their legs by means of a bent wire made of tin and copper. Then he noticed that the legs twitched violently every time he made the connection, although they had been dead for some hours. He had no sooner published the account of what had happened than he became the laughing stock of Bologna; and no one thought sufficient of the experiment to repeat it for himself, and yet Galvani had discovered electricity, the greatest and most universally employed force that we know of. And if I tell you of this new force which I hope to exhibit to you some day, perhaps you will go away laughing at me, and saying, 'We don't understand what you are saying, and therefore you are talking nonsense.' If I 'will' to take this weight and raise it with my arm above my head, my will moves matter and overcomes gravity. What is the force which enables me to do it? You do not know. Neither do I, and yet no one in this room doubts that I have done it, because everyone of us performs a similar act a thousand times a day.
"Physiologists will tell you that every object we see forms a little image on a nervous layer at the back of our eyes, but they cannot tell you how that image is perceived by the mind, nor can they explain why the image appears so large—in fact life size—since the image on the retina (at the back of the eye) is a mere speck compared with the size of the image as it appears to us.
"People tell us that it is impossible that one body can act on another at a distance without anything connecting them. It is altogether as incomprehensible as a miracle, and yet we can see it happening every day of our lives. We call it gravitation, and imagine that by giving it a name we know all about it. But you cannot explain it, neither can I, and yet there is nothing in spiritualistic phenomena more wonderful, more incomprehensible than this. Why then should you take the one for granted, and absolutely refuse even to examine the other? Is it just to assert that a man must be bereft of his senses who believes in it, and has the courage to announce it publicly? You, my dear Monsieur Payot, who appear to know everything, assert that all the phenomena are the result of fraud, and so easy to perform that anyone can imitate them, you might give us physicists credit for some little amount of common sense. You seem to imagine that we, who have all our lives trained our faculties to observe minutely and to rest satisfied with nothing until we have examined it from every conceivable point of view, and reflected upon all possible source of error, can be deceived by tricks that a six-year-old child could see through in a minute. When I began my psychical investigations I not only visited all the conjuring exhibitions in Paris, but I underwent a course of instruction from Samuel Bellachini, Signor Bosco, Maskelyne and Devant, and Harry Kellar, besides mastering the works of Robert Houdin and Professor Hoffmann that I might make myself practically acquainted with every possible trick that is performed on the stage. But all these great conjurers assured me that with all their resources and apparatus they were unable to repeat the psychical phenomena which I have both witnessed and performed myself from time to time."
"Well, sir," replied Payot, visibly nettled by this speech, "since you are so clever, let me see some proof of your conjuring power."
"I am not accustomed to give exhibitions of conjuring either in public or private," replied Delapine with some warmth, "but since you have challenged me I will for once take up the gauntlet in my defence and convince you that I am not uttering idle words. Would you oblige me, Monsieur Payot, with the loan of your watch?"
Payot caught hold of his watch chain to remove it, but to his horror and amazement no watch appeared. It had gone.
"Oh, dear," he cried, "some one must have stolen it as I was coming here, as I remember perfectly well taking the time only a few minutes before I entered this house. It was a presentation watch, and a very valuable one too. My dear Villebois, will you be good enough to telephone to the police at once. I cannot afford to lose it," he added, looking very distressed.