‘I presume you are what is called a clairvoyante. That, of course, I can understand. But, do you really believe in supernatural manifestations?’

Here the voice of the little Professor, who had quietly entered the room, supplied an answer.

‘Certainly not, sir. The office of solar biology is not to vindicate, but to destroy, supernaturalism. You mean superhuman, which is quite another thing.

‘All things abide in Nature, nought subsists

Beyond the infinite celestial scheme.

Motes in the sunbeam are the lives of men,

But in the moonlight and the stellar ray,

In every burning flame of every sphere,

Exist intelligible agencies

Akin to thine and mine.