omitting anything that is essential for understanding it. There is, moreover, no such work available; indeed, histories of Spiritualism are curiously rare in the vast literature of the subject. Apart from a few works, such as those of Capron and Mrs. Hardinge, which give an enthusiastic account of the quite early years of the movement, we have in English only the large and learned work of Mr. Podmore, which is rather a store of material than an historical sketch, and a very scanty and almost useless work by Mr. Hill. There is, moreover, no work in a foreign tongue that one might profitably translate for English readers. De Vesme only reaches the threshold of his subject; Lehmann and Kiesewetter are even less helpful than Podmore to the man who wants a bird's-eye view of the development of Spiritualism. That is what I seek to give—a simple evolutionary interpretation of one of the most remarkable movements of modern times.
