"[56] From this point of view we may make a brief outline of the
manner in which this particular "faculty" arose and was developed in
him.
When at Leicester, in 1844, his curiosity was greatly excited by some
lectures on mesmerism given by Mr. Spencer Hall, and he soon discovered
that he himself had considerable power in this direction, which he
exercised on some of his pupils.
Later, when his brother Herbert joined him in South America, he found
that he also possessed this gift, and on several occasions they
mesmerised some of the natives for mere amusement. But the subject was
put aside, and Wallace paid no further attention to such phenomena until
after his return to England in 1862.
It was not until the summer of 1865 that he witnessed any phenomena of a
spiritualistic nature; of these a full account is given in "Miracles and
Modern Spiritualism" (p. 132). "I came," he says, "to the inquiry
utterly unbiased by hopes or fears, because I knew that my belief could
not affect the reality, and with an ingrained prejudice even against
such a word as 'spirit,' which I have hardly yet overcome."
From that time until 1895, when the second edition of that book
appeared, he did much, together with other scientists, to establish
these facts, as he believed them to be, on a rational and scientific
foundation. It will also be noticed, both before and after this period,
that in addition to the notable book which he published dealing
exclusively with these matters, the gradual trend of his convictions,
advancing steadily towards the end which he ultimately reached, had
become so thoroughly woven into his "fabric of thought" that it appears
under many phases in his writings, and occupies a considerable part of
his correspondence, of which we have only room for some specimens.
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