14. We sum up our preceding remarks in the following propositions: -
1st. All spiritist-phenomena imply, as their principle, the existence of the soul, its survival of the body, and the manifestations which result therefrom.
2d. These phenomena, occurring in virtue of natural law, are neither "marvellous" nor "supernatural," in the ordinary sense of those words.
3d. Many facts are only reputed to be "supernatural" because their cause is unknown; spiritism, by assigning to them a cause, brings them within the domain of natural phenomena.
4th. Among the facts commonly called "supernatural," there are many which spiritism shows to be impossible, and which it therefore relegates into the category of superstitions.
5th. Although spiritism recognises a foundation of truth in many popular beliefs, it by no means accepts all the fantastic stories created by the imagination.
6th. To judge of spiritism by pretended facts, the reality of which it does not admit, is to give proof of ignorance, and to deprive such judgement of all weight.
7th. The explanation of the causes of facts acknowledged by spiritism, and the ascertainment of their moral consequences, constitute a new science and a new philosophy, requiring serious, persevering, and careful study.
8th. Spiritism can only be conclusively disproved by one who should have thoroughly studied it and sounded its deepest mysteries with the patient perseverance of a conscientious observer; one as well versed in every branch of the subject as the most ardent of its adherents; one acquainted with all the facts of the case, and with every argument that could be opposed to him, and which he must refute, not by denials, but by arguments still more conclusive; one, in short, who can give, of admitted facts, a more rational explanation than is given by spiritism. But such a critic has yet to be discovered.
