149. Such is the result to which we have been led by the study of the
phenomenon of the snuff-box (116), to which we devoted much time and patience,
because we saw that it offered the opportunity of ascertaining one of the fundamental
laws of spirit-life, the knowledge of which would also elucidate more than one of the
mysteries of the visible world. It is thus that light may be obtained from a careful
examination of the simplest facts, provided that we do not confine ourselves to looking
merely for effects, without seeking for their causes. If our conviction of the reality of
the modern manifestations grows stronger day by day, it is because we understand what
we believe; and if we desire to convince others of their reality, we must present the
subject to them in such a way as that they, too, may understand it.
As for the value of the direct writing, we must admit that its chief utility has
hitherto been the additional proof thus afforded of the intervention of an occult power
in the production of phenomena appreciable by our senses, power which has found, in
this species of writing, a new method of manifesting itself. Direct writing has been
obtained in various ancient and modern languages, in hieroglyphics, &c.; but the
messages thus given have usually been short, this method of communication not having
as yet acquired the continuity and rapidity of psychography or writing by the hand of the medium.
