But what he sought lay beyond nature and was subject to some rule of which he did not even know the elements, and much less the axioms.

Herein his instruments, or indeed, any that man could make, were as futile and as useless as would be the prayers of an archbishop addressed to a Mumbo-jumbo in a fetish house.

The link was wanting; there was, and could be, no communication between the two.
The invisible ether which he had subdued to his purposes was still a constituent part of the world of matter; he must discover the spiritual ether, and discover also the animating force by which it might be influenced.
Now he formed a new plan--to reach the dead by his petitions, by the invocation of his own spirit.

"Seek me and you shall find me," she had said.

So he sought and called in bitterness and concentration of heart, but still he did not find.