What difference there is, is altogether in favour of the Inquisitor, who at least had what he regarded as a divinely constituted authority, competent and willing to pronounce final decision upon any subject that might trouble the human mind.

Science has no such tribunal, and when she forbids others to observe and to reflect she is no better than a blind fetish.
Eclipses in old days used to drive whole nations half mad with fright.
To this day the black disc of the moon no sooner begins to eat into the shining surface of the sun than millions of savage men feel "creepy," and begin to tremble at the thought of the approaching end of the world.
But in civilised lands even the most ignorant regard an eclipse with imperturbable composure.

Eclipses are scientific phenomena observed and understood.

It is our object to reduce ghosts to the same level, or rather to establish the claim of ghosts to be regarded as belonging as much to the order of Nature as the eclipse.

At present they are disfranchised of their natural birthright, and those who treat them with this injustice need not wonder if they take their revenge in "creeps." The third class of objection takes the ground that there is something irreligious and contrary to Christianity in the chronicling of such phenomena.