THE PASSING OF DOCTOR BATAILLE The most obvious line of criticism in connection with the memoirs entitled _Le Diable au XIX^e Siecle_ would be the preposterous and impossible nature of its supernatural narratives.

To attribute a historical veracity to the adventures of Baron Munchausen might scarcely appear more unserious than to accept this _recit d'un temoin_ as evidence for transcendental phenomena.

I need scarcely say that I regard this reasoning as so altogether sound and applicable that it is almost unnecessary to develop it.

The personal adventures of Doctor Bataille as regards their supernatural element are so transparently fabulous that it would be intolerable to regard them from any other point of view.

That an ape should speak Tamil is beyond the bounds of possibility; it is impossible also that a female fakir or pythoness, aged 152 years, should allow herself to be consumed in a leisurely manner by fire; it is impossible that any ascetics could have maintained life in their organisms under the loathsome conditions prevailing within the alleged temple at Pondicherry; it is impossible that any person could have survived the ordeal which Dr Bataille pretends to have suffered at Calcutta,--to have relished and even prolonged; it is impossible that tables and organs should be found suspended from a ceiling at the close of a spiritual seance; it is impossible that the serpent of Sophia Walder should have been elongated in the manner described.