Religion: Dark Hour

The outbreak of World War II was a considerable embarrassment to British spiritualists. Before September 1, British spiritualist publications and practitioners were almost unanimous in proclaiming that their country would have ten or more years of peace. Last week, admitting that their faith was undergoing a dark hour, spiritualist apologists offered two explanations for the discrepancy between fact and forecast:

> Adolf Hitler suddenly went insane, thus upsetting calculations based on prior readings of his mind.

> Departed spirits are sometimes as fallible as living prophets.