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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Psychical Miscellanea
+       Being Papers on Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism,
+       Christian Science, etc.
+
+Author: J. Arthur Hill
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2011 [EBook #37565]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHICAL MISCELLANEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, eagkw and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Psychical Miscellanea
+  _Being Papers on
+  Psychical Research, Telepathy,
+  Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc._
+
+  BY
+
+  J. ARTHUR HILL
+  _Author of "Psychical Investigations," "Man is a Spirit,"
+  "Spiritualism; Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine," etc._
+
+
+  NEW YORK:
+  HARCOURT, BRACE & HOWE,
+  1920
+
+
+
+
+  _Printed in England_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Many friends and correspondents have suggested that I should republish
+a number of articles which have appeared from time to time in various
+quarters. The present volume brings these articles together, with some
+which have not appeared before.
+
+Each chapter is complete in itself, but there is more or less connexion,
+for each deals with some aspect of the subject to which I have given
+most attention during the last twelve years--namely, psychical research.
+
+I thank the editors of the _Holborn Review_, _National Review_, _World's
+Work_, and _Occult Review_ for permission to republish articles which
+have appeared in their pages.
+                                                       J. A. H.
+  THORNTON,
+      BRADFORD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+  DEATH                                                    1
+  IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?                      11
+  PSYCHICAL RESEARCH; ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY  18
+  THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER                 43
+  DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?                                     52
+  THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY                               58
+  THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM                               63
+  CHRISTIAN SCIENCE                                       75
+  JOAN OF ARC                                             88
+  IS THE EARTH ALIVE?                                     94
+  RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR                         111
+
+
+
+
+Psychical Miscellanea
+
+
+
+
+DEATH
+
+
+Our feelings with regard to the termination of our earthly existence are
+remarkably varied. In some people, there is an absolutely genuine and
+strong desire for cessation of individual consciousness, as in the case
+of John Addington Symonds. Probably, however, this is met with only in
+keenly sensitive natures which have suffered greatly in this life. Such
+unfortunate people are sometimes constitutionally unable to believe in
+anything better than cessation of their pain. Anything better than
+that is "too good to be true", so much too good that they hardly dare
+wish for it. Others, who have had a happy life, naturally desire a
+continuance of it, and are therefore eager, like F. W. H. Myers, for
+that which Symonds dreaded. Others, again, and these are probably the
+majority, have no very marked feeling in the matter; like the good
+Churchman in the story, they hope to enter into everlasting bliss, but
+they wish you would not talk about such depressing subjects. This seems
+to suggest that they have secret qualms about the reality of the bliss.
+Perhaps they have read Mark Twain's _Captain Stormfield's Visit to
+Heaven_, and, though inexpressibly shocked by that exuberant work, are
+nevertheless tinged with a sneaking sympathy for its hero, who found the
+orthodox abode of the blest an unbearably dull place. The harp-playing
+in particular was trying, and he had difficulty in managing his wings.
+
+Anyhow, these people avoid the subject. As Emerson says somewhere,
+religion has dealings with them three times in their lives: when they
+are christened, when they are married, and when they are buried. And
+undoubtedly its main appeal is in the period prior to this third
+formality, if they happen to have a longish illness. The rich Miss
+Crawley, in _Vanity Fair,_ is typical of many. In days of health and
+good spirits, this venerable lady had "as free notions of religion and
+morals as Monsieur de Voltaire himself could desire"; but when she was
+in the clutches of disease, and even though in the odour of sanctity, so
+to speak--for she was nursed by Mrs Reverend Bute Crawley, who hoped for
+the seventy thousand pounds if she could keep Rawdon and Becky off the
+doorstep--even with this spiritual advantage she was in much fear, and
+"an utter cowardice took possession of the prostrate old sinner."
+
+Well, let those laugh who will. As for me, I have great sympathy with
+Miss Crawley. Probably those who laugh, or are contemptuous of such
+cowardice, are people who have not yet come to close quarters with
+death--have not looked him, as the French say, in the white of the
+eyes. Let them wait until that happens. If they come back after that
+rencontre, they will be a little more tolerant of the cowardice of those
+whom they called weaker brethren.
+
+Fear of death may be divided into classes, according to its cause, i.e.,
+the intellectual state out of which it seems to arise. It may be due to
+the expectation of physical suffering; or, as in such cases as Cowper's
+and Dr Johnson's, to expectation of what may happen after death, in
+that undiscovered country from which Hamlet said no traveller returned,
+though he had just been talking with his father's ghost, piping hot--as
+Goldsmith has it in his Essay on Metaphor--from Purgatory. In my own
+case, I think the fear is a little of both. And I admit that in both
+directions the fear is irrational. As to the physical part, it is
+probable that when my time comes I shall depart without much of what is
+usually called pain, for the heart seems to be my weak place, and I may
+reasonably hope that even though if attacked by other ailments, it
+will be the heart that will give way. There will probably be suffering
+through difficulty of breathing, and I dread this somewhat, for I know
+how unpleasant it has been in the attacks which I have survived. Still,
+it can hardly be compared with the agonising pain of many diseases.
+Rationally, then, I ought not to have much fear on the physical side.
+
+On the spiritual side I confess with Oliver Wendell Holmes that I have
+never quite got from under the shadow of the orthodox hell. I had a
+Puritan upbringing, not severe in its home theology I am thankful
+to say, but involving attendance at an Independent Chapel where the
+minister--a good man and no hypocrite--was wont to preach very terrible
+sermons. I shall never quite get over the baneful effect of those
+damnatory fulminations. They branded my soul. They caused me more pain
+than anything else has ever done throughout my life--and this is saying
+a great deal. They made me hate God. Remember, I was a defenceless
+child. I knew of no other God. I thought all decent people believed like
+those about me. I was the only heretic--a rebel, an outlaw, an Ishmael.
+Conceive, if you can, the agony of a sensitive child struggling with
+that thought! Condemned to eternal torment, with those who, in Dante's
+terrible line, "have no hope of death." ("Inferno," iii, 46.)
+
+Then I fell in with O. W. Holmes's Autocrat and Professor, and found a
+friendly hand in the darkness. It led me to Emerson and Carlyle; then
+I found Darwin, Spencer, and the rest of them. My loneliness was
+mitigated, but the seared place in my soul was not healed, and never
+will be healed. I cannot read the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante
+without horror, and thus the poetic beauty of those great cantos is
+darkened for me. I cannot worship "God," for "God" is the fiend whose
+image was stamped into my mind in its most plastic, most defenceless
+period. Truly that early teaching has much to answer for. It has
+poisoned a great part of my life. I suppose if I could have "accepted"
+that Being as my God, accepting also the sacrifice--the Blood--by which
+that Being's anger was supposed to be assuaged--I suppose I should have
+been happy, feeling myself "saved." (But I have lately been surprised to
+find how ineffective this belief can be. An acquaintance of mine, an
+orthodox churchwoman who has no religious doubts, and who talks much of
+the Bible, confesses to "a fear of death which clouds even her brightest
+moments"--an ever-present, unconquerable dread.) However, I could not
+accept the dogma. Why, I don't know. Somehow my whole mind and heart
+revolted against the entire plan of salvation. I never believed any of
+it. I felt it could not be true. And yet it tortured me. Illogical?
+Yes: human beings are illogical. I am no exception. The Christian who
+believes he will go to heaven is equally illogical in his unwillingness
+to die.
+
+When or if we succeed in getting rid of hell, the spiritual fear of
+death becomes less torturing, remaining only as a vague dread, as in
+Hamlet's soliloquy. Bacon says that we fear death as children fear to
+go in the dark. In my own case, it is somewhat thus that the fear now
+presents itself. The old hell-fear, though not utterly obliterated, is
+becoming less all-swallowing. This very desirable state of affairs
+is partly the result of the conclusions to which I have been led by
+psychical research. After many years of experiment and close study, I
+can say that I know something about after-death conditions. Not that I
+pretend to be able to coerce other people into a similar belief, even if
+I wanted to. Each must travel his own path. Moreover, psychical research
+being a science, its results are not more certain than those of other
+sciences. Alternative theories in explanation of any phenomenon are
+always possible. There is no such thing as knock-down proof. But for my
+part I can say that I know--in the same way that I know the truth of
+Mendeleef's law, or Avogadro's law, or Dalton's atomic theory--that
+human beings do not become extinct when they die, that they are often
+able to communicate with us after that event, and that they are not in
+any orthodox heaven or hell. My knowledge is based partly on a lengthy
+and carefully-conducted series of sittings which some intimate friends
+of mine have had with a medium known to me; partly on my own results
+over a period of several years of systematic investigation; and partly
+on various curious experiences of psychic friends of mine who are in no
+sense professional mediums. (Details to some extent in my _New Evidences
+in Psychical Research_ (Rider, 1911) and _Psychical Investigations_
+(Cassell, 1917.) I now believe, with the Bishop of London, that a man
+is essentially the same five minutes after death as he was five minutes
+before. As the old woman says in _David Copperfield_, "death doesn't
+change us more than life"--no, nor as much!
+
+The upshot is, of course, that my spiritual fear of death has, I am
+thankful to say, almost vanished. The lurid future has taken on a milder
+radiance.
+
+It is not that I want assuring of "happiness" in a future state as
+compensation for misery in this. I should be quite contented if I could
+be assured that death is annihilation. It would at least be a cessation
+of suffering; and that is much. I could agree with Keats:
+
+    "Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
+    I have been half in love with easeful Death,
+    Called him soft names in many a muséd rhyme,
+    To take into the air my quiet breath.
+    Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
+    To cease upon the midnight with no pain
+    While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
+            In such an ecstasy.
+    Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--
+    To thy high requiem become a sod!"
+                                   --(_To the Nightingale_)
+
+Easeful death--it is a good word. Keats knew disease, and was content
+with prospect of ease; though at the end there is a note of depression
+or despair at the thought of becoming a "sod," deaf and blind to beauty.
+
+This reminds us of the attitude of other poets towards the great
+problem. Tennyson is mildly optimistic and placid; stretches, indeed,
+somewhat lame hands of faith in his sorrowful moments when his friend
+has died, but on the whole is healthily disposed; friendly to the most
+cheerful way of looking at it; inclined, with true British burliness, to
+make the best of a bad job--a job which, after all, may not be so very
+bad when we come to closer quarters with it. Afar, death is the spectre
+feared of man; seen nearer, he may metamorphose into a beautiful Iris,
+sent by heavenly mercy. And, afterwards, the new spiritual state will
+probably be an improvement--Aeonian evolution through all the spheres.
+Therefore, away with all selfish mourning either about our own
+prospective fate or that of those who have left us. Let us hate the
+black negation of the bier:
+
+    "And wish the dead, as happier than ourselves
+    And higher, having climb'd one step beyond
+    Our village miseries, might be borne in white
+    To burial or to burning, hymned from hence
+    With songs in praise of death, and crowned with flowers."
+
+No doubt Tennyson was to a very great extent able to stay himself on
+the personal mystic experiences described in his poem _The Ancient
+Sage_--experiences which gave him a subjective assurance that death was
+"a ludicrous impossibility". Browning, characteristically buoyant, was
+ready to face death with a laugh; the fog in the throat will pass, the
+black minute's at end, then thy breast. In _Prospice_ we feel the eager
+sureness with which he looked forward to rejoining her whose bodily
+presence had left him a few months before. But even Browning's cheery
+salutation is outdone by Whitman. The American, though acquainted with
+suffering as Browning was not, and though apparently without much belief
+or interest in personal survival, was almost uncannily friendly to his
+own taking off. And it was not because he suffered so greatly that
+he hailed release. It was more the natural outcome of his joyous
+temperament, subdued at the last to a kind of solemn exaltation. The
+following stanzas were written with George Inness' picture _The Valley
+of the Shadow of Death_ in mind:
+
+    "Nay, do not dream, designer dark,
+    Thou hast portray'd or hit thy theme entire;
+    I, hoverer of late by this dark valley, by its confines, having
+          glimpses of it,
+    Here enter lists with thee, claiming my right to make a symbol too.
+    For I have seen many wounded soldiers die,
+    After dread suffering--have seen their lives pass off with smiles,
+    And I have watch'd the death-hours of the old; and seen the
+          infant die;
+    The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors;
+    And then the poor, in meagreness and poverty;
+    And I myself for long, O Death, have breath'd my every breath
+    Amid the nearness and the silent thought of thee.
+
+                  "And out of these and thee,
+    I make a scene, a song (not fear of thee,
+    Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark--for I do not fear thee,
+    Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot),
+    Of the broad blessed light, and perfect air, with meadows, rippling
+          tides, and trees and flowers and grass,
+    And the low hum of living breeze--and in the midst God's beautiful
+          eternal right hand,
+    Thee, holiest minister of Heaven--thee, envoy, usherer, guide
+          at last of all,
+    Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot called life,
+                Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death."
+
+This is indeed a change from the idea of Death as King of Terrors, as
+"spectre feared of man". (_In Memoriam_)
+
+The Greek idea, at its best, seems to have been half-way between the
+two extremes. It regarded death with more or less equanimity, as being
+certainly not the greatest evil--no king of terrors--but merely an
+emissary of greater Powers, to whose will we must bow, though with
+dignity:
+
+  "He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to whine
+  for life, and grasp intemperately at old age; let him leave this
+  point to Providence."--(Plato: _Gorgias_)
+
+Sophocles has the same thought, with an added touch of Hamlet-like
+irritation about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune:
+
+    "It is a shame to crave long life, when troubles
+    Allow a man no respite. What delight
+    Bring days, one with another, setting us
+    Forward or backward on our path to death?
+    I would not take the fellow at a gift
+    Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes;
+    But bravely to live on, or bravely end,
+    Is due to gentle breeding. I have said."--(_Ajax_)
+
+Cicero voices the same pagan feeling, in the contented language of a
+rather tired, wise old man:
+
+  "I look forward to my dissolution as to a secure haven, where I
+  shall at length find a happy repose from the fatigues of a long
+  voyage."--(_De Senectute_)
+
+And was it not Cato--fine old Stoic--who, finding his natural force
+abating, and accepting the hint furnished by a stumble in the street,
+stooped and kissed the ground: "Proserpine, I come!" and went home,
+making a speedy end, unwilling to suffer the indignity of disease and
+the shame of being served in weakness? Modern opinion wisely reprobates
+suicide, but there is something noble in the Roman attitude, condemn it
+as we will. As a modern and almost comic example of a modern Stoic's
+attitude to this same question of death we may cite the famous lines of
+Walter Savage Landor:
+
+    "I strove with none, for none was worth my strife,
+    Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art,
+    I warmed both hands before the fire of life,
+    It sinks, and I am ready to depart."
+
+"Strove with none", indeed! As a matter of fact, Landor strove with
+everybody. He was one of the most quarrelsome men that ever lived.
+The only man who could tolerate him was Browning. But in his mellower
+moments, at least, he was "ready to depart", quietly acquiescing in the
+scheme of things. To depart, note; not to be extinguished. And this view
+is, all things considered, the most sane and wholesome view of the great
+problem of Death. We did not begin to live when we were born in this
+present tenement of flesh; we shall not cease to live when we quit it.
+'Tis but a tent for a night, an interlude, a descent into matter, a
+temporary incarnation for educative purposes, of the soul or a part of
+it, as it pursues its lone way towards the ineffable goal. This life is
+but a sleep and a forgetting;
+
+    "The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
+    Has had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar."
+
+Death, then, is to be welcomed when it comes. We must not run to meet
+it, or run from it; but we should welcome it when God thinks fit to send
+it, His messenger. The beautiful eternal right hand beckons, and the
+soul gladly arises and departs, to "that imperial palace whence it
+came", or to fare forth on some "adventure brave and new".
+
+
+
+
+IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?
+
+
+A friend of mine tells me that psychical articles are always
+interesting, "because so many people die and go somewhere". Presumably,
+those who remain here feel a natural curiosity as to where the departed
+have gone, partly for the latter's sake, and partly because they
+themselves would like to know, so that they will know what to expect
+when their own time comes.
+
+The teaching of religion on this point is admittedly either rather
+vague, or, if definite--as with the Augustinian theology--no longer
+credible. We have progressed in sensitiveness and humanity, and can no
+longer believe that a good God will inflict everlasting torment in a
+lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, even on the most wicked of
+His creatures. Still less can we believe in such punishment being
+inflicted for the "sin of unbelief", for we now know well enough that
+"belief", being the net outcome of our total experience and character,
+is not under the control of the will. Consequently, a God who punished
+creatures for not believing, when He knew all the time that He had so
+constructed most of them that they could not believe, would be either
+wicked or insane. This inability to believe "to order" is plainly
+perceived if we reflect on what our feelings would be if a Mohammedan
+implored us to believe in Allah and in Allah's Prophet, as the only way
+of salvation. We should decline, saying perhaps that we knew better;
+but the real reason of our disbelief would not lie in our knowledge but
+in our general makeup. We could not believe in Mohammedanism if we
+tried. We have grown up in a different climate, and have taken a
+different form.
+
+But, putting aside the vindictive hell-god of Augustine, Tertullian,
+Calvin, and the rest--for not even an earthly father would punish a
+child for ever--and taking Christianity at its best, we do not find any
+very specific eschatological teaching. And this very absence is a good
+feature. If a man tries to be good merely in order to avoid hell and
+gain heaven--in other words, because it will pay--his goodness is not
+much of a credit to him. It is only selfishness of a far-sighted kind.
+Religion, on the other hand, when at its best, seeks to influence
+character, not by threats and promises, but by encouraging moods and
+attitudes and habits of thought from which good actions will flow
+spontaneously, without any profit-and-loss calculations. Modern
+Christianity is therefore perhaps right in touching much more lightly
+on the future state than was customary in earlier centuries.
+
+Nevertheless, we cannot repress a little curiosity. People die and go
+somewhere, as my friend says. Where do they go? Modern Religion having
+avoided definite answer, we turn to Science. And Science, much as it
+would surprise such fine old gladiators as Huxley and Tyndall to hear
+it--has an answer, and an affirmative one.
+
+Psychical research has, in my opinion, brought together a mass of
+evidence strong enough to justify the following conclusions. I do not
+say they are "proved." You cannot "prove" that the earth is round,
+unless your hearer will at least study the evidence. You cannot even
+prove to him that 2 plus 2 makes 4, if he refuses to add. Therefore I
+do not say anything about proof. I say only that after many years of
+careful study and investigation I am of opinion that the evidence
+justifies the conclusions.
+
+(1) Telepathy is a fact. A mind may become aware of something that is
+passing in another mind at a distance, by means other than the normal
+sensory channels. The "how" of the communication is entirely unknown.
+The analogy of wireless telegraphy of course suggests itself, but is
+misleading. The ether-waves employed in wireless telegraphy are physical
+pulses which obey the law of inverse squares; telepathy shows no
+conformity with that law, and has not been shown to be an affair of
+physical waves at all. I believe that it is not a physical process; that
+it occurs in the spiritual world, between mind and mind, not primarily
+between brain and brain. And, if so--if mind can communicate with mind
+independently of brain--the theory of materialism at least is exploded.
+If mind can act independently of brain, mind may go on existing after
+brain dies.
+
+(2) Communications, purporting to emanate from departed spirits, are
+sometimes so strikingly evidential that it is scientifically justifiable
+to assume the agency of a discarnate mind. For example, in a case known
+to me, a "spirit" communicating through a non-professional medium--a
+lady of means and position--referred to a recipe for pomatum which
+the communicator said she had written in her recipe book. No one knew
+anything about it; but, on hunting up the book, the deceased lady's
+daughters found a recipe for Dr Somebody's pomade, which their mother
+had evidently written shortly before her death. They confirmed that
+"pomatum" was the word which their mother used. The points to be noted
+are: That the medium was not a professional; that no one who knows her
+has doubted her integrity; that she was not acquainted with either
+the deceased lady or her daughters; that the knowledge shown was
+not possessed by any living (incarnate) mind, and is therefore not
+explainable by telepathy; and, finally, that the case was watched and
+reported on by one of our ablest investigators--a lecturer at Newnham
+College--who found no flaw in the evidence.[1] I repeat that I do not
+claim this to be "proof". I give it merely as an illustration, and will
+give a few more detailed cases in a later chapter. For the present I
+must be content to say that the mass of evidence known to me justifies
+the belief that minds survive what we call death.
+
+  [1] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xvii,
+  pp. 181-3.
+
+The question then arises: What is the nature of the after life? And here
+we are faced with great difficulties. We can ask the returning spirits,
+but we cannot verify their statements. If my uncle John Smith purports
+to communicate, I can test his identity by asking him to tell me
+intimate family details which I can verify by asking his widow, who
+still lives; but I cannot thus check his statements about his spiritual
+surroundings. Still, if he has proved his identity--particularly if
+telepathy seems excluded--we may perhaps feel fairly safe in accepting
+his other statements as true, or at least in admitting their possible
+truth. And of course we can obtain the statements of many different
+spirits, and can compare them. This has been done. The result is a
+striking amount of uniformity. The various spirits agree, on the main
+points.
+
+First of all, they are surprisingly unorthodox! They tell of no heaven
+or hell of the traditional kind. There is no sudden ascent into
+unalloyed and eternal bliss for the good--who, as Jesus pointed out,
+are not wholly good--and no sudden plunge into eternal fires for the
+bad--who, similarly, are not unqualifiedly bad. There is much of bad in
+the best of us, and much of good in the worst of us. Accordingly, the
+released soul finds itself not very different from what it was while in
+the flesh. It has passed into a higher class of the universal
+school--that is all. Tennyson has the idea exactly:
+
+    "No sudden heaven, nor sudden hell, for man,
+    But through the Will of One who knows and rules--
+    And utter knowledge is but utter love--
+    Aeonian Evolution, swift or slow,
+    Thro' all the Spheres--an ever opening height,
+    An ever lessening earth."
+
+I have said that this view is unorthodox, and so it is, if compared with
+the orthodoxy of Calvin or Edwards or Tertullian. But it is pleasant
+to find that orthodoxy to-day is a different thing, and that the
+Tennysonian notion is backed up in high quarters. The Bishopric of
+London is the highest ecclesiastical office in England, after the
+Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, and we find the present Bishop
+of London (Dr Winnington-Ingram) speaking as follows:
+
+"Is there anything definite about death in the Bible? I believe there
+is. I think if you follow me, you will find there are six things
+revealed to us about life after death. The first is that the man is the
+same man. Instead of death being the end of him, he is exactly the same
+five minutes after death as five minutes before death, except having
+gone through one more experience in life. In the second place the
+character grows after death; there is progress. As it grows in life
+so it grows after death. A third thing is, we have memory. 'Son,
+remember', that is what was said to Dives in the other world. Memory for
+places and people. We shall remember everything after death. And with
+memory there will be recognition; we shall know one another. Husband and
+wife, parents and children. Sixthly, we still take great interest in the
+world we have left".
+
+The good Bishop gets all this out of the Bible, and quite rightly. We
+hope no heresy-hunter will accuse him of "selecting" his texts and
+ignoring the hell-fire ones.
+
+So far as earth-language can go, the foregoing represents the probable
+truth regarding the after life. If we inquire for details, we shall
+get nothing very satisfactory. If we ask a spirit concerning what he
+does--how he occupies himself--he will either say he "cannot explain so
+that you will understand" or will tell about living in houses, going
+to lectures, teaching children, and the like. All this is obviously
+symbolical. Any communications that a discarnate entity can send must,
+to be intelligible to us, be in human earth-language; and this language
+is based on sense-experience. After death, experience is different, for
+we no longer have the same bodily senses--eyes, ears, etc.: consequently
+no explanation of the nature of spiritual existence can be more than
+approximately true; yet such expressions as living in houses, going to
+lectures, and the like, may be as near the truth as earth-language can
+get. If a bird tried to describe air-life to a fish, the best it could
+do would be to say it is something like water-life, but there is more
+light, more ease of movement, more detail, more things of interest
+and beauty. Of the wonders of sound--skylark's song, human choruses,
+instrumental symphonies--no idea could be conveyed to the fish. Probably
+our friends in the next stage of existence have, in addition to the
+experiences which they can partly describe, other experiences of which
+they can give us absolutely no idea. They have been promoted. Their
+interests and activities have become wider, their joys greater. Yet they
+are the "same" souls, as the butterfly is the "same" as the chrysalis
+from which it has arisen. But to know exactly what it feels like to be a
+butterfly, the caterpillar and chrysalis have to wait Nature's time. So
+must we.
+
+
+
+
+PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY.
+
+
+Spiritualism and Psychical Research are to the fore just now, and there
+is much newspaper and vocal discussion, based for the most part on
+ignorance, particularly as regards the violent attackers of these
+things. It is desirable that exact knowledge of the subject should
+become more general, and in a recent volume I have tried to review the
+whole subject impartially.[2]
+
+  [2] _Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine_ (Cassell &
+  Co., Ltd.).
+
+But there are many who in these stressful days have no time for even
+one volume on this kind of thing, and for them, or such of them as may
+read this, I have tried in the present article to give an idea of what
+psychical research is, on the spiritualistic side, omitting the medical
+side which concerns itself with suggestive therapeutics. The article was
+first written as a paper which was read before a society of clergy in
+Bradford, whose request for it was a significant and pleasing indication
+that ministers are aware of the importance of the subject. They are
+realising that psychical research is a powerful support to religious
+faith, and that its results provide comfort for the bereaved. We live in
+a scientific age, and the sorrowing heart asks for more than a text and
+an assurance that it is God's will and all for the best; it asks whether
+it is a fact that the departed one still lives and knows and loves,
+whether it is well with him, and whether there will be reunion "over
+there". Psychical research enables us to answer these questions in
+the affirmative. Science is now backing up religion, and is providing
+ministers with by far the best weapon against materialism and so-called
+rationalism. It meets these negative 'isms on their own ground, and does
+not need to take cover under intuition or personal religious experience,
+which are convincing only to the experient. I am not belittling these;
+I am only saying that the phenomenal evidence is more potent for the
+scientific type of mind, and that a knowledge of this evidence is useful
+to those who are defending religion.
+
+
+TELEPATHY
+
+It is found by experiment that ideas can be communicated from mind to
+mind through channels other than the known sensory ones. Professor
+Gilbert Murray of Oxford, probably the most famous Greek scholar in this
+country, recently carried out some interesting experiments of this kind
+in his own family. He would go into another room, leaving his wife and
+daughter to decide on something which they would try to communicate to
+him on his return. They chose the most absurd and unlikely things, but
+in a large number of cases Professor Murray, by making his mind as
+passive as possible and saying the first thing that came into his head,
+was able to reproduce with startling accuracy the idea they had in mind.
+For instance, they thought of Savonarola at Florence and the people
+burning their clothes and pictures and valuables. Says Professor Murray:
+"I first felt 'This is Italy', then, 'this is not modern'; and then
+hesitated, when accidentally a small tarry bit of coal tumbled out of
+the fire. I smelt oil or paint burning and so got the whole scene. It
+seems as though here some subconscious impression, struggling up towards
+consciousness, caught hold of the burning coal as a means of getting
+through".[3] On another occasion they thought of "Grandfather at the
+Harrow and Winchester cricket match, dropping hot cigar-ash on Miss
+Thompson's parasol." Professor Murray's guess, reported verbatim, was:
+"Why, this is grandfather! He's at a cricket match--why it's absurd:
+he seems to be dropping ashes on a lady's parasol." Another time they
+thought of a scene in a book of Strindberg's which Professor Murray had
+not read: a poor, old, cross, disappointed schoolmaster eating crabs for
+lunch at a restaurant, and insisting on having female crabs. Professor
+Murray says: "I got the atmosphere, the man, the lunch in the restaurant
+on crabs, and thought I had finished, when my daughter asked: 'What kind
+of crabs?' I felt rather impatient and said: 'Oh, Lord, I don't know:
+female crabs.' That is, the response to the question came automatically,
+with no preparation, while I thought I could not give it. I may add that
+I had never before heard of there being any inequality between the sexes
+among crabs, regarded as food."
+
+  [3] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. 29,
+  p. 59. (For brevity's sake I shall hereinafter use the recognised
+  initials "S.P.R." for the Society.)
+
+This kind of evidence is not the best, because the thoughts of
+members of one family run more or less in similar grooves; though the
+experimenters recognised this and chose unlikely things purposely. Other
+investigators have sometimes used cards, drawing one at random from a
+shuffled pack, looking at it, and the percipient then trying to say what
+it is. The chance of success is of course one in fifty-two, and the
+amount of success which we might expect by chance in any series can
+be mathematically determined. In one series of successful experiments
+conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge the odds against an explanation by chance
+alone were about ten millions to one. In ordinary matters this would be
+regarded as proof.
+
+Other experiments of the same general character have been carried out by
+Sir William Barrett, Professor Sidgwick, and others, and details may be
+found in the S.P.R. _Proceedings_. In most cases the idea comes into the
+mind as an impression, but if the percipient is a good visualiser it is
+sometimes seen almost externalised as a hallucination. This leads us to
+the next step.
+
+If it is possible to convey to another mind--sometimes so vividly that
+the thing is almost seen as if out there in space--an image of scenes
+thought about, may it not be possible to convey an image of oneself?
+This idea occurred to a gentleman referred to by Myers as Mr S. H. B.
+in his book _Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death_. Mr
+S. H. B., whom I know by correspondence and whose brother I have known
+personally for many years, decided that he would try to make himself
+visible to two young ladies whom he knew, and he concentrated his mind
+on the effort just before going to bed. He willed to show himself in
+their room at one o'clock in the morning. The distance from his house to
+theirs was three miles. Next time he saw them, a few days later, they
+told him they had had a great fright: the elder sister had seen Mr B.'s
+apparition, had screamed and awakened her little sister, who also saw
+him. The time was one o'clock in the morning. They told him this before
+he said anything about his experiment, and they had no reason to expect
+that he would try anything of the kind. Both Mr B. and his brother
+are keen and successful business men; Mr S. H. B. is now retired, his
+brother is still the head of a large firm. I mention this because some
+critics seem to have a notion that psychical researchers are a crowd of
+long-haired poets or semi-lunatic cranks.
+
+
+PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD
+
+Now if a living man can by force of will project a telepathic phantasm
+of himself, it is reasonable to suppose that a dead man can do the same,
+if the so-called dead man still exists; for telepathy does not seem to
+be a physical process of ether-waves, does not conform to the law of
+inverse squares or propagate itself in all directions as physical forces
+do. It seems to occur in the mental world, between mind and mind rather
+than between brain and brain. Consequently, telepathy from the dead is
+likely to be easier than from the living, for they over there are not
+clogged with the fleshly body. Certainly, however they may be explained,
+there are many cases of the apparition of a deceased person. The
+difficulty about accepting the evidentiality of some of them is that if
+the percipient knew that the person appearing was dead, the apparition
+may be merely a subjective hallucination. And even if the death was not
+known, it might be surmised, and the apparition might be the result of
+expectancy if the person appearing was known to be ill or in danger. But
+there are some cases in which a certain amount of detail is conveyed,
+rendering a subjective explanation not very probable. For instance,
+Captain Colt had a vision of his brother, in a kneeling position, with
+a bullet wound in his right temple. He described the vision to several
+people in the house before any news came, so the case does not rest on
+his word alone. In due time information arrived that his brother had
+been killed. He had been shot through the right temple, had fallen among
+a heap of others, and was found in a kneeling position. In his pocket
+was a letter from Capt. Colt asking him, if anything happened to him,
+to make his presence known in the room in which as a matter of fact the
+apparition was seen. The vision, it was found, occurred a few hours
+after the death. Mr Myers gives full details in _Human Personality_.
+In this case the bullet-wound and the kneeling position are points of
+correct detail which are hardly explicable on a subjective theory. The
+best sceptical theory is that the incident was telepathic, the wounded
+brother sending out his telepathic message after being shot. This is
+possible, but hardly probable; for death in the case of a bullet-wound
+through the temple must be almost instantaneous.
+
+Spontaneous cases of this kind and of this degree of evidentiality
+are rare, but there is a large mass of evidence of the same general
+character. The S.P.R. once carried out an extensive inquiry, receiving
+answers from 17,000 people, and tabulating the results in a volume of
+the _Proceedings_. The final conclusion, expressed in weighed and
+guarded words, was that "Between deaths and apparitions of the dying
+person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone". This was
+signed, among other members of the Committee, by Professor Sidgwick,
+whom Professor James once called "the most exasperatingly critical mind
+in England". Some of the apparitions occur before the person's actual
+death, but usually in such cases he is already unconscious and the
+spirit practically free. As to those occurring after, the main
+difficulty about admitting them as proof of survival is, as just said,
+the possibility that although they may appear after the death of the
+person, the telepathic impulse may have been sent out before, and may
+have remained latent for some time in the mind of the percipient. This
+has been carefully considered by investigators, and in many cases there
+are reasons for regarding it as an insufficient theory. On the whole,
+the evidence tends more and more to suggest that in at least some
+instances these happenings are due to the agency of a discarnate mind.
+The proof is cumulative, and no single case can be crucial. There is
+no coerciveness about it, and each can invent his own hypothesis. But
+those who have considered the subject most carefully have come to the
+provisional conclusion that the agency of the so-called dead is in some
+cases a reasonable, and indeed the most reasonable, supposition. There
+are of course many narratives of this kind in the Bible,[4] the _Lives_
+of the Saints, and other literature, but these records, being of
+pre-scientific date, and lacking the corroborative testimony which we
+now require, are of a lower order of evidentiality. The new evidence,
+however, is throwing a backward light on many of these ancient stories,
+and making them credible once more. To me personally, the Bible is a
+much more living book than it used to be. I believe that many things in
+it which I used to regard as myths may have been facts.
+
+  [4] _E.g._, Moses and Elias on the Mount.
+
+
+NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE
+
+There are instances, then, of people occasionally having visions which
+seem to be in some way caused by departed persons. Sometimes the
+percipient has only one experience of the kind in his life; more often
+he has several, for this seeing power is somehow temperamental--a sort
+of gift, like the alleged second sight of the Highlander. It was well
+known to St Paul, as his reference to "discerning of spirits" shows
+(1 _Cor._, xii). With some people the experience is fairly common. And
+in a very few persons the gift is so strong that it is to some extent
+under control. I say to some extent, and I wish to use words very
+carefully and to have them understood very clearly at this point. I
+know several people, who by putting themselves into a passive and
+receptive condition, but without any trance state, can generally get
+evidential messages from somewhere; that is, messages embodying facts
+which the sensitive did not normally know. And some of this matter
+seems to be due to telepathy from the dead. But it cannot be done at
+will. I believe that professional mediums who sit for all comers for a
+fee are often, and indeed generally, quite honest people, but that they
+cannot distinguish between their own imaginations and what really comes
+through. Professor Murray, when saying what came into his head, did not
+know whether it was right or not; that is, he did not know, until he was
+told, whether he had really got the thing telepathically or whether
+it was an idea thrown up by his own imagination. So with professional
+mediums. They give out the ideas that come to them, but as a rule they
+cannot distinguish; and, the power not being entirely under control,
+there is often a large mixture of their own imagination.
+
+I have, however, the good fortune to be acquainted with a sensitive who
+has the unusual power of being able to distinguish; and this is a great
+advantage, rendering verbatim note-taking much easier, and eliminating
+any necessity for balancing hits against misses. If nothing comes, he
+sits silent or talks ordinarily. If he gets anything, it is practically
+always correct. The amount of his success varies, and he will not sit
+for people in general. I know many people who have asked him to visit
+them, offering handsome payment, but he usually declines. He says he
+cannot do it to order, and would be upset if he failed and caused
+disappointment. He comes to me, however, because I understand and
+always tell him that he need not worry if he gets nothing. In fact the
+meeting is regarded as a social call and not as a séance. We talk for
+a while about ordinary things, and in half-an-hour or so, if the medium
+can get his mind placid enough and is in good trim generally, he will
+begin to see and describe spirits present, often getting their names
+and all sorts of details. These come for the most part in flashes, and
+I take down every word he says, in shorthand, without giving any help
+or indication as to whether he is right or wrong. Sometimes in a whole
+afternoon he will have only one or two of these gleams, and on one
+occasion he got nothing. With conditions at their best he will talk
+almost continuously for an hour, the flashes following each other
+closely; and sometimes a spirit will remain visible for several
+minutes, moving about the room. About a dozen of these interviews are
+described in detail in my book _Psychical Investigations_, and other
+investigations of the same sensitive by two very able friends of mine
+in another town are described in _New Evidences in Psychical Research_.
+
+Perhaps one or two illustrative incidents may make things clearer.
+
+The first time Wilkinson came to see me he said, in the middle of
+ordinary talk, that he saw with me the form of a woman who looked about
+fifty-four, and whom he described, saying further that her name was
+Mary. Taking up a piece of paper and a pencil, he wrote in an abstracted
+manner the words "Roundfield Place". He looked at it, without reading
+it aloud, then said: "That will be a house", and proceeded to write
+something else. I got up to look, and found "Roundfield Place. Yes" (the
+"Yes" written in answer to his remark "That will be a house") and a
+signature "Mary". Now it happens that my mother's name was Mary,
+that the description applied to her, and that she died, in 1886, at
+Roundfield Place, not the house to which Wilkinson came, whither we
+removed in 1897. Other similar things were said, about other deceased
+relatives, all true.
+
+In this kind of thing it is our duty to stick to known causes before
+admitting unknown, and my first supposition was that Wilkinson had
+primed himself with information. He could have ascertained most of the
+things by local inquiry, though it would not be very easy, for my mother
+had been dead twenty-two years, and only middle-aged or elderly people
+would remember her. Further interviews with him, however, soon carried
+me beyond the fraud theory--for holding which I now apologise to him,
+feeling considerably ashamed--for he gave me messages from many people
+whose association with me I feel sure he did not know, and also some
+family matter of a very private kind, characteristic of the spirit who
+purported to be communicating, but known to only four living people. I
+then fell back on telepathy, assuming that the medium was reading my
+mind. But, pursuing my investigations, I received information which I
+did not know but which turned out true. For example, Wilkinson on one
+occasion described a Ruth and Jacob Robertshaw, giving details about
+them and saying that Ruth had a very spiritual appearance, with a sort
+of radiance about her, indicating that she had been a very good woman,
+and giving other particulars. All this meant nothing to me, for the
+names were unknown. But, as I had on some other occasions found that
+spirits were described who were relatives of my last visitor, I asked
+the person who had last entered the room--except inhabitants of the
+house--whether she had known people of these names. It turned out that
+they were connexions of hers with whom she had been in close touch
+during life, and everything said by the medium was correct. Now in the
+first place this incident ruled out fraud, for Miss North's visit had
+occurred three days before, and Wilkinson would have had to have
+detectives watching both doors of my house, from first thing in the
+morning to the last thing at night, to find out who my last visitor
+had been; or he would have had to be in league with a servant or a
+neighbour, and even thus could hardly have succeeded, for servants
+are sometimes out--moreover, similar things have happened during the
+_régime_ of different servants--and neighbours could not easily watch
+both doors during dark winter evenings. Further, our neighbours are
+friends of ours, non-spiritualists, and not acquainted with Wilkinson.
+And, after getting to know who my last visitor was, information about
+her deceased relatives would have had to be hunted up. I could give
+further reasons for believing that fraud was an untenable hypothesis,
+but I must be brief. What, next, about telepathy? Well, I had no
+conscious knowledge of these people, so the medium could not have got
+his information from my conscious mind. It is possible to assume that
+I knew it subliminally, and that the medium abstracted it from those
+hidden levels of my mind. This is a guess, but a legitimate guess. It
+is the guess that Miss Dougall (author of _Pro Christo et Ecclesia_)
+makes in criticising this very incident in the book of essays called
+_Immortality_, by Canon Streeter and others. She suggests that on the
+occasion of Miss North's visit my mind had photographed the contents
+of hers, without my knowing it, and that the medium developed the
+photograph and read off the required information. It may be so, but it
+seems to me far-fetched. Miss Dougall, I may add, is a member of the
+S.P.R., and her criticism is instructed criticism, worthy of careful
+attention. But I cannot accept her theory, which seems to me more
+wonderful and to require more credulity than the spirit theory. For it
+is to be observed that the assumed mind-reading is of a character quite
+different from anything that has been experimentally established. In
+telepathic experiments, like those of Professor Murray, some incarnate
+person is _trying_ to communicate the thought. This is not the case in
+my sittings with Wilkinson. I am not trying to communicate anything to
+him; very much the contrary. And I do not find, after long and careful
+observation, any parallelism between what he says and what I happen to
+be thinking about. There is, in short, no evidence for the supposition
+that my mind is read. The evidence points unmistakably to discarnate
+agency--telepathy _from the dead_.
+
+
+TRANCE
+
+The sort of thing I have described is usually known as normal
+clairvoyance, because the sensitive is in a normal state, not in
+trance. But there is a further stage, into which, indeed, Mr Wilkinson
+sometimes passes, in which there is a change of personality, and a
+spirit purports to speak or write with the medium's organs. There
+is nothing weird or uncanny in the procedure, nothing deathly or
+coma-like; the medium usually sits up and even walks about, though
+some trance mediums have to sit still and keep their eyes closed. I
+have had visits from many trance mediums; and most of them have failed
+to get anything evidential--which at least suggests their honesty, for
+they could easily have obtained _some_ information about my deceased
+relatives. But the whole matter of trance control is a thorny problem.
+Indubitably, evidence of supernormal faculty is sometimes given in
+this state, but we of the S.P.R. are divided as to what the control
+really is. Some think it is a spirit, as claimed; others think it is
+a secondary personality of the medium, as in the remarkable case
+of split personality described in Dr Morton Prince's book _The
+Dissociation of a Personality_. Mrs Sidgwick, widow of the Professor
+and sister of Mr A. J. Balfour, has made a careful psychological study
+of the case of Mrs Piper, given in 657 pages of _Proceedings_, vol.
+28, and her conclusion is that though telepathy from the dead is
+probably shown, and certainly some kind of supernormality, the
+controls themselves are dream-fragments of the medium's mind. I am not
+qualified to pronounce an opinion on Mrs Piper, not having met her;
+but as to the trance mediums I have experimented with, I incline to
+agree with Mrs Sidgwick. I think it may be a dodge of the subliminal
+to get the over-anxious normal consciousness temporarily out of
+the way. But this is a psychological detail, and a difficult one,
+requiring much further study. From the psychical research point of
+view Mrs Piper's case may be studied in _Proceedings_, vols. 6, 8, 13,
+16, and a few of the later ones, or some idea of it can be got from
+Sir Oliver Lodge's _Survival of Man_. All the investigators were
+convinced of either telepathy or something more. Fraud was excluded by
+introducing sitters anonymously, Dr Hodgson himself introducing over
+150 different people in this way, and taking careful notes. I have
+experimented similarly with Wilkinson, introducing people from distant
+places such as Middlesex and Northumberland as well as from towns
+nearer home, either under false names or with no names at all, and
+being present myself to take notes. Friends of mine have done the same
+thing. We were unanimously sceptical to start with, probably more
+sceptical than most of those who will read this paper, for we
+disbelieved in survival itself. We are now convinced that the fraud
+theory is out of the question, that at the very least a complicated
+theory of mind-reading--including the reading of the minds of distant
+and unknown persons--must be assumed if the theory of survival and
+communication is to be avoided.
+
+Of late years there has been a great development in automatic writing
+among quite non-professional mediums--private people who are members of
+the S.P.R., as for instance the late Mrs Verrall, Classical Lecturer at
+Newnham--and some noteworthy evidence has been obtained. But it is too
+complex even to summarise here. It seems to be the work of Gurney,
+Hodgson, Myers, and Sidgwick, on the other side, for different messages
+have come through different sensitives, making sense when put together,
+and sense characteristic of these departed leaders. This had not been
+thought of, so far as we know, by any living person, and it seems to
+eliminate telepathy from the living, for the messages are not understood
+until the bits are pieced together. The evidence fills several volumes
+of our _Proceedings_, and students should read them carefully.
+
+There are many other kinds of mediumship or psychic faculty, and many
+volumes are in existence on each phase; the library of the London
+Spiritualist Alliance contains about 3,000. I have read about 500 of
+them, and would not recommend anyone else to do the same. There is a
+great deal of rubbish among them, though they are not all rubbish. The
+reading I recommend is the _Proceedings_ of the S.P.R., the writings of
+Sir William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr W. J. Crawford, and, above
+all, the great work of F. W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and Its
+Survival of Bodily Death_, in the original two-volume edition. The
+abridged one-volume edition omits many of the illustrative cases. I do
+not think that conviction is to be achieved by mere reading; books
+would never have convinced me. But careful reading is perhaps
+sufficient to lead a fairly tolerant mind to realise that there is
+something here which must not be dismissed off-hand; something which is
+worthy of investigation. That is as much as we expect. Sir Oliver Lodge
+often says that we shall do well if we succeed, in this generation, in
+modifying the psychological climate, creating an atmosphere more
+favourable to unprejudiced examination of the facts. We have no desire
+for revolutions; we want knowledge to grow slowly and surely. The
+S.P.R. has been in existence only thirty-seven years, and the
+subject is in its scientific infancy. Take the beginnings of any one
+science--say, Chemistry, dating it somewhat arbitrarily from Priestley
+or Dalton--and note what a little way discovery had gone in a like
+period. With increased numbers of workers the pace increases; but in
+every science the progress at first must be slow. In psychical research
+a good start has been made, and the investigators seem to be certainly
+on the track of something, whether their inferences are right in
+every detail or not. And every advance in science has extended our
+conceptions of this wonderful universe. The heavens declare the glory
+of God in a tremendously larger way than they did in the days of the
+old Ptolemaic astronomy, though man foolishly fought the Copernican
+idea because it seemed to lessen our dignity by making our earth a
+speck on the scale of creation instead of the central body thereof. So
+with all other phenomena, physical and psychical. We may be sure that
+all discovery will be real revelation. With this faith--a well-grounded
+faith--we need not fear advance.
+
+
+RECENT CRITICISM
+
+I add a few words, rather against my inclination, about recent criticism
+of a kind which is hardly worthy that name. Two books, one by Dr Mercier
+and one by Mr Edward Clodd, have had a certain popularity, mainly
+because they attacked, with a certain smartness of phrase, the book of
+a greater man. "Raymond" was being widely read and talked about, and
+its popularity secured some success for these hostile books. Curiously
+enough, even some of the clergy have quoted approvingly some of the
+arguments of these rationalists, no doubt much to the glee of Mr Clodd
+in particular. Now I have said before that instructed criticism is
+always welcome, for we may hope to learn something from it. But Dr
+Mercier, on his own statement, came new to the subject at the age of
+sixty-four, read _Raymond_ and _The Survival of Man_, and immediately
+sat down to write a flippant book the publication of which we hope he
+now regrets. Not only had he never investigated for himself, but he was
+also ignorant of the work of the S.P.R.
+
+As to Mr Clodd, his book is better-informed, though frequently unfair.
+For instance, in his references to me he is very careful to avoid
+any consideration of the strong parts of my case. Like the famous
+theological professor, he looks the difficulties boldly in the face--not
+_very_ boldly--and passes on, without speaking to them. He has obviously
+read fairly widely, but where he does criticise in detail, he always
+seizes on weak points and quietly ignores the strong ones. As to
+personal investigation he is almost entirely without experience. He says
+he attended a séance about fifty years ago, but has forgotten most of
+what happened! He says this, with a momentary lapse from his usual
+cleverness--for it gives away his case--in a letter to the April (1918)
+_International Psychic Gazette_. In other words, he poses as an
+authority on a branch of science of which he has no first-hand
+knowledge. He criticises and dismisses airily the opinions and
+investigations of those who have worked at the subject for ten, twenty,
+thirty, or forty years; for it is over forty years since Sir William
+Barrett brought his experiments in telepathy before the British
+Association. Mr Clodd is a Rationalist, and knows without investigation
+that these things cannot be. He is as _à prioristic_ as a medieval
+Schoolman, in spite of his scientific pose. And his prejudices
+unfortunately prevent him from seeking and studying the facts which
+might lead him to other conclusions.
+
+I have not said anything about the S.P.R. itself, but may here add a
+few remarks. Says its official leaflet: "The aim of the Society is to
+approach these various problems without prejudice or prepossession of
+any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry
+which has enabled Science to solve so many problems, once not less
+obscure nor less hotly debated.... Membership of the Society does not
+imply the acceptance of any particular explanation of the phenomena
+investigated, nor any belief as to the operation, in the physical world,
+of forces other than those recognised by Physical Science". In other
+words, the Society has no creed, except that the subject is worth
+investigating.
+
+The Society has well over 1,000 members, and is growing steadily. It
+includes many famous men in all walks of life, and indeed its membership
+list has been said to contain more well-known names than any other
+scientific society except the Royal Society itself. Among the
+Vice-presidents are the Right Honourables A. J. and G. W. Balfour, Sir
+William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Bishop Boyd-Carpenter and
+the late Sir William Crookes. The President for the current year is Lord
+Rayleigh, probably the greatest mathematical physicist now living.[5]
+The President of the Royal Society (Sir J. J. Thomson) is a member, also
+Professor Henri Bergson of Paris, Dr L. P. Jacks (editor of _The Hibbert
+Journal_) and innumerable other scientists and scholars whose names are
+known to everyone.
+
+  [5] Lord Rayleigh's lamented death has since occurred, July, 1919.
+
+Finally let me assure you that the S.P.R. is so conservative and
+suspicious that admission is almost as difficult to obtain as membership
+of a high-class London club. It is extremely anxious to keep out cranks
+and emotional people of all sorts, and it requires any applicant to be
+vouched for as suitable by two existing members; and each application is
+separately considered by the Council. The result is a level-headed lot
+of members, and the maintenance of a sane and scientific attitude and
+management.
+
+From the philosophic side it is sometimes urged that we cannot reason
+from the phenomenal to the noumenal, from the world of appearance to the
+world of reality; that consequently nothing happening in the material
+world can prove the existence of a spiritual one. But this is easily
+answered. We cheerfully agree, with Kant, that a spiritual world cannot
+be proved coercively and in such knock-down fashion that belief cannot
+be avoided. But it can be proved in the same way and to the same extent
+as many other things which we believe and find ourselves justified in
+believing. For instance, atoms and electrons and the Ether of Space are
+not phenomenal; no one has ever seen or heard or felt or smelt them; but
+we infer their real existence from the behaviour of the matter which
+does affect our senses. Again: we cannot _prove_ to ourselves that other
+human beings exist, or even that an external world exists; my experience
+may be a huge subjective hallucination. If I were reading this paper I
+should not be able to prove to myself that any other mind was present.
+Looking around, I should receive certain impressions--sensations of
+sight--and I should call certain aggregations of these the physical
+bodies of beings like myself. From the similarity of their structure and
+behaviour to the structure and behaviour of my own body, I should infer
+that they have got minds somehow associated with them, as my mind is
+associated with my body. But you could not prove it to me. If you got
+angry with my obstinacy, and knocked me down, I should experience
+painful sensations, but the existence of a mind external to me--and an
+angry one--would still be a matter of inference only. But we find that
+the inference is justified. We find that it "works," and social life is
+possible. For the purposes, then, both of science and of ordinary life,
+we do reason from phenomenon to noumenon, from appearance to reality,
+from attribute to substance; and our reasoning justifies itself.
+I affirm, therefore, that the kind of proof which we as psychical
+researchers put forward for the existence of and communication from
+discarnate minds, is philosophically the same kind as the proof we have
+of the existence of incarnate minds. If a short and clear exposition of
+the point is required, free from any psychical-research bias, I may
+refer inquirers to the chapter on the Psychological Theory of an
+External World in J. S. Mill's _Examination of Sir William Hamilton's
+Philosophy_. Our evidence may be insufficient to justify belief--in the
+opinion of many, it is--and I blame no one for disbelieving; but it is
+evidence. And if it sufficiently accumulates and improves in quality, it
+may amount to a degree of proof at least comparable with that concerning
+electrons, which are now accepted as real by all physicists.
+
+One or two difficulties may here be briefly referred to:
+
+1. The appearance in Mrs Piper's script of such obvious dream-stuff
+as messages from Homer, Ulysses, and Telemachus! These are of course
+absurdities, and no psychical researcher regards them as anything else.
+But they are no more absurd than many of our own dreams, and we must
+remember that automatic writing comes from the dream-strata of the
+medium's mind, these strata seeming to lie _between_ our normal
+consciousness and the spiritual world. Consequently messages which
+really seem to come from beyond: _i.e._, which are evidential--are often
+mixed with subliminal matter from the medium's mind. As a communicator
+once said: "The medium's dreams get in my way." All this has to be
+allowed for, but in good mediums there is not much of it. In my friend
+Wilkinson's case there is none, for he can distinguish. In Mrs Piper's
+case there is a little, but it does not invalidate the huge mass of real
+evidence that has come. And it at least testifies to her honesty, for no
+medium would pretend to get messages from people whom everyone knows to
+be mythical--messages which are indeed comic and therefore enable
+opponents to score points with the general public by obvious witticisms.
+
+Huxley is often referred to, as having wisely declined to investigate,
+knowing beforehand that it was all nonsense. Huxley was busy with his
+own work, and, believing _à priori_ that alleged psychical phenomena
+were either fraud or self-delusion, naturally declined to give any time
+to them. We need not regret his decision, for he was doing work that was
+more important than psychical investigation would have been, just then.
+But he was wrong in his _à priori_ belief, or rather unbelief. He had
+never seen any of these phenomena, but that did not prove that they did
+not happen. A native of mid-Africa may never have seen snow, but that
+does not prove that no snow exists.
+
+And it happens that the Dialectical Society went on with its task,
+appointing committees which investigated without any paid medium. The
+majority of the investigators were utterly sceptical at first; they were
+practically all convinced at the finish. I state this merely as a fact,
+not as a specially important fact; for I find that beginners, when
+suddenly faced with striking phenomena, are liable to go from the
+extreme of unbelief to an extreme of belief. When one's materialistic
+scheme is exploded, there seems no criterion left, and anything may
+happen. It usually takes an investigator a year or two to adjust himself
+and to learn to follow the evidence and not overshoot it.
+
+Some people say: "But if communication is possible, why cannot _I_
+communicate direct with my own departed loved ones?" The question
+is seen on reflection, however, to be easily answered. In the first
+place, we cannot communicate direct even with our friends in the next
+town; we have to get the help of postmen or telegraph clerks and the
+like. It is therefore not at all surprising that an intermediary is
+needed when they are removed further from our conditions. Probably all
+of us have germs of psychic faculty--though I have not yet discovered
+any in myself--somewhat as we can all play or sing a little; but the
+Paderewskis and Carusos are few. Similarly with psychic faculty. Few
+have enough of it to communicate for themselves. On the other hand, it
+is much commoner than Carusos are; but of course, when it occurs in a
+private person, that person does not advertise the fact. Outsiders would
+either scoff, or say "lunacy", or crowd round asking for "sittings",
+out of curiosity. Consequently only sympathetic intimates are told, or
+people who, like myself, are known to be sympathetic investigators. Some
+of the most remarkable sensitives in England at the present day are of
+this private kind--people of education and position--and they are not
+even spiritualists in the sense of belonging to the spiritualist sect.
+They are of various religious persuasions, and belong mostly to rather
+orthodox bodies. There is nothing of the crank about them; they are not
+Theosophists or Christian Scientists or adherents of any other of
+what the sergeant called "fancy religions." I may say that the most
+extraordinary experiences I have ever had have been with a psychic of
+this kind. I have not alluded to these experiences in my paper, because
+the matter is private. But I just mention these things because I find
+that psychic faculties are more common than I once thought, and a
+sympathetic minister could probably hear of private cases if he let his
+sympathy and interest be known. But of course, if he is known to have
+condemned the whole thing as Satanic--as Father Bernard Vaughan does--or
+as lunacy, people with psychic experiences will take very good care not
+to tell him about them.
+
+As to details about the nature of the after-life, I have no dogmatic
+opinions to offer. Probably it is impossible for those over there to
+describe their experience adequately, in our earthly terms. Such
+information as we get must be largely symbolical, as when mediums
+describe a specially good deceased person as surrounded with radiance. I
+have several times noticed that the relative "brightness" or "radiance"
+of a spirit, as described by the medium, has correctly indicated that
+spirit's character, though the medium had no normal knowledge whatever
+of either the person's character or even existence. But though our
+information must probably be mainly symbolical, I think we are justified
+in believing that we begin the next stage pretty nearly where we leave
+off here. There is no sudden jump to unalloyed bliss for even such good
+people as you, no sudden plunge to everlasting woe even for sinners like
+me. This, I admit, is not in accordance with what I used to hear from
+the pulpit twenty years ago. But it agrees with what I read now of the
+opinions of such men as the Bishop of London and Dr J. D. Jones; and
+other clerical writers, such as Canon Storr in his _Christianity and
+Immortality_ and Dr Paterson Smyth in his excellent _Gospel of the
+Hereafter_ take the same view. Our modern moral sense refuses to believe
+that a good God will sentence any creature to everlasting pain; and
+although it may be contended that man has free-will and is therefore
+the arbiter of his own fate, it still remains that God gave him that
+freedom, and therefore still bears the ultimate responsibility. To
+retain belief in a God who can be loved and worshipped, I at least must
+disbelieve in everlasting pain for anyone.
+
+And, added to this moral revolt, there has come a war in which millions
+of young men have died before their natural time. These young fellows,
+we feel, are at least in most cases neither good enough for heaven nor
+bad enough for hell. The sensible supposition seems to be--and it is
+borne out by psychical facts--that they have gone on to the next stage
+of life, which to most or all of them is an improvement; that they are
+busy and happy there; that they are still more or less interested in and
+cognisant of our affairs; that they will come to meet their loved ones
+when _they_ cross over--of this I have had much evidence--and that they
+and humanity as a whole are travelling on an upward path toward some
+goal at present inconceivable to our small and flesh-bound souls.
+
+Some people have objected that psychical research will substitute
+knowledge for faith. This is surely a curious objection, and few will
+advance it. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and my
+belief is that He wants us to learn all we can about His handiwork.
+Nature is a book given to us by our Father, for our good; study of it is
+a duty, neglect of it is unfilial and wrong. Psychical research studies
+its own particular facts in nature, and is thus trying to learn a little
+more of God's mind. It is not we, but those who oppose us, who are
+irreligious.
+
+And as to this matter of faith; well, after we have learnt all we can,
+there will still be plenty of scope left for the exercise of faith in
+general, for our knowledge will always be surrounded by regions of the
+unknown. If anyone says that psychical research antagonises _Christian_
+faith, I say most emphatically that on the contrary it _supports_ it.
+Christianity was based on a Fact: the Resurrection and Appearances of
+Jesus. Psychical-research facts are rendering that event credible to
+many who have disbelieved it. Myers says that in consequence of our
+evidence, everyone will believe, a century hence, in that Resurrection;
+whereas, in default of our evidence, a century hence no one would have
+believed it. And to him, personally, psychical research brought back the
+Christian faith which he had lost.
+
+I hope that the facts and inferences which I have very sketchily put
+before you will have made it clear that there is some reality in the
+subject-matter of our investigations, and that these latter powerfully
+support a religious view of the universe. I believe that we are
+giving materialism its death-blow; hence the wild antagonism of such
+well-meaning but belated writers as Mr Clodd. But we are not ourselves
+religious teachers. That is your domain. You will use our work and its
+results, as you use the work and results of other labourers in the
+scientific vineyard. And I think you will find ours specially helpful.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER
+
+
+Probably few of us keep a diary nowadays. I don't. But I somehow got
+into the habit, soon after I became interested in psychical things, of
+jotting down in a notebook the conclusions at which I had arrived--or
+the almost complete puzzlement in which I found myself, as the case
+might be. Glancing recently through these records of my pilgrimage, it
+seemed to me that a sketch of it might be of some interest or amusement
+to others.
+
+Professor William James says in his _Talks to Teachers_ that it is
+very difficult for most people to accept any new truth after the
+age of thirty; and that indeed old-fogeyism may be said to begin
+at twenty-five. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that, coming
+fresh to the subject at thirty-two--in 1905--I found the struggle to
+psychical truth a very long and arduous affair. Having been brought up
+on the ministrations of a hell-fire-preaching Nonconformist pastor
+whose theology made me into a very vigorous Huxleyan agnostic, I was
+biased against anything that savoured of "religion," and moreover
+"spiritualism" was unscientific and absurd. So I thought, in my
+ignorance; for I knew nothing whatever of the evidence on which
+spiritualistic beliefs are based.
+
+However, I fortunately ran up against hard facts which soon cured me of
+negative dogmatism. I became acquainted with a medium who satisfied me
+that she could diagnose disease, or rather her medical "control" could,
+from a lock of the patient's hair; and this without any information
+whatever being given. Also that the diagnosis often went beyond the
+knowledge of the sitter, thus excluding telepathy from anyone present or
+near. But this did not prove that the control was a spirit, so I turned
+to other investigations.
+
+First, I set myself to "read up". I feel sure that this is the best
+course for beginners to adopt, after once achieving real open-mindedness.
+It enables one to investigate with proper scientific care when
+opportunity arises, and with much better chance of securing good
+evidence. Without this preparation, an investigator has little idea how
+to handle that delicate machine called a medium, and indeed no amount of
+reading will entirely equip the experimenter, for there are many things
+which only experience can teach. Also, without this preparation, the
+investigator will be liable either to give things away by talking too
+much, or will create an atmosphere of suspicion and discomfort by being
+too secretive. It takes some practice to achieve an open and friendly
+manner while never losing sight of the importance of imparting no
+information that would spoil possible evidence. This of course is
+desirable from the medium's point of view as well as that of the sitter.
+It is hard on a medium if, for example, a really supernormally-got name
+does not count because the sitter himself had let it slip.
+
+I think my reading began with _Light_ and some of Mr E. W. Wallis's
+books, but I soon found my way to the _Proceedings of the Society for
+Psychical Research_, and recognised that here was what I was seeking.
+I cannot sufficiently express my admiration, which is as great as ever,
+for such masterly pieces of evidence as, for instance, Dr Hodgson's
+account of sittings with Mrs Piper, in volume 13. If we were perfectly
+logical beings, without prejudice, that account ought to convince
+anybody; certainly it ought to convince the reader of the operation of
+_something_ supernormal, and it ought to go a long way towards
+excluding telepathic theories and rendering the spirit explanation the
+most reasonable one. But we are not logical beings. We require to be
+battered for a long time by fact after fact before we will admit a new
+conclusion. I remember saying, as indeed I noted down in the diary
+mentioned, that a few of these volumes, with Myers's _Human Personality_,
+left me in the curious position of being able to say that, though I was
+not convinced, I felt that logically I ought to be, for the evidence
+seemed irrefragable. Then I read Crookes' _Researches in the Phenomena
+of Spiritualism_, and my logical agreement was accentuated, for Sir
+William Crookes was my scientific Pope, in consequence of my having
+worked from his chemical writings, and having an immense admiration
+for his mind and method. But my actual inner conviction was not much
+changed. Kant says somewhere that we may test the strength of our
+beliefs by asking ourselves what we would bet on them. At this point I
+had not got to the stage of being prepared to bet much on the truth of
+the survival of human beings or the possibility of communicating with
+them if they did survive. I thought the case was logically proved, but
+I didn't feel it in my bones, as the phrase goes. For this, personal
+experience is necessary; at least it is for an old fogey of over
+thirty, with my particular build of mind.
+
+And I was fortunately able to get this experience. One of the two
+best-known mediums in the North of England, Mr A. Wilkinson, happened
+to live only a few miles away, though he was and is generally away from
+home, speaking for spiritualist societies from Aberdeen to Exeter,
+and being booked over a year ahead. However, I was able to get an
+introduction to him through friends who also carried out investigations
+with him (described in my _New Evidences in Psychical Research_), and
+since then, with intermissions due mainly to ill-health, I have
+had friendly sittings with him continuously. To him I owe my real
+convictions, and for this I cannot adequately thank him. Without his
+kindness I could never have achieved certainty; for owing to a damaged
+heart I could not get about to interview mediums, and there was no other
+medium within reasonable distance. Besides, Mr Wilkinson has stretched a
+point in my case, for he does not give private sittings, preferring to
+confine himself to platform work; and I suppose he makes an exception in
+my case in view of my inability. I here once more thank him for all he
+has done for me.
+
+At my first sitting with him he described and named my mother and other
+relatives, whom he saw apparently with me. I had no reason to believe
+that he had any normal knowledge of these people; certainly I had never
+mentioned them to him, and it was in the last degree unlikely that
+anyone else had. My mother had been dead twenty-two years, and was not
+at all a prominent person. Moreover, he got by automatic writing a
+signed message from her, giving the name of the house in which we lived
+at the time of her death, but which we had left eleven years later. This
+seemed to be given by way of a test. At later sittings my father and
+other relatives manifested, with names and identifying detail, and
+the proof began to be almost coercive. The evidence went beyond any
+possibility of the medium's normal knowledge, and was characteristic of
+the different communicators in all sorts of subtle ways. Telepathy alone
+remained as a possible alternative to the spirit explanation. Then came
+a peculiar phase, as if there were a definite plan on the part of some
+of my friends on the other side for the purpose of utterly convincing me
+by bringing evidence which could not possibly be accounted for by any
+supposition of a reading of my own mind. A spirit friend of mine would
+turn up, bringing with him a spirit whom I had never heard of, and
+saying that he was a friend of his; and on inquiry I would find that it
+was so--and sometimes it needed a great deal of inquiry, which made it
+all the better evidence, for it showed how difficult it would have been
+for the medium to obtain the information; though indeed at this stage
+the evidence had forced me past crude suspicions of that sort. On other
+occasions unknown spirits would appear, and I would find that they
+belonged to the last visitor I had had. Several incidents of this kind
+are described in my book _Psychical Investigations_. After some years
+of this kind of experience I became fully satisfied that the spirit
+explanation was the only reasonable one. Some writers, like Miss Dougall
+in a recent volume of essays called _Immortality_, invent a complicated
+hypothesis according to which my mind photographs the mind of a visitor
+and the medium on his next visit develops and reads off the photograph;
+but I confess that my credulity does not stand the strain put upon it by
+such a hypothesis. Besides, I have lately had--as if to get round even
+such tortured theories as this--evidence giving details which have not
+been known to any person I have ever met. I was told to write to a
+certain friend of mine, father of the ostensible communicator. The facts
+were unknown even to him, but he was able to verify them completely;
+and they were characteristic and evidential of the identity of the
+ostensible communicator.
+
+If all my results were of the kind I have had through Mr Wilkinson the
+case would, for me, be so utterly and overwhelmingly proved that doubt
+would be absurd. But this is too much to expect. I have had many
+other mediums here, with varying success, but nothing approaching Mr
+Wilkinson's. In many cases it is fairly obvious that the medium's
+subliminal--or the control's imagination--has been doing part of the
+business, no doubt unknown to the medium's normal consciousness. But in
+no case have I had any indication of fraud. This seems sufficient answer
+to Mr Edward Clodd's credulous acceptance of the theory of a Blue-Book
+and inquiry system which enables mediums to post themselves up about
+likely sitters. It would be the easiest thing in the world for an
+imitation medium to learn enough about me to give what would seem on the
+face of it a fairly "good" sitting. But this is never the case. Either
+the medium fails or he is so successful that normal knowledge is ruled
+out. On Mr Clodd's theory, I ought to have neither of these extremes;
+I ought to have no failures, and no results going beyond what inquiry
+could produce. But I need not labour this point, for Mr Clodd has
+recently confessed his almost absurd innocence of any first-hand
+experience. In a letter to the _International Psychic Gazette_ for
+April, 1918, he said he had been to a sitting about fifty years ago, but
+he does not remember much about what happened! Yet he sets up as an
+authority on this branch of experimental science! It is like someone
+writing on chemistry after being in a laboratory once, fifty years ago.
+
+Some of my most curious experiences, concerning which I have not yet
+published anything in detail, have been in connexion with crystal
+vision. I happen to know a sensitive--not a professional medium or even
+a spiritualist--who has physical-phenomena powers of very unusual and
+indeed probably unique type. Not only can she see in the crystal and
+get evidential messages by writing seen therein, but the writing or
+pictures are visible to anyone present. I have seen them myself. As
+many as six people at a time, myself among them, have seen the same
+thing, and not one of the six was of suggestible type or had had any
+hallucinations. All were middle-aged, except one young lieutenant, and
+we were indeed a rather exceptionally un-neurotic and stodgy lot. But
+though the things seem objective--I am going to try to photograph them,
+also the sensitive, in the hope of confirming the Crewe phenomena--they
+are somehow more or less influenced by the sensitive's own mind,
+without her conscious knowledge; for, _e.g._, in one message,
+purporting to come from my father, I was addressed as Arthur, a name
+which would be natural to the medium who knows me mostly from printed
+matter and a few letters, but which is entirely inappropriate in
+relation to my father. Yet a good deal of evidence of identity has come
+through this sensitive, and this "mixture" does not invalidate the
+case. Again, a queer feature of this sensitive's powers is that lost
+objects are frequently found as a result of instructions given in the
+crystal; and in many of these cases it seems certain that the position
+of the lost object could not have been known to any incarnate mind,
+or of course it would not have been left there. In one case it was a
+valuable ruby; in several others it was Treasury notes. This sensitive
+also is a medium for very good raps, which all present can hear quite
+distinctly and which show intelligence, answering questions and so
+forth.
+
+I have therefore reached the conviction that human survival is a fact,
+that the life over there is something like an improved version of
+the present one, and--a comforting thought, supported by much of my
+evidence--that we are met at death by those who have gone before. Some
+of my more mystical friends, who have not needed such prolonged jolting
+to get them out of materialistic grooves, are rather bored with me for
+dwelling so much on the evidence and on the nature of the next state.
+They call it "merely astral"; as for them, their minds soar in higher
+flights. One friend, a sort of radical High Churchman, said to me some
+time ago that he was "not interested in the intermediate state". But
+I rather think that he will have to be. I may be wrong, but I suspect
+that, whether they like it or not, these good people will have to go
+through the intermediate state before they get anywhere else. Good
+though they are, I do not believe they are good enough for unalloyed
+bliss or union with the Godhead. Such sudden jumps do not happen.
+Progress is gradual. Indeed, I have noticed lately that my High
+Churchman friend has shown much more interest in these merely psychical
+things. Perhaps he thinks he had better turn back and make sure of the
+next state and its nature, perceiving that it is a necessary bridge or
+"tarrying-place" (which is the alternative reading for the "mansions"
+of our Father's house) on the way to the heaven which he quite rightly
+aims at.
+
+As to the future of psychical science and opinion, I feel sure that
+great things are now ahead. The war, with the terrible amount of
+mourning it entails, has quickened interest in the subject, and for
+millions of people the question of survival and the next state has
+become an urgent and abiding one. Their interest, instead of being
+almost wholly on this side, is very largely over there, whither their
+loved ones have gone. Similarly with the soldiers who have come safely
+through the war. All have lost friends, all have faced the possibility
+of sudden or slow and painful death. And probably all young people at
+present, and most adults, have out-grown the crude beliefs of last
+century's orthodoxy with its everlasting hell, and are ready for a more
+rational system. This is being supplied, backed by scientific proof, by
+psychical research and scientific spiritualism. It seems likely that the
+religion of the best minds for the next half-century or so, and perhaps
+onward, will be something like that which Myers came to hold in his
+later years. It does not much matter whether the spiritualist sect
+grows as an institution or not. Many people will accept its main belief
+without feeling it necessary to leave the communion to which they
+already belong. It seems certain that the idea itself will be the ruling
+idea in many minds for a long time, and no doubt psychic faculty will
+become much more common, for thousands are now trying to develop it who
+never cared to try before. Quite possibly the effort on both sides of
+the veil, in consequence of so many premature deaths, may bring about
+a closer communion between the two sides than has ever been known
+hitherto. A great lift-up of earthly thought would be the result, a
+perhaps final emergence from the chrysalis stage of materialism; and we
+shall then be near the time when, as the inspired Milton makes his
+Raphael say:
+
+    "Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
+    Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend
+    Ethereal, as we, or may, at choice,
+    Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell."
+
+
+
+
+DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?
+
+
+Mr G. K. Chesterton, with true journalistic instinct, recently
+stimulated public interest in himself and other worthy things by
+engineering a discussion on "Do Miracles Happen?" The debate furnished
+an opportunity of harmlessly letting off steam, but apparently each
+disputant "was of his own opinion still" at the finish; though some of
+the newspapers thought that the affirmative was proved, not by argument,
+but by the actual occurrence of a miracle at the meeting--for Mr Bernard
+Shaw was present, but remained silent! Joking apart, however, these
+discussions are usually rendered nugatory by each debater attaching a
+different meaning to the word. To one of them, a "miracle" involves the
+action of some non-human mind; to others it is only a "wonderful"
+occurrence, which is the strictly etymological meaning. It is only in
+the latter sense that orthodox science has anything to say on the
+subject.
+
+David Hume, in the most famous of his essays, says that a miracle is "a
+violation of the laws of nature", which laws a "firm and unalterable
+experience has established". A century later, Matthew Arnold disposed of
+the question in an even shorter manner. "Miracles do not happen", said
+he, in the preface to _Literature and Dogma_. Modern science has,
+speaking generally, concurred.
+
+But the two statements are not very satisfactory. It is true, no doubt,
+that miracles did not enter into the experience of David Hume and
+Matthew Arnold; but this does not prove that they have never entered
+into the experience of anybody else. If I must disbelieve all assertions
+concerning phenomena which I have not personally observed, I must deny
+that the sun can ever be north at mid-day, as indeed the Greeks did
+(according to Herodotus), when the circumnavigators of Africa came back
+with their story. But if I do, I shall be wrong. (_Histories_, book IV,
+"I for my part do not believe them", says even this romantic historian.)
+
+It is as unsafe to reject all human testimony to the marvellous as it
+is to accept it all without question. The modern mind has gone to the
+negative extreme, as the medieval mind went to the other. Take for
+instance the twenty-five thousand Lives of the Saints in the great
+Bollandist collection. They are full of miracles, of most incredible
+kinds; yet in those days the accounts caused no astonishment. There was
+no organised knowledge of nature, outside the narrow orbit of daily
+life--and how narrow that was, we with our facile means of communication
+and travel can hardly realise. Consequently there was little or no
+conception of law or orderliness in nature, and therefore no criterion
+by which to test stories of unusual occurrences. Anything might happen;
+there was no apparent reason why it shouldn't. One saint having retired
+into the desert to lead a life of mortification, the birds daily brought
+him food sufficient for his wants; and when a brother joined him they
+doubled the supply. When the saint died, two lions came and dug his
+grave, uttered a howl of mourning over his body, and knelt to beg a
+blessing from the survivor. (Cf. the curious story of St Francis taming
+"Brother Wolf", of Gubbio, in chapter 21 of the _Fioretti_.) The
+innumerable miracles in the _Little Flowers_ and _Life of St Francis_
+are repeated in countless other lives; saints are lifted across rivers
+by angels, they preach to the fishes, who swarm to the shore to listen,
+they are visited by the Virgin, are lifted up in the air and suspended
+there for twelve hours while in ecstasy they perceive the inner mystery
+of the Most Blessed Trinity. Almost every town in Europe could produce
+its relic which has produced its miraculous cures, or its image that had
+opened or shut its eyes, or bowed its head to a worshipper. The Virgin
+of the Pillar, at Saragossa, restored a worshipper's leg that had been
+amputated. This is regarded by Spanish theologians as specially well
+attested. There is a picture of it in the Cathedral at Saragossa.
+(Lecky, _Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe_, vol. 1, page
+141.) The saints were seen fighting for the Christian army, when the
+latter battled with the infidel. In medieval times this kind of thing
+was accepted without question and without surprise.
+
+About the end of the twelfth century there came a change. The human mind
+began to awake from its long lethargy; began to writhe and struggle
+against the dead hand of authority which held it down. The Crusades, as
+Guizot shows, had much to do with the rise of the new spirit, by causing
+educative contact with a high Saracenic civilization. Men began to
+wonder and to think. Heresy inevitably appeared, and became rife. In
+1208 Innocent III established the Inquisition, but failed to strangle
+the infant Hercules. In 1209 began the massacre of the Albigenses, which
+continued more or less for about fifty years, the deaths being at least
+scores of thousands; but the blood of the martyrs was the seed of
+further freedom and enlightenment. Nature began to be studied, in
+however rudimentary a way, by Roger Bacon and his brother alchemists.
+The Reformation came, weakening ecclesiastical authority still further
+by dividing the dogmatic forces into two hostile camps, and thus giving
+science its chance. Galileo appeared, and did his work, though with many
+waverings, for Paul V and Urban VIII kept successively a heavy hand on
+him; he was imprisoned at seventy, when in failing health, and, some
+think, tortured--though this is uncertain, and his famous _e pur si
+muove_ is probably mythical. More important still, Francis Bacon,
+teaching with enthusiasm the method of observation and experiment. The
+conception of law, of rationality and regularity in nature, emerged;
+Kepler and Newton laid down the ground plan of the universe, evolving
+the formulæ which express the facts of molar motion. Uniformity in
+geology was shown by Lyell, while Darwin and his followers carried
+law into biological evolution. Then man became swelled-headed; became
+intoxicated with his successes. It had already been so with Hume, and
+it became more so with his disciples. Man treated his own limited
+experience as a criterion, and denied what was not represented by
+something similar therein. Especially was this the case when alleged
+facts had any connection with religion. Religion had tried to
+exterminate science, and it was natural enough that, in revenge, science
+should be hostile to anything associated with religion. Consequently,
+the scientific man flatly denied miracles, not only such stories as the
+rib of Adam and the talking serpent (concerning which even a church
+father like Origen had made merry in Gnostic days fifteen hundred years
+before), but also the healing miracles of Jesus, which to us are now
+beginning to look possible enough.
+
+This negative dogmatism is as regrettable as the positive variety. It
+is not scientific. Science stands for a method, not for a dogma. It
+observes, experiments, and infers; but it makes no claim to the
+possession of absolute truth. A genuine science, confronted with
+allegations of unusual facts, neither believes nor disbelieves. It
+investigates. The solution of the problem is simply a question of
+evidence. Huxley in his little book _Hume_, and J. S. Mill in his
+_Essays on Religion_, made short work of the "impossibility" attitude.
+Says the former in _Science and Christian Tradition_, page 197:
+
+"Strictly speaking, I am unaware of anything that has a right to the
+title of an impossibility, except a contradiction in terms. There are
+impossibilities logical, but none natural. A 'round square', a 'present
+past', 'two parallel lines that intersect', are impossibilities, because
+the ideas denoted by the predicates round, present, intersect, are
+contradictory of the ideas denoted by the subjects square, past,
+parallel. But walking on water, or turning water into wine, are plainly
+not impossibilities in this sense".
+
+No alleged occurrence can be ruled out as impossible, then, unless the
+statement is self-contradictory. Difficulty of belief is no reason. It
+was found difficult to believe in Antipodes; if there were people on
+the under side of the earth, "they would fall off". But the advance of
+knowledge made it not only credible but quite comprehensible. People
+stick on, all over the earth, because the earth attracts them more
+powerfully than anything else does. Similarly with some miracles. They
+may seem much more credible and comprehensible when we have learned
+more. Indeed, the wonders of wireless telegraphy, radio-activity, and
+aviation are intrinsically as miraculous as many of the stories in the
+world's sacred writings.
+
+This is not saying, however, that we are to believe the latter _en
+bloc_. They must be taken individually, and believed or disbelieved
+according to the evidence and according to the antecedent probability or
+improbability. The standing still of the sun (_Joshua_, x) does not seem
+credible to the scientific mind which knows that the earth is spinning
+at the equator at the rate of one thousand miles an hour and that any
+sudden interference with that rotation would send it to smithereens,
+with all the creatures on its surface. Of course, a Being who could stop
+its rotation could perhaps also prevent it from flying to smithereens;
+but we have to extend the miracle in so many entirely hypothetical ways
+that the whole thing becomes too dubious for acceptance. It is simpler
+to look on the story as a myth.
+
+But such things as the clairvoyance of Samuel (I _Samuel_, x), and
+even the Woman of Endor story, are quite in line with what psychical
+research is now establishing. And the healing miracles of Jesus are
+paralleled, in kind if not in degree, by innumerable "suggestive
+therapeutic" doctors. Shell-shock blindness and paralysis are cured at
+Seale Hayne Hospital and elsewhere in very "miraculous" fashion. And
+turning water into wine is not more wonderful than turning radium into
+helium, and helium into lead, which nature is now doing before our
+eyes. These things, therefore, have become credible, if the evidence
+is good enough. Whether evidence nineteen hundred years old can be
+good enough to take as the basis of serious belief is another matter.
+Scientific method insists on a high standard of evidence. We must be
+honest with ourselves, and not believe unless the evidence satisfies our
+intellectual requirements. But the modern and wise tendency is to regard
+religion as an attitude rather than as a belief or system of beliefs. It
+does not stand or fall with the miracle-stories.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY
+
+
+The amount of nonsense that is talked, and apparently widely believed,
+about telepathy, is almost enough to make one wish that the phenomenon
+had not been discovered, or the word invented. Without any adequate
+basis of real knowledge, the "man in the street" seems to be accepting
+the idea of thought-transference as an incontrovertible fact, like
+wireless telegraphy--which latter is responsible for a good deal of easy
+credence accorded to the former, both seeming equally wonderful. But the
+analogy is a false one. There is a great deal of difference between the
+two. In wireless telegraphy we understand the process: it is a shaking
+of the ether into pulses or waves, which act on the coherer in a
+perfectly definite way and are measurable. But in spite of much loose
+talk about "brain-waves", the fact is that we know of no such thing.
+Indeed, there is reason to believe that telepathy, if it is a fact at
+all--and I believe it is--may turn out to be a process of a different
+kind, the nature of which is at present unknown. For one thing, it does
+not seem to conform to physical laws. If it were an affair of ripples in
+the ether--like wireless telegraphy--the strength of impact would vary
+in inverse ratio with the square of the distance. The influence would
+weaken at a known rate, as more and more distance intervened between
+sender and recipient. And this, in many cases at least, is not found to
+be so, consequently Mr Gerald Balfour and other leading members of
+the Society for Psychical Research incline to the opinion that the
+transmission is not a physical process, but takes place in the spiritual
+world.
+
+I have said that I believe in telepathy, yet I have deprecated too-ready
+credence. What, then, are the facts?
+
+The first attempt at serious investigation of alleged supernormal
+phenomena by an organised body of qualified observers was made by the
+London Society for Psychical Research, which was founded in 1882 by
+Henry Sidgwick (Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge), F. W. H.
+Myers and Edmund Gurney (Fellows of Trinity), W. F. Barrett (Professor
+of Experimental Physics at Dublin, and now Sir William), and a few
+friends. The membership grew, and the list now includes the most famous
+scientific names throughout the civilised world. In point of prestige,
+the society is one of the strongest in existence.
+
+The first important work undertaken was the collection of a large
+number of cases of apparition, etc., in which there seemed to be some
+supernormal agency at work, conveying knowledge; as in the case of
+Lord Brougham, who saw an apparition of his friend at the moment of
+the latter's death. The results of this investigation were embodied in
+the two stout volumes called _Phantasms of the Living_ (now out of
+print, but an abridged one-volume edition has recently been edited by
+Mrs Sidgwick (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1919), and in
+Vol. x. of the _Proceedings_ of the Society. As the outcome of this
+arduous investigation, involving the collection and consideration
+of about 17,000 cases and extending over several years of time, the
+committee made the cautious but memorable statement that "Between
+deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is
+not due to chance alone". This guarded statement was carefully worded
+in order to avoid committing the society to any definite (_e.g._
+spiritualistic) interpretation. Some of the apparitions occurred
+within twelve hours before the death, some at the time of death, and
+some a few hours afterwards. But these latter of course do not prove
+"spirit-agency"--though indeed sometimes they seem to render it
+probable--for the telepathic impulse or thought may have been sent
+out by the dying person, remaining latent--so to speak--until the
+percipient happened to be in a sufficiently passive and receptive
+state to "take it in".
+
+Definite experimentation was also made, of various kinds, _e.g._, one
+person would be shown a card or diagram, and another (blindfolded) would
+maintain a passive mind, saying aloud what ideas "came into his head".
+Some of these experiments--which are still required and should be tried
+by those interested in the subject--indicated that the concentration of
+A's mind did indeed sometimes produce a reverberation in the mind of B.
+In a series conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge, the odds against the
+successes being due to chance can be mathematically shown to be ten
+millions to one.
+
+For this new fact or agency, Mr Myers invented the word "telepathy"
+(Greek _tele_, at a distance, and _pathein_, to feel), and defined it
+as "communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another,
+independently of the recognised channels of sense".
+
+But I wish to say, and to emphasise the statement, that this
+transmission, though regarded as highly probable by many acute minds,
+cannot yet be regarded as unquestionably proved, still less as occurring
+in a common or frequent way. We have all of us known somebody who
+claimed to be able to make people turn round in church or in the street
+by "willing" them, but usually these claims cannot be substantiated.
+It is difficult to eliminate chance coincidence. And the folks who lay
+claim to these powers are usually of a mystery-loving, inaccurate build
+of mind, and therefore very unsafe guides. Moreover, how many times have
+they "willed" without result?
+
+One reason why I deprecate easy credence, leaning to the sceptical side
+though believing that the thing sometimes happens, is, that there is
+danger of a return to superstition, if belief outruns the evidence.
+If the popular mind gets the notion that telepathy is more or less
+a constant occurrence--that mind can influence mind whenever it
+likes--there is a possibility of a return to the witchcraft belief which
+resulted in so many poor old women being burnt at the stake in the
+seventeenth century. I prefer excessive disbelief to excessive credulity
+in these things; it at least does not burn old women because they have a
+squint and a black cat and a grievance against someone who happens to
+have fallen ill. Unbalanced minds are very ready to believe that someone
+is influencing them. I have received quite a number of letters from
+people (not spiritualists) who, knowing of my interest in these
+matters, got it into their foolish heads that I was trying some sort of
+telepathic black magic on them. I had not even been thinking about them.
+It was entirely their own imagination. One of these people is now in an
+asylum. I think she would probably have become insane in any case--if
+not on this, then on some other subject--but these incidents almost make
+me wish that we could confine the investigation and discussion of the
+subject to our own circle or society until education has developed more
+balanced judgment in the masses. But of course such a restriction is
+impossible. The daily press and the sensational novelists have got hold
+of the idea. We must counteract the sensational exaggerations, which
+have such a bad effect on unbalanced minds, by stating the bare, hard
+facts. Here, as elsewhere, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It
+is the half-informed people who are endangered. The remedy is more
+knowledge. Let them learn that, though there is reason to believe that
+under certain conditions telepathy is possible and real, there is
+nevertheless no scientific evidence for anything in the nature of
+"bewitching", or telepathy of maleficent kind. This cannot be too
+strongly insisted on. Let us follow the facts with an open mind, but
+let us be careful not to rush beyond them into superstition.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM
+
+
+Various popular novelists, such as George Du Maurier in _Trilby_, and
+E. F. Benson in _The Image in the Sand_, have taken advantage of the
+possibilities which hypnotic marvels offer to the sensational writer,
+and have put into circulation a variety of exaggerated ideas. This is
+regrettable. Of course the novelist can choose his subject, and can
+treat it as he likes; it is the public's fault if it takes fiction for
+fact, or allows its notions of fact to be coloured or in any way
+influenced by what is avowedly no more than fiction.
+
+But it is certain that it is thus influenced. It is therefore desirable
+that the public should be told from time to time exactly what the
+scientific position is--what the conclusions are, of those who are
+studying the subject in a proper scientific spirit, with no aim save the
+finding of truth. This will at least enable the public to discriminate
+between fact and fiction, if it wants to.
+
+No doubt the phenomena in question have been often discovered,
+forgotten, and rediscovered; but in modern times the movement dates from
+Mesmer. Friedrich Anton Mesmer was born about 1733 or 1734. In 1766 he
+took his doctor's degree at Vienna, but did not come into public notice
+until 1773. In that year he employed in the treatment of patients
+certain magnetic plates, the invention of Father Hell, a Jesuit,
+professor of astronomy at Vienna.
+
+Further experiments led him to believe that the human body is a kind of
+magnet; and that its effluent forces could be employed, like those of
+the metal plates, in the cure of disease. Between 1773 and 1778 he
+travelled extensively in Europe, with a view to making his discoveries
+better known. Also he sent an account of his system to the principal
+learned bodies of Europe, including the Royal Society of London, the
+Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the Academy at Berlin.
+
+The last alone deigned to reply; they told him his discovery was an
+illusion. Apparently they knew all about it, without investigating.
+There is no dogmatism so unqualified, no certainty so cocksure, as that
+of complete ignorance.
+
+The method at first was probably a system of magnetic passes or
+strokings of the diseased part by the hand of the doctor. But, as the
+patients increased in number, a more wholesale method had to be devised.
+Consequently Mesmer invented the famous "_baquet_". This was a large
+tub, filled with bottles of water previously "magnetised" by Mesmer.
+
+The bottles were arranged to radiate from the centre, some of them with
+necks pointing away from it and some pointing towards it. They rested
+on powdered glass and iron filings, and the tub itself was filled with
+water. In short, it was a sort of glorified travesty of a galvanic
+battery. From it, long iron rods, jointed and movable, protruded through
+holes in the lid. These the patients held, or applied to the region of
+their disease, as they sat in a circle round the _baquet_. Mesmer and
+his assistants walked about, supplementing the treatment by pointing
+with the fingers, or with iron rods, at the diseased parts.
+
+All this may seem, at first sight, very absurd. But the fact remains
+that Mesmer certainly wrought cures. And apparently he frequently
+succeeded in curing or greatly alleviating, where other doctors had
+completely failed. It is no longer possible for any instructed person to
+regard Mesmer as a charlatan who knowingly deluded the public for his
+own profit. His theories may have been partly mistaken, but his
+practical results were indubitable.
+
+It is also worth noting that he treated rich and poor alike, charging
+the latter no fee. He was a man of great tenderness and kindness of
+heart, devoted to the cause of the sick and suffering; and the accounts
+of his patients show the unbounded gratitude which they felt towards
+him, and the respect in which he was held.
+
+The orthodox doctors, of course, felt otherwise. They were envious and
+jealous of the foreign innovator and his success. And his fame was too
+great to allow of his being ignored. Consequently the Royal Society
+of Medicine (Paris) appointed a commission to inquire into the new
+treatment. The finding, of course, was adverse. The investigators could
+not deny the cures, but they fell back on the recuperative force of
+nature (_vis medicatrix naturæ_) and denied that Mesmer's treatment
+caused the cure.
+
+Obviously, Mesmer, having treated his patients, could not prove that
+they would not have recovered if he had _not_ treated them; so his
+critics had a strong position. But, on the other hand, neither can an
+orthodox doctor prove that _his_ cures are due to _his_ treatment. If it
+is _vis medicatrix naturæ_ in one case, it may be the same in the other.
+
+Modern medicine is more and more coming to this conclusion--is
+abandoning drugging as it abandoned bleeding and cautery, and is leaving
+the patient to nature. This is a significant fact.
+
+But there is good reason to believe that Mesmer's treatment was a real
+factor in his cures, for in many cases the patient had been treated by
+orthodox methods for years without effect. Perhaps, as the doctors said,
+it was "only the recuperative force of Nature", but if the doctors could
+not set that force to work, and Mesmer somehow could, he is just as much
+entitled to the credit of the cure as if he had done it by bleeding or
+drugging. However, by one sort of persecution or another, he was driven
+out of Paris, and more or less discredited. After a visit to England, he
+retired to Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity until his death in
+1815.
+
+The method was kept alive by various disciples, such as the Marquis de
+Puységur, Dupotet, Deleuze, and many more, but in an amateurish sort of
+way. The first-named found that in one of his patients he could induce
+a trance state which showed peculiar features. In trance, the man knew
+all that he knew when awake, but when awake he knew nothing of what had
+happened in trance. This second condition thus seemed to be equivalent
+to an enlargement of personality.
+
+Both in England and France the medical side came to the front again,
+in the hands of Braid (a Manchester surgeon who first used the term
+"hypnotism", from Greek _hypnos_, sleep, and whose book _Neurypnology,
+or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep_ was published in 1843), Liébeault,
+Bernheim, Elliotson, and Esdaile.
+
+Elliotson and Esdaile still believed in a magnetic effluence, but the
+idea was given up by Braid and the "Nancy school" (the investigators
+who followed the lines of Liébeault of Nancy), for it was found that
+patients could be hypnotised without passes or strokings or any
+manipulation. Braid told his patients to gaze fixedly at a bright
+object, _e.g._, his lancet. Liébeault produced sleep by talking
+soothingly or commandingly filling the patient's mind with the idea
+of sleep. In some cases it was found that patients could hypnotise
+themselves by an effort of will (this was confirmed more recently by Dr
+Wingfield's experiments with athletic undergraduates at Cambridge), and
+this disposed of the hitherto supposedly necessary "magnetic effluence"
+from the operator.
+
+The most modern opinion is pretty much the same. Dr Tuckey, who learnt
+his method from Liébeault himself, and who practised for twenty years in
+the West End of London, is convinced that the whole thing is suggestion.
+So is Dr Bramwell, who shares with Dr Tuckey the leading position among
+hypnotic practitioners in England. The latter, it may be remarked, was
+the first qualified medical man to write an important book on the
+subject in English, after Braid.
+
+The tendency now is to give suggestions without attempting to induce
+actual trance. It is found with many patients that if they will make
+their minds passive and receptive, listening to the doctor's suggestions
+in an absent-minded sort of way, those suggestions--that the health
+shall improve and the specified symptoms disappear--are carried out. The
+explanation of this is "wrapped in mystery". No one knows exactly how it
+comes about. But it seems to be somewhat thus:
+
+The complicated happenings within our bodies, such as the chemical
+phenomena known as digestion and the physical phenomena such as blood
+circulation and contraction of involuntary muscles, seem to imply
+intelligence, though that intelligence is not part of the conscious
+mind, for we do not consciously direct the processes. They go on all
+the same--for example--when we are asleep. Presumably, then, there is a
+mental Something in us, which never sleeps, and which runs the organic
+machinery. If we could get at this Something, and give it instructions,
+a part of the machinery which is working wrongly might get attended to
+and put right. Unfortunately, the ordinary consciousness is in the way.
+We cannot get at the mechanic in the mill, because we have to go through
+the office, and the managing director keeps us talking.
+
+Well, in hypnotic trance, or even in the preoccupied "absent-minded"
+state, we get past the managing director--who is asleep or attending to
+something else--into the mill. We get at the man who really attends to
+the machinery. We get past the normal consciousness, and can give our
+orders to the "subconscious" or "subliminal"--which means "below the
+threshold". In Myers' phrase, suggestion is a "successful appeal to the
+subliminal self", but exactly how it comes about, and why the patient
+usually cannot do it for himself but has to have the suggestion
+administered by a doctor, we do not know.
+
+Of course the word "suggestion" does not really explain anything. It
+is a word employed to cover our ignorance. Suggestive methods are as
+empirical as Mesmer's. In each case a successful appeal is made to the
+recuperative forces of nature, _vis medicatrix naturæ_; but exactly how
+or why suggestion does it, we know no more--or hardly any more--than we
+know how and why Mesmer's _baquet_ did it. The fact remains, however,
+that the thing is done. What we lack is only a satisfactory theory.
+
+At one time it was thought that only functional disorders could be
+relieved. But it is now recognised that the line between functional
+and organic is an arbitrary one. If we cannot find definite organic
+change in tissue, we call the ailment functional; but nevertheless
+some change there must be, though microscopic or unreachable.
+Consequently even functional disorders are at bottom organic; and,
+though of course grave lesions produce the gravest disorders, there is
+no _à priori_ impossibility in a hypnotic cure of even the most radical
+tissue-degeneration.
+
+However, as a matter of practical fact, the "mechanic" has his
+limitations, like the normal consciousness. He is not omnipotent.
+Consequently we cannot be sure of being able to stimulate him to the
+extent of a cure. It depends on his knowledge and power. But he can
+always do something, if we can get at him. The chief difficulty is that
+in many people he is inaccessible.
+
+For instance, I have many times submitted myself to the treatment of
+Dr Tuckey and another medical friend, without effect. I have each time
+tried my best to help, making my mind as passive as I could; for I was
+sure that if a suggestible stage could be reached, some troublesome
+heart symptoms and insomnia could be alleviated. But I was never
+able to reach a state even approaching hypnosis. I suppose my normal
+consciousness could not put itself sufficiently to sleep. Being
+interested in the scientific aspect of the subject, my consciousness
+watched the process and analysed its own sensations, instead of
+"letting go" and subsiding out of the way.
+
+As to the proportion of susceptible persons, observers differ.
+Wetterstrand and Vogt hold that all sane and healthy people are
+hypnotisable, and Dr Bramwell's results among strong farm labourers at
+Goole support that view. Patients with nervous ailments are difficult
+to hypnotise; out of one hundred such cases in his London practice, Dr
+Bramwell only influenced eighty. This is the percentage of susceptibles
+found by Drs Tuckey and Bernheim also.
+
+The insane are usually unhypnotisable, probably because of their
+inability to concentrate their attention. Out of the 80 per cent. of
+sane susceptibles, only a small proportion go off into hypnotic sleep;
+ten according to Tuckey, rather more according to the experience of
+Bramwell, Forel, and Vogt. Most of the susceptible, however, though
+retaining consciousness, may be deprived of muscular control. For
+example, if told that they cannot open their eyes, they find that
+it is so.
+
+The various "stages" of hypnosis shade gradually into each other, and
+classifications are not much good. Charcot's three stages of lethargy,
+catalepsy, and somnambulism are now discredited as true stages. In good
+subjects they are producible at will, and as observed at the Salpêtrière
+they were almost certainly due to training.
+
+I have no space for the quoting of detailed medical cases, but it is
+desirable to emphasise the practical facts and to make the subject
+as concrete as possible to the reader, so I will quote just one, as
+illustration, from Dr Bramwell's contribution to _Proceedings of the
+Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xiv, page 99.
+
+"Neurasthenia; suicidal tendencies. Mr D----, aged 34, 1890; barrister.
+Formerly strong and athletic. Health began to fail in 1877, after
+typhoid fever. Abandoned work in 1882, and for eight years was a chronic
+invalid. Anæmic, dyspeptic, sleepless, depressed. Unable to walk a
+hundred yards without severe suffering. Constant medical treatment,
+including six months' rest in bed, without benefit. He was hypnotised
+from June 2 to September 20, 1890. By the end of July all morbid
+symptoms disappeared, and he amused himself by working on a farm. He can
+now walk forty miles a day without undue fatigue." Similar cases are
+now being recorded in the military hospitals. Soldiers make excellent
+"subjects".
+
+It has been much debated whether a hypnotised person could be made to
+commit a crime. Probably not; it is difficult to be quite sure, but the
+evidence is on the negative side. True, a hypnotised subject will put
+sugar which he has been told is arsenic into his mother's tea, but his
+inner self probably knows well enough that it is only sugar. On the
+other hand, it is certain that a hypnotiser may obtain a remarkable
+amount of control over specially sensitive subjects, particularly by
+repeated hypnotisations.
+
+I have seen hypnotised subjects who seemed almost perfect automata,
+obeying orders as mechanically as if they had no will of their own left.
+Certainly no one, either man or woman, but particularly the latter,
+should submit himself or herself to hypnotic treatment except by a
+qualified person in whom full trust can be reposed. And, even then, in
+the case of a woman patient, it is well for a third person to be
+present.
+
+But the stories of the novelists, about subjugated wills, hypnotising
+from a distance, and all the rest of it, are quite without adequate
+foundation in fact. There is very little evidence in support of hypnosis
+produced at a distance, and in the one case where it did seem to occur
+there had been repeated hypnotisations of the ordinary kind, by which a
+sort of telepathic rapport was perhaps established (Myers' _Human
+Personality_, vol. i, page 524).
+
+Hypnotism against the will is a myth; except perhaps in here and there a
+backboneless person who could be influenced any way, without hypnosis or
+anything of the kind. The Chicago pamphleteer who wants to teach us how
+to get on in business by developing a "hypnotic eye" is merely after
+dollars. It is all bunkum.
+
+There is a sense, however, in which hypnotic treatment can be a help in
+education and in strengthening the character. Backward and lazy children
+could probably be improved, and I know cases in which sleep-walking and
+other bad habits have been cured by suggestion. From this it is but a
+step to dipsomania, which can often be cured. Dr Tuckey reports seventy
+cures out of two hundred cases.
+
+F. W. H. Myers, to whose genius doctors as well as psychologists owe
+their first scientific conceptions in this domain, was extremely
+optimistic here. He held that though we cannot expect to manufacture
+saints, any more than we can manufacture geniuses, there is nevertheless
+enough evidence to show that great things could be done.
+
+"If the subject is hypnotisable, and if hypnotic suggestion be applied
+with sufficient persistency and skill, no depth of previous baseness
+and foulness need prevent the man or woman whom we charge with 'moral
+insanity', or stamp as a 'criminal-born', from rising into a state where
+he or she can work steadily and render services useful to the community"
+(_Human Personality_, vol. i, page 199). Experiments on hypnotic lines
+ought certainly to be carried out in our prisons and reformatories. As
+to the formerly alleged dangers of such experimentation--dangers of
+hysteria, etc., alleged by the Charcot school which is now seen to have
+been quite on a wrong tack--they do not exist, if the operator knows his
+business.
+
+Says Professor Forel: "Liébeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand, Van Eeden,
+De Jong, Moll, I myself, and the other followers of the Nancy school,
+declare categorically that, although we have seen many thousands of
+hypnotised persons, we have never observed a single case of mental or
+bodily harm caused by hypnosis, but, on the contrary, have seen many
+cases of illness relieved or cured by it". Dr Bramwell fully endorses
+this, saying emphatically that he has "never seen an unpleasant symptom,
+even of the most trivial nature, follow the skilled induction of
+hypnosis" (_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol.
+xii, page 209).
+
+A proof that _intellectual_ powers outside the normal consciousness
+may be tapped by appropriate methods is afforded by the remarkable
+experiments of Dr Bramwell, on the appreciation of time by somnambules.
+He ordered a hypnotised subject to carry out, after arousal, some
+trivial action, such as making a cross on a piece of paper, at the end
+of a specified period of time, reckoning from the moment of waking.
+In the waking state, the patient knew nothing of the order; but a
+subliminal mental stratum knew, and watched the time, making the subject
+carry out the order when it fell due.
+
+The period varied from a few minutes to several months, and it was
+stated in various ways, _e.g._ on one occasion Dr Bramwell ordered the
+action to be carried out in "24 hours and 2880 minutes". The order was
+given at 3.45 P.M. on December 18, and it was carried out correctly at
+3.45 P.M. on December 21. In other experiments, the periods given were
+4,417, 8,650, 8,680, 8,700, 10,070, 11,470 minutes.
+
+All were correctly timed by the subliminal stratum, the action being
+promptly carried out at the due moment. In the waking state the patient
+was quite incapable--as most of us would be--of calculating mentally
+when the periods would elapse. But the hypnotic stratum could do it,
+and this shows that there are intellectual powers which lie outside
+the field of the normal consciousness. The argument could be further
+supported by the feats of "calculating boys", who can sometimes solve
+the most complicated arithmetical problems, without knowing how they do
+it. They let the problem sink in, and the answer is shot up presently,
+like the cooked pudding in the geyser.
+
+But these things are still in their infancy. Psychology is working at
+the subject, but we do not yet know enough to enable us to venture
+far in the direction of practical application of hypnotic methods in
+education. It seems likely, however, that further investigation will
+yield knowledge which may be of inestimable practical value in the
+training of minds, as well as in the curing of mental and bodily
+disease.
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
+
+
+It has been said, as a kind of jocular epigram, that the Holy Roman
+Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. With similar truth it
+may be said that Christian Science is neither Christian nor science,
+in any ordinary sense of those words. Still, perhaps we ought to allow
+an inventor to christen his own creation, even if the name seems
+inappropriate or likely to cause misunderstanding; and, Mrs Eddy having
+invented Christian Science as an organised religion--though, as we shall
+see, borrowing its main features from an earlier prophet--we may admit
+her right to give a name to her astonishing production. In order that
+the personal equation may be allowed for, the present writer begs to
+affirm that he writes as a sympathetic student though not an adherent.
+
+Mary A. Morse Baker was born on July 16th, 1821, of pious parents, at
+Bow, New Hampshire. Her father was almost illiterate, rather passionate,
+a keen hand at a bargain, and a Puritan in religion. All the Bakers were
+a trifle cranky and eccentric, but some of them possessed ability of
+sorts, though Mary's father made no great success in life. His daughter
+made up for him afterwards.
+
+The first fifteen years of Mary Baker's life were passed at the old
+farm at Bow. The place was lonely, the manner of life primitive, and
+education not a strong point in the community. Mrs Eddy afterwards
+claimed to have studied in her girlhood days Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
+natural philosophy, logic, and moral science! It was, however,
+maintained by her contemporaries that she was backward and indolent, and
+that "Smith's _Grammar_, and as far as long division in arithmetic",
+might be taken as indicating the extent of her scholarship. There is
+certainly some little discrepancy here, and perhaps Mrs Eddy's memory
+was a trifle at fault. She made no claim to any acquaintance with this
+formidable array of subjects in the later part of her life, and it
+seems probable that her contemporaries were right. Her physical beauty,
+coupled with delicate health, seem to have resulted in "spoiling", for
+even as a child she dominated her surroundings to a surprising extent.
+
+In 1843 she married George Glover, who died in June, 1844, leaving her
+penniless. Her only child was born in the September following. After ten
+years of widowhood she married Daniel Paterson, a travelling dentist.
+In 1866 they separated, he making some provision for her. In 1873 she
+obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. In 1877 she married Asa
+Gilbert Eddy, who died in 1882.
+
+So much for her matrimonial experiences, which may now be dismissed, as
+they had no particular influence on her character and career. To prevent
+confusion, we will call her throughout by the name which is most
+familiar to us and to the world.
+
+The chief event of Mrs Eddy's remarkable life, the event which put her
+on the road to fame and fortune, occurred in 1862. This was her meeting
+with the famous "healer", Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. This latter was an
+unschooled but earnest and benevolent man, who had made experiments in
+mesmerism, etc., and who had found--or thought he had found--that people
+could be cured of their ailments by "faith". He therefore began to
+work out a system of "mind-cure", which he embodied in voluminous MSS.
+Patients came to him from far and near, and he treated all, whether they
+could pay or not. Quimby was much above the level of the common quack,
+and his character commands our respect. He was a man of great natural
+intelligence, and was admirable in all his dealings with family,
+friends, and patients.
+
+Mrs Eddy visited him at Portland in 1862, her aim being treatment for
+her continued ill-health. She claims to have been cured--in three
+weeks--though it is clear from her later letters that the cure was not
+complete. Still, great improvement was apparently effected, for she had
+been almost bedridden, with some kind of spinal or hysterical complaint,
+for eight years previously. But Quimby's effect on her was greater
+mentally even than physically. She became interested in his system,
+watched his treatment of patients, borrowed his MSS., and mastered his
+teachings. In 1864 she visited him again, staying two or three months,
+and prosecuting her studies. She now seemed to have formed a definite
+desire to assist in teaching his system. No doubt she dimly saw a
+possible career opening out in front of her; though we need not
+attribute her desire entirely to mere ambition or greed, for it is
+probable that Quimby did a great amount of genuine good, and his pupil
+would naturally imbibe some of his zeal for the relief of suffering
+humanity.
+
+In 1866 Quimby died, aged sixty-four. His pupil decided to put on the
+mantle of her teacher, but more as propagandist and religious prophet
+than as healer. In this latter capacity perhaps her sex was against her.
+(Even now the average individual seems to have a sad lack of confidence
+in the "lady doctor"!) But she was poor, and prospects did not seem
+promising. For some time she drifted about among friends--chiefly
+spiritualists--preparing MSS. and teaching Quimbyism to anyone who would
+listen. (She afterwards denied her indebtedness to Quimby, claiming
+direct revelation. "No human pen nor tongue taught me the science
+contained in this book, _Science and Health_, and neither tongue nor
+pen can overthrow it."--_Science and Health_, p. 110, 1907 edition.)
+
+Though unsuccessful as healer (in spite of her later claim to have
+healed Whittier of "incipient pulmonary consumption" in one visit),
+she certainly had the knack of teaching--had the power of inspiring
+enthusiasm and of inoculating others with her ideas. In 1870 she
+turned up at Lynn, Mass., with a pupil named Richard Kennedy, a lad of
+twenty-one. Her aim being to found a religious organisation based on
+practical results (the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, etc.), it
+was necessary to work with a pupil-practitioner. Accordingly she and
+Kennedy took offices at Lynn, and "Dr Kennedy" appeared on a signboard
+affixed to a tree.
+
+Immediate success followed. Patients crowded the waiting-rooms. Kennedy
+did the "healing" and Mrs Eddy organised classes, which were recruited
+from the ranks of patients and friends; fees, a hundred dollars for
+twelve lessons, afterwards raised to three hundred dollars for seven
+lessons. Before long, however, she quarrelled with Kennedy, and in 1872
+they separated, but not before she had reaped about six thousand dollars
+as her share of the harvest. It was her first taste of success, after
+weary years of toil and stress and hysteria and eccentricity. Naturally,
+like Alexander, she sighed for further conquest. _L'appétit vient en
+mangeant._ And, though in her fiftieth year, she was now more energetic
+than ever.
+
+Her next move was the purchase of a house at 8, Broad Street, Lynn,
+which became the first official headquarters of Christian Science. In
+1875 appeared her famous book, _Science and Health, With Key to the
+Scriptures_, which was financed by two of its author's friends. The
+first edition was of a thousand copies. As it sold but slowly, she
+persuaded her chief practitioner, Daniel Spofford, to give up his
+practice and to devote himself to advertising the book and pushing its
+sale. Since then it has been revised many times, and the editions are
+legion. Loyal disciples of the better-educated sort have assisted in its
+rewriting, and it is now a very presentable kind of affair as to its
+literary form. Most, if not all, of the editions have been sold at a
+minimum of $3.18 per copy, with _editions de luxe_ at $5 or more, and
+the author's other works are published at similarly high prices. All
+Christian Scientists were commanded to buy the works of the Reverend
+Mother, and all successive editions of those works. It is not surprising
+that Mrs Eddy should leave a fortune of a million and a half dollars. It
+may be mentioned here that she moved from Lynn to Boston in 1882, thence
+to Concord (New Hampshire) in 1889, and finally to a large mansion in a
+Boston suburb which she bought for $100,000, spending a similar sum in
+remodelling and enlarging. The modern prophet does not dwell in the
+wilderness, subsisting on locusts and wild honey. He--or she--has moved
+with the times, and has a proper respect for the almighty dollar and the
+comforts of civilisation.
+
+In 1881 was founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. This
+imposingly-named institution never had any special buildings, and its
+instructions were mostly given in Mrs Eddy's parlour, Mrs Eddy herself
+constituting all the faculty. Four thousand students passed through
+the "College" in seven years, at the end of which period it ceased to
+exist. The fees were usually $300 for seven lessons, as before. Few
+gold-mines pay as well as did the "Metaphysical College". The fact does
+not at first sight increase our respect for the alleged cuteness of the
+inhabitants of the States. But, on further investigation, the murder is
+out. Most of these students probably earned back by "healing" much more
+than they paid Mrs Eddy. Our respect for Uncle Sam's business shrewdness
+returns in full force.
+
+The experiment of conducting religious services had been made by Mrs
+Eddy at Lynn in 1875, but the first Christian Science Church was not
+chartered until 1879. The Scientists met, however, in various public
+halls of Boston, until 1894, when a church was built. This was soon
+outgrown, and 10,000 of the faithful pledged themselves to raise two
+million dollars for its enlargement. The new building was finished in
+1906. Its auditorium holds five thousand people. The walls are decorated
+with texts signed "Jesus, the Christ," and "Mary Baker G. Eddy"--these
+names standing side by side.
+
+The following examples, culled almost at random, will further show how
+great is her conviction that she has the Truth, how vigorously she bulls
+her own stocks (somehow, financial metaphors seem inevitable when
+writing of Mrs Eddy):
+
+"God has been graciously fitting me during many years for the reception
+of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific
+mental healing". (_Science and Health_, p. 107.)
+
+"I won my way to absolute conclusion through divine revelation, reason
+and demonstration". (_Ibid._, p. 109.)
+
+"To those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to
+Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed the Spirit of Christian Science,
+if not the absolute letter". (_Ibid._, p. 483.)
+
+"The theology of Christian Science is truth; opposed to which is the
+error of sickness, sin, and death, that truth destroys". (_Miscellaneous
+Writings_, p. 62.)
+
+"Christian Science is the unfolding of true Metaphysics, that is,
+of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests on principle and
+demonstration. The Principle of Christian Science is divine". (_Ibid._,
+p. 69.)
+
+The following maybe quoted as an example of mixed good and evil, with a
+certain flavour of unconscious humour:
+
+"Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and
+kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering to its
+possessor throughout time, and beyond the grave. If you have been badly
+wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense this wrong, and punish,
+more severely than you could, him who has striven to injure you".
+(_Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 12.)
+
+The advice is good, but it is not new. And Mrs Eddy seemed to experience
+a special joy in the thought that by leaving our enemies alone they
+will receive from God a more effective trouncing than we with our poor
+appliances could administer. The ideal Christian would not want his
+enemies handed over to the inquisitor--he would beg for them to be let
+off. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" That is
+the Christian attitude. It is perhaps too high for ordinary mortals to
+attain to, but Mrs Eddy made such high claims that we are entitled to
+judge her by correspondingly high standards.
+
+The form of service in the various Christian Science churches at first
+included a sermon. But Mrs Eddy soon saw that this might introduce
+discord: for the preachers might differ in their interpretations of
+_Science and Health_. And Mrs Eddy above all things aimed at unity in
+order to keep the control in her own hands. Therefore, in 1895, she
+forbade preaching altogether. The Bible and _Science and Health, With
+Key to the Scriptures_, were to be read from, but no explanatory
+comments were to be made. The services comprise Sunday morning and
+evening readings from these two books, with music; the Wednesday evening
+experience meeting; and the communion service, once or twice a year
+only. There is no baptismal, marriage, or burial service, and weddings
+and funerals are never conducted in Christian Science churches.
+
+As to church government, there was a nominal board of directors, but Mrs
+Eddy had supreme power. She could appoint or dismiss at will. The Church
+was hers, body and soul. Probably no other religious leader ever had
+such an unqualified sway. The Holy Father at Rome is a mere figurehead
+in comparison with the late Reverend Mother.
+
+In June, 1907, there were in all 710 branch churches. Of these,
+twenty-five were in Canada, fourteen in Britain, two in Ireland, four in
+Australia, one in South Africa, eight in Mexico, two in Germany, one in
+Holland, one in France, and the remainder in the States. There were also
+295 societies not yet incorporated into churches. The total membership
+of the 710 churches was probably about 50,000. (In _Pulpit and Press_,
+p. 82, Mrs Eddy puts the number at 100,000 to 200,000; and this was in
+1895. Some claim that the total number of adherents is as high as a
+million. But these are probably exaggerated estimates.) About one-tenth
+of these make their living by their faith. Here we come to the secret of
+Christian Science success.
+
+There are about 400 authorised Christian Science "healers", and many
+who practise without diploma but not without pay. These people treat
+sick folks, receiving fees. Their method is to assure the patient
+that he is under a delusion in thinking himself ill, that matter
+is an illusion, that God is All, etc. It sounds very absurd. But the
+curious thing is that many people have been cured by this treatment,
+and--naturally--these people become ardent Christian Scientists. It is
+by the practical application that Christian Science as a religion lives
+and thrives. As to the kind of diseases cured, the most extravagant
+claims are made. In _Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 41, Mrs Eddy
+definitely states that "all classes of disease" can be healed by her
+method. After careful sifting of much evidence, however, Dr Myers and
+his brother (F. W. H. Myers) found that no proof was forthcoming for
+the cure of definite organic disease by Christian Science methods.
+(_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. IX, p. 160;
+also _Journal_, vol. VIII, p. 247.) Undoubtedly they have been, and are
+continually, efficient in relieving, and even curing, many functional
+disorders which have resisted ordinary medical treatment--and it must
+be remembered that many functional derangements are as serious,
+subjectively, as grave organic disease--and consequently it is
+undeniable that Christian Science often does good. But it is probable
+that the same amount of good, and perhaps more, could be done by the
+hypnotic or suggestive treatment of a qualified medical man, or perhaps
+by other forms of "faith-healing". The Christian Scientist is using
+suggestion; but he couples it up with religion, and thus, perhaps--with
+some people--succeeds in driving the suggestion home with greater
+force. It is noteworthy that similar attempts are now being made in
+other directions--witness the Emmanuel movement in New York, the
+Faithists and various "psycho-therapeutic" societies in England, and
+the tendency in some quarters (Bishop of London) to return to anointing
+and laying on of hands by clergymen.
+
+Psychologically, Mrs Eddy is at least classified, if not entirely
+explained, by one word--monoideism. She was a person of one idea. These
+people, for whom we usually have the simpler term of "crank", are common
+enough. I have no personal acquaintance with the circle-squaring and
+perpetual-motion cranks mentioned by De Morgan (_The Budget of
+Paradoxes_), but I know a "flat-earth" crank, and am well acquainted
+with a "British-Israelite" crank, who seems to derive unspeakable
+joy--tempered only by his failure to convert me--from the thought that
+we Britishers are veritably the descendants of one or more of the Lost
+Tribes. All these people are conscious of a mission. They have had a
+revelation, and are anxious to impart it. Their efforts may not be due
+to the "last infirmity of noble mind", still less to a lower motive.
+They may just be built that way. The majority of them, like my
+Lost-Tribes friend, get no hearing because of the inflexible pragmatism
+of a stiffnecked and utilitarian generation. "What difference does it
+make whether we are the Tribes or not?" asks the man in the street. And
+he passes on with a shrug or a grin, according to temperament. This
+terrible pragmatic test makes short work of many amiable cranks. And it
+is just here that Christian Science scores its point; for it cures
+physical disease, thereby becoming intensely practical. Health is the
+chief "good" of life. Anything that will restore it to an ailing body
+commands immediate and universal respect. Christian Science therefore
+appeals, on its practical side, to the deepest thing in us--to the
+primal instinct of self-preservation. Hence its success.
+
+It is possible to blame Mrs Eddy unjustly for her love of power as such.
+She was not unique in this respect. The difference is that Mrs Eddy
+succeeded while the others have not, and are consequently not heard of.
+My Lost-Tribes friend would be as autocratic as anybody if he had the
+chance; but his motive would not be greed of power, but rather the
+overmastering desire to push his cause, to proselytise, to promulgate
+his one idea, almost by force, if such a thing were possible. Most of
+us know a few fanatics of this kind. The objects of their devotion are
+varied--one is mad north-north-west, another south-south-east--but
+all suffer from a lack of balance, a lack of proper distribution of
+interest. Of course, we may cheerfully admit that we are all more or
+less specialists in our several departments, and that the line between
+sanity and insanity is rather arbitrary. We all seem more or less mad to
+those who do not agree with us.
+
+The good and true part of Christian Science is its demonstration of the
+influence of mind on body, and of the usefulness of inducing mental
+states of an optimistic character. It may, of course, be said that we
+need no Mrs Eddy to tell us this. True, we don't. The great seers and
+poets have always taught optimism, and the influence of mind on body was
+medically recognised--more or less--long before even Quimby's time. But
+we must remember that different minds need different treatment--need
+their nutriment and stimulant in different forms, to suit the various
+mental digestions and receptive powers. Consequently, though we may
+prefer Browning for optimism and the doctors for hypnotic therapeutics,
+we need not complain if others prefer Mrs Eddy and her disciples.
+If they get good from their way of putting things, and if that good
+manifests itself in their character and life--in their total reaction on
+the world--by all means let them continue to walk in their chosen way.
+It would be wrong to try to turn them. The system "works"; therefore it
+is true for them. The tree is known by its fruits. And the fruits of
+Christian Science are undoubtedly often good. In this complex world
+nothing is unmixedly good, and harm is no doubt done occasionally. But,
+on the whole, it seems probable that Mrs Eddy, with all her hysteria and
+morbidities and rancours and queerness, has been a power for good in
+the world. Her writings meet a want which some people feel, or, rather,
+provide them with a useful impulse in the direction of physical and
+spiritual regeneration. If you can make a sick person stop brooding over
+his ailments and worrying over things in general, you have achieved
+something which enormously increases his chance of recovery; and if you
+can make him turn all his thoughts and energies in the direction of
+recovery, and all his emotional powers in the direction of love and
+goodwill to his fellow-men and towards God, there is no limit to the
+powers which may be put in operation. In spite of all our achievements
+in science--and they have been great--we are only, as Newton said,
+picking up pebbles on the sea-shore. Nature is boundless; we can fix no
+limits to her powers. And we know so little, really, about disease, that
+I am not at all prepared to deny the Christian Science claims, even
+with regard to organic disease. The distinction between organic and
+functional is in our own inabilities, not in the nature of the case;
+we call a disease "organic" when we find definite tissue-change, and
+"functional" when we do not; but in the latter case there must be some
+organic basis, though too small perhaps to be discoverable--say a lesion
+in a tiny nerve. Consequently I regard the question of Christian Science
+cures as entirely one of evidence. I keep an open mind. If I come across
+enough evidence, I will believe that it can cure tuberculosis of the
+lungs and other diseases, as claimed, whether I can understand how it
+does it or not. At present, like Dr Myers, I am not convinced; but I
+have seen enough of Christian Science results among my own friends to
+prevent me from denying anything. I merely suspend judgment. But I do
+believe that the power of the mind over the body is so great that almost
+anything is possible; and I think that the medical advance of the next
+half-century will be chiefly in this hitherto neglected direction.
+I happen to know that this, or something very near this, was the
+strongly-held opinion of the late Professor William James of Harvard,
+who, in addition to being the most brilliant psychologist of his
+generation, was also a qualified doctor of medicine.
+
+
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC
+
+
+Great results often flow from small causes. Pascal said that if
+Cleopatra's nose had been shorter the history of the world would have
+been different. Similarly it may be truly said that if a peasant girl of
+Domrémy had not had hallucinations, France would now have been a British
+province. And it is curious to reflect that the Church which burnt her
+as a heretic and sorcerer has her, and her only, to thank for such
+hold as it still maintains on France, for the latter would have become
+Protestant if England had won. The Roman church now recognises this, and
+has beatified the Maid. The next step will be her canonisation as a
+saint. Thus does the whirligig of Time bring its revenges.
+
+Jeanne d'Arc was born in the village of Domrémy near Vaucouleurs, on the
+border of Champagne and Lorraine, on January 6th, 1412. She was taught
+to spin and to sew, but not to read or write, these accomplishments
+being beyond what was necessary for people in her station of life. Her
+parents were devout, and she was brought up piously. Her nature was
+gentle, modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness or morbid
+abnormality--on the contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later
+history proves.
+
+At or about the age of thirteen, Jeanne began to experience what
+psychology now calls "auditory hallucinations". That is, she heard
+voices--usually accompanied by a bright light--when no visible person
+was present. This, of course, is a common symptom of impending mental
+disorder; but no insanity developed in Jeanne d'Arc. Startled she
+naturally was at first, but continuation led to familiarity and trust.
+The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace kind, as, for instance,
+that she "must be a good girl and go regularly to church." Soon,
+however, she began to have visions: saw St Michael, St Catherine, and St
+Margaret; was given instructions as to her mission; eventually made her
+way to the Dauphin; put herself at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced
+to the relief of Orleans, which was besieged by the conquering English.
+After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege was raised, and the enemy
+driven off. The tide of war had turned, and in three months the Dauphin
+was crowned King at Rheims, as Charles the Seventh.
+
+At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished. But her
+wish to return to her family was over-ruled by king and archbishop, and
+she took part in the further fighting against the allied English and
+Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical skill. But in
+November, 1430, in a desperate sally from Compiegne--which was besieged
+by the Duke of Burgundy--she fell into the enemy's hands, was sold to
+the English, and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen.
+
+After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial--a mock trial
+before the Bishop of Beauvais, in an ecclesiastical court. Learned
+doctors of the church did their best to entangle the simple girl in
+their dialectical toils; but she showed a remarkable power of keeping to
+her simple affirmations and of avoiding heretical statements. "God has
+always been my Lord in all that I have done". But the trial was only
+pretence, for her fate was already decided. She was burnt to death,
+amid the jeers and execration of a rabble of brutal soldiery, in a Rouen
+market-place on May 30th, 1431.
+
+The life of the Maid supplies a problem which orthodox science cannot
+solve. She was a simple peasant girl, with no ambitions hankering after
+a career. She rebelled pathetically against her mission. "I had far
+rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for this is no work of my
+choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." She cannot be
+dismissed on the "simple idiot" theory of Voltaire, for her genius in
+war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove exceptional mental
+powers, unschooled though she was in what we call education. We cannot
+call her a mere hysteric, for her health and strength were superb. A man
+of science once said to an Abbé: "Come to the Salpêtrière Hospital, and
+I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the Abbé responded: "Has
+one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?"
+
+There is the crux, as Andrew Lang quietly remarked.
+
+The retort was certainly neat. Still, though the Salpêtrière hysterics
+have not won back Alsace and Lorraine, it is nevertheless true that a
+great movement may be started, or kept going when started, by fraud,
+hallucination, and credulity. The Mormons, for example, are a strong
+body, but the origins of their faith will not bear much criticism. _The
+Book of Mormon_, handed down from heaven by an angel, is more than we
+can swallow. No one saw its "metal leaves"--from which Joseph Smith
+translated--except Joseph himself. We have our own opinion about
+Joseph's truthfulness. Somewhat similarly with spiritualism. The great
+movement is there, based partly on fact as I believe, but supported by
+some fraud and much ignorance and credulity. May it not have been
+somewhat thus with Jeanne? She delivered France, and her importance in
+history is great; but may not her mission and her doings have been the
+outcome of merely subjective hallucinations, induced by the brooding of
+her specially religious and patriotic mind on the woes of her country?
+The army, being ignorant and superstitious, would readily believe in the
+supernatural character of her mission, and great energy and valour would
+follow as a matter of course--for a man fights well when he believes
+that Providence is on his side.
+
+That is the usual kind of theory in explanation of the facts. But it is
+not fully satisfactory. How came it--one may ask--that this untutored
+peasant girl could persuade not only the rude soldiery, but also the
+Dauphin and the court, of her Divine appointment? How came she to be
+given the command of an army? Surely a post of such responsibility and
+power would not be given to a peasant girl of eighteen, on the mere
+strength of her own claim to inspiration. It seems, at least, very
+improbable.
+
+Now it seems (though the materialistic school of historians conveniently
+ignore or belittle it) that there is strong evidence in support of the
+idea that Jeanne gave the Dauphin some proof of the possession of
+supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so strong that Mr Lang
+called it "unimpeachable"--and Mr Lang did not usually err on the side
+of credulity in these matters. Among other curious things, Jeanne seems
+to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer which he had made
+mentally, and she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a
+sword hidden behind the altar of Fierbois church. Schiller's magnificent
+dramatic poem "_Die Jungfrau von Orleans_," though unhistorical in some
+details, is substantially accurate on these points concerning
+clairvoyance and mind-reading.
+
+As to the voices and visions, a Protestant will have a certain prejudice
+with regard to the St Michael, St Catherine, and St Margaret stories,
+though he may very possibly be wrong in his disbelief. But, waiving
+that, it may be true that some genuine inspiration was truly given to
+the Maid from the deeper strata of her own soul, and that these
+monitions externalised themselves in the forms in which her thought
+habitually ran. If she had been a Greek of two thousand years earlier,
+her visions would probably have taken the form of Apollo and Pallas
+Athene; yet they might equally well have contained truth and good
+counsel, as did the utterances of the Oracles.
+
+And, speaking of the Greeks, we may remember that the wisest of that
+race had similar experiences. Socrates--the pre-eminent type of sanity
+and mental burliness--was counselled by his "daimon"; by a warning Voice
+which, truly, did not give positive advice like Jeanne's, but which
+intervened to stop him when about to make some wrong decision. Again--to
+jump suddenly down to modern times--Charles Dickens says in his letters
+that the characters of his novels took on a kind of independent
+existence, and that Mrs Gamp, his greatest creation, spoke to him
+(generally in church) as with an actual voice. In fact, all cases of
+creative genius, whether in literature, art, or invention, are examples
+of an uprush from unknown mental depths: the process is not the same as
+the intellectual process of reasoning. In these cases, as for instance
+with Socrates, Jeanne d'Arc, Dickens, the deeper strata of the mind
+may be supposed to send up thoughts so vigorously that they become
+externalised as hallucinations; not necessarily morbid or injurious,
+though of course many hallucinations are undoubtedly both. The
+inspiration rises from below the conscious threshold. It is as if
+"given"; and the normal conscious mind looks on in passive astonishment.
+_Alles ist als wie geschenkt_, says Goethe--and he knew, if anybody did.
+A similar thing happens, on a more ordinary plane, when a problem that
+has baffled the working mind is solved in sleep. In short, the normal
+consciousness is not all there is of us; there are levels and powers
+below the threshold. And it seems likely that the new psychology is on
+the track of a better explanation of Socrates and Jeanne d'Arc, as well
+as of the nature of genius in general, than has yet been excogitated by
+the philosophers. Certainly these things supply interesting material for
+study, and many curious discoveries are now being made in this field of
+research.
+
+
+
+
+IS THE EARTH ALIVE?
+
+
+Some of the ancients thought the earth was an animal. It has its hard
+and soft parts, its bone and flesh--rock and soil--as the Norse
+cosmology pictured it; also its blood, of seas, rivers, and the like.
+To a coast-dwelling people, the rhythmic inflow and outflow of the
+tides would suggest a huge slow blood-pulsation, or a breathing. And
+heat increases with depth, in mine or cave; fire spouts from Etna and
+Vesuvius; evidently the earth is hotter inside than at the surface, as
+animals are hotter inside than on their skins. Some such animal-notion
+was held by Plato, and by some of the later Stoics; though it does not
+seem to have been worked out in detail. And the Greek, Indian, or
+Egyptian theology which made the earth a goddess and the bride of
+Heaven or the sun, is still more indefinite, or is crudely
+anthropomorphic and primitive.
+
+Modern approximations have been chiefly in poetry, and are pan-psychic
+rather than animistic; as in Pope's _Essay on Man_:
+
+    All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
+    Whose body Nature is, and God the soul,
+
+and in Wordsworth's _Tintern Abbey_ where the presence which disturbs
+him with the joy of elevated thoughts is felt to be the Spirit which has
+its dwelling in the light of setting suns and the round ocean and the
+living air:
+
+    A motion and a spirit that impels
+    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
+    And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
+    A lover of the meadows and the woods,
+    And mountains; and all that we behold
+    From this green earth; of all the mighty world
+    Of eye, and ear.
+
+Emerson expresses the same thought in _Pan_ and in much of his
+prose--_Nature_, _The Over Soul_, _Self-Reliance_. William James, in
+early days before his pluralistic development, thought that an _anima
+mundi_ thinking in all of us was a more likely hypothesis than that of
+"a lot of individual souls"; and Leibnitz, among other metaphysical
+great ones, Spinozistically speaks of "un seul esprit qui est universel
+et qui anime tout l'univers". Finally, to quote a modern of the moderns,
+we find Mr H. G. Wells finely saying that "between you and me as we set
+our minds together, and between us and the rest of mankind, there is
+_something_, something real, something that rises through us and is
+neither you nor me, that comprehends us, that is thinking here and using
+me and you to play against each other in that thinking just as my finger
+and thumb play against each other as I hold this pen with which I
+write". (_First and Last Things_, p. 67.)
+
+But these various poets and thinkers, while suggesting a soul-side
+of the material universe, have not ventured to attribute spirits to
+specific lumps of matter such as the planets. Science has banished those
+celestial genii. Kepler and Newton substituted for them the "bald and
+barren doctrine of gravitation", to the disgust of the theologically
+orthodox. It is possible, however, that science did not banish these
+planetary spirits, but only prevented us from seeing them, by turning
+our eyes in another direction, towards the laws according to which the
+material universe works; as if we should become so absorbed in the
+chemistry and physics of blood oxidation, digestion, cerebral change,
+and the like, as to forget that the human body has a consciousness
+associated with it. It may be that we are too materialistic in our
+astronomy. Perhaps Lorenzo was right, even about the music of the
+spheres; and that our deafness, not their silence, is the reason why
+we do not hear it.
+
+The nineteenth century produced a thinker who revived the animistic
+idea in an improved form. He elaborated it into a system of philosophy,
+welding into it the discoveries of science, and leaving room for any
+further advance in that direction. At the same time he showed that his
+system was essentially religious, and indeed quite consistent with
+Christianity in its best interpretations. But his writings fell almost
+dead from the press, for he was before his time. The scientific men were
+materialists, and sneered at a system which recognised a spiritual
+world; while the orthodox Christians were scared by its evolutionary
+method and its acceptance of Darwinism when the latter arrived--for the
+philosophy preceded it--and also by the novelty of some of its ideas.
+
+Gustav Theodor Fechner was born on April 19, 1801, at Gross-Särchen in
+what is now Silesia, then under the Elector of Saxony. He studied at
+Leipzig, and was appointed professor of Physics at the University there,
+in 1834. He conducted several scientific journals, wrote text-books,
+translated Biot's _Physics_ (4 vols.) Thénard's _Chemistry_ (6 vols.)
+and a work on cerebral pathology; also edited an eight-volume
+_Encyclopædia_ of which he wrote about a third himself, lectured, and
+made researches in electro-magnetism which injured his eyesight. His
+chief scientific work, _Elements of Psycho-Physics_, was published in
+1859, additions being made in 1877 and 1882. "Fechner's Law", the
+fundamental law of psychophysics (that sensation varies in the ratio
+of the logarithm of impression) is now an internationally current term.
+Men like Paulsen and Wundt do not hesitate to call Fechner master. His
+chief philosophical work is _Zend-Avesta_ (3 vols.) published in 1851,
+and rearranged and condensed in _Die Tagesansicht gegenüber der
+Nachtansicht_ (1879); but he published also many subsidiary volumes.
+Only one of his works has appeared in English--the small volume on
+_Life After Death_--and even this had to be brought out by an American
+publisher! Yet Fechner is, as Professor William James said, "a
+philosopher in the great sense ... little known as yet to English
+readers, but destined, I am persuaded, to wield more and more influence
+as time goes on". (_A Pluralistic Universe_, pp. 135, 149.) The prophecy
+is already beginning to come true.
+
+Fechner always begins with the known and indisputable, arguing thence
+to the unknown. His method is thus analogical and scientific. It is the
+only method that a scientific generation will tolerate. Its results may
+be disputed, but so can the results of science. Even mathematics gives
+us no certainties, for something must always be taken for granted. In
+philosophising by analogy, we do at least keep in close touch with
+experience; we do not evaporate the world into an "unearthly ballet of
+bloodless categories". And if the analogies point mostly one way, with
+only weak ones pointing the other, the result may be at least acceptable
+as a working hypothesis, even if not "demonstrable".
+
+Man is a living, thinking, feeling being. He is on the surface of a
+nearly spherical body, which he calls the earth, out of which his
+material part has arisen. The elements of his body are the same as
+those in the earth. His carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen are the
+carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen of the coal measures, soils,
+atmosphere, oceans, of the earth. The calcium carbonate of his bones is
+the calcium carbonate of her rocks as seen in cliffs at Flamborough and
+Dover. He is bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Sometimes he calls
+her Mother Earth, and involuntarily speaks the truth in jest. In Siberia
+the Tartar word for the earth is "Mamma"--a curious fact. Indeed, the
+bond between the earth and her children is much closer than in the case
+of a human mother and her child; for we remain, all our lives, actually
+_part_ of the planet's mass. If our bodies were suddenly annihilated,
+the earth's gravitative attraction would be altered, and the whole solar
+system would have to readjust itself to the slight diminution. We belong
+to the earth. We are a film of cells on her skin. In Piccadilly and the
+Bowery (and Throgmorton and Wall Streets?) we are--alas!--an eczematous
+patch.
+
+But here it may be objected that man is more than a mere body. Quite
+true. Man has experiences of an order different from the material one.
+You cannot express joy and sorrow by chemical equations or number
+of foot-pounds. Even if there is a material equivalent or necessary
+concomitant, of electrical or chemical change in cerebral tissue or
+what not, the fact of the non-material experience remains a reality. To
+indicate this side of human life, we call it the spiritual side. We say
+that man is matter and spirit, body and soul. This is quite justifiable
+and right, whether we can define the terms or not. Definition means
+explaining a word by means of others that are better known. And as we
+cannot get any closer to reality than our own experience, which _is_
+reality to us, and as the two words conveniently classify two great
+departments of experience, we justifiably say that we are soul and
+body. Very well; the body, then, when we die, returns to the earth, from
+which indeed it has not been severed, except as being a point at which a
+special kind of activity was manifested. What then of the soul? Shall it
+not return to the earth-soul, as the body returns to the earth-body?
+
+Man has arisen out of the earth. And can the dead give birth to the
+living? Such an idea is self-contradictory. If the Earth has produced
+us, it cannot be really a mere dead lump, as nineteenth-century
+materialistic science regarded it. It must be alive. The fifteen hundred
+millions or so of human beings who live on its surface like microscopic
+insects on the body of an elephant, or like epidermis-cells on our
+own bodies, constitute in their total weight and size only an almost
+infinitesimal proportion of the earth's mass. The earth is 8,000 miles
+in diameter; if human beings were so numerous that they could only stand
+up, wedged together all over its surface, tropics and poles, land and
+water--the latter covers seven-tenths of it--they would only be like a
+skin 1/200,000th part of an inch thick, on a globe a yard in diameter.
+The total mass of all the living creatures on the earth's surface,
+including all animals and all vegetation, is almost inconceivably small,
+as compared with the mass of the earth. Is it not a trifle ludicrous to
+find some of these little creatures looking down so condescendingly on
+the remainder of the planet? Emerson was among the few who have seen the
+joke, for in _Hamatreya_ he satirises those who boast of possessing
+pieces of the earth:
+
+    Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
+    And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
+    Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
+    Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
+    Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
+    Clear of the grave.
+
+And the earth sings:
+
+    They called me theirs,
+    Who so controlled me;
+    Yet every one
+    Wished to stay, and is gone,
+    How am I theirs,
+    If they cannot hold me,
+    But I hold them?
+
+A very natural objection to the idea of the earth being full of life
+and mind--as my body is full of my life and my mind--is that the
+inorganic part of the planet presents no evidence of such. It does
+not act as if it were alive and conscious. But this begs the whole
+question. If you decide beforehand that all evidence for the existence
+of mind must be the sort of phenomena exhibited by the things we call
+living, the business is settled, and it is clear that the inorganic
+kingdom is without consciousness. There is then no sign of mind
+anywhere except in that infinitesimally thin and indeed discontinuous
+skin which is made up of living individuals on the earth's surface. But
+is it not somewhat presumptuous to dogmatise thus? Why should mind
+always manifest itself in the same way? Non-living matter does not show
+vital activities, but it does show other activities, quite systematic
+and non-chaotic and comprehensible ones. How could "dead" matter have
+any activity at all? Even Haeckel postulates a sort of mind in the
+atom, and we have heard of "mind-stuff" before, from an equally
+determined materialist. Indeed, how can we rationalise the behaviour
+of phosphorus in oxygen but by saying that the two elements like each
+other so well that they rush to combine whenever possible? If carbon
+has great "affinity," showing a tendency to combine with many atoms of
+other elements in various complicated ways--at least as regards its
+favourite types--it is reasonable to regard it as a much-loving
+element--the polygamous Solomon of the elements. If fluorine will
+have nothing to do with other substances--except under protest, when
+persuaded by Miss Hydrogen, whose gaiety and levity sometimes overcome
+its sulkiness, bringing it also into the society of calcium and one or
+two other metals--we must say that fluorine is unsociable, morbidly
+self-centred, or perhaps mystically disposed, like Thoreau, happy by
+his pond, alone. Chemical affinity is the loves of the elements.
+
+Rising to the next grade of complexity above atoms, we find that
+molecular movements, visible in the apparently representative Brownian
+movements of particles, recall the fidget of a bunch of midges,
+and thereby suggest a sort of life. They disobey the second law of
+thermodynamics, rising in a lighter liquid, as midges rise in the
+tenuous air. Of course no one can deny that in the things we call living
+there are phenomena not seen elsewhere, and some of these are quite
+probably not understandable at all, in terms of measurement or imagery,
+as we can understand the Brownian movements by irregular bombardment of
+molecules. We cannot understand the relation between a supposed
+brain-change and the corresponding mental fact. The two orders of
+being seem disjunctive. Perhaps these things are too close to us to be
+understood; perhaps we cannot understand life and consciousness because
+we are ourselves alive and conscious--as we cannot lift ourselves by
+pulling at our boot tops, and cannot see our own faces because the eyes
+that see are _in_ the face that is to be seen. Still the distinction
+between life at its lowest and non-life at its highest (crystals?) is
+so small that we may yet effect a smooth transition--may somehow see a
+continuity which now eludes us. And it seems likely that this will be
+effected by an extension of the mind-idea down into the inorganic,
+rather than by any explanation of life by physical and chemical
+concepts.
+
+Again, on the larger scale, may not cohesion, as well as chemical
+affinity, be a sort of affection; in this case a kind of wide social
+friendship--the "adhesive love" of Whitman, which is to supersede
+"amative love"--as against the fierce and narrow loves of the elements?
+A. C. Benson in _Joyous Gard_ (p. 128) quotes a geologist who says:
+
+  It is not by any means certain that stones do not have a certain
+  obscure life of their own; I have sometimes thought that their
+  marvellous cohesion may be a sign of life, and that if life were
+  withdrawn, a mountain might in a moment become a heap of sliding
+  sand.
+
+Yes, and even in sand-grains there is cohesion of particles, and in
+the smallest particles huge numbers of molecules, and again--still
+smaller--atoms and electrons. Something elusive yet tremendously potent
+is still there, in the sand. It would be rash to call it dead and
+mindless. There seems more sense in admitting that there is something
+akin to what we know as life and mind in ourselves, permeating the
+material universe.
+
+And if--to come back to our own planet--if the earth is a living
+organism, there will naturally be distribution of function, as there
+is in our own bodies. It would be absurd for the eye to deny life and
+perception to ear or skin just because their mode of activity is
+different. It is wiser to concede life and mind where-ever there is
+action. In the present state of affairs, not only do we get into
+difficulties by our rash assumption that there is no mind without
+protoplasm (_ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke_, as the old materialist too
+boldly said), but we find it impossible to draw the line between living
+and non-living. Drops of oil exhibit amoeboid movements, and at the
+lower end of life the slime-mass becomes so undifferentiated as to be
+very much in a borderland between the two states. Probably non-living
+substances gradate into living ones by imperceptible _differentiæ_, as
+man would be found to gradate back into an anthropoid ape or something
+of the kind if we could see all the stages. Nature does not make jumps.
+Where she seems to do so, it is only because we cannot see how she
+gets from one place to another distant one. But when we scrutinise the
+interspace, we see that there is a path. Nature does not jump. She
+glides.
+
+It is on this line of thought that the disagreement between the schools
+represented by Sir Edward Schäfer and Dr Hans Driesch respectively
+may, perhaps, be happily resolved. No doubt each may have to make
+concessions. The mechanist must not claim that mind is _only_ an affair
+of nitrogenous colloids, for this would be a large assumption built on
+a very small foundation; no biologist, however much he knows about
+nitrogenous colloids, can in any conceivable sense explain his joy in a
+sunset or a symphony by reference to those substances. Physical causes
+have physical effects; to say that they cause anything non-physical
+(_i.e._ mental) is really talking nonsense. And, on the other hand,
+the vitalist must not deny consciousness to non-protoplasmic Nature.
+Negations are dangerous. It is extremely risky to say that a Matterhorn
+has less spiritual significance--in itself and for the whole, and not
+only for us--than a cretin who wanders useless and unbeautiful about its
+lower slopes. The activities of the two are different, that is all we
+are justified in saying. True, the Matterhorn's are more calculable and
+predictable, but that does not prove unconsciousness. Human action also
+is predictable to some extent. And the more wise and unified a man
+is--the nearer he approximates to ideal perfection--the more accurately
+we can predict his response to a given stimulus. We might almost argue,
+on these lines, that inorganic matter has a certain superiority; for
+it is not capricious. It knows what it wants to do, and does it; or at
+least--if this is going too far--it does things, and does them _as if_
+it knew very well what it wanted to do. To the same conditions and
+stimuli it always responds in the same way, like reflex action in living
+beings, and like association in ordinary consciousness. Water always
+boils punctually at 100°C., and freezes at 0°C., if the pressure
+is 760mm. of mercury. "Canal" always makes me think of Panama and
+Mars--though to other people it might suggest Suez, their different
+experience having given them other association-couplings. But any one
+knowing me well, or knowing any one well, could say almost certainly
+what associations "canal" would have--what thought it will evoke. And
+the same thing is true, to a less extent, of our actions. If a man hits
+Jack Johnson, the latter will probably hit back. Still more certain is
+it that no one will hit him unless drunk or insane or in some sort of
+very exceptional circumstances. If, on the other hand, somebody hits me,
+the outcome is less certain. It will depend to a greater extent on the
+result of reflection and judgment--perhaps partly on my estimate of the
+other fellow's weight, age, training and science! Yet anyone knowing
+me well, and perceiving the main conditions, could predict with fair
+approach to accuracy what I should do. Yet I am undoubtedly a conscious
+being. Some actions of conscious beings, then, are predictable, if we
+know the conditions. Indeed, in the mass, human action is calculable
+with precision--witness the various kinds of insurance. Why then
+deny consciousness to the Matterhorn, because _all_ its actions are
+calculable and predictable? The difference is one of degree, not kind.
+And indeed _are_ all its actions predictable? The fact is, they are only
+hypothetically so. We say that they would be if we knew enough. But we
+might say the same of the actions of a man. The truth is, that if we say
+it of either we are arguing dangerously, from our ignorance and not from
+our knowledge. It is indeed as risky to say that we could predict the
+Matterhorn's actions _in toto_, as to say that we cannot predict the
+man's; for we are continually finding that matter does things which we
+did not formerly suspect--_e.g._ radio-activity. Clearly, we cannot
+predict all the activities of the Matterhorn: many may depend on
+undiscovered properties. So it seems that even if some human actions,
+such as Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation and Milton's
+_Paradise Lost_ and Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy and Raphael's Sistine
+Madonna, are strictly unpredictable, it still does not sufficiently
+differentiate us from the Matterhorn, which on its part also has its
+unpredictabilities.
+
+As to what parts of matter have separate spirits--where the
+Snowdon-spirit ends and the Moel Siabod spirit begins, and so on--we
+need not trouble much about that. This individualising of parts is
+a reasonable supposition, but it is not necessary to press it. Mr
+Maurice Hewlett has seen the _genius loci_ of a sunny woodland
+landscape translated into human idiom as an opulent Titianesque
+beauty (_Lore of Proserpine_), and Manfred sees or feels a spirit of
+the Alps; but these are details. The only thing that matters is the
+ensoulment of the earth as a whole. No doubt its spirit-part is
+divided up somehow, correspondent to its material conformation, as
+our spirits are divided from each other. The division, however, is
+not a hermetic sealing off. The universe is continuous. Indeed its
+parts are inter-penetrative, for every particle influences every
+other particle--and a thing cannot act where it is not. Similarly,
+human beings are found to have modes of communication other than
+those hitherto recognised by orthodox science, and are somehow able
+to influence others without regard to distance. We seem to be
+connected with each other in the unseen, subliminal, spiritual
+region. Our separateness is illusory. So with individualisations of
+earth-features. They have individual aspects, both on the physical
+and spiritual side; but they are part of the one earth and its one
+spirit, as we ourselves are. And that earth-spirit is part of
+the universe-spirit or God, as the human spirit is part of the
+earth-spirit.
+
+It is perhaps difficult, at first, to think of the earth as having a
+life and consciousness of its own, for we are located at little points,
+and do not see it whole, nor do we see from the inside. We are like an
+eye which looks at the body of which it forms a part, and finds it
+difficult to believe in auditory, tactile, olfactory experience; more
+difficult still to conceive of pure thought, emotion, will. If the earth
+seems a dead lump, however, think of the human brain. It is a mere lump
+of whitish filaments, _seen from outside_. But its inner experience is
+the rich and infinitely detailed life of a human being. So also may the
+inner experience of the earth be incomparably richer than its outer
+appearance indicates to our external senses. Objectively, our brains are
+part of the earth: subjectively, _we see in ourselves a part of what the
+earth sees in itself_.
+
+In thinking of the earth as an organised being, we must guard against
+the error of the ancients who called it an animal. It is not an animal.
+It is a Being of a higher character than any animal, for it includes
+all animals and all human beings, comprising in its spirit all their
+spiritual activities, and having its own activities as well. We are to
+it, as our blood-corpuscles are to us; and to think of the earth-spirit
+as being like our spirits would be equivalent to a blood-corpuscle
+thinking of its containing body as another corpuscle, only bigger.
+Whereas the truth is that a man has feelings and cognitions and
+purposes, and performs acts, which the corpuscles cannot in the least
+comprehend. (Somewhat similarly, a drop cannot have waves, or a small
+celestial body an atmosphere; the lower cannot have what the higher has,
+nor can it understand it.) The corpuscle may know or believe that its
+conscience or intuition is a sort of leakage down to it, of the mind or
+will of its greater self (the voice of its God), and that in so far as
+it does its duty according to its lights it is assisting the purposes
+of that higher Being of which it forms a part; and this faith is its
+highest wisdom. So with us. Human duty, done sincerely according to our
+lights, is furthering the purposes of the higher Being in whom we live
+and move. This faith is our highest wisdom concerning our relation to
+the earth-spirit. We see, then, that there is a good deal of sense in
+faith and intuition. They are rationally justified. By them we are dimly
+in touch with the over-soul on our inner side: not _really_ dimly, for
+the connection is close and real, but dimly to our normal consciousness.
+The connection _via_ intellect is an external, round-about affair,
+necessary and useful, but different. We need to cultivate both. This is
+the essence of the philosophy of Bergson. There is more than one way of
+receiving truth. Science is apt to overlook the intuitional way.
+
+On this conscience-side or moral aspect, the Fechnerian idea is
+particularly fruitful and illuminating. The analogy of our own mind is
+once more the key--the mirror wherewith to view the greater landscape,
+the village wherefrom to draw inferences about nations. In childhood,
+the world is, as James said, a big, blooming, buzzing confusion:
+sensations pour in quite unconnected; the baby sees the moon, and
+stretches out an arm to grab it, thus learning that it is not grabable.
+It is only gradually that the child learns to associate sounds with
+sights; to know what sounds indicate its mother's presence or proximity,
+and what sounds its father's. Gradually, individual experiences get
+linked up and harmonised. Then other disjointednesses arise. Foolish
+impulses war against better judgment and parents' advice, and the
+youth's mind is "torn", as we say, very aptly describing the feeling.
+Growing older and wiser, his mind becomes more unified and consequently
+more calm. His powers are marshalled and directed consciously at a
+goal or goals. Wayward impulses are reined in. We feel that poise and
+strength and wisdom are attained: never perfectly and ideally, but at
+least to a considerable degree, as compared with the earlier state.
+
+So with the earth-spirit. Being far greater than the human
+subsidiary spirits, it is longer in coming to maturity. Its elements
+are still largely at loggerheads with each other. The nations war
+against each other, and universal peace seems a long time in coming.
+But steadily, steadily works the earth-spirit, and the nations almost
+unconsciously--like somnambulists--carry out its will. They are working,
+consciously or unconsciously, towards universal at-one-ment. A League of
+Nations has arisen, and the Federation of the World is in sight. Union
+is the political watch-word. Labour is combining throughout the world.
+East is learning from West, and West from East. China sends her
+students to Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Harvard, and welcomes Western
+methods. India repays our civilising with the poems of Tagore. In trade,
+thousands of small businesses are unified in a few great combines,
+preparing for some sort of Socialism. Finance spreads its world-wide
+network. Science is becoming international. The frontiers are melting;
+coalescence, unity, harmony are being achieved. The earth-spirit is
+reconciling its warring elements. When it succeeds in the complete
+reconciliation; when the era of universal peace and brotherhood shall
+dawn; when it reaches its huge equivalent of the ripe, calm, contented
+wisdom of human age--ah, then will come a state of things which we can
+but dimly prefigure. But it will come. The age of gold is in the future,
+not the past. It is our duty and our privilege to hasten the coming of
+this millennium. And even this is not the end. We cannot conceive the
+things that shall be. Eye hath not seen, or ear heard. Enough for us to
+know the tendency, and to trust ourselves to it, actively co-operating.
+
+    Before beginning, and without an end,
+    As space eternal, and as surety sure,
+    Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,
+    Only its laws endure.
+
+    This is its touch upon the blossomed rose,
+    The fashion of its hand shaped lotus-leaves;
+    In dark soil and the silence of the seeds
+    The robe of Spring it weaves.
+
+    It maketh and unmaketh, mending all;
+    What it hath wrought is better than had been;
+    Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans,
+    Its wistful hands between.
+
+    This is its work upon the things ye see:
+    The unseen things are more; men's hearts and minds,
+    The thoughts of peoples and their ways and wills,
+    Those, too, the great Law binds.
+                          --Sir Edwin Arnold, _Light of Asia_.
+
+Is it asked: "Who is the Law-giver, and to what end is the Law?" The
+question is foolish. Parts cannot know wholes, and the whole does not
+want parts to be anything but what they obviously are. Each fits into
+its place, and can do useful work there. Let it keep to tasks "of a size
+with its capacity"--as à Kempis says--and leave the rest. "What doth the
+Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk
+humbly with thy God?"
+
+
+
+
+RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR
+
+
+There is naturally and rightly a great deal of anxiety in the minds of
+most thoughtful people as to the state of religion after the war. The
+old order seems to have come down in chaos about our ears, and we are
+wondering what shape the new building will take. Even our clergy, or
+some of them, are honestly confessing that beliefs can never be just
+the same again; to name only two things, they feel that the literal
+acceptance of the non-resistance doctrine is no longer unqualifiedly
+possible, as many were formerly inclined to maintain; for the aggression
+of Germany has made clear the necessity of resisting evil; second,
+that the old Protestant doctrine of immediate heaven or hell cannot
+satisfactorily be applied to many of the millions of young fellows
+who have gone over; some idea of more gradual progress through an
+intermediate state seems more reasonable. But will this be sufficient?
+Shall we jog on again, after this world-shaking cataclysm, with
+such a very microscopical trimming--such an almost imperceptible
+sail-reefing--as this? Will not rather the whole theological scheme have
+to be remodelled? Can nations which have suffered as the belligerents
+have suffered--even those at home, still more the brave lads who have
+gone through experiences such as they never dreamed of in their worst
+nightmares--can these people, even if they wish, accept the old scheme,
+or anything like it?
+
+I am not going to try to answer such a large question directly.
+Mr Wells has attempted something of the sort in his book, _God the
+Invisible King_, and he prophesies a religious revolution. It may come
+as he thinks, but it is perhaps more probable that, in spite of the
+most earth-shaking events, a certain continuity of thought will be
+maintained. New religions are not manufactured complete while you wait,
+like Pallas emerging full-armed from the head of Zeus; or, if they are,
+by such brilliant Olympians as Mr Wells, they do not get themselves
+accepted. But there probably will be enough of a change to be called a
+very considerable thought-revolution, even allowing for some inevitable
+continuity; and inasmuch as each expression of opinion counts as a datum
+and as a directive agency, I venture to make my prophecy. And I avoid
+the negative side, also any argument as to whether or why this or that
+particular doctrine will become obsolete; I think it better to let
+obsolescent beliefs drop quietly into their limbo, and to concern
+ourselves with the living ones that will replace them.
+
+First and most important, the idea of God. We have heard, over and over
+again, the pathetic cry: "Why does God permit such things? Surely He
+must be either not All-good or not Almighty?" And one hears of men, even
+among the clergy, whose minds have been clouded by this difficulty.
+Mr Wells solves the problem in the fashion of J. S. Mill and the late
+William James, by postulating a finite god, a good being who is doing
+his best but who is struggling with a refractory material. To many
+people this seems a helpful notion, for it saves God's goodness and
+gives a pleasurable sense of being co-workers with Him in His effort to
+improve things. But to many of us it is unsatisfactory. Indeed, if one
+could say such a thing of the author of _Bealby_ and of the most genial
+of modern philosophers, we might say that the finite-god idea seems
+impossible to anyone with a sense of humour. Is it not really rather
+ridiculous of us to decide so solemnly that God is no doubt a good
+fellow but that He is having a tough time of it in fighting Satan, and
+that there does not seem to be any certainty of His winning? Perhaps
+the idea appeals to adventurous spirits like Wells and James because it
+has an air of being a sporting event, and promises excitement; but, I
+repeat, is it not a rather ridiculous proposition for us small creatures
+to make? "Finite" and "Infinite" are words; I am not sure that they have
+any very clear meaning. As to "infinite" in particular, the idea is only
+a negative one; we think of something finite, and then say "it is not
+that". But even of "finite", can we say that it has any useful clear
+meaning? The pen with which I write this may be said to be finite, for
+I can give its dimensions, and in many ways can define the limits of
+its powers. But inasmuch as every particle in it attracts every other
+particle of matter in the universe, the little pen's finiteness or
+infinity depends on whether the universe itself is finite or infinite;
+and that is a bigger question than our small wits can settle. And if it
+is so with a pen, will it not be more so with greater things?
+
+We measure things against the foot-rule of our own selves. We can
+imagine something much greater than those selves, both physical and
+spiritual. But when it comes to conceiving the whole physical universe
+of which we form an insignificant part, I do not feel that we can know
+whether it is finite or not. It is too big for our foot-rule. Even when
+dealing with the distances of the stars, we realise that the billions of
+miles which we can talk about so glibly do not convey much to our minds.
+We can think of a distance of a few miles fairly clearly, recalling how
+long it takes us to walk so far; but greater distances soon become mere
+figures, not representing anything that we can picture. And when we
+reach the conception of the whole physical universe, we get quite out of
+our depth. We do not know whether it is finite or infinite; we know only
+that it is inconceivably greater than we are.
+
+So with the spirit which energises through it. Beginning with what we
+know best, we find ourselves acquainted with a world of mental phenomena
+bound together in and by what we call our self. Whatever we think of
+Hume's argument that a mass of experiences do not involve a soul that
+has them, it is reasonable and useful to have a name for the active
+thing which perceives and thinks and acts and feels, whether we call it
+soul or spirit or mind or self or _x_. It is something which maintains
+a sort of identity, in spite of growth and change; and it is marked off
+from other selves. John Smith has John Smith's experiences, not William
+Jones's. This individual spirit energises through each of our bodies. Of
+our own spirit we have a very close knowledge, of other spirits we have
+a rather more remote knowledge from inference; we infer their states of
+mind from the states of body which we observe, or from the material
+effects which they cause in speaking or writing. Passing from the
+inferred human spirits (inferred because certain lumps of matter act in
+a way similar to that of the lumps which we call our own bodies), we
+come to other and larger and very different pieces of matter such as
+planets. It may seem at the first glance an absurd idea, but I for one
+cannot think of matter as dead, or of a whole planet without any soul
+except what is in the human bodies which make up an infinitesimal
+portion of its mass. It seems to me that there must be some sort of
+mind energising through the planet-mass as my own mind energises
+through my body-mass. And, carrying the idea further, we arrive at a
+conception of the whole universe as ensouled by a Being who in the
+material immanent manifestation is the Logos of the Christian doctrine,
+but who also transcends the material part as indeed the Christian
+doctrine teaches. This spirit, transcending the physical universe as
+well as energising through it, is greater in comparison with our spirits
+than the physical universe is in comparison with our bodies. Therefore,
+once more, and to a greater degree, we are out of our depth. To throw
+words like finite and infinite at such a Being is to make ourselves
+ridiculous. It is like a microbe sticking its own adjective-labels--if
+it has any--on a man, whom the microbe's vocabulary as a matter of fact
+will not apply to. God is too great for our measure. He is high as
+heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The
+measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea--yea,
+than the whole universe itself.
+
+This conclusion of Zophar the Naamathite, acquiesced in by Job at the
+end of the argument, seems to some minds an evaporation of God into an
+Absolute without any human attributes. We feel the necessity or at least
+the desirability of regarding Him as good, loving, etc., and we shrink
+from any de-personalisation. But there is a way out of the difficulty.
+God is incomprehensible, as the Creed says; parts cannot comprehend
+wholes. But there is something deep in us, call it what you will, which
+tells us that our ideals of Good, Truth, and Beauty are divine; are God
+in so far as we are able to cognise Him. Good, true, beautiful actions
+and thoughts are God manifested through our personal limitations; they
+are rainbow colours broken out of the pure white light of God. We do
+right to worship them. They are the highest we can comprehend, though we
+may reach lame hands of faith to the apprehension of the Unconditioned.
+But this is a very great mystery, revealed only to the mystic. And it is
+a dangerous path, for by reaching "beyond good and evil" we lose touch
+with humanity and with the virtues we can exercise, risking the insanity
+to which Nietzsche so logically succumbed. We may dimly apprehend the
+Incomprehensible, but we must live and work among comprehensibilities.
+That is what we are here for. God is conceived by us--and rightly so
+conceived--as Good, Truth, Beauty, though we can see that as He really
+is He must transcend them. Mr Wells's distinction between the Finite God
+and the Veiled Being is not an ultimate. The two are one, seen as two
+because of our limitations. They are the rainbow and its source. The sun
+cannot be looked upon directly, but only when dimmed or reflected.
+
+Then as to immortality. The deaths of so many of our best, and the
+sorrow thus brought into almost every home, force this question into
+prominence. If blank pessimism is to be avoided, many people feel that
+they must have some assurance of the continued existence of those who
+have made the supreme sacrifice--a sacrifice at the call of duty,
+greater probably than any sacrifice ever made by us of the older
+generation who have lived in the smooth times of peace. We feel that if
+these magnificent young lives have come to nought, have been _wasted_,
+there is no rational religious belief possible to us. Accordingly we
+inquire about immortality. And, curiously enough, Science, which in the
+last generation tended to deny or discredit individual survival of
+bodily death, now gives a quite opposite verdict. Psychical research
+brings forward scientific evidence for that welcome belief. It seems
+too good to be true; but it is true. Public opinion has not yet fully
+accepted it--nor is it well that opinion should change too rapidly--for
+it was well drenched in materialism during the heyday of physical
+science and its astonishing applications in the latter part of
+the nineteenth century, but the leaders of thought in almost all
+branches--scientific, legal, literary, and what not--are now admitting
+that the evidence is at least surprising, and those who have studied it
+most are one by one announcing that it is convincing. There are many
+questions yet to solve, such as the nature and occupations of the future
+life, concerning which there are different views, and the problems may
+turn out to be insoluble; but the main problem seems on the way to
+be settled. The survival of human personality is a fact. And the
+indications, so far as we have got, suggest that the next stage is a
+life of opportunity, work, progress, even more than the present one.
+There is much to be thankful for in even this only incipient revelation.
+It is salvation great and joyous, to those reared amid unacceptable
+theories of a blank materialism or the much more dreadful hell-doctrines
+of the theologians.
+
+The religion of the coming time, then, seems likely to be mainly based
+on these two articles, belief in God in the way indicated, and belief in
+survival and progress on the other side. Both beliefs are empirical, and
+are thus in harmony with the temper of our time. They begin with the
+things which are most real to us, first the fact of conscious experience,
+then the external world, and reason upward therefrom, instead of
+beginning with metaphysical entities and attributes, and reasoning
+down--and failing to establish contact with the material world. Religious
+experience there still may be, and this may give rise to quite new and
+unexpected forms of belief or worship; but on the whole the tendency of
+thought for the last three hundred years has been increasingly empirical,
+and the success of the method is likely to ensure its continuance. It may
+be true that the ideal world is the more real--probably it is--that out
+of thought's interior sphere these phenomenal wonders of the world rose
+to upper air, as Emerson says; but for us in the present circumstances
+the way back to universe-spiritualisation is _via_ experience (and
+mainly sense-presentations) carefully observed and studied. If these
+scientific methods, which are open to everybody, can lead to belief
+in God and a spiritual world to which we pass at death, it seems
+unnecessary to return to the bad old days when sporadic experiences of
+this or that ecstatic, or logic-chopping by this or that theologian,
+led to beliefs and cults of widely differing character according to the
+idiosyncracy of the writer. A method which is open to all and the rules
+of which are agreed on will be likely to yield something like unanimity.
+The churches may yet form one fold, if they will; in which, with
+variations to satisfy different æsthetic or symbolistic needs, all souls
+may find the answer to their queries, healing for their sorrow, and
+scope for their reverence and love; in a word, salvation.
+
+
+PRINTED BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+  Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+  The following printer's errors have been corrected, on page
+  1   "neaking" changed to "sneaking" (tinged with a sneaking sympathy
+      for its hero)
+  49  "odject" changed to "object" (that the position of the lost
+      object could)
+  66  "comandingly" changed to "commandingly" (soothingly or
+      commandingly filling the patient's mind)
+  81  "handing" changed to "handed" (would not want his enemies handed
+      over to)
+  90  "a" added (brutal soldiery, in a Rouen market-place)
+  90  "Salpètriêre" changed to "Salpêtrière" (Come to the Salpêtrière
+      Hospital, and I will show you)
+  97  "gegenbüer" changed to "gegenüber" (Die Tagesansicht gegenüber
+      der Nachtansicht)
+  98  "cerebal" changed to "cerebral" (chemical change in cerebral
+      tissue or what not)
+  100 "discontinous" changed to "discontinuous" (thin and indeed
+      discontinuous skin which).
+
+  Otherwise oddities and inconsistencies of the original text have been
+  preserved, including the spelling of foreign names.
+
+  The first name of Mesmer was Franz, not Friedrich.
+
+  On page 37 a paragraph starts with point 1. There is no point 2.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Psychical Miscellanea; Being Papers on
+      Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc., by J. Arthur Hill.
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill
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+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Psychical Miscellanea
+       Being Papers on Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism,
+              Christian Science, etc.
+
+Author: J. Arthur Hill
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2011 [EBook #37565]
+
+Language: English
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHICAL MISCELLANEA ***
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+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>Psychical Miscellanea<br />
+<i><span  class="f5">Being Papers on</span><br />
+<span  class="f7">Psychical Research, Telepathy,<br />
+Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc.</span></i></h1>
+
+<p class="tp"><span class="f7">BY</span><br />
+<span  class="f14">J. ARTHUR HILL</span><br />
+<i>Author of &ldquo;Psychical Investigations,&rdquo; &ldquo;Man is a Spirit,&rdquo;<br />
+&ldquo;Spiritualism; Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine,&rdquo; etc.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="tp">NEW YORK:<br />
+<span class="f12">HARCOURT, BRACE &amp; HOWE,</span><br />
+<span class="f9">1920</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="l2"/>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Printed in England</i></p>
+
+<hr class="l2"/>
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Many</span> friends and correspondents have suggested
+that I should republish a number of
+articles which have appeared from time
+to time in various quarters. The present volume
+brings these articles together, with some which have
+not appeared before.</p>
+
+<p>Each chapter is complete in itself, but there is more
+or less connexion, for each deals with some aspect of
+the subject to which I have given most attention
+during the last twelve years&mdash;namely, psychical
+research.</p>
+
+<p>I thank the editors of the <cite>Holborn Review</cite>, <cite>National
+Review</cite>, <cite>World&rsquo;s Work</cite>, and <cite>Occult Review</cite> for permission
+to republish articles which have appeared in their
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span  class="rght">J.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;H.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Thornton,<br /></span>
+<span  class="smcap in2">Bradford.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="l2"/>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="10" summary="table of contents">
+<tr><td class="col1">&nbsp;</td><td class="col2"><span class="f7">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">DEATH</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">PSYCHICAL RESEARCH; ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE,
+AND TENDENCY</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">CHRISTIAN SCIENCE</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">JOAN OF ARC</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">IS THE EARTH ALIVE?</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col1">RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR</td><td class="col2"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h1>Psychical Miscellanea</h1>
+
+<h2>DEATH</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Our</span> feelings with regard to the termination
+of our earthly existence are remarkably
+varied. In some people, there is an absolutely
+genuine and strong desire for cessation of
+individual consciousness, as in the case of John
+Addington Symonds. Probably, however, this is met
+with only in keenly sensitive natures which have suffered
+greatly in this life. Such unfortunate people are
+sometimes constitutionally unable to believe in anything
+better than cessation of their pain. Anything
+better than that is &ldquo;too good to be true&rdquo;, so much
+too good that they hardly dare wish for it. Others,
+who have had a happy life, naturally desire a continuance
+of it, and are therefore eager, like F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H.
+Myers, for that which Symonds dreaded. Others,
+again, and these are probably the majority, have no
+very marked feeling in the matter; like the good
+Churchman in the story, they hope to enter into everlasting
+bliss, but they wish you would not talk about
+such depressing subjects. This seems to suggest that
+they have secret qualms about the reality of the bliss.
+Perhaps they have read Mark Twain&rsquo;s <cite>Captain Stormfield&rsquo;s
+Visit to Heaven</cite>, and, though inexpressibly shocked
+by that exuberant work, are nevertheless tinged with a
+sneaking sympathy for its hero, who found the orthodox<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+abode of the blest an unbearably dull place. The
+harp-playing in particular was trying, and he had
+difficulty in managing his wings.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow, these people avoid the subject. As Emerson
+says somewhere, religion has dealings with them
+three times in their lives: when they are christened,
+when they are married, and when they are buried.
+And undoubtedly its main appeal is in the period prior
+to this third formality, if they happen to have a longish
+illness. The rich Miss Crawley, in <cite>Vanity Fair,</cite> is
+typical of many. In days of health and good spirits,
+this venerable lady had &ldquo;as free notions of religion
+and morals as Monsieur de Voltaire himself could
+desire&rdquo;; but when she was in the clutches of disease,
+and even though in the odour of sanctity, so to speak&mdash;for
+she was nursed by Mrs Reverend Bute Crawley,
+who hoped for the seventy thousand pounds if she
+could keep Rawdon and Becky off the doorstep&mdash;even
+with this spiritual advantage she was in much
+fear, and &ldquo;an utter cowardice took possession of the
+prostrate old sinner.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Well, let those laugh who will. As for me, I have
+great sympathy with Miss Crawley. Probably those
+who laugh, or are contemptuous of such cowardice,
+are people who have not yet come to close quarters
+with death&mdash;have not looked him, as the French say,
+in the white of the eyes. Let them wait until that
+happens. If they come back after that rencontre,
+they will be a little more tolerant of the cowardice of
+those whom they called weaker brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Fear of death may be divided into classes, according
+to its cause, i.e., the intellectual state out of which it
+seems to arise. It may be due to the expectation of
+physical suffering; or, as in such cases as Cowper&rsquo;s
+and Dr Johnson&rsquo;s, to expectation of what may happen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+after death, in that undiscovered country from which
+Hamlet said no traveller returned, though he had just
+been talking with his father&rsquo;s ghost, piping hot&mdash;as
+Goldsmith has it in his Essay on Metaphor&mdash;from
+Purgatory. In my own case, I think the fear is a little
+of both. And I admit that in both directions the fear
+is irrational. As to the physical part, it is probable
+that when my time comes I shall depart without much
+of what is usually called pain, for the heart seems
+to be my weak place, and I may reasonably hope that
+even though if attacked by other ailments, it will be
+the heart that will give way. There will probably
+be suffering through difficulty of breathing, and I
+dread this somewhat, for I know how unpleasant it
+has been in the attacks which I have survived. Still,
+it can hardly be compared with the agonising pain of
+many diseases. Rationally, then, I ought not to have
+much fear on the physical side.</p>
+
+<p>On the spiritual side I confess with Oliver Wendell
+Holmes that I have never quite got from under the
+shadow of the orthodox hell. I had a Puritan upbringing,
+not severe in its home theology I am thankful to
+say, but involving attendance at an Independent Chapel
+where the minister&mdash;a good man and no hypocrite&mdash;was
+wont to preach very terrible sermons. I shall
+never quite get over the baneful effect of those damnatory
+fulminations. They branded my soul. They
+caused me more pain than anything else has ever done
+throughout my life&mdash;and this is saying a great deal.
+They made me hate God. Remember, I was a defenceless
+child. I knew of no other God. I thought
+all decent people believed like those about me. I was
+the only heretic&mdash;a rebel, an outlaw, an Ishmael.
+Conceive, if you can, the agony of a sensitive child
+struggling with that thought! Condemned to eternal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+torment, with those who, in Dante&rsquo;s terrible line,
+&ldquo;have no hope of death.&rdquo; (&ldquo;Inferno,&rdquo;&nbsp;<abbr title="3">iii</abbr>,&nbsp;46.)</p>
+
+<p>Then I fell in with O.&nbsp;W. Holmes&rsquo;s Autocrat and
+Professor, and found a friendly hand in the darkness.
+It led me to Emerson and Carlyle; then I found
+Darwin, Spencer, and the rest of them. My loneliness
+was mitigated, but the seared place in my soul was
+not healed, and never will be healed. I cannot read
+the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante without horror,
+and thus the poetic beauty of those great cantos is
+darkened for me. I cannot worship &ldquo;God,&rdquo; for
+&ldquo;God&rdquo; is the fiend whose image was stamped into
+my mind in its most plastic, most defenceless period.
+Truly that early teaching has much to answer for. It
+has poisoned a great part of my life. I suppose if I
+could have &ldquo;accepted&rdquo; that Being as my God,
+accepting also the sacrifice&mdash;the Blood&mdash;by which
+that Being&rsquo;s anger was supposed to be assuaged&mdash;I
+suppose I should have been happy, feeling myself
+&ldquo;saved.&rdquo; (But I have lately been surprised to find
+how ineffective this belief can be. An acquaintance
+of mine, an orthodox churchwoman who has no religious
+doubts, and who talks much of the Bible, confesses
+to &ldquo;a fear of death which clouds even her brightest
+moments&rdquo;&mdash;an ever-present, unconquerable dread.)
+However, I could not accept the dogma. Why, I
+don&rsquo;t know. Somehow my whole mind and heart
+revolted against the entire plan of salvation. I never
+believed any of it. I felt it could not be true. And
+yet it tortured me. Illogical? Yes: human beings
+are illogical. I am no exception. The Christian who
+believes he will go to heaven is equally illogical in his
+unwillingness to die.</p>
+
+<p>When or if we succeed in getting rid of hell, the
+spiritual fear of death becomes less torturing, remaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+only as a vague dread, as in Hamlet&rsquo;s soliloquy. Bacon
+says that we fear death as children fear to go in the dark.
+In my own case, it is somewhat thus that the fear now
+presents itself. The old hell-fear, though not utterly
+obliterated, is becoming less all-swallowing. This
+very desirable state of affairs is partly the result of the
+conclusions to which I have been led by psychical
+research. After many years of experiment and close
+study, I can say that I know something about after-death
+conditions. Not that I pretend to be able to
+coerce other people into a similar belief, even if I wanted
+to. Each must travel his own path. Moreover,
+psychical research being a science, its results are not
+more certain than those of other sciences. Alternative
+theories in explanation of any phenomenon are always
+possible. There is no such thing as knock-down
+proof. But for my part I can say that I know&mdash;in
+the same way that I know the truth of Mendeleef&rsquo;s
+law, or Avogadro&rsquo;s law, or Dalton&rsquo;s atomic theory&mdash;that
+human beings do not become extinct when they
+die, that they are often able to communicate with us
+after that event, and that they are not in any orthodox
+heaven or hell. My knowledge is based partly on a
+lengthy and carefully-conducted series of sittings which
+some intimate friends of mine have had with a
+medium known to me; partly on my own results over
+a period of several years of systematic investigation;
+and partly on various curious experiences of psychic
+friends of mine who are in no sense professional
+mediums. (Details to some extent in my <cite>New Evidences
+in Psychical Research</cite> (Rider, 1911) and <cite>Psychical Investigations</cite>
+(Cassell, 1917.) I now believe, with the
+Bishop of London, that a man is essentially the same
+five minutes after death as he was five minutes before.
+As the old woman says in <cite>David Copperfield</cite>, &ldquo;death<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+doesn&rsquo;t change us more than life&rdquo;&mdash;no, nor as
+much!</p>
+
+<p>The upshot is, of course, that my spiritual fear of
+death has, I am thankful to say, almost vanished.
+The lurid future has taken on a milder radiance.</p>
+
+<p>It is not that I want assuring of &ldquo;happiness&rdquo; in a
+future state as compensation for misery in this. I
+should be quite contented if I could be assured that
+death is annihilation. It would at least be a cessation
+of suffering; and that is much. I could agree with
+Keats:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;Darkling I listen; and, for many a time<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I have been half in love with easeful Death,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Called him soft names in many a muséd rhyme,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To take into the air my quiet breath.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now more than ever seems it rich to die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To cease upon the midnight with no pain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In such an ecstasy.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To thy high requiem become a sod!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+<span class="rght1">&mdash;(<cite>To the Nightingale</cite>)<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Easeful death&mdash;it is a good word. Keats knew
+disease, and was content with prospect of ease; though
+at the end there is a note of depression or despair at
+the thought of becoming a &ldquo;sod,&rdquo; deaf and blind to
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>This reminds us of the attitude of other poets towards
+the great problem. Tennyson is mildly optimistic
+and placid; stretches, indeed, somewhat lame
+hands of faith in his sorrowful moments when his
+friend has died, but on the whole is healthily disposed;
+friendly to the most cheerful way of looking at it;
+inclined, with true British burliness, to make the best
+of a bad job&mdash;a job which, after all, may not be so very
+bad when we come to closer quarters with it. Afar,
+death is the spectre feared of man; seen nearer, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+may metamorphose into a beautiful Iris, sent by
+heavenly mercy. And, afterwards, the new spiritual
+state will probably be an improvement&mdash;Aeonian
+evolution through all the spheres. Therefore, away
+with all selfish mourning either about our own prospective
+fate or that of those who have left us. Let us
+hate the black negation of the bier:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;And wish the dead, as happier than ourselves<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And higher, having climb&rsquo;d one step beyond<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our village miseries, might be borne in white<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To burial or to burning, hymned from hence<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With songs in praise of death, and crowned with flowers.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>No doubt Tennyson was to a very great extent able
+to stay himself on the personal mystic experiences
+described in his poem <cite>The Ancient Sage</cite>&mdash;experiences
+which gave him a subjective assurance that death
+was &ldquo;a ludicrous impossibility&rdquo;. Browning, characteristically
+buoyant, was ready to face death with a
+laugh; the fog in the throat will pass, the black
+minute&rsquo;s at end, then thy breast. In <cite>Prospice</cite> we
+feel the eager sureness with which he looked forward
+to rejoining her whose bodily presence had left him a
+few months before. But even Browning&rsquo;s cheery
+salutation is outdone by Whitman. The American,
+though acquainted with suffering as Browning was not,
+and though apparently without much belief or interest
+in personal survival, was almost uncannily friendly
+to his own taking off. And it was not because he
+suffered so greatly that he hailed release. It was more
+the natural outcome of his joyous temperament, subdued
+at the last to a kind of solemn exaltation. The
+following stanzas were written with George Inness&rsquo;
+picture <cite>The Valley of the Shadow of Death</cite> in mind:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;Nay, do not dream, designer dark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou hast portray&rsquo;d or hit thy theme entire;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I, hoverer of late by this dark valley, by its confines, having
+glimpses of it,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">Here enter lists with thee, claiming my right to make a symbol too.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I have seen many wounded soldiers die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">After dread suffering&mdash;have seen their lives pass off with smiles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I have watch&rsquo;d the death-hours of the old; and seen the
+infant die;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then the poor, in meagreness and poverty;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I myself for long, O Death, have breath&rsquo;d my every breath<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid the nearness and the silent thought of thee.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">&ldquo;And out of these and thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I make a scene, a song (not fear of thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor gloom&rsquo;s ravines, nor bleak, nor dark&mdash;for I do not fear thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the broad blessed light, and perfect air, with meadows, rippling
+tides, and trees and flowers and grass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the low hum of living breeze&mdash;and in the midst God&rsquo;s beautiful
+eternal right hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thee, holiest minister of Heaven&mdash;thee, envoy, usherer, guide
+at last of all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot called life,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>This is indeed a change from the idea of Death as
+King of Terrors, as &ldquo;spectre feared of man&rdquo;. (<cite>In
+Memoriam</cite>)</p>
+
+<p>The Greek idea, at its best, seems to have been half-way
+between the two extremes. It regarded death
+with more or less equanimity, as being certainly not
+the greatest evil&mdash;no king of terrors&mdash;but merely an
+emissary of greater Powers, to whose will we must bow,
+though with dignity:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to
+whine for life, and grasp intemperately at old age; let him leave
+this point to Providence.&rdquo;&mdash;(Plato: <cite>Gorgias</cite>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sophocles has the same thought, with an added
+touch of Hamlet-like irritation about the slings and
+arrows of outrageous fortune:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;It is a shame to crave long life, when troubles<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Allow a man no respite. What delight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring days, one with another, setting us<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forward or backward on our path to death?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would not take the fellow at a gift<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But bravely to live on, or bravely end,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is due to gentle breeding. I have said.&rdquo;&mdash;(<cite>Ajax</cite>)<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Cicero voices the same pagan feeling, in the contented
+language of a rather tired, wise old man:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;I look forward to my dissolution as to a secure haven, where I
+shall at length find a happy repose from the fatigues of a long
+voyage.&rdquo;&mdash;(<cite>De Senectute</cite>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And was it not Cato&mdash;fine old Stoic&mdash;who, finding
+his natural force abating, and accepting the hint
+furnished by a stumble in the street, stooped and
+kissed the ground: &ldquo;Proserpine, I come!&rdquo; and
+went home, making a speedy end, unwilling to suffer
+the indignity of disease and the shame of being served
+in weakness? Modern opinion wisely reprobates
+suicide, but there is something noble in the Roman
+attitude, condemn it as we will. As a modern and
+almost comic example of a modern Stoic&rsquo;s attitude to
+this same question of death we may cite the famous
+lines of Walter Savage Landor:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;I strove with none, for none was worth my strife,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I warmed both hands before the fire of life,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It sinks, and I am ready to depart.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Strove with none&rdquo;, indeed! As a matter of fact,
+Landor strove with everybody. He was one of the
+most quarrelsome men that ever lived. The only
+man who could tolerate him was Browning. But
+in his mellower moments, at least, he was &ldquo;ready to
+depart&rdquo;, quietly acquiescing in the scheme of things.
+To depart, note; not to be extinguished. And this
+view is, all things considered, the most sane and wholesome
+view of the great problem of Death. We did not
+begin to live when we were born in this present tenement
+of flesh; we shall not cease to live when we quit
+it. &rsquo;Tis but a tent for a night, an interlude, a descent
+into matter, a temporary incarnation for educative
+purposes, of the soul or a part of it, as it pursues its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+lone way towards the ineffable goal. This life is but
+a sleep and a forgetting;</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;The soul that rises with us, our life&rsquo;s star,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Has had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Death, then, is to be welcomed when it comes. We
+must not run to meet it, or run from it; but we should
+welcome it when God thinks fit to send it, His messenger.
+The beautiful eternal right hand beckons, and the soul
+gladly arises and departs, to &ldquo;that imperial palace
+whence it came&rdquo;, or to fare forth on some &ldquo;adventure
+brave and new&rdquo;.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>IF A MAN DIE,<br />
+SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">A friend</span> of mine tells me that psychical
+articles are always interesting, &ldquo;because
+so many people die and go somewhere&rdquo;.
+Presumably, those who remain here feel a natural
+curiosity as to where the departed have gone, partly
+for the latter&rsquo;s sake, and partly because they themselves
+would like to know, so that they will know
+what to expect when their own time comes.</p>
+
+<p>The teaching of religion on this point is admittedly
+either rather vague, or, if definite&mdash;as with the Augustinian
+theology&mdash;no longer credible. We have progressed
+in sensitiveness and humanity, and can no longer
+believe that a good God will inflict everlasting torment
+in a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, even
+on the most wicked of His creatures. Still less can we
+believe in such punishment being inflicted for the &ldquo;sin
+of unbelief&rdquo;, for we now know well enough that
+&ldquo;belief&rdquo;, being the net outcome of our total experience
+and character, is not under the control of the will.
+Consequently, a God who punished creatures for not
+believing, when He knew all the time that He had so
+constructed most of them that they could not believe,
+would be either wicked or insane. This inability to
+believe &ldquo;to order&rdquo; is plainly perceived if we reflect
+on what our feelings would be if a Mohammedan implored
+us to believe in Allah and in Allah&rsquo;s Prophet,
+as the only way of salvation. We should decline,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+saying perhaps that we knew better; but the real
+reason of our disbelief would not lie in our knowledge
+but in our general makeup. We could not believe
+in Mohammedanism if we tried. We have grown
+up in a different climate, and have taken a different
+form.</p>
+
+<p>But, putting aside the vindictive hell-god of Augustine,
+Tertullian, Calvin, and the rest&mdash;for not even an
+earthly father would punish a child for ever&mdash;and
+taking Christianity at its best, we do not find any very
+specific eschatological teaching. And this very absence
+is a good feature. If a man tries to be good merely
+in order to avoid hell and gain heaven&mdash;in other words,
+because it will pay&mdash;his goodness is not much of a
+credit to him. It is only selfishness of a far-sighted
+kind. Religion, on the other hand, when at its best,
+seeks to influence character, not by threats and promises,
+but by encouraging moods and attitudes and
+habits of thought from which good actions will flow
+spontaneously, without any profit-and-loss calculations.
+Modern Christianity is therefore perhaps right in touching
+much more lightly on the future state than was
+customary in earlier centuries.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, we cannot repress a little curiosity.
+People die and go somewhere, as my friend says. Where
+do they go? Modern Religion having avoided definite
+answer, we turn to Science. And Science, much as it
+would surprise such fine old gladiators as Huxley
+and Tyndall to hear it&mdash;has an answer, and an affirmative
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Psychical research has, in my opinion, brought
+together a mass of evidence strong enough to justify
+the following conclusions. I do not say they are
+&ldquo;proved.&rdquo; You cannot &ldquo;prove&rdquo; that the earth is
+round, unless your hearer will at least study the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+evidence. You cannot even prove to him that 2 plus
+2 makes 4, if he refuses to add. Therefore I do not
+say anything about proof. I say only that after many
+years of careful study and investigation I am of
+opinion that the evidence justifies the conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>(1) Telepathy is a fact. A mind may become
+aware of something that is passing in another mind
+at a distance, by means other than the normal sensory
+channels. The &ldquo;how&rdquo; of the communication is
+entirely unknown. The analogy of wireless telegraphy
+of course suggests itself, but is misleading. The
+ether-waves employed in wireless telegraphy are
+physical pulses which obey the law of inverse squares;
+telepathy shows no conformity with that law, and has
+not been shown to be an affair of physical waves at all.
+I believe that it is not a physical process; that it
+occurs in the spiritual world, between mind and mind,
+not primarily between brain and brain. And, if so&mdash;if
+mind can communicate with mind independently
+of brain&mdash;the theory of materialism at least is exploded.
+If mind can act independently of brain, mind may
+go on existing after brain dies.</p>
+
+<p>(2) Communications, purporting to emanate from
+departed spirits, are sometimes so strikingly evidential
+that it is scientifically justifiable to assume the agency
+of a discarnate mind. For example, in a case known
+to me, a &ldquo;spirit&rdquo; communicating through a non-professional
+medium&mdash;a lady of means and position&mdash;referred
+to a recipe for pomatum which the communicator
+said she had written in her recipe book. No
+one knew anything about it; but, on hunting up the
+book, the deceased lady&rsquo;s daughters found a recipe
+for Dr Somebody&rsquo;s pomade, which their mother had
+evidently written shortly before her death. They
+confirmed that &ldquo;pomatum&rdquo; was the word which their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+mother used. The points to be noted are: That the
+medium was not a professional; that no one who knows
+her has doubted her integrity; that she was not
+acquainted with either the deceased lady or her
+daughters; that the knowledge shown was not possessed
+by any living (incarnate) mind, and is therefore
+not explainable by telepathy; and, finally, that the
+case was watched and reported on by one of our ablest
+investigators&mdash;a lecturer at Newnham College&mdash;who
+found no flaw in the evidence.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> I repeat that I do not
+claim this to be &ldquo;proof&rdquo;. I give it merely as an
+illustration, and will give a few more detailed cases
+in a later chapter. For the present I must be content
+to say that the mass of evidence known to me justifies
+the belief that minds survive what we call death.</p>
+
+<p>The question then arises: What is the nature of the
+after life? And here we are faced with great difficulties.
+We can ask the returning spirits, but we cannot
+verify their statements. If my uncle John Smith
+purports to communicate, I can test his identity by
+asking him to tell me intimate family details which I
+can verify by asking his widow, who still lives;
+but I cannot thus check his statements about
+his spiritual surroundings. Still, if he has proved his
+identity&mdash;particularly if telepathy seems excluded&mdash;we
+may perhaps feel fairly safe in accepting his other
+statements as true, or at least in admitting their
+possible truth. And of course we can obtain the
+statements of many different spirits, and can compare
+them. This has been done. The result is a striking
+amount of uniformity. The various spirits agree,
+on the main points.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, they are surprisingly unorthodox! They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+tell of no heaven or hell of the traditional kind. There
+is no sudden ascent into unalloyed and eternal bliss for
+the good&mdash;who, as Jesus pointed out, are not wholly
+good&mdash;and no sudden plunge into eternal fires for the
+bad&mdash;who, similarly, are not unqualifiedly bad. There
+is much of bad in the best of us, and much of good in
+the worst of us. Accordingly, the released soul finds
+itself not very different from what it was while in the
+flesh. It has passed into a higher class of the universal
+school&mdash;that is all. Tennyson has the idea exactly:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;No sudden heaven, nor sudden hell, for man,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But through the Will of One who knows and rules&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And utter knowledge is but utter love&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Aeonian Evolution, swift or slow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro&rsquo; all the Spheres&mdash;an ever opening height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An ever lessening earth.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>I have said that this view is unorthodox, and so it
+is, if compared with the orthodoxy of Calvin
+or Edwards or Tertullian. But it is pleasant to
+find that orthodoxy to-day is a different thing, and
+that the Tennysonian notion is backed up in high
+quarters. The Bishopric of London is the highest
+ecclesiastical office in England, after the Archbishoprics
+of Canterbury and York, and we find the present
+Bishop of London (Dr Winnington-Ingram) speaking
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is there anything definite about death in the Bible?
+I believe there is. I think if you follow me, you will
+find there are six things revealed to us about life after
+death. The first is that the man is the same man.
+Instead of death being the end of him, he is exactly
+the same five minutes after death as five minutes before
+death, except having gone through one more experience
+in life. In the second place the character grows after
+death; there is progress. As it grows in life so it grows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+after death. A third thing is, we have memory. &lsquo;Son,
+remember&rsquo;, that is what was said to Dives in the other
+world. Memory for places and people. We shall
+remember everything after death. And with memory
+there will be recognition; we shall know one another.
+Husband and wife, parents and children. Sixthly,
+we still take great interest in the world we have left&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>The good Bishop gets all this out of the Bible, and
+quite rightly. We hope no heresy-hunter will accuse him
+of &ldquo;selecting&rdquo; his texts and ignoring the hell-fire ones.</p>
+
+<p>So far as earth-language can go, the foregoing
+represents the probable truth regarding the after life.
+If we inquire for details, we shall get nothing very
+satisfactory. If we ask a spirit concerning what he
+does&mdash;how he occupies himself&mdash;he will either say he
+&ldquo;cannot explain so that you will understand&rdquo; or will
+tell about living in houses, going to lectures, teaching
+children, and the like. All this is obviously
+symbolical. Any communications that a discarnate
+entity can send must, to be intelligible to us, be in
+human earth-language; and this language is based
+on sense-experience. After death, experience is different,
+for we no longer have the same bodily senses&mdash;eyes,
+ears, etc.: consequently no explanation of the
+nature of spiritual existence can be more than approximately
+true; yet such expressions as living in
+houses, going to lectures, and the like, may be as near
+the truth as earth-language can get. If a bird tried to
+describe air-life to a fish, the best it could do would
+be to say it is something like water-life, but there is
+more light, more ease of movement, more detail, more
+things of interest and beauty. Of the wonders of sound&mdash;skylark&rsquo;s
+song, human choruses, instrumental symphonies&mdash;no
+idea could be conveyed to the fish. Probably
+our friends in the next stage of existence have,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+in addition to the experiences which they can partly
+describe, other experiences of which they can give us
+absolutely no idea. They have been promoted. Their
+interests and activities have become wider, their joys
+greater. Yet they are the &ldquo;same&rdquo; souls, as the
+butterfly is the &ldquo;same&rdquo; as the chrysalis from which it
+has arisen. But to know exactly what it feels like to
+be a butterfly, the caterpillar and chrysalis have to wait
+Nature&rsquo;s time. So must we.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+<cite>Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="17 pages 181 to 183.">xvii,
+pp.&nbsp;181-3.</abbr>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="l1"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: ITS METHOD,<br />
+EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Spiritualism</span> and Psychical Research are to
+the fore just now, and there is much newspaper
+and vocal discussion, based for the most part
+on ignorance, particularly as regards the violent
+attackers of these things. It is desirable that exact
+knowledge of the subject should become more general,
+and in a recent volume I have tried to review the whole
+subject impartially.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>But there are many who in these stressful days have
+no time for even one volume on this kind of thing,
+and for them, or such of them as may read this, I have
+tried in the present article to give an idea of what
+psychical research is, on the spiritualistic side, omitting
+the medical side which concerns itself with suggestive
+therapeutics. The article was first written as a paper
+which was read before a society of clergy in Bradford,
+whose request for it was a significant and pleasing
+indication that ministers are aware of the importance
+of the subject. They are realising that psychical
+research is a powerful support to religious faith, and
+that its results provide comfort for the bereaved. We
+live in a scientific age, and the sorrowing heart asks for
+more than a text and an assurance that it is God&rsquo;s will
+and all for the best; it asks whether it is a fact that
+the departed one still lives and knows and loves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+whether it is well with him, and whether there will be
+reunion &ldquo;over there&rdquo;. Psychical research enables
+us to answer these questions in the affirmative. Science
+is now backing up religion, and is providing ministers
+with by far the best weapon against materialism and
+so-called rationalism. It meets these negative &rsquo;isms
+on their own ground, and does not need to take cover
+under intuition or personal religious experience, which
+are convincing only to the experient. I am not belittling
+these; I am only saying that the phenomenal
+evidence is more potent for the scientific type of mind,
+and that a knowledge of this evidence is useful to those
+who are defending religion.</p>
+
+
+<h3>TELEPATHY</h3>
+
+<p>It is found by experiment that ideas can be communicated
+from mind to mind through channels other
+than the known sensory ones. Professor Gilbert
+Murray of Oxford, probably the most famous Greek
+scholar in this country, recently carried out some
+interesting experiments of this kind in his own family.
+He would go into another room, leaving his wife and
+daughter to decide on something which they would
+try to communicate to him on his return. They chose
+the most absurd and unlikely things, but in a large
+number of cases Professor Murray, by making his mind
+as passive as possible and saying the first thing that
+came into his head, was able to reproduce with startling
+accuracy the idea they had in mind. For instance,
+they thought of Savonarola at Florence and the people
+burning their clothes and pictures and valuables.
+Says Professor Murray: &ldquo;I first felt &lsquo;This is Italy&rsquo;,
+then, &lsquo;this is not modern&rsquo;; and then hesitated, when
+accidentally a small tarry bit of coal tumbled out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+the fire. I smelt oil or paint burning and so got the
+whole scene. It seems as though here some subconscious
+impression, struggling up towards consciousness,
+caught hold of the burning coal as a means of getting
+through&rdquo;.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> On another occasion they thought of
+&ldquo;Grandfather at the Harrow and Winchester cricket
+match, dropping hot cigar-ash on Miss Thompson&rsquo;s
+parasol.&rdquo; Professor Murray&rsquo;s guess, reported verbatim,
+was: &ldquo;Why, this is grandfather! He&rsquo;s at a cricket match&mdash;why
+it&rsquo;s absurd: he seems to be dropping
+ashes on a lady&rsquo;s parasol.&rdquo; Another time they thought
+of a scene in a book of Strindberg&rsquo;s which Professor
+Murray had not read: a poor, old, cross, disappointed
+schoolmaster eating crabs for lunch at a restaurant,
+and insisting on having female crabs. Professor
+Murray says: &ldquo;I got the atmosphere, the man, the lunch
+in the restaurant on crabs, and thought I had finished,
+when my daughter asked: &lsquo;What kind of crabs?&rsquo;
+I felt rather impatient and said: &lsquo;Oh, Lord, I don&rsquo;t
+know: female crabs.&rsquo; That is, the response to the
+question came automatically, with no preparation,
+while I thought I could not give it. I may add that
+I had never before heard of there being any inequality
+between the sexes among crabs, regarded as food.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This kind of evidence is not the best, because the
+thoughts of members of one family run more or less
+in similar grooves; though the experimenters recognised
+this and chose unlikely things purposely. Other
+investigators have sometimes used cards, drawing one
+at random from a shuffled pack, looking at it, and the
+percipient then trying to say what it is. The chance
+of success is of course one in fifty-two, and the amount<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+of success which we might expect by chance in any
+series can be mathematically determined. In one
+series of successful experiments conducted by Sir
+Oliver Lodge the odds against an explanation by chance
+alone were about ten millions to one. In ordinary
+matters this would be regarded as proof.</p>
+
+<p>Other experiments of the same general character
+have been carried out by Sir William Barrett, Professor
+Sidgwick, and others, and details may be found in the
+S.P.R. <cite>Proceedings</cite>. In most cases the idea comes into
+the mind as an impression, but if the percipient is a
+good visualiser it is sometimes seen almost externalised
+as a hallucination. This leads us to the next step.</p>
+
+<p>If it is possible to convey to another mind&mdash;sometimes
+so vividly that the thing is almost seen as if out
+there in space&mdash;an image of scenes thought about, may
+it not be possible to convey an image of oneself? This
+idea occurred to a gentleman referred to by Myers as
+Mr S.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;B. in his book <cite>Human Personality and Its
+Survival of Bodily Death</cite>. Mr S.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;B., whom I know
+by correspondence and whose brother I have known
+personally for many years, decided that he would try
+to make himself visible to two young ladies whom he
+knew, and he concentrated his mind on the effort
+just before going to bed. He willed to show himself
+in their room at one o&rsquo;clock in the morning. The
+distance from his house to theirs was three miles. Next
+time he saw them, a few days later, they told him they
+had had a great fright: the elder sister had seen Mr
+B.&rsquo;s apparition, had screamed and awakened her little
+sister, who also saw him. The time was one o&rsquo;clock in
+the morning. They told him this before he said
+anything about his experiment, and they had no reason
+to expect that he would try anything of the kind.
+Both Mr B. and his brother are keen and successful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+business men; Mr S.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;B. is now retired, his brother
+is still the head of a large firm. I mention this because
+some critics seem to have a notion that psychical
+researchers are a crowd of long-haired poets or semi-lunatic
+cranks.</p>
+
+
+<h3>PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD</h3>
+
+<p>Now if a living man can by force of will project
+a telepathic phantasm of himself, it is reasonable to
+suppose that a dead man can do the same, if the so-called
+dead man still exists; for telepathy does not
+seem to be a physical process of ether-waves, does not
+conform to the law of inverse squares or propagate
+itself in all directions as physical forces do. It seems
+to occur in the mental world, between mind and mind
+rather than between brain and brain. Consequently,
+telepathy from the dead is likely to be easier than from
+the living, for they over there are not clogged with the
+fleshly body. Certainly, however they may be explained,
+there are many cases of the apparition of a
+deceased person. The difficulty about accepting the
+evidentiality of some of them is that if the percipient
+knew that the person appearing was dead, the apparition
+may be merely a subjective hallucination. And
+even if the death was not known, it might be surmised,
+and the apparition might be the result of expectancy
+if the person appearing was known to be ill or in danger.
+But there are some cases in which a certain amount
+of detail is conveyed, rendering a subjective explanation
+not very probable. For instance, Captain Colt had a
+vision of his brother, in a kneeling position, with a
+bullet wound in his right temple. He described the
+vision to several people in the house before any news
+came, so the case does not rest on his word alone. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+due time information arrived that his brother had been
+killed. He had been shot through the right temple,
+had fallen among a heap of others, and was found
+in a kneeling position. In his pocket was a letter from
+Capt. Colt asking him, if anything happened to him,
+to make his presence known in the room in which as a
+matter of fact the apparition was seen. The vision,
+it was found, occurred a few hours after the death.
+Mr Myers gives full details in <cite>Human Personality</cite>.
+In this case the bullet-wound and the kneeling position
+are points of correct detail which are hardly explicable
+on a subjective theory. The best sceptical theory is
+that the incident was telepathic, the wounded brother
+sending out his telepathic message after being shot.
+This is possible, but hardly probable; for death in the
+case of a bullet-wound through the temple must be
+almost instantaneous.</p>
+
+<p>Spontaneous cases of this kind and of this degree
+of evidentiality are rare, but there is a large mass of
+evidence of the same general character. The S.P.R.
+once carried out an extensive inquiry, receiving answers
+from 17,000 people, and tabulating the results in a
+volume of the <cite>Proceedings</cite>. The final conclusion,
+expressed in weighed and guarded words, was that
+&ldquo;Between deaths and apparitions of the dying person
+a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone&rdquo;.
+This was signed, among other members of the Committee,
+by Professor Sidgwick, whom Professor James
+once called &ldquo;the most exasperatingly critical mind
+in England&rdquo;. Some of the apparitions occur before
+the person&rsquo;s actual death, but usually in such cases
+he is already unconscious and the spirit practically
+free. As to those occurring after, the main difficulty
+about admitting them as proof of survival is, as just
+said, the possibility that although they may appear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+after the death of the person, the telepathic impulse
+may have been sent out before, and may have remained
+latent for some time in the mind of the percipient.
+This has been carefully considered by investigators,
+and in many cases there are reasons for regarding it
+as an insufficient theory. On the whole, the evidence
+tends more and more to suggest that in at least some
+instances these happenings are due to the agency of a
+discarnate mind. The proof is cumulative, and no
+single case can be crucial. There is no coerciveness
+about it, and each can invent his own hypothesis. But
+those who have considered the subject most carefully
+have come to the provisional conclusion that the agency
+of the so-called dead is in some cases a reasonable,
+and indeed the most reasonable, supposition. There
+are of course many narratives of this kind in the Bible,<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+the <cite>Lives</cite> of the Saints, and other literature, but these
+records, being of pre-scientific date, and lacking the
+corroborative testimony which we now require, are of
+a lower order of evidentiality. The new evidence,
+however, is throwing a backward light on many of these
+ancient stories, and making them credible once more.
+To me personally, the Bible is a much more living book
+than it used to be. I believe that many things in it
+which I used to regard as myths may have been facts.</p>
+
+
+<h3>NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE</h3>
+
+<p>There are instances, then, of people occasionally
+having visions which seem to be in some way caused
+by departed persons. Sometimes the percipient has
+only one experience of the kind in his life; more often
+he has several, for this seeing power is somehow temperamental&mdash;a
+sort of gift, like the alleged second sight of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+the Highlander. It was well known to St Paul, as
+his reference to &ldquo;discerning of spirits&rdquo; shows (<abbr title="first Corinthians 12">1&nbsp;<i>Cor.</i>,&nbsp;xii</abbr>).
+With some people the experience is fairly common.
+And in a very few persons the gift is so strong
+that it is to some extent under control. I say to some
+extent, and I wish to use words very carefully and to
+have them understood very clearly at this point. I
+know several people, who by putting themselves into
+a passive and receptive condition, but without any
+trance state, can generally get evidential messages
+from somewhere; that is, messages embodying facts
+which the sensitive did not normally know. And some
+of this matter seems to be due to telepathy from the
+dead. But it cannot be done at will. I believe that
+professional mediums who sit for all comers for a fee
+are often, and indeed generally, quite honest people,
+but that they cannot distinguish between their own
+imaginations and what really comes through. Professor
+Murray, when saying what came into his head,
+did not know whether it was right or not; that is,
+he did not know, until he was told, whether he had
+really got the thing telepathically or whether it was an
+idea thrown up by his own imagination. So with
+professional mediums. They give out the ideas that
+come to them, but as a rule they cannot distinguish;
+and, the power not being entirely under control, there
+is often a large mixture of their own imagination.</p>
+
+<p>I have, however, the good fortune to be acquainted
+with a sensitive who has the unusual power of being
+able to distinguish; and this is a great advantage,
+rendering verbatim note-taking much easier, and eliminating
+any necessity for balancing hits against misses.
+If nothing comes, he sits silent or talks ordinarily.
+If he gets anything, it is practically always correct.
+The amount of his success varies, and he will not sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+for people in general. I know many people who have
+asked him to visit them, offering handsome payment,
+but he usually declines. He says he cannot do it to
+order, and would be upset if he failed and caused disappointment.
+He comes to me, however, because I
+understand and always tell him that he need not worry
+if he gets nothing. In fact the meeting is regarded
+as a social call and not as a séance. We talk for a while
+about ordinary things, and in half-an-hour or so, if
+the medium can get his mind placid enough and is in
+good trim generally, he will begin to see and describe
+spirits present, often getting their names and all sorts
+of details. These come for the most part in flashes,
+and I take down every word he says, in shorthand,
+without giving any help or indication as to whether
+he is right or wrong. Sometimes in a whole afternoon
+he will have only one or two of these gleams, and on
+one occasion he got nothing. With conditions at their
+best he will talk almost continuously for an hour, the
+flashes following each other closely; and sometimes
+a spirit will remain visible for several minutes, moving
+about the room. About a dozen of these interviews are
+described in detail in my book <cite>Psychical Investigations</cite>,
+and other investigations of the same sensitive by two
+very able friends of mine in another town are described
+in <cite>New Evidences in Psychical Research</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps one or two illustrative incidents may make
+things clearer.</p>
+
+<p>The first time Wilkinson came to see me he said,
+in the middle of ordinary talk, that he saw with me
+the form of a woman who looked about fifty-four, and
+whom he described, saying further that her name was
+Mary. Taking up a piece of paper and a pencil, he
+wrote in an abstracted manner the words &ldquo;Roundfield
+Place&rdquo;. He looked at it, without reading it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+aloud, then said: &ldquo;That will be a house&rdquo;, and proceeded
+to write something else. I got up to look, and
+found &ldquo;Roundfield Place. Yes&rdquo; (the &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; written
+in answer to his remark &ldquo;That will be a house&rdquo;) and
+a signature &ldquo;Mary&rdquo;. Now it happens that my
+mother&rsquo;s name was Mary, that the description applied
+to her, and that she died, in 1886, at Roundfield Place,
+not the house to which Wilkinson came, whither we
+removed in 1897. Other similar things were said,
+about other deceased relatives, all true.</p>
+
+<p>In this kind of thing it is our duty to stick to known
+causes before admitting unknown, and my first supposition
+was that Wilkinson had primed himself with
+information. He could have ascertained most of the
+things by local inquiry, though it would not be very
+easy, for my mother had been dead twenty-two years,
+and only middle-aged or elderly people would remember
+her. Further interviews with him, however, soon
+carried me beyond the fraud theory&mdash;for holding which
+I now apologise to him, feeling considerably ashamed&mdash;for
+he gave me messages from many people whose
+association with me I feel sure he did not know, and
+also some family matter of a very private kind, characteristic
+of the spirit who purported to be communicating,
+but known to only four living people. I then
+fell back on telepathy, assuming that the medium was
+reading my mind. But, pursuing my investigations,
+I received information which I did not know but
+which turned out true. For example, Wilkinson on
+one occasion described a Ruth and Jacob Robertshaw,
+giving details about them and saying that Ruth had a
+very spiritual appearance, with a sort of radiance about
+her, indicating that she had been a very good woman,
+and giving other particulars. All this meant nothing
+to me, for the names were unknown. But, as I had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+on some other occasions found that spirits were described
+who were relatives of my last visitor, I asked
+the person who had last entered the room&mdash;except
+inhabitants of the house&mdash;whether she had known
+people of these names. It turned out that they were
+connexions of hers with whom she had been in close
+touch during life, and everything said by the medium
+was correct. Now in the first place this incident ruled
+out fraud, for Miss North&rsquo;s visit had occurred three
+days before, and Wilkinson would have had to have
+detectives watching both doors of my house, from first
+thing in the morning to the last thing at night, to find
+out who my last visitor had been; or he would have
+had to be in league with a servant or a neighbour, and
+even thus could hardly have succeeded, for servants
+are sometimes out&mdash;moreover, similar things have
+happened during the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">régime</i> of different servants&mdash;and
+neighbours could not easily watch both doors
+during dark winter evenings. Further, our neighbours
+are friends of ours, non-spiritualists, and not acquainted
+with Wilkinson. And, after getting to know who my
+last visitor was, information about her deceased relatives
+would have had to be hunted up. I could give
+further reasons for believing that fraud was an untenable
+hypothesis, but I must be brief. What, next,
+about telepathy? Well, I had no conscious knowledge
+of these people, so the medium could not have got his
+information from my conscious mind. It is possible
+to assume that I knew it subliminally, and that the
+medium abstracted it from those hidden levels of my
+mind. This is a guess, but a legitimate guess. It is
+the guess that Miss Dougall (author of <cite>Pro Christo et
+Ecclesia</cite>) makes in criticising this very incident in the
+book of essays called <cite>Immortality</cite>, by Canon Streeter
+and others. She suggests that on the occasion of Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+North&rsquo;s visit my mind had photographed the contents
+of hers, without my knowing it, and that the medium
+developed the photograph and read off the required
+information. It may be so, but it seems to me far-fetched.
+Miss Dougall, I may add, is a member of the
+S.P.R., and her criticism is instructed criticism, worthy
+of careful attention. But I cannot accept her theory,
+which seems to me more wonderful and to require
+more credulity than the spirit theory. For it is to be
+observed that the assumed mind-reading is of a character
+quite different from anything that has been
+experimentally established. In telepathic experiments,
+like those of Professor Murray, some incarnate person
+is <em>trying</em> to communicate the thought. This is not the
+case in my sittings with Wilkinson. I am not trying
+to communicate anything to him; very much the
+contrary. And I do not find, after long and careful
+observation, any parallelism between what he says and
+what I happen to be thinking about. There is, in
+short, no evidence for the supposition that my mind is
+read. The evidence points unmistakably to discarnate
+agency&mdash;telepathy <em>from the dead</em>.</p>
+
+
+<h3>TRANCE</h3>
+
+<p>The sort of thing I have described is usually known
+as normal clairvoyance, because the sensitive is in a
+normal state, not in trance. But there is a further
+stage, into which, indeed, Mr Wilkinson sometimes
+passes, in which there is a change of personality, and
+a spirit purports to speak or write with the medium&rsquo;s
+organs. There is nothing weird or uncanny in the
+procedure, nothing deathly or coma-like; the medium
+usually sits up and even walks about, though some
+trance mediums have to sit still and keep their eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+closed. I have had visits from many trance mediums;
+and most of them have failed to get anything evidential&mdash;which
+at least suggests their honesty, for they
+could easily have obtained <em>some</em> information about
+my deceased relatives. But the whole matter of trance
+control is a thorny problem. Indubitably, evidence
+of supernormal faculty is sometimes given in this state,
+but we of the S.P.R. are divided as to what the control
+really is. Some think it is a spirit, as claimed; others
+think it is a secondary personality of the medium, as
+in the remarkable case of split personality described
+in Dr Morton Prince&rsquo;s book <cite>The Dissociation of a
+Personality</cite>. Mrs Sidgwick, widow of the Professor
+and sister of Mr A.&nbsp;J. Balfour, has made a careful
+psychological study of the case of Mrs Piper, given in
+657 pages of <cite>Proceedings</cite>, vol.&nbsp;28, and her conclusion
+is that though telepathy from the dead is probably
+shown, and certainly some kind of supernormality,
+the controls themselves are dream-fragments of the
+medium&rsquo;s mind. I am not qualified to pronounce an
+opinion on Mrs Piper, not having met her; but as
+to the trance mediums I have experimented with, I
+incline to agree with Mrs Sidgwick. I think it may be
+a dodge of the subliminal to get the over-anxious normal
+consciousness temporarily out of the way. But this
+is a psychological detail, and a difficult one, requiring
+much further study. From the psychical research
+point of view Mrs Piper&rsquo;s case may be studied in
+<cite>Proceedings</cite>, <abbr title="volumes">vols.</abbr> 6, 8, 13, 16, and a few of the later
+ones, or some idea of it can be got from Sir Oliver
+Lodge&rsquo;s <cite>Survival of Man</cite>. All the investigators were
+convinced of either telepathy or something more.
+Fraud was excluded by introducing sitters anonymously,
+Dr Hodgson himself introducing over 150
+different people in this way, and taking careful notes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+I have experimented similarly with Wilkinson, introducing
+people from distant places such as Middlesex
+and Northumberland as well as from towns nearer home,
+either under false names or with no names at all, and
+being present myself to take notes. Friends of mine
+have done the same thing. We were unanimously
+sceptical to start with, probably more sceptical than
+most of those who will read this paper, for we disbelieved
+in survival itself. We are now convinced
+that the fraud theory is out of the question, that at the
+very least a complicated theory of mind-reading&mdash;including
+the reading of the minds of distant and
+unknown persons&mdash;must be assumed if the theory
+of survival and communication is to be avoided.</p>
+
+<p>Of late years there has been a great development
+in automatic writing among quite non-professional
+mediums&mdash;private people who are members of the
+S.P.R., as for instance the late Mrs Verrall, Classical
+Lecturer at Newnham&mdash;and some noteworthy evidence
+has been obtained. But it is too complex even to
+summarise here. It seems to be the work of Gurney,
+Hodgson, Myers, and Sidgwick, on the other side, for
+different messages have come through different sensitives,
+making sense when put together, and sense
+characteristic of these departed leaders. This had
+not been thought of, so far as we know, by any living
+person, and it seems to eliminate telepathy from the
+living, for the messages are not understood until the
+bits are pieced together. The evidence fills several
+volumes of our <cite>Proceedings</cite>, and students should read
+them carefully.</p>
+
+<p>There are many other kinds of mediumship or psychic
+faculty, and many volumes are in existence on each
+phase; the library of the London Spiritualist Alliance
+contains about 3,000. I have read about 500 of them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+and would not recommend anyone else to do the same.
+There is a great deal of rubbish among them, though
+they are not all rubbish. The reading I recommend is
+the <cite>Proceedings</cite> of the S.P.R., the writings of Sir
+William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr W.&nbsp;J. Crawford,
+and, above all, the great work of F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H. Myers,
+<cite>Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death</cite>,
+in the original two-volume edition. The abridged
+one-volume edition omits many of the illustrative
+cases. I do not think that conviction is to be achieved
+by mere reading; books would never have convinced
+me. But careful reading is perhaps sufficient to lead
+a fairly tolerant mind to realise that there is something
+here which must not be dismissed off-hand; something
+which is worthy of investigation. That is as much as
+we expect. Sir Oliver Lodge often says that we shall
+do well if we succeed, in this generation, in modifying
+the psychological climate, creating an atmosphere
+more favourable to unprejudiced examination of the
+facts. We have no desire for revolutions; we want
+knowledge to grow slowly and surely. The S.P.R. has
+been in existence only thirty-seven years, and the
+subject is in its scientific infancy. Take the beginnings
+of any one science&mdash;say, Chemistry, dating it somewhat
+arbitrarily from Priestley or Dalton&mdash;and note
+what a little way discovery had gone in a like period.
+With increased numbers of workers the pace increases;
+but in every science the progress at first must be slow.
+In psychical research a good start has been made, and
+the investigators seem to be certainly on the track
+of something, whether their inferences are right in every
+detail or not. And every advance in science has
+extended our conceptions of this wonderful universe.
+The heavens declare the glory of God in a tremendously
+larger way than they did in the days of the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+Ptolemaic astronomy, though man foolishly fought the
+Copernican idea because it seemed to lessen our
+dignity by making our earth a speck on the scale of
+creation instead of the central body thereof. So with
+all other phenomena, physical and psychical. We
+may be sure that all discovery will be real revelation.
+With this faith&mdash;a well-grounded faith&mdash;we need not
+fear advance.</p>
+
+
+<h3>RECENT CRITICISM</h3>
+
+<p>I add a few words, rather against my inclination,
+about recent criticism of a kind which is hardly worthy
+that name. Two books, one by Dr Mercier and one
+by Mr Edward Clodd, have had a certain popularity,
+mainly because they attacked, with a certain smartness
+of phrase, the book of a greater man. &ldquo;Raymond&rdquo;
+was being widely read and talked about, and its popularity
+secured some success for these hostile books.
+Curiously enough, even some of the clergy have quoted
+approvingly some of the arguments of these rationalists,
+no doubt much to the glee of Mr Clodd in particular.
+Now I have said before that instructed criticism is
+always welcome, for we may hope to learn something
+from it. But Dr Mercier, on his own statement,
+came new to the subject at the age of sixty-four, read
+<cite>Raymond</cite> and <cite>The Survival of Man</cite>, and immediately
+sat down to write a flippant book the publication of
+which we hope he now regrets. Not only had he never
+investigated for himself, but he was also ignorant of
+the work of the S.P.R.</p>
+
+<p>As to Mr Clodd, his book is better-informed,
+though frequently unfair. For instance, in his references
+to me he is very careful to avoid any consideration
+of the strong parts of my case. Like the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+famous theological professor, he looks the difficulties
+boldly in the face&mdash;not <em>very</em> boldly&mdash;and passes on,
+without speaking to them. He has obviously read
+fairly widely, but where he does criticise in detail, he
+always seizes on weak points and quietly ignores the
+strong ones. As to personal investigation he is almost
+entirely without experience. He says he attended a
+séance about fifty years ago, but has forgotten most
+of what happened! He says this, with a momentary
+lapse from his usual cleverness&mdash;for it gives away his
+case&mdash;in a letter to the April (1918) <cite>International Psychic
+Gazette</cite>. In other words, he poses as an authority on a
+branch of science of which he has no first-hand knowledge.
+He criticises and dismisses airily the opinions
+and investigations of those who have worked at the
+subject for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years; for it
+is over forty years since Sir William Barrett brought
+his experiments in telepathy before the British Association.
+Mr Clodd is a Rationalist, and knows without
+investigation that these things cannot be. He is as <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à
+prioristic</i> as a medieval Schoolman, in spite of his
+scientific pose. And his prejudices unfortunately
+prevent him from seeking and studying the facts which
+might lead him to other conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>I have not said anything about the S.P.R. itself,
+but may here add a few remarks. Says its official
+leaflet: &ldquo;The aim of the Society is to approach these
+various problems without prejudice or prepossession
+of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned
+inquiry which has enabled Science to solve
+so many problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly
+debated.&hellip; Membership of the Society does not imply
+the acceptance of any particular explanation of the
+phenomena investigated, nor any belief as to the
+operation, in the physical world, of forces other than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+those recognised by Physical Science&rdquo;. In other
+words, the Society has no creed, except that the subject
+is worth investigating.</p>
+
+<p>The Society has well over 1,000 members, and is
+growing steadily. It includes many famous men in
+all walks of life, and indeed its membership list has
+been said to contain more well-known names than any
+other scientific society except the Royal Society
+itself. Among the Vice-presidents are the Right
+Honourables A.&nbsp;J. and G.&nbsp;W. Balfour, Sir William
+Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Bishop Boyd-Carpenter
+and the late Sir William Crookes. The
+President for the current year is Lord Rayleigh, probably
+the greatest mathematical physicist now living.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+The President of the Royal Society (Sir J.&nbsp;J. Thomson)
+is a member, also Professor Henri Bergson of Paris,
+Dr L.&nbsp;P. Jacks (editor of <cite>The Hibbert Journal</cite>) and
+innumerable other scientists and scholars whose names
+are known to everyone.</p>
+
+<p>Finally let me assure you that the S.P.R. is so conservative
+and suspicious that admission is almost as
+difficult to obtain as membership of a high-class London
+club. It is extremely anxious to keep out cranks and
+emotional people of all sorts, and it requires any
+applicant to be vouched for as suitable by two existing
+members; and each application is separately considered
+by the Council. The result is a level-headed
+lot of members, and the maintenance of a sane and
+scientific attitude and management.</p>
+
+<p>From the philosophic side it is sometimes urged
+that we cannot reason from the phenomenal to the
+noumenal, from the world of appearance to the world
+of reality; that consequently nothing happening in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+the material world can prove the existence of a spiritual
+one. But this is easily answered. We cheerfully
+agree, with Kant, that a spiritual world cannot be
+proved coercively and in such knock-down fashion
+that belief cannot be avoided. But it can be proved
+in the same way and to the same extent as many other
+things which we believe and find ourselves justified
+in believing. For instance, atoms and electrons and
+the Ether of Space are not phenomenal; no one has
+ever seen or heard or felt or smelt them; but we infer
+their real existence from the behaviour of the matter
+which does affect our senses. Again: we cannot
+<em>prove</em> to ourselves that other human beings exist, or
+even that an external world exists; my experience
+may be a huge subjective hallucination. If I were
+reading this paper I should not be able to prove to
+myself that any other mind was present. Looking
+around, I should receive certain impressions&mdash;sensations
+of sight&mdash;and I should call certain aggregations
+of these the physical bodies of beings like myself. From
+the similarity of their structure and behaviour to the
+structure and behaviour of my own body, I should
+infer that they have got minds somehow associated
+with them, as my mind is associated with my body.
+But you could not prove it to me. If you got angry
+with my obstinacy, and knocked me down, I should
+experience painful sensations, but the existence of a
+mind external to me&mdash;and an angry one&mdash;would still
+be a matter of inference only. But we find that the
+inference is justified. We find that it &ldquo;works,&rdquo; and
+social life is possible. For the purposes, then, both
+of science and of ordinary life, we do reason from
+phenomenon to noumenon, from appearance to reality,
+from attribute to substance; and our reasoning
+justifies itself. I affirm, therefore, that the kind of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+proof which we as psychical researchers put forward
+for the existence of and communication from discarnate
+minds, is philosophically the same kind as the proof
+we have of the existence of incarnate minds. If a
+short and clear exposition of the point is required, free
+from any psychical-research bias, I may refer inquirers
+to the chapter on the Psychological Theory of an
+External World in J.&nbsp;S. Mill&rsquo;s <cite>Examination of Sir
+William Hamilton&rsquo;s Philosophy</cite>. Our evidence may be
+insufficient to justify belief&mdash;in the opinion of many,
+it is&mdash;and I blame no one for disbelieving; but it is
+evidence. And if it sufficiently accumulates and improves
+in quality, it may amount to a degree of proof
+at least comparable with that concerning electrons,
+which are now accepted as real by all physicists.</p>
+
+<p>One or two difficulties may here be briefly referred to:</p>
+
+<p>1. The appearance in Mrs Piper&rsquo;s script of such
+obvious dream-stuff as messages from Homer, Ulysses,
+and Telemachus! These are of course absurdities, and
+no psychical researcher regards them as anything else.
+But they are no more absurd than many of our own
+dreams, and we must remember that automatic writing
+comes from the dream-strata of the medium&rsquo;s mind,
+these strata seeming to lie <em>between</em> our normal consciousness
+and the spiritual world. Consequently messages
+which really seem to come from beyond: <i>i.e.</i>, which
+are evidential&mdash;are often mixed with subliminal
+matter from the medium&rsquo;s mind. As a communicator
+once said: &ldquo;The medium&rsquo;s dreams get in my way.&rdquo;
+All this has to be allowed for, but in good mediums
+there is not much of it. In my friend Wilkinson&rsquo;s
+case there is none, for he can distinguish. In Mrs
+Piper&rsquo;s case there is a little, but it does not invalidate
+the huge mass of real evidence that has come. And
+it at least testifies to her honesty, for no medium would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+pretend to get messages from people whom everyone
+knows to be mythical&mdash;messages which are indeed
+comic and therefore enable opponents to score points
+with the general public by obvious witticisms.</p>
+
+<p>Huxley is often referred to, as having wisely declined
+to investigate, knowing beforehand that it was all nonsense.
+Huxley was busy with his own work, and,
+believing <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à priori</i> that alleged psychical phenomena
+were either fraud or self-delusion, naturally declined
+to give any time to them. We need not regret his
+decision, for he was doing work that was more important
+than psychical investigation would have been, just
+then. But he was wrong in his <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à priori</i> belief, or rather
+unbelief. He had never seen any of these phenomena,
+but that did not prove that they did not happen. A
+native of mid-Africa may never have seen snow,
+but that does not prove that no snow exists.</p>
+
+<p>And it happens that the Dialectical Society went
+on with its task, appointing committees which investigated
+without any paid medium. The majority
+of the investigators were utterly sceptical at first;
+they were practically all convinced at the finish. I
+state this merely as a fact, not as a specially important
+fact; for I find that beginners, when suddenly faced
+with striking phenomena, are liable to go from the
+extreme of unbelief to an extreme of belief. When one&rsquo;s
+materialistic scheme is exploded, there seems no
+criterion left, and anything may happen. It usually
+takes an investigator a year or two to adjust himself
+and to learn to follow the evidence and not overshoot
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Some people say: &ldquo;But if communication is possible,
+why cannot <em>I</em> communicate direct with my own departed
+loved ones?&rdquo; The question is seen on reflection,
+however, to be easily answered. In the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+place, we cannot communicate direct even with our
+friends in the next town; we have to get the help of
+postmen or telegraph clerks and the like. It is therefore
+not at all surprising that an intermediary is
+needed when they are removed further from our
+conditions. Probably all of us have germs of psychic
+faculty&mdash;though I have not yet discovered any in myself&mdash;somewhat
+as we can all play or sing a little;
+but the Paderewskis and Carusos are few. Similarly
+with psychic faculty. Few have enough of it to communicate
+for themselves. On the other hand, it is
+much commoner than Carusos are; but of course, when
+it occurs in a private person, that person does not
+advertise the fact. Outsiders would either scoff, or
+say &ldquo;lunacy&rdquo;, or crowd round asking for &ldquo;sittings&rdquo;,
+out of curiosity. Consequently only sympathetic
+intimates are told, or people who, like myself, are known
+to be sympathetic investigators. Some of the most
+remarkable sensitives in England at the present day
+are of this private kind&mdash;people of education and
+position&mdash;and they are not even spiritualists in the
+sense of belonging to the spiritualist sect. They are
+of various religious persuasions, and belong mostly
+to rather orthodox bodies. There is nothing of the
+crank about them; they are not Theosophists or
+Christian Scientists or adherents of any other of what
+the sergeant called &ldquo;fancy religions.&rdquo; I may say that
+the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had
+have been with a psychic of this kind. I have not
+alluded to these experiences in my paper, because the
+matter is private. But I just mention these things
+because I find that psychic faculties are more common
+than I once thought, and a sympathetic minister could
+probably hear of private cases if he let his sympathy
+and interest be known. But of course, if he is known to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+have condemned the whole thing as Satanic&mdash;as Father
+Bernard Vaughan does&mdash;or as lunacy, people with
+psychic experiences will take very good care not to
+tell him about them.</p>
+
+<p>As to details about the nature of the after-life, I
+have no dogmatic opinions to offer. Probably it is
+impossible for those over there to describe their experience
+adequately, in our earthly terms. Such information
+as we get must be largely symbolical, as
+when mediums describe a specially good deceased
+person as surrounded with radiance. I have several
+times noticed that the relative &ldquo;brightness&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;radiance&rdquo; of a spirit, as described by the medium,
+has correctly indicated that spirit&rsquo;s character, though
+the medium had no normal knowledge whatever of
+either the person&rsquo;s character or even existence. But
+though our information must probably be mainly
+symbolical, I think we are justified in believing that
+we begin the next stage pretty nearly where we leave
+off here. There is no sudden jump to unalloyed bliss
+for even such good people as you, no sudden plunge
+to everlasting woe even for sinners like me. This,
+I admit, is not in accordance with what I used to hear
+from the pulpit twenty years ago. But it agrees with
+what I read now of the opinions of such men as the
+Bishop of London and Dr J.&nbsp;D. Jones; and other
+clerical writers, such as Canon Storr in his <cite>Christianity
+and Immortality</cite> and Dr Paterson Smyth in his
+excellent <cite>Gospel of the Hereafter</cite> take the same view.
+Our modern moral sense refuses to believe that a good
+God will sentence any creature to everlasting pain;
+and although it may be contended that man has free-will
+and is therefore the arbiter of his own fate, it still
+remains that God gave him that freedom, and therefore
+still bears the ultimate responsibility. To retain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+belief in a God who can be loved and worshipped, I at
+least must disbelieve in everlasting pain for anyone.</p>
+
+<p>And, added to this moral revolt, there has come a
+war in which millions of young men have died before
+their natural time. These young fellows, we feel,
+are at least in most cases neither good enough for heaven
+nor bad enough for hell. The sensible supposition
+seems to be&mdash;and it is borne out by psychical facts&mdash;that
+they have gone on to the next stage of life, which
+to most or all of them is an improvement; that they
+are busy and happy there; that they are still more or
+less interested in and cognisant of our affairs; that
+they will come to meet their loved ones when <em>they</em>
+cross over&mdash;of this I have had much evidence&mdash;and
+that they and humanity as a whole are travelling on
+an upward path toward some goal at present inconceivable
+to our small and flesh-bound souls.</p>
+
+<p>Some people have objected that psychical research
+will substitute knowledge for faith. This is surely
+a curious objection, and few will advance it. The
+earth is the Lord&rsquo;s and the fulness thereof, and my
+belief is that He wants us to learn all we can about
+His handiwork. Nature is a book given to us by our
+Father, for our good; study of it is a duty, neglect
+of it is unfilial and wrong. Psychical research studies
+its own particular facts in nature, and is thus trying
+to learn a little more of God&rsquo;s mind. It is not we, but
+those who oppose us, who are irreligious.</p>
+
+<p>And as to this matter of faith; well, after we have
+learnt all we can, there will still be plenty of scope left
+for the exercise of faith in general, for our knowledge
+will always be surrounded by regions of the unknown.
+If anyone says that psychical research antagonises
+<em>Christian</em> faith, I say most emphatically that on the
+contrary it <em>supports</em> it. Christianity was based on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+Fact: the Resurrection and Appearances of Jesus.
+Psychical-research facts are rendering that event
+credible to many who have disbelieved it. Myers says
+that in consequence of our evidence, everyone will
+believe, a century hence, in that Resurrection; whereas,
+in default of our evidence, a century hence no one
+would have believed it. And to him, personally,
+psychical research brought back the Christian faith
+which he had lost.</p>
+
+<p>I hope that the facts and inferences which I have
+very sketchily put before you will have made it clear
+that there is some reality in the subject-matter of our
+investigations, and that these latter powerfully support
+a religious view of the universe. I believe that we
+are giving materialism its death-blow; hence the wild
+antagonism of such well-meaning but belated writers
+as Mr Clodd. But we are not ourselves religious
+teachers. That is your domain. You will use our
+work and its results, as you use the work and results
+of other labourers in the scientific vineyard. And I
+think you will find ours specially helpful.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+<cite>Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine</cite> (Cassell &amp;
+Co., Ltd.).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+<cite>Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research</cite>, vol.&nbsp;29, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;59.
+(For brevity&rsquo;s sake I shall hereinafter use the recognised initials
+&ldquo;S.P.R.&rdquo; for the Society.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <cite>E.g.</cite>,
+Moses and Elias on the Mount.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>
+Lord Rayleigh&rsquo;s lamented death has since occurred, July, 1919.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="l1"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL<br />
+RESEARCHER</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Probably</span> few of us keep a diary nowadays.
+I don&rsquo;t. But I somehow got into the habit,
+soon after I became interested in psychical
+things, of jotting down in a notebook the conclusions
+at which I had arrived&mdash;or the almost complete puzzlement
+in which I found myself, as the case might be.
+Glancing recently through these records of my pilgrimage,
+it seemed to me that a sketch of it might be of some
+interest or amusement to others.</p>
+
+<p>Professor William James says in his <cite>Talks to Teachers</cite>
+that it is very difficult for most people to accept any
+new truth after the age of thirty; and that indeed old-fogeyism
+may be said to begin at twenty-five. It is
+perhaps therefore not surprising that, coming fresh
+to the subject at thirty-two&mdash;in 1905&mdash;I found the
+struggle to psychical truth a very long and arduous
+affair. Having been brought up on the ministrations
+of a hell-fire-preaching Nonconformist pastor whose
+theology made me into a very vigorous Huxleyan
+agnostic, I was biased against anything that savoured
+of &ldquo;religion,&rdquo; and moreover &ldquo;spiritualism&rdquo; was unscientific
+and absurd. So I thought, in my ignorance;
+for I knew nothing whatever of the evidence on which
+spiritualistic beliefs are based.</p>
+
+<p>However, I fortunately ran up against hard facts
+which soon cured me of negative dogmatism. I became
+acquainted with a medium who satisfied me that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+could diagnose disease, or rather her medical &ldquo;control&rdquo;
+could, from a lock of the patient&rsquo;s hair; and this without
+any information whatever being given. Also
+that the diagnosis often went beyond the knowledge
+of the sitter, thus excluding telepathy from anyone
+present or near. But this did not prove that the control
+was a spirit, so I turned to other investigations.</p>
+
+<p>First, I set myself to &ldquo;read up&rdquo;. I feel sure that this
+is the best course for beginners to adopt, after once
+achieving real open-mindedness. It enables one to
+investigate with proper scientific care when opportunity
+arises, and with much better chance of securing good
+evidence. Without this preparation, an investigator
+has little idea how to handle that delicate machine
+called a medium, and indeed no amount of reading
+will entirely equip the experimenter, for there are
+many things which only experience can teach. Also,
+without this preparation, the investigator will be liable
+either to give things away by talking too much, or will
+create an atmosphere of suspicion and discomfort
+by being too secretive. It takes some practice
+to achieve an open and friendly manner while never
+losing sight of the importance of imparting no information
+that would spoil possible evidence. This of course
+is desirable from the medium&rsquo;s point of view as well as
+that of the sitter. It is hard on a medium if, for example,
+a really supernormally-got name does not count
+because the sitter himself had let it slip.</p>
+
+<p>I think my reading began with <em>Light</em> and some of
+Mr E.&nbsp;W. Wallis&rsquo;s books, but I soon found my way to
+the <cite>Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research</cite>,
+and recognised that here was what I was seeking. I
+cannot sufficiently express my admiration, which is as
+great as ever, for such masterly pieces of evidence as,
+for instance, Dr Hodgson&rsquo;s account of sittings with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+Mrs Piper, in volume 13. If we were perfectly logical
+beings, without prejudice, that account ought to convince
+anybody; certainly it ought to convince the
+reader of the operation of <em>something</em> supernormal, and
+it ought to go a long way towards excluding telepathic
+theories and rendering the spirit explanation the
+most reasonable one. But we are not logical beings.
+We require to be battered for a long time by fact after
+fact before we will admit a new conclusion. I remember
+saying, as indeed I noted down in the diary
+mentioned, that a few of these volumes, with Myers&rsquo;s
+<cite>Human Personality</cite>, left me in the curious position of
+being able to say that, though I was not convinced,
+I felt that logically I ought to be, for the evidence
+seemed irrefragable. Then I read Crookes&rsquo; <cite>Researches
+in the Phenomena of Spiritualism</cite>, and my logical
+agreement was accentuated, for Sir William Crookes
+was my scientific Pope, in consequence of my having
+worked from his chemical writings, and having
+an immense admiration for his mind and method.
+But my actual inner conviction was not much
+changed. Kant says somewhere that we may
+test the strength of our beliefs by asking ourselves
+what we would bet on them. At this point I had not
+got to the stage of being prepared to bet much on the
+truth of the survival of human beings or the possibility
+of communicating with them if they did survive. I
+thought the case was logically proved, but I didn&rsquo;t
+feel it in my bones, as the phrase goes. For this,
+personal experience is necessary; at least it is for an
+old fogey of over thirty, with my particular build of
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>And I was fortunately able to get this experience.
+One of the two best-known mediums in the North of
+England, Mr A. Wilkinson, happened to live only a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+few miles away, though he was and is generally away
+from home, speaking for spiritualist societies from
+Aberdeen to Exeter, and being booked over a year
+ahead. However, I was able to get an introduction
+to him through friends who also carried out investigations
+with him (described in my <cite>New Evidences in
+Psychical Research</cite>), and since then, with intermissions
+due mainly to ill-health, I have had friendly sittings
+with him continuously. To him I owe my real convictions,
+and for this I cannot adequately thank him.
+Without his kindness I could never have achieved
+certainty; for owing to a damaged heart I could not
+get about to interview mediums, and there was no
+other medium within reasonable distance. Besides,
+Mr Wilkinson has stretched a point in my case, for
+he does not give private sittings, preferring to confine
+himself to platform work; and I suppose he makes
+an exception in my case in view of my inability. I here
+once more thank him for all he has done for me.</p>
+
+<p>At my first sitting with him he described and named
+my mother and other relatives, whom he saw apparently
+with me. I had no reason to believe that he had
+any normal knowledge of these people; certainly I
+had never mentioned them to him, and it was in the
+last degree unlikely that anyone else had. My mother
+had been dead twenty-two years, and was not at all a
+prominent person. Moreover, he got by automatic
+writing a signed message from her, giving the name of
+the house in which we lived at the time of her death,
+but which we had left eleven years later. This seemed
+to be given by way of a test. At later sittings my father
+and other relatives manifested, with names and identifying
+detail, and the proof began to be almost coercive.
+The evidence went beyond any possibility of the
+medium&rsquo;s normal knowledge, and was characteristic of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+the different communicators in all sorts of subtle
+ways. Telepathy alone remained as a possible alternative
+to the spirit explanation. Then came a peculiar
+phase, as if there were a definite plan on the part of
+some of my friends on the other side for the purpose
+of utterly convincing me by bringing evidence which
+could not possibly be accounted for by any supposition
+of a reading of my own mind. A spirit friend of mine
+would turn up, bringing with him a spirit whom I had
+never heard of, and saying that he was a friend of his;
+and on inquiry I would find that it was so&mdash;and
+sometimes it needed a great deal of inquiry, which
+made it all the better evidence, for it showed how
+difficult it would have been for the medium to obtain
+the information; though indeed at this stage the
+evidence had forced me past crude suspicions of that
+sort. On other occasions unknown spirits would
+appear, and I would find that they belonged to the
+last visitor I had had. Several incidents of this kind
+are described in my book <cite>Psychical Investigations</cite>.
+After some years of this kind of experience I became
+fully satisfied that the spirit explanation was the only
+reasonable one. Some writers, like Miss Dougall in a
+recent volume of essays called <cite>Immortality</cite>, invent a
+complicated hypothesis according to which my mind
+photographs the mind of a visitor and the medium on
+his next visit develops and reads off the photograph;
+but I confess that my credulity does not stand the
+strain put upon it by such a hypothesis. Besides, I
+have lately had&mdash;as if to get round even such tortured
+theories as this&mdash;evidence giving details which have
+not been known to any person I have ever met. I was
+told to write to a certain friend of mine, father of the
+ostensible communicator. The facts were unknown
+even to him, but he was able to verify them completely;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+and they were characteristic and evidential of the
+identity of the ostensible communicator.</p>
+
+<p>If all my results were of the kind I have had through
+Mr Wilkinson the case would, for me, be so utterly
+and overwhelmingly proved that doubt would be
+absurd. But this is too much to expect. I have
+had many other mediums here, with varying success,
+but nothing approaching Mr Wilkinson&rsquo;s. In many
+cases it is fairly obvious that the medium&rsquo;s subliminal&mdash;or
+the control&rsquo;s imagination&mdash;has been doing part
+of the business, no doubt unknown to the medium&rsquo;s
+normal consciousness. But in no case have I had any
+indication of fraud. This seems sufficient answer
+to Mr Edward Clodd&rsquo;s credulous acceptance of the
+theory of a Blue-Book and inquiry system which
+enables mediums to post themselves up about likely
+sitters. It would be the easiest thing in the world
+for an imitation medium to learn enough about me to
+give what would seem on the face of it a fairly &ldquo;good&rdquo;
+sitting. But this is never the case. Either the medium
+fails or he is so successful that normal knowledge is
+ruled out. On Mr Clodd&rsquo;s theory, I ought to have
+neither of these extremes; I ought to have no failures,
+and no results going beyond what inquiry could produce.
+But I need not labour this point, for Mr Clodd
+has recently confessed his almost absurd innocence
+of any first-hand experience. In a letter to the
+<cite>International Psychic Gazette</cite> for April, 1918, he said
+he had been to a sitting about fifty years ago, but he
+does not remember much about what happened!
+Yet he sets up as an authority on this branch of experimental
+science! It is like someone writing on
+chemistry after being in a laboratory once, fifty years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>Some of my most curious experiences, concerning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+which I have not yet published anything in detail,
+have been in connexion with crystal vision. I happen
+to know a sensitive&mdash;not a professional medium or
+even a spiritualist&mdash;who has physical-phenomena powers
+of very unusual and indeed probably unique type.
+Not only can she see in the crystal and get evidential
+messages by writing seen therein, but the writing or
+pictures are visible to anyone present. I have seen
+them myself. As many as six people at a time,
+myself among them, have seen the same thing, and
+not one of the six was of suggestible type or had had
+any hallucinations. All were middle-aged, except
+one young lieutenant, and we were indeed a rather
+exceptionally un-neurotic and stodgy lot. But though
+the things seem objective&mdash;I am going to try to photograph
+them, also the sensitive, in the hope of confirming
+the Crewe phenomena&mdash;they are somehow more or
+less influenced by the sensitive&rsquo;s own mind, without
+her conscious knowledge; for, <i>e.g.</i>, in one message,
+purporting to come from my father, I was addressed
+as Arthur, a name which would be natural to the
+medium who knows me mostly from printed matter
+and a few letters, but which is entirely inappropriate
+in relation to my father. Yet a good deal of evidence
+of identity has come through this sensitive, and this
+&ldquo;mixture&rdquo; does not invalidate the case. Again, a
+queer feature of this sensitive&rsquo;s powers is that lost
+objects are frequently found as a result of instructions
+given in the crystal; and in many of these cases it
+seems certain that the position of the lost object could
+not have been known to any incarnate mind, or of
+course it would not have been left there. In one case
+it was a valuable ruby; in several others it was Treasury
+notes. This sensitive also is a medium for very good
+raps, which all present can hear quite distinctly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+which show intelligence, answering questions and so
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>I have therefore reached the conviction that human
+survival is a fact, that the life over there is something
+like an improved version of the present one, and&mdash;a
+comforting thought, supported by much of my evidence&mdash;that
+we are met at death by those who have gone
+before. Some of my more mystical friends, who have
+not needed such prolonged jolting to get them out of
+materialistic grooves, are rather bored with me for
+dwelling so much on the evidence and on the nature
+of the next state. They call it &ldquo;merely astral&rdquo;; as
+for them, their minds soar in higher flights. One
+friend, a sort of radical High Churchman, said to me
+some time ago that he was &ldquo;not interested in the
+intermediate state&rdquo;. But I rather think that he will
+have to be. I may be wrong, but I suspect that,
+whether they like it or not, these good people will
+have to go through the intermediate state before they
+get anywhere else. Good though they are, I do not
+believe they are good enough for unalloyed bliss or
+union with the Godhead. Such sudden jumps do not
+happen. Progress is gradual. Indeed, I have noticed
+lately that my High Churchman friend has shown much
+more interest in these merely psychical things. Perhaps
+he thinks he had better turn back and make sure
+of the next state and its nature, perceiving that it is a
+necessary bridge or &ldquo;tarrying-place&rdquo; (which is the
+alternative reading for the &ldquo;mansions&rdquo; of our Father&rsquo;s
+house) on the way to the heaven which he quite rightly
+aims at.</p>
+
+<p>As to the future of psychical science and opinion,
+I feel sure that great things are now ahead. The war,
+with the terrible amount of mourning it entails, has
+quickened interest in the subject, and for millions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+people the question of survival and the next state
+has become an urgent and abiding one. Their interest,
+instead of being almost wholly on this side, is very
+largely over there, whither their loved ones have gone.
+Similarly with the soldiers who have come safely
+through the war. All have lost friends, all have faced
+the possibility of sudden or slow and painful death.
+And probably all young people at present, and most
+adults, have out-grown the crude beliefs of last century&rsquo;s
+orthodoxy with its everlasting hell, and are
+ready for a more rational system. This is being supplied,
+backed by scientific proof, by psychical research
+and scientific spiritualism. It seems likely that the
+religion of the best minds for the next half-century or
+so, and perhaps onward, will be something like that
+which Myers came to hold in his later years. It does
+not much matter whether the spiritualist sect grows
+as an institution or not. Many people will accept its
+main belief without feeling it necessary to leave the
+communion to which they already belong. It seems
+certain that the idea itself will be the ruling idea in
+many minds for a long time, and no doubt psychic
+faculty will become much more common, for thousands
+are now trying to develop it who never cared to try
+before. Quite possibly the effort on both sides of
+the veil, in consequence of so many premature deaths,
+may bring about a closer communion between the two
+sides than has ever been known hitherto. A great lift-up
+of earthly thought would be the result, a perhaps
+final emergence from the chrysalis stage of materialism;
+and we shall then be near the time when, as the inspired
+Milton makes his Raphael say:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0a">&ldquo;Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ethereal, as we, or may, at choice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Mr G.&nbsp;K. Chesterton</span>, with true journalistic
+instinct, recently stimulated public
+interest in himself and other worthy
+things by engineering a discussion on &ldquo;Do Miracles
+Happen?&rdquo; The debate furnished an opportunity
+of harmlessly letting off steam, but apparently each
+disputant &ldquo;was of his own opinion still&rdquo; at the
+finish; though some of the newspapers thought that
+the affirmative was proved, not by argument, but by
+the actual occurrence of a miracle at the meeting&mdash;for
+Mr Bernard Shaw was present, but remained silent!
+Joking apart, however, these discussions are usually
+rendered nugatory by each debater attaching a different
+meaning to the word. To one of them, a &ldquo;miracle&rdquo;
+involves the action of some non-human mind; to others
+it is only a &ldquo;wonderful&rdquo; occurrence, which is the
+strictly etymological meaning. It is only in the latter
+sense that orthodox science has anything to say on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>David Hume, in the most famous of his essays, says
+that a miracle is &ldquo;a violation of the laws of nature&rdquo;,
+which laws a &ldquo;firm and unalterable experience has
+established&rdquo;. A century later, Matthew Arnold disposed
+of the question in an even shorter manner.
+&ldquo;Miracles do not happen&rdquo;, said he, in the preface to
+<cite>Literature and Dogma</cite>. Modern science has, speaking
+generally, concurred.</p>
+
+<p>But the two statements are not very satisfactory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+It is true, no doubt, that miracles did not enter into the
+experience of David Hume and Matthew Arnold; but
+this does not prove that they have never entered
+into the experience of anybody else. If I must disbelieve
+all assertions concerning phenomena which I
+have not personally observed, I must deny that the
+sun can ever be north at mid-day, as indeed the Greeks
+did (according to Herodotus), when the circumnavigators
+of Africa came back with their story. But if I
+do, I shall be wrong. (<cite>Histories</cite>, book <span class="smcap"><abbr title="4">iv</abbr></span>, &ldquo;I for my part
+do not believe them&rdquo;, says even this romantic historian.)</p>
+
+<p>It is as unsafe to reject all human testimony to the
+marvellous as it is to accept it all without question.
+The modern mind has gone to the negative extreme,
+as the medieval mind went to the other. Take for
+instance the twenty-five thousand Lives of the Saints
+in the great Bollandist collection. They are full of
+miracles, of most incredible kinds; yet in those days
+the accounts caused no astonishment. There was no
+organised knowledge of nature, outside the narrow
+orbit of daily life&mdash;and how narrow that was, we with
+our facile means of communication and travel can
+hardly realise. Consequently there was little or no
+conception of law or orderliness in nature, and therefore
+no criterion by which to test stories of unusual
+occurrences. Anything might happen; there was no
+apparent reason why it shouldn&rsquo;t. One saint having
+retired into the desert to lead a life of mortification,
+the birds daily brought him food sufficient for his
+wants; and when a brother joined him they doubled
+the supply. When the saint died, two lions came and
+dug his grave, uttered a howl of mourning over his
+body, and knelt to beg a blessing from the survivor.
+(<abbr title="compare">Cf.</abbr> the curious story of St Francis taming &ldquo;Brother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+Wolf&rdquo;, of Gubbio, in chapter 21 of the <cite>Fioretti</cite>.) The
+innumerable miracles in the <cite>Little Flowers</cite> and <cite>Life of
+St Francis</cite> are repeated in countless other lives; saints
+are lifted across rivers by angels, they preach to the
+fishes, who swarm to the shore to listen, they are visited
+by the Virgin, are lifted up in the air and suspended
+there for twelve hours while in ecstasy they perceive
+the inner mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity. Almost
+every town in Europe could produce its relic which
+has produced its miraculous cures, or its image that
+had opened or shut its eyes, or bowed its head to a
+worshipper. The Virgin of the Pillar, at Saragossa,
+restored a worshipper&rsquo;s leg that had been amputated.
+This is regarded by Spanish theologians as specially
+well attested. There is a picture of it in the Cathedral
+at Saragossa. (Lecky, <cite>Rise and Influence of Rationalism
+in Europe</cite>, vol.&nbsp;1, page 141.) The saints were seen
+fighting for the Christian army, when the latter battled
+with the infidel. In medieval times this kind of thing
+was accepted without question and without surprise.</p>
+
+<p>About the end of the twelfth century there came a
+change. The human mind began to awake from its
+long lethargy; began to writhe and struggle against
+the dead hand of authority which held it down. The
+Crusades, as Guizot shows, had much to do with the
+rise of the new spirit, by causing educative contact
+with a high Saracenic civilization. Men began to
+wonder and to think. Heresy inevitably appeared,
+and became rife. In 1208 Innocent&nbsp;<abbr title="3">III</abbr> established
+the Inquisition, but failed to strangle the infant
+Hercules. In 1209 began the massacre of the Albigenses,
+which continued more or less for about fifty
+years, the deaths being at least scores of thousands;
+but the blood of the martyrs was the seed of further freedom
+and enlightenment. Nature began to be studied,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+in however rudimentary a way, by Roger Bacon and
+his brother alchemists. The Reformation came, weakening
+ecclesiastical authority still further by dividing
+the dogmatic forces into two hostile camps, and thus
+giving science its chance. Galileo appeared, and did
+his work, though with many waverings, for Paul&nbsp;<abbr title="5">V</abbr>
+and Urban&nbsp;<abbr title="8">VIII</abbr> kept successively a heavy hand on
+him; he was imprisoned at seventy, when in failing
+health, and, some think, tortured&mdash;though this is
+uncertain, and his famous <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">e pur si muove</i> is probably
+mythical. More important still, Francis Bacon, teaching
+with enthusiasm the method of observation and
+experiment. The conception of law, of rationality
+and regularity in nature, emerged; Kepler and Newton
+laid down the ground plan of the universe, evolving
+the formulæ which express the facts of molar motion.
+Uniformity in geology was shown by Lyell, while
+Darwin and his followers carried law into biological
+evolution. Then man became swelled-headed; became
+intoxicated with his successes. It had already been
+so with Hume, and it became more so with his disciples.
+Man treated his own limited experience as a criterion,
+and denied what was not represented by something
+similar therein. Especially was this the case when
+alleged facts had any connection with religion. Religion
+had tried to exterminate science, and it was natural
+enough that, in revenge, science should be hostile to
+anything associated with religion. Consequently, the
+scientific man flatly denied miracles, not only such
+stories as the rib of Adam and the talking serpent
+(concerning which even a church father like Origen
+had made merry in Gnostic days fifteen hundred years
+before), but also the healing miracles of Jesus, which
+to us are now beginning to look possible enough.</p>
+
+<p>This negative dogmatism is as regrettable as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+positive variety. It is not scientific. Science stands
+for a method, not for a dogma. It observes, experiments,
+and infers; but it makes no claim to the possession
+of absolute truth. A genuine science,
+confronted with allegations of unusual facts, neither
+believes nor disbelieves. It investigates. The solution
+of the problem is simply a question of evidence.
+Huxley in his little book <cite>Hume</cite>, and J.&nbsp;S. Mill in his
+<cite>Essays on Religion</cite>, made short work of the &ldquo;impossibility&rdquo;
+attitude. Says the former in <cite>Science and
+Christian Tradition</cite>, page 197:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Strictly speaking, I am unaware of anything that
+has a right to the title of an impossibility, except a
+contradiction in terms. There are impossibilities
+logical, but none natural. A &lsquo;round square&rsquo;, a &lsquo;present
+past&rsquo;, &lsquo;two parallel lines that intersect&rsquo;, are
+impossibilities, because the ideas denoted by the predicates
+round, present, intersect, are contradictory
+of the ideas denoted by the subjects square, past,
+parallel. But walking on water, or turning water into
+wine, are plainly not impossibilities in this sense&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>No alleged occurrence can be ruled out as impossible,
+then, unless the statement is self-contradictory.
+Difficulty of belief is no reason. It was found difficult
+to believe in Antipodes; if there were people on the
+under side of the earth, &ldquo;they would fall off&rdquo;. But
+the advance of knowledge made it not only credible
+but quite comprehensible. People stick on, all over
+the earth, because the earth attracts them more
+powerfully than anything else does. Similarly with
+some miracles. They may seem much more credible
+and comprehensible when we have learned more.
+Indeed, the wonders of wireless telegraphy, radio-activity,
+and aviation are intrinsically as miraculous
+as many of the stories in the world&rsquo;s sacred writings.</p>
+
+<p>This is not saying, however, that we are to believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+the latter <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en bloc</i>. They must be taken individually,
+and believed or disbelieved according to the evidence
+and according to the antecedent probability or improbability.
+The standing still of the sun (<i>Joshua</i>, <abbr title="10">x</abbr>)
+does not seem credible to the scientific mind which
+knows that the earth is spinning at the equator at the
+rate of one thousand miles an hour and that any sudden
+interference with that rotation would send it to smithereens,
+with all the creatures on its surface. Of course,
+a Being who could stop its rotation could perhaps also
+prevent it from flying to smithereens; but we have
+to extend the miracle in so many entirely hypothetical
+ways that the whole thing becomes too dubious for
+acceptance. It is simpler to look on the story as a myth.</p>
+
+<p>But such things as the clairvoyance of Samuel
+(<abbr title="first samuel 10">I <i>Samuel</i>, x</abbr>), and even the Woman of Endor story,
+are quite in line with what psychical research is now
+establishing. And the healing miracles of Jesus are
+paralleled, in kind if not in degree, by innumerable
+&ldquo;suggestive therapeutic&rdquo; doctors. Shell-shock blindness
+and paralysis are cured at Seale Hayne Hospital
+and elsewhere in very &ldquo;miraculous&rdquo; fashion. And turning
+water into wine is not more wonderful than turning
+radium into helium, and helium into lead, which nature
+is now doing before our eyes. These things, therefore,
+have become credible, if the evidence is good enough.
+Whether evidence nineteen hundred years old can be
+good enough to take as the basis of serious belief is
+another matter. Scientific method insists on a high
+standard of evidence. We must be honest with ourselves,
+and not believe unless the evidence satisfies
+our intellectual requirements. But the modern and
+wise tendency is to regard religion as an attitude
+rather than as a belief or system of beliefs. It does
+not stand or fall with the miracle-stories.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">The</span> amount of nonsense that is talked, and
+apparently widely believed, about telepathy,
+is almost enough to make one wish that the
+phenomenon had not been discovered, or the word
+invented. Without any adequate basis of real knowledge,
+the &ldquo;man in the street&rdquo; seems to be accepting
+the idea of thought-transference as an incontrovertible
+fact, like wireless telegraphy&mdash;which latter is responsible
+for a good deal of easy credence accorded to the former,
+both seeming equally wonderful. But the analogy
+is a false one. There is a great deal of difference between
+the two. In wireless telegraphy we understand
+the process: it is a shaking of the ether into pulses or
+waves, which act on the coherer in a perfectly definite
+way and are measurable. But in spite of much
+loose talk about &ldquo;brain-waves&rdquo;, the fact is that we
+know of no such thing. Indeed, there is reason to
+believe that telepathy, if it is a fact at all&mdash;and I believe
+it is&mdash;may turn out to be a process of a different
+kind, the nature of which is at present unknown. For
+one thing, it does not seem to conform to physical
+laws. If it were an affair of ripples in the ether&mdash;like
+wireless telegraphy&mdash;the strength of impact would
+vary in inverse ratio with the square of the distance.
+The influence would weaken at a known rate, as more
+and more distance intervened between sender and
+recipient. And this, in many cases at least, is not found
+to be so, consequently Mr Gerald Balfour and other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+leading members of the Society for Psychical Research
+incline to the opinion that the transmission is not a
+physical process, but takes place in the spiritual world.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that I believe in telepathy, yet I have
+deprecated too-ready credence. What, then, are the
+facts?</p>
+
+<p>The first attempt at serious investigation of alleged
+supernormal phenomena by an organised body of
+qualified observers was made by the London Society
+for Psychical Research, which was founded in 1882 by
+Henry Sidgwick (Professor of Moral Philosophy at
+Cambridge), F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H. Myers and Edmund Gurney
+(Fellows of Trinity), W.&nbsp;F. Barrett (Professor of Experimental
+Physics at Dublin, and now Sir William),
+and a few friends. The membership grew, and the list
+now includes the most famous scientific names throughout
+the civilised world. In point of prestige, the
+society is one of the strongest in existence.</p>
+
+<p>The first important work undertaken was the collection
+of a large number of cases of apparition, etc.,
+in which there seemed to be some supernormal agency
+at work, conveying knowledge; as in the case of Lord
+Brougham, who saw an apparition of his friend at the
+moment of the latter&rsquo;s death. The results of this
+investigation were embodied in the two stout volumes
+called <cite>Phantasms of the Living</cite> (now out of print, but
+an abridged one-volume edition has recently been
+edited by Mrs Sidgwick (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner
+&amp; Co., Ltd., 1919), and in Vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="10">x</abbr>. of the <cite>Proceedings</cite>
+of the Society. As the outcome of this arduous investigation,
+involving the collection and consideration of
+about 17,000 cases and extending over several years
+of time, the committee made the cautious but memorable
+statement that &ldquo;Between deaths and apparitions
+of the dying person a connexion exists which is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+due to chance alone&rdquo;. This guarded statement was
+carefully worded in order to avoid committing the
+society to any definite (<i>e.g.</i> spiritualistic) interpretation.
+Some of the apparitions occurred within twelve hours
+before the death, some at the time of death, and some
+a few hours afterwards. But these latter of course do
+not prove &ldquo;spirit-agency&rdquo;&mdash;though indeed sometimes
+they seem to render it probable&mdash;for the telepathic
+impulse or thought may have been sent out by the
+dying person, remaining latent&mdash;so to speak&mdash;until
+the percipient happened to be in a sufficiently passive
+and receptive state to &ldquo;take it in&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>Definite experimentation was also made, of various
+kinds, <i>e.g.</i>, one person would be shown a card or diagram,
+and another (blindfolded) would maintain a
+passive mind, saying aloud what ideas &ldquo;came into his
+head&rdquo;. Some of these experiments&mdash;which are still
+required and should be tried by those interested in the
+subject&mdash;indicated that the concentration of A&rsquo;s mind
+did indeed sometimes produce a reverberation in the
+mind of B. In a series conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge,
+the odds against the successes being due to chance
+can be mathematically shown to be ten millions to
+one.</p>
+
+<p>For this new fact or agency, Mr Myers invented the
+word &ldquo;telepathy&rdquo; (Greek <i>tele</i>, at a distance, and
+<i>pathein</i>, to feel), and defined it as &ldquo;communication of
+impressions of any kind from one mind to another,
+independently of the recognised channels of sense&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>But I wish to say, and to emphasise the statement,
+that this transmission, though regarded as highly
+probable by many acute minds, cannot yet be regarded
+as unquestionably proved, still less as occurring in a
+common or frequent way. We have all of us known
+somebody who claimed to be able to make people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+turn round in church or in the street by &ldquo;willing&rdquo;
+them, but usually these claims cannot be substantiated.
+It is difficult to eliminate chance coincidence. And
+the folks who lay claim to these powers are usually
+of a mystery-loving, inaccurate build of mind, and
+therefore very unsafe guides. Moreover, how many
+times have they &ldquo;willed&rdquo; without result?</p>
+
+<p>One reason why I deprecate easy credence, leaning
+to the sceptical side though believing that the thing
+sometimes happens, is, that there is danger of a return
+to superstition, if belief outruns the evidence. If
+the popular mind gets the notion that telepathy is
+more or less a constant occurrence&mdash;that mind can
+influence mind whenever it likes&mdash;there is a possibility
+of a return to the witchcraft belief which resulted in
+so many poor old women being burnt at the stake in
+the seventeenth century. I prefer excessive disbelief
+to excessive credulity in these things; it at least does
+not burn old women because they have a squint and a
+black cat and a grievance against someone who happens
+to have fallen ill. Unbalanced minds are very ready
+to believe that someone is influencing them. I have
+received quite a number of letters from people (not
+spiritualists) who, knowing of my interest in these
+matters, got it into their foolish heads that I was trying
+some sort of telepathic black magic on them. I had
+not even been thinking about them. It was entirely
+their own imagination. One of these people is now in
+an asylum. I think she would probably have become
+insane in any case&mdash;if not on this, then on some other
+subject&mdash;but these incidents almost make me wish
+that we could confine the investigation and discussion
+of the subject to our own circle or society until education
+has developed more balanced judgment in the
+masses. But of course such a restriction is impossible.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+The daily press and the sensational novelists have got
+hold of the idea. We must counteract the sensational
+exaggerations, which have such a bad effect on unbalanced
+minds, by stating the bare, hard facts. Here, as
+elsewhere, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It
+is the half-informed people who are endangered. The
+remedy is more knowledge. Let them learn that,
+though there is reason to believe that under certain
+conditions telepathy is possible and real, there is nevertheless
+no scientific evidence for anything in the nature
+of &ldquo;bewitching&rdquo;, or telepathy of maleficent kind.
+This cannot be too strongly insisted on. Let us follow
+the facts with an open mind, but let us be careful not
+to rush beyond them into superstition.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Various</span> popular novelists, such as George Du
+Maurier in <cite>Trilby</cite>, and E.&nbsp;F. Benson in <cite>The
+Image in the Sand</cite>, have taken advantage of the
+possibilities which hypnotic marvels offer to the sensational
+writer, and have put into circulation a variety of
+exaggerated ideas. This is regrettable. Of course the
+novelist can choose his subject, and can treat it as he
+likes; it is the public&rsquo;s fault if it takes fiction for fact,
+or allows its notions of fact to be coloured or in any
+way influenced by what is avowedly no more than
+fiction.</p>
+
+<p>But it is certain that it is thus influenced. It is
+therefore desirable that the public should be told from
+time to time exactly what the scientific position is&mdash;what
+the conclusions are, of those who are studying
+the subject in a proper scientific spirit, with no aim save
+the finding of truth. This will at least enable the public
+to discriminate between fact and fiction, if it wants to.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the phenomena in question have been often
+discovered, forgotten, and rediscovered; but in modern
+times the movement dates from Mesmer. Friedrich
+Anton Mesmer was born about 1733 or 1734. In 1766
+he took his doctor&rsquo;s degree at Vienna, but did not come
+into public notice until 1773. In that year he employed
+in the treatment of patients certain magnetic plates,
+the invention of Father Hell, a Jesuit, professor of
+astronomy at Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>Further experiments led him to believe that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+human body is a kind of magnet; and that its effluent
+forces could be employed, like those of the metal plates,
+in the cure of disease. Between 1773 and 1778 he
+travelled extensively in Europe, with a view to making
+his discoveries better known. Also he sent an
+account of his system to the principal learned bodies of
+Europe, including the Royal Society of London, the Academy
+of Sciences at Paris, and the Academy at Berlin.</p>
+
+<p>The last alone deigned to reply; they told him his
+discovery was an illusion. Apparently they knew
+all about it, without investigating. There is no dogmatism
+so unqualified, no certainty so cocksure, as
+that of complete ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>The method at first was probably a system of magnetic
+passes or strokings of the diseased part by the hand of
+the doctor. But, as the patients increased in number,
+a more wholesale method had to be devised. Consequently
+Mesmer invented the famous &ldquo;<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">baquet</i>&rdquo;.
+This was a large tub, filled with bottles of water
+previously &ldquo;magnetised&rdquo; by Mesmer.</p>
+
+<p>The bottles were arranged to radiate from the centre,
+some of them with necks pointing away from it and
+some pointing towards it. They rested on powdered
+glass and iron filings, and the tub itself was filled with
+water. In short, it was a sort of glorified travesty of
+a galvanic battery. From it, long iron rods, jointed
+and movable, protruded through holes in the lid. These
+the patients held, or applied to the region of their
+disease, as they sat in a circle round the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">baquet</i>. Mesmer
+and his assistants walked about, supplementing the
+treatment by pointing with the fingers, or with iron
+rods, at the diseased parts.</p>
+
+<p>All this may seem, at first sight, very absurd. But
+the fact remains that Mesmer certainly wrought cures.
+And apparently he frequently succeeded in curing or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+greatly alleviating, where other doctors had completely
+failed. It is no longer possible for any instructed person
+to regard Mesmer as a charlatan who knowingly deluded
+the public for his own profit. His theories may
+have been partly mistaken, but his practical results
+were indubitable.</p>
+
+<p>It is also worth noting that he treated rich and poor
+alike, charging the latter no fee. He was a man of
+great tenderness and kindness of heart, devoted to the
+cause of the sick and suffering; and the accounts of
+his patients show the unbounded gratitude which they
+felt towards him, and the respect in which he was held.</p>
+
+<p>The orthodox doctors, of course, felt otherwise.
+They were envious and jealous of the foreign innovator
+and his success. And his fame was too great to allow
+of his being ignored. Consequently the Royal Society
+of Medicine (Paris) appointed a commission to inquire
+into the new treatment. The finding, of course, was
+adverse. The investigators could not deny the cures,
+but they fell back on the recuperative force of nature
+(<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vis medicatrix naturæ</i>) and denied that Mesmer&rsquo;s treatment
+caused the cure.</p>
+
+<p>Obviously, Mesmer, having treated his patients,
+could not prove that they would not have recovered
+if he had <em>not</em> treated them; so his critics had a strong
+position. But, on the other hand, neither can an
+orthodox doctor prove that <em>his</em> cures are due to <em>his</em>
+treatment. If it is <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vis medicatrix naturæ</i> in one case,
+it may be the same in the other.</p>
+
+<p>Modern medicine is more and more coming to this
+conclusion&mdash;is abandoning drugging as it abandoned
+bleeding and cautery, and is leaving the patient to
+nature. This is a significant fact.</p>
+
+<p>But there is good reason to believe that Mesmer&rsquo;s
+treatment was a real factor in his cures, for in many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+cases the patient had been treated by orthodox methods
+for years without effect. Perhaps, as the doctors said,
+it was &ldquo;only the recuperative force of Nature&rdquo;, but if
+the doctors could not set that force to work, and
+Mesmer somehow could, he is just as much entitled to
+the credit of the cure as if he had done it by bleeding
+or drugging. However, by one sort of persecution or
+another, he was driven out of Paris, and more or less
+discredited. After a visit to England, he retired to
+Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity until his
+death in 1815.</p>
+
+<p>The method was kept alive by various disciples,
+such as the Marquis de Puységur, Dupotet, Deleuze,
+and many more, but in an amateurish sort of way.
+The first-named found that in one of his patients he
+could induce a trance state which showed peculiar
+features. In trance, the man knew all that he knew when
+awake, but when awake he knew nothing of what had
+happened in trance. This second condition thus seemed
+to be equivalent to an enlargement of personality.</p>
+
+<p>Both in England and France the medical side came
+to the front again, in the hands of Braid (a Manchester
+surgeon who first used the term &ldquo;hypnotism&rdquo;, from
+Greek <i>hypnos</i>, sleep, and whose book <cite>Neurypnology, or
+the Rationale of Nervous Sleep</cite> was published in 1843),
+Liébeault, Bernheim, Elliotson, and Esdaile.</p>
+
+<p>Elliotson and Esdaile still believed in a magnetic
+effluence, but the idea was given up by Braid and the
+&ldquo;Nancy school&rdquo; (the investigators who followed the
+lines of Liébeault of Nancy), for it was found that
+patients could be hypnotised without passes or strokings
+or any manipulation. Braid told his patients
+to gaze fixedly at a bright object, <i>e.g.</i>, his lancet. Liébeault
+produced sleep by talking soothingly or commandingly
+filling the patient&rsquo;s mind with the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+sleep. In some cases it was found that patients could
+hypnotise themselves by an effort of will (this was
+confirmed more recently by Dr Wingfield&rsquo;s experiments
+with athletic undergraduates at Cambridge),
+and this disposed of the hitherto supposedly necessary
+&ldquo;magnetic effluence&rdquo; from the operator.</p>
+
+<p>The most modern opinion is pretty much the same.
+Dr Tuckey, who learnt his method from Liébeault himself,
+and who practised for twenty years in the
+West End of London, is convinced that the whole
+thing is suggestion. So is Dr Bramwell, who shares
+with Dr Tuckey the leading position among hypnotic
+practitioners in England. The latter, it may be remarked,
+was the first qualified medical man to write
+an important book on the subject in English, after
+Braid.</p>
+
+<p>The tendency now is to give suggestions without
+attempting to induce actual trance. It is found with
+many patients that if they will make their minds passive
+and receptive, listening to the doctor&rsquo;s suggestions
+in an absent-minded sort of way, those suggestions&mdash;that
+the health shall improve and the specified symptoms
+disappear&mdash;are carried out. The explanation
+of this is &ldquo;wrapped in mystery&rdquo;. No one knows
+exactly how it comes about. But it seems to be somewhat
+thus:</p>
+
+<p>The complicated happenings within our bodies, such
+as the chemical phenomena known as digestion and the
+physical phenomena such as blood circulation and
+contraction of involuntary muscles, seem to imply
+intelligence, though that intelligence is not part of the
+conscious mind, for we do not consciously direct the
+processes. They go on all the same&mdash;for example&mdash;when
+we are asleep. Presumably, then, there is a
+mental Something in us, which never sleeps, and which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+runs the organic machinery. If we could get at this
+Something, and give it instructions, a part of the
+machinery which is working wrongly might get attended
+to and put right. Unfortunately, the ordinary consciousness
+is in the way. We cannot get at the mechanic
+in the mill, because we have to go through the office,
+and the managing director keeps us talking.</p>
+
+<p>Well, in hypnotic trance, or even in the preoccupied
+&ldquo;absent-minded&rdquo; state, we get past the managing
+director&mdash;who is asleep or attending to something else&mdash;into
+the mill. We get at the man who really attends
+to the machinery. We get past the normal consciousness,
+and can give our orders to the &ldquo;subconscious&rdquo;
+or &ldquo;subliminal&rdquo;&mdash;which means &ldquo;below the threshold&rdquo;.
+In Myers&rsquo; phrase, suggestion is a &ldquo;successful
+appeal to the subliminal self&rdquo;, but exactly how it comes
+about, and why the patient usually cannot do it for
+himself but has to have the suggestion administered by
+a doctor, we do not know.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the word &ldquo;suggestion&rdquo; does not really
+explain anything. It is a word employed to cover our
+ignorance. Suggestive methods are as empirical as
+Mesmer&rsquo;s. In each case a successful appeal is made
+to the recuperative forces of nature, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vis medicatrix
+naturæ;</i> but exactly how or why suggestion does it,
+we know no more&mdash;or hardly any more&mdash;than we know
+how and why Mesmer&rsquo;s <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">baquet</i> did it. The fact remains,
+however, that the thing is done. What we lack is
+only a satisfactory theory.</p>
+
+<p>At one time it was thought that only functional
+disorders could be relieved. But it is now recognised
+that the line between functional and organic is an
+arbitrary one. If we cannot find definite organic
+change in tissue, we call the ailment functional; but
+nevertheless some change there must be, though microscopic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+or unreachable. Consequently even functional
+disorders are at bottom organic; and, though of course
+grave lesions produce the gravest disorders, there is no
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à priori</i> impossibility in a hypnotic cure of even the
+most radical tissue-degeneration.</p>
+
+<p>However, as a matter of practical fact, the
+&ldquo;mechanic&rdquo; has his limitations, like the normal
+consciousness. He is not omnipotent. Consequently
+we cannot be sure of being able to stimulate him to
+the extent of a cure. It depends on his knowledge
+and power. But he can always do something, if we
+can get at him. The chief difficulty is that in many
+people he is inaccessible.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, I have many times submitted myself
+to the treatment of Dr Tuckey and another medical
+friend, without effect. I have each time tried my best
+to help, making my mind as passive as I could; for
+I was sure that if a suggestible stage could be reached,
+some troublesome heart symptoms and insomnia could
+be alleviated. But I was never able to reach a state
+even approaching hypnosis. I suppose my normal
+consciousness could not put itself sufficiently to sleep.
+Being interested in the scientific aspect of the subject,
+my consciousness watched the process and analysed
+its own sensations, instead of &ldquo;letting go&rdquo; and subsiding
+out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>As to the proportion of susceptible persons, observers
+differ. Wetterstrand and Vogt hold that all sane and
+healthy people are hypnotisable, and Dr Bramwell&rsquo;s
+results among strong farm labourers at Goole support
+that view. Patients with nervous ailments are difficult
+to hypnotise; out of one hundred such cases in his
+London practice, Dr Bramwell only influenced eighty.
+This is the percentage of susceptibles found by Drs
+Tuckey and Bernheim also.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The insane are usually unhypnotisable, probably
+because of their inability to concentrate their attention.
+Out of the 80 per cent. of sane susceptibles, only a
+small proportion go off into hypnotic sleep; ten
+according to Tuckey, rather more according to the
+experience of Bramwell, Forel, and Vogt. Most of the
+susceptible, however, though retaining consciousness,
+may be deprived of muscular control. For example,
+if told that they cannot open their eyes, they find that
+it is so.</p>
+
+<p>The various &ldquo;stages&rdquo; of hypnosis shade gradually
+into each other, and classifications are not much good.
+Charcot&rsquo;s three stages of lethargy, catalepsy, and
+somnambulism are now discredited as true stages.
+In good subjects they are producible at will, and as
+observed at the Salpêtrière they were almost certainly
+due to training.</p>
+
+<p>I have no space for the quoting of detailed medical
+cases, but it is desirable to emphasise the practical
+facts and to make the subject as concrete as possible to
+the reader, so I will quote just one, as illustration,
+from Dr Bramwell&rsquo;s contribution to <cite>Proceedings of the
+Society for Psychical Research</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="14">xiv</abbr>, page 99.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Neurasthenia; suicidal tendencies. Mr D&mdash;&mdash;,
+aged 34, 1890; barrister. Formerly strong and
+athletic. Health began to fail in 1877, after typhoid
+fever. Abandoned work in 1882, and for eight years
+was a chronic invalid. Anæmic, dyspeptic, sleepless,
+depressed. Unable to walk a hundred yards without
+severe suffering. Constant medical treatment, including
+six months&rsquo; rest in bed, without benefit. He
+was hypnotised from June 2 to September 20, 1890.
+By the end of July all morbid symptoms disappeared,
+and he amused himself by working on a farm. He
+can now walk forty miles a day without undue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+fatigue.&rdquo; Similar cases are now being recorded in
+the military hospitals. Soldiers make excellent
+&ldquo;subjects&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>It has been much debated whether a hypnotised
+person could be made to commit a crime. Probably
+not; it is difficult to be quite sure, but the evidence
+is on the negative side. True, a hypnotised subject
+will put sugar which he has been told is arsenic into
+his mother&rsquo;s tea, but his inner self probably knows well
+enough that it is only sugar. On the other hand, it is
+certain that a hypnotiser may obtain a remarkable
+amount of control over specially sensitive subjects,
+particularly by repeated hypnotisations.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen hypnotised subjects who seemed almost
+perfect automata, obeying orders as mechanically as
+if they had no will of their own left. Certainly no one,
+either man or woman, but particularly the latter,
+should submit himself or herself to hypnotic treatment
+except by a qualified person in whom full trust can be
+reposed. And, even then, in the case of a woman
+patient, it is well for a third person to be present.</p>
+
+<p>But the stories of the novelists, about subjugated
+wills, hypnotising from a distance, and all the rest of
+it, are quite without adequate foundation in fact.
+There is very little evidence in support of hypnosis
+produced at a distance, and in the one case where it did
+seem to occur there had been repeated hypnotisations
+of the ordinary kind, by which a sort of telepathic
+rapport was perhaps established (Myers&rsquo; <cite>Human
+Personality</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="1">i</abbr>, page 524).</p>
+
+<p>Hypnotism against the will is a myth; except perhaps
+in here and there a backboneless person who
+could be influenced any way, without hypnosis or
+anything of the kind. The Chicago pamphleteer who
+wants to teach us how to get on in business by developing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+a &ldquo;hypnotic eye&rdquo; is merely after dollars. It is
+all bunkum.</p>
+
+<p>There is a sense, however, in which hypnotic treatment
+can be a help in education and in strengthening
+the character. Backward and lazy children could
+probably be improved, and I know cases in which sleep-walking
+and other bad habits have been cured by
+suggestion. From this it is but a step to dipsomania,
+which can often be cured. Dr Tuckey reports seventy
+cures out of two hundred cases.</p>
+
+<p>F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H. Myers, to whose genius doctors as well as
+psychologists owe their first scientific conceptions in
+this domain, was extremely optimistic here. He held
+that though we cannot expect to manufacture saints,
+any more than we can manufacture geniuses, there is
+nevertheless enough evidence to show that great things
+could be done.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If the subject is hypnotisable, and if hypnotic
+suggestion be applied with sufficient persistency and
+skill, no depth of previous baseness and foulness need
+prevent the man or woman whom we charge with
+&lsquo;moral insanity&rsquo;, or stamp as a &lsquo;criminal-born&rsquo;,
+from rising into a state where he or she can work
+steadily and render services useful to the community&rdquo;
+(<cite>Human Personality</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="1">i</abbr>, page 199). Experiments
+on hypnotic lines ought certainly to be carried out in
+our prisons and reformatories. As to the formerly
+alleged dangers of such experimentation&mdash;dangers of
+hysteria, etc., alleged by the Charcot school which is
+now seen to have been quite on a wrong tack&mdash;they
+do not exist, if the operator knows his business.</p>
+
+<p>Says Professor Forel: &ldquo;Liébeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand,
+Van Eeden, De Jong, Moll, I myself, and the
+other followers of the Nancy school, declare categorically
+that, although we have seen many thousands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+hypnotised persons, we have never observed a single
+case of mental or bodily harm caused by hypnosis,
+but, on the contrary, have seen many cases of illness
+relieved or cured by it&rdquo;. Dr Bramwell fully endorses
+this, saying emphatically that he has &ldquo;never seen an
+unpleasant symptom, even of the most trivial nature,
+follow the skilled induction of hypnosis&rdquo; (<cite>Proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="12">xii</abbr>, page 209).</p>
+
+<p>A proof that <em>intellectual</em> powers outside the normal
+consciousness may be tapped by appropriate methods
+is afforded by the remarkable experiments of Dr
+Bramwell, on the appreciation of time by somnambules.
+He ordered a hypnotised subject to carry out, after
+arousal, some trivial action, such as making a cross
+on a piece of paper, at the end of a specified period of
+time, reckoning from the moment of waking. In the
+waking state, the patient knew nothing of the order;
+but a subliminal mental stratum knew, and watched
+the time, making the subject carry out the order when
+it fell due.</p>
+
+<p>The period varied from a few minutes to several
+months, and it was stated in various ways, <i>e.g.</i> on one
+occasion Dr Bramwell ordered the action to be carried
+out in &ldquo;24 hours and 2880 minutes&rdquo;. The order was
+given at 3.45 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> on December 18, and it was carried
+out correctly at 3.45 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> on December 21. In other
+experiments, the periods given were 4,417, 8,650, 8,680,
+8,700, 10,070, 11,470 minutes.</p>
+
+<p>All were correctly timed by the subliminal stratum,
+the action being promptly carried out at the due
+moment. In the waking state the patient was quite
+incapable&mdash;as most of us would be&mdash;of calculating
+mentally when the periods would elapse. But the
+hypnotic stratum could do it, and this shows that there
+are intellectual powers which lie outside the field of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+normal consciousness. The argument could be further
+supported by the feats of &ldquo;calculating boys&rdquo;, who can
+sometimes solve the most complicated arithmetical
+problems, without knowing how they do it. They let
+the problem sink in, and the answer is shot up presently,
+like the cooked pudding in the geyser.</p>
+
+<p>But these things are still in their infancy. Psychology
+is working at the subject, but we do not yet
+know enough to enable us to venture far in the direction
+of practical application of hypnotic methods in
+education. It seems likely, however, that further
+investigation will yield knowledge which may be of
+inestimable practical value in the training of minds, as
+well as in the curing of mental and bodily disease.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>CHRISTIAN SCIENCE</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">It</span> has been said, as a kind of jocular epigram, that
+the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor
+Roman nor an empire. With similar truth it may
+be said that Christian Science is neither Christian nor
+science, in any ordinary sense of those words. Still,
+perhaps we ought to allow an inventor to christen his
+own creation, even if the name seems inappropriate or
+likely to cause misunderstanding; and, Mrs Eddy
+having invented Christian Science as an organised
+religion&mdash;though, as we shall see, borrowing its main
+features from an earlier prophet&mdash;we may admit her
+right to give a name to her astonishing production.
+In order that the personal equation may be allowed for,
+the present writer begs to affirm that he writes as a
+sympathetic student though not an adherent.</p>
+
+<p>Mary A. Morse Baker was born on July 16th, 1821,
+of pious parents, at Bow, New Hampshire. Her father
+was almost illiterate, rather passionate, a keen hand
+at a bargain, and a Puritan in religion. All the Bakers
+were a trifle cranky and eccentric, but some of them
+possessed ability of sorts, though Mary&rsquo;s father made
+no great success in life. His daughter made up for
+him afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>The first fifteen years of Mary Baker&rsquo;s life were
+passed at the old farm at Bow. The place was lonely,
+the manner of life primitive, and education not a
+strong point in the community. Mrs Eddy afterwards
+claimed to have studied in her girlhood days Hebrew,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+Greek, Latin, natural philosophy, logic, and moral
+science! It was, however, maintained by her contemporaries
+that she was backward and indolent, and
+that &ldquo;Smith&rsquo;s <cite>Grammar</cite>, and as far as long division in
+arithmetic&rdquo;, might be taken as indicating the extent
+of her scholarship. There is certainly some little
+discrepancy here, and perhaps Mrs Eddy&rsquo;s memory
+was a trifle at fault. She made no claim to any
+acquaintance with this formidable array of subjects
+in the later part of her life, and it seems probable that
+her contemporaries were right. Her physical
+beauty, coupled with delicate health, seem to have
+resulted in &ldquo;spoiling&rdquo;, for even as a child she dominated
+her surroundings to a surprising extent.</p>
+
+<p>In 1843 she married George Glover, who died in
+June, 1844, leaving her penniless. Her only child was
+born in the September following. After ten years of
+widowhood she married Daniel Paterson, a travelling
+dentist. In 1866 they separated, he making some
+provision for her. In 1873 she obtained a divorce
+on the ground of desertion. In 1877 she married Asa
+Gilbert Eddy, who died in 1882.</p>
+
+<p>So much for her matrimonial experiences, which may
+now be dismissed, as they had no particular influence
+on her character and career. To prevent confusion,
+we will call her throughout by the name which is most
+familiar to us and to the world.</p>
+
+<p>The chief event of Mrs Eddy&rsquo;s remarkable life, the
+event which put her on the road to fame and fortune,
+occurred in 1862. This was her meeting with the
+famous &ldquo;healer&rdquo;, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. This
+latter was an unschooled but earnest and benevolent
+man, who had made experiments in mesmerism, etc.,
+and who had found&mdash;or thought he had found&mdash;that
+people could be cured of their ailments by &ldquo;faith&rdquo;.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+He therefore began to work out a system of &ldquo;mind-cure&rdquo;,
+which he embodied in voluminous MSS.
+Patients came to him from far and near, and he treated
+all, whether they could pay or not. Quimby was much
+above the level of the common quack, and his character
+commands our respect. He was a man of great natural
+intelligence, and was admirable in all his dealings
+with family, friends, and patients.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Eddy visited him at Portland in 1862, her aim
+being treatment for her continued ill-health. She
+claims to have been cured&mdash;in three weeks&mdash;though
+it is clear from her later letters that the cure was not
+complete. Still, great improvement was apparently
+effected, for she had been almost bedridden, with some
+kind of spinal or hysterical complaint, for eight years
+previously. But Quimby&rsquo;s effect on her was greater
+mentally even than physically. She became interested
+in his system, watched his treatment of patients,
+borrowed his MSS., and mastered his teachings. In
+1864 she visited him again, staying two or three months,
+and prosecuting her studies. She now seemed to have
+formed a definite desire to assist in teaching his system.
+No doubt she dimly saw a possible career opening out
+in front of her; though we need not attribute her
+desire entirely to mere ambition or greed, for it is
+probable that Quimby did a great amount of genuine
+good, and his pupil would naturally imbibe some of
+his zeal for the relief of suffering humanity.</p>
+
+<p>In 1866 Quimby died, aged sixty-four. His pupil
+decided to put on the mantle of her teacher, but more
+as propagandist and religious prophet than as healer.
+In this latter capacity perhaps her sex was against her.
+(Even now the average individual seems to have a sad
+lack of confidence in the &ldquo;lady doctor&rdquo;!) But she
+was poor, and prospects did not seem promising. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+some time she drifted about among friends&mdash;chiefly
+spiritualists&mdash;preparing MSS. and teaching Quimbyism
+to anyone who would listen. (She afterwards denied
+her indebtedness to Quimby, claiming direct revelation.
+&ldquo;No human pen nor tongue taught me the science contained
+in this book, <cite>Science and Health</cite>, and neither
+tongue nor pen can overthrow it.&rdquo;&mdash;<cite>Science and Health</cite>,
+<abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;110, 1907 edition.)</p>
+
+<p>Though unsuccessful as healer (in spite of her later
+claim to have healed Whittier of &ldquo;incipient pulmonary
+consumption&rdquo; in one visit), she certainly had the
+knack of teaching&mdash;had the power of inspiring enthusiasm
+and of inoculating others with her ideas. In 1870
+she turned up at Lynn, Mass., with a pupil named
+Richard Kennedy, a lad of twenty-one. Her aim
+being to found a religious organisation based on
+practical results (the prayer of faith shall heal the sick,
+etc.), it was necessary to work with a pupil-practitioner.
+Accordingly she and Kennedy took offices at Lynn,
+and &ldquo;Dr Kennedy&rdquo; appeared on a signboard affixed to
+a tree.</p>
+
+<p>Immediate success followed. Patients crowded the
+waiting-rooms. Kennedy did the &ldquo;healing&rdquo; and Mrs
+Eddy organised classes, which were recruited from the
+ranks of patients and friends; fees, a hundred dollars
+for twelve lessons, afterwards raised to three hundred
+dollars for seven lessons. Before long, however, she
+quarrelled with Kennedy, and in 1872 they separated,
+but not before she had reaped about six thousand
+dollars as her share of the harvest. It was her first
+taste of success, after weary years of toil and stress
+and hysteria and eccentricity. Naturally, like Alexander,
+she sighed for further conquest. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L&rsquo;appétit
+vient en mangeant.</i> And, though in her fiftieth year,
+she was now more energetic than ever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Her next move was the purchase of a house at 8,
+Broad Street, Lynn, which became the first official
+headquarters of Christian Science. In 1875 appeared her
+famous book, <cite>Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures</cite>,
+which was financed by two of its author&rsquo;s friends.
+The first edition was of a thousand copies. As it sold
+but slowly, she persuaded her chief practitioner, Daniel
+Spofford, to give up his practice and to devote himself
+to advertising the book and pushing its sale. Since
+then it has been revised many times, and the editions
+are legion. Loyal disciples of the better-educated sort
+have assisted in its rewriting, and it is now a very
+presentable kind of affair as to its literary form. Most,
+if not all, of the editions have been sold at a minimum
+of $3.18 per copy, with <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">editions de luxe</i> at $5 or more,
+and the author&rsquo;s other works are published at similarly
+high prices. All Christian Scientists were commanded
+to buy the works of the Reverend Mother, and all successive
+editions of those works. It is not surprising
+that Mrs Eddy should leave a fortune of a million and a
+half dollars. It may be mentioned here that she moved
+from Lynn to Boston in 1882, thence to Concord (New
+Hampshire) in 1889, and finally to a large mansion in a
+Boston suburb which she bought for $100,000, spending
+a similar sum in remodelling and enlarging. The
+modern prophet does not dwell in the wilderness,
+subsisting on locusts and wild honey. He&mdash;or she&mdash;has
+moved with the times, and has a proper respect
+for the almighty dollar and the comforts of civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>In 1881 was founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical
+College. This imposingly-named institution never had
+any special buildings, and its instructions were mostly
+given in Mrs Eddy&rsquo;s parlour, Mrs Eddy herself constituting
+all the faculty. Four thousand students
+passed through the &ldquo;College&rdquo; in seven years, at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+end of which period it ceased to exist. The fees were
+usually $300 for seven lessons, as before. Few gold-mines
+pay as well as did the &ldquo;Metaphysical College&rdquo;.
+The fact does not at first sight increase our respect for
+the alleged cuteness of the inhabitants of the States.
+But, on further investigation, the murder is out.
+Most of these students probably earned back by
+&ldquo;healing&rdquo; much more than they paid Mrs Eddy.
+Our respect for Uncle Sam&rsquo;s business shrewdness
+returns in full force.</p>
+
+<p>The experiment of conducting religious services had
+been made by Mrs Eddy at Lynn in 1875, but the first
+Christian Science Church was not chartered until 1879.
+The Scientists met, however, in various public halls of
+Boston, until 1894, when a church was built. This
+was soon outgrown, and 10,000 of the faithful pledged
+themselves to raise two million dollars for its enlargement.
+The new building was finished in 1906. Its
+auditorium holds five thousand people. The walls
+are decorated with texts signed &ldquo;Jesus, the Christ,&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;Mary Baker G. Eddy&rdquo;&mdash;these names standing
+side by side.</p>
+
+<p>The following examples, culled almost at random,
+will further show how great is her conviction that she
+has the Truth, how vigorously she bulls her own stocks
+(somehow, financial metaphors seem inevitable when
+writing of Mrs Eddy):</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;God has been graciously fitting me during many
+years for the reception of this final revelation of the
+absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing&rdquo;.
+(<cite>Science and Health</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;107.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I won my way to absolute conclusion through
+divine revelation, reason and demonstration&rdquo;. (<abbr title="ibidem, page"><i>Ibid.</i>,
+p.</abbr>&nbsp;109.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed
+the Spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute
+letter&rdquo;. (<abbr title="ibidem, page"><i>Ibid.</i>, p.</abbr>&nbsp;483.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The theology of Christian Science is truth; opposed
+to which is the error of sickness, sin, and death, that
+truth destroys&rdquo;. (<cite>Miscellaneous Writings</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;62.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Christian Science is the unfolding of true Metaphysics,
+that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes.
+Science rests on principle and demonstration. The
+Principle of Christian Science is divine&rdquo;. (<abbr title="ibidem, page"><i>Ibid.</i>, p.</abbr>&nbsp;69.)</p>
+
+<p>The following maybe quoted as an example of mixed
+good and evil, with a certain flavour of unconscious
+humour:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that
+spreads its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it
+masters us; brings suffering to its possessor throughout
+time, and beyond the grave. If you have been badly
+wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense
+this wrong, and punish, more severely than you could,
+him who has striven to injure you&rdquo;. (<cite>Miscellaneous
+Writings</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;12.)</p>
+
+<p>The advice is good, but it is not new. And Mrs
+Eddy seemed to experience a special joy in the thought
+that by leaving our enemies alone they will receive
+from God a more effective trouncing than we with our
+poor appliances could administer. The ideal Christian
+would not want his enemies handed over to the
+inquisitor&mdash;he would beg for them to be let off. &ldquo;Father,
+forgive them, for they know not what they do!&rdquo;
+That is the Christian attitude. It is perhaps too high
+for ordinary mortals to attain to, but Mrs Eddy made
+such high claims that we are entitled to judge her by
+correspondingly high standards.</p>
+
+<p>The form of service in the various Christian Science
+churches at first included a sermon. But Mrs Eddy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+soon saw that this might introduce discord: for the
+preachers might differ in their interpretations of
+<cite>Science and Health</cite>. And Mrs Eddy above all things
+aimed at unity in order to keep the control in her own
+hands. Therefore, in 1895, she forbade preaching
+altogether. The Bible and <cite>Science and Health, With
+Key to the Scriptures</cite>, were to be read from, but no explanatory
+comments were to be made. The services
+comprise Sunday morning and evening readings from
+these two books, with music; the Wednesday evening
+experience meeting; and the communion service, once
+or twice a year only. There is no baptismal, marriage,
+or burial service, and weddings and funerals are never
+conducted in Christian Science churches.</p>
+
+<p>As to church government, there was a nominal
+board of directors, but Mrs Eddy had supreme power.
+She could appoint or dismiss at will. The Church
+was hers, body and soul. Probably no other religious
+leader ever had such an unqualified sway. The Holy
+Father at Rome is a mere figurehead in comparison
+with the late Reverend Mother.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1907, there were in all 710 branch churches.
+Of these, twenty-five were in Canada, fourteen in
+Britain, two in Ireland, four in Australia, one in South
+Africa, eight in Mexico, two in Germany, one in Holland,
+one in France, and the remainder in the States.
+There were also 295 societies not yet incorporated
+into churches. The total membership of the 710
+churches was probably about 50,000. (In <cite>Pulpit and Press</cite>,
+<abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;82, Mrs Eddy puts the number at 100,000 to 200,000;
+and this was in 1895. Some claim that the total number
+of adherents is as high as a million. But these are
+probably exaggerated estimates.) About one-tenth
+of these make their living by their faith. Here we come
+to the secret of Christian Science success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There are about 400 authorised Christian Science
+&ldquo;healers&rdquo;, and many who practise without diploma
+but not without pay. These people treat sick folks,
+receiving fees. Their method is to assure the
+patient that he is under a delusion in thinking himself
+ill, that matter is an illusion, that God is All, etc. It
+sounds very absurd. But the curious thing is that
+many people have been cured by this treatment, and&mdash;naturally&mdash;these
+people become ardent Christian Scientists.
+It is by the practical application that Christian
+Science as a religion lives and thrives. As to the kind
+of diseases cured, the most extravagant claims are
+made. In <cite>Miscellaneous Writings</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;41, Mrs Eddy
+definitely states that &ldquo;all classes of disease&rdquo; can be
+healed by her method. After careful sifting of much
+evidence, however, Dr Myers and his brother (F.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H.
+Myers) found that no proof was forthcoming for the
+cure of definite organic disease by Christian Science
+methods. (<cite>Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="9, page"><span class="smcap">ix</span>, p.</abbr>&nbsp;160; also <cite>Journal</cite>, vol.&nbsp;<abbr title="8, page"><span class="smcap">viii</span>,
+p.</abbr>&nbsp;247.) Undoubtedly they have been, and are continually,
+efficient in relieving, and even curing, many
+functional disorders which have resisted ordinary
+medical treatment&mdash;and it must be remembered that
+many functional derangements are as serious, subjectively,
+as grave organic disease&mdash;and consequently
+it is undeniable that Christian Science often does good.
+But it is probable that the same amount of good, and
+perhaps more, could be done by the hypnotic or suggestive
+treatment of a qualified medical man, or perhaps
+by other forms of &ldquo;faith-healing&rdquo;. The Christian
+Scientist is using suggestion; but he couples it up with
+religion, and thus, perhaps&mdash;with some people&mdash;succeeds
+in driving the suggestion home with greater
+force. It is noteworthy that similar attempts are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+now being made in other directions&mdash;witness the
+Emmanuel movement in New York, the Faithists and
+various &ldquo;psycho-therapeutic&rdquo; societies in England,
+and the tendency in some quarters (Bishop of London)
+to return to anointing and laying on of hands by
+clergymen.</p>
+
+<p>Psychologically, Mrs Eddy is at least classified,
+if not entirely explained, by one word&mdash;monoideism.
+She was a person of one idea. These people, for whom
+we usually have the simpler term of &ldquo;crank&rdquo;, are
+common enough. I have no personal acquaintance
+with the circle-squaring and perpetual-motion cranks
+mentioned by De Morgan (<cite>The Budget of Paradoxes</cite>),
+but I know a &ldquo;flat-earth&rdquo; crank, and am well acquainted
+with a &ldquo;British-Israelite&rdquo; crank, who seems
+to derive unspeakable joy&mdash;tempered only by his
+failure to convert me&mdash;from the thought that we
+Britishers are veritably the descendants of one or more
+of the Lost Tribes. All these people are conscious of a
+mission. They have had a revelation, and are anxious
+to impart it. Their efforts may not be due to the
+&ldquo;last infirmity of noble mind&rdquo;, still less to a lower
+motive. They may just be built that way. The
+majority of them, like my Lost-Tribes friend, get no
+hearing because of the inflexible pragmatism of a
+stiffnecked and utilitarian generation. &ldquo;What difference
+does it make whether we are the Tribes or not?&rdquo;
+asks the man in the street. And he passes on with a
+shrug or a grin, according to temperament. This
+terrible pragmatic test makes short work of many
+amiable cranks. And it is just here that Christian
+Science scores its point; for it cures physical disease,
+thereby becoming intensely practical. Health is the
+chief &ldquo;good&rdquo; of life. Anything that will restore it to
+an ailing body commands immediate and universal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+respect. Christian Science therefore appeals, on its
+practical side, to the deepest thing in us&mdash;to the primal
+instinct of self-preservation. Hence its success.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible to blame Mrs Eddy unjustly for her love
+of power as such. She was not unique in this respect.
+The difference is that Mrs Eddy succeeded while the
+others have not, and are consequently not heard
+of. My Lost-Tribes friend would be as autocratic
+as anybody if he had the chance; but his motive would
+not be greed of power, but rather the overmastering
+desire to push his cause, to proselytise, to promulgate
+his one idea, almost by force, if such a thing were
+possible. Most of us know a few fanatics of this kind.
+The objects of their devotion are varied&mdash;one is mad
+north-north-west, another south-south-east&mdash;but all
+suffer from a lack of balance, a lack of proper distribution
+of interest. Of course, we may cheerfully admit
+that we are all more or less specialists in our several
+departments, and that the line between sanity and
+insanity is rather arbitrary. We all seem more or less
+mad to those who do not agree with us.</p>
+
+<p>The good and true part of Christian Science is its
+demonstration of the influence of mind on body, and
+of the usefulness of inducing mental states of an
+optimistic character. It may, of course, be said that
+we need no Mrs Eddy to tell us this. True, we don&rsquo;t.
+The great seers and poets have always taught optimism,
+and the influence of mind on body was medically
+recognised&mdash;more or less&mdash;long before even Quimby&rsquo;s
+time. But we must remember that different minds
+need different treatment&mdash;need their nutriment and
+stimulant in different forms, to suit the various mental
+digestions and receptive powers. Consequently, though
+we may prefer Browning for optimism and the doctors
+for hypnotic therapeutics, we need not complain if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+others prefer Mrs Eddy and her disciples. If they get
+good from their way of putting things, and if that
+good manifests itself in their character and life&mdash;in
+their total reaction on the world&mdash;by all means let them
+continue to walk in their chosen way. It would be
+wrong to try to turn them. The system &ldquo;works&rdquo;;
+therefore it is true for them. The tree is known by its
+fruits. And the fruits of Christian Science are undoubtedly
+often good. In this complex world nothing
+is unmixedly good, and harm is no doubt done occasionally.
+But, on the whole, it seems probable that Mrs
+Eddy, with all her hysteria and morbidities and rancours
+and queerness, has been a power for good in the
+world. Her writings meet a want which some people
+feel, or, rather, provide them with a useful impulse in
+the direction of physical and spiritual regeneration.
+If you can make a sick person stop brooding over his
+ailments and worrying over things in general, you have
+achieved something which enormously increases his
+chance of recovery; and if you can make him turn all
+his thoughts and energies in the direction of recovery,
+and all his emotional powers in the direction of love and
+goodwill to his fellow-men and towards God, there is
+no limit to the powers which may be put in operation.
+In spite of all our achievements in science&mdash;and they
+have been great&mdash;we are only, as Newton said, picking
+up pebbles on the sea-shore. Nature is boundless; we
+can fix no limits to her powers. And we know so little,
+really, about disease, that I am not at all prepared to
+deny the Christian Science claims, even with regard to
+organic disease. The distinction between organic
+and functional is in our own inabilities, not in the
+nature of the case; we call a disease &ldquo;organic&rdquo; when
+we find definite tissue-change, and &ldquo;functional&rdquo; when
+we do not; but in the latter case there must be some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+organic basis, though too small perhaps to be discoverable&mdash;say
+a lesion in a tiny nerve. Consequently
+I regard the question of Christian Science cures as
+entirely one of evidence. I keep an open mind. If I
+come across enough evidence, I will believe that it can
+cure tuberculosis of the lungs and other diseases, as
+claimed, whether I can understand how it does it or
+not. At present, like Dr Myers, I am not convinced;
+but I have seen enough of Christian Science results
+among my own friends to prevent me from denying
+anything. I merely suspend judgment. But I do
+believe that the power of the mind over the body is so
+great that almost anything is possible; and I think
+that the medical advance of the next half-century will
+be chiefly in this hitherto neglected direction. I
+happen to know that this, or something very near this,
+was the strongly-held opinion of the late Professor
+William James of Harvard, who, in addition to being
+the most brilliant psychologist of his generation, was
+also a qualified doctor of medicine.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>JOAN OF ARC</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Great</span> results often flow from small causes.
+Pascal said that if Cleopatra&rsquo;s nose had
+been shorter the history of the world would
+have been different. Similarly it may be truly said that
+if a peasant girl of Domrémy had not had hallucinations,
+France would now have been a British province.
+And it is curious to reflect that the Church which burnt
+her as a heretic and sorcerer has her, and her only, to
+thank for such hold as it still maintains on France,
+for the latter would have become Protestant if England
+had won. The Roman church now recognises this,
+and has beatified the Maid. The next step will be
+her canonisation as a saint. Thus does the whirligig
+of Time bring its revenges.</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne d&rsquo;Arc was born in the village of Domrémy
+near Vaucouleurs, on the border of Champagne and
+Lorraine, on January 6th, 1412. She was taught to
+spin and to sew, but not to read or write, these accomplishments
+being beyond what was necessary for people
+in her station of life. Her parents were devout, and
+she was brought up piously. Her nature was gentle,
+modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness
+or morbid abnormality&mdash;on the contrary, she was
+exceptionally strong, as her later history proves.</p>
+
+<p>At or about the age of thirteen, Jeanne began to
+experience what psychology now calls &ldquo;auditory
+hallucinations&rdquo;. That is, she heard voices&mdash;usually
+accompanied by a bright light&mdash;when no visible person<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+was present. This, of course, is a common symptom
+of impending mental disorder; but no insanity developed
+in Jeanne d&rsquo;Arc. Startled she naturally was at
+first, but continuation led to familiarity and trust.
+The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace kind,
+as, for instance, that she &ldquo;must be a good girl and go
+regularly to church.&rdquo; Soon, however, she began to
+have visions: saw St Michael, St Catherine, and St
+Margaret; was given instructions as to her mission;
+eventually made her way to the Dauphin; put herself
+at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced to the relief
+of Orleans, which was besieged by the conquering
+English. After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege
+was raised, and the enemy driven off. The tide of war
+had turned, and in three months the Dauphin was
+crowned King at Rheims, as Charles the Seventh.</p>
+
+<p>At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished.
+But her wish to return to her family was
+over-ruled by king and archbishop, and she took part
+in the further fighting against the allied English and
+Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical
+skill. But in November, 1430, in a desperate sally from
+Compiegne&mdash;which was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy&mdash;she
+fell into the enemy&rsquo;s hands, was sold to
+the English, and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters
+in Rouen.</p>
+
+<p>After a year&rsquo;s imprisonment she was brought to
+trial&mdash;a mock trial before the Bishop of Beauvais,
+in an ecclesiastical court. Learned doctors of the
+church did their best to entangle the simple girl in their
+dialectical toils; but she showed a remarkable power
+of keeping to her simple affirmations and of avoiding
+heretical statements. &ldquo;God has always been my Lord
+in all that I have done&rdquo;. But the trial was only
+pretence, for her fate was already decided. She was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+burnt to death, amid the jeers and execration of a
+rabble of brutal soldiery, in a Rouen market-place on
+May 30th, 1431.</p>
+
+<p>The life of the Maid supplies a problem which orthodox
+science cannot solve. She was a simple peasant
+girl, with no ambitions hankering after a career. She
+rebelled pathetically against her mission. &ldquo;I had
+far rather rest and spin by my mother&rsquo;s side, for this
+is no work of my choosing, but I must go and do it,
+for my Lord wills it.&rdquo; She cannot be dismissed on the
+&ldquo;simple idiot&rdquo; theory of Voltaire, for her genius in
+war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove
+exceptional mental powers, unschooled though she was
+in what we call education. We cannot call her a mere
+hysteric, for her health and strength were superb.
+A man of science once said to an Abbé: &ldquo;Come to the
+Salpêtrière Hospital, and I will show you twenty
+Jeannes d&rsquo;Arc.&rdquo; To which the Abbé responded:
+&ldquo;Has one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There is the crux, as Andrew Lang quietly remarked.</p>
+
+<p>The retort was certainly neat. Still, though the
+Salpêtrière hysterics have not won back Alsace and
+Lorraine, it is nevertheless true that a great movement
+may be started, or kept going when started, by fraud,
+hallucination, and credulity. The Mormons, for example,
+are a strong body, but the origins of their faith
+will not bear much criticism. <cite>The Book of Mormon</cite>,
+handed down from heaven by an angel, is more than we
+can swallow. No one saw its &ldquo;metal leaves&rdquo;&mdash;from
+which Joseph Smith translated&mdash;except Joseph
+himself. We have our own opinion about Joseph&rsquo;s
+truthfulness. Somewhat similarly with spiritualism.
+The great movement is there, based partly on fact as
+I believe, but supported by some fraud and much
+ignorance and credulity. May it not have been somewhat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+thus with Jeanne? She delivered France, and
+her importance in history is great; but may not her
+mission and her doings have been the outcome of
+merely subjective hallucinations, induced by the
+brooding of her specially religious and patriotic mind
+on the woes of her country? The army, being ignorant
+and superstitious, would readily believe in the supernatural
+character of her mission, and great energy and
+valour would follow as a matter of course&mdash;for a man
+fights well when he believes that Providence is on his
+side.</p>
+
+<p>That is the usual kind of theory in explanation of
+the facts. But it is not fully satisfactory. How came
+it&mdash;one may ask&mdash;that this untutored peasant girl
+could persuade not only the rude soldiery, but also
+the Dauphin and the court, of her Divine appointment?
+How came she to be given the command of an army?
+Surely a post of such responsibility and power would
+not be given to a peasant girl of eighteen, on the mere
+strength of her own claim to inspiration. It seems, at
+least, very improbable.</p>
+
+<p>Now it seems (though the materialistic school of
+historians conveniently ignore or belittle it) that there
+is strong evidence in support of the idea that Jeanne
+gave the Dauphin some proof of the possession of
+supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so
+strong that Mr Lang called it &ldquo;unimpeachable&rdquo;&mdash;and
+Mr Lang did not usually err on the side of credulity
+in these matters. Among other curious things, Jeanne
+seems to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer
+which he had made mentally, and she also made some
+kind of clairvoyant discovery of a sword hidden behind
+the altar of Fierbois church. Schiller&rsquo;s magnificent
+dramatic poem &ldquo;<cite>Die Jungfrau von Orleans</cite>,&rdquo; though
+unhistorical in some details, is substantially accurate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+on these points concerning clairvoyance and mind-reading.</p>
+
+<p>As to the voices and visions, a Protestant will have
+a certain prejudice with regard to the St Michael,
+St Catherine, and St Margaret stories, though he may
+very possibly be wrong in his disbelief. But, waiving
+that, it may be true that some genuine inspiration was
+truly given to the Maid from the deeper strata of her
+own soul, and that these monitions externalised
+themselves in the forms in which her thought habitually
+ran. If she had been a Greek of two thousand years
+earlier, her visions would probably have taken the form
+of Apollo and Pallas Athene; yet they might equally
+well have contained truth and good counsel, as did the
+utterances of the Oracles.</p>
+
+<p>And, speaking of the Greeks, we may remember
+that the wisest of that race had similar experiences.
+Socrates&mdash;the pre-eminent type of sanity and mental
+burliness&mdash;was counselled by his &ldquo;daimon&rdquo;; by a
+warning Voice which, truly, did not give positive
+advice like Jeanne&rsquo;s, but which intervened to stop him
+when about to make some wrong decision. Again&mdash;to
+jump suddenly down to modern times&mdash;Charles
+Dickens says in his letters that the characters of his
+novels took on a kind of independent existence, and
+that Mrs Gamp, his greatest creation, spoke to him
+(generally in church) as with an actual voice. In fact,
+all cases of creative genius, whether in literature, art,
+or invention, are examples of an uprush from unknown
+mental depths: the process is not the same as the
+intellectual process of reasoning. In these cases, as
+for instance with Socrates, Jeanne d&rsquo;Arc, Dickens, the
+deeper strata of the mind may be supposed to send up
+thoughts so vigorously that they become externalised
+as hallucinations; not necessarily morbid or injurious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+though of course many hallucinations are undoubtedly
+both. The inspiration rises from below the conscious
+threshold. It is as if &ldquo;given&rdquo;; and the normal
+conscious mind looks on in passive astonishment.
+<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Alles ist als wie geschenkt</i>, says Goethe&mdash;and he knew,
+if anybody did. A similar thing happens, on a more
+ordinary plane, when a problem that has baffled the
+working mind is solved in sleep. In short, the normal
+consciousness is not all there is of us; there are levels
+and powers below the threshold. And it seems likely
+that the new psychology is on the track of a better
+explanation of Socrates and Jeanne d&rsquo;Arc, as well as
+of the nature of genius in general, than has yet been
+excogitated by the philosophers. Certainly these
+things supply interesting material for study, and many
+curious discoveries are now being made in this field
+of research.</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>IS THE EARTH ALIVE?</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Some</span> of the ancients thought the earth was an
+animal. It has its hard and soft parts, its
+bone and flesh&mdash;rock and soil&mdash;as the Norse
+cosmology pictured it; also its blood, of seas, rivers,
+and the like. To a coast-dwelling people, the rhythmic
+inflow and outflow of the tides would suggest a huge
+slow blood-pulsation, or a breathing. And heat
+increases with depth, in mine or cave; fire spouts from
+Etna and Vesuvius; evidently the earth is hotter
+inside than at the surface, as animals are hotter inside
+than on their skins. Some such animal-notion was
+held by Plato, and by some of the later Stoics; though
+it does not seem to have been worked out in detail.
+And the Greek, Indian, or Egyptian theology which
+made the earth a goddess and the bride of Heaven or
+the sun, is still more indefinite, or is crudely anthropomorphic
+and primitive.</p>
+
+<p>Modern approximations have been chiefly in poetry,
+and are pan-psychic rather than animistic; as in Pope&rsquo;s
+<cite>Essay on Man:</cite></p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All are but parts of one stupendous whole,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose body Nature is, and God the soul,<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>and in Wordsworth&rsquo;s <cite>Tintern Abbey</cite> where the presence
+which disturbs him with the joy of elevated thoughts
+is felt to be the Spirit which has its dwelling in the light
+of setting suns and the round ocean and the living air:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A motion and a spirit that impels<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A lover of the meadows and the woods,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And mountains; and all that we behold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From this green earth; of all the mighty world<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of eye, and ear.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Emerson expresses the same thought in <cite>Pan</cite> and in
+much of his prose&mdash;<cite>Nature</cite>, <cite>The Over Soul</cite>, <cite>Self-Reliance</cite>.
+William James, in early days before his pluralistic
+development, thought that an <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">anima mundi</i> thinking
+in all of us was a more likely hypothesis than that
+of &ldquo;a lot of individual souls&rdquo;; and Leibnitz, among
+other metaphysical great ones, Spinozistically speaks
+of &ldquo;un seul esprit qui est universel et qui anime tout
+l&rsquo;univers&rdquo;. Finally, to quote a modern of the moderns,
+we find Mr H.&nbsp;G. Wells finely saying that &ldquo;between
+you and me as we set our minds together, and between
+us and the rest of mankind, there is <em>something</em>, something
+real, something that rises through us and is neither
+you nor me, that comprehends us, that is thinking here
+and using me and you to play against each other in
+that thinking just as my finger and thumb play against
+each other as I hold this pen with which I write&rdquo;.
+(<cite>First and Last Things</cite>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;67.)</p>
+
+<p>But these various poets and thinkers, while suggesting
+a soul-side of the material universe, have not ventured
+to attribute spirits to specific lumps of matter
+such as the planets. Science has banished those
+celestial genii. Kepler and Newton substituted for
+them the &ldquo;bald and barren doctrine of gravitation&rdquo;,
+to the disgust of the theologically orthodox. It is
+possible, however, that science did not banish these
+planetary spirits, but only prevented us from seeing
+them, by turning our eyes in another direction, towards
+the laws according to which the material universe
+works; as if we should become so absorbed in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+chemistry and physics of blood oxidation, digestion,
+cerebral change, and the like, as to forget that the
+human body has a consciousness associated with it.
+It may be that we are too materialistic in our astronomy.
+Perhaps Lorenzo was right, even about the music
+of the spheres; and that our deafness, not their silence,
+is the reason why we do not hear it.</p>
+
+<p>The nineteenth century produced a thinker who
+revived the animistic idea in an improved form. He
+elaborated it into a system of philosophy, welding into
+it the discoveries of science, and leaving room for any
+further advance in that direction. At the same time
+he showed that his system was essentially religious, and
+indeed quite consistent with Christianity in its best
+interpretations. But his writings fell almost dead
+from the press, for he was before his time. The
+scientific men were materialists, and sneered at a
+system which recognised a spiritual world; while
+the orthodox Christians were scared by its evolutionary
+method and its acceptance of Darwinism when the
+latter arrived&mdash;for the philosophy preceded it&mdash;and
+also by the novelty of some of its ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Gustav Theodor Fechner was born on April 19, 1801,
+at Gross-Särchen in what is now Silesia, then under
+the Elector of Saxony. He studied at Leipzig, and was
+appointed professor of Physics at the University there,
+in 1834. He conducted several scientific journals,
+wrote text-books, translated Biot&rsquo;s <cite>Physics</cite> (4 <abbr title="volumes">vols.</abbr>)
+Thénard&rsquo;s <cite>Chemistry</cite> (6 <abbr title="volumes">vols.</abbr>) and a work on cerebral
+pathology; also edited an eight-volume <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>
+of which he wrote about a third himself, lectured, and
+made researches in electro-magnetism which injured
+his eyesight. His chief scientific work, <cite>Elements of
+Psycho-Physics</cite>, was published in 1859, additions being
+made in 1877 and 1882. &ldquo;Fechner&rsquo;s Law&rdquo;, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+fundamental law of psychophysics (that sensation
+varies in the ratio of the logarithm of impression) is
+now an internationally current term. Men like Paulsen
+and Wundt do not hesitate to call Fechner master.
+His chief philosophical work is <cite>Zend-Avesta</cite> (3 <abbr title="volumes">vols.</abbr>)
+published in 1851, and rearranged and condensed in
+<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Die Tagesansicht gegenüber der Nachtansicht</i> (1879);
+but he published also many subsidiary volumes. Only
+one of his works has appeared in English&mdash;the small
+volume on <cite>Life After Death</cite>&mdash;and even this had to be
+brought out by an American publisher! Yet Fechner
+is, as Professor William James said, &ldquo;a philosopher
+in the great sense &hellip; little known as yet to English
+readers, but destined, I am persuaded, to wield more
+and more influence as time goes on&rdquo;. (<cite>A Pluralistic
+Universe</cite>, <abbr title="pages 135 and 149.">pp.&nbsp;135, 149.</abbr>) The prophecy is already
+beginning to come true.</p>
+
+<p>Fechner always begins with the known and indisputable,
+arguing thence to the unknown. His method is
+thus analogical and scientific. It is the only method
+that a scientific generation will tolerate. Its results
+may be disputed, but so can the results of science.
+Even mathematics gives us no certainties, for something
+must always be taken for granted. In philosophising
+by analogy, we do at least keep in close touch with
+experience; we do not evaporate the world into an
+&ldquo;unearthly ballet of bloodless categories&rdquo;. And if
+the analogies point mostly one way, with only weak
+ones pointing the other, the result may be at least
+acceptable as a working hypothesis, even if not &ldquo;demonstrable&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>Man is a living, thinking, feeling being. He is on
+the surface of a nearly spherical body, which he calls
+the earth, out of which his material part has arisen.
+The elements of his body are the same as those in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+earth. His carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen
+are the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen of the
+coal measures, soils, atmosphere, oceans, of the earth.
+The calcium carbonate of his bones is the calcium
+carbonate of her rocks as seen in cliffs at Flamborough
+and Dover. He is bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh.
+Sometimes he calls her Mother Earth, and involuntarily
+speaks the truth in jest. In Siberia the Tartar word
+for the earth is &ldquo;Mamma&rdquo;&mdash;a curious fact. Indeed,
+the bond between the earth and her children is much
+closer than in the case of a human mother and her
+child; for we remain, all our lives, actually <em>part</em> of the
+planet&rsquo;s mass. If our bodies were suddenly annihilated,
+the earth&rsquo;s gravitative attraction would be
+altered, and the whole solar system would have to
+readjust itself to the slight diminution. We belong
+to the earth. We are a film of cells on her skin. In
+Piccadilly and the Bowery (and Throgmorton and
+Wall Streets?) we are&mdash;alas!&mdash;an eczematous patch.</p>
+
+<p>But here it may be objected that man is more than a
+mere body. Quite true. Man has experiences of an
+order different from the material one. You cannot
+express joy and sorrow by chemical equations or
+number of foot-pounds. Even if there is a material
+equivalent or necessary concomitant, of electrical or
+chemical change in cerebral tissue or what not, the fact
+of the non-material experience remains a reality. To
+indicate this side of human life, we call it the spiritual
+side. We say that man is matter and spirit, body and
+soul. This is quite justifiable and right, whether we
+can define the terms or not. Definition means explaining
+a word by means of others that are better known.
+And as we cannot get any closer to reality than our own
+experience, which <em>is</em> reality to us, and as the two
+words conveniently classify two great departments of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+experience, we justifiably say that we are soul and body.
+Very well; the body, then, when we die, returns to
+the earth, from which indeed it has not been severed,
+except as being a point at which a special kind of
+activity was manifested. What then of the soul?
+Shall it not return to the earth-soul, as the body
+returns to the earth-body?</p>
+
+<p>Man has arisen out of the earth. And can
+the dead give birth to the living? Such an idea is
+self-contradictory. If the Earth has produced us, it
+cannot be really a mere dead lump, as nineteenth-century
+materialistic science regarded it. It must
+be alive. The fifteen hundred millions or so of human
+beings who live on its surface like microscopic insects on
+the body of an elephant, or like epidermis-cells on our
+own bodies, constitute in their total weight and size
+only an almost infinitesimal proportion of the earth&rsquo;s
+mass. The earth is 8,000 miles in diameter; if human
+beings were so numerous that they could only stand up,
+wedged together all over its surface, tropics and poles,
+land and water&mdash;the latter covers seven-tenths of it&mdash;they
+would only be like a skin 1&frasl;200,000th part of an inch
+thick, on a globe a yard in diameter. The total mass of
+all the living creatures on the earth&rsquo;s surface, including
+all animals and all vegetation, is almost inconceivably
+small, as compared with the mass of the earth. Is it
+not a trifle ludicrous to find some of these little creatures
+looking down so condescendingly on the remainder
+of the planet? Emerson was among the few who have
+seen the joke, for in <cite>Hamatreya</cite> he satirises those who
+boast of possessing pieces of the earth:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Clear of the grave.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And the earth sings:</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They called me theirs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who so controlled me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet every one<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wished to stay, and is gone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How am I theirs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If they cannot hold me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But I hold them?<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>A very natural objection to the idea of the earth
+being full of life and mind&mdash;as my body is full of
+my life and my mind&mdash;is that the inorganic part of the
+planet presents no evidence of such. It does not act
+as if it were alive and conscious. But this begs the
+whole question. If you decide beforehand that all
+evidence for the existence of mind must be the sort of
+phenomena exhibited by the things we call living,
+the business is settled, and it is clear that the inorganic
+kingdom is without consciousness. There is then
+no sign of mind anywhere except in that infinitesimally
+thin and indeed discontinuous skin which is made up of
+living individuals on the earth&rsquo;s surface. But is it
+not somewhat presumptuous to dogmatise thus?
+Why should mind always manifest itself in the same
+way? Non-living matter does not show vital activities,
+but it does show other activities, quite systematic and
+non-chaotic and comprehensible ones. How could
+&ldquo;dead&rdquo; matter have any activity at all? Even
+Haeckel postulates a sort of mind in the atom, and we
+have heard of &ldquo;mind-stuff&rdquo; before, from an equally
+determined materialist. Indeed, how can we rationalise
+the behaviour of phosphorus in oxygen but by
+saying that the two elements like each other so well
+that they rush to combine whenever possible? If
+carbon has great &ldquo;affinity,&rdquo; showing a tendency to
+combine with many atoms of other elements in various
+complicated ways&mdash;at least as regards its favourite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+types&mdash;it is reasonable to regard it as a much-loving
+element&mdash;the polygamous Solomon of the elements.
+If fluorine will have nothing to do with other substances&mdash;except
+under protest, when persuaded by Miss
+Hydrogen, whose gaiety and levity sometimes overcome
+its sulkiness, bringing it also into the society of
+calcium and one or two other metals&mdash;we must say
+that fluorine is unsociable, morbidly self-centred, or
+perhaps mystically disposed, like Thoreau, happy by
+his pond, alone. Chemical affinity is the loves of the
+elements.</p>
+
+<p>Rising to the next grade of complexity above atoms,
+we find that molecular movements, visible in the apparently
+representative Brownian movements of particles,
+recall the fidget of a bunch of midges, and thereby
+suggest a sort of life. They disobey the second law
+of thermodynamics, rising in a lighter liquid, as midges
+rise in the tenuous air. Of course no one can deny
+that in the things we call living there are phenomena
+not seen elsewhere, and some of these are quite probably
+not understandable at all, in terms of measurement
+or imagery, as we can understand the Brownian movements
+by irregular bombardment of molecules. We
+cannot understand the relation between a supposed
+brain-change and the corresponding mental fact.
+The two orders of being seem disjunctive. Perhaps
+these things are too close to us to be understood;
+perhaps we cannot understand life and consciousness
+because we are ourselves alive and conscious&mdash;as we
+cannot lift ourselves by pulling at our boot tops, and
+cannot see our own faces because the eyes that see are
+<em>in</em> the face that is to be seen. Still the distinction
+between life at its lowest and non-life at its highest
+(crystals?) is so small that we may yet effect a smooth
+transition&mdash;may somehow see a continuity which now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+eludes us. And it seems likely that this will be effected
+by an extension of the mind-idea down into the inorganic,
+rather than by any explanation of life by physical and
+chemical concepts.</p>
+
+<p>Again, on the larger scale, may not cohesion, as well
+as chemical affinity, be a sort of affection; in this
+case a kind of wide social friendship&mdash;the &ldquo;adhesive
+love&rdquo; of Whitman, which is to supersede &ldquo;amative
+love&rdquo;&mdash;as against the fierce and narrow loves of the
+elements? A.&nbsp;C. Benson in <cite>Joyous Gard</cite> (<abbr title="page">p.</abbr>&nbsp;128)
+quotes a geologist who says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>It is not by any means certain that stones do not have a certain
+obscure life of their own; I have sometimes thought that their
+marvellous cohesion may be a sign of life, and that if life were withdrawn,
+a mountain might in a moment become a heap of sliding
+sand.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Yes, and even in sand-grains there is cohesion of
+particles, and in the smallest particles huge numbers
+of molecules, and again&mdash;still smaller&mdash;atoms and
+electrons. Something elusive yet tremendously potent
+is still there, in the sand. It would be rash to call it
+dead and mindless. There seems more sense in admitting
+that there is something akin to what we know as
+life and mind in ourselves, permeating the material
+universe.</p>
+
+<p>And if&mdash;to come back to our own planet&mdash;if the
+earth is a living organism, there will naturally be distribution
+of function, as there is in our own bodies.
+It would be absurd for the eye to deny life and perception
+to ear or skin just because their mode of activity
+is different. It is wiser to concede life and mind where-ever
+there is action. In the present state of affairs,
+not only do we get into difficulties by our rash assumption
+that there is no mind without protoplasm (<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">ohne
+Phosphor kein Gedanke</i>, as the old materialist too
+boldly said), but we find it impossible to draw the line<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+between living and non-living. Drops of oil exhibit
+am&oelig;boid movements, and at the lower end of life
+the slime-mass becomes so undifferentiated as to be
+very much in a borderland between the two states.
+Probably non-living substances gradate into living
+ones by imperceptible <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">differentiæ</i>, as man would be
+found to gradate back into an anthropoid ape or something
+of the kind if we could see all the stages. Nature
+does not make jumps. Where she seems to do so, it is
+only because we cannot see how she gets from one
+place to another distant one. But when we scrutinise
+the interspace, we see that there is a path. Nature
+does not jump. She glides.</p>
+
+<p>It is on this line of thought that the disagreement
+between the schools represented by Sir Edward Schäfer
+and Dr Hans Driesch respectively may, perhaps, be
+happily resolved. No doubt each may have to make
+concessions. The mechanist must not claim that
+mind is <em>only</em> an affair of nitrogenous colloids, for this
+would be a large assumption built on a very small
+foundation; no biologist, however much he knows
+about nitrogenous colloids, can in any conceivable
+sense explain his joy in a sunset or a symphony by
+reference to those substances. Physical causes have
+physical effects; to say that they cause anything
+non-physical (<i>i.e.</i> mental) is really talking nonsense.
+And, on the other hand, the vitalist must not deny
+consciousness to non-protoplasmic Nature. Negations
+are dangerous. It is extremely risky to say that a
+Matterhorn has less spiritual significance&mdash;in itself
+and for the whole, and not only for us&mdash;than a cretin
+who wanders useless and unbeautiful about its lower
+slopes. The activities of the two are different, that
+is all we are justified in saying. True, the Matterhorn&rsquo;s
+are more calculable and predictable, but that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+does not prove unconsciousness. Human action also
+is predictable to some extent. And the more wise
+and unified a man is&mdash;the nearer he approximates to
+ideal perfection&mdash;the more accurately we can predict
+his response to a given stimulus. We might almost
+argue, on these lines, that inorganic matter has a
+certain superiority; for it is not capricious. It knows
+what it wants to do, and does it; or at least&mdash;if this
+is going too far&mdash;it does things, and does them <em>as if</em>
+it knew very well what it wanted to do. To the same
+conditions and stimuli it always responds in the same
+way, like reflex action in living beings, and like association
+in ordinary consciousness. Water always boils
+punctually at 100°C., and freezes at 0°C., if the pressure
+is 760mm. of mercury. &ldquo;Canal&rdquo; always makes me
+think of Panama and Mars&mdash;though to other people
+it might suggest Suez, their different experience having
+given them other association-couplings. But any
+one knowing me well, or knowing any one well, could
+say almost certainly what associations &ldquo;canal&rdquo; would
+have&mdash;what thought it will evoke. And the same
+thing is true, to a less extent, of our actions. If a man
+hits Jack Johnson, the latter will probably hit back.
+Still more certain is it that no one will hit him unless
+drunk or insane or in some sort of very exceptional
+circumstances. If, on the other hand, somebody hits
+me, the outcome is less certain. It will depend to a
+greater extent on the result of reflection and judgment&mdash;perhaps
+partly on my estimate of the other fellow&rsquo;s
+weight, age, training and science! Yet anyone knowing
+me well, and perceiving the main conditions, could
+predict with fair approach to accuracy what I should
+do. Yet I am undoubtedly a conscious being. Some
+actions of conscious beings, then, are predictable, if
+we know the conditions. Indeed, in the mass, human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+action is calculable with precision&mdash;witness the various
+kinds of insurance. Why then deny consciousness
+to the Matterhorn, because <em>all</em> its actions are calculable
+and predictable? The difference is one of degree, not
+kind. And indeed <em>are</em> all its actions predictable?
+The fact is, they are only hypothetically so. We say
+that they would be if we knew enough. But we might
+say the same of the actions of a man. The truth is,
+that if we say it of either we are arguing dangerously,
+from our ignorance and not from our knowledge. It
+is indeed as risky to say that we could predict the
+Matterhorn&rsquo;s actions <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in toto</i>, as to say that we cannot
+predict the man&rsquo;s; for we are continually finding that
+matter does things which we did not formerly suspect&mdash;<i>e.g.</i>
+radio-activity. Clearly, we cannot predict all
+the activities of the Matterhorn: many may depend
+on undiscovered properties. So it seems that even if
+some human actions, such as Newton&rsquo;s discovery of
+the law of gravitation and Milton&rsquo;s <cite>Paradise Lost</cite> and
+Spencer&rsquo;s Synthetic Philosophy and Raphael&rsquo;s Sistine
+Madonna, are strictly unpredictable, it still does not
+sufficiently differentiate us from the Matterhorn, which
+on its part also has its unpredictabilities.</p>
+
+<p>As to what parts of matter have separate spirits&mdash;where
+the Snowdon-spirit ends and the Moel Siabod
+spirit begins, and so on&mdash;we need not trouble much
+about that. This individualising of parts is a reasonable
+supposition, but it is not necessary to press it.
+Mr Maurice Hewlett has seen the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genius loci</i> of a sunny
+woodland landscape translated into human idiom as an
+opulent Titianesque beauty (<cite>Lore of Proserpine</cite>), and
+Manfred sees or feels a spirit of the Alps; but these
+are details. The only thing that matters is the ensoulment
+of the earth as a whole. No doubt its spirit-part
+is divided up somehow, correspondent to its material<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+conformation, as our spirits are divided from each
+other. The division, however, is not a hermetic sealing
+off. The universe is continuous. Indeed its parts
+are inter-penetrative, for every particle influences
+every other particle&mdash;and a thing cannot act where it is
+not. Similarly, human beings are found to have modes
+of communication other than those hitherto recognised
+by orthodox science, and are somehow able to influence
+others without regard to distance. We seem to be
+connected with each other in the unseen, subliminal,
+spiritual region. Our separateness is illusory. So
+with individualisations of earth-features. They have
+individual aspects, both on the physical and spiritual
+side; but they are part of the one earth and its one
+spirit, as we ourselves are. And that earth-spirit is
+part of the universe-spirit or God, as the human spirit
+is part of the earth-spirit.</p>
+
+<p>It is perhaps difficult, at first, to think of the earth
+as having a life and consciousness of its own, for we
+are located at little points, and do not see it whole,
+nor do we see from the inside. We are like an eye
+which looks at the body of which it forms a part, and
+finds it difficult to believe in auditory, tactile, olfactory
+experience; more difficult still to conceive of pure
+thought, emotion, will. If the earth seems a dead
+lump, however, think of the human brain. It is a
+mere lump of whitish filaments, <em>seen from outside</em>.
+But its inner experience is the rich and infinitely detailed
+life of a human being. So also may the inner
+experience of the earth be incomparably richer than
+its outer appearance indicates to our external senses.
+Objectively, our brains are part of the earth: subjectively,
+<em>we see in ourselves a part of what the earth
+sees in itself</em>.</p>
+
+<p>In thinking of the earth as an organised being, we
+must guard against the error of the ancients who called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+it an animal. It is not an animal. It is a Being of a
+higher character than any animal, for it includes all
+animals and all human beings, comprising in its spirit
+all their spiritual activities, and having its own activities
+as well. We are to it, as our blood-corpuscles are to us;
+and to think of the earth-spirit as being like our spirits
+would be equivalent to a blood-corpuscle thinking of its
+containing body as another corpuscle, only bigger.
+Whereas the truth is that a man has feelings and cognitions
+and purposes, and performs acts, which the
+corpuscles cannot in the least comprehend. (Somewhat
+similarly, a drop cannot have waves, or a small
+celestial body an atmosphere; the lower cannot have
+what the higher has, nor can it understand it.) The
+corpuscle may know or believe that its conscience or
+intuition is a sort of leakage down to it, of the mind
+or will of its greater self (the voice of its God), and that
+in so far as it does its duty according to its lights it is
+assisting the purposes of that higher Being of which
+it forms a part; and this faith is its highest wisdom.
+So with us. Human duty, done sincerely according
+to our lights, is furthering the purposes of the higher
+Being in whom we live and move. This faith is our
+highest wisdom concerning our relation to the earth-spirit.
+We see, then, that there is a good deal of sense
+in faith and intuition. They are rationally justified.
+By them we are dimly in touch with the over-soul on
+our inner side: not <em>really</em> dimly, for the connection
+is close and real, but dimly to our normal consciousness.
+The connection <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">via</i> intellect is an external, round-about
+affair, necessary and useful, but different. We need
+to cultivate both. This is the essence of the philosophy
+of Bergson. There is more than one way of receiving
+truth. Science is apt to overlook the intuitional way.</p>
+
+<p>On this conscience-side or moral aspect, the Fechnerian
+idea is particularly fruitful and illuminating.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+The analogy of our own mind is once more the key&mdash;the
+mirror wherewith to view the greater landscape,
+the village wherefrom to draw inferences about nations.
+In childhood, the world is, as James said, a big, blooming,
+buzzing confusion: sensations pour in quite unconnected;
+the baby sees the moon, and stretches out
+an arm to grab it, thus learning that it is not grabable.
+It is only gradually that the child learns to associate
+sounds with sights; to know what sounds indicate its
+mother&rsquo;s presence or proximity, and what sounds its
+father&rsquo;s. Gradually, individual experiences get linked
+up and harmonised. Then other disjointednesses
+arise. Foolish impulses war against better judgment
+and parents&rsquo; advice, and the youth&rsquo;s mind is &ldquo;torn&rdquo;,
+as we say, very aptly describing the feeling. Growing
+older and wiser, his mind becomes more unified and
+consequently more calm. His powers are marshalled
+and directed consciously at a goal or goals. Wayward
+impulses are reined in. We feel that poise and strength
+and wisdom are attained: never perfectly and ideally,
+but at least to a considerable degree, as compared with
+the earlier state.</p>
+
+<p>So with the earth-spirit. Being far greater than the
+human subsidiary spirits, it is longer in coming to
+maturity. Its elements are still largely at loggerheads
+with each other. The nations war against each other,
+and universal peace seems a long time in coming. But
+steadily, steadily works the earth-spirit, and the
+nations almost unconsciously&mdash;like somnambulists&mdash;carry
+out its will. They are working, consciously or
+unconsciously, towards universal at-one-ment. A
+League of Nations has arisen, and the Federation of
+the World is in sight. Union is the political watch-word.
+Labour is combining throughout the world.
+East is learning from West, and West from East.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+China sends her students to Oxford, Cambridge, Paris,
+Harvard, and welcomes Western methods. India
+repays our civilising with the poems of Tagore. In
+trade, thousands of small businesses are unified in a
+few great combines, preparing for some sort of Socialism.
+Finance spreads its world-wide network. Science is
+becoming international. The frontiers are melting;
+coalescence, unity, harmony are being achieved. The
+earth-spirit is reconciling its warring elements. When
+it succeeds in the complete reconciliation; when the
+era of universal peace and brotherhood shall dawn;
+when it reaches its huge equivalent of the ripe, calm,
+contented wisdom of human age&mdash;ah, then will come a
+state of things which we can but dimly prefigure. But
+it will come. The age of gold is in the future, not the
+past. It is our duty and our privilege to hasten the
+coming of this millennium. And even this is not the
+end. We cannot conceive the things that shall be.
+Eye hath not seen, or ear heard. Enough for us to
+know the tendency, and to trust ourselves to it, actively
+co-operating.</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Before beginning, and without an end,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As space eternal, and as surety sure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Only its laws endure.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This is its touch upon the blossomed rose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fashion of its hand shaped lotus-leaves;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In dark soil and the silence of the seeds<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The robe of Spring it weaves.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It maketh and unmaketh, mending all;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What it hath wrought is better than had been;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its wistful hands between.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This is its work upon the things ye see:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The unseen things are more; men&rsquo;s hearts and minds,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The thoughts of peoples and their ways and wills,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those, too, the great Law binds.<br /></span>
+<span  class="rght1">&mdash;Sir Edwin Arnold, <cite>Light of Asia</cite>.</span><br />
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Is it asked: &ldquo;Who is the Law-giver, and to what end
+is the Law?&rdquo; The question is foolish. Parts cannot
+know wholes, and the whole does not want parts to be
+anything but what they obviously are. Each fits
+into its place, and can do useful work there. Let
+it keep to tasks &ldquo;of a size with its capacity&rdquo;&mdash;as
+à Kempis says&mdash;and leave the rest. &ldquo;What doth the
+Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy
+and to walk humbly with thy God?&rdquo;</p>
+<hr class="l1"/>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="upper">There</span> is naturally and rightly a great deal of
+anxiety in the minds of most thoughtful
+people as to the state of religion after the
+war. The old order seems to have come down in chaos
+about our ears, and we are wondering what shape the
+new building will take. Even our clergy, or some of
+them, are honestly confessing that beliefs can never
+be just the same again; to name only two things,
+they feel that the literal acceptance of the non-resistance
+doctrine is no longer unqualifiedly possible, as
+many were formerly inclined to maintain; for the
+aggression of Germany has made clear the necessity
+of resisting evil; second, that the old Protestant
+doctrine of immediate heaven or hell cannot satisfactorily
+be applied to many of the millions of young
+fellows who have gone over; some idea of more gradual
+progress through an intermediate state seems more
+reasonable. But will this be sufficient? Shall we
+jog on again, after this world-shaking cataclysm, with
+such a very microscopical trimming&mdash;such an almost
+imperceptible sail-reefing&mdash;as this? Will not rather
+the whole theological scheme have to be remodelled?
+Can nations which have suffered as the belligerents
+have suffered&mdash;even those at home, still more the
+brave lads who have gone through experiences such as
+they never dreamed of in their worst nightmares&mdash;can
+these people, even if they wish, accept the old
+scheme, or anything like it?</p>
+
+<p>I am not going to try to answer such a large question<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+directly. Mr Wells has attempted something of the
+sort in his book, <cite>God the Invisible King</cite>, and he prophesies
+a religious revolution. It may come as he
+thinks, but it is perhaps more probable that, in spite
+of the most earth-shaking events, a certain continuity
+of thought will be maintained. New religions are not
+manufactured complete while you wait, like Pallas
+emerging full-armed from the head of Zeus; or, if
+they are, by such brilliant Olympians as Mr Wells,
+they do not get themselves accepted. But there
+probably will be enough of a change to be called
+a very considerable thought-revolution, even allowing
+for some inevitable continuity; and inasmuch as each
+expression of opinion counts as a datum and as a
+directive agency, I venture to make my prophecy.
+And I avoid the negative side, also any argument as
+to whether or why this or that particular doctrine will
+become obsolete; I think it better to let obsolescent
+beliefs drop quietly into their limbo, and to concern
+ourselves with the living ones that will replace them.</p>
+
+<p>First and most important, the idea of God. We
+have heard, over and over again, the pathetic cry:
+&ldquo;Why does God permit such things? Surely He must
+be either not All-good or not Almighty?&rdquo; And one
+hears of men, even among the clergy, whose minds have
+been clouded by this difficulty. Mr Wells solves the
+problem in the fashion of J.&nbsp;S. Mill and the late William
+James, by postulating a finite god, a good being who is
+doing his best but who is struggling with a refractory
+material. To many people this seems a helpful
+notion, for it saves God&rsquo;s goodness and gives a pleasurable
+sense of being co-workers with Him in His effort
+to improve things. But to many of us it is unsatisfactory.
+Indeed, if one could say such a thing of the
+author of <cite>Bealby</cite> and of the most genial of modern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+philosophers, we might say that the finite-god idea seems
+impossible to anyone with a sense of humour. Is it
+not really rather ridiculous of us to decide so solemnly
+that God is no doubt a good fellow but that He is having
+a tough time of it in fighting Satan, and that there does
+not seem to be any certainty of His winning? Perhaps
+the idea appeals to adventurous spirits like Wells
+and James because it has an air of being a sporting
+event, and promises excitement; but, I repeat,
+is it not a rather ridiculous proposition for us small
+creatures to make? &ldquo;Finite&rdquo; and &ldquo;Infinite&rdquo; are
+words; I am not sure that they have any very clear
+meaning. As to &ldquo;infinite&rdquo; in particular, the idea is only
+a negative one; we think of something finite, and then
+say &ldquo;it is not that&rdquo;. But even of &ldquo;finite&rdquo;, can we
+say that it has any useful clear meaning? The pen
+with which I write this may be said to be finite, for I
+can give its dimensions, and in many ways can define
+the limits of its powers. But inasmuch as every particle
+in it attracts every other particle of matter in the
+universe, the little pen&rsquo;s finiteness or infinity depends
+on whether the universe itself is finite or infinite;
+and that is a bigger question than our small wits can
+settle. And if it is so with a pen, will it not be more so
+with greater things?</p>
+
+<p>We measure things against the foot-rule of our own
+selves. We can imagine something much greater than
+those selves, both physical and spiritual. But when
+it comes to conceiving the whole physical universe
+of which we form an insignificant part, I do not feel
+that we can know whether it is finite or not. It is too
+big for our foot-rule. Even when dealing with the
+distances of the stars, we realise that the billions of
+miles which we can talk about so glibly do not convey
+much to our minds. We can think of a distance of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+few miles fairly clearly, recalling how long it takes us
+to walk so far; but greater distances soon become
+mere figures, not representing anything that we can
+picture. And when we reach the conception of the
+whole physical universe, we get quite out of our depth.
+We do not know whether it is finite or infinite; we
+know only that it is inconceivably greater than we are.</p>
+
+<p>So with the spirit which energises through it. Beginning
+with what we know best, we find ourselves
+acquainted with a world of mental phenomena bound
+together in and by what we call our self. Whatever
+we think of Hume&rsquo;s argument that a mass of experiences
+do not involve a soul that has them, it is reasonable
+and useful to have a name for the active thing which
+perceives and thinks and acts and feels, whether we
+call it soul or spirit or mind or self or <i>x</i>. It is something
+which maintains a sort of identity, in spite of
+growth and change; and it is marked off from other
+selves. John Smith has John Smith&rsquo;s experiences,
+not William Jones&rsquo;s. This individual spirit energises
+through each of our bodies. Of our own spirit we
+have a very close knowledge, of other spirits we have a
+rather more remote knowledge from inference; we
+infer their states of mind from the states of body which
+we observe, or from the material effects which they
+cause in speaking or writing. Passing from the inferred
+human spirits (inferred because certain lumps of matter
+act in a way similar to that of the lumps which we call
+our own bodies), we come to other and larger and very
+different pieces of matter such as planets. It may
+seem at the first glance an absurd idea, but I for one
+cannot think of matter as dead, or of a whole planet
+without any soul except what is in the human bodies
+which make up an infinitesimal portion of its mass.
+It seems to me that there must be some sort of mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+energising through the planet-mass as my own mind
+energises through my body-mass. And, carrying the
+idea further, we arrive at a conception of the whole
+universe as ensouled by a Being who in the material
+immanent manifestation is the Logos of the Christian
+doctrine, but who also transcends the material part as
+indeed the Christian doctrine teaches. This spirit,
+transcending the physical universe as well as energising
+through it, is greater in comparison with our spirits than
+the physical universe is in comparison with our bodies.
+Therefore, once more, and to a greater degree, we are out
+of our depth. To throw words like finite and infinite
+at such a Being is to make ourselves ridiculous. It is
+like a microbe sticking its own adjective-labels&mdash;if
+it has any&mdash;on a man, whom the microbe&rsquo;s vocabulary
+as a matter of fact will not apply to. God is too great
+for our measure. He is high as heaven; what canst
+thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?
+The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and
+broader than the sea&mdash;yea, than the whole universe
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>This conclusion of Zophar the Naamathite, acquiesced
+in by Job at the end of the argument, seems to some
+minds an evaporation of God into an Absolute without
+any human attributes. We feel the necessity or at
+least the desirability of regarding Him as good, loving,
+etc., and we shrink from any de-personalisation. But
+there is a way out of the difficulty. God is incomprehensible,
+as the Creed says; parts cannot comprehend
+wholes. But there is something deep in us, call it
+what you will, which tells us that our ideals of Good,
+Truth, and Beauty are divine; are God in so far as
+we are able to cognise Him. Good, true, beautiful
+actions and thoughts are God manifested through our
+personal limitations; they are rainbow colours broken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+out of the pure white light of God. We do right to
+worship them. They are the highest we can comprehend,
+though we may reach lame hands of faith to the
+apprehension of the Unconditioned. But this is a
+very great mystery, revealed only to the mystic. And
+it is a dangerous path, for by reaching &ldquo;beyond good
+and evil&rdquo; we lose touch with humanity and with the
+virtues we can exercise, risking the insanity to which
+Nietzsche so logically succumbed. We may dimly
+apprehend the Incomprehensible, but we must live
+and work among comprehensibilities. That is what
+we are here for. God is conceived by us&mdash;and rightly
+so conceived&mdash;as Good, Truth, Beauty, though we can
+see that as He really is He must transcend them.
+Mr Wells&rsquo;s distinction between the Finite God and the
+Veiled Being is not an ultimate. The two are one,
+seen as two because of our limitations. They are the
+rainbow and its source. The sun cannot be looked
+upon directly, but only when dimmed or reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Then as to immortality. The deaths of so many of
+our best, and the sorrow thus brought into almost
+every home, force this question into prominence. If
+blank pessimism is to be avoided, many people feel that
+they must have some assurance of the continued existence
+of those who have made the supreme sacrifice&mdash;a
+sacrifice at the call of duty, greater probably than
+any sacrifice ever made by us of the older generation
+who have lived in the smooth times of peace. We feel
+that if these magnificent young lives have come to
+nought, have been <em>wasted</em>, there is no rational religious
+belief possible to us. Accordingly we inquire about
+immortality. And, curiously enough, Science, which
+in the last generation tended to deny or discredit
+individual survival of bodily death, now gives a quite
+opposite verdict. Psychical research brings forward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+scientific evidence for that welcome belief. It seems
+too good to be true; but it is true. Public opinion
+has not yet fully accepted it&mdash;nor is it well that opinion
+should change too rapidly&mdash;for it was well drenched
+in materialism during the heyday of physical science
+and its astonishing applications in the latter part of the
+nineteenth century, but the leaders of thought in almost
+all branches&mdash;scientific, legal, literary, and what not&mdash;are
+now admitting that the evidence is at least surprising,
+and those who have studied it most are one by
+one announcing that it is convincing. There are many
+questions yet to solve, such as the nature and occupations
+of the future life, concerning which there are
+different views, and the problems may turn out to be
+insoluble; but the main problem seems on the way
+to be settled. The survival of human personality is a
+fact. And the indications, so far as we have got,
+suggest that the next stage is a life of opportunity,
+work, progress, even more than the present one. There
+is much to be thankful for in even this only incipient
+revelation. It is salvation great and joyous, to those
+reared amid unacceptable theories of a blank materialism
+or the much more dreadful hell-doctrines of the
+theologians.</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the coming time, then, seems likely
+to be mainly based on these two articles, belief in God
+in the way indicated, and belief in survival and progress
+on the other side. Both beliefs are empirical,
+and are thus in harmony with the temper of our time.
+They begin with the things which are most real to us,
+first the fact of conscious experience, then the external
+world, and reason upward therefrom, instead of
+beginning with metaphysical entities and attributes,
+and reasoning down&mdash;and failing to establish contact
+with the material world. Religious experience there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+still may be, and this may give rise to quite new and
+unexpected forms of belief or worship; but on the whole
+the tendency of thought for the last three hundred
+years has been increasingly empirical, and the success
+of the method is likely to ensure its continuance. It
+may be true that the ideal world is the more real&mdash;probably
+it is&mdash;that out of thought&rsquo;s interior sphere
+these phenomenal wonders of the world rose to upper
+air, as Emerson says; but for us in the present circumstances
+the way back to universe-spiritualisation is
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">via</i> experience (and mainly sense-presentations) carefully
+observed and studied. If these scientific methods,
+which are open to everybody, can lead to belief in God
+and a spiritual world to which we pass at death, it
+seems unnecessary to return to the bad old days when
+sporadic experiences of this or that ecstatic, or logic-chopping
+by this or that theologian, led to beliefs and
+cults of widely differing character according to the
+idiosyncracy of the writer. A method which is open
+to all and the rules of which are agreed on will be likely
+to yield something like unanimity. The churches
+may yet form one fold, if they will; in which, with
+variations to satisfy different æsthetic or symbolistic
+needs, all souls may find the answer to their queries,
+healing for their sorrow, and scope for their reverence
+and love; in a word, salvation.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center f7">PRINTED BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND.</p>
+
+<hr class="l1"/>
+
+<div class="tnote"><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+
+<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p>
+
+<p>The following printer&rsquo;s errors have been corrected, on page</p>
+<div class="left">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="col3">1</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;neaking&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;sneaking&rdquo; (tinged with a sneaking sympathy
+for its hero)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">49</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;odject&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;object&rdquo; (that the position of the lost object
+could)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">66</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;comandingly&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;commandingly&rdquo; (soothingly or commandingly
+filling the patient&rsquo;s mind)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">81</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;handing&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;handed&rdquo; (would not want his enemies handed
+over to)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">90</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;a&rdquo; added (brutal soldiery, in a Rouen market-place)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">90</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;Salpètriêre&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;Salpêtrière&rdquo; (Come to the Salpêtrière
+Hospital, and I will show you)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">97</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;gegenbüer&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;gegenüber&rdquo; (Die Tagesansicht gegenüber der
+Nachtansicht)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">98</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;cerebal&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;cerebral&rdquo; (chemical change in cerebral tissue
+or what not)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="col3">100</td><td class="col4">&ldquo;discontinous&rdquo; changed to &ldquo;discontinuous&rdquo; (thin and indeed discontinuous
+skin which).</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Otherwise oddities and inconsistencies of the original text have been
+preserved, including the spelling of foreign names.</p>
+
+<p>The first name of Mesmer was Franz, not Friedrich.</p>
+
+<p>On page 37 a paragraph starts with point 1. There is no point 2.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/37565.txt b/37565.txt
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+++ b/37565.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Psychical Miscellanea
+       Being Papers on Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism,
+       Christian Science, etc.
+
+Author: J. Arthur Hill
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2011 [EBook #37565]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHICAL MISCELLANEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, eagkw and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Psychical Miscellanea
+  _Being Papers on
+  Psychical Research, Telepathy,
+  Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc._
+
+  BY
+
+  J. ARTHUR HILL
+  _Author of "Psychical Investigations," "Man is a Spirit,"
+  "Spiritualism; Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine," etc._
+
+
+  NEW YORK:
+  HARCOURT, BRACE & HOWE,
+  1920
+
+
+
+
+  _Printed in England_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Many friends and correspondents have suggested that I should republish
+a number of articles which have appeared from time to time in various
+quarters. The present volume brings these articles together, with some
+which have not appeared before.
+
+Each chapter is complete in itself, but there is more or less connexion,
+for each deals with some aspect of the subject to which I have given
+most attention during the last twelve years--namely, psychical research.
+
+I thank the editors of the _Holborn Review_, _National Review_, _World's
+Work_, and _Occult Review_ for permission to republish articles which
+have appeared in their pages.
+                                                       J. A. H.
+  THORNTON,
+      BRADFORD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+  DEATH                                                    1
+  IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?                      11
+  PSYCHICAL RESEARCH; ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY  18
+  THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER                 43
+  DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?                                     52
+  THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY                               58
+  THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM                               63
+  CHRISTIAN SCIENCE                                       75
+  JOAN OF ARC                                             88
+  IS THE EARTH ALIVE?                                     94
+  RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR                         111
+
+
+
+
+Psychical Miscellanea
+
+
+
+
+DEATH
+
+
+Our feelings with regard to the termination of our earthly existence are
+remarkably varied. In some people, there is an absolutely genuine and
+strong desire for cessation of individual consciousness, as in the case
+of John Addington Symonds. Probably, however, this is met with only in
+keenly sensitive natures which have suffered greatly in this life. Such
+unfortunate people are sometimes constitutionally unable to believe in
+anything better than cessation of their pain. Anything better than
+that is "too good to be true", so much too good that they hardly dare
+wish for it. Others, who have had a happy life, naturally desire a
+continuance of it, and are therefore eager, like F. W. H. Myers, for
+that which Symonds dreaded. Others, again, and these are probably the
+majority, have no very marked feeling in the matter; like the good
+Churchman in the story, they hope to enter into everlasting bliss, but
+they wish you would not talk about such depressing subjects. This seems
+to suggest that they have secret qualms about the reality of the bliss.
+Perhaps they have read Mark Twain's _Captain Stormfield's Visit to
+Heaven_, and, though inexpressibly shocked by that exuberant work, are
+nevertheless tinged with a sneaking sympathy for its hero, who found the
+orthodox abode of the blest an unbearably dull place. The harp-playing
+in particular was trying, and he had difficulty in managing his wings.
+
+Anyhow, these people avoid the subject. As Emerson says somewhere,
+religion has dealings with them three times in their lives: when they
+are christened, when they are married, and when they are buried. And
+undoubtedly its main appeal is in the period prior to this third
+formality, if they happen to have a longish illness. The rich Miss
+Crawley, in _Vanity Fair,_ is typical of many. In days of health and
+good spirits, this venerable lady had "as free notions of religion and
+morals as Monsieur de Voltaire himself could desire"; but when she was
+in the clutches of disease, and even though in the odour of sanctity, so
+to speak--for she was nursed by Mrs Reverend Bute Crawley, who hoped for
+the seventy thousand pounds if she could keep Rawdon and Becky off the
+doorstep--even with this spiritual advantage she was in much fear, and
+"an utter cowardice took possession of the prostrate old sinner."
+
+Well, let those laugh who will. As for me, I have great sympathy with
+Miss Crawley. Probably those who laugh, or are contemptuous of such
+cowardice, are people who have not yet come to close quarters with
+death--have not looked him, as the French say, in the white of the
+eyes. Let them wait until that happens. If they come back after that
+rencontre, they will be a little more tolerant of the cowardice of those
+whom they called weaker brethren.
+
+Fear of death may be divided into classes, according to its cause, i.e.,
+the intellectual state out of which it seems to arise. It may be due to
+the expectation of physical suffering; or, as in such cases as Cowper's
+and Dr Johnson's, to expectation of what may happen after death, in
+that undiscovered country from which Hamlet said no traveller returned,
+though he had just been talking with his father's ghost, piping hot--as
+Goldsmith has it in his Essay on Metaphor--from Purgatory. In my own
+case, I think the fear is a little of both. And I admit that in both
+directions the fear is irrational. As to the physical part, it is
+probable that when my time comes I shall depart without much of what is
+usually called pain, for the heart seems to be my weak place, and I may
+reasonably hope that even though if attacked by other ailments, it
+will be the heart that will give way. There will probably be suffering
+through difficulty of breathing, and I dread this somewhat, for I know
+how unpleasant it has been in the attacks which I have survived. Still,
+it can hardly be compared with the agonising pain of many diseases.
+Rationally, then, I ought not to have much fear on the physical side.
+
+On the spiritual side I confess with Oliver Wendell Holmes that I have
+never quite got from under the shadow of the orthodox hell. I had a
+Puritan upbringing, not severe in its home theology I am thankful
+to say, but involving attendance at an Independent Chapel where the
+minister--a good man and no hypocrite--was wont to preach very terrible
+sermons. I shall never quite get over the baneful effect of those
+damnatory fulminations. They branded my soul. They caused me more pain
+than anything else has ever done throughout my life--and this is saying
+a great deal. They made me hate God. Remember, I was a defenceless
+child. I knew of no other God. I thought all decent people believed like
+those about me. I was the only heretic--a rebel, an outlaw, an Ishmael.
+Conceive, if you can, the agony of a sensitive child struggling with
+that thought! Condemned to eternal torment, with those who, in Dante's
+terrible line, "have no hope of death." ("Inferno," iii, 46.)
+
+Then I fell in with O. W. Holmes's Autocrat and Professor, and found a
+friendly hand in the darkness. It led me to Emerson and Carlyle; then
+I found Darwin, Spencer, and the rest of them. My loneliness was
+mitigated, but the seared place in my soul was not healed, and never
+will be healed. I cannot read the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante
+without horror, and thus the poetic beauty of those great cantos is
+darkened for me. I cannot worship "God," for "God" is the fiend whose
+image was stamped into my mind in its most plastic, most defenceless
+period. Truly that early teaching has much to answer for. It has
+poisoned a great part of my life. I suppose if I could have "accepted"
+that Being as my God, accepting also the sacrifice--the Blood--by which
+that Being's anger was supposed to be assuaged--I suppose I should have
+been happy, feeling myself "saved." (But I have lately been surprised to
+find how ineffective this belief can be. An acquaintance of mine, an
+orthodox churchwoman who has no religious doubts, and who talks much of
+the Bible, confesses to "a fear of death which clouds even her brightest
+moments"--an ever-present, unconquerable dread.) However, I could not
+accept the dogma. Why, I don't know. Somehow my whole mind and heart
+revolted against the entire plan of salvation. I never believed any of
+it. I felt it could not be true. And yet it tortured me. Illogical?
+Yes: human beings are illogical. I am no exception. The Christian who
+believes he will go to heaven is equally illogical in his unwillingness
+to die.
+
+When or if we succeed in getting rid of hell, the spiritual fear of
+death becomes less torturing, remaining only as a vague dread, as in
+Hamlet's soliloquy. Bacon says that we fear death as children fear to
+go in the dark. In my own case, it is somewhat thus that the fear now
+presents itself. The old hell-fear, though not utterly obliterated, is
+becoming less all-swallowing. This very desirable state of affairs
+is partly the result of the conclusions to which I have been led by
+psychical research. After many years of experiment and close study, I
+can say that I know something about after-death conditions. Not that I
+pretend to be able to coerce other people into a similar belief, even if
+I wanted to. Each must travel his own path. Moreover, psychical research
+being a science, its results are not more certain than those of other
+sciences. Alternative theories in explanation of any phenomenon are
+always possible. There is no such thing as knock-down proof. But for my
+part I can say that I know--in the same way that I know the truth of
+Mendeleef's law, or Avogadro's law, or Dalton's atomic theory--that
+human beings do not become extinct when they die, that they are often
+able to communicate with us after that event, and that they are not in
+any orthodox heaven or hell. My knowledge is based partly on a lengthy
+and carefully-conducted series of sittings which some intimate friends
+of mine have had with a medium known to me; partly on my own results
+over a period of several years of systematic investigation; and partly
+on various curious experiences of psychic friends of mine who are in no
+sense professional mediums. (Details to some extent in my _New Evidences
+in Psychical Research_ (Rider, 1911) and _Psychical Investigations_
+(Cassell, 1917.) I now believe, with the Bishop of London, that a man
+is essentially the same five minutes after death as he was five minutes
+before. As the old woman says in _David Copperfield_, "death doesn't
+change us more than life"--no, nor as much!
+
+The upshot is, of course, that my spiritual fear of death has, I am
+thankful to say, almost vanished. The lurid future has taken on a milder
+radiance.
+
+It is not that I want assuring of "happiness" in a future state as
+compensation for misery in this. I should be quite contented if I could
+be assured that death is annihilation. It would at least be a cessation
+of suffering; and that is much. I could agree with Keats:
+
+    "Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
+    I have been half in love with easeful Death,
+    Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
+    To take into the air my quiet breath.
+    Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
+    To cease upon the midnight with no pain
+    While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
+            In such an ecstasy.
+    Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--
+    To thy high requiem become a sod!"
+                                   --(_To the Nightingale_)
+
+Easeful death--it is a good word. Keats knew disease, and was content
+with prospect of ease; though at the end there is a note of depression
+or despair at the thought of becoming a "sod," deaf and blind to beauty.
+
+This reminds us of the attitude of other poets towards the great
+problem. Tennyson is mildly optimistic and placid; stretches, indeed,
+somewhat lame hands of faith in his sorrowful moments when his friend
+has died, but on the whole is healthily disposed; friendly to the most
+cheerful way of looking at it; inclined, with true British burliness, to
+make the best of a bad job--a job which, after all, may not be so very
+bad when we come to closer quarters with it. Afar, death is the spectre
+feared of man; seen nearer, he may metamorphose into a beautiful Iris,
+sent by heavenly mercy. And, afterwards, the new spiritual state will
+probably be an improvement--Aeonian evolution through all the spheres.
+Therefore, away with all selfish mourning either about our own
+prospective fate or that of those who have left us. Let us hate the
+black negation of the bier:
+
+    "And wish the dead, as happier than ourselves
+    And higher, having climb'd one step beyond
+    Our village miseries, might be borne in white
+    To burial or to burning, hymned from hence
+    With songs in praise of death, and crowned with flowers."
+
+No doubt Tennyson was to a very great extent able to stay himself on
+the personal mystic experiences described in his poem _The Ancient
+Sage_--experiences which gave him a subjective assurance that death was
+"a ludicrous impossibility". Browning, characteristically buoyant, was
+ready to face death with a laugh; the fog in the throat will pass, the
+black minute's at end, then thy breast. In _Prospice_ we feel the eager
+sureness with which he looked forward to rejoining her whose bodily
+presence had left him a few months before. But even Browning's cheery
+salutation is outdone by Whitman. The American, though acquainted with
+suffering as Browning was not, and though apparently without much belief
+or interest in personal survival, was almost uncannily friendly to his
+own taking off. And it was not because he suffered so greatly that
+he hailed release. It was more the natural outcome of his joyous
+temperament, subdued at the last to a kind of solemn exaltation. The
+following stanzas were written with George Inness' picture _The Valley
+of the Shadow of Death_ in mind:
+
+    "Nay, do not dream, designer dark,
+    Thou hast portray'd or hit thy theme entire;
+    I, hoverer of late by this dark valley, by its confines, having
+          glimpses of it,
+    Here enter lists with thee, claiming my right to make a symbol too.
+    For I have seen many wounded soldiers die,
+    After dread suffering--have seen their lives pass off with smiles,
+    And I have watch'd the death-hours of the old; and seen the
+          infant die;
+    The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors;
+    And then the poor, in meagreness and poverty;
+    And I myself for long, O Death, have breath'd my every breath
+    Amid the nearness and the silent thought of thee.
+
+                  "And out of these and thee,
+    I make a scene, a song (not fear of thee,
+    Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark--for I do not fear thee,
+    Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot),
+    Of the broad blessed light, and perfect air, with meadows, rippling
+          tides, and trees and flowers and grass,
+    And the low hum of living breeze--and in the midst God's beautiful
+          eternal right hand,
+    Thee, holiest minister of Heaven--thee, envoy, usherer, guide
+          at last of all,
+    Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot called life,
+                Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death."
+
+This is indeed a change from the idea of Death as King of Terrors, as
+"spectre feared of man". (_In Memoriam_)
+
+The Greek idea, at its best, seems to have been half-way between the
+two extremes. It regarded death with more or less equanimity, as being
+certainly not the greatest evil--no king of terrors--but merely an
+emissary of greater Powers, to whose will we must bow, though with
+dignity:
+
+  "He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to whine
+  for life, and grasp intemperately at old age; let him leave this
+  point to Providence."--(Plato: _Gorgias_)
+
+Sophocles has the same thought, with an added touch of Hamlet-like
+irritation about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune:
+
+    "It is a shame to crave long life, when troubles
+    Allow a man no respite. What delight
+    Bring days, one with another, setting us
+    Forward or backward on our path to death?
+    I would not take the fellow at a gift
+    Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes;
+    But bravely to live on, or bravely end,
+    Is due to gentle breeding. I have said."--(_Ajax_)
+
+Cicero voices the same pagan feeling, in the contented language of a
+rather tired, wise old man:
+
+  "I look forward to my dissolution as to a secure haven, where I
+  shall at length find a happy repose from the fatigues of a long
+  voyage."--(_De Senectute_)
+
+And was it not Cato--fine old Stoic--who, finding his natural force
+abating, and accepting the hint furnished by a stumble in the street,
+stooped and kissed the ground: "Proserpine, I come!" and went home,
+making a speedy end, unwilling to suffer the indignity of disease and
+the shame of being served in weakness? Modern opinion wisely reprobates
+suicide, but there is something noble in the Roman attitude, condemn it
+as we will. As a modern and almost comic example of a modern Stoic's
+attitude to this same question of death we may cite the famous lines of
+Walter Savage Landor:
+
+    "I strove with none, for none was worth my strife,
+    Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art,
+    I warmed both hands before the fire of life,
+    It sinks, and I am ready to depart."
+
+"Strove with none", indeed! As a matter of fact, Landor strove with
+everybody. He was one of the most quarrelsome men that ever lived.
+The only man who could tolerate him was Browning. But in his mellower
+moments, at least, he was "ready to depart", quietly acquiescing in the
+scheme of things. To depart, note; not to be extinguished. And this view
+is, all things considered, the most sane and wholesome view of the great
+problem of Death. We did not begin to live when we were born in this
+present tenement of flesh; we shall not cease to live when we quit it.
+'Tis but a tent for a night, an interlude, a descent into matter, a
+temporary incarnation for educative purposes, of the soul or a part of
+it, as it pursues its lone way towards the ineffable goal. This life is
+but a sleep and a forgetting;
+
+    "The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
+    Has had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar."
+
+Death, then, is to be welcomed when it comes. We must not run to meet
+it, or run from it; but we should welcome it when God thinks fit to send
+it, His messenger. The beautiful eternal right hand beckons, and the
+soul gladly arises and departs, to "that imperial palace whence it
+came", or to fare forth on some "adventure brave and new".
+
+
+
+
+IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?
+
+
+A friend of mine tells me that psychical articles are always
+interesting, "because so many people die and go somewhere". Presumably,
+those who remain here feel a natural curiosity as to where the departed
+have gone, partly for the latter's sake, and partly because they
+themselves would like to know, so that they will know what to expect
+when their own time comes.
+
+The teaching of religion on this point is admittedly either rather
+vague, or, if definite--as with the Augustinian theology--no longer
+credible. We have progressed in sensitiveness and humanity, and can no
+longer believe that a good God will inflict everlasting torment in a
+lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, even on the most wicked of
+His creatures. Still less can we believe in such punishment being
+inflicted for the "sin of unbelief", for we now know well enough that
+"belief", being the net outcome of our total experience and character,
+is not under the control of the will. Consequently, a God who punished
+creatures for not believing, when He knew all the time that He had so
+constructed most of them that they could not believe, would be either
+wicked or insane. This inability to believe "to order" is plainly
+perceived if we reflect on what our feelings would be if a Mohammedan
+implored us to believe in Allah and in Allah's Prophet, as the only way
+of salvation. We should decline, saying perhaps that we knew better;
+but the real reason of our disbelief would not lie in our knowledge but
+in our general makeup. We could not believe in Mohammedanism if we
+tried. We have grown up in a different climate, and have taken a
+different form.
+
+But, putting aside the vindictive hell-god of Augustine, Tertullian,
+Calvin, and the rest--for not even an earthly father would punish a
+child for ever--and taking Christianity at its best, we do not find any
+very specific eschatological teaching. And this very absence is a good
+feature. If a man tries to be good merely in order to avoid hell and
+gain heaven--in other words, because it will pay--his goodness is not
+much of a credit to him. It is only selfishness of a far-sighted kind.
+Religion, on the other hand, when at its best, seeks to influence
+character, not by threats and promises, but by encouraging moods and
+attitudes and habits of thought from which good actions will flow
+spontaneously, without any profit-and-loss calculations. Modern
+Christianity is therefore perhaps right in touching much more lightly
+on the future state than was customary in earlier centuries.
+
+Nevertheless, we cannot repress a little curiosity. People die and go
+somewhere, as my friend says. Where do they go? Modern Religion having
+avoided definite answer, we turn to Science. And Science, much as it
+would surprise such fine old gladiators as Huxley and Tyndall to hear
+it--has an answer, and an affirmative one.
+
+Psychical research has, in my opinion, brought together a mass of
+evidence strong enough to justify the following conclusions. I do not
+say they are "proved." You cannot "prove" that the earth is round,
+unless your hearer will at least study the evidence. You cannot even
+prove to him that 2 plus 2 makes 4, if he refuses to add. Therefore I
+do not say anything about proof. I say only that after many years of
+careful study and investigation I am of opinion that the evidence
+justifies the conclusions.
+
+(1) Telepathy is a fact. A mind may become aware of something that is
+passing in another mind at a distance, by means other than the normal
+sensory channels. The "how" of the communication is entirely unknown.
+The analogy of wireless telegraphy of course suggests itself, but is
+misleading. The ether-waves employed in wireless telegraphy are physical
+pulses which obey the law of inverse squares; telepathy shows no
+conformity with that law, and has not been shown to be an affair of
+physical waves at all. I believe that it is not a physical process; that
+it occurs in the spiritual world, between mind and mind, not primarily
+between brain and brain. And, if so--if mind can communicate with mind
+independently of brain--the theory of materialism at least is exploded.
+If mind can act independently of brain, mind may go on existing after
+brain dies.
+
+(2) Communications, purporting to emanate from departed spirits, are
+sometimes so strikingly evidential that it is scientifically justifiable
+to assume the agency of a discarnate mind. For example, in a case known
+to me, a "spirit" communicating through a non-professional medium--a
+lady of means and position--referred to a recipe for pomatum which
+the communicator said she had written in her recipe book. No one knew
+anything about it; but, on hunting up the book, the deceased lady's
+daughters found a recipe for Dr Somebody's pomade, which their mother
+had evidently written shortly before her death. They confirmed that
+"pomatum" was the word which their mother used. The points to be noted
+are: That the medium was not a professional; that no one who knows her
+has doubted her integrity; that she was not acquainted with either
+the deceased lady or her daughters; that the knowledge shown was
+not possessed by any living (incarnate) mind, and is therefore not
+explainable by telepathy; and, finally, that the case was watched and
+reported on by one of our ablest investigators--a lecturer at Newnham
+College--who found no flaw in the evidence.[1] I repeat that I do not
+claim this to be "proof". I give it merely as an illustration, and will
+give a few more detailed cases in a later chapter. For the present I
+must be content to say that the mass of evidence known to me justifies
+the belief that minds survive what we call death.
+
+  [1] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xvii,
+  pp. 181-3.
+
+The question then arises: What is the nature of the after life? And here
+we are faced with great difficulties. We can ask the returning spirits,
+but we cannot verify their statements. If my uncle John Smith purports
+to communicate, I can test his identity by asking him to tell me
+intimate family details which I can verify by asking his widow, who
+still lives; but I cannot thus check his statements about his spiritual
+surroundings. Still, if he has proved his identity--particularly if
+telepathy seems excluded--we may perhaps feel fairly safe in accepting
+his other statements as true, or at least in admitting their possible
+truth. And of course we can obtain the statements of many different
+spirits, and can compare them. This has been done. The result is a
+striking amount of uniformity. The various spirits agree, on the main
+points.
+
+First of all, they are surprisingly unorthodox! They tell of no heaven
+or hell of the traditional kind. There is no sudden ascent into
+unalloyed and eternal bliss for the good--who, as Jesus pointed out,
+are not wholly good--and no sudden plunge into eternal fires for the
+bad--who, similarly, are not unqualifiedly bad. There is much of bad in
+the best of us, and much of good in the worst of us. Accordingly, the
+released soul finds itself not very different from what it was while in
+the flesh. It has passed into a higher class of the universal
+school--that is all. Tennyson has the idea exactly:
+
+    "No sudden heaven, nor sudden hell, for man,
+    But through the Will of One who knows and rules--
+    And utter knowledge is but utter love--
+    Aeonian Evolution, swift or slow,
+    Thro' all the Spheres--an ever opening height,
+    An ever lessening earth."
+
+I have said that this view is unorthodox, and so it is, if compared with
+the orthodoxy of Calvin or Edwards or Tertullian. But it is pleasant
+to find that orthodoxy to-day is a different thing, and that the
+Tennysonian notion is backed up in high quarters. The Bishopric of
+London is the highest ecclesiastical office in England, after the
+Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, and we find the present Bishop
+of London (Dr Winnington-Ingram) speaking as follows:
+
+"Is there anything definite about death in the Bible? I believe there
+is. I think if you follow me, you will find there are six things
+revealed to us about life after death. The first is that the man is the
+same man. Instead of death being the end of him, he is exactly the same
+five minutes after death as five minutes before death, except having
+gone through one more experience in life. In the second place the
+character grows after death; there is progress. As it grows in life
+so it grows after death. A third thing is, we have memory. 'Son,
+remember', that is what was said to Dives in the other world. Memory for
+places and people. We shall remember everything after death. And with
+memory there will be recognition; we shall know one another. Husband and
+wife, parents and children. Sixthly, we still take great interest in the
+world we have left".
+
+The good Bishop gets all this out of the Bible, and quite rightly. We
+hope no heresy-hunter will accuse him of "selecting" his texts and
+ignoring the hell-fire ones.
+
+So far as earth-language can go, the foregoing represents the probable
+truth regarding the after life. If we inquire for details, we shall
+get nothing very satisfactory. If we ask a spirit concerning what he
+does--how he occupies himself--he will either say he "cannot explain so
+that you will understand" or will tell about living in houses, going
+to lectures, teaching children, and the like. All this is obviously
+symbolical. Any communications that a discarnate entity can send must,
+to be intelligible to us, be in human earth-language; and this language
+is based on sense-experience. After death, experience is different, for
+we no longer have the same bodily senses--eyes, ears, etc.: consequently
+no explanation of the nature of spiritual existence can be more than
+approximately true; yet such expressions as living in houses, going to
+lectures, and the like, may be as near the truth as earth-language can
+get. If a bird tried to describe air-life to a fish, the best it could
+do would be to say it is something like water-life, but there is more
+light, more ease of movement, more detail, more things of interest
+and beauty. Of the wonders of sound--skylark's song, human choruses,
+instrumental symphonies--no idea could be conveyed to the fish. Probably
+our friends in the next stage of existence have, in addition to the
+experiences which they can partly describe, other experiences of which
+they can give us absolutely no idea. They have been promoted. Their
+interests and activities have become wider, their joys greater. Yet they
+are the "same" souls, as the butterfly is the "same" as the chrysalis
+from which it has arisen. But to know exactly what it feels like to be a
+butterfly, the caterpillar and chrysalis have to wait Nature's time. So
+must we.
+
+
+
+
+PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY.
+
+
+Spiritualism and Psychical Research are to the fore just now, and there
+is much newspaper and vocal discussion, based for the most part on
+ignorance, particularly as regards the violent attackers of these
+things. It is desirable that exact knowledge of the subject should
+become more general, and in a recent volume I have tried to review the
+whole subject impartially.[2]
+
+  [2] _Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine_ (Cassell &
+  Co., Ltd.).
+
+But there are many who in these stressful days have no time for even
+one volume on this kind of thing, and for them, or such of them as may
+read this, I have tried in the present article to give an idea of what
+psychical research is, on the spiritualistic side, omitting the medical
+side which concerns itself with suggestive therapeutics. The article was
+first written as a paper which was read before a society of clergy in
+Bradford, whose request for it was a significant and pleasing indication
+that ministers are aware of the importance of the subject. They are
+realising that psychical research is a powerful support to religious
+faith, and that its results provide comfort for the bereaved. We live in
+a scientific age, and the sorrowing heart asks for more than a text and
+an assurance that it is God's will and all for the best; it asks whether
+it is a fact that the departed one still lives and knows and loves,
+whether it is well with him, and whether there will be reunion "over
+there". Psychical research enables us to answer these questions in
+the affirmative. Science is now backing up religion, and is providing
+ministers with by far the best weapon against materialism and so-called
+rationalism. It meets these negative 'isms on their own ground, and does
+not need to take cover under intuition or personal religious experience,
+which are convincing only to the experient. I am not belittling these;
+I am only saying that the phenomenal evidence is more potent for the
+scientific type of mind, and that a knowledge of this evidence is useful
+to those who are defending religion.
+
+
+TELEPATHY
+
+It is found by experiment that ideas can be communicated from mind to
+mind through channels other than the known sensory ones. Professor
+Gilbert Murray of Oxford, probably the most famous Greek scholar in this
+country, recently carried out some interesting experiments of this kind
+in his own family. He would go into another room, leaving his wife and
+daughter to decide on something which they would try to communicate to
+him on his return. They chose the most absurd and unlikely things, but
+in a large number of cases Professor Murray, by making his mind as
+passive as possible and saying the first thing that came into his head,
+was able to reproduce with startling accuracy the idea they had in mind.
+For instance, they thought of Savonarola at Florence and the people
+burning their clothes and pictures and valuables. Says Professor Murray:
+"I first felt 'This is Italy', then, 'this is not modern'; and then
+hesitated, when accidentally a small tarry bit of coal tumbled out of
+the fire. I smelt oil or paint burning and so got the whole scene. It
+seems as though here some subconscious impression, struggling up towards
+consciousness, caught hold of the burning coal as a means of getting
+through".[3] On another occasion they thought of "Grandfather at the
+Harrow and Winchester cricket match, dropping hot cigar-ash on Miss
+Thompson's parasol." Professor Murray's guess, reported verbatim, was:
+"Why, this is grandfather! He's at a cricket match--why it's absurd:
+he seems to be dropping ashes on a lady's parasol." Another time they
+thought of a scene in a book of Strindberg's which Professor Murray had
+not read: a poor, old, cross, disappointed schoolmaster eating crabs for
+lunch at a restaurant, and insisting on having female crabs. Professor
+Murray says: "I got the atmosphere, the man, the lunch in the restaurant
+on crabs, and thought I had finished, when my daughter asked: 'What kind
+of crabs?' I felt rather impatient and said: 'Oh, Lord, I don't know:
+female crabs.' That is, the response to the question came automatically,
+with no preparation, while I thought I could not give it. I may add that
+I had never before heard of there being any inequality between the sexes
+among crabs, regarded as food."
+
+  [3] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. 29,
+  p. 59. (For brevity's sake I shall hereinafter use the recognised
+  initials "S.P.R." for the Society.)
+
+This kind of evidence is not the best, because the thoughts of
+members of one family run more or less in similar grooves; though the
+experimenters recognised this and chose unlikely things purposely. Other
+investigators have sometimes used cards, drawing one at random from a
+shuffled pack, looking at it, and the percipient then trying to say what
+it is. The chance of success is of course one in fifty-two, and the
+amount of success which we might expect by chance in any series can
+be mathematically determined. In one series of successful experiments
+conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge the odds against an explanation by chance
+alone were about ten millions to one. In ordinary matters this would be
+regarded as proof.
+
+Other experiments of the same general character have been carried out by
+Sir William Barrett, Professor Sidgwick, and others, and details may be
+found in the S.P.R. _Proceedings_. In most cases the idea comes into the
+mind as an impression, but if the percipient is a good visualiser it is
+sometimes seen almost externalised as a hallucination. This leads us to
+the next step.
+
+If it is possible to convey to another mind--sometimes so vividly that
+the thing is almost seen as if out there in space--an image of scenes
+thought about, may it not be possible to convey an image of oneself?
+This idea occurred to a gentleman referred to by Myers as Mr S. H. B.
+in his book _Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death_. Mr
+S. H. B., whom I know by correspondence and whose brother I have known
+personally for many years, decided that he would try to make himself
+visible to two young ladies whom he knew, and he concentrated his mind
+on the effort just before going to bed. He willed to show himself in
+their room at one o'clock in the morning. The distance from his house to
+theirs was three miles. Next time he saw them, a few days later, they
+told him they had had a great fright: the elder sister had seen Mr B.'s
+apparition, had screamed and awakened her little sister, who also saw
+him. The time was one o'clock in the morning. They told him this before
+he said anything about his experiment, and they had no reason to expect
+that he would try anything of the kind. Both Mr B. and his brother
+are keen and successful business men; Mr S. H. B. is now retired, his
+brother is still the head of a large firm. I mention this because some
+critics seem to have a notion that psychical researchers are a crowd of
+long-haired poets or semi-lunatic cranks.
+
+
+PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD
+
+Now if a living man can by force of will project a telepathic phantasm
+of himself, it is reasonable to suppose that a dead man can do the same,
+if the so-called dead man still exists; for telepathy does not seem to
+be a physical process of ether-waves, does not conform to the law of
+inverse squares or propagate itself in all directions as physical forces
+do. It seems to occur in the mental world, between mind and mind rather
+than between brain and brain. Consequently, telepathy from the dead is
+likely to be easier than from the living, for they over there are not
+clogged with the fleshly body. Certainly, however they may be explained,
+there are many cases of the apparition of a deceased person. The
+difficulty about accepting the evidentiality of some of them is that if
+the percipient knew that the person appearing was dead, the apparition
+may be merely a subjective hallucination. And even if the death was not
+known, it might be surmised, and the apparition might be the result of
+expectancy if the person appearing was known to be ill or in danger. But
+there are some cases in which a certain amount of detail is conveyed,
+rendering a subjective explanation not very probable. For instance,
+Captain Colt had a vision of his brother, in a kneeling position, with
+a bullet wound in his right temple. He described the vision to several
+people in the house before any news came, so the case does not rest on
+his word alone. In due time information arrived that his brother had
+been killed. He had been shot through the right temple, had fallen among
+a heap of others, and was found in a kneeling position. In his pocket
+was a letter from Capt. Colt asking him, if anything happened to him,
+to make his presence known in the room in which as a matter of fact the
+apparition was seen. The vision, it was found, occurred a few hours
+after the death. Mr Myers gives full details in _Human Personality_.
+In this case the bullet-wound and the kneeling position are points of
+correct detail which are hardly explicable on a subjective theory. The
+best sceptical theory is that the incident was telepathic, the wounded
+brother sending out his telepathic message after being shot. This is
+possible, but hardly probable; for death in the case of a bullet-wound
+through the temple must be almost instantaneous.
+
+Spontaneous cases of this kind and of this degree of evidentiality
+are rare, but there is a large mass of evidence of the same general
+character. The S.P.R. once carried out an extensive inquiry, receiving
+answers from 17,000 people, and tabulating the results in a volume of
+the _Proceedings_. The final conclusion, expressed in weighed and
+guarded words, was that "Between deaths and apparitions of the dying
+person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone". This was
+signed, among other members of the Committee, by Professor Sidgwick,
+whom Professor James once called "the most exasperatingly critical mind
+in England". Some of the apparitions occur before the person's actual
+death, but usually in such cases he is already unconscious and the
+spirit practically free. As to those occurring after, the main
+difficulty about admitting them as proof of survival is, as just said,
+the possibility that although they may appear after the death of the
+person, the telepathic impulse may have been sent out before, and may
+have remained latent for some time in the mind of the percipient. This
+has been carefully considered by investigators, and in many cases there
+are reasons for regarding it as an insufficient theory. On the whole,
+the evidence tends more and more to suggest that in at least some
+instances these happenings are due to the agency of a discarnate mind.
+The proof is cumulative, and no single case can be crucial. There is
+no coerciveness about it, and each can invent his own hypothesis. But
+those who have considered the subject most carefully have come to the
+provisional conclusion that the agency of the so-called dead is in some
+cases a reasonable, and indeed the most reasonable, supposition. There
+are of course many narratives of this kind in the Bible,[4] the _Lives_
+of the Saints, and other literature, but these records, being of
+pre-scientific date, and lacking the corroborative testimony which we
+now require, are of a lower order of evidentiality. The new evidence,
+however, is throwing a backward light on many of these ancient stories,
+and making them credible once more. To me personally, the Bible is a
+much more living book than it used to be. I believe that many things in
+it which I used to regard as myths may have been facts.
+
+  [4] _E.g._, Moses and Elias on the Mount.
+
+
+NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE
+
+There are instances, then, of people occasionally having visions which
+seem to be in some way caused by departed persons. Sometimes the
+percipient has only one experience of the kind in his life; more often
+he has several, for this seeing power is somehow temperamental--a sort
+of gift, like the alleged second sight of the Highlander. It was well
+known to St Paul, as his reference to "discerning of spirits" shows
+(1 _Cor._, xii). With some people the experience is fairly common. And
+in a very few persons the gift is so strong that it is to some extent
+under control. I say to some extent, and I wish to use words very
+carefully and to have them understood very clearly at this point. I
+know several people, who by putting themselves into a passive and
+receptive condition, but without any trance state, can generally get
+evidential messages from somewhere; that is, messages embodying facts
+which the sensitive did not normally know. And some of this matter
+seems to be due to telepathy from the dead. But it cannot be done at
+will. I believe that professional mediums who sit for all comers for a
+fee are often, and indeed generally, quite honest people, but that they
+cannot distinguish between their own imaginations and what really comes
+through. Professor Murray, when saying what came into his head, did not
+know whether it was right or not; that is, he did not know, until he was
+told, whether he had really got the thing telepathically or whether
+it was an idea thrown up by his own imagination. So with professional
+mediums. They give out the ideas that come to them, but as a rule they
+cannot distinguish; and, the power not being entirely under control,
+there is often a large mixture of their own imagination.
+
+I have, however, the good fortune to be acquainted with a sensitive who
+has the unusual power of being able to distinguish; and this is a great
+advantage, rendering verbatim note-taking much easier, and eliminating
+any necessity for balancing hits against misses. If nothing comes, he
+sits silent or talks ordinarily. If he gets anything, it is practically
+always correct. The amount of his success varies, and he will not sit
+for people in general. I know many people who have asked him to visit
+them, offering handsome payment, but he usually declines. He says he
+cannot do it to order, and would be upset if he failed and caused
+disappointment. He comes to me, however, because I understand and
+always tell him that he need not worry if he gets nothing. In fact the
+meeting is regarded as a social call and not as a seance. We talk for
+a while about ordinary things, and in half-an-hour or so, if the medium
+can get his mind placid enough and is in good trim generally, he will
+begin to see and describe spirits present, often getting their names
+and all sorts of details. These come for the most part in flashes, and
+I take down every word he says, in shorthand, without giving any help
+or indication as to whether he is right or wrong. Sometimes in a whole
+afternoon he will have only one or two of these gleams, and on one
+occasion he got nothing. With conditions at their best he will talk
+almost continuously for an hour, the flashes following each other
+closely; and sometimes a spirit will remain visible for several
+minutes, moving about the room. About a dozen of these interviews are
+described in detail in my book _Psychical Investigations_, and other
+investigations of the same sensitive by two very able friends of mine
+in another town are described in _New Evidences in Psychical Research_.
+
+Perhaps one or two illustrative incidents may make things clearer.
+
+The first time Wilkinson came to see me he said, in the middle of
+ordinary talk, that he saw with me the form of a woman who looked about
+fifty-four, and whom he described, saying further that her name was
+Mary. Taking up a piece of paper and a pencil, he wrote in an abstracted
+manner the words "Roundfield Place". He looked at it, without reading
+it aloud, then said: "That will be a house", and proceeded to write
+something else. I got up to look, and found "Roundfield Place. Yes" (the
+"Yes" written in answer to his remark "That will be a house") and a
+signature "Mary". Now it happens that my mother's name was Mary,
+that the description applied to her, and that she died, in 1886, at
+Roundfield Place, not the house to which Wilkinson came, whither we
+removed in 1897. Other similar things were said, about other deceased
+relatives, all true.
+
+In this kind of thing it is our duty to stick to known causes before
+admitting unknown, and my first supposition was that Wilkinson had
+primed himself with information. He could have ascertained most of the
+things by local inquiry, though it would not be very easy, for my mother
+had been dead twenty-two years, and only middle-aged or elderly people
+would remember her. Further interviews with him, however, soon carried
+me beyond the fraud theory--for holding which I now apologise to him,
+feeling considerably ashamed--for he gave me messages from many people
+whose association with me I feel sure he did not know, and also some
+family matter of a very private kind, characteristic of the spirit who
+purported to be communicating, but known to only four living people. I
+then fell back on telepathy, assuming that the medium was reading my
+mind. But, pursuing my investigations, I received information which I
+did not know but which turned out true. For example, Wilkinson on one
+occasion described a Ruth and Jacob Robertshaw, giving details about
+them and saying that Ruth had a very spiritual appearance, with a sort
+of radiance about her, indicating that she had been a very good woman,
+and giving other particulars. All this meant nothing to me, for the
+names were unknown. But, as I had on some other occasions found that
+spirits were described who were relatives of my last visitor, I asked
+the person who had last entered the room--except inhabitants of the
+house--whether she had known people of these names. It turned out that
+they were connexions of hers with whom she had been in close touch
+during life, and everything said by the medium was correct. Now in the
+first place this incident ruled out fraud, for Miss North's visit had
+occurred three days before, and Wilkinson would have had to have
+detectives watching both doors of my house, from first thing in the
+morning to the last thing at night, to find out who my last visitor
+had been; or he would have had to be in league with a servant or a
+neighbour, and even thus could hardly have succeeded, for servants
+are sometimes out--moreover, similar things have happened during the
+_regime_ of different servants--and neighbours could not easily watch
+both doors during dark winter evenings. Further, our neighbours are
+friends of ours, non-spiritualists, and not acquainted with Wilkinson.
+And, after getting to know who my last visitor was, information about
+her deceased relatives would have had to be hunted up. I could give
+further reasons for believing that fraud was an untenable hypothesis,
+but I must be brief. What, next, about telepathy? Well, I had no
+conscious knowledge of these people, so the medium could not have got
+his information from my conscious mind. It is possible to assume that
+I knew it subliminally, and that the medium abstracted it from those
+hidden levels of my mind. This is a guess, but a legitimate guess. It
+is the guess that Miss Dougall (author of _Pro Christo et Ecclesia_)
+makes in criticising this very incident in the book of essays called
+_Immortality_, by Canon Streeter and others. She suggests that on the
+occasion of Miss North's visit my mind had photographed the contents
+of hers, without my knowing it, and that the medium developed the
+photograph and read off the required information. It may be so, but it
+seems to me far-fetched. Miss Dougall, I may add, is a member of the
+S.P.R., and her criticism is instructed criticism, worthy of careful
+attention. But I cannot accept her theory, which seems to me more
+wonderful and to require more credulity than the spirit theory. For it
+is to be observed that the assumed mind-reading is of a character quite
+different from anything that has been experimentally established. In
+telepathic experiments, like those of Professor Murray, some incarnate
+person is _trying_ to communicate the thought. This is not the case in
+my sittings with Wilkinson. I am not trying to communicate anything to
+him; very much the contrary. And I do not find, after long and careful
+observation, any parallelism between what he says and what I happen to
+be thinking about. There is, in short, no evidence for the supposition
+that my mind is read. The evidence points unmistakably to discarnate
+agency--telepathy _from the dead_.
+
+
+TRANCE
+
+The sort of thing I have described is usually known as normal
+clairvoyance, because the sensitive is in a normal state, not in
+trance. But there is a further stage, into which, indeed, Mr Wilkinson
+sometimes passes, in which there is a change of personality, and a
+spirit purports to speak or write with the medium's organs. There
+is nothing weird or uncanny in the procedure, nothing deathly or
+coma-like; the medium usually sits up and even walks about, though
+some trance mediums have to sit still and keep their eyes closed. I
+have had visits from many trance mediums; and most of them have failed
+to get anything evidential--which at least suggests their honesty, for
+they could easily have obtained _some_ information about my deceased
+relatives. But the whole matter of trance control is a thorny problem.
+Indubitably, evidence of supernormal faculty is sometimes given in
+this state, but we of the S.P.R. are divided as to what the control
+really is. Some think it is a spirit, as claimed; others think it is
+a secondary personality of the medium, as in the remarkable case
+of split personality described in Dr Morton Prince's book _The
+Dissociation of a Personality_. Mrs Sidgwick, widow of the Professor
+and sister of Mr A. J. Balfour, has made a careful psychological study
+of the case of Mrs Piper, given in 657 pages of _Proceedings_, vol.
+28, and her conclusion is that though telepathy from the dead is
+probably shown, and certainly some kind of supernormality, the
+controls themselves are dream-fragments of the medium's mind. I am not
+qualified to pronounce an opinion on Mrs Piper, not having met her;
+but as to the trance mediums I have experimented with, I incline to
+agree with Mrs Sidgwick. I think it may be a dodge of the subliminal
+to get the over-anxious normal consciousness temporarily out of
+the way. But this is a psychological detail, and a difficult one,
+requiring much further study. From the psychical research point of
+view Mrs Piper's case may be studied in _Proceedings_, vols. 6, 8, 13,
+16, and a few of the later ones, or some idea of it can be got from
+Sir Oliver Lodge's _Survival of Man_. All the investigators were
+convinced of either telepathy or something more. Fraud was excluded by
+introducing sitters anonymously, Dr Hodgson himself introducing over
+150 different people in this way, and taking careful notes. I have
+experimented similarly with Wilkinson, introducing people from distant
+places such as Middlesex and Northumberland as well as from towns
+nearer home, either under false names or with no names at all, and
+being present myself to take notes. Friends of mine have done the same
+thing. We were unanimously sceptical to start with, probably more
+sceptical than most of those who will read this paper, for we
+disbelieved in survival itself. We are now convinced that the fraud
+theory is out of the question, that at the very least a complicated
+theory of mind-reading--including the reading of the minds of distant
+and unknown persons--must be assumed if the theory of survival and
+communication is to be avoided.
+
+Of late years there has been a great development in automatic writing
+among quite non-professional mediums--private people who are members of
+the S.P.R., as for instance the late Mrs Verrall, Classical Lecturer at
+Newnham--and some noteworthy evidence has been obtained. But it is too
+complex even to summarise here. It seems to be the work of Gurney,
+Hodgson, Myers, and Sidgwick, on the other side, for different messages
+have come through different sensitives, making sense when put together,
+and sense characteristic of these departed leaders. This had not been
+thought of, so far as we know, by any living person, and it seems to
+eliminate telepathy from the living, for the messages are not understood
+until the bits are pieced together. The evidence fills several volumes
+of our _Proceedings_, and students should read them carefully.
+
+There are many other kinds of mediumship or psychic faculty, and many
+volumes are in existence on each phase; the library of the London
+Spiritualist Alliance contains about 3,000. I have read about 500 of
+them, and would not recommend anyone else to do the same. There is a
+great deal of rubbish among them, though they are not all rubbish. The
+reading I recommend is the _Proceedings_ of the S.P.R., the writings of
+Sir William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr W. J. Crawford, and, above
+all, the great work of F. W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and Its
+Survival of Bodily Death_, in the original two-volume edition. The
+abridged one-volume edition omits many of the illustrative cases. I do
+not think that conviction is to be achieved by mere reading; books
+would never have convinced me. But careful reading is perhaps
+sufficient to lead a fairly tolerant mind to realise that there is
+something here which must not be dismissed off-hand; something which is
+worthy of investigation. That is as much as we expect. Sir Oliver Lodge
+often says that we shall do well if we succeed, in this generation, in
+modifying the psychological climate, creating an atmosphere more
+favourable to unprejudiced examination of the facts. We have no desire
+for revolutions; we want knowledge to grow slowly and surely. The
+S.P.R. has been in existence only thirty-seven years, and the
+subject is in its scientific infancy. Take the beginnings of any one
+science--say, Chemistry, dating it somewhat arbitrarily from Priestley
+or Dalton--and note what a little way discovery had gone in a like
+period. With increased numbers of workers the pace increases; but in
+every science the progress at first must be slow. In psychical research
+a good start has been made, and the investigators seem to be certainly
+on the track of something, whether their inferences are right in
+every detail or not. And every advance in science has extended our
+conceptions of this wonderful universe. The heavens declare the glory
+of God in a tremendously larger way than they did in the days of the
+old Ptolemaic astronomy, though man foolishly fought the Copernican
+idea because it seemed to lessen our dignity by making our earth a
+speck on the scale of creation instead of the central body thereof. So
+with all other phenomena, physical and psychical. We may be sure that
+all discovery will be real revelation. With this faith--a well-grounded
+faith--we need not fear advance.
+
+
+RECENT CRITICISM
+
+I add a few words, rather against my inclination, about recent criticism
+of a kind which is hardly worthy that name. Two books, one by Dr Mercier
+and one by Mr Edward Clodd, have had a certain popularity, mainly
+because they attacked, with a certain smartness of phrase, the book of
+a greater man. "Raymond" was being widely read and talked about, and
+its popularity secured some success for these hostile books. Curiously
+enough, even some of the clergy have quoted approvingly some of the
+arguments of these rationalists, no doubt much to the glee of Mr Clodd
+in particular. Now I have said before that instructed criticism is
+always welcome, for we may hope to learn something from it. But Dr
+Mercier, on his own statement, came new to the subject at the age of
+sixty-four, read _Raymond_ and _The Survival of Man_, and immediately
+sat down to write a flippant book the publication of which we hope he
+now regrets. Not only had he never investigated for himself, but he was
+also ignorant of the work of the S.P.R.
+
+As to Mr Clodd, his book is better-informed, though frequently unfair.
+For instance, in his references to me he is very careful to avoid
+any consideration of the strong parts of my case. Like the famous
+theological professor, he looks the difficulties boldly in the face--not
+_very_ boldly--and passes on, without speaking to them. He has obviously
+read fairly widely, but where he does criticise in detail, he always
+seizes on weak points and quietly ignores the strong ones. As to
+personal investigation he is almost entirely without experience. He says
+he attended a seance about fifty years ago, but has forgotten most of
+what happened! He says this, with a momentary lapse from his usual
+cleverness--for it gives away his case--in a letter to the April (1918)
+_International Psychic Gazette_. In other words, he poses as an
+authority on a branch of science of which he has no first-hand
+knowledge. He criticises and dismisses airily the opinions and
+investigations of those who have worked at the subject for ten, twenty,
+thirty, or forty years; for it is over forty years since Sir William
+Barrett brought his experiments in telepathy before the British
+Association. Mr Clodd is a Rationalist, and knows without investigation
+that these things cannot be. He is as _a prioristic_ as a medieval
+Schoolman, in spite of his scientific pose. And his prejudices
+unfortunately prevent him from seeking and studying the facts which
+might lead him to other conclusions.
+
+I have not said anything about the S.P.R. itself, but may here add a
+few remarks. Says its official leaflet: "The aim of the Society is to
+approach these various problems without prejudice or prepossession of
+any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry
+which has enabled Science to solve so many problems, once not less
+obscure nor less hotly debated.... Membership of the Society does not
+imply the acceptance of any particular explanation of the phenomena
+investigated, nor any belief as to the operation, in the physical world,
+of forces other than those recognised by Physical Science". In other
+words, the Society has no creed, except that the subject is worth
+investigating.
+
+The Society has well over 1,000 members, and is growing steadily. It
+includes many famous men in all walks of life, and indeed its membership
+list has been said to contain more well-known names than any other
+scientific society except the Royal Society itself. Among the
+Vice-presidents are the Right Honourables A. J. and G. W. Balfour, Sir
+William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Bishop Boyd-Carpenter and
+the late Sir William Crookes. The President for the current year is Lord
+Rayleigh, probably the greatest mathematical physicist now living.[5]
+The President of the Royal Society (Sir J. J. Thomson) is a member, also
+Professor Henri Bergson of Paris, Dr L. P. Jacks (editor of _The Hibbert
+Journal_) and innumerable other scientists and scholars whose names are
+known to everyone.
+
+  [5] Lord Rayleigh's lamented death has since occurred, July, 1919.
+
+Finally let me assure you that the S.P.R. is so conservative and
+suspicious that admission is almost as difficult to obtain as membership
+of a high-class London club. It is extremely anxious to keep out cranks
+and emotional people of all sorts, and it requires any applicant to be
+vouched for as suitable by two existing members; and each application is
+separately considered by the Council. The result is a level-headed lot
+of members, and the maintenance of a sane and scientific attitude and
+management.
+
+From the philosophic side it is sometimes urged that we cannot reason
+from the phenomenal to the noumenal, from the world of appearance to the
+world of reality; that consequently nothing happening in the material
+world can prove the existence of a spiritual one. But this is easily
+answered. We cheerfully agree, with Kant, that a spiritual world cannot
+be proved coercively and in such knock-down fashion that belief cannot
+be avoided. But it can be proved in the same way and to the same extent
+as many other things which we believe and find ourselves justified in
+believing. For instance, atoms and electrons and the Ether of Space are
+not phenomenal; no one has ever seen or heard or felt or smelt them; but
+we infer their real existence from the behaviour of the matter which
+does affect our senses. Again: we cannot _prove_ to ourselves that other
+human beings exist, or even that an external world exists; my experience
+may be a huge subjective hallucination. If I were reading this paper I
+should not be able to prove to myself that any other mind was present.
+Looking around, I should receive certain impressions--sensations of
+sight--and I should call certain aggregations of these the physical
+bodies of beings like myself. From the similarity of their structure and
+behaviour to the structure and behaviour of my own body, I should infer
+that they have got minds somehow associated with them, as my mind is
+associated with my body. But you could not prove it to me. If you got
+angry with my obstinacy, and knocked me down, I should experience
+painful sensations, but the existence of a mind external to me--and an
+angry one--would still be a matter of inference only. But we find that
+the inference is justified. We find that it "works," and social life is
+possible. For the purposes, then, both of science and of ordinary life,
+we do reason from phenomenon to noumenon, from appearance to reality,
+from attribute to substance; and our reasoning justifies itself.
+I affirm, therefore, that the kind of proof which we as psychical
+researchers put forward for the existence of and communication from
+discarnate minds, is philosophically the same kind as the proof we have
+of the existence of incarnate minds. If a short and clear exposition of
+the point is required, free from any psychical-research bias, I may
+refer inquirers to the chapter on the Psychological Theory of an
+External World in J. S. Mill's _Examination of Sir William Hamilton's
+Philosophy_. Our evidence may be insufficient to justify belief--in the
+opinion of many, it is--and I blame no one for disbelieving; but it is
+evidence. And if it sufficiently accumulates and improves in quality, it
+may amount to a degree of proof at least comparable with that concerning
+electrons, which are now accepted as real by all physicists.
+
+One or two difficulties may here be briefly referred to:
+
+1. The appearance in Mrs Piper's script of such obvious dream-stuff
+as messages from Homer, Ulysses, and Telemachus! These are of course
+absurdities, and no psychical researcher regards them as anything else.
+But they are no more absurd than many of our own dreams, and we must
+remember that automatic writing comes from the dream-strata of the
+medium's mind, these strata seeming to lie _between_ our normal
+consciousness and the spiritual world. Consequently messages which
+really seem to come from beyond: _i.e._, which are evidential--are often
+mixed with subliminal matter from the medium's mind. As a communicator
+once said: "The medium's dreams get in my way." All this has to be
+allowed for, but in good mediums there is not much of it. In my friend
+Wilkinson's case there is none, for he can distinguish. In Mrs Piper's
+case there is a little, but it does not invalidate the huge mass of real
+evidence that has come. And it at least testifies to her honesty, for no
+medium would pretend to get messages from people whom everyone knows to
+be mythical--messages which are indeed comic and therefore enable
+opponents to score points with the general public by obvious witticisms.
+
+Huxley is often referred to, as having wisely declined to investigate,
+knowing beforehand that it was all nonsense. Huxley was busy with his
+own work, and, believing _a priori_ that alleged psychical phenomena
+were either fraud or self-delusion, naturally declined to give any time
+to them. We need not regret his decision, for he was doing work that was
+more important than psychical investigation would have been, just then.
+But he was wrong in his _a priori_ belief, or rather unbelief. He had
+never seen any of these phenomena, but that did not prove that they did
+not happen. A native of mid-Africa may never have seen snow, but that
+does not prove that no snow exists.
+
+And it happens that the Dialectical Society went on with its task,
+appointing committees which investigated without any paid medium. The
+majority of the investigators were utterly sceptical at first; they were
+practically all convinced at the finish. I state this merely as a fact,
+not as a specially important fact; for I find that beginners, when
+suddenly faced with striking phenomena, are liable to go from the
+extreme of unbelief to an extreme of belief. When one's materialistic
+scheme is exploded, there seems no criterion left, and anything may
+happen. It usually takes an investigator a year or two to adjust himself
+and to learn to follow the evidence and not overshoot it.
+
+Some people say: "But if communication is possible, why cannot _I_
+communicate direct with my own departed loved ones?" The question
+is seen on reflection, however, to be easily answered. In the first
+place, we cannot communicate direct even with our friends in the next
+town; we have to get the help of postmen or telegraph clerks and the
+like. It is therefore not at all surprising that an intermediary is
+needed when they are removed further from our conditions. Probably all
+of us have germs of psychic faculty--though I have not yet discovered
+any in myself--somewhat as we can all play or sing a little; but the
+Paderewskis and Carusos are few. Similarly with psychic faculty. Few
+have enough of it to communicate for themselves. On the other hand, it
+is much commoner than Carusos are; but of course, when it occurs in a
+private person, that person does not advertise the fact. Outsiders would
+either scoff, or say "lunacy", or crowd round asking for "sittings",
+out of curiosity. Consequently only sympathetic intimates are told, or
+people who, like myself, are known to be sympathetic investigators. Some
+of the most remarkable sensitives in England at the present day are of
+this private kind--people of education and position--and they are not
+even spiritualists in the sense of belonging to the spiritualist sect.
+They are of various religious persuasions, and belong mostly to rather
+orthodox bodies. There is nothing of the crank about them; they are not
+Theosophists or Christian Scientists or adherents of any other of
+what the sergeant called "fancy religions." I may say that the most
+extraordinary experiences I have ever had have been with a psychic of
+this kind. I have not alluded to these experiences in my paper, because
+the matter is private. But I just mention these things because I find
+that psychic faculties are more common than I once thought, and a
+sympathetic minister could probably hear of private cases if he let his
+sympathy and interest be known. But of course, if he is known to have
+condemned the whole thing as Satanic--as Father Bernard Vaughan does--or
+as lunacy, people with psychic experiences will take very good care not
+to tell him about them.
+
+As to details about the nature of the after-life, I have no dogmatic
+opinions to offer. Probably it is impossible for those over there to
+describe their experience adequately, in our earthly terms. Such
+information as we get must be largely symbolical, as when mediums
+describe a specially good deceased person as surrounded with radiance. I
+have several times noticed that the relative "brightness" or "radiance"
+of a spirit, as described by the medium, has correctly indicated that
+spirit's character, though the medium had no normal knowledge whatever
+of either the person's character or even existence. But though our
+information must probably be mainly symbolical, I think we are justified
+in believing that we begin the next stage pretty nearly where we leave
+off here. There is no sudden jump to unalloyed bliss for even such good
+people as you, no sudden plunge to everlasting woe even for sinners like
+me. This, I admit, is not in accordance with what I used to hear from
+the pulpit twenty years ago. But it agrees with what I read now of the
+opinions of such men as the Bishop of London and Dr J. D. Jones; and
+other clerical writers, such as Canon Storr in his _Christianity and
+Immortality_ and Dr Paterson Smyth in his excellent _Gospel of the
+Hereafter_ take the same view. Our modern moral sense refuses to believe
+that a good God will sentence any creature to everlasting pain; and
+although it may be contended that man has free-will and is therefore
+the arbiter of his own fate, it still remains that God gave him that
+freedom, and therefore still bears the ultimate responsibility. To
+retain belief in a God who can be loved and worshipped, I at least must
+disbelieve in everlasting pain for anyone.
+
+And, added to this moral revolt, there has come a war in which millions
+of young men have died before their natural time. These young fellows,
+we feel, are at least in most cases neither good enough for heaven nor
+bad enough for hell. The sensible supposition seems to be--and it is
+borne out by psychical facts--that they have gone on to the next stage
+of life, which to most or all of them is an improvement; that they are
+busy and happy there; that they are still more or less interested in and
+cognisant of our affairs; that they will come to meet their loved ones
+when _they_ cross over--of this I have had much evidence--and that they
+and humanity as a whole are travelling on an upward path toward some
+goal at present inconceivable to our small and flesh-bound souls.
+
+Some people have objected that psychical research will substitute
+knowledge for faith. This is surely a curious objection, and few will
+advance it. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and my
+belief is that He wants us to learn all we can about His handiwork.
+Nature is a book given to us by our Father, for our good; study of it is
+a duty, neglect of it is unfilial and wrong. Psychical research studies
+its own particular facts in nature, and is thus trying to learn a little
+more of God's mind. It is not we, but those who oppose us, who are
+irreligious.
+
+And as to this matter of faith; well, after we have learnt all we can,
+there will still be plenty of scope left for the exercise of faith in
+general, for our knowledge will always be surrounded by regions of the
+unknown. If anyone says that psychical research antagonises _Christian_
+faith, I say most emphatically that on the contrary it _supports_ it.
+Christianity was based on a Fact: the Resurrection and Appearances of
+Jesus. Psychical-research facts are rendering that event credible to
+many who have disbelieved it. Myers says that in consequence of our
+evidence, everyone will believe, a century hence, in that Resurrection;
+whereas, in default of our evidence, a century hence no one would have
+believed it. And to him, personally, psychical research brought back the
+Christian faith which he had lost.
+
+I hope that the facts and inferences which I have very sketchily put
+before you will have made it clear that there is some reality in the
+subject-matter of our investigations, and that these latter powerfully
+support a religious view of the universe. I believe that we are
+giving materialism its death-blow; hence the wild antagonism of such
+well-meaning but belated writers as Mr Clodd. But we are not ourselves
+religious teachers. That is your domain. You will use our work and its
+results, as you use the work and results of other labourers in the
+scientific vineyard. And I think you will find ours specially helpful.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER
+
+
+Probably few of us keep a diary nowadays. I don't. But I somehow got
+into the habit, soon after I became interested in psychical things, of
+jotting down in a notebook the conclusions at which I had arrived--or
+the almost complete puzzlement in which I found myself, as the case
+might be. Glancing recently through these records of my pilgrimage, it
+seemed to me that a sketch of it might be of some interest or amusement
+to others.
+
+Professor William James says in his _Talks to Teachers_ that it is
+very difficult for most people to accept any new truth after the
+age of thirty; and that indeed old-fogeyism may be said to begin
+at twenty-five. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that, coming
+fresh to the subject at thirty-two--in 1905--I found the struggle to
+psychical truth a very long and arduous affair. Having been brought up
+on the ministrations of a hell-fire-preaching Nonconformist pastor
+whose theology made me into a very vigorous Huxleyan agnostic, I was
+biased against anything that savoured of "religion," and moreover
+"spiritualism" was unscientific and absurd. So I thought, in my
+ignorance; for I knew nothing whatever of the evidence on which
+spiritualistic beliefs are based.
+
+However, I fortunately ran up against hard facts which soon cured me of
+negative dogmatism. I became acquainted with a medium who satisfied me
+that she could diagnose disease, or rather her medical "control" could,
+from a lock of the patient's hair; and this without any information
+whatever being given. Also that the diagnosis often went beyond the
+knowledge of the sitter, thus excluding telepathy from anyone present or
+near. But this did not prove that the control was a spirit, so I turned
+to other investigations.
+
+First, I set myself to "read up". I feel sure that this is the best
+course for beginners to adopt, after once achieving real open-mindedness.
+It enables one to investigate with proper scientific care when
+opportunity arises, and with much better chance of securing good
+evidence. Without this preparation, an investigator has little idea how
+to handle that delicate machine called a medium, and indeed no amount of
+reading will entirely equip the experimenter, for there are many things
+which only experience can teach. Also, without this preparation, the
+investigator will be liable either to give things away by talking too
+much, or will create an atmosphere of suspicion and discomfort by being
+too secretive. It takes some practice to achieve an open and friendly
+manner while never losing sight of the importance of imparting no
+information that would spoil possible evidence. This of course is
+desirable from the medium's point of view as well as that of the sitter.
+It is hard on a medium if, for example, a really supernormally-got name
+does not count because the sitter himself had let it slip.
+
+I think my reading began with _Light_ and some of Mr E. W. Wallis's
+books, but I soon found my way to the _Proceedings of the Society for
+Psychical Research_, and recognised that here was what I was seeking.
+I cannot sufficiently express my admiration, which is as great as ever,
+for such masterly pieces of evidence as, for instance, Dr Hodgson's
+account of sittings with Mrs Piper, in volume 13. If we were perfectly
+logical beings, without prejudice, that account ought to convince
+anybody; certainly it ought to convince the reader of the operation of
+_something_ supernormal, and it ought to go a long way towards
+excluding telepathic theories and rendering the spirit explanation the
+most reasonable one. But we are not logical beings. We require to be
+battered for a long time by fact after fact before we will admit a new
+conclusion. I remember saying, as indeed I noted down in the diary
+mentioned, that a few of these volumes, with Myers's _Human Personality_,
+left me in the curious position of being able to say that, though I was
+not convinced, I felt that logically I ought to be, for the evidence
+seemed irrefragable. Then I read Crookes' _Researches in the Phenomena
+of Spiritualism_, and my logical agreement was accentuated, for Sir
+William Crookes was my scientific Pope, in consequence of my having
+worked from his chemical writings, and having an immense admiration
+for his mind and method. But my actual inner conviction was not much
+changed. Kant says somewhere that we may test the strength of our
+beliefs by asking ourselves what we would bet on them. At this point I
+had not got to the stage of being prepared to bet much on the truth of
+the survival of human beings or the possibility of communicating with
+them if they did survive. I thought the case was logically proved, but
+I didn't feel it in my bones, as the phrase goes. For this, personal
+experience is necessary; at least it is for an old fogey of over
+thirty, with my particular build of mind.
+
+And I was fortunately able to get this experience. One of the two
+best-known mediums in the North of England, Mr A. Wilkinson, happened
+to live only a few miles away, though he was and is generally away from
+home, speaking for spiritualist societies from Aberdeen to Exeter,
+and being booked over a year ahead. However, I was able to get an
+introduction to him through friends who also carried out investigations
+with him (described in my _New Evidences in Psychical Research_), and
+since then, with intermissions due mainly to ill-health, I have
+had friendly sittings with him continuously. To him I owe my real
+convictions, and for this I cannot adequately thank him. Without his
+kindness I could never have achieved certainty; for owing to a damaged
+heart I could not get about to interview mediums, and there was no other
+medium within reasonable distance. Besides, Mr Wilkinson has stretched a
+point in my case, for he does not give private sittings, preferring to
+confine himself to platform work; and I suppose he makes an exception in
+my case in view of my inability. I here once more thank him for all he
+has done for me.
+
+At my first sitting with him he described and named my mother and other
+relatives, whom he saw apparently with me. I had no reason to believe
+that he had any normal knowledge of these people; certainly I had never
+mentioned them to him, and it was in the last degree unlikely that
+anyone else had. My mother had been dead twenty-two years, and was not
+at all a prominent person. Moreover, he got by automatic writing a
+signed message from her, giving the name of the house in which we lived
+at the time of her death, but which we had left eleven years later. This
+seemed to be given by way of a test. At later sittings my father and
+other relatives manifested, with names and identifying detail, and
+the proof began to be almost coercive. The evidence went beyond any
+possibility of the medium's normal knowledge, and was characteristic of
+the different communicators in all sorts of subtle ways. Telepathy alone
+remained as a possible alternative to the spirit explanation. Then came
+a peculiar phase, as if there were a definite plan on the part of some
+of my friends on the other side for the purpose of utterly convincing me
+by bringing evidence which could not possibly be accounted for by any
+supposition of a reading of my own mind. A spirit friend of mine would
+turn up, bringing with him a spirit whom I had never heard of, and
+saying that he was a friend of his; and on inquiry I would find that it
+was so--and sometimes it needed a great deal of inquiry, which made it
+all the better evidence, for it showed how difficult it would have been
+for the medium to obtain the information; though indeed at this stage
+the evidence had forced me past crude suspicions of that sort. On other
+occasions unknown spirits would appear, and I would find that they
+belonged to the last visitor I had had. Several incidents of this kind
+are described in my book _Psychical Investigations_. After some years
+of this kind of experience I became fully satisfied that the spirit
+explanation was the only reasonable one. Some writers, like Miss Dougall
+in a recent volume of essays called _Immortality_, invent a complicated
+hypothesis according to which my mind photographs the mind of a visitor
+and the medium on his next visit develops and reads off the photograph;
+but I confess that my credulity does not stand the strain put upon it by
+such a hypothesis. Besides, I have lately had--as if to get round even
+such tortured theories as this--evidence giving details which have not
+been known to any person I have ever met. I was told to write to a
+certain friend of mine, father of the ostensible communicator. The facts
+were unknown even to him, but he was able to verify them completely;
+and they were characteristic and evidential of the identity of the
+ostensible communicator.
+
+If all my results were of the kind I have had through Mr Wilkinson the
+case would, for me, be so utterly and overwhelmingly proved that doubt
+would be absurd. But this is too much to expect. I have had many
+other mediums here, with varying success, but nothing approaching Mr
+Wilkinson's. In many cases it is fairly obvious that the medium's
+subliminal--or the control's imagination--has been doing part of the
+business, no doubt unknown to the medium's normal consciousness. But in
+no case have I had any indication of fraud. This seems sufficient answer
+to Mr Edward Clodd's credulous acceptance of the theory of a Blue-Book
+and inquiry system which enables mediums to post themselves up about
+likely sitters. It would be the easiest thing in the world for an
+imitation medium to learn enough about me to give what would seem on the
+face of it a fairly "good" sitting. But this is never the case. Either
+the medium fails or he is so successful that normal knowledge is ruled
+out. On Mr Clodd's theory, I ought to have neither of these extremes;
+I ought to have no failures, and no results going beyond what inquiry
+could produce. But I need not labour this point, for Mr Clodd has
+recently confessed his almost absurd innocence of any first-hand
+experience. In a letter to the _International Psychic Gazette_ for
+April, 1918, he said he had been to a sitting about fifty years ago, but
+he does not remember much about what happened! Yet he sets up as an
+authority on this branch of experimental science! It is like someone
+writing on chemistry after being in a laboratory once, fifty years ago.
+
+Some of my most curious experiences, concerning which I have not yet
+published anything in detail, have been in connexion with crystal
+vision. I happen to know a sensitive--not a professional medium or even
+a spiritualist--who has physical-phenomena powers of very unusual and
+indeed probably unique type. Not only can she see in the crystal and
+get evidential messages by writing seen therein, but the writing or
+pictures are visible to anyone present. I have seen them myself. As
+many as six people at a time, myself among them, have seen the same
+thing, and not one of the six was of suggestible type or had had any
+hallucinations. All were middle-aged, except one young lieutenant, and
+we were indeed a rather exceptionally un-neurotic and stodgy lot. But
+though the things seem objective--I am going to try to photograph them,
+also the sensitive, in the hope of confirming the Crewe phenomena--they
+are somehow more or less influenced by the sensitive's own mind,
+without her conscious knowledge; for, _e.g._, in one message,
+purporting to come from my father, I was addressed as Arthur, a name
+which would be natural to the medium who knows me mostly from printed
+matter and a few letters, but which is entirely inappropriate in
+relation to my father. Yet a good deal of evidence of identity has come
+through this sensitive, and this "mixture" does not invalidate the
+case. Again, a queer feature of this sensitive's powers is that lost
+objects are frequently found as a result of instructions given in the
+crystal; and in many of these cases it seems certain that the position
+of the lost object could not have been known to any incarnate mind,
+or of course it would not have been left there. In one case it was a
+valuable ruby; in several others it was Treasury notes. This sensitive
+also is a medium for very good raps, which all present can hear quite
+distinctly and which show intelligence, answering questions and so
+forth.
+
+I have therefore reached the conviction that human survival is a fact,
+that the life over there is something like an improved version of
+the present one, and--a comforting thought, supported by much of my
+evidence--that we are met at death by those who have gone before. Some
+of my more mystical friends, who have not needed such prolonged jolting
+to get them out of materialistic grooves, are rather bored with me for
+dwelling so much on the evidence and on the nature of the next state.
+They call it "merely astral"; as for them, their minds soar in higher
+flights. One friend, a sort of radical High Churchman, said to me some
+time ago that he was "not interested in the intermediate state". But
+I rather think that he will have to be. I may be wrong, but I suspect
+that, whether they like it or not, these good people will have to go
+through the intermediate state before they get anywhere else. Good
+though they are, I do not believe they are good enough for unalloyed
+bliss or union with the Godhead. Such sudden jumps do not happen.
+Progress is gradual. Indeed, I have noticed lately that my High
+Churchman friend has shown much more interest in these merely psychical
+things. Perhaps he thinks he had better turn back and make sure of the
+next state and its nature, perceiving that it is a necessary bridge or
+"tarrying-place" (which is the alternative reading for the "mansions"
+of our Father's house) on the way to the heaven which he quite rightly
+aims at.
+
+As to the future of psychical science and opinion, I feel sure that
+great things are now ahead. The war, with the terrible amount of
+mourning it entails, has quickened interest in the subject, and for
+millions of people the question of survival and the next state has
+become an urgent and abiding one. Their interest, instead of being
+almost wholly on this side, is very largely over there, whither their
+loved ones have gone. Similarly with the soldiers who have come safely
+through the war. All have lost friends, all have faced the possibility
+of sudden or slow and painful death. And probably all young people at
+present, and most adults, have out-grown the crude beliefs of last
+century's orthodoxy with its everlasting hell, and are ready for a more
+rational system. This is being supplied, backed by scientific proof, by
+psychical research and scientific spiritualism. It seems likely that the
+religion of the best minds for the next half-century or so, and perhaps
+onward, will be something like that which Myers came to hold in his
+later years. It does not much matter whether the spiritualist sect
+grows as an institution or not. Many people will accept its main belief
+without feeling it necessary to leave the communion to which they
+already belong. It seems certain that the idea itself will be the ruling
+idea in many minds for a long time, and no doubt psychic faculty will
+become much more common, for thousands are now trying to develop it who
+never cared to try before. Quite possibly the effort on both sides of
+the veil, in consequence of so many premature deaths, may bring about
+a closer communion between the two sides than has ever been known
+hitherto. A great lift-up of earthly thought would be the result, a
+perhaps final emergence from the chrysalis stage of materialism; and we
+shall then be near the time when, as the inspired Milton makes his
+Raphael say:
+
+    "Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit,
+    Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend
+    Ethereal, as we, or may, at choice,
+    Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell."
+
+
+
+
+DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?
+
+
+Mr G. K. Chesterton, with true journalistic instinct, recently
+stimulated public interest in himself and other worthy things by
+engineering a discussion on "Do Miracles Happen?" The debate furnished
+an opportunity of harmlessly letting off steam, but apparently each
+disputant "was of his own opinion still" at the finish; though some of
+the newspapers thought that the affirmative was proved, not by argument,
+but by the actual occurrence of a miracle at the meeting--for Mr Bernard
+Shaw was present, but remained silent! Joking apart, however, these
+discussions are usually rendered nugatory by each debater attaching a
+different meaning to the word. To one of them, a "miracle" involves the
+action of some non-human mind; to others it is only a "wonderful"
+occurrence, which is the strictly etymological meaning. It is only in
+the latter sense that orthodox science has anything to say on the
+subject.
+
+David Hume, in the most famous of his essays, says that a miracle is "a
+violation of the laws of nature", which laws a "firm and unalterable
+experience has established". A century later, Matthew Arnold disposed of
+the question in an even shorter manner. "Miracles do not happen", said
+he, in the preface to _Literature and Dogma_. Modern science has,
+speaking generally, concurred.
+
+But the two statements are not very satisfactory. It is true, no doubt,
+that miracles did not enter into the experience of David Hume and
+Matthew Arnold; but this does not prove that they have never entered
+into the experience of anybody else. If I must disbelieve all assertions
+concerning phenomena which I have not personally observed, I must deny
+that the sun can ever be north at mid-day, as indeed the Greeks did
+(according to Herodotus), when the circumnavigators of Africa came back
+with their story. But if I do, I shall be wrong. (_Histories_, book IV,
+"I for my part do not believe them", says even this romantic historian.)
+
+It is as unsafe to reject all human testimony to the marvellous as it
+is to accept it all without question. The modern mind has gone to the
+negative extreme, as the medieval mind went to the other. Take for
+instance the twenty-five thousand Lives of the Saints in the great
+Bollandist collection. They are full of miracles, of most incredible
+kinds; yet in those days the accounts caused no astonishment. There was
+no organised knowledge of nature, outside the narrow orbit of daily
+life--and how narrow that was, we with our facile means of communication
+and travel can hardly realise. Consequently there was little or no
+conception of law or orderliness in nature, and therefore no criterion
+by which to test stories of unusual occurrences. Anything might happen;
+there was no apparent reason why it shouldn't. One saint having retired
+into the desert to lead a life of mortification, the birds daily brought
+him food sufficient for his wants; and when a brother joined him they
+doubled the supply. When the saint died, two lions came and dug his
+grave, uttered a howl of mourning over his body, and knelt to beg a
+blessing from the survivor. (Cf. the curious story of St Francis taming
+"Brother Wolf", of Gubbio, in chapter 21 of the _Fioretti_.) The
+innumerable miracles in the _Little Flowers_ and _Life of St Francis_
+are repeated in countless other lives; saints are lifted across rivers
+by angels, they preach to the fishes, who swarm to the shore to listen,
+they are visited by the Virgin, are lifted up in the air and suspended
+there for twelve hours while in ecstasy they perceive the inner mystery
+of the Most Blessed Trinity. Almost every town in Europe could produce
+its relic which has produced its miraculous cures, or its image that had
+opened or shut its eyes, or bowed its head to a worshipper. The Virgin
+of the Pillar, at Saragossa, restored a worshipper's leg that had been
+amputated. This is regarded by Spanish theologians as specially well
+attested. There is a picture of it in the Cathedral at Saragossa.
+(Lecky, _Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe_, vol. 1, page
+141.) The saints were seen fighting for the Christian army, when the
+latter battled with the infidel. In medieval times this kind of thing
+was accepted without question and without surprise.
+
+About the end of the twelfth century there came a change. The human mind
+began to awake from its long lethargy; began to writhe and struggle
+against the dead hand of authority which held it down. The Crusades, as
+Guizot shows, had much to do with the rise of the new spirit, by causing
+educative contact with a high Saracenic civilization. Men began to
+wonder and to think. Heresy inevitably appeared, and became rife. In
+1208 Innocent III established the Inquisition, but failed to strangle
+the infant Hercules. In 1209 began the massacre of the Albigenses, which
+continued more or less for about fifty years, the deaths being at least
+scores of thousands; but the blood of the martyrs was the seed of
+further freedom and enlightenment. Nature began to be studied, in
+however rudimentary a way, by Roger Bacon and his brother alchemists.
+The Reformation came, weakening ecclesiastical authority still further
+by dividing the dogmatic forces into two hostile camps, and thus giving
+science its chance. Galileo appeared, and did his work, though with many
+waverings, for Paul V and Urban VIII kept successively a heavy hand on
+him; he was imprisoned at seventy, when in failing health, and, some
+think, tortured--though this is uncertain, and his famous _e pur si
+muove_ is probably mythical. More important still, Francis Bacon,
+teaching with enthusiasm the method of observation and experiment. The
+conception of law, of rationality and regularity in nature, emerged;
+Kepler and Newton laid down the ground plan of the universe, evolving
+the formulae which express the facts of molar motion. Uniformity in
+geology was shown by Lyell, while Darwin and his followers carried
+law into biological evolution. Then man became swelled-headed; became
+intoxicated with his successes. It had already been so with Hume, and
+it became more so with his disciples. Man treated his own limited
+experience as a criterion, and denied what was not represented by
+something similar therein. Especially was this the case when alleged
+facts had any connection with religion. Religion had tried to
+exterminate science, and it was natural enough that, in revenge, science
+should be hostile to anything associated with religion. Consequently,
+the scientific man flatly denied miracles, not only such stories as the
+rib of Adam and the talking serpent (concerning which even a church
+father like Origen had made merry in Gnostic days fifteen hundred years
+before), but also the healing miracles of Jesus, which to us are now
+beginning to look possible enough.
+
+This negative dogmatism is as regrettable as the positive variety. It
+is not scientific. Science stands for a method, not for a dogma. It
+observes, experiments, and infers; but it makes no claim to the
+possession of absolute truth. A genuine science, confronted with
+allegations of unusual facts, neither believes nor disbelieves. It
+investigates. The solution of the problem is simply a question of
+evidence. Huxley in his little book _Hume_, and J. S. Mill in his
+_Essays on Religion_, made short work of the "impossibility" attitude.
+Says the former in _Science and Christian Tradition_, page 197:
+
+"Strictly speaking, I am unaware of anything that has a right to the
+title of an impossibility, except a contradiction in terms. There are
+impossibilities logical, but none natural. A 'round square', a 'present
+past', 'two parallel lines that intersect', are impossibilities, because
+the ideas denoted by the predicates round, present, intersect, are
+contradictory of the ideas denoted by the subjects square, past,
+parallel. But walking on water, or turning water into wine, are plainly
+not impossibilities in this sense".
+
+No alleged occurrence can be ruled out as impossible, then, unless the
+statement is self-contradictory. Difficulty of belief is no reason. It
+was found difficult to believe in Antipodes; if there were people on
+the under side of the earth, "they would fall off". But the advance of
+knowledge made it not only credible but quite comprehensible. People
+stick on, all over the earth, because the earth attracts them more
+powerfully than anything else does. Similarly with some miracles. They
+may seem much more credible and comprehensible when we have learned
+more. Indeed, the wonders of wireless telegraphy, radio-activity, and
+aviation are intrinsically as miraculous as many of the stories in the
+world's sacred writings.
+
+This is not saying, however, that we are to believe the latter _en
+bloc_. They must be taken individually, and believed or disbelieved
+according to the evidence and according to the antecedent probability or
+improbability. The standing still of the sun (_Joshua_, x) does not seem
+credible to the scientific mind which knows that the earth is spinning
+at the equator at the rate of one thousand miles an hour and that any
+sudden interference with that rotation would send it to smithereens,
+with all the creatures on its surface. Of course, a Being who could stop
+its rotation could perhaps also prevent it from flying to smithereens;
+but we have to extend the miracle in so many entirely hypothetical ways
+that the whole thing becomes too dubious for acceptance. It is simpler
+to look on the story as a myth.
+
+But such things as the clairvoyance of Samuel (I _Samuel_, x), and
+even the Woman of Endor story, are quite in line with what psychical
+research is now establishing. And the healing miracles of Jesus are
+paralleled, in kind if not in degree, by innumerable "suggestive
+therapeutic" doctors. Shell-shock blindness and paralysis are cured at
+Seale Hayne Hospital and elsewhere in very "miraculous" fashion. And
+turning water into wine is not more wonderful than turning radium into
+helium, and helium into lead, which nature is now doing before our
+eyes. These things, therefore, have become credible, if the evidence
+is good enough. Whether evidence nineteen hundred years old can be
+good enough to take as the basis of serious belief is another matter.
+Scientific method insists on a high standard of evidence. We must be
+honest with ourselves, and not believe unless the evidence satisfies our
+intellectual requirements. But the modern and wise tendency is to regard
+religion as an attitude rather than as a belief or system of beliefs. It
+does not stand or fall with the miracle-stories.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY
+
+
+The amount of nonsense that is talked, and apparently widely believed,
+about telepathy, is almost enough to make one wish that the phenomenon
+had not been discovered, or the word invented. Without any adequate
+basis of real knowledge, the "man in the street" seems to be accepting
+the idea of thought-transference as an incontrovertible fact, like
+wireless telegraphy--which latter is responsible for a good deal of easy
+credence accorded to the former, both seeming equally wonderful. But the
+analogy is a false one. There is a great deal of difference between the
+two. In wireless telegraphy we understand the process: it is a shaking
+of the ether into pulses or waves, which act on the coherer in a
+perfectly definite way and are measurable. But in spite of much loose
+talk about "brain-waves", the fact is that we know of no such thing.
+Indeed, there is reason to believe that telepathy, if it is a fact at
+all--and I believe it is--may turn out to be a process of a different
+kind, the nature of which is at present unknown. For one thing, it does
+not seem to conform to physical laws. If it were an affair of ripples in
+the ether--like wireless telegraphy--the strength of impact would vary
+in inverse ratio with the square of the distance. The influence would
+weaken at a known rate, as more and more distance intervened between
+sender and recipient. And this, in many cases at least, is not found to
+be so, consequently Mr Gerald Balfour and other leading members of
+the Society for Psychical Research incline to the opinion that the
+transmission is not a physical process, but takes place in the spiritual
+world.
+
+I have said that I believe in telepathy, yet I have deprecated too-ready
+credence. What, then, are the facts?
+
+The first attempt at serious investigation of alleged supernormal
+phenomena by an organised body of qualified observers was made by the
+London Society for Psychical Research, which was founded in 1882 by
+Henry Sidgwick (Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge), F. W. H.
+Myers and Edmund Gurney (Fellows of Trinity), W. F. Barrett (Professor
+of Experimental Physics at Dublin, and now Sir William), and a few
+friends. The membership grew, and the list now includes the most famous
+scientific names throughout the civilised world. In point of prestige,
+the society is one of the strongest in existence.
+
+The first important work undertaken was the collection of a large
+number of cases of apparition, etc., in which there seemed to be some
+supernormal agency at work, conveying knowledge; as in the case of
+Lord Brougham, who saw an apparition of his friend at the moment of
+the latter's death. The results of this investigation were embodied in
+the two stout volumes called _Phantasms of the Living_ (now out of
+print, but an abridged one-volume edition has recently been edited by
+Mrs Sidgwick (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1919), and in
+Vol. x. of the _Proceedings_ of the Society. As the outcome of this
+arduous investigation, involving the collection and consideration
+of about 17,000 cases and extending over several years of time, the
+committee made the cautious but memorable statement that "Between
+deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is
+not due to chance alone". This guarded statement was carefully worded
+in order to avoid committing the society to any definite (_e.g._
+spiritualistic) interpretation. Some of the apparitions occurred
+within twelve hours before the death, some at the time of death, and
+some a few hours afterwards. But these latter of course do not prove
+"spirit-agency"--though indeed sometimes they seem to render it
+probable--for the telepathic impulse or thought may have been sent
+out by the dying person, remaining latent--so to speak--until the
+percipient happened to be in a sufficiently passive and receptive
+state to "take it in".
+
+Definite experimentation was also made, of various kinds, _e.g._, one
+person would be shown a card or diagram, and another (blindfolded) would
+maintain a passive mind, saying aloud what ideas "came into his head".
+Some of these experiments--which are still required and should be tried
+by those interested in the subject--indicated that the concentration of
+A's mind did indeed sometimes produce a reverberation in the mind of B.
+In a series conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge, the odds against the
+successes being due to chance can be mathematically shown to be ten
+millions to one.
+
+For this new fact or agency, Mr Myers invented the word "telepathy"
+(Greek _tele_, at a distance, and _pathein_, to feel), and defined it
+as "communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another,
+independently of the recognised channels of sense".
+
+But I wish to say, and to emphasise the statement, that this
+transmission, though regarded as highly probable by many acute minds,
+cannot yet be regarded as unquestionably proved, still less as occurring
+in a common or frequent way. We have all of us known somebody who
+claimed to be able to make people turn round in church or in the street
+by "willing" them, but usually these claims cannot be substantiated.
+It is difficult to eliminate chance coincidence. And the folks who lay
+claim to these powers are usually of a mystery-loving, inaccurate build
+of mind, and therefore very unsafe guides. Moreover, how many times have
+they "willed" without result?
+
+One reason why I deprecate easy credence, leaning to the sceptical side
+though believing that the thing sometimes happens, is, that there is
+danger of a return to superstition, if belief outruns the evidence.
+If the popular mind gets the notion that telepathy is more or less
+a constant occurrence--that mind can influence mind whenever it
+likes--there is a possibility of a return to the witchcraft belief which
+resulted in so many poor old women being burnt at the stake in the
+seventeenth century. I prefer excessive disbelief to excessive credulity
+in these things; it at least does not burn old women because they have a
+squint and a black cat and a grievance against someone who happens to
+have fallen ill. Unbalanced minds are very ready to believe that someone
+is influencing them. I have received quite a number of letters from
+people (not spiritualists) who, knowing of my interest in these
+matters, got it into their foolish heads that I was trying some sort of
+telepathic black magic on them. I had not even been thinking about them.
+It was entirely their own imagination. One of these people is now in an
+asylum. I think she would probably have become insane in any case--if
+not on this, then on some other subject--but these incidents almost make
+me wish that we could confine the investigation and discussion of the
+subject to our own circle or society until education has developed more
+balanced judgment in the masses. But of course such a restriction is
+impossible. The daily press and the sensational novelists have got hold
+of the idea. We must counteract the sensational exaggerations, which
+have such a bad effect on unbalanced minds, by stating the bare, hard
+facts. Here, as elsewhere, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It
+is the half-informed people who are endangered. The remedy is more
+knowledge. Let them learn that, though there is reason to believe that
+under certain conditions telepathy is possible and real, there is
+nevertheless no scientific evidence for anything in the nature of
+"bewitching", or telepathy of maleficent kind. This cannot be too
+strongly insisted on. Let us follow the facts with an open mind, but
+let us be careful not to rush beyond them into superstition.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM
+
+
+Various popular novelists, such as George Du Maurier in _Trilby_, and
+E. F. Benson in _The Image in the Sand_, have taken advantage of the
+possibilities which hypnotic marvels offer to the sensational writer,
+and have put into circulation a variety of exaggerated ideas. This is
+regrettable. Of course the novelist can choose his subject, and can
+treat it as he likes; it is the public's fault if it takes fiction for
+fact, or allows its notions of fact to be coloured or in any way
+influenced by what is avowedly no more than fiction.
+
+But it is certain that it is thus influenced. It is therefore desirable
+that the public should be told from time to time exactly what the
+scientific position is--what the conclusions are, of those who are
+studying the subject in a proper scientific spirit, with no aim save the
+finding of truth. This will at least enable the public to discriminate
+between fact and fiction, if it wants to.
+
+No doubt the phenomena in question have been often discovered,
+forgotten, and rediscovered; but in modern times the movement dates from
+Mesmer. Friedrich Anton Mesmer was born about 1733 or 1734. In 1766 he
+took his doctor's degree at Vienna, but did not come into public notice
+until 1773. In that year he employed in the treatment of patients
+certain magnetic plates, the invention of Father Hell, a Jesuit,
+professor of astronomy at Vienna.
+
+Further experiments led him to believe that the human body is a kind of
+magnet; and that its effluent forces could be employed, like those of
+the metal plates, in the cure of disease. Between 1773 and 1778 he
+travelled extensively in Europe, with a view to making his discoveries
+better known. Also he sent an account of his system to the principal
+learned bodies of Europe, including the Royal Society of London, the
+Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the Academy at Berlin.
+
+The last alone deigned to reply; they told him his discovery was an
+illusion. Apparently they knew all about it, without investigating.
+There is no dogmatism so unqualified, no certainty so cocksure, as that
+of complete ignorance.
+
+The method at first was probably a system of magnetic passes or
+strokings of the diseased part by the hand of the doctor. But, as the
+patients increased in number, a more wholesale method had to be devised.
+Consequently Mesmer invented the famous "_baquet_". This was a large
+tub, filled with bottles of water previously "magnetised" by Mesmer.
+
+The bottles were arranged to radiate from the centre, some of them with
+necks pointing away from it and some pointing towards it. They rested
+on powdered glass and iron filings, and the tub itself was filled with
+water. In short, it was a sort of glorified travesty of a galvanic
+battery. From it, long iron rods, jointed and movable, protruded through
+holes in the lid. These the patients held, or applied to the region of
+their disease, as they sat in a circle round the _baquet_. Mesmer and
+his assistants walked about, supplementing the treatment by pointing
+with the fingers, or with iron rods, at the diseased parts.
+
+All this may seem, at first sight, very absurd. But the fact remains
+that Mesmer certainly wrought cures. And apparently he frequently
+succeeded in curing or greatly alleviating, where other doctors had
+completely failed. It is no longer possible for any instructed person to
+regard Mesmer as a charlatan who knowingly deluded the public for his
+own profit. His theories may have been partly mistaken, but his
+practical results were indubitable.
+
+It is also worth noting that he treated rich and poor alike, charging
+the latter no fee. He was a man of great tenderness and kindness of
+heart, devoted to the cause of the sick and suffering; and the accounts
+of his patients show the unbounded gratitude which they felt towards
+him, and the respect in which he was held.
+
+The orthodox doctors, of course, felt otherwise. They were envious and
+jealous of the foreign innovator and his success. And his fame was too
+great to allow of his being ignored. Consequently the Royal Society
+of Medicine (Paris) appointed a commission to inquire into the new
+treatment. The finding, of course, was adverse. The investigators could
+not deny the cures, but they fell back on the recuperative force of
+nature (_vis medicatrix naturae_) and denied that Mesmer's treatment
+caused the cure.
+
+Obviously, Mesmer, having treated his patients, could not prove that
+they would not have recovered if he had _not_ treated them; so his
+critics had a strong position. But, on the other hand, neither can an
+orthodox doctor prove that _his_ cures are due to _his_ treatment. If it
+is _vis medicatrix naturae_ in one case, it may be the same in the other.
+
+Modern medicine is more and more coming to this conclusion--is
+abandoning drugging as it abandoned bleeding and cautery, and is leaving
+the patient to nature. This is a significant fact.
+
+But there is good reason to believe that Mesmer's treatment was a real
+factor in his cures, for in many cases the patient had been treated by
+orthodox methods for years without effect. Perhaps, as the doctors said,
+it was "only the recuperative force of Nature", but if the doctors could
+not set that force to work, and Mesmer somehow could, he is just as much
+entitled to the credit of the cure as if he had done it by bleeding or
+drugging. However, by one sort of persecution or another, he was driven
+out of Paris, and more or less discredited. After a visit to England, he
+retired to Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity until his death in
+1815.
+
+The method was kept alive by various disciples, such as the Marquis de
+Puysegur, Dupotet, Deleuze, and many more, but in an amateurish sort of
+way. The first-named found that in one of his patients he could induce
+a trance state which showed peculiar features. In trance, the man knew
+all that he knew when awake, but when awake he knew nothing of what had
+happened in trance. This second condition thus seemed to be equivalent
+to an enlargement of personality.
+
+Both in England and France the medical side came to the front again,
+in the hands of Braid (a Manchester surgeon who first used the term
+"hypnotism", from Greek _hypnos_, sleep, and whose book _Neurypnology,
+or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep_ was published in 1843), Liebeault,
+Bernheim, Elliotson, and Esdaile.
+
+Elliotson and Esdaile still believed in a magnetic effluence, but the
+idea was given up by Braid and the "Nancy school" (the investigators
+who followed the lines of Liebeault of Nancy), for it was found that
+patients could be hypnotised without passes or strokings or any
+manipulation. Braid told his patients to gaze fixedly at a bright
+object, _e.g._, his lancet. Liebeault produced sleep by talking
+soothingly or commandingly filling the patient's mind with the idea
+of sleep. In some cases it was found that patients could hypnotise
+themselves by an effort of will (this was confirmed more recently by Dr
+Wingfield's experiments with athletic undergraduates at Cambridge), and
+this disposed of the hitherto supposedly necessary "magnetic effluence"
+from the operator.
+
+The most modern opinion is pretty much the same. Dr Tuckey, who learnt
+his method from Liebeault himself, and who practised for twenty years in
+the West End of London, is convinced that the whole thing is suggestion.
+So is Dr Bramwell, who shares with Dr Tuckey the leading position among
+hypnotic practitioners in England. The latter, it may be remarked, was
+the first qualified medical man to write an important book on the
+subject in English, after Braid.
+
+The tendency now is to give suggestions without attempting to induce
+actual trance. It is found with many patients that if they will make
+their minds passive and receptive, listening to the doctor's suggestions
+in an absent-minded sort of way, those suggestions--that the health
+shall improve and the specified symptoms disappear--are carried out. The
+explanation of this is "wrapped in mystery". No one knows exactly how it
+comes about. But it seems to be somewhat thus:
+
+The complicated happenings within our bodies, such as the chemical
+phenomena known as digestion and the physical phenomena such as blood
+circulation and contraction of involuntary muscles, seem to imply
+intelligence, though that intelligence is not part of the conscious
+mind, for we do not consciously direct the processes. They go on all
+the same--for example--when we are asleep. Presumably, then, there is a
+mental Something in us, which never sleeps, and which runs the organic
+machinery. If we could get at this Something, and give it instructions,
+a part of the machinery which is working wrongly might get attended to
+and put right. Unfortunately, the ordinary consciousness is in the way.
+We cannot get at the mechanic in the mill, because we have to go through
+the office, and the managing director keeps us talking.
+
+Well, in hypnotic trance, or even in the preoccupied "absent-minded"
+state, we get past the managing director--who is asleep or attending to
+something else--into the mill. We get at the man who really attends to
+the machinery. We get past the normal consciousness, and can give our
+orders to the "subconscious" or "subliminal"--which means "below the
+threshold". In Myers' phrase, suggestion is a "successful appeal to the
+subliminal self", but exactly how it comes about, and why the patient
+usually cannot do it for himself but has to have the suggestion
+administered by a doctor, we do not know.
+
+Of course the word "suggestion" does not really explain anything. It
+is a word employed to cover our ignorance. Suggestive methods are as
+empirical as Mesmer's. In each case a successful appeal is made to the
+recuperative forces of nature, _vis medicatrix naturae_; but exactly how
+or why suggestion does it, we know no more--or hardly any more--than we
+know how and why Mesmer's _baquet_ did it. The fact remains, however,
+that the thing is done. What we lack is only a satisfactory theory.
+
+At one time it was thought that only functional disorders could be
+relieved. But it is now recognised that the line between functional
+and organic is an arbitrary one. If we cannot find definite organic
+change in tissue, we call the ailment functional; but nevertheless
+some change there must be, though microscopic or unreachable.
+Consequently even functional disorders are at bottom organic; and,
+though of course grave lesions produce the gravest disorders, there is
+no _a priori_ impossibility in a hypnotic cure of even the most radical
+tissue-degeneration.
+
+However, as a matter of practical fact, the "mechanic" has his
+limitations, like the normal consciousness. He is not omnipotent.
+Consequently we cannot be sure of being able to stimulate him to the
+extent of a cure. It depends on his knowledge and power. But he can
+always do something, if we can get at him. The chief difficulty is that
+in many people he is inaccessible.
+
+For instance, I have many times submitted myself to the treatment of
+Dr Tuckey and another medical friend, without effect. I have each time
+tried my best to help, making my mind as passive as I could; for I was
+sure that if a suggestible stage could be reached, some troublesome
+heart symptoms and insomnia could be alleviated. But I was never
+able to reach a state even approaching hypnosis. I suppose my normal
+consciousness could not put itself sufficiently to sleep. Being
+interested in the scientific aspect of the subject, my consciousness
+watched the process and analysed its own sensations, instead of
+"letting go" and subsiding out of the way.
+
+As to the proportion of susceptible persons, observers differ.
+Wetterstrand and Vogt hold that all sane and healthy people are
+hypnotisable, and Dr Bramwell's results among strong farm labourers at
+Goole support that view. Patients with nervous ailments are difficult
+to hypnotise; out of one hundred such cases in his London practice, Dr
+Bramwell only influenced eighty. This is the percentage of susceptibles
+found by Drs Tuckey and Bernheim also.
+
+The insane are usually unhypnotisable, probably because of their
+inability to concentrate their attention. Out of the 80 per cent. of
+sane susceptibles, only a small proportion go off into hypnotic sleep;
+ten according to Tuckey, rather more according to the experience of
+Bramwell, Forel, and Vogt. Most of the susceptible, however, though
+retaining consciousness, may be deprived of muscular control. For
+example, if told that they cannot open their eyes, they find that
+it is so.
+
+The various "stages" of hypnosis shade gradually into each other, and
+classifications are not much good. Charcot's three stages of lethargy,
+catalepsy, and somnambulism are now discredited as true stages. In good
+subjects they are producible at will, and as observed at the Salpetriere
+they were almost certainly due to training.
+
+I have no space for the quoting of detailed medical cases, but it is
+desirable to emphasise the practical facts and to make the subject
+as concrete as possible to the reader, so I will quote just one, as
+illustration, from Dr Bramwell's contribution to _Proceedings of the
+Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xiv, page 99.
+
+"Neurasthenia; suicidal tendencies. Mr D----, aged 34, 1890; barrister.
+Formerly strong and athletic. Health began to fail in 1877, after
+typhoid fever. Abandoned work in 1882, and for eight years was a chronic
+invalid. Anaemic, dyspeptic, sleepless, depressed. Unable to walk a
+hundred yards without severe suffering. Constant medical treatment,
+including six months' rest in bed, without benefit. He was hypnotised
+from June 2 to September 20, 1890. By the end of July all morbid
+symptoms disappeared, and he amused himself by working on a farm. He can
+now walk forty miles a day without undue fatigue." Similar cases are
+now being recorded in the military hospitals. Soldiers make excellent
+"subjects".
+
+It has been much debated whether a hypnotised person could be made to
+commit a crime. Probably not; it is difficult to be quite sure, but the
+evidence is on the negative side. True, a hypnotised subject will put
+sugar which he has been told is arsenic into his mother's tea, but his
+inner self probably knows well enough that it is only sugar. On the
+other hand, it is certain that a hypnotiser may obtain a remarkable
+amount of control over specially sensitive subjects, particularly by
+repeated hypnotisations.
+
+I have seen hypnotised subjects who seemed almost perfect automata,
+obeying orders as mechanically as if they had no will of their own left.
+Certainly no one, either man or woman, but particularly the latter,
+should submit himself or herself to hypnotic treatment except by a
+qualified person in whom full trust can be reposed. And, even then, in
+the case of a woman patient, it is well for a third person to be
+present.
+
+But the stories of the novelists, about subjugated wills, hypnotising
+from a distance, and all the rest of it, are quite without adequate
+foundation in fact. There is very little evidence in support of hypnosis
+produced at a distance, and in the one case where it did seem to occur
+there had been repeated hypnotisations of the ordinary kind, by which a
+sort of telepathic rapport was perhaps established (Myers' _Human
+Personality_, vol. i, page 524).
+
+Hypnotism against the will is a myth; except perhaps in here and there a
+backboneless person who could be influenced any way, without hypnosis or
+anything of the kind. The Chicago pamphleteer who wants to teach us how
+to get on in business by developing a "hypnotic eye" is merely after
+dollars. It is all bunkum.
+
+There is a sense, however, in which hypnotic treatment can be a help in
+education and in strengthening the character. Backward and lazy children
+could probably be improved, and I know cases in which sleep-walking and
+other bad habits have been cured by suggestion. From this it is but a
+step to dipsomania, which can often be cured. Dr Tuckey reports seventy
+cures out of two hundred cases.
+
+F. W. H. Myers, to whose genius doctors as well as psychologists owe
+their first scientific conceptions in this domain, was extremely
+optimistic here. He held that though we cannot expect to manufacture
+saints, any more than we can manufacture geniuses, there is nevertheless
+enough evidence to show that great things could be done.
+
+"If the subject is hypnotisable, and if hypnotic suggestion be applied
+with sufficient persistency and skill, no depth of previous baseness
+and foulness need prevent the man or woman whom we charge with 'moral
+insanity', or stamp as a 'criminal-born', from rising into a state where
+he or she can work steadily and render services useful to the community"
+(_Human Personality_, vol. i, page 199). Experiments on hypnotic lines
+ought certainly to be carried out in our prisons and reformatories. As
+to the formerly alleged dangers of such experimentation--dangers of
+hysteria, etc., alleged by the Charcot school which is now seen to have
+been quite on a wrong tack--they do not exist, if the operator knows his
+business.
+
+Says Professor Forel: "Liebeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand, Van Eeden,
+De Jong, Moll, I myself, and the other followers of the Nancy school,
+declare categorically that, although we have seen many thousands of
+hypnotised persons, we have never observed a single case of mental or
+bodily harm caused by hypnosis, but, on the contrary, have seen many
+cases of illness relieved or cured by it". Dr Bramwell fully endorses
+this, saying emphatically that he has "never seen an unpleasant symptom,
+even of the most trivial nature, follow the skilled induction of
+hypnosis" (_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol.
+xii, page 209).
+
+A proof that _intellectual_ powers outside the normal consciousness
+may be tapped by appropriate methods is afforded by the remarkable
+experiments of Dr Bramwell, on the appreciation of time by somnambules.
+He ordered a hypnotised subject to carry out, after arousal, some
+trivial action, such as making a cross on a piece of paper, at the end
+of a specified period of time, reckoning from the moment of waking.
+In the waking state, the patient knew nothing of the order; but a
+subliminal mental stratum knew, and watched the time, making the subject
+carry out the order when it fell due.
+
+The period varied from a few minutes to several months, and it was
+stated in various ways, _e.g._ on one occasion Dr Bramwell ordered the
+action to be carried out in "24 hours and 2880 minutes". The order was
+given at 3.45 P.M. on December 18, and it was carried out correctly at
+3.45 P.M. on December 21. In other experiments, the periods given were
+4,417, 8,650, 8,680, 8,700, 10,070, 11,470 minutes.
+
+All were correctly timed by the subliminal stratum, the action being
+promptly carried out at the due moment. In the waking state the patient
+was quite incapable--as most of us would be--of calculating mentally
+when the periods would elapse. But the hypnotic stratum could do it,
+and this shows that there are intellectual powers which lie outside
+the field of the normal consciousness. The argument could be further
+supported by the feats of "calculating boys", who can sometimes solve
+the most complicated arithmetical problems, without knowing how they do
+it. They let the problem sink in, and the answer is shot up presently,
+like the cooked pudding in the geyser.
+
+But these things are still in their infancy. Psychology is working at
+the subject, but we do not yet know enough to enable us to venture
+far in the direction of practical application of hypnotic methods in
+education. It seems likely, however, that further investigation will
+yield knowledge which may be of inestimable practical value in the
+training of minds, as well as in the curing of mental and bodily
+disease.
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
+
+
+It has been said, as a kind of jocular epigram, that the Holy Roman
+Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. With similar truth it
+may be said that Christian Science is neither Christian nor science,
+in any ordinary sense of those words. Still, perhaps we ought to allow
+an inventor to christen his own creation, even if the name seems
+inappropriate or likely to cause misunderstanding; and, Mrs Eddy having
+invented Christian Science as an organised religion--though, as we shall
+see, borrowing its main features from an earlier prophet--we may admit
+her right to give a name to her astonishing production. In order that
+the personal equation may be allowed for, the present writer begs to
+affirm that he writes as a sympathetic student though not an adherent.
+
+Mary A. Morse Baker was born on July 16th, 1821, of pious parents, at
+Bow, New Hampshire. Her father was almost illiterate, rather passionate,
+a keen hand at a bargain, and a Puritan in religion. All the Bakers were
+a trifle cranky and eccentric, but some of them possessed ability of
+sorts, though Mary's father made no great success in life. His daughter
+made up for him afterwards.
+
+The first fifteen years of Mary Baker's life were passed at the old
+farm at Bow. The place was lonely, the manner of life primitive, and
+education not a strong point in the community. Mrs Eddy afterwards
+claimed to have studied in her girlhood days Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
+natural philosophy, logic, and moral science! It was, however,
+maintained by her contemporaries that she was backward and indolent, and
+that "Smith's _Grammar_, and as far as long division in arithmetic",
+might be taken as indicating the extent of her scholarship. There is
+certainly some little discrepancy here, and perhaps Mrs Eddy's memory
+was a trifle at fault. She made no claim to any acquaintance with this
+formidable array of subjects in the later part of her life, and it
+seems probable that her contemporaries were right. Her physical beauty,
+coupled with delicate health, seem to have resulted in "spoiling", for
+even as a child she dominated her surroundings to a surprising extent.
+
+In 1843 she married George Glover, who died in June, 1844, leaving her
+penniless. Her only child was born in the September following. After ten
+years of widowhood she married Daniel Paterson, a travelling dentist.
+In 1866 they separated, he making some provision for her. In 1873 she
+obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. In 1877 she married Asa
+Gilbert Eddy, who died in 1882.
+
+So much for her matrimonial experiences, which may now be dismissed, as
+they had no particular influence on her character and career. To prevent
+confusion, we will call her throughout by the name which is most
+familiar to us and to the world.
+
+The chief event of Mrs Eddy's remarkable life, the event which put her
+on the road to fame and fortune, occurred in 1862. This was her meeting
+with the famous "healer", Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. This latter was an
+unschooled but earnest and benevolent man, who had made experiments in
+mesmerism, etc., and who had found--or thought he had found--that people
+could be cured of their ailments by "faith". He therefore began to
+work out a system of "mind-cure", which he embodied in voluminous MSS.
+Patients came to him from far and near, and he treated all, whether they
+could pay or not. Quimby was much above the level of the common quack,
+and his character commands our respect. He was a man of great natural
+intelligence, and was admirable in all his dealings with family,
+friends, and patients.
+
+Mrs Eddy visited him at Portland in 1862, her aim being treatment for
+her continued ill-health. She claims to have been cured--in three
+weeks--though it is clear from her later letters that the cure was not
+complete. Still, great improvement was apparently effected, for she had
+been almost bedridden, with some kind of spinal or hysterical complaint,
+for eight years previously. But Quimby's effect on her was greater
+mentally even than physically. She became interested in his system,
+watched his treatment of patients, borrowed his MSS., and mastered his
+teachings. In 1864 she visited him again, staying two or three months,
+and prosecuting her studies. She now seemed to have formed a definite
+desire to assist in teaching his system. No doubt she dimly saw a
+possible career opening out in front of her; though we need not
+attribute her desire entirely to mere ambition or greed, for it is
+probable that Quimby did a great amount of genuine good, and his pupil
+would naturally imbibe some of his zeal for the relief of suffering
+humanity.
+
+In 1866 Quimby died, aged sixty-four. His pupil decided to put on the
+mantle of her teacher, but more as propagandist and religious prophet
+than as healer. In this latter capacity perhaps her sex was against her.
+(Even now the average individual seems to have a sad lack of confidence
+in the "lady doctor"!) But she was poor, and prospects did not seem
+promising. For some time she drifted about among friends--chiefly
+spiritualists--preparing MSS. and teaching Quimbyism to anyone who would
+listen. (She afterwards denied her indebtedness to Quimby, claiming
+direct revelation. "No human pen nor tongue taught me the science
+contained in this book, _Science and Health_, and neither tongue nor
+pen can overthrow it."--_Science and Health_, p. 110, 1907 edition.)
+
+Though unsuccessful as healer (in spite of her later claim to have
+healed Whittier of "incipient pulmonary consumption" in one visit),
+she certainly had the knack of teaching--had the power of inspiring
+enthusiasm and of inoculating others with her ideas. In 1870 she
+turned up at Lynn, Mass., with a pupil named Richard Kennedy, a lad of
+twenty-one. Her aim being to found a religious organisation based on
+practical results (the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, etc.), it
+was necessary to work with a pupil-practitioner. Accordingly she and
+Kennedy took offices at Lynn, and "Dr Kennedy" appeared on a signboard
+affixed to a tree.
+
+Immediate success followed. Patients crowded the waiting-rooms. Kennedy
+did the "healing" and Mrs Eddy organised classes, which were recruited
+from the ranks of patients and friends; fees, a hundred dollars for
+twelve lessons, afterwards raised to three hundred dollars for seven
+lessons. Before long, however, she quarrelled with Kennedy, and in 1872
+they separated, but not before she had reaped about six thousand dollars
+as her share of the harvest. It was her first taste of success, after
+weary years of toil and stress and hysteria and eccentricity. Naturally,
+like Alexander, she sighed for further conquest. _L'appetit vient en
+mangeant._ And, though in her fiftieth year, she was now more energetic
+than ever.
+
+Her next move was the purchase of a house at 8, Broad Street, Lynn,
+which became the first official headquarters of Christian Science. In
+1875 appeared her famous book, _Science and Health, With Key to the
+Scriptures_, which was financed by two of its author's friends. The
+first edition was of a thousand copies. As it sold but slowly, she
+persuaded her chief practitioner, Daniel Spofford, to give up his
+practice and to devote himself to advertising the book and pushing its
+sale. Since then it has been revised many times, and the editions are
+legion. Loyal disciples of the better-educated sort have assisted in its
+rewriting, and it is now a very presentable kind of affair as to its
+literary form. Most, if not all, of the editions have been sold at a
+minimum of $3.18 per copy, with _editions de luxe_ at $5 or more, and
+the author's other works are published at similarly high prices. All
+Christian Scientists were commanded to buy the works of the Reverend
+Mother, and all successive editions of those works. It is not surprising
+that Mrs Eddy should leave a fortune of a million and a half dollars. It
+may be mentioned here that she moved from Lynn to Boston in 1882, thence
+to Concord (New Hampshire) in 1889, and finally to a large mansion in a
+Boston suburb which she bought for $100,000, spending a similar sum in
+remodelling and enlarging. The modern prophet does not dwell in the
+wilderness, subsisting on locusts and wild honey. He--or she--has moved
+with the times, and has a proper respect for the almighty dollar and the
+comforts of civilisation.
+
+In 1881 was founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. This
+imposingly-named institution never had any special buildings, and its
+instructions were mostly given in Mrs Eddy's parlour, Mrs Eddy herself
+constituting all the faculty. Four thousand students passed through
+the "College" in seven years, at the end of which period it ceased to
+exist. The fees were usually $300 for seven lessons, as before. Few
+gold-mines pay as well as did the "Metaphysical College". The fact does
+not at first sight increase our respect for the alleged cuteness of the
+inhabitants of the States. But, on further investigation, the murder is
+out. Most of these students probably earned back by "healing" much more
+than they paid Mrs Eddy. Our respect for Uncle Sam's business shrewdness
+returns in full force.
+
+The experiment of conducting religious services had been made by Mrs
+Eddy at Lynn in 1875, but the first Christian Science Church was not
+chartered until 1879. The Scientists met, however, in various public
+halls of Boston, until 1894, when a church was built. This was soon
+outgrown, and 10,000 of the faithful pledged themselves to raise two
+million dollars for its enlargement. The new building was finished in
+1906. Its auditorium holds five thousand people. The walls are decorated
+with texts signed "Jesus, the Christ," and "Mary Baker G. Eddy"--these
+names standing side by side.
+
+The following examples, culled almost at random, will further show how
+great is her conviction that she has the Truth, how vigorously she bulls
+her own stocks (somehow, financial metaphors seem inevitable when
+writing of Mrs Eddy):
+
+"God has been graciously fitting me during many years for the reception
+of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific
+mental healing". (_Science and Health_, p. 107.)
+
+"I won my way to absolute conclusion through divine revelation, reason
+and demonstration". (_Ibid._, p. 109.)
+
+"To those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to
+Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed the Spirit of Christian Science,
+if not the absolute letter". (_Ibid._, p. 483.)
+
+"The theology of Christian Science is truth; opposed to which is the
+error of sickness, sin, and death, that truth destroys". (_Miscellaneous
+Writings_, p. 62.)
+
+"Christian Science is the unfolding of true Metaphysics, that is,
+of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests on principle and
+demonstration. The Principle of Christian Science is divine". (_Ibid._,
+p. 69.)
+
+The following maybe quoted as an example of mixed good and evil, with a
+certain flavour of unconscious humour:
+
+"Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and
+kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering to its
+possessor throughout time, and beyond the grave. If you have been badly
+wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense this wrong, and punish,
+more severely than you could, him who has striven to injure you".
+(_Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 12.)
+
+The advice is good, but it is not new. And Mrs Eddy seemed to experience
+a special joy in the thought that by leaving our enemies alone they
+will receive from God a more effective trouncing than we with our poor
+appliances could administer. The ideal Christian would not want his
+enemies handed over to the inquisitor--he would beg for them to be let
+off. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" That is
+the Christian attitude. It is perhaps too high for ordinary mortals to
+attain to, but Mrs Eddy made such high claims that we are entitled to
+judge her by correspondingly high standards.
+
+The form of service in the various Christian Science churches at first
+included a sermon. But Mrs Eddy soon saw that this might introduce
+discord: for the preachers might differ in their interpretations of
+_Science and Health_. And Mrs Eddy above all things aimed at unity in
+order to keep the control in her own hands. Therefore, in 1895, she
+forbade preaching altogether. The Bible and _Science and Health, With
+Key to the Scriptures_, were to be read from, but no explanatory
+comments were to be made. The services comprise Sunday morning and
+evening readings from these two books, with music; the Wednesday evening
+experience meeting; and the communion service, once or twice a year
+only. There is no baptismal, marriage, or burial service, and weddings
+and funerals are never conducted in Christian Science churches.
+
+As to church government, there was a nominal board of directors, but Mrs
+Eddy had supreme power. She could appoint or dismiss at will. The Church
+was hers, body and soul. Probably no other religious leader ever had
+such an unqualified sway. The Holy Father at Rome is a mere figurehead
+in comparison with the late Reverend Mother.
+
+In June, 1907, there were in all 710 branch churches. Of these,
+twenty-five were in Canada, fourteen in Britain, two in Ireland, four in
+Australia, one in South Africa, eight in Mexico, two in Germany, one in
+Holland, one in France, and the remainder in the States. There were also
+295 societies not yet incorporated into churches. The total membership
+of the 710 churches was probably about 50,000. (In _Pulpit and Press_,
+p. 82, Mrs Eddy puts the number at 100,000 to 200,000; and this was in
+1895. Some claim that the total number of adherents is as high as a
+million. But these are probably exaggerated estimates.) About one-tenth
+of these make their living by their faith. Here we come to the secret of
+Christian Science success.
+
+There are about 400 authorised Christian Science "healers", and many
+who practise without diploma but not without pay. These people treat
+sick folks, receiving fees. Their method is to assure the patient
+that he is under a delusion in thinking himself ill, that matter
+is an illusion, that God is All, etc. It sounds very absurd. But the
+curious thing is that many people have been cured by this treatment,
+and--naturally--these people become ardent Christian Scientists. It is
+by the practical application that Christian Science as a religion lives
+and thrives. As to the kind of diseases cured, the most extravagant
+claims are made. In _Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 41, Mrs Eddy
+definitely states that "all classes of disease" can be healed by her
+method. After careful sifting of much evidence, however, Dr Myers and
+his brother (F. W. H. Myers) found that no proof was forthcoming for
+the cure of definite organic disease by Christian Science methods.
+(_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. IX, p. 160;
+also _Journal_, vol. VIII, p. 247.) Undoubtedly they have been, and are
+continually, efficient in relieving, and even curing, many functional
+disorders which have resisted ordinary medical treatment--and it must
+be remembered that many functional derangements are as serious,
+subjectively, as grave organic disease--and consequently it is
+undeniable that Christian Science often does good. But it is probable
+that the same amount of good, and perhaps more, could be done by the
+hypnotic or suggestive treatment of a qualified medical man, or perhaps
+by other forms of "faith-healing". The Christian Scientist is using
+suggestion; but he couples it up with religion, and thus, perhaps--with
+some people--succeeds in driving the suggestion home with greater
+force. It is noteworthy that similar attempts are now being made in
+other directions--witness the Emmanuel movement in New York, the
+Faithists and various "psycho-therapeutic" societies in England, and
+the tendency in some quarters (Bishop of London) to return to anointing
+and laying on of hands by clergymen.
+
+Psychologically, Mrs Eddy is at least classified, if not entirely
+explained, by one word--monoideism. She was a person of one idea. These
+people, for whom we usually have the simpler term of "crank", are common
+enough. I have no personal acquaintance with the circle-squaring and
+perpetual-motion cranks mentioned by De Morgan (_The Budget of
+Paradoxes_), but I know a "flat-earth" crank, and am well acquainted
+with a "British-Israelite" crank, who seems to derive unspeakable
+joy--tempered only by his failure to convert me--from the thought that
+we Britishers are veritably the descendants of one or more of the Lost
+Tribes. All these people are conscious of a mission. They have had a
+revelation, and are anxious to impart it. Their efforts may not be due
+to the "last infirmity of noble mind", still less to a lower motive.
+They may just be built that way. The majority of them, like my
+Lost-Tribes friend, get no hearing because of the inflexible pragmatism
+of a stiffnecked and utilitarian generation. "What difference does it
+make whether we are the Tribes or not?" asks the man in the street. And
+he passes on with a shrug or a grin, according to temperament. This
+terrible pragmatic test makes short work of many amiable cranks. And it
+is just here that Christian Science scores its point; for it cures
+physical disease, thereby becoming intensely practical. Health is the
+chief "good" of life. Anything that will restore it to an ailing body
+commands immediate and universal respect. Christian Science therefore
+appeals, on its practical side, to the deepest thing in us--to the
+primal instinct of self-preservation. Hence its success.
+
+It is possible to blame Mrs Eddy unjustly for her love of power as such.
+She was not unique in this respect. The difference is that Mrs Eddy
+succeeded while the others have not, and are consequently not heard of.
+My Lost-Tribes friend would be as autocratic as anybody if he had the
+chance; but his motive would not be greed of power, but rather the
+overmastering desire to push his cause, to proselytise, to promulgate
+his one idea, almost by force, if such a thing were possible. Most of
+us know a few fanatics of this kind. The objects of their devotion are
+varied--one is mad north-north-west, another south-south-east--but
+all suffer from a lack of balance, a lack of proper distribution of
+interest. Of course, we may cheerfully admit that we are all more or
+less specialists in our several departments, and that the line between
+sanity and insanity is rather arbitrary. We all seem more or less mad to
+those who do not agree with us.
+
+The good and true part of Christian Science is its demonstration of the
+influence of mind on body, and of the usefulness of inducing mental
+states of an optimistic character. It may, of course, be said that we
+need no Mrs Eddy to tell us this. True, we don't. The great seers and
+poets have always taught optimism, and the influence of mind on body was
+medically recognised--more or less--long before even Quimby's time. But
+we must remember that different minds need different treatment--need
+their nutriment and stimulant in different forms, to suit the various
+mental digestions and receptive powers. Consequently, though we may
+prefer Browning for optimism and the doctors for hypnotic therapeutics,
+we need not complain if others prefer Mrs Eddy and her disciples.
+If they get good from their way of putting things, and if that good
+manifests itself in their character and life--in their total reaction on
+the world--by all means let them continue to walk in their chosen way.
+It would be wrong to try to turn them. The system "works"; therefore it
+is true for them. The tree is known by its fruits. And the fruits of
+Christian Science are undoubtedly often good. In this complex world
+nothing is unmixedly good, and harm is no doubt done occasionally. But,
+on the whole, it seems probable that Mrs Eddy, with all her hysteria and
+morbidities and rancours and queerness, has been a power for good in
+the world. Her writings meet a want which some people feel, or, rather,
+provide them with a useful impulse in the direction of physical and
+spiritual regeneration. If you can make a sick person stop brooding over
+his ailments and worrying over things in general, you have achieved
+something which enormously increases his chance of recovery; and if you
+can make him turn all his thoughts and energies in the direction of
+recovery, and all his emotional powers in the direction of love and
+goodwill to his fellow-men and towards God, there is no limit to the
+powers which may be put in operation. In spite of all our achievements
+in science--and they have been great--we are only, as Newton said,
+picking up pebbles on the sea-shore. Nature is boundless; we can fix no
+limits to her powers. And we know so little, really, about disease, that
+I am not at all prepared to deny the Christian Science claims, even
+with regard to organic disease. The distinction between organic and
+functional is in our own inabilities, not in the nature of the case;
+we call a disease "organic" when we find definite tissue-change, and
+"functional" when we do not; but in the latter case there must be some
+organic basis, though too small perhaps to be discoverable--say a lesion
+in a tiny nerve. Consequently I regard the question of Christian Science
+cures as entirely one of evidence. I keep an open mind. If I come across
+enough evidence, I will believe that it can cure tuberculosis of the
+lungs and other diseases, as claimed, whether I can understand how it
+does it or not. At present, like Dr Myers, I am not convinced; but I
+have seen enough of Christian Science results among my own friends to
+prevent me from denying anything. I merely suspend judgment. But I do
+believe that the power of the mind over the body is so great that almost
+anything is possible; and I think that the medical advance of the next
+half-century will be chiefly in this hitherto neglected direction.
+I happen to know that this, or something very near this, was the
+strongly-held opinion of the late Professor William James of Harvard,
+who, in addition to being the most brilliant psychologist of his
+generation, was also a qualified doctor of medicine.
+
+
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC
+
+
+Great results often flow from small causes. Pascal said that if
+Cleopatra's nose had been shorter the history of the world would have
+been different. Similarly it may be truly said that if a peasant girl of
+Domremy had not had hallucinations, France would now have been a British
+province. And it is curious to reflect that the Church which burnt her
+as a heretic and sorcerer has her, and her only, to thank for such
+hold as it still maintains on France, for the latter would have become
+Protestant if England had won. The Roman church now recognises this, and
+has beatified the Maid. The next step will be her canonisation as a
+saint. Thus does the whirligig of Time bring its revenges.
+
+Jeanne d'Arc was born in the village of Domremy near Vaucouleurs, on the
+border of Champagne and Lorraine, on January 6th, 1412. She was taught
+to spin and to sew, but not to read or write, these accomplishments
+being beyond what was necessary for people in her station of life. Her
+parents were devout, and she was brought up piously. Her nature was
+gentle, modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness or morbid
+abnormality--on the contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later
+history proves.
+
+At or about the age of thirteen, Jeanne began to experience what
+psychology now calls "auditory hallucinations". That is, she heard
+voices--usually accompanied by a bright light--when no visible person
+was present. This, of course, is a common symptom of impending mental
+disorder; but no insanity developed in Jeanne d'Arc. Startled she
+naturally was at first, but continuation led to familiarity and trust.
+The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace kind, as, for instance,
+that she "must be a good girl and go regularly to church." Soon,
+however, she began to have visions: saw St Michael, St Catherine, and St
+Margaret; was given instructions as to her mission; eventually made her
+way to the Dauphin; put herself at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced
+to the relief of Orleans, which was besieged by the conquering English.
+After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege was raised, and the enemy
+driven off. The tide of war had turned, and in three months the Dauphin
+was crowned King at Rheims, as Charles the Seventh.
+
+At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished. But her
+wish to return to her family was over-ruled by king and archbishop, and
+she took part in the further fighting against the allied English and
+Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical skill. But in
+November, 1430, in a desperate sally from Compiegne--which was besieged
+by the Duke of Burgundy--she fell into the enemy's hands, was sold to
+the English, and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen.
+
+After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial--a mock trial
+before the Bishop of Beauvais, in an ecclesiastical court. Learned
+doctors of the church did their best to entangle the simple girl in
+their dialectical toils; but she showed a remarkable power of keeping to
+her simple affirmations and of avoiding heretical statements. "God has
+always been my Lord in all that I have done". But the trial was only
+pretence, for her fate was already decided. She was burnt to death,
+amid the jeers and execration of a rabble of brutal soldiery, in a Rouen
+market-place on May 30th, 1431.
+
+The life of the Maid supplies a problem which orthodox science cannot
+solve. She was a simple peasant girl, with no ambitions hankering after
+a career. She rebelled pathetically against her mission. "I had far
+rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for this is no work of my
+choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." She cannot be
+dismissed on the "simple idiot" theory of Voltaire, for her genius in
+war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove exceptional mental
+powers, unschooled though she was in what we call education. We cannot
+call her a mere hysteric, for her health and strength were superb. A man
+of science once said to an Abbe: "Come to the Salpetriere Hospital, and
+I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the Abbe responded: "Has
+one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?"
+
+There is the crux, as Andrew Lang quietly remarked.
+
+The retort was certainly neat. Still, though the Salpetriere hysterics
+have not won back Alsace and Lorraine, it is nevertheless true that a
+great movement may be started, or kept going when started, by fraud,
+hallucination, and credulity. The Mormons, for example, are a strong
+body, but the origins of their faith will not bear much criticism. _The
+Book of Mormon_, handed down from heaven by an angel, is more than we
+can swallow. No one saw its "metal leaves"--from which Joseph Smith
+translated--except Joseph himself. We have our own opinion about
+Joseph's truthfulness. Somewhat similarly with spiritualism. The great
+movement is there, based partly on fact as I believe, but supported by
+some fraud and much ignorance and credulity. May it not have been
+somewhat thus with Jeanne? She delivered France, and her importance in
+history is great; but may not her mission and her doings have been the
+outcome of merely subjective hallucinations, induced by the brooding of
+her specially religious and patriotic mind on the woes of her country?
+The army, being ignorant and superstitious, would readily believe in the
+supernatural character of her mission, and great energy and valour would
+follow as a matter of course--for a man fights well when he believes
+that Providence is on his side.
+
+That is the usual kind of theory in explanation of the facts. But it is
+not fully satisfactory. How came it--one may ask--that this untutored
+peasant girl could persuade not only the rude soldiery, but also the
+Dauphin and the court, of her Divine appointment? How came she to be
+given the command of an army? Surely a post of such responsibility and
+power would not be given to a peasant girl of eighteen, on the mere
+strength of her own claim to inspiration. It seems, at least, very
+improbable.
+
+Now it seems (though the materialistic school of historians conveniently
+ignore or belittle it) that there is strong evidence in support of the
+idea that Jeanne gave the Dauphin some proof of the possession of
+supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so strong that Mr Lang
+called it "unimpeachable"--and Mr Lang did not usually err on the side
+of credulity in these matters. Among other curious things, Jeanne seems
+to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer which he had made
+mentally, and she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a
+sword hidden behind the altar of Fierbois church. Schiller's magnificent
+dramatic poem "_Die Jungfrau von Orleans_," though unhistorical in some
+details, is substantially accurate on these points concerning
+clairvoyance and mind-reading.
+
+As to the voices and visions, a Protestant will have a certain prejudice
+with regard to the St Michael, St Catherine, and St Margaret stories,
+though he may very possibly be wrong in his disbelief. But, waiving
+that, it may be true that some genuine inspiration was truly given to
+the Maid from the deeper strata of her own soul, and that these
+monitions externalised themselves in the forms in which her thought
+habitually ran. If she had been a Greek of two thousand years earlier,
+her visions would probably have taken the form of Apollo and Pallas
+Athene; yet they might equally well have contained truth and good
+counsel, as did the utterances of the Oracles.
+
+And, speaking of the Greeks, we may remember that the wisest of that
+race had similar experiences. Socrates--the pre-eminent type of sanity
+and mental burliness--was counselled by his "daimon"; by a warning Voice
+which, truly, did not give positive advice like Jeanne's, but which
+intervened to stop him when about to make some wrong decision. Again--to
+jump suddenly down to modern times--Charles Dickens says in his letters
+that the characters of his novels took on a kind of independent
+existence, and that Mrs Gamp, his greatest creation, spoke to him
+(generally in church) as with an actual voice. In fact, all cases of
+creative genius, whether in literature, art, or invention, are examples
+of an uprush from unknown mental depths: the process is not the same as
+the intellectual process of reasoning. In these cases, as for instance
+with Socrates, Jeanne d'Arc, Dickens, the deeper strata of the mind
+may be supposed to send up thoughts so vigorously that they become
+externalised as hallucinations; not necessarily morbid or injurious,
+though of course many hallucinations are undoubtedly both. The
+inspiration rises from below the conscious threshold. It is as if
+"given"; and the normal conscious mind looks on in passive astonishment.
+_Alles ist als wie geschenkt_, says Goethe--and he knew, if anybody did.
+A similar thing happens, on a more ordinary plane, when a problem that
+has baffled the working mind is solved in sleep. In short, the normal
+consciousness is not all there is of us; there are levels and powers
+below the threshold. And it seems likely that the new psychology is on
+the track of a better explanation of Socrates and Jeanne d'Arc, as well
+as of the nature of genius in general, than has yet been excogitated by
+the philosophers. Certainly these things supply interesting material for
+study, and many curious discoveries are now being made in this field of
+research.
+
+
+
+
+IS THE EARTH ALIVE?
+
+
+Some of the ancients thought the earth was an animal. It has its hard
+and soft parts, its bone and flesh--rock and soil--as the Norse
+cosmology pictured it; also its blood, of seas, rivers, and the like.
+To a coast-dwelling people, the rhythmic inflow and outflow of the
+tides would suggest a huge slow blood-pulsation, or a breathing. And
+heat increases with depth, in mine or cave; fire spouts from Etna and
+Vesuvius; evidently the earth is hotter inside than at the surface, as
+animals are hotter inside than on their skins. Some such animal-notion
+was held by Plato, and by some of the later Stoics; though it does not
+seem to have been worked out in detail. And the Greek, Indian, or
+Egyptian theology which made the earth a goddess and the bride of
+Heaven or the sun, is still more indefinite, or is crudely
+anthropomorphic and primitive.
+
+Modern approximations have been chiefly in poetry, and are pan-psychic
+rather than animistic; as in Pope's _Essay on Man_:
+
+    All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
+    Whose body Nature is, and God the soul,
+
+and in Wordsworth's _Tintern Abbey_ where the presence which disturbs
+him with the joy of elevated thoughts is felt to be the Spirit which has
+its dwelling in the light of setting suns and the round ocean and the
+living air:
+
+    A motion and a spirit that impels
+    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
+    And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
+    A lover of the meadows and the woods,
+    And mountains; and all that we behold
+    From this green earth; of all the mighty world
+    Of eye, and ear.
+
+Emerson expresses the same thought in _Pan_ and in much of his
+prose--_Nature_, _The Over Soul_, _Self-Reliance_. William James, in
+early days before his pluralistic development, thought that an _anima
+mundi_ thinking in all of us was a more likely hypothesis than that of
+"a lot of individual souls"; and Leibnitz, among other metaphysical
+great ones, Spinozistically speaks of "un seul esprit qui est universel
+et qui anime tout l'univers". Finally, to quote a modern of the moderns,
+we find Mr H. G. Wells finely saying that "between you and me as we set
+our minds together, and between us and the rest of mankind, there is
+_something_, something real, something that rises through us and is
+neither you nor me, that comprehends us, that is thinking here and using
+me and you to play against each other in that thinking just as my finger
+and thumb play against each other as I hold this pen with which I
+write". (_First and Last Things_, p. 67.)
+
+But these various poets and thinkers, while suggesting a soul-side
+of the material universe, have not ventured to attribute spirits to
+specific lumps of matter such as the planets. Science has banished those
+celestial genii. Kepler and Newton substituted for them the "bald and
+barren doctrine of gravitation", to the disgust of the theologically
+orthodox. It is possible, however, that science did not banish these
+planetary spirits, but only prevented us from seeing them, by turning
+our eyes in another direction, towards the laws according to which the
+material universe works; as if we should become so absorbed in the
+chemistry and physics of blood oxidation, digestion, cerebral change,
+and the like, as to forget that the human body has a consciousness
+associated with it. It may be that we are too materialistic in our
+astronomy. Perhaps Lorenzo was right, even about the music of the
+spheres; and that our deafness, not their silence, is the reason why
+we do not hear it.
+
+The nineteenth century produced a thinker who revived the animistic
+idea in an improved form. He elaborated it into a system of philosophy,
+welding into it the discoveries of science, and leaving room for any
+further advance in that direction. At the same time he showed that his
+system was essentially religious, and indeed quite consistent with
+Christianity in its best interpretations. But his writings fell almost
+dead from the press, for he was before his time. The scientific men were
+materialists, and sneered at a system which recognised a spiritual
+world; while the orthodox Christians were scared by its evolutionary
+method and its acceptance of Darwinism when the latter arrived--for the
+philosophy preceded it--and also by the novelty of some of its ideas.
+
+Gustav Theodor Fechner was born on April 19, 1801, at Gross-Saerchen in
+what is now Silesia, then under the Elector of Saxony. He studied at
+Leipzig, and was appointed professor of Physics at the University there,
+in 1834. He conducted several scientific journals, wrote text-books,
+translated Biot's _Physics_ (4 vols.) Thenard's _Chemistry_ (6 vols.)
+and a work on cerebral pathology; also edited an eight-volume
+_Encyclopaedia_ of which he wrote about a third himself, lectured, and
+made researches in electro-magnetism which injured his eyesight. His
+chief scientific work, _Elements of Psycho-Physics_, was published in
+1859, additions being made in 1877 and 1882. "Fechner's Law", the
+fundamental law of psychophysics (that sensation varies in the ratio
+of the logarithm of impression) is now an internationally current term.
+Men like Paulsen and Wundt do not hesitate to call Fechner master. His
+chief philosophical work is _Zend-Avesta_ (3 vols.) published in 1851,
+and rearranged and condensed in _Die Tagesansicht gegenueber der
+Nachtansicht_ (1879); but he published also many subsidiary volumes.
+Only one of his works has appeared in English--the small volume on
+_Life After Death_--and even this had to be brought out by an American
+publisher! Yet Fechner is, as Professor William James said, "a
+philosopher in the great sense ... little known as yet to English
+readers, but destined, I am persuaded, to wield more and more influence
+as time goes on". (_A Pluralistic Universe_, pp. 135, 149.) The prophecy
+is already beginning to come true.
+
+Fechner always begins with the known and indisputable, arguing thence
+to the unknown. His method is thus analogical and scientific. It is the
+only method that a scientific generation will tolerate. Its results may
+be disputed, but so can the results of science. Even mathematics gives
+us no certainties, for something must always be taken for granted. In
+philosophising by analogy, we do at least keep in close touch with
+experience; we do not evaporate the world into an "unearthly ballet of
+bloodless categories". And if the analogies point mostly one way, with
+only weak ones pointing the other, the result may be at least acceptable
+as a working hypothesis, even if not "demonstrable".
+
+Man is a living, thinking, feeling being. He is on the surface of a
+nearly spherical body, which he calls the earth, out of which his
+material part has arisen. The elements of his body are the same as
+those in the earth. His carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen are the
+carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen of the coal measures, soils,
+atmosphere, oceans, of the earth. The calcium carbonate of his bones is
+the calcium carbonate of her rocks as seen in cliffs at Flamborough and
+Dover. He is bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Sometimes he calls
+her Mother Earth, and involuntarily speaks the truth in jest. In Siberia
+the Tartar word for the earth is "Mamma"--a curious fact. Indeed, the
+bond between the earth and her children is much closer than in the case
+of a human mother and her child; for we remain, all our lives, actually
+_part_ of the planet's mass. If our bodies were suddenly annihilated,
+the earth's gravitative attraction would be altered, and the whole solar
+system would have to readjust itself to the slight diminution. We belong
+to the earth. We are a film of cells on her skin. In Piccadilly and the
+Bowery (and Throgmorton and Wall Streets?) we are--alas!--an eczematous
+patch.
+
+But here it may be objected that man is more than a mere body. Quite
+true. Man has experiences of an order different from the material one.
+You cannot express joy and sorrow by chemical equations or number
+of foot-pounds. Even if there is a material equivalent or necessary
+concomitant, of electrical or chemical change in cerebral tissue or
+what not, the fact of the non-material experience remains a reality. To
+indicate this side of human life, we call it the spiritual side. We say
+that man is matter and spirit, body and soul. This is quite justifiable
+and right, whether we can define the terms or not. Definition means
+explaining a word by means of others that are better known. And as we
+cannot get any closer to reality than our own experience, which _is_
+reality to us, and as the two words conveniently classify two great
+departments of experience, we justifiably say that we are soul and
+body. Very well; the body, then, when we die, returns to the earth, from
+which indeed it has not been severed, except as being a point at which a
+special kind of activity was manifested. What then of the soul? Shall it
+not return to the earth-soul, as the body returns to the earth-body?
+
+Man has arisen out of the earth. And can the dead give birth to the
+living? Such an idea is self-contradictory. If the Earth has produced
+us, it cannot be really a mere dead lump, as nineteenth-century
+materialistic science regarded it. It must be alive. The fifteen hundred
+millions or so of human beings who live on its surface like microscopic
+insects on the body of an elephant, or like epidermis-cells on our
+own bodies, constitute in their total weight and size only an almost
+infinitesimal proportion of the earth's mass. The earth is 8,000 miles
+in diameter; if human beings were so numerous that they could only stand
+up, wedged together all over its surface, tropics and poles, land and
+water--the latter covers seven-tenths of it--they would only be like a
+skin 1/200,000th part of an inch thick, on a globe a yard in diameter.
+The total mass of all the living creatures on the earth's surface,
+including all animals and all vegetation, is almost inconceivably small,
+as compared with the mass of the earth. Is it not a trifle ludicrous to
+find some of these little creatures looking down so condescendingly on
+the remainder of the planet? Emerson was among the few who have seen the
+joke, for in _Hamatreya_ he satirises those who boast of possessing
+pieces of the earth:
+
+    Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
+    And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
+    Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
+    Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
+    Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
+    Clear of the grave.
+
+And the earth sings:
+
+    They called me theirs,
+    Who so controlled me;
+    Yet every one
+    Wished to stay, and is gone,
+    How am I theirs,
+    If they cannot hold me,
+    But I hold them?
+
+A very natural objection to the idea of the earth being full of life
+and mind--as my body is full of my life and my mind--is that the
+inorganic part of the planet presents no evidence of such. It does
+not act as if it were alive and conscious. But this begs the whole
+question. If you decide beforehand that all evidence for the existence
+of mind must be the sort of phenomena exhibited by the things we call
+living, the business is settled, and it is clear that the inorganic
+kingdom is without consciousness. There is then no sign of mind
+anywhere except in that infinitesimally thin and indeed discontinuous
+skin which is made up of living individuals on the earth's surface. But
+is it not somewhat presumptuous to dogmatise thus? Why should mind
+always manifest itself in the same way? Non-living matter does not show
+vital activities, but it does show other activities, quite systematic
+and non-chaotic and comprehensible ones. How could "dead" matter have
+any activity at all? Even Haeckel postulates a sort of mind in the
+atom, and we have heard of "mind-stuff" before, from an equally
+determined materialist. Indeed, how can we rationalise the behaviour
+of phosphorus in oxygen but by saying that the two elements like each
+other so well that they rush to combine whenever possible? If carbon
+has great "affinity," showing a tendency to combine with many atoms of
+other elements in various complicated ways--at least as regards its
+favourite types--it is reasonable to regard it as a much-loving
+element--the polygamous Solomon of the elements. If fluorine will
+have nothing to do with other substances--except under protest, when
+persuaded by Miss Hydrogen, whose gaiety and levity sometimes overcome
+its sulkiness, bringing it also into the society of calcium and one or
+two other metals--we must say that fluorine is unsociable, morbidly
+self-centred, or perhaps mystically disposed, like Thoreau, happy by
+his pond, alone. Chemical affinity is the loves of the elements.
+
+Rising to the next grade of complexity above atoms, we find that
+molecular movements, visible in the apparently representative Brownian
+movements of particles, recall the fidget of a bunch of midges,
+and thereby suggest a sort of life. They disobey the second law of
+thermodynamics, rising in a lighter liquid, as midges rise in the
+tenuous air. Of course no one can deny that in the things we call living
+there are phenomena not seen elsewhere, and some of these are quite
+probably not understandable at all, in terms of measurement or imagery,
+as we can understand the Brownian movements by irregular bombardment of
+molecules. We cannot understand the relation between a supposed
+brain-change and the corresponding mental fact. The two orders of
+being seem disjunctive. Perhaps these things are too close to us to be
+understood; perhaps we cannot understand life and consciousness because
+we are ourselves alive and conscious--as we cannot lift ourselves by
+pulling at our boot tops, and cannot see our own faces because the eyes
+that see are _in_ the face that is to be seen. Still the distinction
+between life at its lowest and non-life at its highest (crystals?) is
+so small that we may yet effect a smooth transition--may somehow see a
+continuity which now eludes us. And it seems likely that this will be
+effected by an extension of the mind-idea down into the inorganic,
+rather than by any explanation of life by physical and chemical
+concepts.
+
+Again, on the larger scale, may not cohesion, as well as chemical
+affinity, be a sort of affection; in this case a kind of wide social
+friendship--the "adhesive love" of Whitman, which is to supersede
+"amative love"--as against the fierce and narrow loves of the elements?
+A. C. Benson in _Joyous Gard_ (p. 128) quotes a geologist who says:
+
+  It is not by any means certain that stones do not have a certain
+  obscure life of their own; I have sometimes thought that their
+  marvellous cohesion may be a sign of life, and that if life were
+  withdrawn, a mountain might in a moment become a heap of sliding
+  sand.
+
+Yes, and even in sand-grains there is cohesion of particles, and in
+the smallest particles huge numbers of molecules, and again--still
+smaller--atoms and electrons. Something elusive yet tremendously potent
+is still there, in the sand. It would be rash to call it dead and
+mindless. There seems more sense in admitting that there is something
+akin to what we know as life and mind in ourselves, permeating the
+material universe.
+
+And if--to come back to our own planet--if the earth is a living
+organism, there will naturally be distribution of function, as there
+is in our own bodies. It would be absurd for the eye to deny life and
+perception to ear or skin just because their mode of activity is
+different. It is wiser to concede life and mind where-ever there is
+action. In the present state of affairs, not only do we get into
+difficulties by our rash assumption that there is no mind without
+protoplasm (_ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke_, as the old materialist too
+boldly said), but we find it impossible to draw the line between living
+and non-living. Drops of oil exhibit amoeboid movements, and at the
+lower end of life the slime-mass becomes so undifferentiated as to be
+very much in a borderland between the two states. Probably non-living
+substances gradate into living ones by imperceptible _differentiae_, as
+man would be found to gradate back into an anthropoid ape or something
+of the kind if we could see all the stages. Nature does not make jumps.
+Where she seems to do so, it is only because we cannot see how she
+gets from one place to another distant one. But when we scrutinise the
+interspace, we see that there is a path. Nature does not jump. She
+glides.
+
+It is on this line of thought that the disagreement between the schools
+represented by Sir Edward Schaefer and Dr Hans Driesch respectively
+may, perhaps, be happily resolved. No doubt each may have to make
+concessions. The mechanist must not claim that mind is _only_ an affair
+of nitrogenous colloids, for this would be a large assumption built on
+a very small foundation; no biologist, however much he knows about
+nitrogenous colloids, can in any conceivable sense explain his joy in a
+sunset or a symphony by reference to those substances. Physical causes
+have physical effects; to say that they cause anything non-physical
+(_i.e._ mental) is really talking nonsense. And, on the other hand,
+the vitalist must not deny consciousness to non-protoplasmic Nature.
+Negations are dangerous. It is extremely risky to say that a Matterhorn
+has less spiritual significance--in itself and for the whole, and not
+only for us--than a cretin who wanders useless and unbeautiful about its
+lower slopes. The activities of the two are different, that is all we
+are justified in saying. True, the Matterhorn's are more calculable and
+predictable, but that does not prove unconsciousness. Human action also
+is predictable to some extent. And the more wise and unified a man
+is--the nearer he approximates to ideal perfection--the more accurately
+we can predict his response to a given stimulus. We might almost argue,
+on these lines, that inorganic matter has a certain superiority; for
+it is not capricious. It knows what it wants to do, and does it; or at
+least--if this is going too far--it does things, and does them _as if_
+it knew very well what it wanted to do. To the same conditions and
+stimuli it always responds in the same way, like reflex action in living
+beings, and like association in ordinary consciousness. Water always
+boils punctually at 100 deg.C., and freezes at 0 deg.C., if the pressure
+is 760mm. of mercury. "Canal" always makes me think of Panama and
+Mars--though to other people it might suggest Suez, their different
+experience having given them other association-couplings. But any one
+knowing me well, or knowing any one well, could say almost certainly
+what associations "canal" would have--what thought it will evoke. And
+the same thing is true, to a less extent, of our actions. If a man hits
+Jack Johnson, the latter will probably hit back. Still more certain is
+it that no one will hit him unless drunk or insane or in some sort of
+very exceptional circumstances. If, on the other hand, somebody hits me,
+the outcome is less certain. It will depend to a greater extent on the
+result of reflection and judgment--perhaps partly on my estimate of the
+other fellow's weight, age, training and science! Yet anyone knowing
+me well, and perceiving the main conditions, could predict with fair
+approach to accuracy what I should do. Yet I am undoubtedly a conscious
+being. Some actions of conscious beings, then, are predictable, if we
+know the conditions. Indeed, in the mass, human action is calculable
+with precision--witness the various kinds of insurance. Why then
+deny consciousness to the Matterhorn, because _all_ its actions are
+calculable and predictable? The difference is one of degree, not kind.
+And indeed _are_ all its actions predictable? The fact is, they are only
+hypothetically so. We say that they would be if we knew enough. But we
+might say the same of the actions of a man. The truth is, that if we say
+it of either we are arguing dangerously, from our ignorance and not from
+our knowledge. It is indeed as risky to say that we could predict the
+Matterhorn's actions _in toto_, as to say that we cannot predict the
+man's; for we are continually finding that matter does things which we
+did not formerly suspect--_e.g._ radio-activity. Clearly, we cannot
+predict all the activities of the Matterhorn: many may depend on
+undiscovered properties. So it seems that even if some human actions,
+such as Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation and Milton's
+_Paradise Lost_ and Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy and Raphael's Sistine
+Madonna, are strictly unpredictable, it still does not sufficiently
+differentiate us from the Matterhorn, which on its part also has its
+unpredictabilities.
+
+As to what parts of matter have separate spirits--where the
+Snowdon-spirit ends and the Moel Siabod spirit begins, and so on--we
+need not trouble much about that. This individualising of parts is
+a reasonable supposition, but it is not necessary to press it. Mr
+Maurice Hewlett has seen the _genius loci_ of a sunny woodland
+landscape translated into human idiom as an opulent Titianesque
+beauty (_Lore of Proserpine_), and Manfred sees or feels a spirit of
+the Alps; but these are details. The only thing that matters is the
+ensoulment of the earth as a whole. No doubt its spirit-part is
+divided up somehow, correspondent to its material conformation, as
+our spirits are divided from each other. The division, however, is
+not a hermetic sealing off. The universe is continuous. Indeed its
+parts are inter-penetrative, for every particle influences every
+other particle--and a thing cannot act where it is not. Similarly,
+human beings are found to have modes of communication other than
+those hitherto recognised by orthodox science, and are somehow able
+to influence others without regard to distance. We seem to be
+connected with each other in the unseen, subliminal, spiritual
+region. Our separateness is illusory. So with individualisations of
+earth-features. They have individual aspects, both on the physical
+and spiritual side; but they are part of the one earth and its one
+spirit, as we ourselves are. And that earth-spirit is part of
+the universe-spirit or God, as the human spirit is part of the
+earth-spirit.
+
+It is perhaps difficult, at first, to think of the earth as having a
+life and consciousness of its own, for we are located at little points,
+and do not see it whole, nor do we see from the inside. We are like an
+eye which looks at the body of which it forms a part, and finds it
+difficult to believe in auditory, tactile, olfactory experience; more
+difficult still to conceive of pure thought, emotion, will. If the earth
+seems a dead lump, however, think of the human brain. It is a mere lump
+of whitish filaments, _seen from outside_. But its inner experience is
+the rich and infinitely detailed life of a human being. So also may the
+inner experience of the earth be incomparably richer than its outer
+appearance indicates to our external senses. Objectively, our brains are
+part of the earth: subjectively, _we see in ourselves a part of what the
+earth sees in itself_.
+
+In thinking of the earth as an organised being, we must guard against
+the error of the ancients who called it an animal. It is not an animal.
+It is a Being of a higher character than any animal, for it includes
+all animals and all human beings, comprising in its spirit all their
+spiritual activities, and having its own activities as well. We are to
+it, as our blood-corpuscles are to us; and to think of the earth-spirit
+as being like our spirits would be equivalent to a blood-corpuscle
+thinking of its containing body as another corpuscle, only bigger.
+Whereas the truth is that a man has feelings and cognitions and
+purposes, and performs acts, which the corpuscles cannot in the least
+comprehend. (Somewhat similarly, a drop cannot have waves, or a small
+celestial body an atmosphere; the lower cannot have what the higher has,
+nor can it understand it.) The corpuscle may know or believe that its
+conscience or intuition is a sort of leakage down to it, of the mind or
+will of its greater self (the voice of its God), and that in so far as
+it does its duty according to its lights it is assisting the purposes
+of that higher Being of which it forms a part; and this faith is its
+highest wisdom. So with us. Human duty, done sincerely according to our
+lights, is furthering the purposes of the higher Being in whom we live
+and move. This faith is our highest wisdom concerning our relation to
+the earth-spirit. We see, then, that there is a good deal of sense in
+faith and intuition. They are rationally justified. By them we are dimly
+in touch with the over-soul on our inner side: not _really_ dimly, for
+the connection is close and real, but dimly to our normal consciousness.
+The connection _via_ intellect is an external, round-about affair,
+necessary and useful, but different. We need to cultivate both. This is
+the essence of the philosophy of Bergson. There is more than one way of
+receiving truth. Science is apt to overlook the intuitional way.
+
+On this conscience-side or moral aspect, the Fechnerian idea is
+particularly fruitful and illuminating. The analogy of our own mind is
+once more the key--the mirror wherewith to view the greater landscape,
+the village wherefrom to draw inferences about nations. In childhood,
+the world is, as James said, a big, blooming, buzzing confusion:
+sensations pour in quite unconnected; the baby sees the moon, and
+stretches out an arm to grab it, thus learning that it is not grabable.
+It is only gradually that the child learns to associate sounds with
+sights; to know what sounds indicate its mother's presence or proximity,
+and what sounds its father's. Gradually, individual experiences get
+linked up and harmonised. Then other disjointednesses arise. Foolish
+impulses war against better judgment and parents' advice, and the
+youth's mind is "torn", as we say, very aptly describing the feeling.
+Growing older and wiser, his mind becomes more unified and consequently
+more calm. His powers are marshalled and directed consciously at a
+goal or goals. Wayward impulses are reined in. We feel that poise and
+strength and wisdom are attained: never perfectly and ideally, but at
+least to a considerable degree, as compared with the earlier state.
+
+So with the earth-spirit. Being far greater than the human
+subsidiary spirits, it is longer in coming to maturity. Its elements
+are still largely at loggerheads with each other. The nations war
+against each other, and universal peace seems a long time in coming.
+But steadily, steadily works the earth-spirit, and the nations almost
+unconsciously--like somnambulists--carry out its will. They are working,
+consciously or unconsciously, towards universal at-one-ment. A League of
+Nations has arisen, and the Federation of the World is in sight. Union
+is the political watch-word. Labour is combining throughout the world.
+East is learning from West, and West from East. China sends her
+students to Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Harvard, and welcomes Western
+methods. India repays our civilising with the poems of Tagore. In trade,
+thousands of small businesses are unified in a few great combines,
+preparing for some sort of Socialism. Finance spreads its world-wide
+network. Science is becoming international. The frontiers are melting;
+coalescence, unity, harmony are being achieved. The earth-spirit is
+reconciling its warring elements. When it succeeds in the complete
+reconciliation; when the era of universal peace and brotherhood shall
+dawn; when it reaches its huge equivalent of the ripe, calm, contented
+wisdom of human age--ah, then will come a state of things which we can
+but dimly prefigure. But it will come. The age of gold is in the future,
+not the past. It is our duty and our privilege to hasten the coming of
+this millennium. And even this is not the end. We cannot conceive the
+things that shall be. Eye hath not seen, or ear heard. Enough for us to
+know the tendency, and to trust ourselves to it, actively co-operating.
+
+    Before beginning, and without an end,
+    As space eternal, and as surety sure,
+    Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,
+    Only its laws endure.
+
+    This is its touch upon the blossomed rose,
+    The fashion of its hand shaped lotus-leaves;
+    In dark soil and the silence of the seeds
+    The robe of Spring it weaves.
+
+    It maketh and unmaketh, mending all;
+    What it hath wrought is better than had been;
+    Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans,
+    Its wistful hands between.
+
+    This is its work upon the things ye see:
+    The unseen things are more; men's hearts and minds,
+    The thoughts of peoples and their ways and wills,
+    Those, too, the great Law binds.
+                          --Sir Edwin Arnold, _Light of Asia_.
+
+Is it asked: "Who is the Law-giver, and to what end is the Law?" The
+question is foolish. Parts cannot know wholes, and the whole does not
+want parts to be anything but what they obviously are. Each fits into
+its place, and can do useful work there. Let it keep to tasks "of a size
+with its capacity"--as a Kempis says--and leave the rest. "What doth the
+Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk
+humbly with thy God?"
+
+
+
+
+RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR
+
+
+There is naturally and rightly a great deal of anxiety in the minds of
+most thoughtful people as to the state of religion after the war. The
+old order seems to have come down in chaos about our ears, and we are
+wondering what shape the new building will take. Even our clergy, or
+some of them, are honestly confessing that beliefs can never be just
+the same again; to name only two things, they feel that the literal
+acceptance of the non-resistance doctrine is no longer unqualifiedly
+possible, as many were formerly inclined to maintain; for the aggression
+of Germany has made clear the necessity of resisting evil; second,
+that the old Protestant doctrine of immediate heaven or hell cannot
+satisfactorily be applied to many of the millions of young fellows
+who have gone over; some idea of more gradual progress through an
+intermediate state seems more reasonable. But will this be sufficient?
+Shall we jog on again, after this world-shaking cataclysm, with
+such a very microscopical trimming--such an almost imperceptible
+sail-reefing--as this? Will not rather the whole theological scheme have
+to be remodelled? Can nations which have suffered as the belligerents
+have suffered--even those at home, still more the brave lads who have
+gone through experiences such as they never dreamed of in their worst
+nightmares--can these people, even if they wish, accept the old scheme,
+or anything like it?
+
+I am not going to try to answer such a large question directly.
+Mr Wells has attempted something of the sort in his book, _God the
+Invisible King_, and he prophesies a religious revolution. It may come
+as he thinks, but it is perhaps more probable that, in spite of the
+most earth-shaking events, a certain continuity of thought will be
+maintained. New religions are not manufactured complete while you wait,
+like Pallas emerging full-armed from the head of Zeus; or, if they are,
+by such brilliant Olympians as Mr Wells, they do not get themselves
+accepted. But there probably will be enough of a change to be called a
+very considerable thought-revolution, even allowing for some inevitable
+continuity; and inasmuch as each expression of opinion counts as a datum
+and as a directive agency, I venture to make my prophecy. And I avoid
+the negative side, also any argument as to whether or why this or that
+particular doctrine will become obsolete; I think it better to let
+obsolescent beliefs drop quietly into their limbo, and to concern
+ourselves with the living ones that will replace them.
+
+First and most important, the idea of God. We have heard, over and over
+again, the pathetic cry: "Why does God permit such things? Surely He
+must be either not All-good or not Almighty?" And one hears of men, even
+among the clergy, whose minds have been clouded by this difficulty.
+Mr Wells solves the problem in the fashion of J. S. Mill and the late
+William James, by postulating a finite god, a good being who is doing
+his best but who is struggling with a refractory material. To many
+people this seems a helpful notion, for it saves God's goodness and
+gives a pleasurable sense of being co-workers with Him in His effort to
+improve things. But to many of us it is unsatisfactory. Indeed, if one
+could say such a thing of the author of _Bealby_ and of the most genial
+of modern philosophers, we might say that the finite-god idea seems
+impossible to anyone with a sense of humour. Is it not really rather
+ridiculous of us to decide so solemnly that God is no doubt a good
+fellow but that He is having a tough time of it in fighting Satan, and
+that there does not seem to be any certainty of His winning? Perhaps
+the idea appeals to adventurous spirits like Wells and James because it
+has an air of being a sporting event, and promises excitement; but, I
+repeat, is it not a rather ridiculous proposition for us small creatures
+to make? "Finite" and "Infinite" are words; I am not sure that they have
+any very clear meaning. As to "infinite" in particular, the idea is only
+a negative one; we think of something finite, and then say "it is not
+that". But even of "finite", can we say that it has any useful clear
+meaning? The pen with which I write this may be said to be finite, for
+I can give its dimensions, and in many ways can define the limits of
+its powers. But inasmuch as every particle in it attracts every other
+particle of matter in the universe, the little pen's finiteness or
+infinity depends on whether the universe itself is finite or infinite;
+and that is a bigger question than our small wits can settle. And if it
+is so with a pen, will it not be more so with greater things?
+
+We measure things against the foot-rule of our own selves. We can
+imagine something much greater than those selves, both physical and
+spiritual. But when it comes to conceiving the whole physical universe
+of which we form an insignificant part, I do not feel that we can know
+whether it is finite or not. It is too big for our foot-rule. Even when
+dealing with the distances of the stars, we realise that the billions of
+miles which we can talk about so glibly do not convey much to our minds.
+We can think of a distance of a few miles fairly clearly, recalling how
+long it takes us to walk so far; but greater distances soon become mere
+figures, not representing anything that we can picture. And when we
+reach the conception of the whole physical universe, we get quite out of
+our depth. We do not know whether it is finite or infinite; we know only
+that it is inconceivably greater than we are.
+
+So with the spirit which energises through it. Beginning with what we
+know best, we find ourselves acquainted with a world of mental phenomena
+bound together in and by what we call our self. Whatever we think of
+Hume's argument that a mass of experiences do not involve a soul that
+has them, it is reasonable and useful to have a name for the active
+thing which perceives and thinks and acts and feels, whether we call it
+soul or spirit or mind or self or _x_. It is something which maintains
+a sort of identity, in spite of growth and change; and it is marked off
+from other selves. John Smith has John Smith's experiences, not William
+Jones's. This individual spirit energises through each of our bodies. Of
+our own spirit we have a very close knowledge, of other spirits we have
+a rather more remote knowledge from inference; we infer their states of
+mind from the states of body which we observe, or from the material
+effects which they cause in speaking or writing. Passing from the
+inferred human spirits (inferred because certain lumps of matter act in
+a way similar to that of the lumps which we call our own bodies), we
+come to other and larger and very different pieces of matter such as
+planets. It may seem at the first glance an absurd idea, but I for one
+cannot think of matter as dead, or of a whole planet without any soul
+except what is in the human bodies which make up an infinitesimal
+portion of its mass. It seems to me that there must be some sort of
+mind energising through the planet-mass as my own mind energises
+through my body-mass. And, carrying the idea further, we arrive at a
+conception of the whole universe as ensouled by a Being who in the
+material immanent manifestation is the Logos of the Christian doctrine,
+but who also transcends the material part as indeed the Christian
+doctrine teaches. This spirit, transcending the physical universe as
+well as energising through it, is greater in comparison with our spirits
+than the physical universe is in comparison with our bodies. Therefore,
+once more, and to a greater degree, we are out of our depth. To throw
+words like finite and infinite at such a Being is to make ourselves
+ridiculous. It is like a microbe sticking its own adjective-labels--if
+it has any--on a man, whom the microbe's vocabulary as a matter of fact
+will not apply to. God is too great for our measure. He is high as
+heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The
+measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea--yea,
+than the whole universe itself.
+
+This conclusion of Zophar the Naamathite, acquiesced in by Job at the
+end of the argument, seems to some minds an evaporation of God into an
+Absolute without any human attributes. We feel the necessity or at least
+the desirability of regarding Him as good, loving, etc., and we shrink
+from any de-personalisation. But there is a way out of the difficulty.
+God is incomprehensible, as the Creed says; parts cannot comprehend
+wholes. But there is something deep in us, call it what you will, which
+tells us that our ideals of Good, Truth, and Beauty are divine; are God
+in so far as we are able to cognise Him. Good, true, beautiful actions
+and thoughts are God manifested through our personal limitations; they
+are rainbow colours broken out of the pure white light of God. We do
+right to worship them. They are the highest we can comprehend, though we
+may reach lame hands of faith to the apprehension of the Unconditioned.
+But this is a very great mystery, revealed only to the mystic. And it is
+a dangerous path, for by reaching "beyond good and evil" we lose touch
+with humanity and with the virtues we can exercise, risking the insanity
+to which Nietzsche so logically succumbed. We may dimly apprehend the
+Incomprehensible, but we must live and work among comprehensibilities.
+That is what we are here for. God is conceived by us--and rightly so
+conceived--as Good, Truth, Beauty, though we can see that as He really
+is He must transcend them. Mr Wells's distinction between the Finite God
+and the Veiled Being is not an ultimate. The two are one, seen as two
+because of our limitations. They are the rainbow and its source. The sun
+cannot be looked upon directly, but only when dimmed or reflected.
+
+Then as to immortality. The deaths of so many of our best, and the
+sorrow thus brought into almost every home, force this question into
+prominence. If blank pessimism is to be avoided, many people feel that
+they must have some assurance of the continued existence of those who
+have made the supreme sacrifice--a sacrifice at the call of duty,
+greater probably than any sacrifice ever made by us of the older
+generation who have lived in the smooth times of peace. We feel that if
+these magnificent young lives have come to nought, have been _wasted_,
+there is no rational religious belief possible to us. Accordingly we
+inquire about immortality. And, curiously enough, Science, which in the
+last generation tended to deny or discredit individual survival of
+bodily death, now gives a quite opposite verdict. Psychical research
+brings forward scientific evidence for that welcome belief. It seems
+too good to be true; but it is true. Public opinion has not yet fully
+accepted it--nor is it well that opinion should change too rapidly--for
+it was well drenched in materialism during the heyday of physical
+science and its astonishing applications in the latter part of
+the nineteenth century, but the leaders of thought in almost all
+branches--scientific, legal, literary, and what not--are now admitting
+that the evidence is at least surprising, and those who have studied it
+most are one by one announcing that it is convincing. There are many
+questions yet to solve, such as the nature and occupations of the future
+life, concerning which there are different views, and the problems may
+turn out to be insoluble; but the main problem seems on the way to
+be settled. The survival of human personality is a fact. And the
+indications, so far as we have got, suggest that the next stage is a
+life of opportunity, work, progress, even more than the present one.
+There is much to be thankful for in even this only incipient revelation.
+It is salvation great and joyous, to those reared amid unacceptable
+theories of a blank materialism or the much more dreadful hell-doctrines
+of the theologians.
+
+The religion of the coming time, then, seems likely to be mainly based
+on these two articles, belief in God in the way indicated, and belief in
+survival and progress on the other side. Both beliefs are empirical, and
+are thus in harmony with the temper of our time. They begin with the
+things which are most real to us, first the fact of conscious experience,
+then the external world, and reason upward therefrom, instead of
+beginning with metaphysical entities and attributes, and reasoning
+down--and failing to establish contact with the material world. Religious
+experience there still may be, and this may give rise to quite new and
+unexpected forms of belief or worship; but on the whole the tendency of
+thought for the last three hundred years has been increasingly empirical,
+and the success of the method is likely to ensure its continuance. It may
+be true that the ideal world is the more real--probably it is--that out
+of thought's interior sphere these phenomenal wonders of the world rose
+to upper air, as Emerson says; but for us in the present circumstances
+the way back to universe-spiritualisation is _via_ experience (and
+mainly sense-presentations) carefully observed and studied. If these
+scientific methods, which are open to everybody, can lead to belief
+in God and a spiritual world to which we pass at death, it seems
+unnecessary to return to the bad old days when sporadic experiences of
+this or that ecstatic, or logic-chopping by this or that theologian,
+led to beliefs and cults of widely differing character according to the
+idiosyncracy of the writer. A method which is open to all and the rules
+of which are agreed on will be likely to yield something like unanimity.
+The churches may yet form one fold, if they will; in which, with
+variations to satisfy different aesthetic or symbolistic needs, all souls
+may find the answer to their queries, healing for their sorrow, and
+scope for their reverence and love; in a word, salvation.
+
+
+PRINTED BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+  Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+  The following printer's errors have been corrected, on page
+  1   "neaking" changed to "sneaking" (tinged with a sneaking sympathy
+      for its hero)
+  49  "odject" changed to "object" (that the position of the lost
+      object could)
+  66  "comandingly" changed to "commandingly" (soothingly or
+      commandingly filling the patient's mind)
+  81  "handing" changed to "handed" (would not want his enemies handed
+      over to)
+  90  "a" added (brutal soldiery, in a Rouen market-place)
+  90  "Salpetriere" changed to "Salpetriere" (Come to the Salpetriere
+      Hospital, and I will show you)
+  97  "gegenbueer" changed to "gegenueber" (Die Tagesansicht gegenueber
+      der Nachtansicht)
+  98  "cerebal" changed to "cerebral" (chemical change in cerebral
+      tissue or what not)
+  100 "discontinous" changed to "discontinuous" (thin and indeed
+      discontinuous skin which).
+
+  Otherwise oddities and inconsistencies of the original text have been
+  preserved, including the spelling of foreign names.
+
+  The first name of Mesmer was Franz, not Friedrich.
+
+  On page 37 a paragraph starts with point 1. There is no point 2.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill
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