is tempted to think that the spiritualist's belief is more Christian, judged by those standards nearest to the time of Christ, than is much of the Christianity of to-day. Spiritualism may, indeed, be regarded as a sort of revival of true Christianity, the present Christian Churches having sunk into the same stiff and objective conservatism as that of the Jews which Christ came to replace. Orthodoxy, then, having lost its belief, as seen in our first chapter (pp. 25-28), spiritualists had to start another sect which should affirm the truth no longer taught from "orthodox" pulpits.

As with all new truths, Spiritualism has never lacked opponents. The materialists-within and without the Church-said that the alleged phenomena either could not happen or could be explained without recourse to spirits if they did happen; though the said critics showed a singular unwillingness to provide explanations in detail, mostly confining themselves to crude assumptions of fraud-a hypothesis which, as Sir William Barrett has shrewdly said, works very well until one begins to learn something of the subject by real investigation. After 3,000 years one might expect that everyone would agree that "he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him." But the materialists probably do not read the Book of Proverbs, so we cannot expect them to have profited by its wisdom; nor by the example of the people of Berea, who searched "whether these things were so, therefore many of them believed." 2 Knowledge is not to be had without search. People must come and see, and if their prejudices are 'Proverbs, ch. xviii., 13. 'Acts, ch. xvii., 11.

1

so strong, either against the possibility of any good thing coming out of Nazareth or against any unexpected thing coming out of any other equally obscure region, that they will not trouble to come and see, they will remain unenlightened. That is their affair. And in many instances they are doing useful work where they are, and are not to be blamed for not investigating, but only for judging without knowledge.

The

The Roman Catholic agrees that the things happen, but says also without investigation, which his Church discourages-that they are diabolic; and, appealing to the fears of the ignorant, warns the public off. But the devil-theory is not proven, and those of us who have investigated for many years without finding anything to support it, are naturally disinclined to accept it. Says Myers: "The terror which shaped primitive theologies still tinges for the populace every hint of intercourse with disembodied souls. transmutation of savage fear into scientific curiosity is of the essence of civilisation. Towards that transmutation each separate fragment of our evidence, with undesigned concordance, indisputably tends. In that faintly opening world of spirit I can find nothing worse than living men: I seem to discern not an intensification but a disintegration of selfishness, malevolence, pride." While agreeing with the Catholic that psychical investigation is not for everyone (nor, indeed, is anatomical investigation), we are unable to see that any satisfactory case can be made out for a wholesale devil-theory and a general prohibition. Both religionists and materialists fall back at need "Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 78.

on telepathy, though materialists do so with hesitation, for, though helping to "explain" without spirits, it opens another door to them on the opposite side, by allowing the probability of a spiritual world in general. No physical theory of telepathy has been worked out-there are no "brain-waves" known, and no receiving stations yet discovered inside our skulls-and the thing does not seem to accord with the law of inverse squares or the equal propagation in all directions which physical law would require. It is increasingly probable that telepathy is a psychical not a physical fact; that it takes place in a spiritual world, between mind and mind rather than between brain and brain. And of course if a spiritual world is rendered probable by the facts of telepathy, our materialistic friends are really hoist with their own petard in invoking it as an alternative to spirits. The weapon turns and hits them in another place. Accordingly the rationalist, Mr. Joseph McCabe, perceiving this, recants his opinion that the evidence for telepathy is satisfactory, but is then reduced to silence, for, if telepathy is not a fact, there is no avoiding the terrible superstition of spirits. One feels rather sorry for these harassed Rationalists nowadays. However, the remedy is in their own hands. They require to be more rationalistic; to apply their reason to investigation instead of ignorantly denying, swayed by emotional bias.1

As to Protestant objections, the strongest is, per

1 For discussion of this, and for a philosophic treatment of the whole subject of Mind and Matter relationship, see Dr. William McDougall's admirable volume, "Body and Mind" (Methuen).

haps, that of the Bishop of Oxford, who fears that attention to psychical phenomena may turn the mind away from higher things. But this may be said of attention to any sort of phenomena-namely, science in general; though there is perhaps special likelihood in the psychical case because it adjoins the religious consciousness. No doubt what the Bishop fears is preoccupation with external evidence of a spiritual world, to the damage of inner development. Admittedly this caution is worth careful consideration.

Human energy can be used to enlarge experience in many directions, and what we seek is how best to achieve a wise balance. India, for example, has concentrated on the inner way of mysticism, and has stagnated externally. Greece awoke to the external, and developed unparalleled sense of beauty, with keen intellect. Rome harnessed all its powers to the external aims of Empire, and lost its soul, as Germany has done. The downfall of Rome-there being nothing unitary to put in its place-brought intellectual night on Europe for a thousand years, until the Renaissance. Science appeared, and objective inquiry won great results. The three or four hundred years between Bacon and the present day brought greater changes than history had to show in all the times before; e.g., before the introduction of railways in the eighteen-forties, the methods of travelling were what they had been in Julius Cæsar's day-no better. And now we have aeroplanes which travel faster than any train, and we communicate with the ends of the earth, almost instantaneously, by that new miracle which we call electricity. But we need more than this objective con

quering of the forces of nature. Objective power is good, but it must be rightly used. Concentration on its acquisition is apt to lead to spiritual blindness and wrong uses. Mephistopheles was all intellect, with no morals or spirituality.

We seem to need a blending of East and West. We must retain our scientific gains, but must extend our vision beyond the material. We must see the universe as a spiritual thing of which the material world. is a part. And to those who have no religious experience of their own-no first-hand inner touch with unseen Intelligence-this perception of wider horizons seems likely to be best awakened by the new science called psychical research. It follows the method now trusted by the modern man, and it leads out of the material scheme into wider realities. Nay, even for those who have or have had inner experiences, it likewise brings an otherwise unattainable help and liberation; or at the least a confirmation not easily to be over-estimated. Thus it was with F. W. H. Myers. For when he found that the evidence for the central fact of his faith was insufficient for the structure of belief erected upon it, he honestly surrendered that belief, bitter though the loss to him was. But after thirty years of psychical research he found his earlier faith confirmed and far more firmly established, and could say: "I recognise that for me this fresh evidencewhile raising that great historic incident of the Resurrection into new credibility-has also filled me with a sense of insight and of thankfulness such as even my first ardent Christianity did not bestow." 1

1 "Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 295.