< Faith Versus Knowledge (continued from page 7-90) >
Spiritualists take place as a rule in insufficient light, if not in total darkness, and in presence of those who are in a state of mental excitement.
“Now, for our own part, we should not be disposed to credit any communication from the world of spirits that was not made openly and to those unprepared to receive it, and, therefore, unprejudiced. “The man of science must be perfectly recipient, but he must, in, the interests of truth, guard himself against the possibility of delusion. We know the almost infinite power of the mind, not only to delude itself, but to propagate its delusion to other minds, and, as we have already remarked, the conditions of these manifestations are specially favourable to the spread of such delusions. We do not, therefore, hesitate to choose between the two alternative explanations, and to regard these pretended manifestations as having no objective reality.”
In the face of this logical but false conclusion, and of the pronounced concurrence of other scientific men with it, I feel very strongly that our primary effort should be a refutation of it; we owe it to ourselves to vindicate, by every means that can be applied, the truly objective nature of our facts, and it is, therefore, with the greatest pleasure that I observe that our Experimental Research Committee are again in full work, because in their hands rests, as I believe, the most pressing work the Association has to do at thismoment.
We must not forget that at this day the whole world is with science, and that by its aid alone can we gain attention. I am not one of those who think that there is anything surpassingly grand or noble about science; it must be fully admitted that, taken by itself, it represents that bread alone by which man cannot live, and its complete triumph can be scientifically proved to be the complete downfall of the human race; still, in its own lowly sphere it is equally pure with every other fountain of knowledge at which the hearts of men instinctively inform themselves.
And, surely, within even its narrow limits there is plenty of ground which has not yet been trodden by us. Spirit to be apprehensible by us must appeal to us in precisely the same mode in which matter does: our knowledge of both must be identical, because in both cases we can only* know their respective powers as ultimately affecting our feelings; what we cannot know is the abstract matter, or abstract spirit, which is either more than or other than that which is given in feeling. And thus the action of spirit must be like the action of electricity, and every other natural force, known only in its effects, and capable of precisely the same investigation. I spoke of the principle of continuity as a chain which encircles the universe; the particular links in that chain which now claim our attention are cerebral physiology and a psychology based upon it, and the subjects in relation to medial phenomena appear to furnish an almost inexhaustible field of labour, in which the best results may be hoped for, especially if we could obtain aid from the other side. I am bound to say, however, that within my experience, “Joey” has always seemed much more anxious to produce the phenomena than to trouble himself with any intelligible explanation of the modus operandi. I trust the Experimental Research Committee may be more fortunate in inducing that lively being to take a more scientific interest in the subject.
No one need fear that even the narrow range of study which I recommend will preclude the exercise of a man’s best faculties. Retaining a firm hold of sensible experiences, he may employ all the speculation he is capable of by ascending to what may be called extra-sensible, and finding himself in the border region of the dynamic relation of atoms, of the ether, that mysterious form of matter which contradicts all our notions of matter, or of the ultramundane corpuscles of Le Sage.
I am afraid that these general recommendations of a slow and plodding process may appear inadequate and unsatisfactory to those who, following a very human bent, think that the constant interference of the spirits of the departed is a final and exhaustive explanation of the whole range of spiritual phenomena, who feel that experience merely is too narrow as basis for the interpreting of nature, and who would, invoke the aid of truths drawn directly from consciousness as a supra-sensible source of knowledge.
To such I shall appear in the light of a drag on the wheels; I must be content to remember that a drag is sometimes useful in preventing too headlong a career down hill, and I have not hesitated to put forward these limited views, because this Association courts the expression of all shades of opinion, and does not require assent to any creed whatever on the part of its members.
I will conclude by adducing one or two examples in which I think the application of a little scientific reasoning and questioning would be valuable.
It is stated in a well known work that a usual accompaniment of all states of impression and clairvoyance is the phenomenon of internal respiration p which takes place deeper in the system than the lungs.” This must be a most curious physiological state of things, and deserves careful attention.
Again: on a recent reading before the Association of a careful and very temperate paper on stigmatization, one of the speakers in the discussion which followed, believed the case in question to be one of spirit influence, solely because he had witnessed similar phenomena in others. Was this a proper ground for forming an opinion in this special instance?
Again: one of our members, who had been privileged to witness the very highest forms of materializations with which we are acquainted, did himself the injustice to claim our belief in his statements by an appeal to his unchallenged veracity. Would it not have been more to the purpose had evidence been afforded of the due cultivation of his powers as an observer? One other case: I read an account of a seance at which one of the sitters described the touch of a materialized hand that grasped his for a moment, as “like the loving pressure of a hand in a higher sort of life.” The question arises, how could the comparison have been instituted?
I will not multiply instances of this kind as I feel sure those I have given are sufficient to indicate my meaning, but I will just add that a recent perusal of the work called Isis Unveiled more than ever makes me deplore this tendency to muddle up fact with fancy. These volumes are full of the most interesting and varied facts, and if they stood alone we might congratulate ourselves on having a cyclopaedia of our subject, but unfortunately the personal feelings of the authoress are so frequently and so offensively intruded upon our notice that one gets the idea that the original and sole object of the work was not the unfolding of the secrets of nature, but a denunciation of two pet antipathies, viz., Science and Roman Catholicism.
I hope these few remarks will elicit a profitable discussion.
* See J. H, Lewes’ Problems of Life and Mind.
Editor's notes
- ↑ image by unknown author