Quotes:Barrett, William Fletcher

Zirkoff, Boris

Barrett, Sir William Fletcher, British scientist and writer, b. February 19, 1844; d. May 26, 1925. Son of Rev. W. G. Barrett. Educ. at Old Trafford Grammar School, Manchester, and by private tutoring. Assistant to Prof. Tyndall, 1863; Science Master, Intem’l College, 1867; Lecturer on Physics, Royal School of Naval Architecture, 1869; Prof, of Physics, Royal Coll, of Science, Dublin, 1873-1910. Married, 1916, Dr. Florence Willie, distinguished surgeon and gynecologist.

Interested for some time in telepathy and kindred subjects, Barrett stimulated similar interest in men like Henry Sidgwick, F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney and Balfour Stewart, and is rightly considered as the chief Founder of the Society for Psychical Research which was formally constituted February 20th, 1882, with Prof. Sidgwick as President and Barrett as Vice-President. In February 1884, the Journal of that Society was started on Barrett’s proposal, and he was its Editor for the first year. In the same year, Barrett, drawn to America by the meeting of the British Association at Montreal, was able to interest important men of science in the United States in psychical research and to give the required impetus for the formation of a similar Society there, which was established in January 1885, with Prof. Newcomb as its first President.

Barrett had a remarkable ability to stir others to interest in subjects which were vital to his own mind. He was very able in exposition, both as a lecturer and as a writer. He was eager to stimulate inquiry, especially in new and unusual subjects.

Apart from his activities in psychic research, Barrett was a notable worker in the world of physics. It was in Tyndall’s laboratory at the Royal Institute that he made his well-known observations on sensitive flames; he investigated the magnetic properties of the silicon-iron alloy, known as Stallory, which has been of very great value in electrical engineering; he engaged in the study of entoptic vision and related subjects, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.

Barrett contributed a large number of papers to the Society’s Proceedings, on subjects ranging from Hypnotism to Dowsing, and from Poltergeists to Telepathy. His scientific papers appeared mainly in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, the Philosophical Magazine and elsewhere. He was also the author of a number of books and monographs, such as: On the Threshold of a New World of Thought (1908); On Creative Thought (1910); On Psychical Research (Home Univ. Library, 1911) which latter, though somewhat out of date now, is a model of clear exposition of 623 a recondite subject. The story of his interest and experiences in psychical research are outlined in his paper “Some Reminiscenses of Fifty Years of Psychical Research,” in the Society’s Proceedings (Vol. XXXIV, Part XCII, December, 1924).

In connection with the views of Sir William Barrett in later years, mention should be made of what has been reported by Dr. James H. Cousins, a well-known Theosophist of the Adyar Theosophical Society. An excerpt from one of his letters is published in The Theosophist, Vol. XLVII, October, 1925, pp. 4-5, containing the following information:

“The passing of Sir William Barrett, F.R.S., at over eighty years of age, a short time before my arrival in London (June), recalled to me a couple of incidents in my happy friendship with him when we were both resident in Dublin. My interest in matters occult naturally drew me to the initiator of the Society for Psychical Research, and somewhere about 1903 he invited me to meet him in his country house among the Wicklow hills, which was built on the plot of ground that had been used for successful experiments in dowsing for water. A number of generous springs of delicious water had been found by the turning of a twig and he built the house on the ground thus amply provided.

“When Mrs. Besant visited Dublin in 1909, I (happening to be the organizer of her visit) asked Professor Barrett by letter to occupy a seat on the platform at a lecture in a large hall. He replied to the effect that he would not be associated with that lady or her works. I was surprised, therefore, when I saw him come into the hall; and still more surprised when, at the end of the lecture, just as Mrs. Besant was about to leave the platform, he jumped up and expressed thanks for the most illuminating and inspiring address that he, who had heard the best speakers in the world, had ever listened to. Next day I received a letter from him expressing his regret at not being able, owing to a professional engagement, to see Mrs. Besant off at the steamer from Kingstown to Holyhead.

“Shortly before my departure for India (1915), I found myself beside Sir William in a Dublin tramcar. Talking over my future relationships with the Theosophical Society at Adyar, he volunteered the opinion that a wrong had been done to Madame Blavatsky in the Report on the Coulomb affair in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. Dr. Hodgson, the maker of the Report, had, Sir William said, come to believe in quite as 624 extraordinary things as he had condemned in the case of Madame Blavatsky, and he (Sir William Barrett) hoped that the Report, which was a blot on the Proceedings of the S.P.R., would some day be withdrawn.”

It has also been stated by Dr. Annie Besant (see her work The Real and the Unreal, 1923, p. 9) that when she met Richard Hodgson he gave her the impression that he had lived to see the truth of the phenomena he had earlier denied, and told her that “he would have given a very different report had he known in 1885 what he learned afterwards.”

To date, the London Society for Psychical Research has given no intimation of its intention to withdraw the biased and damaging Report of Richard Hodgson concerning H.P.B. and her phenomena, but it has at least given expression of recent date to a restatement of its declared policy of bearing no responsibility for either the facts or the reasonings in papers published in its Proceedings.

In connection with a scurrilous article on H. P. Blavatsky and Theosophy recently published in Time Magazine, the following letter was addressed to the Editors by John S. Cutten, Hon. Secretary, The Society for Psychical Research:

The Editor ‘Time’,

Editorial Office,

Time & Life Building,

Rockefeller Center,

New York, N.Y. 10020.

U.S.A.

1, Adam & Eve Mews,

Kensington, London, W.

25th July, 1968

Dear Sir,

We would like to make a correction to the article on Religion published in the issue of ‘Time’ dated July 19th, 1968.

In this feature, under Theosophy, it is stated in connection with Madame Blavatsky “Controversial wherever she went, she was accused in 1885 by the Society for Psychical Research in London of fraud, forgery and even of spying for the czar.”

We would point out that, as stated in all copies of the Proceedings of this Society, “Responsibility for both the facts and the reasonings in papers published in the Proceedings rests entirely with their authors.”

625 Comments on Madame Blavatsky were contained in a report by Richard Hodgson in Part IX of Proceedings dated December 1885 and any accusations therein contained are the responsibility of the author and not this organization.

Your faithfully,

[Signed] John S. Cutten

Hon. Secretary.

While this letter does not say anything else but what has been stated on the titlepage of every issue of their Proceedings for some years, it has at least the added value of being an official declaration on the Society’s letterhead. Whether one should read between its lines a growing desire to become permanently dissociated from the unfortunate Report of Richard Hodgson will have to be left to the considered judgment of the reader. Were Sir William Barrett still alive, more definite and specific action on the part of the S.P.R. might have been expected.

Pertinent information about, and a complete re-examination of, the charges brought against H.P.B. by Richard Hodgson are contained in the most valuable publication on the subject, namely, Adlai E. Waterman’s work entitled: Obituary: The “Hodgson Report” on Madame Blavatsky—1885-1960 (Adyar: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1963; xx+92, plates) which should be in the hands of every serious student.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 4, pp. 622-625