A Tendency Of The Time

It is at first glance remarkable that bo skeptical an age as ours should be the time in which so thorough and extensive research is made into that misty región which of old was regarded as the upernatural, but which is now the eustom to look upon as merely the unexplored; and yet upon the second thought it is apparent that it is precisely the skeptical age that is most likely to study this phase of nature. In a more devout age it would be thought that there was something half sacrilegious in prying into the hidden mysteries of creation; while in a more buperetit íouh age a more or less conscioua fear would do much to check investigation. It is in tbe calm and coolly lnvestigating temper of the generation Which is still in doubt that these things are sure to be most eagerly studied. There is, of course, the widest difference of temper in the minds of those ■who In one fom or another have thrown themselves into psychical research. It was said, with perhaps more epigraminntic neatness than accuracy, tfcat the English Society of Psychical Research was established to prove that all ghot stories were true, while the American was established to prov that all were false; yet with whatever extravagance of statement there was at least a gTain of truth in the phrase. !The negative is never of a vitality Cfual to that of the positive, and in the end the American society went under, and lts remnants have been annexed to the English body. That there are earnest workers in both is cloubtless true, and it is no doubt true also that there is much work of valué done by the society. Certainly many of the men connected with the morement would oommand respect for any enterprise in whieh they were engaged or to which they lent their supjjort. The thing which strikes an outsider, "however, is the f act that it is the almost invariable result of the following sort of stndy that the student is drawn from the real to the unreal, from the tangible to the intangible, and - alas, that it must be addedl- from the tenable to the untenable. The history of the vast majority of thinkers who have plunged into this sort of study has been that they have ended by being the dupe of illusions which they would have been the first to smile at when they were in a sane and normal condition, illusions of which the falsity has been demonstrad ed beyond peradventure. It has not inirequently happened that iovestigators for the power and c'c:;rness of whose mind at the (i :tet. for whose fairness and integrity there could not be too much admiration. 1 ve in the end become the victims of the most vulgar trickery, the dupes of charlatans who had not the merit of extraordinary cleverness to recommend them, or the champions of vagaries begot in their own brains like maggots in sunbaked cheese. The value of psychical research is too obvious to need remark, and it is in no spirit of cavil that this common dange.r of the study is touehed upon. Why is it that investigators so oí ten lose their balance in this field it is not easy to say, but of the fact, at least, there seems to be no reasonable doubt. Whether it be from the habit of mind induced by too much striving after the intangible, whether it be thut the powers proper to the perception of this branch of investigation be not well developed in the race asyet, whether it be that contact with the class or phenomena dwelt upon in these suggestions subtily changes the fiber of the mind, it is impossible to say; it is only possible to predict with approximate assurance that the man who goes into this business with a very level head will in nine cases out of ten come to the place where he will be a possible if not a probable victim to the easiest and most transparent frauds of circumBtances or of charlatans. lie will come to the place where it is inevitable that he should eitherbe tricked or trick himBelf. It is possible that this is one of the phases through which this branch of science must go, and from which it will triumphantly emerge later. It may be that it is merely the natural result of hereditary tendencies, and that in a generation or two the impulse, brought cónstantly in contact with the hard face of fact, will be worn away. In the meantime it is not unnatural that the human mind, being called upon to believe scientifieally so much that it has hitherto held to or rejected as belonging to the realm of the supernatural, should find it difficult to distinguish between the true and the false. This may come later wlien the atmosphere of investigation becomes cleared from the lingering mist of oíd superstitions. Meanwhile there is nothing to do but to push the investigations; although the outside world must look upon whoever goes deeply into this branch of study as a man who is likely to make a sacrifice of himself in the cause of seience. mnnh in the same wjiv as a man sacrificeshimself who goes into a mine full of poisonous vapors for the sake of bringingback to Hght such gems as may chance to be mixed with the handfuls of pebbles wliich he g-ethers in the desperate haste tlnit, haply he may escape with nis