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Then gradually came an insistence on an extended form of the Cartesian theory of the mechanical or automatic nature of life: the doctrine that living processes are likewise governed by the ordinary laws of physics and chemistry; that though they are peculiarly complex and difficult to follow in detail, they are nevertheless of the same intimate nature as the working of inorganic atomic machinery, and involve nothing essentially new. This is even now not a known fact, but a dogma dogma held with various degrees of tenacity and not yet made an article of scientific faith. But the discoveries of geology stand in a different category; these show undoubtedly that the earth has existed millions of years longer than had been supposed; that its surface has been subjected to extraordinary changes; that animal and plant life has never been lacking from extremely remote periods, and has gradually by exceedingly slow steps improved in quality, showing no sign of having sprung full-fledged into existence by creative fiat.

The consevation or constancy of energy; the doctrine that no new energy ever makes its appearance; the discovery that, on the other hand, heat is not constant, but can be manufactured de novo by the clash of matter; the corresponding explanation of suns and solar systems by the condensation of nebulæ (originally an unsubstantiated inspiration of Kant); the more recent discoveries that a mass of matter, simply by being large enough, thereby possesses an atmosphere, becoming a possible habitable planet; and that another mass by being very much larger may, solely for that reason, be white-hot and therefore become a sun, capable of affording the conditions necessary for the maintenance of life on planets revolving around it-these facts all tend in the same antitheological direction and conspicuously have led students along that path. And then, finally, the view that inheritance and survival, without guidance or control, were adequate

satisfactorily to explain all the forms and adaptations of animal and vegetable life, whenever there was contest enough to stimulate activity and to destroy the feeble and unfit this doctrine was, and is to this day, held by many to complete the demonstration of purely automatic working, and to leave no room for any but mechanical and material guidance or " cause."

Yet, in spite of all this tendency, the actual result has been different from what was expected. The outlook does not correspond with what was, by some hopefully, by others dreadingly, anticipated. The unspoken thoughts of the leaders of science, acquainted with all these discoveries, have become not less but more essentially religious, employing the term in a broad sense without reference to churches or sects. They realise that all this may be true, but that much else may be true, too; they perceive that all our boasted progress is, after all, only a beginning; that we are still, as it were, in the dawn of human intelligence; that the human mind is only beginning to realise its power of exploring, and, in a blind way, of understanding the secrets of nature, and that it would be indeed a narrow and superficial and purblind view to take if, in the enthusiasm generated by a few material conquests, the deeper feelings and instincts and emotions of the human spirit were thwarted and crushed. It is felt that, after all, what we are really and primarily conscious of is not matter, nor force, nor energy, nor any kind of outside occurrence: all these are inferences; that which we inevitably and directly feel is" ourselves," our own intelligent and perceiving consciousness. And just as it is in terms of this subjective central reality that all else must be stated and comprehended, so it may objectively be with the cosmos; its essence and core may be no external phenomenon, such as serves to appeal to our organs of sense, but an all-embracing, penetrating, and inspiring Thought.

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH OF THE CENTURY

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BY ANDREW LANG

T is difficult even to give a name to the subject of this essay. The word psychical" seems to beg the question and to insinuate that there is such a thing as a psyche, or soul, distinguished from the ordinary intellect. As a matter of fact, psychical research is only an inquiry as to whether there be any faculties and phenomena, to which, for lack of a better name, the term "psychical " may be applied. That there are such faculties and such phenomena, has been the belief of the majority of mankind in all known ages. A singular uniformity marks the beliefs (or superstitions) of all periods, races, and conditions of culture. This uniformity, of course, does not, as Dr. Johnson inferred, amount to proof. Curiosity and love of excitement, wearied with the "natural" (that is, accustomed) round of events, had only to imagine exceptions to everything normal, and "miracles" of uniform character were at once asserted. A dead man does not walk about: deny this- and ghosts walk. People cannot be in two places at once: deny thisand you have" bilocation." Men do not fly: deny this- and have" levitation." The future and the remote are dark to all: deny this — and you invent every branch of prophecy, seership, and clairvoyance. Inanimate objects are never spontaneously volatile: affirm the opposite — and you are confronted with the " physical phenomena of "Spiritualism." Fire always burns objects subjected to its action: affirm the opposite - and you come to

you

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Thus the uniformity of the beliefs in such marvels is very readily explained.

But the explanation becomes more difficult when you have to deal, not with savage mythology and civilised folklore, but with the attested experiences of educated modern men and women. They have witnessed one or other of these marvels, or so they persist in averring. Their experience has been identical with that of savages and barbarians; with that of classical antiquity; with that of saints, witches, and members of the Royal Society at the time of the Restoration. This fact is so puzzling that, at different periods, educated persons have investigated the evidence for the reported marvels. In the Alexandria of the fourth Christian century, Porphyry; in the England of Charles II., Glanvil, More, Baxter, and Boyle; in the America of 1680-1720, the Mathers; in the Germany of 1760-1830, Kant and Hegel; in the France of 1780-1830, various learned bodies, took part in these investigations. Little that can be relied on was discovered. The researches were usually unmethodical, often prejudiced, often superstitious. Only in the last twenty years has inquiry been methodical, sceptical, and persistent. The practices of Mesmer at the end of the eighteenth century opened the way. They interested, in the nineteenth century, the Schellings, Hegel, and Ritter. Hegel believed in clairvoyance, in what is called telepathy (the action of distant mind on distant mind, through no known channel of sense), and in the diviningrod. For all these things he found a place in his Philosophy of Spirit. The theory which explains what we call facts of hypnotism by "animal magnetism" was accepted, or at least many of the marvels of this kind were accepted, in a report of a scientific French committee in 1831. But the report was burked, and the topic was banished to keep company with the origin of language and the squaring

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of the circle. Yet the topic kept recurring, and the magnetic sleep" was vouched for by Dr. Elliotson. About 1841-45, Braid of Manchester introduced the word "hypnotism," to cover the phenomena of induced somnambulism. He proved that the old theory of a magnetic efflux from the operator was superfluous, and that the sleep, with all its peculiarities of hallucination, and of submission to the will, could be induced in a variety of mechanical ways. The patient could be made insensible to pain, and only the introduction of chloroform checked the use of hypnotism in surgical operations. It was also shown that the mind of the hypnotic patient could be so influenced to affect his body, and, at least in nervous and hysterical diseases, to exercise a healing influence. These discoveries, obviously, explain many of the stories of witchcraft, of healing miracles, and of glamour," or the induced false perceptions, which were part of the stock in trade of conjurers in the Middle Ages and the seventeenth century.

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So far, I think, these inquiries have undeniably reached solid ground, and have cleared up the obscure subject of witchcraft. The only question is one of degree. How far are the stranger phenomena of hypnotism, such as the suggestion of sleep from a distance, based on good evidence? In the middle of the century, Drs. Gregory and Mayo, in two interesting works, investigated the amount of truth involved in popular superstitions. They accepted clairvoyance and successful crystal-gazing, that world-wide practice. Meanwhile, many physicians and others worked at the topic of hallucinations of the senses, both in the sane and the insane. A few of them brought forward cases of premonitory dreams and telepathic incidents, which they professed to be unable to explain away. The subjects of a certain Major Buckley (1840-50) were deemed to be peculiarly clairvoyant, and the anecdotes, in one or two cases, have good evidence. The case of