EDITOR'S TABLE. 



121 



"confirmation of telepathic phenom- 

 ena is afforded by many converging 

 experiments," but especially by " the 

 subconscious workings of the mind 

 when these are brought into con- 

 scious survey." There is really no 

 meaning in this. How can any 

 ''survey" be other than conscious? 

 And what is there in the subcon- 

 scious workings of the mind adapted 

 to prove that impressions can be 

 made upon the mind otherwise than 

 through the recognized channels of 

 sense? "The patient experimenta- 

 tion of the Society for Psychical Re- 

 search is probing subliminal pro- 

 cesses and learning lessons of alter- 

 nating personalities and abnormal 

 states." There is no objection in the 

 world to all that ; but it would take 

 more than an alternating person- 

 ality or an abnormal state to enable 

 a mind to gather knowledge from 

 another mind without the inter- 

 mediation of intelligible signs. A 

 sick man may act in a very singular 

 way, but his sickness does not enable 

 him to transcend the ordinary pow- 

 ers of humanity. 



The eminent professor speaks of 

 the cures wrought by suggestion 

 (hypnotism) ; but seeing that the 

 suggestions are made by intelligible 

 signs, verbal or other, we find no 

 support here for the telepathic hy- 

 pothesis. We really gather from the 

 professor's remarks that while a 

 great many persons — some of high 

 intelligence and of recognized posi- 

 tion in the scientific or philosophical 

 world — have been pottering away at- 

 this matter of telepathy and other 

 phases of spiritualism for a great 

 many years, things are to all intents 

 and purposes just as they were be- 

 fore all these laborious researches 

 began. This is not just the way the 

 professor puts it ; his words are : 

 " A formidable range of phenomena 

 must be scientifically sifted before 

 we effectually grasp a faculty so 



strange, so bewildering, and for ages 

 so inscrutable as the direct action of 

 mind on mind." Sometimes the rea- 

 son why a thing is inscrutable is 

 because it isn't so ; and that, we sus- 

 pect, is the explanation in the pres- 

 ent case. One hypothesis which the 

 professor puts forward is simple to the 

 last degree. It is that the molecular 

 action of the brain, when thoughts 

 are passing through it. is taken up 

 by the ether and communicated to 

 another brain in which it awakens 

 similar thoughts. But the question 

 we ask at once is why this wireless 

 telegraphy between brain and brain 

 is not going on all the time, and why 

 we are all not driven crazy by the 

 everlasting intrusion of other peo- 

 ple's thoughts ? If this is the pro- 

 cess, why should neighboring brains 

 be skipped, and the effect be pro- 

 duced upon one particular brain 

 hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 

 miles away ? 



" It is henceforth open to science," 

 says Sir William Crookes, u to tran- 

 scend all we now think we know of 

 matter, and to gain glimpses of a 

 profounder scheme of cosmic law." 

 We really do not know when it was 

 not open to science to do this if it 

 could; and we do not see that the 

 telepathists and other denominations 

 of spiritualists have in any apprecia- 

 ble manner improved the situation 

 as regards the probability of the 

 thing being done. They have con- 

 tributed floods of talk and tons upon 

 tons of printed matter, and have 

 worked thousands of people into vari- 

 ously grewsome conditions of mind ; 

 but if any one can point to a single 

 distinct advance in scientific theory 

 due to their peculiar methods, we 

 can only say that we do not know 

 what it is. Professor Crookes has 

 been one of the foremost scientific 

 workers of his day ; and we find it 

 hard to believe that he can be under 

 any illusion as to the futility of the 



