EDITOR'S TABLE. 



751 



narrow-minded, muddle-headed, pre- 

 tentious, and insolent imbecile that Dr. 

 Buchanan intimates, we would try and 

 find better occupation than troubling 

 ourselves about his obsolete trash. 



Dr. Buchanan opens his batteries 

 against the materialists, but might he 

 not as well have left this to some irate 

 theologian ? This polemical dash can- 

 not be effective against Dr. Carpenter, 

 who is certainly no materialist, either 

 by his own avowal, by the tenor of his 

 writings, or their common interpreta- 

 tion. On the contrary, he is a religious 

 man, who has written copiously and 

 cogently against materialism. The term 

 materialism, skillfully used, is no doubt 

 a good controvei'sial weapon for popu- 

 lar effect, but in the hands of Dr. Bu- 

 chanan it loses its edge, as he seems to 

 regard all science which limits itself to 

 the investigation of Nature in its ordi- 

 nary aspects as materialistic. 



We cannot here go into this contro- 

 versy, but may briefly refer to what we 

 regard as one of its primary issues. At 

 the threshold of the subject we en- 

 counter the questions. What is Nature? 

 What are the limits of its laws ? and. 

 What weight, or logical force, is to be 

 allowed to the conception of the laws 

 of Nature ? When observation, experi- 

 ment, and reason, have concurred in 

 establishing a principle which may be 

 always verified and found to be con- 

 stant, what is the degree of firmness 

 with which it is to be held ? Science 

 recognizes the laws of Nature as so 

 fixed and fundamental that the well- 

 trained mind must be under an over- 

 whelming predisposition in regard to 

 them. Hence, when marvelous stories 

 are told of the violations of these laws, 

 the tendency of such minds must be to 

 put them aside as unworthy of atten- 

 tion. They cannot be entertained as 

 against the demonstrated uniformities 

 of the natural world. Much in regard 

 to Nature is, of course, unknown ; what 

 we understand may be as but a few 

 drops to the ocean in relation to what 



we do not understand ; yet some things 

 are known, and with so high a degree 

 of certainty that we can rest in them 

 with profound assurance that no fu- 

 ture extension of knowledge can falsify 

 them. 



Dr. Carpenter maintains, and we 

 think rightly, that there is a strong bias 

 in scientific minds in favor of the in- 

 flexibleness of natural laws which the 

 spiritualists do not share. His language 

 is, that "it is quite legitimate for the 

 inquirer to enter upon this study with 

 that ' prepossession ' in favor of the as- 

 certained and universally admitted laws 

 of Nature, which believers in spiritual- 

 ism make it a reproach against men of 

 science that they entertain." Both our 

 critics resent this imputation upon "be- 

 lievers in spiritualism." Mr. Wallace de- 

 clares it to be " unfounded and totally 

 false; " and Dr. Buchanan afiirms spir- 

 itualists to be " the foremost of all men 

 in insisting on the universal inviolabil- 

 ity of all the laws of Nature, extending 

 their infrangible power not only over 

 all physical phenomena, but throughout 

 the equally extensive psychic realm." 



It is obvious that Dr. Buchanan here 

 uses terms to suit himself, as he gives to 

 the phrase "laws of Nature" a mean- 

 ing very different from its established 

 scientific significance. In its scientific 

 sense, the term " Nature " designates 

 that sphere of phenomena, material and 

 mental, of which we have constant ex- 

 perience, which is accessible to the hu- 

 man faculties, and which by its order 

 becomes a subject of methodical knowl- 

 edge ; while the laws of Nature are the 

 uniformities of action that are coexten- 

 sive with this sphere. To this tract Dr. 

 Buchanan annexes a "psychic realm," 

 meaning thereby, not the common 

 sphere of mind which is already em- 

 braced by the term "Nature," but a 

 super-mundane, extra-material, preter- 

 natural, or spiritual world, above and 

 beyond the sensuous order. This su- 

 pernal region he claims to bring under 

 the operation of the laws of Nature, 



