SPIRITUALISM AS A SCIENTIFIC QUESTION. 587 



other choice in regard to these observations : I prefer the authority 

 of Science to the authority of a few of her representatives, however 

 honorable, who have, in this instance, made observations in a province 

 which lies far from the sphere of their own special studies. 



II. 



Here I might conclude, passing silently over the hopes which you 

 attach to the reality of the spiritualistic phenomena. But your infer- 

 ences, philosophical, ethical, and religious, in relation to the subject, 

 appear to me, as I have already observed, so important that they 

 can not be without influence upon our attitude toward the entire ques- 

 tion. Permit me, therefore, to betake myself for the moment to your 

 own standpoint. I will assume, as you do, that the reality of the phe- 

 nomena is no longer to be doubted. What follows from this for our 

 general view of the world, for our judgment of the past and of the 

 future ? What effect does it have upon our moral and religious senti- 

 ment? 



For the purpose of answering these questions, you discuss, in the 

 first place, the hypotheses which we can form concerning the nature 

 of the spiritualistic phenomena. There are three such hypotheses. 

 We can possibly see in the phenomena 1. Expressions of natural 

 forces ; 2. Operations of intelligent beings, who belong to a space of 

 four dimensions, and who, therefore, possess the power alternately to 

 enter, in their movements, our space of three dimensions, and to van- 

 ish from the same into the to us inaccessible fourth dimension ; 3. 

 Manifestations of so-called spirits or ghosts. I prefer the latter term, 

 because, according to philosophical usage, we understand by a spirit 

 ( Geist) an immaterial being, while " the spirits " occasionally undergo 

 materialization, a property which is designated, unambiguously only, 

 by the German word " 6respes" (ghost, apparition). Like all who 

 have engaged themselves with the subject, you reject the first hypoth- 

 esis, since the phenomena point to arbitrary actions of intelligent 

 beings ; only the last two hypotheses, therefore, remain for us to con- 

 sider. 



Here, respected sir, you believe yourself compelled to decide against 

 the hypothesis of intelligent beings of four dimensions and for the 

 hypothesis of ghosts. I will not follow you in your argument, based 

 upon the Kantian theory of knowledge ; I would, however, beg to call 

 your attention to the fact that there is no essential difference between 

 the two hypotheses. By a ghost we understand an intelligent being 

 that can suddenly appear in the world of our senses and as suddenly 

 disappear from it again, leaving no traces behind, but we understand 

 precisely the same by an intelligent being of four dimensions. Modern 

 mathematics, as you very well know, has advanced in its speculations 

 astonishingly far, and it has thereby gained the power to define with 

 exactness numerous conceptions, for the designation of which we had 



