334 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



becomes a whale the evidence must be as weighty, let us 'say, as the star.Sirius. 

 So, also, when Jones becomes a ghost. 



Now, as to the evidence actually " obtained " by the spiritualists, most people 

 who have read accounts of it — as, for instance, in Mr. Edward Clodd's very crush- 

 ing book, The Question (Grant Richards, 1917)— conclude (1) that all the miracles 

 and tricks ascribed to spirits and mediums in seances are not a wit more surprising 

 than those performed by professional conjurors merely to amuse audiences ; 

 (2) that as many of these mediums and tricks have been shown to be impostors and 

 frauds, so probably are all the rest ; and (3) that quite a common class of persons 

 will say or do anything in order to obtain notoriety — or money. The weight of 

 this " evidence," compared to what is required to overcome the weight of the 

 a priori objections, is as the weight of a hair to that of the said star Sirius. If 

 only these ghosts would come out and have a plain talk with us on a sunny day 

 in an open field, or say in Hyde Park, what a lot of trouble would be saved ? And 

 why, also, cannot the miracles of clairvoyance, telepathy, etc., be performed under 

 the same conditions ? Yet any poor Indian juggler will do much more wonderful 

 things in the open — and so will many a " professor " on an English race-course. 



We therefore continue our perusal of Dr. Mercier's book with misgivings. 

 He claims that his evidence is much more veridical than that of Sir Oliver Lodge. 

 He certainly succeeded in transferring a thought from his own mind to the mind 

 of another person — which we have seldom been able to do — and that right through 

 a brick wall. He has seen instances of levitation of the most surprising kind — a solid 

 object dematerialised in one place and materialised again in another. He must be 

 congratulated on possessing the acquaintance of the two young telepathic mediums ; 

 but not so much on meeting the two gentlemen in the railway carriage ; because, 

 not only did they quite overcome his stupid, bigoted, benighted, dull, cowardly, 

 unreasoning, scientific scepticism, first by means of three cards held on the tips 

 of thumb and fingers of one hand, and then by means of certain thimbles and peas 

 placed on a flat surface, but they also made him lose ,£53 in consequence of his 

 enthusiasm for scientific investigation ! But the reader must buy the book for 

 himself. He will then find (thank Heaven !) that Dr. Mercier has not fallen after 

 all, but that the granite is as true — and as sparkling — as ever ! What the book 

 succeeds in doing is to show that the so-called Psychic Phenomena are, millions 

 to one, nothing but Prestigiatory Phenomena — as we have just suggested. Oh, 

 that some conjuror would only write a book explaining his amusing art ! We 

 should then, also, obtain a full scientific explanation of our much less amusing 

 ghosts. 



Seriously, there is still room for a good essay on the evolution of the Ghost- 

 Hypothesis. We doubt its origin in the personification of nature-forces. Much 

 more probably it was found useful during the vast and dark ages of tribal evolution 

 which gradually moulded man before the historic era, in overcoming the fear of 

 death in battle, and was expressly inculcated for that very reason by the sages and 

 minstrels of the dawn. It must also, certainly, have been a powerful deterrent 

 against cruelty, oppression, and murder, when there were no policemen ; for the 

 criminal always had to fear his victim's ghost, if not his victim's friends. Litera- 

 ture is full of both these themes. At its best the Ghost-Hypothesis has probably 

 done much for humanity, both as the enemy of vice and the friend of virtue ; and 

 we still see the good of it as an anodyne for bereavement and a stimulant for 

 noble effort. In fact, its action has been very similar to that of alcohol or opium ; 

 and men still accept it for a similar reason, because it is pleasant and comforting 

 to them. They believe in it because they wish to believe in it ; they invent 



