438 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Latin is now taught, not for use in communication, but 

 for mental discipline. I should like to know what experts 

 in education would say of Ido as a means of mind-training. 

 My impression is that it has high value, it is so clear and 

 logical. 



Latin is also taught because of its literature. That is a 

 purpose that may well be distinguished from the discipline of 

 its grammar. The vogue of Ido is only beginning, its literature 

 may be in the future. Let me conclude with a specimen. It 

 is a passage translated from Bergson : 



" Ni serchas nur la preciza senco donata da nia koncio a la 

 vorto, ! existar ' e ni trovas ke, por koncioza ento, existar esas 

 chanjar, chanjar esas maturigar su, maturigar su esas krear 

 su ipsa senfine. Kad on pocas dicar samo tote generale pri 

 l'existo." 



Yours faithfully, 

 Gilbert H. Richardson. 



/uly 28, 1919 



THE GHOST-HYPOTHESIS 



I.— From C. A. Richardson, M.A. 



Dear Sir, — An essay-review appeared in your October number on a book on 

 Spiritualism by the late Dr. Charles Mercier, which calls, I think, for some 

 protest. The name of the reviewer does not appear to be mentioned, perhaps 

 wisely. I am not here concerned to take up any definite attitude as to the 

 truth or falsity of spiritualism ; but I should like to urge that criticism of 

 assertions which have received the support of such well-known and rigorous 

 investigators as Crookes, Flammarion, Lodge, and Barrett (to name but four), 

 should only be entrusted to one who is at least moderately instructed in the 

 matters he raises as relevant to the point at issue. I will illustrate from the 

 review mentioned. The reviewer speaks first of what he calls the " a priori 

 improbability " of spiritualistic phenomena. Now, strictly speaking, a priori 

 improbability has no application to experienced events, for these are unique 

 and particular. For this reason, the first example given, that of the three sides 

 of a triangle, is quite off the mark. A geometrical proposition is a general 

 proposition, deduced by means of principles of reasoning which are themselves 

 general, from a certain body of postulates which are also general propositions. 

 In the question under discussion, however, we are concerned with what are 

 purely particular matters of fact. The point may be passed over, however, for 

 apparently what the reviewer really means here is that it is extremely improbable 

 that events will be experienced in the future of a different type from those 

 experienced in the past. This, of course, assumes some such principle as the 

 Uniformity of Nature, for which there is no ultimate guarantee. But, in any 

 case, the argument from improbability is a risky one to play with, and apt to 

 lead to unpleasant surprises. One need only mention the case of the alchemists 

 with their theory of transmutation. They were subjected to precisely the same 

 kind of criticism from certain quarters as are the spiritualists. Yet now that 



