444 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



sense, your correspondent accuses me of ignorance because I do not use the 

 phrase in the stale Kantian sense — which I do not accept ! 



When we ask the advocates of B for clear definitions of their meaning we 

 meet only with evasions. I asked in my review whether it was supposed that 

 animals have ghosts, as well as men? — no answer. Where do these multitudes 

 of ghosts usually live ?— no answer. Why do they not frequently communicate 

 with all of us, by day as well as by night, in the field as well as in darkened 

 chambers? — no answer. How do they maintain their earthly personality and 

 even physical strength ?— no answer. How can they suddenly make themselves 

 visible or invisible, just as they wish?— no answer. The spiritualist will reply 

 that he cannot answer because he has not yet attained the knowledge. But 

 there is another and more probable reason why he cannot answer — because there 

 is not a word of truth in the whole story. We have only to define the details 

 in order to see the folly of the whole speculation. When I asked why photo- 

 graphs of ghosts cannot be taken, your correspondent declares that " Crookes 

 stated that all these phenomena had actually occurred." Yet this same "rigorous 

 investigator" accepted the genuineness of Katie Cook's performances months 

 after she had been exposed by Mr. Volckman. 1 I do not accept the evidence ; 

 and why have not similar photographs been taken by now in thousands ? The 

 reader himself can deal easily with the other points raised by your correspondent. 



But we are obliged to him for the final demolition of the whole Ghost- 

 Hypothesis. When I asked how it is that ghosts of mere material objects such 

 as clothes, daggers, hands, and faces are so often reported, Mr. Richardson 

 replies that this ancient difficulty " disappears when it is realised that apparitions, 

 if they exist, are probably more akin to vivid images telepathically originated 

 than to sensations proper." Oh, but this is a tremendous admission ! Ghosts 

 may then be really not seen at all ! They may be due merely to some telepathic 

 titillation of the alleged observer's brain from outside. They may be only fancies 

 after all. But if this be true of ghosts it may also be true of everything that 

 has occurred at every seance ever held — the floating mediums, the spirit-rappings, 

 the skipping tables, the awesome messages may be only foolish illusions gener- 

 ated simultaneously in the brains (?) of the audience by some evil-disposed tele- 

 pathist in the room, or even miles away. We have always been too polite to 

 suggest mendacity or gullibility, and here is another simple and more agreeable 

 explanation. So, if your correspondent is right, away goes the whole business 

 like a witch on a broomstick, and the discussion is closed ! 



But what a wonderful thing is telepathy! In future we shall need no tele- 

 graphs, posts, writing, printing — even speech. There will be no books, news- 

 papers, committees, parliaments, discussions, controversy. We shall all agree, 

 even about ghosts, because each of us will be able to telepath all he thinks or 

 sees or imagines into everyone else's mind, without any means of communication. 



I shall believe in this when I see it. Until then the alternative explanation 

 remains sufficient. The truth is that spiritualists possess enough imagination to 

 see things which do not exist, but not enough to understand the logical conse- 

 quences of their own wild speculations. That is why they so often meet with 

 ridicule. 



Yours faithfully, 

 The Writer of the Essay-Review. 

 November 5, 1919 



1 Mr. Edward Clodd's book The Question, pp. 126-7 (Grant Richards). 



