THE MODERN OCCULT. 469 



thought; for the problem of the occult and the temptations to belief 

 which it holds out are such as can be met only by a vigorous and critical 

 application of a scientific logic. As logical acumen predominates over 

 superficial plausibility, as belief comes to be formed and evidence es- 

 timated according to its intrinsic value rather than according to its 

 emotional acceptability, the propagandum of the occult will meet with 

 greater resistance and aversion. 



The fixation of belief proceeds under the influence of both general 

 and special forces; the formation of a belief is at once a personal and a 

 social reaction — a reaction to the evidence which recorded and personal 

 experience presents and to the beliefs current in our environment, and 

 this reaction is further modified by the temperament of the reagent. 

 And although individual beliefs, however complex, are neither matters 

 of chance nor are their causes altogether past finding out, yet some of 

 their contributing factors are so vague and so inaccessible that they are 

 most profitably considered as particular results of more or less clearly 

 discerned general principles; and in many respects there is more valid 

 interest in the general principles than in the particular results. It is 

 interesting and it may be profitable to investigate why this area is 

 wooded with oak and that with maple, but it is somewhat idle to specu- 

 late why this particular tree happens to be a maple rather than an oak, 

 even if it chances to stand on our property, and to have an interest to 

 us beyond all other trees. It is this false concentration of the attention 

 to the personal and individual result that is responsible for much un- 

 warranted belief in the occult. It is likely that no single influence is 

 more potent in this direction than this unfortunate over-interest in 

 one's own personality and the consequent demand for a precise explana- 

 tion of one's individual experiences. This habit seems to me a posi- 

 tive vice, and I am glad to find support in Professor James: "The 

 chronic belief of mankind that events may happen for the sake of their 

 personal significance is an abomination." Carried over to the field of 

 subjective experiences, this habit sees in coincidences peculiarly signifi- 

 cant omens and portents, not definitely and superstitiously, it may be, 

 but sufficiently to obscure the consideration of the experience in any 

 other than a personal light. The victim of this habit will remain logi- 

 cally unfit to survive the struggle against the occult. Only when the 

 general problem is recognized as more significant for the guidance of 

 belief than the attempted explicit personal explanations will these prob- 

 lems stand out in their true relations. It is interesting to note that 

 the partaking of mince-pie at evening may induce bad dreams, but it 

 is hardly profitable to speculate deeply why my dream took the form of 

 a leering demon with the impolite habit of squatting on my chest. The 

 stuff that dreams are made of is not susceptible of that type of analysis. 

 The most generous allowance must be made for coincidences and irrele- 



