PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. 43 



The phenomena of spiritualism, so-called, present a field that 

 should yield valuable results of some kind and ought to be a legiti- 

 mate subject for investigation. Yet Alfred Russell Wallace, who 

 was everywhere recognized as a great scientist, almost lost his reputa- 

 tion by his study of the subject and subsequent adhesion to the faith 

 of spiritualists. Sir William Crookes, great both as a physicist and 

 chemist, investigated the phenomena, and has suffered more or less 

 for it ever since. Is that right? Is it scientific ? Do not make the 

 mistake of supposing that I am advocating the claims of Christian 

 science or spiritualism. Far from it. I believe, however, that where 

 a wide-spread belief prevails, there is something to be learned by scien- 

 tific study ; there is a grain of truth, at least, if we will only thrash 

 it out, and my contention is that it is the duty of scientists to hold 

 toward these obscure phenomena the attitude of science instead of 

 jjrejudice, and, while demanding as incontestable evidence here as else- 

 where, to encourage rather than taboo investigation in these lines. 

 The old question, "If a man die shall he live again?" is one which, 

 bidden or unbidden, rises in every breast. Its answer we know no 

 better than did Omar Khayyam, who wrote : 



"Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent 

 Doctor and saint, and heard great argument 

 About it and about : but evermore 

 Came out by the same door where in I went. 



"Into this universe, and tuhy not knowing 

 Nor ivhence, like water willy-nilly flowing : 

 And out of it as wind along the waste, 

 I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing. 



"Up from Earth's center through the seventh gate 

 I rose and on the throne of Saturn sate, 

 And many a knot unraveled on the road ; 

 But not the master-knot of human fate. 



"There was the door to which I found no key; 

 There was the veil through which I might not see : 

 Some little talk awhile of me and thee 

 There was — and then no more of thee and me. 



"Earth could not answer ; nor the Seae that mourn 

 In flowing purple of their Lord forlorn ; 

 Nor rolling Heaven with all his signs, revealed 

 And hidden by the sleeve of night and morn." 



"To hope is one thing, to believe another; to know is quite an- 

 other." It is the future task of science to contribute something to 

 the unraveling of the "master-knot of human fate." 



The experimental study of the mind and consciousness will occupy 

 the scientists of the future far more than it has those of the past. 



