4 



illusion in the minds of persons untrained 

 and inexperienced. For example, persons 

 strongly tend to believe in a second 

 shouter, while, for the first time, they 

 listen to a remarkable voice -echo. 

 Similarly the untutored must also be 

 strongly impressed at first with the 

 illusory reality of reflected sight objects. 

 Who, again, has not felt the powerful 

 tactile illusion of duality in unity by 

 crossing the fioger tips— preferably the 

 second and third — while with eyes shut 

 pressiog the surface of a round object, 

 such as a marble or the tip of the nose ; 

 or the converse of this -unity in duality— 

 in the pressure upon the skin of the body 

 by the two adjacent points of a pair of 

 compasses ? 



If in such cases the particular senses 

 were not aided by the more extended ex- 

 perience of others, and by free com- 

 parisons and repeated trials in conjunction 

 with the sister or complementary senses, 

 we should all be subject to illusions to a 

 much greater extent than we at present 

 conceive. 



Where, on the other hand, the senses 

 are not merely unaided, but are crippled 

 by conditions which are unfavorable for 

 the reception of clearly-defined and un- 

 disturbed concepts, we may be certain, 

 that as sure as the lowly organised fungi 

 attack and destroy the more highly 

 organised animal and vegetable forms 

 whose vigor has abated, or whose tissues 

 are diseased, so sure is it that fungoid 

 illusions will ba'.ten upon and distort the 

 judgment of all those whose hidden 

 springs are poisoned at the source by 

 conditions unfavorable to the formation 

 of strong healtby primary sense con- 

 cepts, 



COMMON FUNGOID ILLUSIONS. 



The references to what have been 

 termed " Common Fungoid Illusions " in 

 this argument, are restricted to a few 

 common types, and do not pretend to 

 comprehensiveness. One or two types 

 have been chosen which are particularly 

 characteristic of our own raca and age. It 

 would be less difficult to bring conviction 

 to most people with regard to the preva- 

 lence of gross illusions among lower races 

 of men, or among people of a bygone 

 age ; for it is proverbial that errors of this 

 kind are likely to be more correctly appre- 

 ciated from the standpoint of an observer 



untrammelled by local influences. If we 

 refer, therefore, to the illusions of the 

 exl^'ting lower races of men, or to those of 

 ancient times in regard to demonology, 

 witshcraft, astrology, epilepsy, lunacy 

 !|he shape of the earth and its position in 

 the solar system, and such like, it is 

 merely to show that the natural fruit of 

 ignorance is illusion of some kind or 

 another. Illusions are sometimes mimetic, 

 and like all organisms of a mimetic 

 character, they are difficult to distinguish 

 from the surrounding conditions from 

 which they take their shape and color. 

 There are manj current illusions, there- 

 fore, which are only superficially different 

 from those of older times. They may be 

 clothed in a pseudo science garb, in 

 mimicry of the • prevailing spirit of this 

 age ; but, fundamentally, they, on ex- 

 amination, will be found to present the 

 well-known features of the fungoid illusions, 

 which in all ages have been known to 

 prey upon weakness and ignorance. 



THE ILLUSIONS OF IDEA SYMBOLS. 



The first examples under this division 

 refer to those " fungoid illusions " so 

 closely associated with all forms of the 

 outward expressions of the ideas ; espe- 

 cially those related to the sound-symbols 

 of articulated words, and those related to 

 the form, sight, or touch symbols of all 

 kinds of writing. Simple pictorial 

 representations being more natural are 

 less liable to be illusory. Perhaps no age 

 has been subject to this form of illusion 

 so much as the present, and paradoxical as 

 it may appear, there is good reason to 

 believe that many of the so-called 

 " educated classes" are likely to be as great 

 slaves to the myriad illusions arising 

 therefrom as are to be found among the 

 illiterate. 



What we know, think, and feel, and 

 through what chains of previous know- 

 ledge we have arrived at our present con- 

 dition can only be disclosed partially to 

 others by means of idea symbols. Out- 

 wardly we can observe a man laugh, cry, 

 speak, sing, gesticulate, but even though 

 we could enter and penetrate to the re- 

 motest molecule of his brain we could not 

 by all our perceptive organs of sense 

 discern his accual feelings or thoughts. 



If in ourselves there were not an 

 orderly and consistent connection in the 

 ordinary casual relation between certain 



