272 HUMANISM xv 



osopher may flatter himself that he can be of real service 

 in guiding the course of investigation, or at least in 

 helping it to avoid certain pitfalls. Not, of course, that 

 even here he would be wise to presume to lay down the 

 law a priori as to the actual working and merits of the 

 various methods ; he should content himself with ex 

 pounding the logical characteristics which sound methods 

 in Psychical Research must possess, and explaining why 

 exactly they must possess them. 



I do not propose, however, on this occasion to discuss 

 the methodological value of the assumptions made in 

 Psychical Research generally, but only in so far as they 

 affect the question of a future life. The reasons for this 

 are obvious. The possibility of a future life provides much 

 of the motive force in such inquiries. Most of the active 

 members of the Society are probably interested in this 

 question, and whether they desire or fear a future life, 

 they agree in wanting to know what chance or danger 

 there is of it. It is true that the S.P.R. is unique in 

 aiming to solve this problem in a scientific way, but 

 though we are scientific, we may yet be honest in 

 avowing the existence of a practical motive. If attacked 

 on this score, let us meet our critics with the doctrine 

 that in this respect at least we are not unique, inasmuch 

 as in the end all true science is inspired by practical 

 motives, and that it is the fear, no less than the hope, 

 of a future life that renders its possibility so urgent a 

 subject for scientific consideration. Moreover, just now 

 the evidence in connexion with Mrs. Piper s trances 

 seems to have brought this possibility well above the 

 horizon of the S.P.R. , while at the same time much 

 confusion and prejudice still seem to prevail about it 

 which philosophic criticism may help to dissipate. For 

 a comprehensive statement of the new evidence and new 

 interpretations of old evidence which render it the 

 bounden duty of the philosopher to readjust himself and 

 his formulas to the growth of knowledge, I can now 

 (1903) point to Frederic Myers valuable work on Human 

 Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death. 



