276 HUMANISM xv 



logical principle of interpreting the unknown by the 

 known tells strongly in favour of the simpler, and prima 

 facie easier, theory of the agency of personal spirits as 

 against the more complex and unfamiliar notions of an 

 impersonal clairvoyance, or subliminal consciousness, or 

 non-human modes of cognition by gods, devils, or cosmic 

 principles of a more or less unknowable kind. I am 

 very far from thinking that we should in such matters 

 hastily commit ourselves to the interpretation which 

 prima facie seems the most plausible, or, indeed, to any 

 definitive theory whatsoever, and I should be sorry to see 

 the ingenious attempts to provide a non-spiritistic ex 

 planation of the phenomena in question prematurely 

 abandoned if only on account of their excellence as 

 mental gymnastics but I cannot admit that such 

 attempts are one whit less anthropomorphic in principle 

 than the spiritist hypothesis (they only stray further 

 from their human model), while I cannot help admitting 

 that methodologically they are more cumbrous and so 

 considerably inferior. The spirit hypothesis has the 

 same kind of initial advantage over its rivals as the 

 solid atom has in physics over the vortex ring or 

 the ether stress. And while our knowledge remains in 

 its rudiments this advantage is considerable, though, as 

 the parallel shows, it may easily become problematical. 



Admitting, therefore, that as a working theory the 

 hypothesis of the persistence after death of what we call 

 the human personality possesses considerable advantages 

 over rival theories, let us inquire further by what methods, 

 resting on what postulates, that theory may be verified. 



(i) We may rule out once more the notion that such a 

 future life is essentially supernatural in character. This 

 notion has been a favourite with believers, but it is easily 

 turned into a terrible weapon in the hands of their ad 

 versaries. For the supernatural is, as such, conceived to 

 be insusceptible of investigation, and belief in it must be 

 mere faith, exposed to every doubt and jeer, if, indeed, it 

 can be even that, seeing that a real faith must be 

 nourished by at least partial and prospective verification in 



