356 HUMANISM xix 



the latter have for the most part risen to the dignity of 

 indispensable necessary truths implied in the very 

 nature of the human mind and underlying the whole 

 structure of human knowledge. 1 We gain little help 

 therefore from the assumptions of sciences like mathematics 

 and mechanics in considering what assumptions should be 

 made in a new subject like Psychical Research ; we learn 

 little about the making of a science from sciences which 

 can neither be unmade nor remade, and in whose case it 

 requires a considerable effort of philosophic thought to 

 realize the methodological character of their fundamental 

 postulates. More might perhaps be learnt from the 

 assumptions of parvenu sciences which have but recently 

 obtained full recognition, but for the fact that a critical 

 dissection of their methods is decidedly dangerous. For 

 the arbor scientiae seems in their case to have developed 

 a symbiotic arrangement greatly resembling that whereby 

 certain trees protect themselves ; just as any attack on 

 the latter is ferociously resented by a host of ants which 

 the tree provides with food and shelter, so any interference 

 with such a science is sure to draw down upon the mildest 

 critic the onslaught of an infuriated professor who lives 

 upon the science. In Psychical Research, on the other 

 hand, no such danger is to be apprehended ; we have not 

 yet developed any professionals whose mission it is, as 

 William James has wittily remarked, 2 to kill out the 

 layman s general interest in the subject, and hence the 

 philosopher may proceed at his leisure to observe how the 

 science is made and to try instructive experiments with 

 its working methods, without fear of offending vested 

 interests. 



Again, a philosophic discussion of possible methods is 

 likely to be more useful in Psychical Research because 

 such methods are still plastic cartilage, as it were, which 

 has not yet grown into rigid bone, and may be moulded 

 into a variety of forms. Hence by reflecting betimes 

 upon the advantages of alternative methods, the phil 

 osopher may flatter himself that he can be of real service 



1 See Axioms as Postulates. 2 Human Immortality, init. 



