THE FOURTH DIMENSION. 



107 



spiritualistic phenomena. Similarly, he sees a reference to the 

 four-dimensional world of spirits in all those sayings of Christ in 

 which the latter speaks to his Apostles of the impossibility of their 

 having any image or notion of the place to which when he dis- 

 appeared he would go and whence he would return. (Gospel of 

 St. John, xii. 33, 36; xiv. 2, 3, 28; xvi. 5, 13.) 



Ulrici, however, goes farthest in the mingling of spiritualistic 

 and Christian beliefs ; for he sees in the doctrine of spiritualism a 

 means of strengthening belief in a supreme moral world-order and 

 in the immortality of the soul. In answer to Ulrici's tract "Spirit- 

 ualism So-called, a Question of Science" (1889) Wundt wrote an 

 annihilating reply bearing the title "Spiritualism, a Question of 

 Science So-called." Wundt criticises the future condition of our 

 soul according to spiritualistic hypotheses in the following sarcastic 

 yet pertinent words, which Cranz also quotes: "(i) Physically, the 

 "souls of the dead come into the thraldom of certain living beings 

 "who are called mediums. These mediums are, for the present at 

 "least, a not widely diffused class, and they appear to be almost 

 "exclusively Americans. At the command of these mediums, de- 

 " parted souls perform mechanical feats which possess throughout 

 "the character of absolute aimlessness. They rap, they lift tables 

 "and chairs, they move beds, they play on the harmonica, and do 

 "other similar things. (2) Intellectually, the souls of the dead 

 " enter a condition which, if we are to judge from the productions 

 "which they deposit on the slates of the mediums, must be termed 

 "a very lamentable one. These slate-writings belong throughout 

 "in the category of imbecility ; they are totally bereft of any con- 

 " tents. (3) The most favored, apparently, is the moral condition of 

 "the soul. According to the testimony which we have, its charac- 

 ter cannot be said to be anything else than that of harmlessness. 

 "From brutal performances, such, for instance, as the destruction 

 "of bed-canopies, the spirits most politely refrain." Wundt then 

 laments the demoralising effect which spiritualism exercises on peo- 

 ple who have hitherto devoted their powers to some serious pursuit 

 or even to the service of science. In fact it is a presumptuous and 

 flagrant procedure to forsake the path of exact research, which 



