156 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



among mediums and their dupes. The respectful 

 attention which his words command : the tremendous 

 claims which he makes on behalf of the phenomena 

 at seances as proving the existence of soul apart 

 from body after death, and as revealing the con- 

 ditions under which it lives, have made incumbent 

 the foregoing attempt to indicate what other ex- 

 planation is given of those phenomena, showing 

 how these fall in with all we know of man's tend- 

 encies to imperfect observation and self-deception, 

 and with all that history tells of the persistence of 

 animistic ideas. 



A salutary lesson on the use and misuse of the 

 imagination is thus taught. That which, under 

 wholesome restraint, is the initiative and incentive 

 of inquiry, of enterprise, and of noble ideas; un- 

 restricted, leads the dreamer and the enthusiast into 

 ingulfing quicksands of illusions and delusions. 

 Hence the necessity of curbing a faculty so that in 

 unison with reason, it works toward definite ends 

 within the domain, marking man's limits of service. 

 As Dr. Maudsley reminds us in his sane and sober 

 book on Natural Causes and Supernatural Seeming, 

 " not by standing out of Nature in the ecstasy of a 

 rapt and over-strained idealism of any sort, but by 

 large and close and faithful converse with Nature 

 and human nature in all their moods, aspects, and 

 relations, is the solid basis of fruitful ideas and the 

 soundest mental development laid. The endeavour 

 to stimulate and strain any mental function to an 



