Heriew of Rtiiewa, tO/i/OO. 



Leading Articles. 



401 



seize the ft-Uow's iron leg. He sent his boy to sum- 

 mon them to come. As he went they vanished, and 

 never returned. Captain Johansen swears the story 

 is literally true. His trip was chronicled by Reufe'r 

 in the TimCi Ijetween August 20th and 26th, igoo. 

 But who were the ghosts? why did they come? and 

 whither did they go? The story beats the legend of 

 the Flying Dutchman hollow. 



THE NEW YORK CUSTOM-HOUSE. 



Mr. Charles lU- K.a), ui the Ccirttirv Magazine, 

 writes on the magniticent new Custom-house in New 

 York, on which the architect and immense numbers 

 of workmen have already been engaged fully 

 eighteen months. As yet no one can say when it 

 will be (inished. It is on a highly historic site, 

 sacred to memories of United States history for full 

 three centuries. Judging from the many' excellent 

 illustrations, it will really be a fine liuilding. The 

 G(>\ernments of the States, not that of the State of 

 New York, bear the cost; and the architect, Mr. 

 Cass Gilbert, is not the Government architect, but 

 one of inde|)endent practice, specially chosen for 

 the task. The writer says: — 



Following out flie scheme of sculptural decoration de- 

 signed by the arcliitect, at least something has been done 

 t.T blunt the reproof that New York, a citv by the sea. 

 great through the ocean and our magnificent waterw^^vs! 



Krdiiced from «/i iUustnition in the " Ceiiturii Ungtiiinrr\ 



The New Custom-house in New York. 



rareh- remembers the sources of her wealth and greatness. 

 In her public monuments siie is wont to ignore the sea. tlie 

 navy, the nations that have helped to make her wliat slie is. 



Accordingly all the sculptures tend to remedy this, 

 to bring out the idea of the nations who. however 

 indirectly, have contrilxited to make New York what 

 she is. The granite capitals of the columns contain 

 a head of Mercury and the winged wheel — com- 

 merce and transportation respectively. The pan- 

 thers' heads over the entrance arch represent tlie 

 chief wild beasts found by the colonists. The key- 

 stones of the flat arches in the windows of the main 



storey aie car\ed with masks of races — the Cau- 

 casian, the Hindu, the Celt, the Mongol, the Esqui- 

 maux, and many others. The sculptures of figures, 

 representing Greece, Denmark, Venice Phoenicia, 

 among other cities or states, appear v^ry fine, though 

 Venice (by an Italian sculptor) hardly suggests the 

 (Jueen of the Adriatic. 



BODIES MOVED WITHOUT BEING TOUCHED. 



Sir Oliver Lodge contributes to the Fortnightly 

 Revieiv an essay on the scientific attitude to marvels. 

 He recalls Michael Faraday's lecture on Mental Edu- 

 cation, with its definite repudiation of the alleged 

 levitation of a piece of furniture as a contradiction 

 iii the 1,1 w of gravitation. Sir Oliver says that the 

 hostile influence of Faraday's great name has hin- 

 ilered and retarded the scientific examination of 

 tiltra-normal physical phenomena. Hence the foun- 

 ilers of the Society for Psychical Research directed 

 their first attack on facts of a psychological charac 

 tc-r. Mut .Sir Oliver maintains the time has now come 

 for a renewed examination of the subject on its phy- 

 sical side. The evidence is showing signs of becom- 

 ing more available, and " strong and controllable 

 manifestations of physical metapsychic phenomena " 

 should be investigated by science. These phenomena, 

 like solar eclipses or a transit of Venus, are not 

 matters of every-day occurrence. 



THE ■• TRIVIAL ' ARGUMENT. ■ 



Sir Oliver tries to clear the vvav as follows. He 



An argument, or prejudice rattier, wliich ia too often 

 raised against the investigation of such phenomena ia that 

 they deal with trivialities, ^.f?.. that the objects moved are 

 lu»mely. that the intelligence operating is rudimentary, 

 that the messages conve,ved are only of domestic and sel- 

 dom of national or international importance. This fami- 

 liar rubbish is but seldom tackled and answered aa it de- 

 serves: it is usually only treated with silent contempt. 



.^ tiling is either new and true, or else it is not. If the 

 movement of an untouched object be a fact hitherto un- 

 known to science — what matters that the object moved be a 

 scavenger's brush, a- bit of orange peel, or a kitchen table? 

 If a communication shows signs of hypernormal intelli- 

 gence or ciairvo.vance. what matter that the event per- 

 ceived is the losing of an umtjrella. the spraining of an 

 ankle, or a blow in the mouth? The fact is that the whole 

 notion of our being competent discriminators between what 

 is trivial and what is important is an assumption, for 

 which there is but little justification. 



Sir Oliver goes on to say, " The more insignificant 



.m event, the higher for evidential purposes may its 



ultra-normal treatment in some cases become." He 



adds: — 



But now, further, as a mutter of fact the communications 

 and anticipations are naf always concerned with the sort ot 

 events we Iiave agreed to call trivial. Often they contain 

 unverifiable assertions concerning: future . existence ; occa- 

 sionally tliey may trench on the domain of religion; 

 sometimes they relate t-o serious mundane affairs, such as 

 the breaking of a bank, or a financial transaction, or an 

 illness, or a birth, or a death. 



Sir Oliver quotes, in conclusion, from Huxley: — 



The universe may contain — for all we know— as Huxley 

 said. *■ kinds of existence which we are not competent 8o 

 much as to conceive— in the midst of which we may be set 

 down with no more notion of what is about us than the 

 worm in a flower-pot, on a London balcony, has of the Ufa 

 of the great city." 



