Renfic of Reviews, 1/7/06. 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



&i 



THE OCCULT MAGAZINES. 



The Annals of Psychical Science for April devotes 

 most of its space to describing and vindicating the 

 genuineness of the phenomenon of materialism at the 

 Villa Carmen, Algiers. 



Among the shorter articles, which may be described 

 as " Tlie Keview of Keview.s " section of the Annals, 

 there are two vei"y marvellous stories. One describes 

 how two chaplets marked for identification were placed 

 ill the cottin of a child, and after the coffin had been 

 screwed down and consigned to the earth, tJiey were 

 returned, one the second day and the other the fourth 

 day, after burial : — 



On the Monday at eleven o'clock she was with Mme. D. in 

 one of the bedrooms, when both of them suddenly saw 

 something white detach itsell from the ceiling and descend 

 shwly to the ground in a spiral course. They immediately 

 picked up the little white mass. It was the first cbaplet, 

 surrounded with a little wadding which smelt of the corpse, 

 and still having the metallic button attached. The child's 

 body had been wrapped in wadding. 



The Norwegian papers report that on the day on 

 which King Haakon VII. replaced King Oscar II, on 

 the throne of Noi-way, a portrait in one case and a 

 marble bust in another, suddenly fell to the ground 

 in the presence of many witnesses, without being 

 moved by any visible person present. 



According to the Prufiressire Tliinkcr, Dr. Rioliard 

 Hodg.son has communicated since his death with Dr. 

 Punk, of Funk and Wagnalls. Dr. Funk is going to 

 make a report concerning the message the authenticity 

 of which he has no doubt. 



The Occult Beview for May publishes two prize essays 

 on the question of Ghost Clothes, which curiously exer- 

 cises some minds to wliom it appears much more 

 impossible to materialise the thought-body of a fur 

 coat than the face and features of its wearer. 



The editor publishes a letter written by Dr. Richard 

 Garnett. of the British Museum, who, in his capacity 

 as astrologer, was a contributor and supporter of the 

 Occult Beview. 



One of the most interesting articles in the magazine 

 is that by Mr. R. H. Benson, who explains lucidly and 

 intelligibly th-3 attitude of the Roman Catholic Chnrch 

 towards occultism. It may be summarised in brief 

 that two of a trade never agree, espSciall.v when they 

 do not agree as to the conclusions at which they have 

 arrived. 



Dr. Franz Hartmann tells a weird story of witch- 

 craft in Germany. According to Dr. Hartmann ani- 

 mals are .still bewitched. He gives details of one 

 case which occurred in the dairy of his own sister, 

 which is gruesome in the extreme. 



Mr. Reginald B. Span, in a brief pa.pw on 

 " Glimpses nf the Unseen," tells a story of fairy music 

 in Ireland and Western Amerioa. ca.p.s it with a tale 

 of a vanis'iing house, and declares that a friend of his 

 is certain he has not only heard but has seen the ban- 

 shee. Hearing a horrible wailing noise in the air, high 

 above their heads, he and his sister looked up and 

 caught a glinip.se of a grey figure, like the form of a 

 small old woman, with draperies flapping in the wind, 

 sweep swiftl.v round a corner of the house-roof, and 

 disappear behind an angle of the building, uttering a 

 shrill wailing noise as she fled. The next day his 

 father died. 



In the Opn Court for April David P. Abbott de- 

 scribes from the point of view of an expert conjurer 

 liow he can simulate the " MediumLstic Reading of 

 Sealed Writings." In tlie Bibliotheca Sacra for April 

 Dr. Merrins publishes the first of two papers on " The 

 Powells of Darkne^ss." Dealing with the question of 

 demoniac possession, he says: — 



According to the Catholic ritual of exorcism, the indicia 

 of being possessed by an e\il spirit were these: (1) the 

 iaculty of knowing the unexpressed thoughts of others; 



(2) understanding languages not known by the possessed; 



(3) the faculty of speaking unknown or strange languages; 

 |4) knowledge of future events; 15) knowledge of events pass- 

 ing in distant places; (6) the exhibition of preternatural 

 strength; (7) the ability to keep the body suspended in the 

 air a considerable time. 



The odd thing is that these seven indicia of the 

 Evil One are regarded by the Catholic Church itself 

 as the gifts and glories of her greatest saints. 



In Calcutta last March appeared the first number of 

 the Hindu Spiritual Maijazinc, edited by Shishir 

 Kumar Ghose, which promises well. The editor states 

 his object thus : — 



We have laid down before that to prove the survival of 

 life after death is to prove that most of the miseries that 

 we suffer from are myths. We have tried to prove, and we 

 shall try to prove again more elaborately if possible, that 

 to prove the survival of life after death, is to prove that the 

 destiny of man is indescribably high and happy, rhose, 

 who admit the propositions laid down above, are also 

 bound to admit that a knowledge of the existence of an 

 after life is more valuable to man than any other; and, 

 therefore, his supreme dutj- is to ascertain for himself 

 whether continued existence is a reality or a fiction. 



I am glad to find from the pages of this newcomer 

 that the seed sown in Borderland seems to be springing 

 up and yielding fruit even in India. 



TflE CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. 



The articles in the Church Quarterly Beriew for April 

 are of special rather than of very general interest. 

 The article on '■ Pre-Raphaelitism " is a review of Mr. 

 Holraan Hunt's recent book — that on " Missions in 

 Nyasaland " — a sui-vey of work hitherto in Nyasa- 

 land, and a plea for an adequate supply of trained 

 workers to render that work tliorough. Since every 

 mission field has the same crying need, the writer 

 asks should not the Church, as a whole, set hereelf 

 to supply and thoroughly train the men to meet the 

 need. 



An article on " Penitence and Moral Discipline " 

 deals with the attitu;l6of two eminent English Churci- 

 men to the vexed question of " confession," one of the 

 two being Canon Hensley Heuson. 



THE TRAINING OF THE ANGLICAN CLERGY. 

 The opening paper deals with the present method of 

 training for liMy orders, and makes a variety of sug- 

 gestions destined to render that training more prac- 

 tical. A graduate who goe.s to a theological college 

 to study for the ministry — 



to feel that he is beginning a course of instruction totally 

 different from that of his school or university — in a word, 

 tliat he is learning not so much how to answer examina- 

 tion questions as how to think on theological questions, 

 if he has not already done so. 



An ideal at present very little encouraged. 



Everything sliould be done to ensure that the decision as 

 to the intellectual fitness of candidates should be arrived 

 at six months at least before their ordination, and when- 

 ever possible this period should be extended. 



The writer also suggests that a council — smaller, 

 and with more real power than any at present existing 

 — should decide wiiat is the best possible education 

 for a clergyman, and he is evidently opposed to a 

 distinctively clerical training being entered upon too 

 soon. Something might even be done to remove 

 'that insularity which pervades the English Church" 

 by arranging for young men to sludy on the Conti- 

 nent. To be truly efficent, the clergy must, he re- 

 cogni.ses. understand the problems of their age and 

 sympathise with its p:?ip'.exit.ies. Time was when 

 Grotius was able to say " Clerus Ariglicanus stupor 

 mundi." Let not that time pass away, is the note 

 of this article. 



