*38 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



When we read their reports of the behaviour of 

 mediums who project (of course, in the dark) 

 1 abnormal temporary prolongations ' like pseudo- 

 podia, we should feel alike depressed and confounded 

 were there not abundant proofs what wholly un- 

 trustworthy observers scientific specialists can be out- 

 side their own domain. As the present writer has 

 remarked elsewhere, minds of this type must be built 

 in water-tight compartments. They show how, even 

 in the higher culture, the force of a dominant idea 

 may suspend or narcotise the reason and judgment, 

 and contribute to the rise and spread of another of 

 the epidemic delusions of which history supplies 

 warning examples. 



They also show that man's senses have been his 

 arch-deceivers, and his preconceptions their abettors, 

 throughout human history ; that advance has been 

 possible only as he has escaped through the dis- 

 cipline of the intellect from the illusive impressions 

 about phenomena which the senses convey. Upon 

 this matter the words of the late Dr. Carpenter may 

 be quoted, words the more weighty because they are 

 the utterance of a man whose philosophy was influ- 

 enced by deep religious convictions : ' With every 

 disposition to accept facts when I could once clearly 

 satisfy myself that they were facts, I have had to 

 come to the conclusion that whenever I have been 

 permitted to employ such tests as I should employ 

 in any scientific investigation, there was either inten- 

 tional deception on the part of interested persons, or 

 else self-deception on the part of persons who were 

 very sober-minded and rational upon all ordinary 

 affairs of life ? ' He adds further : ' It has been 



