3 02 MY LIFE 



" I am much obliged to you for your little work, which 

 is well adapted to excite inquiry. But I doubt whether 

 inquiry by men of science would lead to any result. There 

 is much reason to think that the state of mind of the inquirer 

 has something — be it internal or external — to do with the 

 power of the phenomena to manifest themselves. This I 

 take to be one of the phenomena — to be associated with the 

 rest in inquiry into cause. It may be a consequence oi action 

 of incredulous feeling on the nervous system of the recipient ; 

 or it may be that the volition — say the spirit, if you like — 

 finds difficulty in communicating with a repellent organization ; 

 or, maybe, is offended. Be it which it may, there is the fact. 



" Now the man of science comes to the subject in utter 

 incredulity of the phenomena, and a wish to justify it. I 

 think it very possible that the phenomena may be withheld. 

 In some cases this has happened, as I have heard from good 

 sources. 



" I have had students 1 — a couple of dozen in my life — ■ 

 whose effort always was not to see it. As I, their informing 

 spirit, was under contract to make them see it if I could — 

 which the spirits we are speaking of are not — I generally 

 succeeded in convincing them. In their minds I have studied 

 — with power of experiment arranged by myself — the charac- 

 ter of the man of science. 



" D'Alembert said, speaking of mathematics — of all things 

 — 'En avant et la foi viendra! But I doubt if the man of 

 science of our day can persuade himself of a possibility of 

 his fifth attempt destroying the effect of the failure of the 

 first four 



" Your book will set many rational persons suspecting 

 they ought to inquire. " Yours faithfully, 



" A. de Morgan." 



This seems to me to exhibit the scientific frame of mind, 

 as manifested by Tyndall, Lewes, and W. B. Carpenter, with 

 great perspicuity. 



1 De Morgan was one of the greatest mathematicians of his time, and 

 Professor of Mathematics at University College. 



