106 THE CONCEPTION OF LIFE 



The opinion is widespread in unscientific circles that 

 life may occur without a material basis. We encounter this 

 opinion in almost all religions, for they teach the survival of 

 the soul, at least of man. In recent years repeated attempts 

 have been made to prove these religious doctrines scientific- 

 ally. Thus, the spiritualists assert that they can demonstrate 

 the existence of living men without material bodies. It may 

 be asserted without overventuring that the majority of biolo- 

 gists do not consider this spiritualistic demonstration as sound. 

 Exceptions are rare. The most famous of such exceptions is 

 Alfred Wallace, co-founder with Darwin of the theory of 

 natural selection. He remains even in his extreme old age an 

 eager follower of spiritualism. I have conversed with him 

 a few times on the subject, and got the impression that he 

 keeps the whole field of spiritualism separated from science, 

 and that he completely sets aside in the discussion of spiritual- 

 ism those criteria which he would inevitably put up in the 

 case of scientific investigation. No impression was made 

 upon him by the numerous instances in which it had been 

 proven that alleged spiritualistic phenomena were due to 

 cheating. He demanded that cheating should be proved in 

 every case before he could yield his faith. Is not the whole 

 doctrine of the spiritualists, properly speaking, a psychical 

 phenomenon, which we are not to attempt to explain as a real 

 phenomenon of the outer world? 



There has been founded in England a society for psychical 

 research. This society includes among its members men of 

 good standing, who have carried on very serious investiga- 

 tions. The formation of the society was a consequence of 

 observations made in Cambridge, from which the conclusion 

 was drawn that men may communicate with one another 

 directly without using the means previously known to us. 



