342 Notes and Comments. 
, OUR DESTINY. 
Sir Oliver states :—‘ Either we are immortal beings or we 
are not. We may not know our destiny, but we must have a 
destiny of some sort. Those who make denials are just as 
likely to be wrong as those who make assertions: in fact, 
denials are assertions thrown into negative form. Scientific 
men are looked up to as authorities, and should be careful 
not to mislead. Science may not be able to reveal human 
destiny, but it certainly should not obscure it. Things are: 
as they are, whether we find them out or not ; and if we make 
rash and false statements, posterity will detect us—if ever 
posterity troubles its head about us. I am one of those who 
think that the methods of Science are not so limited in their 
scope as has been thought: that they can be applied much 
more widely, and that the Psychic region can be studied and 
brought under law too. Allow us anyhow to make the attempt. 
Give us a fair field. Let those who prefer the materialistic 
hypothesis by all means develop their thesis as far as they 
can; but let us try what we can do in the Psychical region, 
and see which wins. Our methods are really the same as 
theirs—the subject-matter differs. Neither should abuse the 
other for making the attempt.’ 
OCCULT SCIENCE. 
“In justice to myself and my co-workers I must risk 
annoying my present hearers, not only by leaving on record 
our conviction that occurrences now regarded as occult can 
be examined and reduced to order by the methods of science 
carefully and persistently applied, but by going further and 
saying, with the utmost brevity, that already the facts so 
examined have convinced me that memory and affection are 
not limited to that association with matter by which alone 
they can manifest themselves here and now, and that personality 
persists beyond bodily death. The evidence—nothing new or 
sensational, but cumulative and demanding prolonged serious 
study—to my mind goes to prove that discarnate intelligence, 
under certain conditions, may interact with us on the material 
side, thus indirectly coming within our scientific ken; and 
that gradually we may hope to attain some understanding of 
the nature of a larger, perhaps etherial, existence, and of the 
conditions regulating intercourse across the chasm.’ 
THE ADDRESS SUMMARISED. 
Sir Oliver gives the following “ Summary of the Argument’ : 
“A marked feature of the present scientific era is the discovery 
of, and interest in, various kinds of Atomism; so that 
Continuity seems-in danger of being lost sight of. Another 
tendency is toward comprehensive negative generalization 
from a limited point of view. Another is to take refuge in 
Naturalist, 
