TEANSACTTONS OF SECTION A. 555 



•without ordinary material contact by an act of will ? I have no evidence that 

 such a thing is possible. I have tried once or twice to observe its asserted occur- 

 rence, and failed to get anything that satisfied me. Others may have been 

 more fortunate. In any case, I hold that we require more hnowledge before we can 

 deny the possibility. If the conservation of energy were upset by the process, we 

 should have grounds for denying it ; but nothing that we know is upset by the 

 discovery of a novel mode of communicating energy, perhaps some more immediate 

 action through the ether. It is no use theorising ; it is unwise to decline to 

 e.Tamine phenomena because we feel too sure of their impossibility. We ought to 

 know the imiverse very thoroughly and completely before we take up that attitude. 



Again, it is familiar that a thought may be excited in the brain of another 

 person, transferred thither from our brain, by pulling a suitable trigger ; by liber- 

 ating energy in the form of sound, for instance, or by the mechanical act of 

 writing, or in other ways. A pre-arranged code called language, and a material 

 medium of communication, are the recognised methods. May there not also be 

 an immaterial (perhaps an ethereal) medium of comniuuication P Is it possible 

 that an idea can be transferred from one person to another by a process such as we 

 have not yet gi-own accustomed to, and know practically nothing about ? In this 

 case I have evidence. I assert that I have seen it done ; and am perfectly con- 

 vinced of the fact. Many others are satisfied of the truth of it too. Why must 

 we speak of it with bated breath, as of a thing of which we are ashamed ? What 

 right have we to be ashamed of a truth ? 



And after all, when we have grown accustomed to it, it will not seem alto- 

 gether strange. It is, perhaps, a natural consequence of the community of life or 

 family relationship running through all living beings. The transmission of life 

 maybe likened in some ways to the transmission of magnetism, and all magnets 

 are sympathetically connected, so that if suitably suspended a vibration from one 

 disturbs others, even though they be distant ninety-two million miles. 



It is sometimes objected that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to be 

 a fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and that as the cerebral 

 hemispheres develop we become independent of it ; that what we notice is the 

 relic of a decaying faculty, not the germ of a new and fruitful sense ; and that 

 progress is not to be made by studying or attending to it. It may be that it is an 

 immature mode of communication, adapted to lower stages of consciousness than 

 ours, but how much can we not learn by studying immature stages ? As well might 

 the objection be urged against a study of embryology. It may, on the other hand, 

 as W. F. Barrett has suggested, be an indication of a higher mode of communication, 

 which shall survive our temporary connection with ordinary matter. 



I have spoken of the apparently direct action of mind on mind, and of a possible 

 action of mind on matter. But the whole region is unexplored territory, and it is 

 ponceiA'able that matter may react on mind in a way we can at present only dimly 

 imagine. In fact, the barrier between the two may gradually melt away, as so 

 many other barriers have done, and we may end in a wider perception of the 

 unity of nature, such as philosophers have already dreamt of. 



I care not what the end may be. I do care that the inquiry shall be 

 conducted by us, and that we shall be free from the disgrace of jogging along 

 accustomed roads, leaving to isolated labourers the work, the ridicule, and the 

 gi'atification, of unfolding a new region to unwilling eyes. 



It may be held that such investigations are not physical and do not concern us. 

 We cannot tell without trying; and as the results are physical, or at least have 

 a physical side, it seems reasonable to assume that the process by which they are 

 produced is a proper subject for physical inquiry. I believe that there is something 

 in this region which does concern us as physicists. It may concern other sciences 

 too. It must indeed concern biology ; but with that I have nothing to do. 

 Biologists have their region, we have ours, and there is no need for us to hang back 

 from an investigation because they do. Our own science, of Physics or Natural 

 Philosophy in its widest sense, is the King of the Sciences, and it is for us to lead, 

 not to follow. 



And I say, Lave faith in the Intelligibility of the universe. Intelligibility has 



