40 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
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. 
Whether such things as intuition and revelation ever occur is an 
open question. There are some who have reason to say that they do. 
They are at any rate not to be denied off-hand. In fact, it is always 
extremely difficult to deny anything of a general character, since evi- 
dence in its favour may be only hidden and not forthcoming, 
especially not forthcoming at any particular age of the world’s history, 
or at any particular stage of individual mental development. Mys- 
ticism must have its place, though its relation to Science has so far 
not been found. They have appeared disparate and disconnected, but 
there need be no hostility between them. Every kind of reality must 
be ascertained and dealt with by proper methods. If the voices of 
Socrates and of Joan of Arc represent real psychical experiences, they 
must belong to the intelligible universe. 
Although I am speaking ex cathedra, as one of the representatives 
of orthodox science, I will not shrink from a personal note summaris- 
ing the result on my own mind of thirty years’ experience of psychical 
research, begun without predilection—indeed with the usual hostile 
prejudice. This is not the place to enter into detail or to discuss 
facts scorned by orthodox science, but I cannot help remembering 
that an utterance from this chair is no ephemeral production—it 
remains to be criticised by generations yet unborn, whose knowledge 
must inevitably be fuller and wider than our own. Your President 
therefore should not be completely bound by the shackles of present- 
day orthodoxy, nor limited to beliefs fashionable at the time. 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 cumula- 
tive 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. A body of responsible in- 
