946 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 285. 



learned men make mistakes and form preju- 

 dices, and of the ultimate possibility of almost 

 any theory and belief; there is much use of 

 analogies without any discernment of the es- 

 sential likeness or unlikeness upon which the 

 value of all analogies rests ; there is an at- 

 tempt to write the matter up for and down to 

 the public which when put into matter-of-fact 

 and not too skillful English produces an un- 

 fortunate impression of self-assurance and an 

 assumption on the part of the writer of an in- 

 tense interest in his opinions on the part of the 

 public. 



Viewed as a contribution to a domain of 

 knowledge most familiarly known as ' Psychical 

 Research,' the work's fundamental faults are a 

 lack of critical judgment in the estimation of 

 evidence, and of an appreciation of the nature 

 of the logical conditions which the study of these 

 problems presents. In this respect it forms a 

 marked contrast with the best of the English 

 contributions to the same topics, notwithstand- 

 ing an essential agreement of results. Although 

 the motto of one of the chapters is ' Des faits ! 

 Pas de phrases,' the readiness of the author to 

 accept as real fact the elaborated and often 

 biased report of an unskilled witness, and to 

 pay himself with words in his own use of the 

 evidence, are lamentably conspicuous. A writer 

 who can say of the reports of 4280 miscellaneous 

 correspondents who reply to his request for 

 cases of unusual ' psychic experiences ' ; "What 

 struck me in all these narratives was the loyalty, 

 good faith, frankness, and delicacy of the writ- 

 ers, who were careful to tell only what they 

 knew and how they came to know it, without 

 adding to or subtracting anything from the sub- 

 ject. Every one of them was the servant of 

 truth," gives more evidence of his confidence 

 in human nature than of his fitness to undertake 

 such an investigation. A writer who can cite 

 the persistence of sensations referred to ampu- 

 tated limbs, and the familiar principle of ' ec- 

 centric projection ' that the sources of our sen- 

 sations are referred outward to an external 

 object, and the subjective character of color 

 sensations, as psychological data suggestive of 

 or corroborative of telepathy ; who can transfer 

 the physical principle of sympathetic vibration 

 to imaginary brain vibrations and state that 



" All facts relating to the production and asso- 

 ciation of ideas can be explained by the occur- 

 rence of vibrations of the brain and of the 

 nervous system which originates in the brain ; 

 this was demonstrated by David Hartley in the 

 last century," gives further evidence of his in- 

 capacity for the task which he has elected to 

 perform. 



From beginning to the end of the volume 

 there is no evidence that the author has con- 

 sidered or is familiar with the explanations of 

 a non-telepathic nature which have been of- 

 fered for some of the facts with which he deals. 

 The fact that hypnotized subjects are quick to 

 seize and act upon the unconscious wishes or 

 suggestions of their hypnotizers is put down as 

 evidence of telepathy without mention of other 

 far more simple and more adequately demon- 

 strated explanations ; and the considerable evi- 

 dence for regarding many ' veridical ' presenti- 

 ments and premonitions as illusions of memory 

 is likewise ignored. Instead of a carefully 

 developed logical argument, strengthened at 

 every step by an examination of rival hypothe- 

 ses and of the sources of error inherent in the 

 evidence; Instead of the critical analysis and 

 differentiation of cases and a discernment of 

 the prominent factors of community and diver- 

 gence of the observations ; we have only reitera- 

 tion with increasing emphasis of the truth of 

 the author's favorite hypothesis, and an endless 

 compilation of stories that may be interesting 

 and even significant but hardly justify the pur- 

 pose to which they are applied. ' ' Brains are 

 centres of radiation." " But the actual FACT 

 of the action of the soul at a distance is now 

 demonstrated." " The action of one human be- 

 ing upon another, from a distance, is a scientific 

 fact; it is as certain as the existence of Paris, of 

 Napoleon, of Oxygen, or of Sirius." " There are 

 mental transmissions, communications of thoughts, 

 and psychic currents between human souls." 

 " PSYCHIC FORCE EXISTS. ITS NATURE 

 IS YET UNKNOWN." " We may see without 

 eyes and hear without ears, ... by some interior 

 sense, psychic and mental." " The soul by its 

 interior vision, may see not only ivhat is passing at 

 a great distance, but it may also know in advance 

 what is to happen in the future. The future exists 

 potentially, determined by causes which bring 



