INTRODUCTION 



research is a distinctly scientific activity. We may add 

 that no endeavor in the field of science has displayed 

 a higher courage. If personal survival has been, or 

 is to be proved, psychic research will be the method. 



The genius of science is to find a fact — whether it 

 be the positive and negative activities of an electron, 

 the marvellous utilities of carbon, or the composition 

 of the planet Jupiter. But, inasmuch as science must 

 of necessity include an exploration of the phenomena 

 of the universe, multitudinous in variety, it, necessarily, 

 in every one of its explorations, is searching for ulti- 

 mate reality. How can it help it? Science is the 

 great truth-seeking adventure. Devoted men of sci- 

 ence do not conclude that the effort is ill-spent when 

 the energies of a lifetime are dedicated to the discov- 

 ery of a germ responsible for a particular disease; or 

 to the measurement of light waves or sound waves; 

 or to the discovery and charting of a star galaxy. 

 Everywhere are these men toiling quietly to discover 

 and prove a fact. So we hear of the devoted young 

 research worker who knew his organic chemistry so 

 well that he saved his firm $150,000 in three years. 

 His salary was $3,000 a year, which the firm did not 

 increase ; and the young man did not ask it. 



And then there is the instance of Dr. Albert A. 

 Michelson whose earthly investigations ceased as this 

 symposium was being prepared; and who was invited 

 to contribute to it but could not, owing to rapidly fail- 

 ing health. Dr. Michelson was within a few hours 

 of death, and aware of its approach, when he com- 

 pleted his final experiment, and dictated its results. 

 For half a century he had studied light, its source, 

 gradations, velocity, and so on. This last experiment 



