XV 



THE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT FOR PER- 

 SONAL SURVIVAL 



By Sir Oliver Lodge 



THE hesitating attraction which some people 

 feel for the subject of what is sometimes 

 called spirit communication, and the instinc- 

 tive dislike or repulsion which others feel for the same 

 subject, is partly due to the influence of surroundings, 

 and partly to the general attitude of the community 

 in which they live. If ever the facts became generally 

 accepted by scientific men, the attitude of the public 

 would be gradually changed, and religious people 

 would without insuperable difficulty adjust their views 

 to acceptance of phenomena generally agreed upon, as 

 they have already done in connexion with the at first 

 heterodox discoveries of astronomers, geologists, and 

 biologists. But as long as scientific acceptance is lim- 

 ited to a comparatively few individuals here and there, 

 the general public, if uninstructed, do well to be cau- 

 tious, and to wait for a wider consensus of opinion 

 among those presumably best qualified to judge of 

 reality. For science is a study of reality wherever it 

 is to be found, independent of any conclusions or con- 

 sequences that may be drawn from it, and irrespective 

 of any influence that the spread of knowledge may 

 exert upon human life and conduct. 



Assertions about supernormal or unusual phenomena 



253 



