254 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



are plentiful enough; but at present there is an ele- 

 ment of uncertainty about them which militates against 

 their general acceptance as fact. Trustworthy and 

 crucial evidence is difficult to obtain, and there is a 

 natural disinclination to enter upon a course of re- 

 search without some a priori probability that the quest 

 would lead to something real, and not into a quagmire 

 of popular superstition and folk-lore. Testimony 

 about obscure mental phenomena and psycho-physical 

 happenings has been prevalent throughout human his- 

 tory, and among all races of men, but the phenomena 

 testified to are at first sight so contrary to the general 

 trend of human experience that they are naturally 

 looked at askance, and are not examined with the same 

 keenness and perspicacity as have been devoted during 

 the last century or two to what seemed to be more 

 natural phenomena, — that is to say phenomena which 

 can be repeated in the laboratory at will, about which 

 some guiding theory can be formulated, and which are 

 more harmonious with the general trend of scientific 

 progress. It is not merely because the asserted facts 

 are extraordinary, or because they do not appeal to 

 the senses in the ordinary way, that they are disre- 

 garded and suspected: for many of the facts in or- 

 thodox science are of this character. The constitution 

 of the atom, and the orbits of an electron, make no 

 direct appeal to the senses; they have to be explored 

 by recondite methods; yet the difficulty of a complete 

 comprehension of them does not deter competent ex- 

 plorers from giving them minute and sustained atten- 

 tion, or from elaborating theories, which, however Im- 

 perfect, are susceptible of gradual improvement, and 

 seem to open the way to a wider truth. The super- 



