44

ALLEGED COMMUNICATION

[СНАР.

enough has perhaps been said to show that individuality is one of the most salient characteristics of the universe, that it assumes a special importance in the organic region of that universe, and in man is incomparably stronger, fuller, and at the same time, so far as we are able to judge, less adequately expressed than in that of any other living being. Consequently the possibility in his case of its continuance after death deserves to be seriously confronted.

To do this we must have recourse to philosophical considerations, considerations, that is, which, while accepting all the conclusions of Science within her own province, that of Space and Time, decline to regard them as final, but seek to penetrate the inner significance of facts of which Science can only give an external interpretation.

From the scientific standpoint, then, all we can claim (apart from those facts adverted to at the commencement of this chapter, the reality of which is still under test and discussion,) is a presumption in favour of the persistence of human individual life after death. This presumption as we have seen, is founded on the prominent place of individu

II.]

WITH THE UNSEEN

45

ality in Nature, and its presence in so high a degree in man that actual conditions are insufficient to give it scope.

One word may perhaps be added with reference to those alleged occurrences which if substantiated would, it is thought, place individual immortality beyond the pale of scientific doubt. If any reader will be at the pains seriously to question his personal friends and acquaintances, accepting only first-hand evidence, he will be surprised to find how numerous are the instances of unsought but apparently indubitable reappearances of, or communications from, those who have died to those who are living. They are seldom spoken of, for two reasons, (1) that such experiences are usually held too sacred by their subjects to be freely communicated to others, and (2) that there exists so great a prejudice against their reality that sensible and healthy-minded persons (and the evidence of no others in these matters could be accepted,) shrink from laying themselves open to the almost certain accusation of an over-excitable imagination, a morbid mental or physical condition and the like. Consequently many occurrences

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46

POSSIBLY DUE

[CHAP.

which at first sight might, as it seems, be exceedingly important from the scientific point of view, are either never mentioned at all, or are kept back till, owing to the length of time which has elapsed, and perhaps the death of the chief person concerned, they become unverifiable. This would be more regrettable than it is, were it not for the fact that save to this person, the one to whom the communication is made, it can never approve itself as reliable in the present state of scientific opinion. Experiences of the kind which the writer has in view are, if real and unsought, so absolutely impossible to reproduce and so personal in their character and import, that though to their subject they may be absolutely convincing, and, to those whose personal knowledge of him places his trustworthiness beyond doubt, highly interesting and suggestive, they, like some other individual experiences, are not matter for scientific investigation. The occurrences which do so lend themselves either are or tend to be reproducible under known conditions. Consequently, though as a rule they are infinitely more trivial than the unsought

II.]

TO TELEPATHY

47

experiences referred to, they are more valuable scientifically and more calculated to overcome prejudice.

But the true natural scale of values is not always the same as that of Science, and at a later stage of our enquiry it may appear that these strictly individual manifestations have a worth and significance not to be ignored or despised. In the meanwhile we may close with the remark that, save to the wilfully ignorant or prejudiced, the existence of telepathy, that is communication between human beings under present known conditions, without any traceable physical intervention, is an established fact. Assuming that human beings exist under other and unknown conditions, telepathy offers a means of communication with those living the present visible life which it would be almost impossible to suppose would never be used; and this is a reflection full of pregnant suggestion to those who do not regard the known as co-extensive with the existing universe.

CHAPTER III

THE PHILOSOPHIC STANDPOINT

We have now to approach the question of immortality from the philosophic standpoint. Our aim, accepting as correct the scientific presentation of natural facts, is to penetrate if possible their inner significance. But here, as ever, we must tread cautiously. As we saw in the previous chapter, there can be no reliable metaphysics without reliable physics, and under the latter head our knowledge is constantly growing, our mental standpoint shifting, old theories making way for new. This is all in the line of progress and development, but it means that the difficulties of interpretation are great. The last word of Science has not been said, never will be said while man continues to enquire and to learn; and so long as it has not been said the last word of philosophy cannot be said either.

The