Now, his arguments on this point seem to me to be all summed up in these slightly ironical lines: "Strange spirits! ... whose presence or absence could depend upon a rotation, depend upon cold or warmth, or health or disease, on high spirits or la.s.situde, on an unskilful company of unconscious magicians! I have the headache or the grip, therefore the daemonic beings will not be able to appear to-day."
M. de Mirville, who believes in spirits who manifest themselves through the agency of the fluid, might reply to Gasparin that the conditions of the ostensible manifestation of spirits are perhaps the fluidic state itself; that if this is so, we might very well, in a seance phenomenon, have a fluidic manifestation without the intervention of spirits, but not the intervention of spirits without a preliminary fluidic manifestation, and that, thus, anyone will invite such manifestation only at his own risk and peril.
Thury next discusses how the question of spirits ought to be considered.
The task of science (he writes) is to bear witness to the truth. It cannot do so if it borrows a part of its data from revelation or from tradition; to do this would be a begging of the question, and the testimony of science would become worthless.
The facts of the natural order are connected with two categories of forces, the one that of _necessity_, the other that of _freedom_. To the first belong the general forces of gravitation, heat, light, electricity, and the vegetative force. It is possible that we may discover others some day; but at present they are the only ones we know. To the second category belong solely the mind of animals and that of man. These are truly _forces_, since they are the cause of _movements_ and of various phenomena in the physical world.
Experience instructs us that these mental forces manifest themselves by the intermediary of special organisms, very complex in the case of man and the superior animals, but simple in that of the lowest, among which latter cla.s.s mind has no need of muscles and nerves in order to manifest itself externally, but seems to act directly upon a h.o.m.ogeneous matter, the movements of which it determines (the amoeba of Ehrenberg). It is in these elementary organizations that the problem of the action of mind on matter is stated, after a fashion, in its simplest terms.
When once we have admitted the existence of the will as distinct, at least in principle, from the material body, it becomes solely a question of experience to ascertain whether other wills than that of man and the animals play any role whatever, frequent or occasional, on the stage of life. If these wills exist, they will have some means or other of manifestation, with which _experience alone_ can make us acquainted. As a matter of fact, all that it is possible to affirm, _a priori_, is that, in order to appear, they _must_ manifest themselves through some one of the forms of the eternal substance we call matter.
But, to say that this matter must necessarily have an organization of muscles, nerves, etc., would be to hold to a very narrow idea, and one already belied by observation of the animal kingdom in its lower types. As long as we do not know what the bond is that unites the mind to the matter in which it manifests itself, it would be perfectly illogical to lay down, _a priori_, particular conditions which matter must observe in this manifestation. These conditions are at present wholly undetermined. Thus we are at liberty to seek for signs of these manifestations in the cosmic ether or in ponderable matter; in the gases, the liquids, or the solids; in unorganized matter, or particularly in matter already organized, such as that of which man and the animals are built up. It would be poor logic to affirm that other wills than those of men and animals cannot be discovered, on the ground that, heretofore, nothing of the kind has been seen; for facts of this kind may have been observed, but not scientifically elucidated and authenticated. Furthermore these wills might appear only at long intervals, or what seem long to us; but the vast abysses of nature"s epochs are not to be spanned by our little memories or measured by the momentary duration of our lives.
Such are the facts and the ideas set forth in this conscientious monograph of Professor Thury. It is easily seen that, in his opinion (1) the phenomena are positive facts; (2) that they are produced by an unknown substance, to which he gives the name _psychode_, a something that, by the hypothesis, exists in us and serves as the intermediary between the mind and the body, between the will and the organs, and can project itself beyond the limits of the body; (3) that the hypothesis of spirits is not absurd, and that there may exist in this world other wills than those of man and the animals, wills capable of acting on matter.
Professor Marc Thury died in 1905, having devoted his entire life to the study of the exact sciences. His specialty was astronomy.
CHAPTER VIII
THE EXPERIMENTS OF THE DIALECTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON
A well-known a.s.sociation of scholars and scientists, the Dialectical Society of London, founded in 1867 under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock, resolved, in the year 1869, to include within the sphere of its observations, the physical phenomena which it is the object of this volume to study. After a series of experiments the society published a report, to which it added the attestations, upon the same subject, of a certain number of scientists, among whom I had the honor of being included.[60]
This report was translated into French by Dr. Dusart and published[61] in the series of psychic works so happily planned and directed by Count de Rochas. To give a true idea here of the results reached by this society I cannot do better than cite the salient and essential portions of this purely scientific memoir.
Two or three paragraphs from the beginning of the report will show how and at what time the society first took up psycho-physical studies:
At a Meeting of the London Dialectical Society, held on Wednesday, the 6th of January, 1869, Mr. J. H. Levy in the chair, it was resolved:--
"That the Council be requested to appoint a Committee in conformity with Bye-law VII., to investigate the Phenomena alleged to be Spiritual Manifestations, and to report thereon."
This committee was formed on January 26 following. It was composed of twenty-seven members. Among these we note Alfred Russel Wallace, the learned naturalist and member of the Royal Society, of London. Professor Huxley and George Henry Lewis were asked to collaborate with the committee. They refused. Professor Huxley"s letter is too characteristic to be omitted:
Sir,--I regret that I am unable to accept the invitation of the Council of the Dialectical Society to co-operate with a Committee for the investigation of "Spiritualism;" and for two reasons. In the first place, I have no time for such an inquiry, which would involve much trouble and (unless it were unlike all inquiries of that kind I have known) much annoyance. In the second place, I take no interest in the subject. The only case of "Spiritualism" I have had the opportunity of examining into for myself, was as gross an imposture as ever came under my notice. But supposing the phenomena to be genuine--they do not interest me. If any body would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates in the nearest cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having better things to do.
And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk more wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put them in the same category.
The only good that I can see in a demonstration of the truth of "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide.
Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a seance.
I am, sir, etc., T. H. HUXLEY.
29th January, 1869.
As if opposing a direct negative and rebuke to this radical scepticism, based on a single seance of observation (!) the learned electrician, Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, in 1867, who did so much to forward and encourage the laying of the third (and finally successful) Atlantic cable between Europe and America, hastened to identify himself with the investigations, and by his aid materially furthered the progress of this scientific examination.
The report, with its various pieces of testimony, was presented to the Dialectical Society on the 20th of July, 1870. But, in order not to compromise the society, it was decided not to publish it officially, under the aegis of the a.s.sociation. Consequently the committee unanimously resolved to publish the report on its own responsibility. It reads as follows:
Your Committee have held fifteen meetings, at which they received evidence from thirty-three persons, who described phenomena which, they stated, had occurred within their own personal experience.
Your Committee have received written statements relating to the phenomena from thirty-one persons.
Your Committee invited the attendance and requested the co-operation and advice of scientific men who had publicly expressed opinions, favourable or adverse, to the genuineness of the phenomena.
Your Committee also specially invited the attendance of persons who had publicly ascribed the phenomena to imposture or delusion.
As it appeared to your Committee to be of the greatest importance that they should investigate the phenomena in question by personal experiment and test, they resolved themselves into sub-committees as the best means of doing so.
Six Sub-committees were accordingly formed.
These reports, hereto subjoined, substantially corroborate each other, and would appear to establish the following propositions:--
1. That sounds of a varied character, apparently proceeding from articles of furniture, the floor and walls of the room (the vibrations accompanying which sounds are often distinctly perceptible to the touch) occur, without being produced by muscular action or mechanical contrivance.
2. That movements of heavy bodies take place without mechanical contrivance of any kind or adequate exertion of muscular force by the persons present, and frequently without contact or connection with any person.
3. That these sounds and movements often occur at the times and in the manner asked for by persons present, and, by means of a simple code of signals, answer questions and spell out coherent communications.
4. That the answers and communications thus obtained are, for the most part, of a commonplace character; but facts are sometimes correctly given which are only known to one of the persons present.
5. That the circ.u.mstances under which the phenomena occur are variable, the most prominent fact being that the presence of certain persons seem necessary to their occurrence, and that of others generally adverse. But this difference does not appear to depend upon any belief or disbelief concerning the phenomena.
6. That, nevertheless, the occurrence of the phenomena is not insured by the presence or absence of such persons respectively.
The oral and written evidence received by your Committee not only testifies to phenomena of the same nature as those witnessed by the sub-committees, but to others of a more varied and extraordinary character.
This evidence may be briefly summarized as follows:--
1. Thirteen witnesses state that they have seen heavy bodies--in some instances men--rise slowly in the air and remain there for some time without visible or tangible support.
2. Fourteen witnesses testify to having seen hands or figures, not appertaining to any human being, but life-like in appearance and mobility, which they have sometimes touched or even grasped, and which they are therefore convinced were not the result of imposture or illusion.
3. Five witnesses state that they have been touched, by some invisible agency, on various parts of the body, and often where requested, when the hands of all present were visible.
4. Thirteen witnesses declare that they have heard musical pieces well played upon instruments not manipulated by any ascertainable agency.
5. Five witnesses state that they have seen red-hot coals applied to the hands or heads of several persons without producing pain or scorching; and three witnesses state that they have had the same experiment made upon themselves with the like immunity.
6. Eight witnesses state that they have received precise information through rappings, writings, and in other ways, the accuracy of which was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons present, and which, on subsequent inquiry, was found to be correct.
7. One witness declares that he has received a precise and detailed statement which, nevertheless, proved to be entirely erroneous.
8. Three witnesses state that they have been present when drawings, both in pencil and colors, were produced in so short a time, and under such conditions, as to render human agency impossible.