Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-12


rejection of the whole narrative. More
over, in the case of the brooch nine persons
have deposed over their signatures to the
facts so related, and all these persons are
men and women OF character and position,
who cannot be suspected of having
combined to hoax the public. The in
stances given by Mr.. Sinnett of what has
been called psychological telegraphy are
also numerous, and sufficiently establish
the fact that it is possible to communicate
from great distances without the aid OF
mechanism of any kind. And it is some
what curious that one of the most skep.
tical of writers, DIR. Carpenter, has OBJ
served, in his "Men.al Physiology
+" Locking at Nerve-force as a special
form of Physical energy, it may be deemed
not altogether incredible that it should ex-
ert itself from distance, SO as TO bring
the Brain of one person into direct dy-
namical communication with that OF an
other, without INTERPRETATION either OF
verbal language or of movements OF ex-
preston. A large amount of evidence,
sifted with the utmost care, would be
needed to establish even the probability OF
such communication. But would any Man
of Science have right to say that it was
impossible?" 1t is further significant that
the same author shows himself prepared to
admit therealityof other phenomena which,
as he says, are not altogether opposed
TO the Laws of Physics and Physiology,
but rather transcend them" And he adds
that some of his own experiences have
sled him to suspect that power OF intul-
lively perceiving what is passing in the
mind of another, which has been desig'
mated as 'thought-reading,' may, like GER
tain forms of sense perception, be extraor-
dinarily exalted by entire concentration OF
the attention" His attempted explana-
ton of this power is quite unsatisfactory,
and in fact affords only fresh Illustration
| of the tendency of scientific men to accept
wholly inadequate and even sometimes
grotesquely insufficient solutions OF prob.
lens which threaten to contravene mate
REALISTIC hypothesis. But it is not small
concession which DR.. Carpenter makes
when he admits the possibility of such
psychological telegraphy as the Oriental
Adopts are said to be capable of; and
though he still clings to the fantastic the
DRY that everything which he cannot
gauge with his little two-foot rule
is the result of delusion, epidemic or
otherwise, or OF dominant idess," he
has been compelled to admissions which in
time will work havoc with his favorite
fancies. When Science becomes modest
enough to acknowledge that the Laws of
Physics and Physiology" are as yet but
imperfectly understood, however, the pros
pect will be more encouraging. At present
the dogmatism of Scientific men is quite as
arrogant and unwarrsntable as that of the
Theologians has ever been. 1t is indeed so
excessive as to blind the public to the truth
that, Notwithstanding the assumption of
complete confidence in their conclusions
which the leaders of Science constantly
make, there is scarcely one modern scien-
ti6c hypothesis which is not more or less
defective, and that many of the most
strongly held theories are probably mere
delusions. Those who desire to pursue
this subject further may read with profit
| Stallo'a Concepts of Modern Science, +"
and Balfours defense of Philosophic
| Doubt.
In fact the unbiased and open. minded
inquirer cannot fail to reach the conclusion
in these days that there is as little infalla-
bility in one school as another, and that
the followers of Descartes and Hume are
as liable to be blinded by prejudice and
warped by the conceit of their selfsuffi.
cheney as are the believers in divine revela-
ton and the disciples of st. Thomas
Aquinas, the "Angelic Doctor" In Psy-
chology especially is modern Science I'M
trustworthy, for the very alphabet of the
science remains to be arranged. Thus DR..
Carpenter has been obliged to admit the
possibility of psychological telegraphy such
as the Adopts practice but it is alto
gether impossible for him to afford ra-
tional, or even a plausible explanation of
such phenomena, because he is fatally
handicapped by the Materialistic hypothe-
sis of mental physiology. But the posi-.
ton which Science has taken up in regard
to the perplexing phenomena of Mesmer-
ism, Spiritualism, etc., cannot be main.
tanned. Already it has been abandoned by
pany scientific men of greater intel
lectual elasticity and candor than their
brethren. Already in England, in France,
in Germany, there has sprung up scien-
ti6c school which accepts the phenomena
as genuine, and which recognizes the
necessity of further investigation. And
the dispassionate observer who generalizes
iudiciously, seeing that there appears in all
history and all literature current of ex-
perience which is monotonously uniform !;
seeing that the phenomena which are to.
day called Magnetic or Spiritual can be
recognized, even through the mists of ages,
in the manifestations which took place in
the temples of India and Egypt and
ancient Greece; seeing that the Mesmer-
ism of to. day was obviously familiar to the
priests of Isis and Phthah and Rs; seeing
that the Yog philosophy of Patanjali deals
with what are now denominated super
natural powers seeing that the preserva-
ton of this occult knowledge appears to
have been confded throughout the histori-
cal period to certain secluded mystics-
can hardly avoid the conclusion that there
is here chain of testimony sufficient to
establish the compatibility of all these
phenomena with naturallaw. if uniformity OF
experience can produce such demonstration.
1t may be said that the manifestations
of occult power described in Mr.. Sinnett's
book are not of themselves sufficient to
bear out the claims which he makes on
behalf of the Brothers; that in fact the
manifestations referred to only indicate the