Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-10
THE GHOST INVESTIGATION.
Trouble of the Psychical Society to Get
the Genuine Article.
From the Boston Gazette.

From the Boston Gazette
regret to learn that the Psychical society has
wasted its labor in the vain effort to discover a
real and unimpeachable ghost and yet am
not surprised Science has ever been the ene-
my of spiritualism, and that ghost should be
expected to crafty it is to give greater virtues
to the spirit than to the matter that 1t once ami
mated. Practical experience demonstrates that
ghosts are only seen by the credulous and the
superstitious, never by the he althy and the
wise. Personally, I side with the reticent
ghosts and approve their humor in avoiding
science and the world generally. They have
escaped from matter-at least, hope they
have-and they would be as stupid as those who
imagine they see them to undergo again the
penalties attached to matter. The curious part
OF the business is that people with the ordinary
share of common sense should expect to see a
ghost. We know of spirit only through its
manifestations in matter. To see pure spirit
with material eyes is one of the inconceivabili-
ties that only ignorance can indulge in. Now,
would like to know where the ghost picks up
the matter by means of which he makes him
self visible; where he finds the ghost OF the
clothing in which he invariably appears; for an
explanation would go far to prove that special
creations are less rare than science demonstrates
them to be. To my ignorance. there is more
Of the marvellous in the matter aspect of the
of the miraculous in believing in ghosts than
in seeing them. / doubt if any amount of or.
binary human evidence would be sufficient to
prove the state or condition of ghosthood-at
least to me, / know that the scientist, Alfred
Wallace. is spiritualist, but this only shows
that when a scientist leaves his proper
sphere to NEEDLE with what he does not
understand, he Is on no higher level than
the average everyday fool. / have no prejudice
against ghosts or anything else. On sufficient
m tVil IN haltara hat fxuo, VI
are five; that the moon is made of green cheese
and so on through the long list of apparent i'm
possibilities; but must have the proof. Speak
ing for myself alone, l am persuaded that
ghosts were born of ignorance, and that they
survive through the same. Where people do
not know they imagine; where they have never
learned the art Of being persuaded through
their reason. they are convinced through their
wishes or their fears. The more degraded the
social condition of man. the greater is the
number Of ghosts with which he is burdened
Our marrow-sucking, prehistoric ancestors were
tribes OF ghost-believers ready made. Nova
days 1t is the hysterical woman and the man
of unhealthy mind who see phantoms and
the visions are real to them when the nervous
system OF the seers Is most abnormal. The
need for psychical societies has not vet arisen.
While we are ignorant of what matter is the
investigation of what spirit may be is some
what premature. OF course there are any num-
Der of restless people who amuse themselves
by trying to jump over their own shadows; but
they are either young and inexperienced or
ambitious. There may be ghosts, and faith
curers may be right in their denial of the exis-
tence of matter; but there are certainly fools
and humbugs, and so one side Of the equation
exactly balances the other, and everybody is
happy and nothing is proved. Meanwhile the
Psychical society has been long in session seek
ing seriously for irrefutable evidence of a we'll
authenticated ghost, and it has failed to find it.
1t has decided that many people have claimed
to see ghosts and that spiritualism is a fraud
but that il all