New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-24

have heen i'm orr ancient history period when
the intelligence of progcnitoS was as dlnerehI
from the modern human mind-the only form OF
intelligence familiar experience as preserved
in the records of our race-as were their remote
AQUATIC bodies from the human form we know
TODAY To-day we can perceive with any APP
nroach TO distnctncss only what reveals itself to
ms through the medium of our five senses; but
we have only to look at the intricate whirlings
of a flock of birds at the fight of carrier pigeon
at the course of dog who runs straight home
over q hundred miles of strange country TO see
more than a probability that animals not remote
from us physically have perceptions to which we
are strangers. 1t seems wholly conceivable, theh'
that in the remote psychologist past OF our race
there may have been in our ancestors certain
powers of perception which countless centuries Oh
dis,lse have made rudimentary that IN oui
normal condition we arc not conscious OF them.
But if such there WERE it would not be strange
that. in abnormal states, the rudimentary vesuses
of these disused powers of perception mght soine
times be revived If this were the case, we migh'
naturally expect two phenomena to accompany
such a revival in the first place, as such powers
of pcrcep tion, from my very hypothesis, peiohs
mainly TO a period in the development OIL ou,
race where human society and what we o"i
moral law have not yet appeared, we snouiu GA
pect them to be intimately connec'eu WIN
state of emotion that ignores whae we call 'ne
moral sense and so To be accompanied by various
forms of misconduct; in the second place. rs
our chief modern means OF commuhicauon-
articulate language-belongs to perloo "he"
human intelligence has assumed its present form,
we should expect to find it inadequate 1or tne
expression of facts which it never professed 10
cover and so we should expect such phenomena
as we are considering to be accompanied by an
cratic. iupotent naccuracy Of statement; which
would soon shade into something indstinguishabe
from deliberate falschood. In other words, such
phenomena would naturally involve In whoever
abandons himself to them a mental and moral
| degeneracy which any one VINO DeneVes III
| personal devil would not hesitate to ascrlbe TO
the direct intervention of Satan. Now what
disposes me- scientifically layman must repeat
1 to think that my guess may have something I'D
it, is that mental and moral degcneracy-credulity
| and fraud-secm almost invariably so to entangle
themselves with occult phenomena that many
cool-headed people disposed to assert the whole
thing lie. To me, as l have shown, it does
| not seem so simple. l am much disposed to think
that necromancers, witches. mediums,-what not
actually do perceive in the infinite realities about
us things that are imperceptbe to normal human
beings; but that they perceive them only at
sacrifice of their higher faculties-mental and
moral-not inaptly symbolized in the old tales
of those who sell their souls"
This is certainly strange theory, but we do
not think Professor Wendell would have yentured
to put it forth had he made that special study
of the subject which he is careful to disclaim
Had he even considered both sides Of the question
he must have perceived that his hypothesis fails
to account for the facts. For he would then have
discovered that whatever the mysterious cause OF
occult phenomena may be, it has almost from
~ 6xnon
cioted with good as with evil; with exalted as
with debased ideals and purposes. with religion
as with demonology. The thaumaturgc chronicles
of the Church of Rome, for example, contain
mass of testimony TO occult phenomena occurring
through and by of the holiness Of the
Saints probably far in excess of the records OF
maefcent withcraft. In other words the Pro-
fessors theory, while admitting the possibility
| of what are called miracles, condemns them as
| evidences of mental and moral degeneracy. Now
| the Church has always held and taught-and all
churches have done the same-that the highest
forms of communion with the Supreme Being
are accompanied by an ecstatic psychologist con-
diton which is the most exalted to which the
human spirit attain while still incarnated
But if the Professor is right such condition
must be- not one of exatation, but Of degradation,
for it is precisely that in which occult phenomena
have been most freely manifested. Let 1t De
further remarked that in antiquity occuiusfh
was only studied b. the learned, that Is to say by
the highest intelligences Is it not strange that
this should have been the case supposing that
the whole matter is merely dim echo from some
pre-human state Of existence?
The b,lief that the study of occultsm is merely
that of natural laws by another than the prevail
ing scientific method is perhaps more In accord
with the facts than Professor Wendels interest
ohad AZ
Salem Witchcraft. moreover. there seems little
ntcd for calling in occultsm at all SO far as the
| evidence goes it was neither more nor less than
| an endemic Of superstitious creduty of a kind
then common. The possibilities of the influence
! of the mind and particularly the imagination,
| over the body are illustrated i'll the case OF
| Margaret Rule, but to no such extent as IN that
| of the convulsonaries of ST. Medard. or In the
| Dancing Mania Quite as remarkable phenomena
| AS marked the Salem cases have, In fact, been
witnessed in our own times at negro revival meet
inrs in the South: while in the beginning OF this
| century the so-caled Jumpers offered vivid
| example of the same class Of manifestations The
| treatment of this subject might be extended in
definitely for it is full of intAeest, and there is
great body of literature cdFerning it. But
enough has been said here and now. For Cotton
| Mather the Salem Witchcraft was calamity nor
| did he ever recover from the shock his character
| and reputation sustained from it. The blood OF
| the victims was laid at his door, and men were
slow to forget or forgive deusion in which no
| doubt nne-tenths of them shared at the time
Yet Professor Wendell has succeeded in tell
ing the whole truth about Mather without detract-
| ing from the estimation of the man which his
sympathetic presentation appears to justify. We
| see him as a strenuous worker; not indeed so
lofty and pious character as he appears in his
journals; not SO stiff and pedantic as he appears
| in his books earnest and sincere in his conduct
| beyond peradventure ambitious in a not unbecom-
! ing way: bearing bravey up under heavy crosses,
especially in his later years. when his wife became
ccnehlita.