The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-23

| he says that a middle aged academieian
rushed forward. seized the manipulation Of
the instrument by the collar, and ex-
| claimed:
wretch! We are not to be made dupes Of by
! ventrloquist!'
| Six months later this man was still con-
WINGED that the phonograph was nothing
! but an optical illusion.
In 1776 the Marquis de Jouffroy spent all
his own money and some of his friends in
proving that steam could be used in nayi-
| cation. He constructed steamboats, which
would go. though not much faster than a
! sailing vessel; and tried in vain to get
| the Government to take up the project
| Later. Fulton had no better success with
| Napoleon. though II the First Consul had
taken an interest in this invention at the
time it was offered him, his knowledge OF
steam power might have enabled him 10
get the better of England. and the history
| Of the world might have been changed
Hundreds of other inventions and dis
coveries have, as everyone knows been
ridiculed by those to whom they were first
presented. 1t behooves US, therefore. to
be cautious about denying the truth Of any
new discovery unless there is some pal
pable reason why it is q delusion. The
investigations OF the Society for Psychical
Research are practically the first attempt
that has been made to sift truth out of
the mass of falsehood which clings to all
traditions and testimony concerning mar
velous happenings. In the first revulsion
against superstition it was generally de-
clared that things which could not be &C
counted for by known natural laws could
not have happened at all; and curiously
enough. some of the people who believe
most firmly in the miraculous incidents
recorded in the Bible are least inclined TO
believe in any modern miracles. even in
telepathy and hypnotism. Moreover, they
are wont to declare that it is waste of
time even to investigate stories Of such
occurrences.
That there is an immense mass of fraud,
self-delusion. and hysteria mixed up with
everything of this kind cannot be denied.
On the other hand, there is some testi-
mony which can hardly be disregarded.
=
Minot Savage, for example, with every rea-
son to be incredulous of anything super
natural. and everything to lose by any con-
nection with oecultism, investigates such
subjects, his remarks are worth some at
tention. The same may be said of Prof.
James of Harvard and other men Of stand
ing and integrity who have paid attention
to such phenomena
II is by no means impossible that there
are natural laws still unknown to US which
may govern mental action and even the
movements Of material things. Telepathy
is a generally Acknowledged fact; so is
hypnotism; so are certain apparitions.
Whether the last named phenomena are
Authorizations caused by mental disorder
or are to be explained in some other way
cannot yet be determined; but the intelli-
gence and honesty Of some OF the witnesses
who give testimony on this point cannot be
questioned. It may be said that in the
present age of the world people in general
are at once more sensitive TO mental and
physical Impressions and less superstitious
than ever before. The general tendency OF
the intelligent nowadays is 10 investigate
instead Of to fear. Nervousness is decreas-
ing-that is. the kind OF hysteria which
imagines things which are not in ex-
istence. The nerve maladies Of today are
characterized by irritability. lack Of phys
ical self-control, or insomnia; but not by
superstitious tremors. Where the woman
Of a hundred years ago would scream and
faint the modern woman shivers but keeps
her senses. There is no knowing what
may be discovered through this increase
Of sensitive feeling on the one hand and
self control on the other.