Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-15

- siedI dItlst VINO passes. IN the sdine
way we feel the presence Of an imbecile,
while the ordinary, average man passes
uEobserved. That certain persons have
the power to read in the unconscious ges-
as great inventors perceives an industry
or science in some. natural effect upper
cetved by the vulear-may be due to an
unknown faculty, tnasone sort of way the
somnambulism of the mind
That such reasoning is not looked on as
necessarily absurd, seven by the most emf
nent scientific Investigators of the day,
may be illustrated by Observation-Disclosures
but little known declaration of the great
CEarcot. During his. life he disliked to in
form the general public too closely even or
his hypnotic experiments. With friends,
however he sometimes spoke of strange
happenings within his own experience,
which, as a trained experimenter and man
of science, he was able to judge with some
accuracy.
The Withholding Priest.
About twenty years ago the Catholic and
royalist newspaper offices of Paris were
plagued by the repeated visits of a singular
priest. He was a wild creature. He had
only one idea. He had found a prophet of
the latter middle ages who had predicted
what was going to happen to the church
anu to france. This was NoStradamuS.
Having interested a great nobleman in his
strange enthusiasm, the latter was skep-
teal enough, before doing anything else,
to have him examined by Charcot. Both
prophet and doctor were aware of each
others character.
Charcot, besides being skeptical by pro-
fession, had a keen sense of humor and
was good cross-examiner. He began by
asking the priest how he came to be the
authorized interpreter of such prophet as
NostradamuS
'Nostradamus predicted my coming. He
often speaks of a certain Denis Now,
when l was in the active ministry, l was
cure of the parish of St. Denis"
In this way the interpreter of prophecy
went on. The royalists were to have
great battle with the Bonapartists and re-
publlcans the king was to come into Paris
on white horse; Pope Plus TX was to die
crucifed-and all these things the able
found in Nostradamus. Shortly after Plus
TX died in his bed. Charcot found the
able not at all discouraged.
THE prophet had predicted my error"
he said; and to Charcots establishment he
turned to a page of the old Latin book
where it said: Denis shall say the thing
which Is not
When Count de X came to ask for Char
cots final opinion of the prophet the man
OF science surprised him by saying: Your
able is only shrewd lunatic. He has
nothing at all of the true seer
Seer? Do you believe in seers?' inQuir-
ed the count.
CharcOt's Shrewd Answer.
MY dear friend" answered Charcot, I'VE
who make experimental science our profess
sion are supposed to believe in nothing. We
admit only what our experiments have
shown us, and that is all. But just as we
make no account of any fact that has not
been proved experimentally, so we do not
deny beforehand this or that fact or phe-
nomenon simply because it is mysterious
to us and has not yet entered into the field
of our scientific Investigations.
Let us take example. The visionary
Is sick person subject to Authorizations
caused by some accident to the brain
which we can observe. study and even care
for, in measure. His visions are patho-
logical and have nothing that can give rise
to the idea of the supernatural.
But there are other beings, who also live
on the borderland OF humanity, and whose
visions, while sharing in the character of
morbid hallucination, offer something quite
peculiar to themselves, which places them
beyond the observation and experiment of
normal science. 1t would be childish, at
the present day, to deny certain phenome-
ma of divination, card-reading or second
sight, or something which is without a
name but similar to these and which mani
fest themselves in certain subjects during
the magnetic sleep and even outside of this
state
The count, who was accustomed only to
the oid-fashioned ideas, here put in a uues
ton: Must such phenomena be attributed
TO some new and peculiar sense which
HanifeSts itself intermittently?"
Charcot, with his usual caution, answer
ed: 1t is plain that an organized being
may have more senses than man snch as
we know him in his normal state Fven
on this earth there are animals which en-
JOY senses which we have not and Of which
we cannot obtain any precise idea. Who
knows if the Inhabitants of certain nlan
cts have not two, three or even ten senses
more than We? The magnetic state or sim
ply nervous state, might therefore give
an exceptional keenness to that obscure
sense by which. certain people oftenest
women, entOV what thew
lions, or 1t might create for a certain time
or, II you like 1t better, awaken-senses
winch are strangers to humanity in gen
eral."
But" objected the count. "none of tbts
explains how such beings can look into the
future. How can any one foresee that
ing?' 40 '''''A7
Cautious Reply.
The doctor answered still more cautious
ly: i cannot go into that question. 1t Is
purely metaphysical; and our. experimental
nethod forbids us NEEDING with metaphy-
sizes. But a metaphysician might be able
to answer. you by saying that there is
nothing absolute In the idea of time. that
1t springs simply from the relations which
exist between the diversity of natural phe-
nomena and our intellect, which cannot
perceive them all together. The notion of
time differs absolutely according to the
ilolioiiS VI ulllSieul beings. AN insect
which lives only a DAY, might imagine that
it had lived as long as whale, which at
tains hundred years. A dream which has
lasted ten minutes may have lasted ten
years according 20 the dreamer-and this
especially happens In the sleep which is due
to hashish or even opium. What, then, is
the past, the present, the future? Is 1t
proved metaphysically that the past no
longer exists and that the future does not
yet exist? In reality there is only one thing
which does not exist; it is the present. for
the hour which strikes is already passing
by"
Then. to what does all your reasoning
Gomez
Charcot answered.: Simply to this: It is
not metaphysically absurd that an organ
lied being should be endowed with a sense
that allows him to perceive what we call
the future, Doubtless this could not be add
mitted scientifically. But, on the other
hand, how can we explain scientifically the
Hebrew prophecies, those Of Joan of Arc.
and even some Of Most radamus, who is
not responsible for Denis alone since he
also predicted the battle of Islay and the
conquests Of Napoleon. whom he calls 'Po-
naleon?"
porsonop