The Washington times., 1902-01-27

PARIS. Jan. 26.-Two thousand dollars
TO the man who will produce real ghost.
able to resist the light of scientific in
spection. Such is the offer made by
Camille Flammarion to the world at
large. And il is an on Or made seriously,
and not for the encouragement of medi
ums who. for the most part. work their
so-called manifestations in dark rooms
or behind impenetrable screens. Flam-
maron's object is nothing less than the
scientific proof of the existence of a soul.
After a period of skepticism. in which he
doubted of an after life. Flammarion was
led by scientific study. to the conviction
that something remains to survive the
clay of the body and perpetuate the eff
forts of the mind.
But between the few who have accepted
the existence of the soul as a scientific
conclusion and the many who accept il as
a part of early religious training which
they have never seen the necessity for
questioning, there are some who deny
everything on principle. save that which
they can see. hear. or feel although
Flammarion pointed out in a recent work
all that seems most real to the human
senses is, in point of fact most unreal.
since apparent solidity is an agglomera-
tion of Independent molecules and heat,
light. and sound are merely movements.
To Crown Lif. Work.
Flammarion wishes to leave as the
crowning triumph OF his life work, de
voted to astronomy and the sciences, ir
REPUTABLE proof of Immortality that will
confound materialists by demonstrating
the vastness of life. and the glories of in
finity. For this, he has gathered together
from all quarters of the earth reliable
evidences of spirit manifestations of all
kinds. to show the existence of beings no
longer connected with the flesh. and,
therefore, souls. He has braved the re-
proaches of conventional astronomers
who are to him as the moon to the sun,
and who look down upon those pursuits as
unworthy OF great mind" for he con-
siders that the study of infinity would be
vain without the incentive OF immortality.
He has passed over reproaches for being
too credulous for he knows that he is
difficult to convince. and he accepts
only such facts as are in themselves
plausible from scientific basis, and have
been co-roborated not only by one but
by several witnesses in addition TO the
original informant. For these reasons, his
book on the Unknown, published year
ago. is the most serious contribution yet
made to the literature OF spiritual ques-
tions; and the second work on which he is
now enga ged. and which Will appear in the
spring, will bring even more conclusive
evidence than the first.
Although Flammarion never speaks in
advance his followers believe, from what
they know OF the facts brought together
in this new book, that the most skeptical
will be compelled to acknowledge the eX-
istence of the soul no longer as mat
ter of faith but as positive scientific
demonstration.
ummarion Interviewed.
NJ FIammarion said in an interview:
II have never had personal experience
of psychological phenomena; no one NV
ing or dead has ever appeared to me in
the spirit: ! do not even have Fremont
tions. ! believe that those things exist
because of outside testimony, which
have carefully verified. Ny study of some
hundreds of psychological phenomena,
sucn as telepathic apparitions, prophetic
dreams. etc. have led me 10 four con-
ciusions:
"First-The soul exists as real being
independent of the body
'Second-The soul is gifted with facut-
ties still unknown TO science.
'.Third-The soul can act from a dls-
tance. without the intermediary of the
senses.
"Fourth-The future is prepared be-
forehand. and determined by causes which
will bring it about. The soul is some
times aware of the future.
1t must be confessed that about the
nature OF the human soul we stlll kno"
nracticaIIv nothing II is probable that
the whole of science is mistaken in de-