Weekly journal-miner., 1910-09-14
PROF. JAMES SPIRIT MESSAGES.

0any press IO Jne tlIecb JudS lnc ldIS Prof. William James left certain papers in escrow, to be opened year after his death, their contents to be compared with messages pur- porting to have been received from him from spirit land, meanwhile. It may be true, but it sounds much like revamping of the old story of +'spirit" communications between Dr. Hadgson's ghost and the Harvard professor of psychology through the mediumship of Mrs Piper. But even if it be true, then what 2
 If Prof James has left sealed papers, whose contents at the time of his death were known only to himself; and if a medium becomes duly obsessedr by the "spirit"' (we use the word grudgingly) of the late departed author of "Pragmat- ism," and thereupon reveals the workings of the documents, what shred of valuable scientific data has been eained7 How has the sum of useful human knowledge been in- creased or advancedf It seems almost a safe prediction to make that such will not be the case, that Prof. James "spirit" will not re- turn and give suea startling and def mite proof of nationality in spook land. But there is nothing unbe- hevable, nothing supernatural or be- yond the range of rntional explana- tion, in the tentative admission, for the arguments sake, that it might all tranEpire as planned-if it were planned. 'aaa2s' i',-a.-.. 70,
 So-called materialists, who try to think that man is nothing more than a "fortuitous circumstance" bub- be here for seventy years and in for nothingness for ever and ever Thereafter, would jump at such reve- lstions by the medium, and look for frand. But occasionally there isn't any fraud, or it is 90 e1pertiy' hid den that it can t be found; whereup- sn tke srstwhile materialist is "eoa- Verted' 'to the belief that man '.hss an immortal soul He is converted ato "belieFing" what the whole world has always known. Nowhere at any time 'iR its known history, has the human race been bereft of knowledge of. the fact that man was not his body, but That which resided temporarily in a body. Primitive man and the intellectual giants of the earth, alike, have known this, and the latter-day devotees of req son have only to use that reason a little further than a mere surface analysis of life, to place themselves ia accord with the dominating spirit Nf the entire human race.
 According to special dispatch from Boston, Lillian Writing, the au- thor, believes that Prof. James be- ieVed that he had received "spirit" messages from Dr. Hodgson. And if he had, what of iti Nothing that Hodgson Said to James in any of these messages was of the slightest import to mankind. One may search Prof. James books in vain for a glimpse of truth mightier or more hopeful or helpful than may be found in Plato-and it is not recorded that the latter had any communications from spiritiand. All of which is noth- ing against the Harvard mans writ ings. They are bold, free of causu- istic subleties, delightful and inspir- ing to read; but they contain no added information, from his dalli- mace with the spirits
 Apparently, and entirely logically, Dr. Hodgson knew less q. q spook than as "'live one" The entire weight of his message was, probably, "Dear Bill, I am here How are yeu getting along Regards to the folks. have to be going now, because Sit ting Bull wants to communicate. '' If there was ever anything of more importance emanating from the se- anee room, surely Prof. James him self, in his twenty-five years of psyehical research, would have found it-and he has distinctly said that he didn't.
 It would be curious to trace back | to its source-curious, impossible, no