Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-11
Mans Perpetual Search
for the UnknowabLe
ITO THOSE interested the books on

ITO THOSE interested, the books on
the origin ana destiny Of man are
more fascinating than the most ingen .
rous detective story. And in spite OF
the fact that the solution offered Is
never satisfyingly convincing they are
lust rs eager to read what the next man
has to say.
Two weeks ago I discussed the theo'
rics of two men of science. who sougn'
by examination of the records IN Inc
rocks and in the structure of animais
to find an answer to the ineluctaoie
riddle. This week | find on my desk
three books which approach the prom
lem in three different ways. one Is os
Pierre. Emile Cornillier. a French art
jst. who, in The Survival of the
Soul and Its Evolution After Death
(E. i. Dutton 4 co... sets forth the
result of his Investigations through a
hypnotizcd medium. Another IS the Soc
ond volume Of Camille Flammarion S
study Of death and its mystery. when
he calls AZ the Moment OF Death
Irhc Century Company and in which
he rollatcs and summarizes mass OF
documentary testimony regarding the
existence of a soul independent Of the
body And the third Is Maurice
MastcrlinCk' The Great Secret lThe
Century Company. in which tho Bel
gian man Of letters examines the his
t,ry of the religious ideas on III" sub
ject. beginning with those set forth In
the ancient Nedns Of India.
There ts no mathematical demon
StrntiOn Of immortality and no salts
factory proof Of the origin Of man IN
any of these books rhich wou'3 CON
riucc y perSor who did NOT bchcrc IN
God and .,mmortahty in the first
pldcc.
CORNILLIER' book Is the least
y convincing Of the three. He has
been Interested in psychic matters Tor
n long time. One day Il nineteen year.
old girl who had been posing for him
as model expressed curiosity about
tho uses Of crystal globe on table
in tho studio. tornilier explained 70
hcr the theory of crystal gazing. and
the girl experimental with II without
results. After n time, during which
there had been some experiments with
table tipping. the girl asked to be hyr-
noticed. and Cornilier hypnotized her,
and she soon began to describe the things
which she saw and heard in her trance.
She foretold future events. She saw
scenes at a distance. She had convC.-
sationS with n spirit. who described 10
her how the soul entered the body at
conception before birth and how II hc-
havod itself after death. She said that
the spirit wished CornilliCr to write n
book about tho revelations. This book
is the result. II asserts that the soul is
reinrarnatcd successively until it has
reached perfection. This process takes
- 600 years or more. At the end of
this period the soul remains in the spirit
world. It is white spirit Those in
the preliminary stages are colored diff.
ferently. Those nearest the earth are
red. beyond the red spirits are gray
ones. becoming less and less gray the
farther from the earth they are found.
Above the clouds are blue spirits. still
more purified by numerous reincarna- =
rionS Than the gray and red ones. and in
tho rarctied ether and the stellar spaces
are the white spirits. The medium sees
these spirits in excursions made by her
astral body which she SAYS departs from
her physical body during the hypnotic
trance.
The book has no evidcntiuI value. The
medium was n girl who had left her
HON" in Tours to pose as model in
Paris and had concealed her place Of
rosidNn"" from her parents lest they
should summon her back home. She