The New York herald., 1922-07-23

and observation and all purely ra-
tional processes are lost. and be-
come ready to believe almost any,
thing from spirit" 1t is another
demonstration of the truth of the OBJ
servation made neatly by Prof. A. De
Morgan that belief is "a state of the
| mind" and is not at all IAN act Of
the mind"
The history of modern Spiritual
ism still remains to be written, in
spite of the enormous mass Of lit
erature of all sorts upon it. In
cidentaliy. the photography provided
by the editors of this book covers
more than twenty-five pages of fine
type and is by no means exhaus-
tive. There are sketches of parts of
the story in abundance, and also
some summary accounts, but there
is still wanting careful. compre-
hensive, critical study of the whole
movement. 1t falls, roughly, into
three periods: the first outbreak here
ehiiu III I<fis1idiiO, ttiC iotoO
made by the Fox sisters, with the as
tonishingly rapid development in
both countries of commercial me
diums, which ran its course to .
peak and then declined. during about
twenty years or so; secondly. an in
termediate period. enduring into the
last years Of the century, of little
change, or more or less standardized
performances and comparatively lit
tie religious activity: thirdly, new
period of growth, bringing at one
end some serious, critical examina-
ton Of the phenomena largely due to
the Increased interest in psychic re-
search in England. and at the other
| a very marked strengthening of the
religious phase of it. This was greatly
enhanced by the war-a natural con-
| sequence OF the tragic death OF mil
lions Of dearly loved young mem
but the recrudescence began before
the war. It's roots lie deep in the
normal human craving for some mys-
tic assurance as to God and the here.
| after. which to-day is also in part
| swing away from the too mechanical
materialiszn OF modern scientific
thought Kant, Darwin ct al had
| given a coup de grace to much of the
traditional religion. but they left the
mass of humanity adrift.
| In this last aspect. Spiritualism is
now fully entitled to a place beside
Christian Science, Mormonism and
| the various shades of Orientafism
| (ranging from out and out Buddhism
to New Thought"), which aim to
take the place of the medieval
church. 1t is claimed. with plausi-
bility. that its believers far outnum-
ber any of the other new cults. But
| until very recently in England there
| has been no Capitalization. no or
| ganization- 1t has suffered from diff
| fusion, as it has not yet produced a
| Joseph Smith. a Mrs Eddy or even
well organized, unified society. The
| British Spiritualists. however. seem
| to be in process OF remedying that
defect. 1t suffers. too. from the lack
| of any formalized creed. Writing
some years ago, Mrs. Eleanor NJ
Sidgwick (principal of Newman Col
lege, Cambridge. and a prominent
member of the Society for Psychical
Research) observed:
Probably 1t would be impossible
to unite Spiritualists in any creed.
which. besides the generally ac-
| cepted belief in God and immortal
ity. should postulate more than the
progress of the spirit after death =.
and the power Of some of the dead
to communicates with the living by
means OF mediums.
But the recent developments in
England seem to indicate that a real
ly new religious synthesis may be
possible, by means of the absorption
by the Spiritualists of GOOD deal
Of the Christian doctrine and the
ology, including. Of course, Christian
ethics. In some cases it has acted by
grating itself upon the existing
church. as an accepted addition to
the doctrine; in others it has drawn
the old established congregation into
! its own new fold.
Modern spiritualism differs from
that Of the earlier ages in two i'm