I think that the evidence amply justifies us in
this belief. On the other hand, those who have approached this
subject with cold and cautious scientific brains, endowed, in
many cases, with the strongest prejudices against dogmatic creeds
and with very natural fears about the possible re-growth of
theological quarrels, have in most cases stopped short of a
complete acceptance, declaring that there can be no positive
proof upon such matters, and that we may deceive ourselves either
by a reflection of our own thoughts or by receiving the
impressions of the medium. Professor Zollner, for example, says:
"Science can make no use of the substance of intellectual
revelations, but must be guided by observed facts and by the
conclusions logically and mathematically uniting them"--a passage
which is quoted with approval by Professor Reichel, and would
seem to be endorsed by the silence concerning the religious
side of the question which is observed by most of our great
scientific supporters. It is a point of view which can well be
understood, and yet, closely examined, it would appear to be a
species of enlarged materialism. To admit, as these observers
do, that spirits do return, that they give every proof of being
the actual friends whom we have lost, and yet to turn a deaf ear
to the messages which they send would seem to be pushing caution
to the verge of unreason. To get so far, and yet not to go
further, is impossible as a permanent position.
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