said a medium of long practice, "I could fleece the entire city in a few months." His statement is, no doubt, exaggerated, but the fact that we are credulous and superstitious is undeniable. Nothing brings these human frailties into play more easily than the experiments of those who seek in the dangerous and puerile practice of spiritism proof for the survival of the soul. If the dead do not come back to disturb our slumbers and unbalance our minds, may we not say, considering the weakness of human nature, and the weird unnaturalness of communicating with the dead, that the veil that hides the other world, like the veil that hides the future, is woven by the hand of Mercy? "When at times I think, as think at times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed, which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it, at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible."' ROMANES, Candid Examination of Theism. CHAPTER VI THE SCEPTICISM OF SCIENCE 66 'Strange, then, that with this beauty all about GEORGE CREEL. SEEK the souls of the living with a microscope or the souls of the dead with a talking machine is to indulge in childish frivolity and to expose one's self to worse than childish credulity. The opposite extreme, that of scepticism, is no less fatal to the truth-seeker. Both dangers lead to the bottom of the sea of ignorance. The sceptics, or agnostics, or by whatever other name they are pleased to call themselves, are, to all appearances, mentally sounder than the credulous. They cultivate what seems to be an admirable form of intellectual humility. That their humility is false and the soundness of their judgment no more than an attractive appearance, will be shown in this chapter, not in a spirit of criticism of the sceptics themselves, but as a warning for the earnest seeker after truth, to avoid this common and insidious danger. There is an old Arabian proverb, very attractively worded and suggestive of rare wisdom, which we may call into service by way of introducing our remarks on scepticism: "He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Avoid him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is simple. Teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him. But he who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man. Follow him." The thought thus cleverly expressed might be shown, by analysis, to be misleading, for, as the reader will have observed, nothing is said about the object of knowledge and, surely, what we know is of far more importance than the mere fact of knowing. Some people know very many things that are not true, they know many things that are useless, many things that are dangerous and even positively harmful. They may even know that they know, but sometimes they do not know that what they know is false, useless, dangerous or harmful. However this may be, one of the individuals described in the proverb has, according to prevailing standards of valuation, acquired a considerable amount of popularity, represents an ever increasing class or school of thought and can point with satisfaction-if such a thing. as satisfaction enters into his cynical make-up-to an immense and enthusiastic following. In spite of the fact that methods of thought change from time to time, almost as decidedly as fashions of women's dress, in spite of the claim that the tide of scepticism is going out and that of credulous occultism is coming in, this particular individual stands firm and is strengthened in his fixity of opinion by nothing more effectively than the fluctuating tendencies of current thought. |