Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/262

 248 CEITICAL NOTICES : but when stage 2 (the stage of solution or salvation) arrives, the man identifies his real being with the germinal higher part of himself ; and does so in the following way. He becomes conscious that this higher part is conterminous and continuous with a MORE of the same quality, which is operative in the universe outside of him, and which he can keep in working touch with, and in a fashion get on board of and save himself when all his lower being has gone to pieces in the wreck " (pp. 567-568). I am quite willing to accept the positive side of Prof. James's contention that these abnormal experiences do carry with them some probable evidence in favour of the reality of a spiritual world beyond the experiences themselves in other words they do supply some evidence, to put the matter in a more definite and theological way than Prof. James himself would do, in favour of the ex- istence of a God who is a moral being and of a future for the individual soul continuous with its present life, though I find it difficult to estimate the exact degree of weight which ought to be given to such experiences when taken in isolation from other argu- ments the validity of which would probably not be admitted by Prof. James. But Prof. James is not content with claiming consideration for the line of thought with which his book is oc- cupied. He is prepared apparently to base religion entirely upon the evidence afforded by these abnormal experiences to the few who have gone through them. The rest of us must apparently depend entirely upon the external testimony of those who have experienced such things. Of all other arguments or metaphysical considerations Prof. James speaks with jaunty and light-hearted contempt. And no wonder : for his own metaphysical position, it would seem, is practically Hume's. It is clear that it would be useless for a reviewer who believes that Sensationalism was refuted once for all by Plato in the Theatetus to enter into closer argument with a writer holding such a position especially as neither old arguments nor new ones are adduced in support of his conclusion. Prof. James appears to rely exclusively upon that old topic of the Philistines, the disagreements of the Philosophers. " I need not discredit Philosophy by laborious criticism of its arguments. It will suffice if I show that as a matter of history it fails to prove its pretension to be ' objectively ' convincing. In fact, philosophy does not so fail. It does not banish differences ; it founds schools and 'sects just as feeling does (p. 436)." But do not Science and Politics found schools and sects, and is Prof. James pre- pared to hand over Science and Politics to the undisputed sway of subjective caprice or emotion, because there is not as yet a com- plete consensus as to the truth of Weismannism or the advantages of Democracy ? There is one faith which all sects in Philosophy at all events have in common, except the sect to which Prof. James belongs, and that is faith in the validity of Keason, in the exis- tence of truth and the duty of pursuing it. There is a faith which all religions as well as all philosophies have in common and that