Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/118

 104 CRITICAL NOTICES: especially in its latest developments, it forms, Mr. Podmore concludes, " the most important evidence which the Society for Psychical Eesearch has yet adduced for the existence of some- thing beyond telepathy ". This will not be esteemed an overstate- ment by any one who has read the remarkable testimony con- tained in No. xxxiii. of the Proceedings of the Psychical Society, and knows how to attribute due weight to the conversion which it has effected of Dr. Hodgson, the greatest expert in these matters and the hero of a hundred exposures, to what is substantially the much decried spiritist theory of the phenomena. The above abstract of Mr. Podmore's results necessarily fails to do justice to the ingenuity of his reasoning and the effective use he makes of the documents collected by the Society for Psychical Eesearch. But it suffices to show that he is the most sceptical of psychical researchers. Indeed he sometimes arouses a feeling that here is scepticism ' strained to the uttermost,' or at least the high-water mark of reasonable doubt. For my own part, I should sometimes prefer complete suspense of judgment to forced explanations which derive their validity only from the assumed antecedent improbability of the facts alleged. Nor do I find myself altogether in harmony with Mr. Podmore's attitude towards the spiritists. It is of course the fashion to represent them as a body of deluded maniacs, for whom it is impossible to say a good word without destroying one's reputa- tion for intellectual sanity. Yet it is undeniable that much of the best evidence on these subjects concerns some of the most anomalous spiritistic phenomena. And Mr. Podmore by no means always succeeds in disposing of it completely. In other words, spiritism adduces some of the best as well as some of the worst of the evidence. Mr. Podmore's method is to interpret the former in the discreditable light reflected on it by the latter. But it is possible to make too much of the credulity of the vulgar spiritists. The vulgar are always credulous, and their convictions, as expressed by themselves, always rest upon inadequate founda- tions. It ought to be recognised as a general principle that lay evidence upon a subject of scientific debate can yield at the ut- most scientific suggestion, but never scientific proof. For all that the history of science shows that the vulgar beliefs have often been right (cf., e.g., the belief in meteorites, fire-balls, giant cuttle- fish, the connexion between barberries and wheat-rust, and the still disputed existence of ' telegony ' and sea-serpents). It it there- fore the strongest and not the weakest evidence which must be considered, and due care must be taken to apply to each sort of evidence the canons of criticism appropriate to it. It is, for instance, well known that in ordinary life no two witnesses tell quite the same tale independently. Hence discrepancies are here a guarantee of good faith, whereas in scientific observations they would provoke distrust. Even the credulity of ordinary spiritist audiences in succumbing to trickery deserves perhaps more lenient