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THE ARENA.
No. XXII.
SEPTEMBER, 1891.
[Illustration: Geo. C. Lorimer. (signed "Yours' Respectfully, Geo. C.
Lorimer")]
THE NEWER HERESIES.
BY REV. GEO. C. LORIMER, D. D.
It is a good thing that the Inquisition, Star-chamber, and other
compulsory institutions of the dark past have departed from Europe,
and have never been tolerated in America. Were it not so, at the
present time there would be much excellent work for the rack, the
thumbscrew, and the faggot. Heresy is in the air, especially in the
northern latitudes of the United States. We inhale it with the morning
breezes, it stimulates us to mental activity during the noon hour, and
at times stifles us as by the sultry atmosphere of a blistering day.
Everywhere it is being discussed, and by every kind of individual,
qualified or unqualified for such high contentions. Daily journals,
hitherto never remarkable for orthodoxy, have suddenly grown anxious
as to the future of the faith; and other journals, that have always
antagonized orthodoxy, are, figuratively speaking, rubbing their hands
most gleefully and smiling through their editorial columns with a most
perceptible "I told you so"; while religious papers, representing as
they do, the conservative element in this country, are apparently
staggered at the inroads which the so-called higher criticism has made
of late. Aged people ominously shake their heads, and striplings of
the limp-back Bible type are amazed at the stir which ideas are making
in the community, and which threaten to disturb the peace and quiet of
their mediocre godliness; and pious women engaged on crazy quilts, in
the interest of noble benefactions, stop with punctured and bleeding
fingers to protest against all departures from ancient doctrinal
symbols.
Suspects are numerous, and, as in the days of the worthy Council of
Ten in Venice, no prominent person, especially a teacher, is beyond
surveillance. If he adventures just a little from the beaten path,
even though it may be to gather a thought, which, like a wild field
daisy, given by the bounty of the Infinite One for the delight of his
creatures, he has found growing on the wind-swept plain of natural
religion, honored possibly by heathen seers and philosophers, he is
likely to be summoned before the black draped, gloomy councillors and
familiars of modern inquisitorial conservatism.
In my opinion there is no real need for the morbid anxiety that now
prevails in certain quarters, and surely no serious alarm should be
felt for the perpetuity and stability of truth. Truth is truth, and
all the bad captains that ever sailed that bark, and all the bad
navigators that ever misdirected its course, have never been able to
run it on the lee shore, or bring it to final shipwreck, and never
can; for over and above all human devices and guidings there is a
divine hand that upholds and shields that which, next to his Infinite
Self, is the most precious blessing yet conferred upon the human mind.
Let us remember that the heresies of the hour are not of the "damnable
sort" which, as Peter declared, deny the Lord who bought us; neither
are they mixed with such immoralities as Paul condemns in his letter
to the Galatians. And if we may believe that the words of that same
apostle have any pertinency in our times, then, when he declares that
heresies or schisms must arise among us "that they which are proved
may be made manifest," we may confidently expect that out of the
present discussions and the "jangling of sweet notes out of tune" some
broader thought and some nobler conception of divine teachings,
revealed to us in Holy Scripture, will assuredly come to the church
and to the world.
I think that the leaders who are solicitous for the ark of God ought
to try to characterize the opinions which have given rise, in these
latter days, to threatened trials for heterodoxy. It is so easy to say
that a man who differs from ourselves is not orthodox, and to avoid an
actual and exact statement of what we mean; when in fact we deal
unjustly with him, and produce a wrong impression on the community at
large.
Let us notice the three distinctive and discriminating marks of
so-called heresy in evangelical churches, and I think you will be
persuaded that it is unwise for us to be alarmists, and imprudent "to
breathe out threatenings and slaughters."
It will be observed that the newer heresies do not challenge the truth
of Scripture inspiration, only the form and philosophy of such
inspiration. The men who are suspected of entertaining erroneous
opinions concerning the method of Divine impartation of truth are the
strenuous advocates of the moral grandeur, spiritual authority, and
faith-sufficiency of the heavenly oracles. They, it is true, deny what
has been known as the verbal theory--a theory which owes more to the
post-reformers' fear of an infallible pope, than to any real,
intelligent cause--but by no recognized council or decree,
acknowledged by Protestants, has that mechanical conception ever been
made binding on the conscience. Modern scholarship is simply leading
us to recognize a more rational criticism than was possible to our
fathers; a mode of criticism which almost every Sunday-school teacher,
in his humble way, adopts, and which is common, and has been in the
most orthodox pulpits for unnumbered years, every man bringing the
passage he is discussing to the test of knowledge that he has acquired
and, in a sense, to the test even of his reason. I do not say that
scholars have uttered the final word upon this great subject, nor is
it possible for such a word to be pronounced at the present stage of
investigation, but I do insist that we should recognize the authority
of enlightenment, and that we should not carelessly brand as heterodox
men of eminent attainments, who are merely seeking to guide us to
foundations which, in the long run, shall prove absolutely
indestructible.
We have to decide whether the Christianity of the immediate future
shall be governed supremely by intelligence or ignorance. If ignorance
is to rule supreme, then let us found no more universities, nor open
any new theological seminaries. Let us not go through the farce of
instructing, unless it be merely to insist on the assimilating by
students of dogmas that must never be questioned, and from which they
will swear by the eternities they will never depart, either in spirit
or in letter. But, if we believe that education means the quickening
of a man's nature so that he will investigate, and if we really
believe that God has more light yet to break in upon the world,
through the casements and windows of holy scriptures, then, in his
Divine Name, let us not be alarmed when, here and there, after
infinite weariness and labor, a little ray penetrates the darkness of
the ages and promises to give us a noonday view of the origin and
influence of God's Word.
It should also be considered that the newer heresies are not primarily
defections from Christian doctrine, only from the creeds which assume
authoritatively to define such doctrine. Public teachers are being
arraigned for their departure from certain standards, such as the
Thirty-Nine Articles, the Westminster Confession, and the lugubrious
compilation known as the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. These
documents, with whatever excellency they may be accredited, were
prepared by fallible men--some of them, indeed, exceedingly
fallible--who were hardly qualified in their day to define the faith
of Christ for the guidance of future ages, and were adopted in most
cases by meagre majorities. Why we should suppose their statements are
to be regarded as infallible, and why thinkers of our times should be
strictly held to their formulas, is something that no one yet has had
courage or intelligence sufficient to explain. What right has any body
of men to insist on conformity to a creed prepared by beings like
themselves, even though it has been venerated for a century or two?
Who is Melancthon, and who is Luther, and who are the Westminster
divines but "men by whom we have believed"? But are we bound to their
word, or are we strictly held to the Word of our common Lord and
Divine Teacher? Is Chillingworth's cry, "the Bible, the whole Bible,
and nothing but the Bible the religion of Protestants," a mere
illusion? It certainly is, and the sacred idea concerning the right of
private judgment, if the withered hand of men long dead is to hold the
brain of the present in the grasp of death; if we respect ourselves
and our avowed belief in the adequacy of Scripture as a rule of faith,
then we had better make one huge bonfire of all the antiquated creeds,
than denounce the so-called heretics who are, in reality, trying to
bring us back to the position of the primitive saints who allowed no
human word to obscure or darken the divine Word given by revelation.
I think that every candid soul will admit, in addition to what I have
stated, that the newer heresies are not revolts from the scriptural
high ideal of Christian life, only a noble protest against narrow
interpretations of that life. The men who have recently been arraigned
before the tribunals of various denominations are eminent for their
uprightness, their conscientious candor and tolerance. No word has
ever been uttered to their moral detriment; they are, in this blameful
age, among the most blameless of its people. They insist, however,
that all doctrine should be regarded merely as moulds in which the
life should be cast, and are valuable only in so far as they are able
to shape the life in pattern of that one career which has excited the
admiration of the ages and the adoring wonder of the heavens.
It hardly seems in accord with any just conception of our Master's
faith that men and women who are trying to serve God and their
generation should be branded with foul names, should be sneered at as
reckless and dangerous guides, and as even denying the Lord whom they
reverence and worship. Let us be careful. Heterodoxy of conduct is a
greater evil than heterodoxy of creed, and I am free to say, though I
may not, with my convictions regarding the atonement of Christ,
understand how some eminently philanthropic people can enter the
golden gates, yet I should hardly myself appreciate a place beyond
their threshold if God could not plan, in some way consistent with His
honor, to find a radiant seat of glory for them.
I write these things because I am not a heretic. I do not, of course,
agree with the fathers, for, like other Scotchmen, I cannot agree with
anybody else in the world; but I am perfectly satisfied with my own
orthodoxy.
Occasionally I have been startled to find some adventurous soul giving
utterance to views, as being novel and hazardous, which I have
entertained, without any perturbation of spirit, for nearly twenty
years. I was somewhat amused, not long since, on hearing a venerable
theological professor, with tears in his eyes, perspiration on his
brow, and anguish in his voice, relate how, after a fearful struggle,
he had emancipated himself from certain of Calvin's dictums; but while
some clergymen present seemed astounded, I remarked at the close of
the meeting that I had accomplished that feat for myself some quarter
of a century agone, and what is more, though I did not say this to
him, I did so without any tears, and without any anguish whatever.
These personal references are merely to show that in taking up the
cause of the newer heretics I am not in any wise biassed by a
misdirected mind in their favor.
Let us have freedom. Let us think it out. Let the struggle go on, and
let us not, with pallid faces and strident voices, cry out in fear;
for the only tribunal that can righteously adjudicate the lightness of
human thought is the tribunal, as Schiller has it, of history, which
unquestionably is on earth the tribunal of the infinite God. He rules
in the world of mind as well as in the globe of matter, and eighteen
centuries ought to convince us that truth slowly emerges from warring
opinions, conflicting theories, and especially from pathetic longings
of the human soul to discover its hidden meanings and its widest and
grandest applications. Alas! perhaps our ignorance and intolerance may
render it necessary that now, as in the past, the prophets of God must
first be stoned to death before we will give heed to their message or
commemorate their greatness by the homage of our mind. But seriously,
I would advise all who have any regard for their own comfort,
happiness, and even self-respect, to have as little to do with this
wretched stoning business as possible; for I have never yet been able
to discover what satisfaction there can possibly be in helping a dear
brother or sister to a martyr's crown at the expense of one's own
fairness and kindly charity.
HARVEST AND LABORERS IN THE PSYCHICAL FIELD.
BY FREDERIC W. H. MYERS.
There is no living savant, one may say with little fear of
contradiction, who surpasses Mr. A. R. Wallace in generous readiness
to esteem at its full worth the work of other men. And one may add
that this habit of mind, so attractive in a man of acknowledged
eminence, is as a rule not attractive only, but actively serviceable
to science; that it stimulates effort, and creates an atmosphere in
which good work is zealously done.
Yet there may be cases in which this ready appreciativeness may prove
a hindrance to progress rather than a help. If wrongly received, it
may lead men who have done little to think that they have done much;
it may deter others from embarking on needful tasks which they may
suppose to have been already amply performed.
In two papers in THE ARENA for January and February, 1891, Mr. Wallace
dwelt, partly with criticism, and partly with praise, on the work
already done by the Society for Psychical Research. To his criticisms
I make no demur; they are legitimate and interesting; and indeed where
Mr. Wallace's opinions diverge from those which I have myself set
forth, I am disposed to think that we are but looking on "the two
sides of the shield,"--a shield embossed on either side with devices
so marvellous that no man's interpretation can as yet suffice to
unriddle them.
But on the other hand, I cannot let pass without protest the sentence
(ARENA, January, p. 130) in which Mr. Wallace speaks of the thanks due
to the Society for Psychical Research, "for having presented the
evidence in such a way that the facts to be interpreted are now
generally accepted as facts by all who have taken any trouble to
inquire into the amount and character of the testimony for them,--the
opinion of those who have not taken that trouble being altogether
worthless." Now in the first place I do not think that all those who
have studied our testimony are convinced by it. I received a letter
(for instance) not long ago, from a distinguished American, an old
friend of mine, who wrote in the most cordial terms to say that out of
personal regard for me he had read "Phantasms of the Living" from
beginning to end, and that he did not believe a word of it. Our
readers' scepticism is perhaps seldom quite so robust; but
nevertheless I should say that the attitude of at least half of them
is best described by saying not that they accept our evidence _ex
animo_, but that they have not yet exactly managed to see their way to
upsetting it.
Nor can I possibly treat as unimportant the attitude of that great
majority of _savants_ who have paid no attention at all to the matter.
Naturally, their opinion of our evidence does not affect my own
opinion thereof, but it decidedly affects my view as to what lines our
work ought to follow. Why is it that these men have not studied our
_Proceedings_? It will not do to talk about indolence and prejudice.
All men are more or less indolent and prejudiced; but _savants_ as a
class are certainly less indolent, and probably less prejudiced, than
any other class that one could name. We must not count upon finding
our _savant_ "_semper vacuum, semper amabilem_," any more than Horace
found his young ladies always in that condition of affable
receptivity. The main reason why so many eminent men neglect our work
may be stated in a much less offensive way. The minds of all of us
move in certain orbits, from which we are sensibly deflected only by
the approach of some new body of adequate mass. Now our "psychical"
experiments and observations have plainly not as yet attained
sufficient mass to be able to deflect the majority of those great
bodies, the luminaries of science, from their accustomed paths through
the heavens. _Tides_, indeed, we do create; there is a refluent
washing to and fro of magazine articles about our topic; but we have
not yet generated that wholesale perturbation of the scientific system
which our facts, if facts they be, must in time inevitably effect.
"Some of the best workers in the Society," says Mr. Wallace again,
"still urge that the evidence is very deficient, both in amount and in
quality, and that much more must be obtained before it can be treated
as really conclusive. This view, however," he adds, "appears to me to
be an altogether erroneous one." On the contrary, I venture to say,
this assertion of the need of more work, and consequently of more
workers, is of absolutely primary, absolutely urgent importance. What
would have become of the evolution theory itself (if I may use an
_argumentum ad hominem_ of no disrespectful kind), what would have
become of that theory itself, though urged at first by _savants_ of
such surpassing merit, had no one been able to repeat and confirm
their observations? And we who are dealing, not with plants and
animals which can be held fast and observed, but, for the most part at
any rate, with phantasmal sights, subjective impressions,--surely we
must feel a tenfold need of the multiplication of centres of
experiment and observation, of the formation of fresh bodies of record
in every country, and in each year that passes by. No single small
group can ever gain leverage enough to divert the world's prevalent
modes of thought, unless it is gradually reinforced by fellow-workers
enough to make the possible mistakes or possible death of a few
persons quite unimportant to the general result.
It has been suggested by Mr. Wallace and by other critics that we have
been too exclusively preoccupied with the idea of _telepathy_, that we
have tried to force into that category phenomena which need a
different or a further explanation. Considering the complexity of
these phenomena there may well be some truth in this criticism, yet we
should surely be unwise if we relaxed our insistence on the importance
of _telepathy_, or the transference of thought or feeling from mind to
mind without the agency of the recognized organs of sense as the very
root and basis both of experiment and of theory as concerning an
unseen world. No one, of course, can suppose that the infinitely
complex laws of which we are just now obtaining a precursory glimpse
and first faint intimation, can possibly be summarized in any single
expression. But the prime importance of telepathy lies in the fact
that here, at last, is an action of unseen, uncomprehended forces
which can be made the subject of actual experiment. Nay, more, the
very fact that in this special direction experiment turns out to be
possible, is in itself an augury that we are on a true scientific
track; for it involves a remarkable coincidence between a theoretical
conclusion and a practical discovery.
In the first place, let us try to realize theoretically what is
involved in the supposition that any sort of invisible intelligence
can become in any way known to us. I speak of the methods of
communication only, without reference to the nature of the supposed
intelligence, beyond the mere fact of its habitual invisibility. It is
plain, I think, that the said intelligence must either so act upon
visible matter as to affect our sense-organs in the ordinary way, or
else must convey messages to our minds by some director process, not
depending on the intervention of our organs of sense.
Now probably no one will assume that the first method will alone be
employed. Even those who insist, with Mr. Wallace, on the objectivity
of apparitions, do not, I think, maintain that it is _only_ by moving
material objects that unseen intelligences affect our minds. Few will
doubt that _if_ there be communication from unseen beings at all, it
will probably be at least partly in the second of the two modes
already specified, that is, that it will reach our minds in some way
more intimate and direct than by ordinary sense-perception. But if
this be so, then there must be in our minds a certain power of
reciprocity. We must be able to receive the message in the same
impalpable way in which the unseen intelligence communicates it.
But if we suppose that man possesses this power of receiving direct or
telepathic messages from unembodied or invisible intelligences, it is
natural to inquire whether he is capable of receiving similar messages
from embodied or visible intelligences. If we cannot find that he is
thus capable, our belief in the supposed messages from the unseen will
be doubly difficult; for we shall have to postulate both the new forms
of intelligence and the new mode of intercourse. But if, on the other
hand, we can show that the mode of intercourse here needed does
already exist, and appears in man's relations with his fellow-men,
then the transition to messages from the unseen will be so much the
less violent. We shall only be supposing that man can receive from the
disembodied a kind of message which he already receives from the
embodied, and which has no obvious dependence on a corporeal
embodiment. One single proved transmission, direct from mind to mind,
of the most trivial fact or percept, will do more to make communion
with the unseen _scientifically_ conceivable,--I do not say more to
make it _morally_ conceivable,--than all the poetry and all the
rhetoric which has ever stirred the hearts of men.
Such, on the one side, is my deductive argument from the very
conception of communication with unseen intelligences.
And do we, on the other hand, find, by empirical observation of the
phenomena around us, anything which indicates the existence of a
supernormal perceptivity such as theory would suggest? It is known to
readers of the Society for Psychical Research _Proceedings_ that we do
find such indications, scattered at first, and appearing unsought-for
amid the phenomena of mesmeric or somnambulic states; but now to some
slight extent isolated into distinctness, and brought under
experimental control.
To some slight extent only, I repeat; for the experiments thus far
made, although completely convincing to those who, like myself, have
witnessed many of them, under very varied conditions, have
nevertheless not yet passed into that desired stage at which one may
be able to repeat them before any observer, at any moment. At present
they are proved by the same kind of evidence as certain rare
pathological phenomena (I do not of course mean that telepathy is
itself in any way a morbid product)--phenomena such as those
surprising rises and falls of the human temperature which are
unpredictable, sporadic, and transitory, and must rest for their
evidence on the good faith and accuracy of comparatively few
observers.
Yet these telepathic experiments have a very hopeful side. Experience
has already shown that the phenomena may be developed at any moment,
between quite normal persons, and with no bad effects of any sort
whatever. Only we cannot tell except by actual trial, and trial of a
patient and careful kind, between _which_ persons, out of all mankind,
these telepathic messages can be made to run.
What we desire, then, what we ask of all who sympathize with our
efforts, is neither premature praise nor equally premature theorizing,
but active co-operation in our endeavor to improve and extend our
experiments in thought-transference. We want to get our telepathic
transmissions distant, definite, and reproducible.
It is desirable to get them _at long distances_,--not because it is
really more marvellous that thought should thus travel a million miles
than that it should travel a millimetre,--but for the merely
practical reason that at long distances it is easy to avoid two main
sources of error, namely, _hyperaesthesia_, which may be quite
unconscious, and _fraudulent codes_, which may be hard to detect.
Most, nay, probably all, of the so-called experiments in
thought-transference which have been offered by "thought-readers,"
etc., from the public platform, have really had nothing at all to do
with thought-transference, have depended either on abnormal delicacy
of tactile and other sensory perception, or on the adroit use of
preconcerted signals. It is only when the observer has complete
control of the conditions (which he never has in any public
exhibition), that it is worth while to conduct experiments between two
persons in the same room.
And even in cases where the good faith--the _conscious_ good faith--of
everyone concerned is above suspicion, it must be remembered that
there are both unconscious actions and unconscious perceptions which
may wholly vitiate an experiment. The rule should be so to arrange the
experiment that the percipient _cannot_ profit by unconscious
indications; that he cannot (for example) see the expression of the
agent's face, or hear the sound of his pencil as he writes down a
number to be guessed. Such precautions should be a matter of course;
and when they are taken, these experiments near at hand are certainly
the easiest and best for private experimenters to begin with, although
the desirability of gradually increasing the distance between the
persons concerned should always be kept in view.
Let A and P begin their trial, then, in quiet and calm of mind; let A,
the agent, sit behind P, the percipient, and not in contact. Let A be
provided with a full pack of cards, in which he replaces the card
drawn, after each trial, or with a bag of known numbers--say from ten
to one hundred--a range convenient for computation--in which bag he
replaces and shuffles up the number drawn, after each trial. Let him
draw a card (to take cards as our example) say, "Now!" and gaze
fixedly at it. Let P keep his mind as blank as possible, and make his
guess only when some kind of image of color, suit, or pips, in some
way floats into his mind. His first guess only must be counted, and
must be received in silence. Let A continue this process for some
prearranged number of times, say ten times, and record accurately all
the experiments made. Let him renew the process, with intervals of
hours or days between each batch of trials, until he has some hundreds
of results to analyze. Then let him send his results, with description
of the conditions under which the trials were made, to Dr. Richard
Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass. Dr. Hodgson will tell him if
it is worth his while to go on, and will advise as to modifications in
the form of experiment.
These hints must here suffice as to experiments made close at hand.
But experiment, or observation verging into experiment, is often
possible at long distances as well. It often happens that some one
tells me that he (or she) has so peculiar a sympathy with some given
friend that what one of the pair is actually feeling or thinking at a
distance is reproduced by the sensation or thought of the other. To
such communications my invariable reply is, "Keep a 'psychical' diary.
Put down therein at once every incident which you intend to count, if
it turns out (so to say) a telepathic success, and no incident which
you do _not_ intend to count. Let your friend keep a similar diary,
without showing it to you; after a few months let me compare the two
diaries with one another."
I am not armed with supernatural, or even with statutory powers; and
my informants have for the most part thought that they had obliged me
quite enough if they _promised_ to do as I told them. But just as I
was beginning to imitate the dictum, "Miracles do not happen," with
the dictum, "Psychical diaries are not kept," the lady termed Miss
X----, in Proceedings XIV. and XVI., came to furnish an exception, to
my rule. I shall not attempt to summarize the "Record of Telepathic
and Other Experiences" in Proceedings XVI.; but I trust that it may be
the prototype of many similar records, which can be kept the more
easily now that this example has been set.
I will give in brief, one American example (to be found at length in
S. P. R. Proceedings XVIII.) of well-recorded telepathic transmission.
The incident thus transferred is trivial and even ludicrous; the fact
of the transference was absolutely useless. But the case is not only
none the worse for this; it is all the better. When we are trying to
prove that such transmission exists, we want to keep clear, if we can,
of emotional complications. If P is brooding over A's approaching
death, and sees a figure of A, then, even if the hour coincides, we
cannot help a suspicion that the brooding may have produced the
figure. But few, I think, will explain the following incident as a
mere outcome of morbid sentimentality. We owe it to the kindness of
Dr. Elliott Coues, who knows both ladies concerned, and happened to
call on Mrs. C---- the very day on which that lady received the
following letter from her friend, Mrs. B----.
_Monday Evening, January 14, 1889._
MY DEAR FRIEND,--I know you will be surprised to receive a note
from me so soon, but not more so than I was to-day, when you were
shown to me clairvoyantly, in a somewhat embarrassed position. I
doubt very much if there was any truth in it; nevertheless, will
relate it, and leave you to laugh at the idea of it.
I was sitting in my room sewing, this afternoon, about two
o'clock, when what should I see but your own dear self; but,
heavens! in what a position. Now, I don't want to excite your
curiosity too much, or try your patience too long, so will come
to the point at once. You were falling up the front steps in the
yard. You had on your black skirt and velvet waist, your little
straw bonnet, and in your hand were some papers. When you fell,
your hat went in one direction and the papers in another. You got
up very quickly, put on your bonnet, picked up the papers, and
lost no time getting into the house. You did not appear to be
hurt, but looked somewhat mortified. It was all so plain to me
that I had ten to one notions to dress myself and come over and
see if it were true, but finally concluded that a sober,
industrious woman like yourself would not be stumbling around at
that rate, and thought I'd best not go on a wild goose chase.
Now, what do you think of such a vision as that? Is there any
possible truth in it? I feel almost ready to scream with laughter
whenever I think of it; you did look _too_ funny, spreading
yourself out in the front yard. "Great was the fall thereof."
This letter came to us in an envelope addressed: Mrs. E. A. C----, 217
Del. Ave., N. E., Washington, D. C., and with the postmarks,
Washington, D. C., Jan. 15, 7 A. M., 1889, and Washington, N. E. C.
S., Jan. 15, 8 A. M. Some further letters in the postmarks are
illegible.
Now the point is that every detail in this telepathic vision was
correct. Mrs. C---- had actually (as she tells me in a letter dated
March 7, 1889) fallen in this way, at this place, in the dress
described, at 2.41, on January 14. The coincidence can hardly have
been due to chance. If we suppose that the vision preceded the
accident, we shall have an additional marvel, which, however, I do not
think that we need here face. "About 2," in a letter of this kind, may
quite conceivably have meant 2.41.
The _definiteness_ of the details here reproduced, is all, I think,
that we can reasonably desire. But most important, and I fear, most
difficult to obtain, of all the qualities of our ideal telepathic
experiment, is that of _reproducibility_. This is, I think, a
difficulty which inheres in the very nature of the phenomenon itself.
We are mainly concerned here with the powers not of the waking or
empirical, but of the submerged or unconscious self. The transference
of the telepathic message, though it may be helped by conscious
concentration, takes place (as I hold) mainly in strata of our being
which lie below the threshold of ordinary consciousness. It seems as
though the influence of the _percipient's_ conscious self, at any
rate, were merely hurtful to the experiment, so that to get the
percipient at his best we have to catch him in a state of original
innocence which he cannot long maintain. It too often has happened
that so soon as his own curiosity was roused, so soon as he began to
speculate on the process which was going on, and to wonder how he
caught the impression, so soon did the impression cease to travel, and
his unconscious self could send its message upwards no more.
I am disposed to think that for the present it is to hypnotism that we
must look for cases where the telepathic message can be sent
repeatedly and at will. It is in the rare cases of _sommeil a
distance_, or such cases as those of Mrs. Pinhey, Dr. Hericourt, and
Dr. Gley, reported in Vol. II. of _Phantasms of the Living_, that
there has as yet been the nearest approach to that clock-work
regularity and repeatability which is the experimental ideal. It is,
therefore, on the medical profession that I would urge the importance
of watching for cases of this sort, which are likely to be found more
frequently as the therapeutic use of hypnotism extends.
I have mentioned several different forms in which these telepathic
messages may be observed by careful seekers. I certainly do not assert
that the power or agency operative in each of these cases is precisely
the same. On the contrary, I think it probable that there are
varieties and complexities quite beyond our present speculation. But
at least these cases fall for us under the same primary or obvious
category; they are all cases where a thought, a feeling, an impulse, a
picture, has been transferred from one mind to another without the
agency of the recognized organs of sense.
There are some, both among friends and among opponents, who are
inclined to represent telepathic experiment as a petty thing. "What
does it come to," say the opponents, "even though you do get a few
silly thoughts or meaningless numbers out of one head into another?"
"Enough of telepathy!" say the friends; "go on to something of vaster
scope!"
These friends and these opponents are not those who have best realized
the import of the telepathic claim. The true, the scientific
opposition is of a quite different type. It asserts, not that the
alleged discovery is a trifle which may be admitted with a sneer, but
that it involves a new departure in science greater than its advocates
can probably conceive, or have as yet come near to justify. Brushing
aside all our further extensions of theory, they take their stand
simply and decidedly against telepathy itself; and wisely so, for if
telepathy be once admitted, there is, as seems to me, no logical
halting-place until we reach a far-off point which I will not confuse
my present argument by attempting to specify.
And over all this far-stretching field there is a harvest of
experiment, a harvest of observation, which only needs laborers to cut
and carry, to thresh and winnow it. The reality, the extent, the
importance of the phenomena which lie around us, unnoted and
unexplained, are more fully recognized as each year's work adds at
once to our knowledge and to our corresponding consciousness of
ignorance. Such recognition, I say, is beginning to spread; but it has
thus far brought with it all too little of active co-operation in the
work of inquiry, that work which in America Dr. Hodgson, backed by
Prof. W. James and Prof. W. S. Langley, pushes forward at once with
caution and with energy. Those who wish our work to succeed must in
some way help towards its success. No enterprise, I think, could
promise more fairly. But we are still at the beginning of that great
work and the end is far.
FASHION'S SLAVES.
BY B. O. FLOWER.
The last session of the International Council of Women discussed no
question of greater importance to civilization than that of dress
reform. The fact that this world's congress, representing the most
thoughtful, conscientious, and broad-minded women of our age, has
taken up this subject with a firm determination to accomplish a
revolution which shall mean health and happiness to the oncoming
generation, is itself a prophecy pregnant with promise of a
substantial and enduring reform. It will not be surprising if in the
near future it is found that this earnest though somewhat timid
discussion marked a distinct step in the world's progress; certainly
it was the most significant and authoritative utterance from united
womanhood that has yet been made touching a problem which most vitally
affects civilization.
To the student of sociology nothing is more perplexing or discouraging
than society's persistency in blindly clinging to old standards and
outgrown ideals which can no longer be defended by reason; and this is
nowhere more marked than in the social world where fashion has
successfully defied all true standards of art, principles of common
sense, rules of hygiene and what is still more important, the laws of
ethics which underlie all stable or enduring civilizations.
At the very threshold of this discussion, I ask the reader to, as far
as possible, divest his mind of all prejudice arising from
preconceived opinions, and view in a perfectly candid and judicial
manner this problem upon which the last word will not be spoken until
woman is emancipated. As long as free discussion is tabooed and
conservatism finds it possible to dismiss the question with a flippant
jest, a ribald joke, or a basely unjust imputation, the old order will
stand; partly because woman feels her helplessness and largely because
so few people stop to trace cause and effect or patiently reason upon
results of the most serious character. Conservatism is strongly
entrenched in the minds of the millions, and to a certain degree
mental lethargy broods over the world. It is true that in woman's
sphere to-day mental activity is more marked than in any other age,
and the best brains and most thoughtful women of our time are boldly
denouncing the bondage of fashion and bravely pleading for such
radical reforms in dress as will secure to womanhood health and
comfort, while being genuinely artistic and graceful, breathing true
refinement and conforming to aesthetic principles rather than the
caprice of fashion. To me there is something infinitely pathetic in
the brave protests that have from time to time flashed from the
outraged sensibilities of those who represent the very flower of
American womanhood, when discussing this subject, for running through
their almost every utterance is the plaintive note of helplessness,
mingled with the consciousness of the justice of the cause for which
they plead. The talented and universally respected Mrs. Abba Woolson
Gould some years ago thus gave expression to her feelings when writing
of the long, heavy, disease-producing skirts of women:
Do what we will with them, they still add enormously to the
weight of clothing, prevent cleanliness of attire about the
ankles, overheat by their tops the lower portion of the body,
impede locomotion, and invite accidents. In short, they are
uncomfortable, unhealthy, unsafe, and unmanageable. Convinced of
this fact by patient and almost fruitless attempts to remove
their objectionable qualities, the earnest dress-reformer is
loath to believe that skirts hanging below the knee are not
transitory features in woman's attire, as similar features have
been in the dress of men, and surely destined to disappear with
the tight hour-glass waists and other monstrosities of the
present costume.... Any changes the wisest of us can to-day
propose are only a mitigation of an evil which can never be done
away till women emerge from this vast swaying, undefined, and
indefinable mass of drapery into the shape God gave to His human
beings.
Mary A. Livermore voices a sad and terrible truth when she observes:
The invalidism of young girls is usually attributed to every
cause but the right one; to hard study--co-education--which, it
is said, compels overwork that the girl student may keep up with
the young men of her class; too much exercise, or lack of rest
and quiet at certain periods when nature demands it. All the
while the physician is silent concerning the glove-fitting,
steel-clasped corset, the heavy, dragging skirts, the bands
engirding the body, the pinching, deforming boot, and the ruinous
social dissipation of fashionable society. These will account for
much of the feebleness of young women and girls. For they exhaust
nervous force, make freedom of movement a painful impossibility,
and frequently shipwreck the young girl before she is out of
port.
We have a theory, generally accepted in civilized society, which
we never formulate in speech but to which we are very loyal in
practical life. This theory, put in plain language, is as
follows: God knows how to make boys; and, when He sends a boy
into the world, it is safe to allow him to grow to manhood as God
made him. He may be too tall or too short, for our notions, too
stout or too thin, too light or too dark. Nevertheless, it is
right, for God knows how to make boys. But when God sends a girl
into the world, it is not safe to allow her to grow to womanhood
as He has made her. Some one must take her and improve her
figure, and give her the shape in which it is proper for her to
grow.
Accordingly, the young girl comes some day from the dressmaker
with this demand: "Mme. ---- (the dressmaker) says that I am
getting into horrid shape, and must have a pair of corsets
immediately." The corsets are bought and worn, and the physical
deterioration begins.
Miss Frances E. Willard thus touchingly refers to the bondage of
fashion:
"But there came a day--alas! the day of my youth--on which I was
as literally caught out of the fields and pastures as was ever a
young colt; confronted by a long dress that had been made for me,
corsets and high-heeled shoes that had been bought, hair-pins and
ribbons for my straying locks, and I was told that it simply
'wouldn't answer' to 'run wild' another day. Company from the
city was expected; I must be made presentable; 'I had _got_ to
look like other folks.'
"That was a long time ago, but I have never known a single
physically reasonable day since that sweet May morning, when I
cried in vain for longer lease of liberty."
Mrs. Frances E. Russell, whose significant paper read at the Woman's
Council elicited universal approbation, in the following extract from
her able essay in THE ARENA sounds a more hopeful note than her
illustrious predecessors, for she is nearer the dawn, and the horizon
of woman's freedom is broadening:
The fiction that women have no legs is now fully discredited, for
in the show windows of the largest dry goods stores stand dummies
of the female figure dressed only in the combination undersuit
made of wool or silk "tights," covering the whole body, except
the head, hands, and feet. By this time everyone must know that
woman, like man, is a biped. Can anyone give a good reason why
she must lift an unnecessary weight of clothing with every step
she takes,--pushing forward folds of restricting drapery and
using almost constantly, not only her hands, but her mental power
and nervous energy to keep her skirts neat and out of the way of
harm to herself and others?
Much discussion has been wasted over the question whether a woman
should carry the burden of her voluminous drapery from the
shoulders or the hips. Why must she carry this unnecessary weight
at all?
Now let us join hands, all lovers of liberty, in earnest
co-operation to free American women from the dominion of foreign
fashion. Let us, as intelligent women, with the aid and
encouragement of all good men, take this important matter into
our own hands and provide ourselves with convenient garments; a
costume that shall say to all beholders that we are equipped for
reasonable service to humanity.
Conservative critics have so frequently misrepresented those who have
honestly pleaded for dress reform, that it is no longer safe to be
frank, and this fact alone has constrained numbers of earnest writers
from expressing their sentiments who have felt it their duty to speak
in behalf of health, beauty, and common sense; indeed so certain is
one to be misrepresented who handles this subject in anything like a
reasonable and unconventional manner, and so surely will his views be
assailed as improper, owing to the age-long cast of conventional
thought, that were it not that this question so intimately affects
fundamental, ethical, and hygienic laws, and bears such a vitally
important relation to true progress, I frankly admit that I doubt
whether I should have the courage to discuss it. But I find it
impossible to remain silent, believing as I do most profoundly that
the baleful artificial standards so long tolerated must be abolished,
that the fetish of the nineteenth century civilization must be
overthrown, and that it is all-important that people be thoroughly
acquainted with the far-reaching and basic significance of this
problem, through courageous and persistent agitation and education, in
order that manhood and womanhood be brought up to the ethical plane
which marks enduring civilization. In the examination of this subject
I desire to very briefly notice it from aesthetic, hygienic, and
ethical points of view. It is a singular fact that every effort made
toward a healthful and common sense reform in woman's apparel has been
assailed as inartistic or immoral; while fashions at once disgusting,
indecent, destructive to life and health, and degrading to womanhood
have been readily sanctioned by conventionalism. This antagonistic
attitude toward any movement for an improvement in woman's attire
founded on the laws of health, art, comfort, and common sense was
characteristically expressed in a recent editorial in a leading Boston
daily, wherein the writer solemnly observed:
The simple truth is, the great majority of the women _appreciate
the fact that it is their mission to be beautiful_, and the
dress reformers have never yet devised any garment to assist the
women in fulfilling this mission.
[Illustration: From 1860 to 1865. The era of hoop-skirts.]
[Illustration: From 1860 to 1865. The hoop-skirt era. The difficult
feat of tying on a bonnet.]
The author of the above fairly represents the attitude of conventional
thought,--its servility to fashion, its antagonism to reformative
moves. The implied falsehood that fashion represents beauty and art,
or is the servant of aestheticism has been reiterated so often that
thousands have accepted it as truth.
[Illustration: 1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and train
of sweeping dimensions.]
[Illustration: 1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and train
of sweeping dimensions.]
In order to expose its falsity, I have reproduced in this paper plates
taken from leading American and English fashion monthlies during the
past three decades, in each of which it is noticeable that extremes
have been reached. In 1860-65, the hoop-skirt held sway, and the wasp
waist was typical of beauty. Then no lady was correctly attired
according to the prevailing idea who did not present a spectacle
curiously suggestive of a moving circus tent. During this era four or
five fashionably dressed women completely filled an ordinary
drawing-room; while the sidewalk was often practically monopolized by
moving monstrosities, save when in front or behind the formidable
swinging cages moved escorts, who with no less servility than American
womanhood bowed to the frivolous and criminal caprice of the modern
Babylon.