THE CHRISTIAN IDEA OF GOD
A PLEA FOR SIMPLICITY[41]
Investigation is laborious and unexciting; it takes years, and
progress is slow; but in all regions of knowledge it is the method
which in the long-run has led towards truth; it is the method by
which what we feel to be solid and substantial progress has always
been made. In many departments of human knowledge this fact is
admitted--though men of science have had to fight hard for their
method before getting it generally recognised. In some departments
it is still contested, and the arguments of Bacon in favour of free
experimental inquiry are applicable to those subjects which are
claimed as superior to scientific test.
If it be objected that not by such means is truth in religious
matters ascertained, if it be held that we must walk by faith, not
by sight, and that never by searching will man find out any of the
secrets of God, I do not care to contest the objection, though I
disagree with its negative portion. That no amount of searching will
ever enable us to find out the Almighty to perfection is manifestly
true; that secrets may be revealed to inspired 'babes' which are
hidden from the wise and prudent is likewise certain; but that no
secret things of God can be brought to light by patient examination
and inquiry into facts is false, for you cannot parcel out truth
into that which is divine and that which is not divine; the truths
of science were as much God's secrets as any other, and they have
yielded up their mystery to precisely the process which is called in
question.
We are part of the Universe, our senses have been evolved in and
by it; it follows that they are harmonious with it, and that the
way it appeals to our senses is a true way; though their obvious
limitation entitles us to expect from time to time fresh discoveries
of surprising and fundamental novelty, and a growing perception of
tracts beyond our ancient ken.
Some critics there are, however, who, calling themselves scientific,
have made up their minds in a negative direction and a contrary
sense. These are impressed not only with the _genuineness_ of the
truth afforded us through our senses and perceptions, but with
its _completeness_; they appear to think that the main lines of
research have already been mapped out or laid down, they will not
believe that regions other than those to which they are accustomed
can be open to scientific exploration; especially they imagine that
in the so-called religious domain there can be no guides except
preconception and prejudice. Accordingly, they appear to disbelieve
that anyone can be conscientiously taking trouble to grope his way
by patient inquiry, with the aid of such clues as are available;
and in order to contradict the results of such inquiry they fall
into the habit of doing that of which they accuse the workers,--they
appeal to sentiment and presumption. They talk freely about what
they believe, what they think unlikely, and what is impossible. They
are governed by prejudice; their minds are made up. Doubtless they
regard knowledge on certain topics as inaccessible, so they are
positive and selfsatisfied and opinionated and quite sure. They pride
themselves on their hard-headed scepticism and robust common sense;
while the truth is that they have bound themselves into a narrow cell
by walls of sentiment, and have thus excluded whole regions of human
experience from their purview.
* * * * *
It so happens that I have been engaged for over forty years in
mathematical and physical science, and for more than half that period
in exploration into unusual psychical development, as opportunity
arose; and I have thus been led to certain tentative conclusions
respecting permissible ways of regarding the universe.
First, I have learned to regard the universe as a concrete and
full-bodied reality, with parts accessible and intelligible to us,
all of it capable of being understood and investigated by the human
mind, not as an abstraction or dream-like entity whose appearances
are deceptive. Our senses do not deceive us; their testimony is true
as far as it goes. I have learned to believe in Intelligibility.
Next, that everything, every single thing, has many aspects. Even
such a thing as water, for instance. Water, regarded by the chemist,
is an assemblage or aggregate of complex molecules; regarded by the
meteorologist and physiographer, it is an element of singular and
vitally important properties; every poet has treated of some aspect
of beauty exhibited by this common substance; while to the citizen
it is an ordinary need of daily life. All the aspects together do
not exhaust the subject, but each of them is real. The properties of
matter of which our senses tell us, or enable us to inquire into in
laboratories, are true properties, real and true. They are not the
whole truth, a great deal more is known about them by men of science,
but the more complex truths do not make the simpler ones false.
Moreover, we must admit that the whole truth about the simplest thing
is assuredly beyond us; the Thing-in-itself is related to the whole
universe, and in its fulness is incomprehensible.
Furthermore, I have learned that while positive assertions on any
given subject are often true, error creeps in when simple aspects
are denied in order to emphasise the more complex, or _vice versa_.
A trigonometrical sine, for instance, may be expressed in terms
of imaginary exponentials in a way familiar to all mathematical
students; also as an infinite series of fractions with increasing
factorials in the denominators; also in a number of other true and
legitimate and useful ways; but the simple geometrical definition, by
aid of the chord of a circle or the string of a bow, survives them
all, and is true too.
So it is, I venture to say, with the concept God.
It can be regarded from some absolute and transcendental standpoint
which humanity can only pretend to attain to. It can be regarded
as the highest and best idea which the human mind has as yet been
able to form. It can be regarded as dominating and including all
existence, and as synonymous with all existence when that is made
sufficiently comprehensive. All these views are legitimate, but they
are not final or complete. God can also be represented by some of the
attributes of humanity, and can be depicted as a powerful and loving
Friend with whom our spirits may commune at every hour of the day,
one whose patience and wisdom and long-suffering and beneficence are
never exhausted. He can, in fact, be regarded as displayed to us, in
such fashion as we can make use of, in the person of an incarnate
Being who came for the express purpose of revealing to man such
attributes of deity as would otherwise have been missed.
The images are not mutually exclusive, they may all be in some sort
true. None of them is complete. They are all aspects--partly true and
partly false as conceived by any individual, but capable of being
expressed so as to be, as far as they go, true.
Undoubtedly the Christian idea of God is the simple one.
Overpoweringly and appallingly simple is the notion presented to us
by the orthodox Christian Churches:--
A babe born of poor parents, born in a stable among cattle because
there was no room for them in the village inn--no room for them in
the inn--what a master touch! Revealed to shepherds. Religious people
inattentive. Royalty ignorant, or bent on massacre. A glimmering
perception, according to one noble legend, attained in the Far
East--where also similar occurrences have been narrated. Then the
child growing into a peasant youth, brought up to a trade. At length
a few years of itinerant preaching; flashes of miraculous power and
insight. And then a swift end: set upon by the religious people; his
followers overawed and scattered, himself tried as a blasphemer,
flogged, and finally tortured to death.
Simplicity most thorough and most strange! In itself it is not
unique; such occurrences seem inevitable to highest humanity in an
unregenerate world; but who, without inspiration, would see in them a
revelation of the nature of God? The life of Buddha, the life of Joan
of Arc, are not thus regarded. Yet the Christian revelation is clear
enough and true enough if our eyes are open, and if we care to read
and accept the simple record which, whatever its historical value, is
all that has been handed down to us.
Critics often object that there have been other attempted Messiahs,
that the ancient world was expectant of a Divine Incarnation. True
enough. But what then? We need not be afraid of an idea because it
has several times striven to make itself appreciated. It is foolish
to decline a revelation because it has been more than once offered to
humanity. Every great revelation is likely to have been foreshadowed
in more or less imperfect forms, so as to prepare our minds and make
ready the way for complete perception hereafter. It is probable that
the human race is quite incompetent to receive a really great idea
the first time it is offered. There must be many failures to effect
an entrance before the final success, many struggles to overcome
natural obstacles and submerge the stony products of human stolidity.
Lapse of time for preparation is required before anything great can
be permanently accomplished, and repeated attempts are necessary; but
the tide of general progress is rising all the time. The idea is well
expressed in Clough's familiar lines:--
"For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main."
So it was with the idea of the Messiah which was abroad in the land,
and had been for centuries, before Christ's coming; and never has he
been really recognised by more than a few. Dare we not say that he is
more truly recognised now than in any previous age in the history of
the Church--except perhaps the very earliest? And I doubt if we need
make that exception.
The idea of his Messiahship gradually dawned upon him, and he made no
mistake as to his mission:--
The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's who
sent me.
As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
The words which I say unto you I speak not of myself; the
Father which dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
The Father is greater than I.
But, for all that,
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
Yes, truly, Christ was a planetary manifestation of Deity, a
revelation to the human race, the highest and simplest it has yet
had; a revelation in the only form accessible to man, a revelation in
the full-bodied form of humanity.
Little conception had they in those days of the whole universe as we
know it now. The earth was the whole world to them, and that which
revealed God to the earth was naturally regarded as the whole Cosmic
Deity. Yet it was a truly divine Incarnation.
A deity of some kind is common to every branch of the human race. It
seems to be possessed by every savage, overawed as he necessarily
is by the forces of nature. Caprice, jealousy, openness to flattery
and rewards, are likewise parts of early theology. Then in the gods
of Olympus--that poetic conception which rose to such heights and
fell to such depths at different epochs in the ancient world--the
attributes of power and beauty were specially emphasised. _Power_
is common to all deities, and favouritism in its use seems also a
natural supposition to early tribes; but the element of _Beauty_,
as a divine attribute, we in these islands, save for the poets,
have largely lost or forgotten--to our great detriment. In
Jehovah, however, the Hebrew race rose to a conception of divine
_Righteousness_ which we have assimilated and permanently retained;
and upon that foundation Christianity was grafted. It was to a race
who had risen thus far--a race with a genius for theology--that the
Christian revelation came. It was rendered possible, though only just
possible, by the stage attained. Simple and unknown folk were ready
to receive it, or, at least, were willing to take the first steps to
learn.
The power, the righteousness, and other worthy attributes belonging
to Jehovah, were known of old. The Christian conception takes
_them_ for granted, and concentrates attention on the pity, the
love, the friendliness, the compassion, the earnest desire to help
mankind--attributes which, though now and again dimly discerned by
one or another of the great seers of old, had not yet been thrown
into concrete form.
* * * * *
People sometimes seek to deny such attributes as are connoted by
the word 'Personality' in the Godhead--they say it is a human
conception. Certainly it is a human conception; it is through
humanity that it has been revealed. Why seek to deny it? God
transcends personality, objectors say. By all means: transcends all
our conceptions infinitely, transcends every revelation which has
ever been vouchsafed; but the revelations are true as far as they go,
for all that.
Let us not befog ourselves by attempting impossible conceptions to
such an extent that we lose the simple and manifest reality. No
conception that we can make is too high, too good, too worthy. It
is easy to imagine ourselves mistaken, but never because ideas are
too high or too good. It were preposterous to imagine an over-lofty
conception in a creature. Reality is always found to exceed our
clear conception of it; never once in science has it permanently
fallen short. No conception is too great or too high. But also no
devout conception is too simple, too lowly, too childlike to have an
element--some grain--of vital truth stored away, a mustard seed ready
to germinate and bud, a leaven which may permeate the whole mass.
I would apply all this to what for brevity may be called Human
Immortality. It is possible to think of that rather simply; and, on
the other hand, it is possible to confuse ourselves with tortuous
thoughts till it seems unreal and impossible. It is part of the
problem of personality and individuality; for the question of how far
these are dependent on the bodily organism, or whether they can exist
without it, is a scientific question. It is open to research. And yet
it is connected with Christianity; for undoubtedly the Christian idea
of God involves a belief in human immortality. If _per impossible_
this latter could be authoritatively denied, a paralysing blow would
have been struck at the Christian idea. On the other hand, if by
scientific investigation the persistence of individual memory and
character were proved, a great step in the direction of orthodox
theology would have been taken.
The modern superstition about the universe is that, being suffused
with law and order, it contains nothing personal, nothing
indeterminate, nothing unforeseen; that there is no room for the
free activity of intelligent beings, that everything is mechanically
determined; so that given the velocity and acceleration and position
of every atom at any instant, the whole future could be unravelled by
sufficient mathematical power.
The doctrines of Uniformity and Determinism are supposed to be based
upon experience. But experience includes experience of the actions
of human beings; and some of them certainly appear to be of a
capricious and undetermined character. Or without considering human
beings, watch the orbits of a group of flies as they play; they are
manifestly not controlled completely by mechanical laws as are the
motions of the planets. The simplest view of their activity is that
it is self-determined, that they are flying about at their own will,
and turning when and where they choose. The conservation of energy
has nothing to say against it. Here we see free-will in its simplest
form. To suppose anything else in such a case, to suppose that every
twist could have been predicted through all eternity, is to introduce
præternatural complexity, and is quite unnecessary.
Why not assume, what is manifestly the truth, that free-will exists
and has to be reckoned with, that the universe is not a machine
subject to outside forces, but a living organism with initiations
of its own; and that the laws which govern it, though they include
mechanical and physical and chemical laws, are not limited to those,
but involve other and higher abstractions, which may perhaps some day
be formulated, for life and mind and spirit?
If it be said that free-will can be granted to deity but to nothing
lower, inasmuch as the Deity must be aware of all that is going to
happen, I reply that you are now making a hypothesis of a complicated
kind, and going beyond knowledge into speculation. But if still the
speculation appears reasonable, that only the Deity can be endowed
with free-will, it merely opens the question, What shall be included
in that term? If freedom is the characteristic mark of deity, then
those are justified who have taught that every fragment of mind and
will is a contributory element in the essence of the Divine Being.
How, then, can we conceive of deity? The analogy of the human
body and its relation to the white corpuscles in its blood is
instructive. Each corpuscle is a living-creature endowed with the
powers of locomotion, of assimilation, and, under certain conditions
now being inquired into, of reproduction by fission. The health and
polity of the body are largely dependent on the activity of these
phagocytes. They are to us extremely important; they are an essential
part of our being.
But now suppose one of these corpuscles endowed with
intelligence--what conception of the universe will it be able to
form? It may examine its surroundings, discourse of the vessels
through which it passes, of the adventures it encounters; and
if philosophically minded, it may speculate on a being of which
perhaps it and all its like form a part--an immanent deity, whose
constituents they are, a being which includes them and includes all
else which they know or can imagine--a being to whose existence
they contribute, and whose purposes they serve or share. So far
they could speculate, and so far they would be right. But if they
proceeded further, and entered on negations, if they surmised that
that immanent aspect of the universe in which they lived and moved
and had their being was the sole and only aspect, if they surmised
that there was no personality, no feeling, no locomotion, no mind,
no purpose, apart from them and their kind, they would greatly err.
What conception could they ever form of the manifold interests and
activities of man? Still less of the universe known to man, of which
he himself forms so trivial a portion.
All analogies fail at some point, but they are a help nevertheless,
and this analogy will bear pressing rather far. We ourselves are a
part of the agencies for good or evil; we have the power to help or
to hinder, to mend or to mar, within the scope of our activity. Our
help is asked for; lowly as we are, it is really wanted, on the earth
here and now, just as much wanted as our body needs the help of its
lowly white corpuscles--to contribute to health, to attack disease,
to maintain the normal and healthy life of the organism. We are the
white corpuscles of the cosmos, we serve and form part of an immanent
Deity.
Truly it is no easy service to which we are called; something of
the wisdom of the serpent must enter into our activities; sanity
and moral dignity and sound sense must govern our proceedings; all
our powers must be called out, and there must be no sluggishness.
Impulses, even good impulses, alone are not sufficient; every faculty
of the human brain must be exerted, and we must be continually on
guard against the flabbiness of mere good intentions.
Our activity and service are thus an integral part of the Divine
Existence, which likewise includes that of all the perceptible
universe. But to suppose that this exhausts the matter, and that the
Deity has no transcendent Existence of which we can form no idea,--to
suppose that what happens is not the result of his dominant and
controlling Personality, is to step beyond legitimate inference, and
to treat appearance as exhaustive of reality.
Always mistrust negations. They commonly signify blindness and
prejudice--except when thoroughly established and carefully
formulated in the light of actual experience or mathematical proof.
And even then we should be ready to admit the possibility of higher
generalisations which may uproot them. They are only safe when thrown
into the form of a positive assertion.
The impossibility of squaring the circle is not really a negative
proposition, except in form. It is safer and more convincing when
thrown into the positive and definite form that the ratio of area
to diameter is incommensurable. That statement is perfectly clear
and legitimate; and the illustration may be used as a parable. A
positive form should be demanded of every comprehensive denial; and
whatever cannot be thrown into positive form, it is wise to mistrust.
Its promulgator is probably stepping out of bounds, into the cheap
and easy region of negative speculation. He is like a rationalistic
microbe denying the existence of a human being.
I have urged that the simple aspect of things is to be considered and
not despised; but, for the majority of people, is not the tendency
the other way? Are they not too much given to suppose the Universe
limited to the simplicity of their first and everyday conception of
it? The stockbroker has his idea of the totality of things; the navvy
has his. Students of mathematical physics are liable to think of it
as a determinate assemblage of atoms and ether, with no room for
spiritual entities--no room, as my brilliant teacher, W. K. Clifford,
expressed it, no room for ghosts.
Biological students are apt to think of life as a physicochemical
process of protoplasmic structure and cell organisation, with
consciousness as an epiphenomenon. They watch the lowly stages of
animal organisms, and hope to imitate their behaviour by judicious
treatment of inorganic materials. By all means let them try; the
effort is entirely legitimate, and not unhopeful. That which has
come into being in the past may come into being under observation in
the present, and the intelligence and co-operation of man may help.
Why not? The material vehicle would thus have been provided--in this
case, without doubt, purposely and designedly--for some incipient
phase of life. But would that in the least explain the nature of life
and mind and will, and reduce them to simple atomic mechanism and
dynamics? Not a whit. The real nature of these things would remain an
unanswered question.
During the past century progress has lain chiefly in the domain of
the mechanical and material. The progress has been admirable, and
has led to natural rejoicing and legitimate pride. It has also led
to a supposition that all possible scientific advance lies in this
same direction, or even that all the great fundamental discoveries
have now been made! Discovery proceeds by stages, and enthusiasm at
the acquisition of a step or a landing-place obscures for a time
our perception of the flight of stairs immediately ahead; but it is
rational to take a more comprehensive view.
Part of our experience is the connexion of spirit with matter. We are
conscious of our own identity, our own mind and purpose and will: we
are also conscious of the matter in which it is at present incarnate
and manifested. Let us use these experiences and learn from them.
Incarnation is a fact; we are not matter, yet we utilise it. Through
the mechanism of the brain we can influence the material world; we
are in it, but not of it; we transcend it by our consciousness. The
body is our machine, our instrument, our vehicle of manifestation;
and through it we can achieve results in the material sphere. Why
seek to deny either the spiritual or the material? Both are real,
both are true. In some higher mind, perhaps, they may be unified:
meanwhile we do not possess this higher mind. Scientific progress
is made by accepting realities and learning from them; the rest is
speculation. It is not likely that we are the only intelligent beings
in the Universe. There may be many higher grades, up to the Divine;
just as there are lower grades, down to the amoeba. Nor need all
these grades of intelligence be clothed in matter or inhabit the
surface of a planet. That is the kind of existence with which we are
now familiar, truly, and anything beyond that is for the most part
supersensuous; but our senses are confessedly limited, and if there
is any truth in the doctrine of human immortality the existence of
myriads of departed individuals must be assumed, on what has been
called "the other side."
But how are we to get evidence in favour of such an apparently
gratuitous hypothesis? Well, speaking for myself and with full and
cautious responsibility, I have to state that as an outcome of my
investigation into psychical matters I have at length and quite
gradually become convinced, after more than thirty years of study,
not only that persistent individual existence is a fact, but that
occasional communication across the chasm--with difficulty and under
definite conditions--is possible.
This is not a subject on which one comes lightly and easily to a
conclusion, nor can the evidence be explained except to those who
will give to it time and careful study; but clearly the conclusion
is either folly and self-deception, or it is a truth of the utmost
importance to humanity--and of importance to us in connexion with our
present subject. For it is a conclusion which cannot stand alone.
Mistaken or true, it affords a foothold for a whole range of other
thoughts, other conclusions, other ideas: false and misleading if the
foothold is insecure, worthy of attention if the foothold is sound.
Let posterity judge.
Meanwhile it is a subject that attracts cranks and charlatans. Rash
opinions are freely expressed on both sides. I call upon the educated
of the younger generation to refrain from accepting assertions
without severe scrutiny, and, above all, to keep an open mind.
If departed human beings can communicate with us, can advise us and
help us, can have any influence on our actions,--then clearly the
doors are open to a wealth of spiritual intercourse beyond what we
have yet imagined.
The region of the miraculous, it is called, and the bare possibility
of its existence has been hastily and illegitimately denied. But so
long as we do not imagine it to be a region denuded of a law and
order of its own, akin to the law and order of the psychological
realm, our denial has no foundation. The existence of such a region
may be established by experience; its non-existence cannot be
established, for non-experience might merely mean that owing to
deficiencies of our sense organs it was beyond our ken. In judging of
what are called miracles we must be guided by historical evidence and
literary criticism. We need not urge _a priori_ objections to them on
scientific grounds. They need be no more impossible, no more lawless,
than the interference of a human being would seem to a colony of ants
or bees.
The Christian idea of God certainly has involved, and presumably
always will involve, an element of the miraculous,--a flooding of
human life with influences which lie outside it, a controlling of
human destiny by higher and beneficent agencies. By evil agencies
too? Yes, the influences are not all on one side; but the Christian
faith is that the good are the stronger. Experience has shown to many
a saint, however tormented by evil, that appeal to the powers of good
can result in ultimate victory. Let us not reject experience on the
ground of dogmatic assertion and baseless speculation.
Historical records tell us of a Divine Incarnation. We may
consider it freely on historical grounds. We are not debarred from
contemplating such a thing by anything that science has to say to
the contrary. Science does not speak directly on the subject. If the
historical evidence is good we may credit it, just as we may credit
the hypothesis of survival if the present-day evidence is good. It
sounds too simple and popular an explanation--too much like the kind
of ideas suited to unsophisticated man and to the infancy of the
race. True; but has it not happened often in the history of science
that reality has been found simpler than our attempted conception of
it? Electricity long ago was often treated as a fluid; and a little
time ago it was customary to jeer at the expression--legitimate in
the mouth of Benjamin Franklin, but now apparently outgrown. And yet
what else is the crowd of mobile electrons, postulated by [not] the
very latest theory, in a metal? Surely it is in some sense a fluid,
though not a material one? The guess was not so far wrong after all.
Meanwhile we learned to treat it by mathematical devices, vector
potential, and other recondite methods. With great veneration I speak
of the mathematical physicists of the past century. They have been
almost superhuman in power, and have attained extraordinary results,
but in time the process of discovery will enable mankind to apprehend
all these things more simply. Progress lies in simple investigation
as well as in speculation and thought up to the limits of human
power; and when things are really understood, they are perceived to
be fairly simple after all.
So it seems likely to be with a future state, or our own permanent
existence; it has been thought of and spoken of as if it were
altogether transcendental--something beyond space and time (as it
may be), something outside and beyond all conception. But it is
not necessarily so at all; it is a question of fact; it is open
to investigation. I find part of it turning out quite reasonably
simple; not easy to grasp or express, for lack of experience and
language--that is true,--but not by any means conveying a feeling
of immediate vast difference and change. Something much more like
terrestrial existence, at least on one aspect of it, than we had
imagined. Not as a rule associated with matter; no, but perhaps
associated with ether--an etherial body instead of a material one;
certainly a body, or mode of manifestation, of some kind. It appears
to be a state which leaves personality and character and intelligence
much where it was. No sudden jump into something supernal, but steady
and continued progress. Many activities and interests beyond our
present ken, but with a surviving terrestrial aspect, occasionally
accessible, and showing interest in the doings of those on earth,
together with great desire to help and to encourage all efforts for
the welfare of the race. We need not search after something so far
removed from humanity as to be unintelligible.
* * * * *
So likewise with the idea of God.
No matter how complex and transcendentally vast the Reality must be,
the Christian conception of God is humanly simple. It appeals to the
unlettered and ignorant; it appeals to "babes."
That is the way with the greatest things. The sun is the centre of
the solar system, a glorious object full of mystery and unknown
forces, but the sunshine is a friendly and homely thing, which shines
in at a cottage window, touches common objects with radiance, and
brings warmth and comfort even to the cat.
The sunshine is not the sun, but it is the human and terrestrial
aspect of the sun; it is that which matters in daily life. It
is independent of study and discovery; it is given us by direct
experience, and for ordinary life it suffices.
Thus would I represent the Christian conception of God. Christ is the
human and practical and workaday aspect. Christ is the sunshine--that
fraction of transcendental Cosmic Deity which suffices for the earth.
Jesus of Nazareth is plainly a terrestrial heritage. His advent is
the glory, His reception the shame, of the human race.
* * * * *
Once more, then. Although there may be undue simplification of the
complex, there is also an undue complication of the simple; it is
easy to invent unnecessary problems, to manufacture gratuitous
difficulties, to lose our way in a humanly constructed and quite
undivine fog. But the way is really simple, and when the fog lifts
and the sunshine appears, all becomes clear and we proceed without
effort on our way: the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err
therein. The way, the truth, and the life are all one. Reality
is always simple; it is concrete and real and expressible. Our
customary view of the commonest objects is not indeed the last word,
nay, rather, it is the first word, as to their nature; but it is a
true word as far as it goes. Analysing a liquid into a congeries
of discrete atoms does not destroy or weaken or interfere with its
property or fluidity. Analysing an atom into electrons does not
destroy the atom. Reducing matter to electricity, or to any other
etherial substratum, does not alter the known and familiarly utilised
properties of a bit of wood or iron or glass, in the least; no, nor
of a bit of bone or feather or flesh. Study may superadd properties
imperceptible to the plain man, but the plain man's concrete and
simple view serves for ordinary purposes of daily life.
And God's view, strange to say, must be more akin to that of the
plain man than to that of the philosopher or statistician. That is
how it comes that children are near the kingdom of heaven. It is
not likely that God really makes abstractions and "geometrises."
All those higher and elaborate modes of expression are human
counters; and the difficulties of dealing with them are human too.
Only in early stages do things require superhuman power for their
apprehension; they are easy to grasp when they are really understood.
They come out then into daily life; they are not then matters of
intellectual strain; they can appeal to our sense of beauty; they
can affect us with emotion and love and appreciation and joy; they
can enter into poetry and music, and constitute the subject-matter
of Art of all kinds. The range of art and of enjoyment must increase
infinitely with perfect knowledge. This is the atmosphere of God.
"Where dwells enjoyment, there is He." We are struggling upwards into
that atmosphere slowly and laboriously. The struggle is human, and
for us quite necessary, but the mountain top is serene and pure and
lovely, and its beauty is in nowise enhanced by the efforts of the
exhausted climber, as he slowly wins his way thither.
Yet the effort itself is of value. The climber, too, is part of the
scheme, and his upward trend may be growth and gain to the whole.
It adds interest, though not beauty. Do not let us think that the
universe is stagnant and fixed and settled and dull, and that all
its appearance of "going on" is illusion and deception. I would even
venture to urge that, ever since the grant to living creatures of
free will, there must be, in some sense or other, a real element of
contingency,--that there is no dulness about it, even to the Deity,
but a constant and aspiring Effort.
Let us trust our experience in this also. The Universe is a flux, it
is a becoming, it is a progress. Evolution is a reality. True and not
imaginary progress is possible. Effort is not a sham. Existence is a
true adventure. There is a real risk.
There was a real risk about creation--directly it went beyond the
inert and mechanical. The granting of choice and free will involved a
risk. Thenceforward things could go wrong. They might be kept right
by main force, but that would not be playing the game, that would not
be loyalty to the conditions.
As William James says: A football team desire to get a ball to a
certain spot, but that is not all they desire; they wish to do it
under certain conditions and overcome inherent difficulties--else
might they get up in the night and put it there.
So also we may say, Good is the end and aim of the Divine Being; but
not without conditions. Not by compulsion. Perfection as of machinery
would be too dull and low an achievement--something much higher is
sought. The creation of free creatures who, in so far as they go
right, do so because they will, not because they must,--that was the
Divine problem, and it is the highest of which we have any conception.
Yes, there was a real risk in making a human race on this planet.
Ultimate good was not guaranteed. Some parts of the Universe must
be far better than this, but some may be worse. Some planets may
comparatively fail. The power of evil may here and there get the
upper hand: although it must ultimately lead to suicidal destructive
failure, for evil is pregnant with calamity.
This planet is surely not going to fail. Its destinies have been more
and more entrusted to us. For millions of years it laboured, and
now it has produced a human race--a late-comer to the planet, only
recently arrived, only partly civilised as yet. But already it has
produced Plato and Newton and Shakespeare; yes, and it has been the
dwelling-place of Christ. Surely it is going to succeed, and in good
time to be the theatre of such a magnificent development of human
energy and power and joy as to compensate, and more than compensate,
for all the pain and suffering, all the blood and tears, which have
gone to prepare the way.
The struggle is a real one. The effort is not confined to humanity
alone: according to the Christian conception God has shared in it.
"God so loved the world that He gave"--we know the text. The earth's
case was not hopeless; the world was bad, but it could be redeemed;
and the redemption was worth the painful effort which then was
undergone, and which the disciples of the Cross have since in their
measure shared. Aye, that is the Christian conception; not of a God
apart from His creatures, looking on, taking no personal interest
in their behaviour, sitting aloof only to judge them; but One who
anxiously takes measures for their betterment, takes trouble, takes
pains--a pregnant phrase, takes pains,--One who suffers when they go
wrong, One who feels painfully the miseries and wrongdoings and sins
and cruelties of the creatures whom He has endowed with free will;
One who actively enters into the storm and the conflict; One who
actually took flesh and dwelt among us, to save us from the slough
into which we might have fallen, to show us what the beauty and
dignity of man might be.
Well, it is a great idea, a great and simple idea, so simple as to be
incredible to some minds. It has been hidden from many of the wise
and prudent; it has been revealed to babes.
* * * * *
To sum up: Let us not be discouraged by simplicity. Real things are
simple. Human conceptions are not altogether misleading. Our view of
the Universe is a partial one but is not an untrue one. Our knowledge
of the conditions of existence is not altogether false--only
inadequate. The Christian idea of God is a genuine representation of
reality.
Nor let us imagine that existence hereafter, removed from these atoms
of matter which now both confuse and manifest it, will be something
so wholly remote and different as to be unimaginable; but let us
learn by the testimony of experience--either our own or that of
others--that those who have been, still are; that they care for us
and help us; that they, too, are progressing and learning and working
and hoping; that there are grades of existence, stretching upward
and upward to all eternity; and that God Himself, through His agents
and messengers, is continually striving and working and planning, so
as to bring this creation of His through its preparatory labour and
pain, and lead it on to an existence higher and better than anything
we have ever known.
[Footnote 41: _Hibbert Journal_, July 1911.]
INDEX
Abstraction, 370, 372, 380
_Abt Vogler_, 297, 370
Acorn, 290
Acquired characters, Inheritance of, 323, 324
Acrostic, 19, 21, 25, 145
Adonis, 304
Æneid, 14, 317, 319
Aeroplane, 142
Agents, 291, 371, 386, 396
Alec, 35, 46, 53, 70, 71, 120, 146, 147, 157, 162, 193,
202, 208, 224, 271, 272, 276
Amoeba, 389
Animation of Matter, 363
Anonymity, 96, 117, 128, 129, 180, 240, 247
Anticipation and Reality, 303, 384, 386
Argonauts, 153, 155, 211, 250, 274
Army officers, 53
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 302, 322
Art, 393
Aspasia, 13
Asquith, Mr., 55
Atheism, 370
Atomic Theory, 288
Atonement, 178, 249, 395
Attacks, 52, 53
Aunt Anne, 175
Aunt Jennie, 203
Australia, 9, 117, 149
Automatic Writing, 86, 90, 94, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123,
124, 205, 206, 207, 225, 350, 352, 355
Bacon, Lord, 378
Bailey, 61
Balfour, Rt. Hon. G. W., 283
Banks, Mitchell, 155
Barbara, 38, 112, 145, 223
Barrett, Sir W. F., 86
Bayfield, Rev. M. A., 92
Beads on string, 288
Bean, Jumping, 289, 293, 369
Beauty, 305, 383, 393
Bedales, 4, 136
Beehive, 291
Belgian stove, 44
Belgium, 25, 39
Bereavement, 47, 102, 342, 374
Bergson, Professor, 191, 333, 340, 348
Biddy, 168
Bill, Brother. See William
Birmingham, 133
Birthday, 212, 235
Boast, Captain S. T., 77, 108, 110, 112, 113
Body, 194, 195, 235, 305, 313, 318, 319, 320, 323, 388,
391
Body and Mind, 328, 330
Books, 5, 132, 209
Boy at organ, 373
Brain, Function of, 340
Bricklaying, 34
Bridging the chasm, 83, 389
Briscoe, A. E., 109, 111
British Warm, 19
Brittain, Mrs., 161
Brodie (B.), 208, 214
Brothers, Two, 200, 210
Browne, Sir James Crichton, 291
Browning, 1, 297, 370
Buddha, 381
Burial, 48, 50, 65, 235
Burial, Care taken in, 68
Burlton, Lieut., 53
Calamity, 322
Calendar of Photograph, 115
Cambridge, 286
Card, Memorial, 12
Case, Lieut., 42, 75, 76, 77, 114, 141, 279
Caton, Dr., 155
Cavalry officers, 54
Change of Conditions, 306
Charlatans, 389
Chasm bridging, 83, 389
Château, 25, 26, 27, 66
Cheerfulness, 36, 42, 50, 59, 70, 71, 98, 99, 126, 127,
159, 187, 204
Chemistry, 100, 133, 288
Chemistry and Physics, 370
Cheves, Captain, 78, 106, 206
Childhood, 5, 8
Christian claim, 85
Christianity, 178, 232, 376, 381, 383, 392, 395
Christmas, 188, 190, 205, 207, 218
Christopher Sonnenschein, 240, 247
Clairvoyance, 86, 129
Clegg, Mrs., 237, 239, 241, 243, 253
Clifford, W. K., 388
Clothes, 189, 197, 199
Clough, A. H., 382
Code signalling, 362
Coleridge, 304
Columbus, 367
Coming down hill, 154, 155, 156
Common-sense explanations, 348, 369
Communicating, Instruction in, 165
Communication, 389
Communicator, 87, 171, 358
Coniston, 52, 155
Consciousness, 330, 332, 333
Conservation, 290
Constructive ability, 290, 291, 336
Contingency, 289, 312, 385, 393, 394
Continuity, 335, 391
Control, 86, 103, 163, 167, 170, 171, 183, 238, 241, 357,
358, 360
Control, Method, 126
Cooking, 28
1 Corinthians i. 26, 368
Corpuscles (white), 385, 386
Cotton, Colonel, 53
Covering Party, 68
Creatures, Living, 304
Crookes, Sir William, 170, 342
Cross, Falling, 99, 128
Cross-correspondence, 135, 159, 160, 172, 182, 189, 190,
241, 242, 253
Crystal and Organism, 293
Curly, 203, 273, 278
Dallas, Miss H. A., 86
Damp, 62, 70
Darlington, 240, 247
Dartmoor, 154, 155, 211, 214
Darwin, 310, 335
Darwin and Mendel, 285
Dead Matter, 289
Deakin, The Hon. Mr. Alfred, 360
Death, 6, 103, 126, 127, 134, 183, 202, 249, 294, 295,
296, 298, 300, 306, 313
Decay, 303
Depression, 48, 203
Design, 317, 393
Determinism, 385, 394
Diary Entry, 31, 108, 111, 115, 116, 148
Dickebusch, 21, 75
Digging, 36, 44
Diotima, 83
Direct Voice, 193, 201, 365
Direct Writing, 365
Dog, 79, 154, 203, 273, 278
Dogmatism, 314
Dowsing, 363
Dream, 31, 34, 35
Dualism, 284, 320
Dug-outs, 33, 53, 57
Dvinsk, 130
Dynamics, 286
E. A. Episode, 243, 244, 245, 267
Ecclesiastes, 92
Eclipse, Solar, 369
Edinburgh, 3, 10, 45, 52
Effort, Real, 393, 395
Eggs and bacon, 67
Egyptian tombs, 302
Electric charge, 290
Electricity, 286, 290, 375, 391
Electricity, Modern views on, 373
Electrons, 391
Elusiveness, 319
Emotion, Conveyance of, 220, 221, 222, 278, 363
Energy, Directed, 138, 144, 151, 291
Engineering, 3, 9, 29, 240
Enjoyment, 393
Enquiry, 313, 314
Enquiry, Free, 378
Enteric, 25, 46
Entry in Diary, 31, 108, 111, 115, 116, 148
Epiphenomenon, 283, 388
Ether, 286, 298, 318, 319, 336, 339, 375, 391
Ether of Space, The, 319
Etherial body, 319, 336
Evidence, 115, 151, 159, 201, 308, 324, 373
Evil, 230, 353, 390, 394
Evolution 292, 336
Exclusion, 372, 379
Exposure, 62, 70
Extrapolation, 284, 286
Facts, 287, 288, 308, 310, 314
Faith, 367
Falling Cross, 99, 128
Faunus, 104, 315
Faunus message, 90
Fear, 126, 132, 168, 174, 175, 300
Feda, 98, 120, 121, 125, 180, 191, 192, 213, 236, 260, 261
Ferry, 154, 156, 157
Fiacre, 55
Fiddler, 46
Finding people, 254
Finger of God, 370
Fire-fly, 290
Fitzgerald, 305
Fletcher, Lieut., 17, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39,
41, 42, 43, 49, 51, 75, 77
Flopping about, 239, 242
Flowers, 227, 235, 258, 269
Foster, Sir Michael, 368
Franklin, Benjamin, 391
Freedom, 289, 384, 394, 395
Free enquiry, 378
Free-will, 289, 315, 333, 385
Future, 313
Gale & Polden, 112, 113, 279
Gardener, 255, 256
Gas, 30, 47, 49
Gow, Mr., 111
Grades of Being, 375, 389, 396
Grades of Existence, 389, 395
Grandfather W., 121, 122, 127, 143, 159, 181, 184, 209
Granny, 121, 165
Grave, 78, 298, 302, 304
Gray, 61, 67, 76
Greece, 185
Greenbank, 8
Gregory, R. A., 338
Grove Park, 5, 135, 145
Gullane, 35, 95
Gunn, Marjorie, 58
Gurney, Edmund, 143, 145
Guy Le Breton, 122, 123
Habits, 324
Haldane, Dr. J. S., 283
Harborne, 51
Harris, Professor Fraser, 293, 294
Hell, 230, 353
Helmet, German, 64
Helping, 98, 102, 103, 123, 126, 143, 150, 160, 166, 178,
185, 226, 232, 241, 243, 279, 307, 325, 376, 386, 391
Herdman, Professor, 295
_Hibbert Journal_, 283, 285, 378
Hill, Coming down, 154, 155, 156
Hill, Mr. J. Arthur, 86, 101, 109, 111, 174, 260
Hill, 60, 38, 45, 58
Hockey, 148
Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 88, 90
Holden, Mr., 57, 65
Holt, Alfred, 155
Homeliness, 184, 336, 337
Honolulu, 216, 271, 274
Honor, 112, 122, 186, 194, 219, 222, 272, 276
Hooge, 63, 64, 74, 75
Hope, Anthony, 41
Horace, 91, 93, 104
Hospitality, 53
House-hunting, 56
Houses, 135, 145, 230
Humour, 349
Humour of the life in France, 56
Hun, 69
Huxley, 308, 368
Hyacinthus, 304
Hypothesis, 287, 288, 389
Immanence, 386
Impersonal Memory, 348
Impersonations, 357
Impossibility, 387
Impression, 126, 160, 209
Incarnation, 381, 383, 388, 390
Individual Case, 84, 85
Infinitude, 309
Information got from Sitters, 192, 196, 199
Inheritance of acquired characters, 323, 324
Inhibition, 138, 340
Inspection by Army Corps Commander, 71
Inspiration, 381
Instruction in communicating, 165
Instruments, 320
Intelligibility, 380
Interaction, 283, 317, 366, 372
Intercommunion, 376
"Irish Eyes," 215
Italy, 11, 43, 45, 144, 278
Jackson, Mr., 256, 258, 278
James, Professor Wm., 87, 394
J. K. Episode, 254, 266
Joan of Arc, 381
Johnsons, 32
Jumping bean, 289, 293, 369
Kelvin, Lord, 286, 375
Kennedy, Mrs., 96, 97, 117, 120, 129, 158, 205
Kitchener, Lord, 55
Knife-rests, 28
Langland Bay, 157
Lankester, Sir E. Ray, 332
Laplace, 370, 385
Larry, 79, 154, 278
Laws, Mr., 17, 21, 23, 39, 42, 43, 51
Leave, 52, 54, 55
Lectures, 43, 265
Leith, Miss, 70
Leith, Professor, 24
Leonard, Mrs. Orborne, 98, 101, 106, 118, 121, 365
Lethe, 327
Life, 289
Life and Energy, 290
Life and Matter, 320
Light, 286
Lights, Coloured, 264
Lights, "Very," 22, 24, 30, 31, 64
Lily, 134, 159, 187, 190, 199, 200, 210, 221, 229, 273
Limitation of Scope, 341
Linga, The, 67, 95
Lionel, 70, 147, 180, 186, 188, 193, 196, 202, 271, 273
Liverpool, 3, 10, 135
Living creatures, 304
Lodge Brothers, 3, 9, 79
Lodge Fume Deposit Co., 79
Longfellow, 306
Loos, 74
Lorna, 52, 112, 220, 224
Lusitania, 299, 300
M.A.Oxon., 350
Machine Gun, 3, 52, 54, 61, 66, 73, 77
Madame Le Breton, 97, 119, 121, 123, 135
Maggie Magee, 215
Magnetism, 144, 164, 290
Maps, 251, 252
Margaret, 45
Mariemont Sittings, 158, 159, 182, 190, 194, 211, 217,
219, 222, 273, 274, 275
Mariemont, Views of, 224
Materialisation, 184, 197, 198, 201, 268, 365
Materialism, 249, 284, 285, 310
Mathematical Physics, 286
Matter, Dead, 289
Matter and Life, 320
Maurice, 40, 41, 43, 72
Maxwell, Clerk, 391
McCreadie, Miss, 228
M'Dougal, Professor, 283
Meagreness of Conceptions, 310
Mechanics, 289
Mechanism, 88, 388
Medium of artist, 88, 320, 339
Mediums, 118, 128, 330, 358
Memorial Card, 12
Memorial Tablet, 7
Memory, 259, 326, 327, 330, 348, 357
Mendel and Darwin, 285
Menexenus, 13
Merlin, 93
Messiah, 376, 382
Microbe, 387
Military terms, 41
Mind and Matter, 291, 339
Mines, 57, 61
Miracles, 390
Missionary spirit, 325
Missionary zeal, 83
Mitchell, Captain, 141, 142, 146, 149
Mitchell, Dr. Chalmers, 333, 334, 335
M. N. W., 228, 229
Molesworth, 71
Monism, 284
Moonstone, 100, 105, 129, 164, 177
Moses, Rev. Stainton, 350
Motor, Nagant, 277
Motor-buses, 51, 52, 72
Motoring, 58, 156
Motors, 58, 71, 212, 252, 278
Mott, Dr., 329
Mud, 17, 20, 184
Muirhead, Dr. Alex., 170
Muirhead, Prof. J. H., 337
Music, 46, 222, 234
"My Southern Maid," 216
Myers, 84, 85, 88, 90, 92, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 103,
104, 122, 143, 145, 159, 169, 177, 201, 203, 206, 234,
249, 312, 316, 336, 362, 367
Nagant Motor, 275, 277, 278
Names, 173
Names, Difficulty in remembering, 360
Negations, 379, 387, 390
Nerve cases, 40
Newcastle, 145, 220
Newton, 286, 394
Nicknames, 148
Noël, 22, 70, 140, 146, 148, 224, 276
Norah, 38, 39, 52, 219, 271, 273
Norman, 140, 146, 147, 148, 179
Note-book, 326
Note-taking, 358
O'Brien, Sergeant, 33
Old age, 295
Olive, Miss, 227, 229, 262, 269
Oliver, 6, 45, 52, 135
Olives, 131, 144
Omniscience, 316
"Orange Girl, My," 215
Oratorio, 290
Orderly, 16, 18, 28, 61, 67, 76
Organ, Boy at, 373
Organising Power. See Constructive Ability
Organism and Crystal, 293
Ouija, 186, 356
Outlook, 374
Paraffin, exchange for window, 44
Partition, 100, 133, 306, 345
Pat, 140, 148, 161, 223
Paul Kennedy, 117, 119, 121, 123, 146, 149, 176, 234,
235, 241
Peace, 25, 50
Peacock, 256, 257, 258, 278
Pedestal, 257, 279
Penkhull, 8
Periscope rifle attachments, 62
Personal possessions, 324
Personality, 298, 336, 383, 387, 391
Peters, Mr. A. Vout, 99, 104, 105, 118, 129, 162, 163,
174, 178, 260
Phagocytes, 386
Phinuit, Dr., 129
Phonograph, 328
Photograph, 105, 112, 114, 116, 132, 206, 279
Photograph, Calendar of, 115
Photograph, Description of, 110
Physical phenomena, 137, 218, 222, 224, 277
Physics and Chemistry, 370
Piddington, Mr., 172
Piper, Mrs., 87, 90, 94, 95, 129, 228
Planchette, 356, 362
Planisphere, 30
Plato, 13, 394
Plotinus, 325, 327, 330, 337
Plumer, Sir Herbert, 71
Polchet, M., 43, 45, 46, 51
Policy not philosophy, 284, 285
Poperinghe, 71
Prayer, 183, 227, 307, 376
Prediction. See Prevision
Prejudice, 379
Prevision, 35, 130, 185, 312, 314, 315, 316, 385
Primus stove, 18, 29, 44
Prisoners, 47
Private affairs, 374
Professional mediums, 118, 128
Prognostication. See Prevision
Progress, 395
Protoplasm, 388
Psychometry, 305, 306
Purpose, 285
Questions, Test, 152, 157, 159, 224, 249
Ralph, 173, 273, 274
Raps, 89
Rathbone, William, 8
Rats, 28
Rawnsley, Canon, 12
Reality and Anticipation, 303, 384, 386
Record sleeps, 66, 119, 120, 121, 123, 145
Rector, 129
Red flames, 369
Red roses, 246, 261
Redfeather, 166, 235
Relics, 305, 324
Reninghelst, 113
Resurrection, 298, 322, 323
Revelation, 309, 376, 384
Reverse, 34
Riding, 37, 38
Risk, 394
Robbins, Miss, 90
Rocking-horse, 220
Rods and rings, 251, 253
Room in Violet's house, 45, 226
Rosalynde, 109, 112, 145, 272
Roscoe, Lt. William, 42, 58, 60, 73
Roses, 46, 47, 246, 261
Ross, Sir Ronald, 294
Rossetti, 296
Roumania, 186
Rowland, 35, 131, 135, 191, 226
Russell, Bertrand, 315
Russia, 186
Sacraments, 321
Sacrifice, 178, 249
Salter, Captain, 48
Sandboat, 251, 252, 253, 260
Satellites of Jupiter, 341
Sausages, 59, 61, 67
Schuster, Dr. Arthur, 303, 368, 369
Science, Men of, 368
Secondary personality, 86, 171, 357
Selection, 88
Self-control, 225
Senses, 380
Serbia, 186
Serenading, 46
Serious messages, 352
Serious side, 11, 233, 234, 259, 263, 266
Servants, 16, 18, 28, 61, 67, 76
Shakespeare, 304, 315, 394
Shell shock, 329
Shelley, 81
Shelling, 3, 32, 60, 62
Shrapnel, 32, 45, 47
Sighs, 139, 160
Simplicity, 380, 381, 384, 391, 392, 395
Sinai, 335
Singing, 201, 212, 213
Sitter, 358
Sitters, Information from, 192, 196, 199
Slang, 40
Sleeps, 66, 119, 120, 121, 123, 145
Small Heath, 79, 132, 133
Smyth, Dr. J. Patterson, 344
Snipers, 48
Sniperscopes, 63, 68
Solidity, 184, 194, 198, 209, 375
Songs, 212, 215, 222
Sonnenschein, Professor, 240, 246, 247
Sophistication, 87, 88, 180, 192, 213, 351
Souvenir, 64, 69
Speculation, 310
Speech, 338
Spirit and Matter, 320, 323
_Spirit Teachings_, 350
Spiritual body, 319
S. P. R., 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, 100, 102, 104, 114, 133,
172, 346, 371, 372
Stallard, 79, 154
Stand-to, 43, 44, 65, 66
Stars, 24, 30, 200, 306, 309
Stead, Mr., 131, 178
St. Eloi, 73, 75
St. Germains, 277
St. Omer, 51
St. Paul, 102, 170
String, 196
String of beads, 288
Strong, Professor, 94
Suffering, 178
Summerland, 224, 230, 233, 263
Superstition, 318
Supremacy of Spiritual over Material, 317
Surroundings of non-material existence, 336
Survival, General, 336
Survival of Man, 83, 86, 87, 101, 172
Swinburne, 4, 7
Symbols, 305
Symposium, 83
Table tilting, 89, 121, 122, 136, 137, 138, 143, 144,
151, 183, 190, 224, 270, 362, 363, 364
Tate, Harry, 54
Taylor, Captain, 15, 17, 22, 37, 63, 64, 69, 71, 72
Telegram, 153
Telekinesis, 89
Telepathy, 88, 114, 275, 283, 313, 339, 346
Telephone operators, 87
Telergy, 88
Tennyson, 281, 289, 305, 309, 316, 320, 326, 345, 348
Tent, 250, 252, 266
Tent Lodge, Coniston, 155
Tests, 152, 157, 159, 224, 249
Theological attitude, 314
Theology, 352, 384, 395
Think things wanted said, 159
Thomas, Humphrey, 17, 23, 31, 42, 43, 47, 49
Thompson, Mrs. Isaac, 112
Thomson, Professor J. Arthur, 283
Thought Forms, 184, 198, 230
Tools, 320
Trance, 129, 356
Trance medium, 86, 88
Transcendence, 380, 384
Transition, 101, 288, 306
Trench improvement, 29, 33, 36, 63, 64, 66
Trenches, 20, 24
Trivial messages, 346, 349
Truncation of Life, 322
Tunnel simile, 100, 133
Uncle Jerry, 166
Unity, 284, 306, 307, 337
Unverifiable statements, 171, 188, 195, 196, 207, 209,
226, 230, 347
Ventris, Mr., 57, 74, 76, 77, 78
Verrall, Mr., 88, 91, 336
Versailles, 43
Violet, 35, 45, 52, 134, 226
Virgil, 14, 317, 319, 373
Vital Force, 371
Voice, 193, 201, 365
Walker, Messrs. Thos. & Son, 63
Wallace, Dr. A. Russel, 334, 342
War, 185, 309
Warning, 225, 342
Way, Lieutenant, 53, 55
Weddings, 58
Weismann, Professor, 295, 323
Whizz-bangs, 56, 60
Will, 134
William (see also Grandfather and Gardener), 159, 187,
190, 210, 213, 221, 229
Window, exchange for paraffin, 44
Winifred, 52
Winter campaign, 50
Wireless telegraphy, 244, 338
Wolseley Motor Works, 4, 79
Wood, Miss. F. A., 218, 221
Woolacombe, 250, 253
Wordsworth, vi
Workers, 291
Wriedt, Mrs., 118
Wyatt, Lieut., 19, 42
Yacht, 251, 266
Yogi, 177
Ypres, 12, 31, 44, 47, 58, 74, 78, 92
Zeppelins, 228
End of Project Gutenberg's Raymond, or Life and Death, by Sir Oliver J. Lodge