Chapter VII. Modern " Mystics "

A BOOK professing to deal with the principal religious organizations of England, with members of which priests are occasionally brought into contact, would not be complete without at least a few paragraphs upon that group of communities that claim, and to some extent deserve, the name of modern mystics. Such are the " Theosophists," the " Christian Scientists " and the " Mind-healers ". Neither can such communities be dismissed as Non-Christian, since it is possible, and indeed usual for a certain proportion of their members to adhere, at least for a while, to historical Christianity, although, in the long run, they seldom continue to do so. In each of these three denominations or groups it is customary to assure proselytes that there is nothing to hinder the continued practice of Christianity, that the new teach ings merely afford fresh light upon the old dogmas, and that they supply again those elements that, once in the Christian Church, have disappeared with the lapse of ages.

Theosophy, in its widest sense, claims to represent that more or less secret, mystical and esoteric body of x8S NON-CATHOLIC RELIGIONS OF ENGLAND truth which lies behind all religions and creeds, Christian and Non-Christian alike — to be that distilled essence of pure religion with respect to which exoteric dogma is, so to say, the flavouring and colouring matter, added in the various creeds for the sake of commending it to popular taste. It is not, then, in itself, Christian, any more than it is Buddhist or Confucian: in fact its more recent professors declare that Hinduism (or some, Buddhism) in its phraseology, its practices and its "dogmas" is better suited for the presentment of Theosophical ideas than is Christianity. It is not, however, identical with Hinduism or with any Eastern philosophy in any exclusive sense. Proselytes, at least in the earlier stages, are informed that Christianity, too, will serve as the framework of the picture; that there is no incompatibility between studying Theosophy and continuing in communion with any Christian de nomination; and that Jesus Christ may be regarded in a real sense as Incarnate God, and His teachings as Divine.

(i) The Creed of Theosophy is, in a word, Pantheism — although, of course, owing to the unpleasant associations connected with the word, the label is stoutly repudiated. God is conceived of as the One self-existing Being, the origin and the end of all that is, the One Being manifested in a myriad ways under all forms of secondary life. Man is His highest in carnation on earth; but all forms of life are also divine. It is the ultimate goal of all life to return to its Source, and be reabsorbed in It. This End may be named, equally well, Nirvana or the Beatific Vision. Its essence consists in the elimination of all that divides consciousness from consciousness, and in the realization, instead, of the One Divine Consciousness, perfect and eternal.

(2) " Sin " therefore is Selfishness; it is all that tends to withdraw man from his final End, to centre man in himself, or to attach him to that which is lower than the highest. Passion, attachment, and the like are the supreme enemies; for they tend to retain the Divine Spirit in the lower planes, to plunge it and fetter it among the complications of Maya, or " illusion ". Since God is the only "Real," all other than God is comparatively unreal. Complete and absolute indifference to the things of sense, the cessation of all secondary desire, the intense and fixed realization of man's essential unity with God — this is the process of illumination and development.

(3) Asceticism, therefore, from Manichaean reasons, is the way of life for the Theosophist — not necessarily, or so much, physical abstention as interior detachment. Marriage therefore is discouraged, though not forbidden; meat-eating and the drinking of alcohol are equally reproved, since by these man's lower appetites are stimulated and sustained, to the hindrance of his higher development Prayer, in the sense of petition, is considered childish and elementary; meditation, however, directed towards intense "introversion," the finding of God in self, and the elimination of all except this consciousness of union with the Divine, is essential to all progress.

(4) The universe is governed primarily by the law igo NON-CATHOLIC RELIGIONS OF ENGLAND of Karma or Consequence — the law by which every action has its inevitable result — from which there is no dispensation or escape. There is no "forgiveness" with God, in the proper sense, no "mercy" except that passionless mercy which urges and permits every conscious will, however degraded, to begin again the life of progress upwards. There is no guilt — in the sense used by Christians — as against a Personal God; there are but consequences, inevitable and sure. There is no Sovereign Will which by an act of favour can release the lower embodiment of itself from the con sequences of its actions.

This law then of Karma must be worked out on earth, either in the present incarnation of any individual, or in another. Re-incarnation, therefore, is as much a dogma amongst the Theosophists, as can any statement be amongst those who repudiate dogma in the ordinary sense. It is certainly usually believed by them to be the explanation of the apparent injustice in the world, and of the mystery of Pain.

(5) As regards the Great Masters — those individuals such as Buddha or Mohammed or Christ, or those still more mysterious persons, called Mahatmas, who, it is said, live in the East — there is no essential difference of kind between these and ordinary men. All are alike " sons of God," or rather, incarnations of the Divine Spirit. Those, however, who are eminent for spirituality are those who after countless lives of effort become the teachers and saviours of society — some, even, in their charity for men, persons who are so utterly free from passion and attachment as to have merited Nirvana, but who yet have delayed their entrance into glory in order to help their brethren. In this manner it is possible for the "Christian Theosophist" still to retain orthodox language in speaking of Jesus Christ. He is still to them a Saviour, an Incarnation of God, "of one substance with the Father," born of a Virgin, crucified, dead, risen and ascended. In fact to those — of whom there are a few, especially among the proselytes in the lower stages of initiation — who regard Jesus Christ as the highest embodiment of spiritual and moral life ever manifested among men, it is possible to speak of Him as the Son of God, the Divine Saviour and Redeemer; to frequent the sacraments of various Christian denominations, and to regard them with al most a Catholic's veneration.

(6) It is claimed — and there is little doubt that there is some truth in the claim — that those who by contemplation and asceticism in the Theosophist method conquer their animal desires, gain a certain personal power resembling that of the saints. The powers of the intellect and the soul — especially those called "psychical" — by concentration, effort and continual practice, become obedient to the will to a remarkable degree, and can be exercised effectively upon others. It is further claimed — but of this there is, of course, no verifiable public evidence — that there is practically no limit to these powers, even over inanimate nature. In this manner Theosophists freely accept and explain the miracles recorded of Christ, Buddha and the Saints. It may be said, in this connexion, that the Theosophists occupy a precisely opposite position to that of " Liberal "

xga NON-CATHOLIC RELIGIONS OF ENGLAND

Christians. The "Liberal" tends to take as his starting point the natural world of phenomena and law, and to explain, if possible, the miraculous by those axioms; the Theosophist begins with the supremacy of spirit, and has no difficulty whatever in allowing events that are distinctly " miraculous " regarded from the natural plane.

(7) As regards the constitution of the material world, the Theosophist lays great stress upon what is known as the " astral " plane. There is, he says, occupying a position between pure spirit and pure matter, an sether or medium which he names "astral". The " astral " has, so to speak, something of the liberty of spirit, with something of the phenomena of matter. For example, man possesses a body on the physical plane, that which can be handled and touched, but he possesses also an "astral" body, usually dormant and undetachable, possessing, practically, those qualities of agility, permeability and the rest, such as are in Catholic theology attributed to the body of the Resurrection. It is by the action of this body, when detached under such circumstances as death or trance or the deliberate effort of the adept, that phantoms, clairvoyance, and other phenomena known to psycholo gists, are explained. The Resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ, bi-location, and countless other appear ances and actions, are classed also under this head. The astral plane then is the meeting-ground of the two worlds: the most evanescent thought or emotion generated by the mind works upon that plane its in evitable and ineradicable result: much more do the deliberate efforts of the adept, who by this medium accomplishes his will for good or evil.

(8) Finally, it may be said that the Theosophists represent a fluctuating rather than a rigid body of religionists. They have developed considerably in their range and methods of thought since Madame Blavatsky first made the subject known to the Western public — and their development has been away from rather than towards Christianity. They have split more than once, and that recently, into various bodies between whom relations are scarcely cordial; and there are a good many divergences between these schools on minor points. They are, however, roughly agreed on the principal matters which have been described, and claim to possess also a considerable body of secret teaching with which only adepts are fully acquainted. In fact they present an extraordinary resemblance along various lines — historical, ethical and dogmatic to the early Gnostics. They are a widely spread body, with established centres in America and India as well as in most European countries; and they exercise an influence outside of their own professed members. The recent schism that has taken place was caused by a divergence between the members with respect to certain ethical teaching given by one of the leaders to children under his charge.

In dealing with Theosophists there are three or four points important to remember.

(i) Their chief moral difficulty — as must be the case of all who have ever claimed esoteric knowledge — is intellectual and spiritual pride. The world of men is, for them, roughly divided between the initiated and the uninitiated — those who, respectively, see beneath the symbol or sacrament, and those who do not. There is no conception with them of the fact that Re velation, properly considered, breaks down this wall of division that undoubtedly existed in ancient times; and that it is of the very essence of Revelation to re veal, to all who receive it. That there are, of course, dif ferences in insight and intuition among various persons, is not, of course, denied by the Church; but Theosophists go much farther than this, and deny implicitly that simple faith and obedience, without insight, is of avail. It is inevitable, therefore, that those who consider themselves "initiated" should tend to regard insight as of more value than the merely moral attitude towards God. (2) A second difficulty is that which beset the early Gnostics and especially the Manichaeans. When once this superior insight is thought to constitute the essence of true religion; when once the centre of gravity is thought to rest in the " things of the Spirit " instead of — as in Christianity — in a point between body and soul so that each shares in the affairs of the other, the body and the.things of the body become, so to speak, comparatively unimportant — or rather are considered to be merely so many obstacles, instead of helps, to the progress of the soul. Accordingly, therefore, there is a tendency among all Gnostics to err in one of two directions. Either the body is considered — since it is a contemptible dead-weight upon the soul — as some thing to be tortured and crushed and despised; or it is thought to be so utterly apart from the soul's true life that it may be indulged and relaxed to any extent. Morality, therefore, theoretically speaking, is always in danger.

(3) On the other hand, Theosophists are wonderfully alive to what may be called the more mysterious and spiritual elements in the Catholic Religion. By their training and methods of thought their point of view becomes such that dogmas, which to materialists are the supreme obstacles in the way of faith, are to them actually credentials of the Church's claim. They do not, for example, find the smallest difficulty in sacra mental doctrine, Transubstantiation, or the Sacramentals of the Church.1 Many of them, in fact, go so far as to say that the Catholic Church possesses spiritual power in an extraordinary and unique degree, but that she does not understand it. This leads, therefore, either to extreme hostility towards her as the one rival they have to fear (as was the case with Madame Blavatsky), or to extreme sympathy and courtesy, as to their one friend in a materialistic and spiritually powerless age. Theosophists cannot, therefore, be treated as mere ignorant outsiders. There are certain points of view that they understand far better than many uneducated Catholics; on the other hand, it is extremely rare to find among them a capacity for that simplicity and obedience and submission that is the foundation of the moral life of faith.

1 It was the custom at one time of certain Theosophists living in Rome to visit the churches in order to " test " the holy water. They asserted that all holy water possessed a real spiritual influence; but that the degree of influence varied with the psychical powers of the priest who consecrated the water.

The "Christian Scientists," founded by Mrs. Eddy, an American woman who, it is claimed, is still alive, form a sect, increasing rapidly in all English-speaking countries, and of a very considerable wealth and influence.

It is utterly impossible, however, to do more than give the very roughest outline of their tenets, since there has never probably been devised a creed claiming the name of " Christian " of a more indefinable and un intelligible nature. Probably, too, in no other de nomination have the distinctively Christian elements sunk to so low an ebb. Christian phraseology is used by these religionists, and the letter of Scripture held by them in great veneration; but the interpretation put upon the Scriptures, and the ideas connoted by the phraseology are of such a character as to deprive them of all such meanings as have, historically, been put upon them.

1. " Christian Science" like Theosophy, would appear to be largely Pantheistic. God, it is said, is the One and only Reality: all that is not God is therefore " unreal ". Now, God in Himself is pure Good, there is in Him neither pain nor sin. Pain and sin, there fore, are unrealities and illusions.

2. Secondary causes appear to be unrecognized by " Christian Scientists " — unrecognized, that is, to the extent of their capacity to produce realities. Since God is the only Cause — or rather, since God is all that is, nothing can exist truly and really except God;

and all else that appears to exist only appears, and is produced, so far as it has an appearance, by what is called " Mortal Mind". Hence we have these illusions and unrealities of pain and sin; they exist only so far as we recognize them: if, therefore, we can, wholly and entirely, cease to recognize them they cease, in every sense, to exist. "Mortal Mind," then, is the supreme enemy: if we can but conquer this by " demonstrating truth," and realize our absolute and essential identity with Him who is All-Good, pain, disease, sin, and even death itself cease for us at once.

3 At present, however, there is still sufficient "Mortal Mind" in the world to counteract to a large extent the "demonstrations" of the initiated. Death, pain, or disease and sin are still strong enough — in the plane of mortal mind, so to speak — to carry on their work. If all the world accepted wholly "Christian Science," and lived up to it, these things would cease. Meanwhile the weight of Mortal Mind is sufficient to counterbalance the Truth even among " Christian Scientists " themselves; they die, therefore, like the rest of us, suffer, sin and collapse. It is claimed, however, that this ought not to be so; and failure in these respects results from a lack of perfect faith and confidence.

4. Further, it is claimed that by "demonstrating" the truth, diseases — (or rather the illusions which we call diseases) — are, as a matter of fact, continually cured by "Christian Science". Considerable fees are charged for this process of treatment. It consists of the putting of himself by the patient under the charge of a professed Healer, who proceeds, partly by talk and partly by interior effort and assertion, to vindicate the sole reality of God — who is All Good — and to destroy the illusions produced by " Mortal Mind ". When this attitude of mind is sufficiently established in the patient, he perceives for himself that his disease has no existence, and acts upon that perception. (Instances have occasionally come before the public notice in which this disregard of sickness has ended, naturally enough, in the death of the patient.)

5. As to the relations of this creed with that of historical Christianity, even in the widest sense, it is yet more difficult to speak. Certainly Christian phrases are used; yet it is absolutely clear that both de Deo and de Divinitate. Christi nothing even approaching Catholic doctrines is held. "God" is considered to be, practically speaking, identical with all that truly exists; and Christ no more than a manifestation of Him, supreme, indeed, yet with no difference of kind between His personality and that of men. Mrs. Eddy, in her book " Science and Health " — the single authorized text-book of the sect — categorically denies the Atonement

6. No method can be discerned in the exegesis of Scripture followed by "Scientists". The method appears to be perfectly arbitrary, and to lie along " mystical " lines. Even names and places mentioned in the Scriptures are said to have a meaning completely other than those universally put upon them. (" Gihon," for instance, is taken to stand for the recognition of women's rights).

7. No sacramental doctrine, of course, finds any place in this scheme of belief — since the very existence of matter itself is denied. In fact " Christian Science" as a whole, in these relations as in all others, is perhaps the furthest development possible in the direction of pure Protestantism in its earlier stages. The letter of Scripture is still treated with an immense veneration, but is used almost wholly as a quarry from which materials may be detached and fashioned into perfectly arbitrary forms. The Incarnation and the Atonement have disappeared; the Sacraments, the Catholic Church — in fact all that may be called specifically Christian — have left not even a trace behind; and the principle of Private Judgment has grown, by a very natural process, into the unquestioned and autocratic authority of Mrs. Eddy herself, unrestrained by tradition or any historical articles of faith. Mr. "Mark Twain" indeed, in his book on the subject, represents the foundress of this denomination as oc cupying a position in it comparable only to that of the Vicar of Christ in the Catholic Church; and goes so far as to maintain that, in the comparatively near future, Mrs. Eddy and the Pope will divide between them the allegiance of professed Christendom.

The method best suited for dealing with Christian Scientists is even more impossible to state than any coherent form of their philosophy. It is said indeed by some who have left the denomination that the power of " suggestion," or of the control exercised over proselytes through the concentrated powers of the minds of the leaders, is scarcely less than that of hypnotism itself. Even when the preposterous nature of the philosophy is detected, there yet remains a retaining influence that for a long while colours the thought of the ex-disciple. Time only can cure this.

Controversy with "Christian Scientists" is very nearly an impossibility; there are practically no common axioms of philosophy, or even of language on which a beginning can be made — no platform of thought on which the controversy can be held. Scripture is held up by them as of Divine authority, yet the plainest statements of Scripture, and still more the sense put upon Scripture by practically the whole of Christendom, are denied or interpreted away. Finally, if a conclusion is reached in the argument which is contrary to that of Christian Science the adversary is told that he is carnally minded and that "spiritual things are spiritually discerned ".

It would seem then that argument in the scholastic method — in fact even argument as it is usually under stood by educated people — is wholly useless. It is not by logic that the " Scientist " defends his beliefs, and it is not by logic therefore that he can be convinced against them. The one hope would seem to lie in the presentation to him of the Catholic creed in its entirety as a coherent and intelligible whole, appealing as it does not to one fancied "spiritual sense," but to the man taken altogether — head, heart and will. Some thing may indeed be done by exposing the extraordinary intellectual fallacies and self-contradictions of Mrs. Eddy's writings, but not much. It is rather by exhibiting a positive body of truth that the lacunae in the " Scientist's " thought can best be met.1

There is at the present day in the Christian world an immense movement of thought towards the subject of "spiritual" or mind-healing. Psychologists on one side are exploring farther and farther the relations of mind and matter, and are beginning to classify, practically for the first time, certain sets of phenomena which in the past have usually been set down to the agency either of God or of the devil; and Christians on the other side are beginning to see in this development a call to themselves to exercise in the name of Christ these powers, newly labelled by science as "subjective" or "subliminal".

I. Briefly, the psychologists' claim is that the union between mind and matter is far more potent and far-reaching than has been suspected in the past. Ex periments have been conducted with a view of showing that if the mind is sufficiently concentrated upon an idea, whether by external or auto-suggestion, it can so affect the body as to bring about a change of material tissue. For instance, a boy, under hypnotism, lays his hand upon an unlighted stove; he is then informed that the stove is red hot; he withdraws his hand with a cry of pain, and a blister presently makes its appearance. The reverse therefore is also true; and diseases of a certain order, at least, can be cured by the same means of " suggestion ".

1 Perhaps the best work hitherto published on the subject is Dr. Lambert's " Christian Science " (Christian Press Association Pub lishing Company, New York).

It is not to the point here to examine how far such a claim is justified— except to say that undoubtedly the psychologists have their finger upon a real truth. It finds a certain echo even in such words of our Lord as "Thy faith hath saved thee".1 Next, many psychologists are agreed that the most forcible motive power in "suggestion" is found in the "religious idea," and they deliberately employ this idea even if they do not believe in its objective contents. The miracles at Lourdes, for example, are thus explained; it is even conceivable, some would say, that wounds can be healed instantaneously, if only the religious impression is strong enough; and they deny entirely that the miracles are evidences of anything except of this religious impression, and their own theories.

Non-Catholic Christians, therefore, have rushed into the fray, and claimed that, however these things may be labelled and explained away, the power has always been inherent in the Christian body, that such signs as these were laid down by the Divine Founder of Christianity as evidences of His own and His disciples' spiritual power; and that Christians at least ought not to be behindhand in welcoming and using these recently rediscovered forces. The movement has gone so far as to result in the establishment of at least one " Home " in London where patients can be treated by the imposition of hands and prayer; and as a whole it may be said that the movement is making a wide and profound impression.

1 But it must be noted that the miracle is one in which the " virtue " of the Healer is expressly mentioned.

2. Catholics, therefore, ought to be acquainted with the facts, with the very solid evidence that is put for ward, and with the theories promulgated in explanation. They ought further to have some idea in their own minds as to the attitude to be taken up with regard to the movement.

(i) If the psychologist's theory is examined closely it will be seen that it consists of little more than a set of new labels placed upon truths which the Catholic Church has always recognized. That " faith " enters largely into all such cures is a commonplace of theo logy. Of our Lord Himself it is recorded that " He could do no mighty work there because of their un belief"; and again even when His own "virtue" is emphasized in a miracle, He yet declares to the woman who was healed that it was her "faith" which saved her. The same element of faith enters into all Catholic dealings with the soul, even, to some extent, in the effects of the Sacraments wrought ex opere operate.

It may be conceded at once, therefore, that the element of faith is an important part of the process even in many cures wrought undoubtedly by the power of God.

It remains, however, to be asked further, What is the second element always present in faith-cures, without which they cannot be accomplished? Faith by itself, even according to the psychologists, cannot be the sole and all-embracing force, since it is limited by certain conditions: faith, in their view, cannot literally move mountains; it can only affect organic matter which is, already, normally in relations with the agent mind. There have to be present, then, besides faith, certain other conditions — a certain state of things, the action of a law. In short, there has to be present in all faith-cures an element which Christians would call the Divine action or permission. It is only by obscurity of thought that it can be said that faith, in itself, is the sole condition.

So far, therefore, it would appear as if there were no obstacle to the Catholic's acceptance of many of the recent psychological conclusions. It is not, as if, so to speak, God had been driven out of the field; a mysterious force has to be present in all such healing, no less than the faith of the healed. The utmost that the psychologists have done is (i) to recognize for the first time facts which the Church has known and used for twenty centuries; (2) to make perfectly legitimate scientific discoveries in those relations which fall under their proper dominion, and to invent some new terms for their identification. The Church remains unaffected, except so far perhaps as her purely human theories have had to be modified as regards the evidential value of a few particular kinds of cases. There still remain as evidences of her divine mission: (i) the fact that she has used these powers for cen turies — even though some of those powers may now be conceded as " natural "; (2) those many other kinds of miracles, equally established, for which psychology has no explanation at all.

(2) The Mind-healers, as such, have no peculiar creed; they have, rather, tendencies; and some of these tendencies are distinctly dangerous. The most dangerous of all, however, is that which leads them to believe that a healthy body is very nearly essential to the possession of a healthy soul. Its further development is found in the modern belief that environment and education are responsible for such good and evil as are in the world to-day, and in the consequent denial of the free action of the human will and of human responsibility.

Now it is perfectly true that our Lord wrought bodily cures in evidence of His Divine Mission, and that the perfection of man's nature, bodily as well as spiritual, is the Divine ideal; but it may be pointed out with advantage to those obsessed with a passion for bodily perfection in this world, that the central devotion of Christendom is the Crucifix rather than the Resurrection-glory, and that, in a fallen world, a tortured and distorted body may be the tabernacle of a soul that is even better conformed to the Divine image than even the most effective soul in a sane body.

There is a real danger in this modern movement that asceticism and self-denial and sickness — the dis ciplining of the body whether by human or Divine de liberation — may come to be regarded to be as much " foolishness " as was the Crucifix itself amongst the highly polished Greeks. While, therefore, Catholics have no quarrel with the Mind-healing movement as such, it must be remembered that this movement, like all such others, is accompanied by tendencies which, if not balanced and restrained must act to the injury of the highest spiritual life.

(3) It may finally be pointed out with advantage that the Catholic Church, accused in this instance, as in so many others, of being behind the times, is, as a matter of fact the one Christian denomination in the West that has retained through all the centuries a sacrament which has as its first object the healing of the body by Divine action; and that those who so freely accuse her of lack of sympathy with an obviously Apostolic practice, have, as a matter of fact, allowed it to fall out of use.

This section on Modern Mystics would not be complete without a few words on a sect which, in the opinion of some competent judges, is to be in the future the most dangerous opponent that Catholicism will have to meet.

Spiritualism, as least in the form of Necromancy, is very nearly as old as religion itself. It has passed through countless phases, and has attached itself, more or less, to nearly every known form of belief; but its main features have always been practically identical with those of the present day, and of the movement which began in America about the middle of the last century.

The main thesis of Spiritualism is as follows: —

The spiritual world, it is said, is in close contact with this, and can be reached and communicated with intelligibly, sensibly and even tangibly, under certain conditions. The chief of these conditions is that faculty known as " mediumistic ". The "medium" is a person who, while not differing essentially from ordinary human beings, has certain faculties and powers highly developed. He is one who, by passing into a passive or trance-state, can be controlled by discarnate spirits who desire to communicate with their friends or disciples on earth.

The communications take place in various ways.

First, there are actions such as the movement of furniture, the production of sounds, the appearance of lights, by which the inquirers are satisfied that more than human incarnate personalities are at work. These things are usually performed during a "stance" — that is the meeting of the inquirers together in a room wholly or partly darkened, in the company of the medium.

Next there are the intelligible communications made to one or more of the sitters, by which, it is said, the communicating spirit may be identified, and may give messages or spiritual instructions. These conversations are carried on either by means of taps, produced apparently by other than human agency and interpreted according to a received code, or by the voice of the con trolled medium; or by the action of his hand through writing; or by " spirit writings " under conditions that would appear to exclude fraud or hallucination.

Thirdly, there is the phenomenon known as "materialization". This consists of the appearance of the spirit in human form, sometimes in such a degree as to be actually tangible as well as capable of being photographed. It is in this that the supreme achievement of Spiritualism is said to lie; and it is by the recognition of the spirit's features that his personality is finally identified.

As to the explanation given by Spiritualists of the methods by which these things are done, it will be enough to refer the reader to the previous remarks made upon the "astral force". The body in which the spirit is said to appear, is supposed to have been fashioned by himself, if circumstances have been sufficiently favourable, out of the " astral matter " drawn from the body of the medium and his companions. It disintegrates at the close of the phenomenon, and passes back again for the most part into the source from which it was drawn.

2. Now it is utterly impossible within the limits of a few pages to discuss the evidence for or against the reality of those phenomena. It is necessary for those who would wish to have any success in dealing with Spiritualists to be acquainted far more fully than is possible from this book with the arguments on both sides. Many excellent books have been written upon the subject by those who have studied the facts. The one attitude to be deplored is that taken up by many Catholics and even by priests, consisting of simple mockery at the whole affair, and of a few shallow a priori arguments and jokes against the idea of the possibility of any spirits at all communicating with men by such means. It may further be remarked that those who talk in this way have the whole body of theologians dead against them.

(i) First, however, it must be acknowledged that there is hardly any branch of " religion " in which fraud has been so often exposed. Not once nor twice, but repeatedly, mediums have been detected in the use of trickery, either conscious or unconscious, by which the phenomena have been simulated. It is this, no doubt, that has encouraged ignorant people to the conclusion that all the phenomena are always attributable to this means.

(2) It would be to no purpose, therefore, to discuss as to how far in this or that instance fraud has been at work. It is enough to say in this place that several scientists of repute, both English and foreign, are completely satisfied that fraud will not explain all; and that certain of those scientists, hitherto materialists, have been convinced by means of Spiritualism of the existence of the spiritual world and of the survival after death of the human personality.

3. There remains to be examined, very shortly, the chief Catholic reasons against the Spiritualist's claims, and the arguments that may best be put forward in contro' ersy against them.

(1).t is of practically no use in controversy with Spirit lalists to advance the ordinary theological argument, against either the existence of " astral " force and matter, or against the possibility of human discarnate spirits thus communicating with friends and disciples on earth. The Spiritualists deny the premises in toto: they claim that through these actual and direct com munications with the inhabitants of the other world, they are better acquainted with the conditions that prevail there than can be any theologian who begins from an a priori dogmatic standpoint.

(2) Neither is it of any value in Spiritualists' eyes that the whole tendency of the " spirits' " teaching is usually anti-Christian. For they claim that here is a direct revelation from the other world sanctioned by far more grave, and more accessible, evidences than those of the Christian religion. It is true that in the first stages the inquirer is permitted to believe and practise his own religion, and even encouraged to pray and sing hymns at the very stance itself; it is true, also, that in some cases Spiritualism and Christianity (of a kind) continue to be held simultaneously by the same person even through many years: yet the general trend is undoubtedly anti-Christian, and leads in a thousand instances to the relinquishing of all specifically Christian tenets.

(3) Far more effective in controversy are certain undoubted facts, many of them acknowledged and lamented even by Spiritualists themselves.

(a) First there is always present in Spiritualism the danger of nervous strain so great as to bring about in innumerable instances physical or mental ruin. (Mr. Raupert in his books on the subject1 gives various testimonies to this effect from Spiritualists themselves; and Dr. Forbes Winslow in his book "Spiritualistic Madness " frankly attributes an enormous proportion of cases confined in lunatic asylums to this tampering with the supernatural.) If the " communicating intelli gences" were what they professed to be, and if the practice of Spiritualism were beneficial to humanity, it is hardly likely that this danger should be so inevitably associated with it. It is not only the mediums who

111 Modern Spiritism," "The Dangers of Spiritualism " (Kegan Paul).

THE SPIRITUALISTS il so suffer, but occasionally the sitters themselves, and to such an extent that a complete mental breakdown is always a possibility, with its end in the asylum It is true that statistics on this matter may easily be discredited by the statement that a large proportion of Spiritualistic inquirers are already mentally feeble; but this argument is scarcely to the advantage of the cult. So far does this mental, and occasionally moral, deterioration go, that those who suffer from it often exhibit to an extraordinary degree the symptoms usually held to be indicative of demoniacal possession; and, in fact, in the opinion of many Catholic autho rities, this is by far the most tenable explanation of the more extreme cases.

(&) A second argument, undeniable by Spiritualists themselves, is the constant frequency with which the most subtle and heartless deceptions are practised by the " communicating intelligences " themselves upon those who in perfectly good faith come to consult them. The standard books upon Spiritualism supply sufficient examples of this to justify the advancement of the argument. Again and again there are detected in stances of deliberate impersonation on the part of these intelligences who profess to come only for the benefit of the human race — impersonation which is only exposed after repeated tests. If, as is confessed by Spiritualists themselves, it is often exceedingly difficult to separate the "genuine" from the lying spirits, Spiritualism can scarcely be described as a satisfactory method of arriving at perfect truth.

(c) A third argument is found in the violent contra- 14*

dictions to be found in the "spiritual teachings" im parted at various times to different inquirers. Dr. Lapponi thus describes the result of his investigations into this point.1 " In England the spirits are sceptical discursive and cautious; in Germany, mystical, speculative and transcendental, and in France, libertines, generous, thoughtless and frivolous. In the United States of America, they are positive, dogmatic and bold, and proclaim metempsychosis; whilst elsewhere, especially in Italy, they declare themselves to be pantheists, atheists, materialists. Among the Mormons... they approve and appraise polygamy." And the passage ends with the significant sentence: " If there is one thing on which the spirits agree, it is in abusing the Roman Catholic religion, of which they can only speak evil ".

Now there is no question among Catholics, from purely theological grounds, as to the character of these communicating intelligences — in instances, that is, where it is established that a discarnate intelligence has been at work. And the three previous arguments, drawn simply from experience, seem most emphatically to corroborate the Catholic conclusion. It may further be added that no "teaching" purported to be given by the spirits, in the realm of theology, history or science, has ever surpassed, even if it has ever equalled, knowledge already enjoyed by men. If it were really a fact that the spirits of the holy dead, or even spirits

1 " Hypnotism and Spiritism " (Chapman & Ha.!l), pp. 197-8. Consult also " Sermons on Spiritualism," by Rev. A. V. Miller (Kegan Paul).

of average morality, were permitted by God to revisit the earth in order to instruct the human race, how extraordinarily easy it would be for them, by revealing to the inquirers some verifiable fact, hitherto unknown, to establish their character beyond a doubt. On the contrary it is found in innumerable instances that the intelligences are liars and deceivers, that teaching professedly from a world higher and more clear-sighted than our own, continually contradicts similar teaching given under the same auspices, and that the effect upon both mediums and inquirers is repeatedly found to be in the direction of physical, moral and mental ruin. It is of no use, as has been said, to advance theological arguments against convinced Spiritualists, though they may be of some avail with Christians; yet these further arguments, drawn from experience, point to precisely the same conclusion as that at which the Catholic Church arrived long ago — viz., that where such agencies are evidently at work, their origin can only be found in the adversary of man, and their object the ruin of the human race.

APPENDIX.

IT is worth while, I think, to add here a few notes on some of the less important Nonconforming bodies in this country, not in any way exhaustive, but simply to indicate the ruling principle of each. The ramifications of Protestant thought are so numerous, and some of them so entirely un important, that it is impossible to include here even the names of all the sects that within the last two or three hundred years have come into existence.

i. The Swedenbvrgians (or "The New Church " or "The Church of the New Jerusalem " ) take their popular name from their i8th century founder, Emmanuel Swedenborg. Their system of belief, " evangelical " in the main, is yet enormously complex in its spiritual teaching, and is based upon the writings of their founder, to whom, it is claimed, the spiritual world was continuously open for above twenty years. His principal work is named " Arcana Caelestia " and runs into many volumes. It concerns itself chiefly with apocalyptic subjects, such as the Last Judgment, and the constitution of Heaven and Hell, and the inhabited planets. His teaching presents an extraordinary mixture of materialistic images and real spirituality; and its most interesting characteristic is his doctrine of "correspondences," by which is indicated an elaborate system of analogies between the physical and spiritual worlds. This system is worked out with great ingenuity in regard to the interpretation of the Scriptures. The Swedenborgians, therefore, cannot be classed with the ordinary Nonconformist sects, since like the Irvingites they base all their position upon a professed " Private Revelation ".

2. The Plymouth Brethren, founded about 1825, originally stood for a protest against the divisions of Protestantism, and sought to establish a platform on which persons of all denominations might meet. They have ended, however, by adding one more organized body to the already existing sects, and, indeed, are accused of a particularly narrow exclusiveness. Their system is " evangelical " in the main; but they are distinguished by a certain sternness of atmosphere and by an almost old-fashioned Puritanism. Their spirit, however, is one of great simplicity and devotionalism, and the standard of fervour amongst them is very high. Their principal danger probably lies in the direction of spiritual pride.

3. The Moravians are an exceedingly ancient sect, and trace their lineage back even behind the Protestant Reformation. They are governed by " bishops," and are distinguished for their missionary zeal in all countries. Their dogmatic system is that of " evangelical Christianity "; and they will mix, and even work, freely with members of all Protestant orthodox denominations.

4. The Unitarians are not, of course, Christian at all in the historic sense of the word, since they repudiate dogmatically the Divinity of Christ; yet it is probably true to say that their reverence as a whole for His Person, for His spiritual authority and His ethical example are very nearly if not quite equal to the attitude, in regard to the same points, of many professing Christians. It is their dogmatic repudiation of the doctrine of the Trinity, and their acceptance of Christian ethics and of Christ as the perfect Man, that constitute them as a sect from the dogmatic standpoint; but beyond these points Unitarians are free to form their

Own opinions on other religious subjects. Practically, however, it may be said that " Supernaturalism " generally has little or no place amongst them. With regard to other matters, the Unitarians are distinguished for great intellectual activity, for several deep thinkers among their professed ad herents, and in social life for great generosity and charity.

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