WHOSE LOVING SYMPATHY HAS ENCOURAGED ME TO WRITE THIS BOOK, I DEDICATE IT WITH GRATEFDL AFFECTION. CONTENTS Introduction ..... PART I. CHAP. I. Theology — Ancient and Modern II. Some Clerical Difficulties III. A New Cycle IV. Our New Continent V. Science and Religion . VI. A Summary . PART II. VII. Spiritualism — Its Use and Abuse VIII. Occult and Otherwise IX. Automatic Writing — Its Use and X. On Some Misconceptions XI. The Bridge of Ether . XII. In Conclusion Abuse PAGE vii i •5 32 45 60 74 93 in 126 160 178 197 /' 01579 Build thee more stately mansions, oh, my Soul ! As the swift seasons roll ; Leave thy low-vaulted Past, Let each new Temple, loftier than the last, Shut thee from Heaven, with a dome more vast ; Till thou at length art free ; Leaving thine outgrown shell, by Life's unresting Sea" From " The Chambered Nautilus." Oliver Wendell Holmes. Yet if it be that something not thy own, Is even to thy unworthiness made known, Thou mayst not hide, what yet thou shouldst not dare To utter lightly, lest on lips of thine, The real seem false — the beauty undivine. So, weighing duty in the scale of prayer, Give what seems given thee — it may prove a seed Of Goodness, dropped in fallow grounds of need." J. G. Whittier. INTRODUCTION Desperate diseases need desperate remedies. The time has surely come when silence on certain subjects is no longer discreet and ad- visable, but absolutely criminal. " If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no more flesh while the world standeth/' said St Paul in one of his moments of magni- ficent self-surrender. Perhaps we have quoted this text sometimes too liberally ; as an excuse for our silence, as well as a reason for our discretion. There is a time for all things : a time for silence and a time for speech ; a time for discreet reserve, and a time for speaking out — and speaking boldly — even at the risk of offending some of our " brothers' ' and sisters. A man once passed an artist who was work- ing in the midst of splendid mountain scenery. He saw him put down his brushes, get up, and step slowly backwards, the better to judge of vii INTRODUCTION the effect of his work. Absorbed in this, the artist had forgotten the precipice behind him, and was quietly stepping further and further back, to get just the right light upon his picture. The stranger, grasping the situation and realising that a word of warning would only precipitate the calamity, seized one of the artist's paint-brushes and, with great presence of mind, daubed the paint over the beautiful picture which had cost him so many hours of patient work. The latter naturally sprang forward to save his beloved picture and to punish the " wicked outrage," and was himself saved from a hideous death. The Churches have built up a beautiful picture, founded on tradition, both true and false, as to our Lord's life and mission ; true and false because the groupings in the picture do not always harmonise, but are often indirect contradiction, the one to the other. The noble lines of the most divine Life ever lived are all there — easily filled in by the devout and reverent soul. Our Lord said INTRODUCTION quite enough of Himself and of His mission to give the true idea of both. That accretions and additions should be found, due to the necessary limitations or the inherited prejudices of His recorders, must be true of any book, however sacred, that has not dropped from the skies, with leather binding and gilt edges com- plete. The critic may say, " What right have you to take certain records and reject others ? You must take all or reject all." I do not think this is a reasonable remark, although of course it is a very general one, and for many centuries has effectually silenced all criticism. When a beautiful, holy and consistent char- acter is portrayed for us — when such teachings as the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount are given to us in the name of Jesus of Nazareth — then I think we have a perfect right to reject any interpolations that contradict the spiritual simplicity of these precepts, and to courageously declare that we stand by our Lord's teachings as a whole, and not by every text in which they have been conveyed to us. INTRODUCTION It is "the letter that killeth. ,> How many stock arguments have been used by superficial critics, anxious to belittle a character too far above their spiritual apprehension ? We are continually told that Jesus of Naza- reth was hard, indifferent and wanting in rever- ence for His parents and in sympathy with their natural anxiety about Him ; as, for ex- ample when He was lost to them for three days and found at last in the Temple. It is by clinging to the letter whilst rejecting the spirit, that all these absurdities have been made possible : misapprehensions on the part of His friends, and futile criticisms (such as the one just quoted) on the part of His foes — foes only through lack of spiritual perception. The clerical world as a whole, both in Anglican and Roman Catholic communities, is stepping backwards instead of forwards, admiring its own handiwork in the Past, so absorbed over the details of its craft that it is absolutely blind to the fact that a few more steps will bring it to the brink of the precipice. If it is not to be Spiritual Evolution in the INTRODUCTION Churches, then it will most certainly be Spiritual Revolution outside of them! Is it not time for all those who know that this accurately describes the present crisis to come forward boldly and attempt to save the situation, even though this can only be done by becoming a cause of offence to many ? Some day we shall be judged more justly and therefore more leniently. It is a small matter that we shall then be beyond the judgment of men. E. KATHARINE BATES. PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY PART I CHAPTER I THEOLOGY ANCIENT AND MODERN In all thoughtful lives there must be critical moments — revealing moments, when a new truth flashes across our mental screen or an old truth takes on sinews and flesh and the breath of life comes into the dry bones, as in the valley of Ezekiel's vision, and that special truth lives for us for the first time in our experience. These revealing moments appear to come to us " out " of the blue," but it is not so in reality. For long months — often for long years — the seed has been lying and germinating under the soil of our sub- conscious being, and then comes at last the A PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY critical moment when it is strong enough and sufficiently developed to push aside its old environment and emerge into the sunshine of the upper air. These moments come to the individual and they come also to the Race. It seems to many good and earnest and capable men and women that such a racial moment has now arrived. It is impossible any longer to ignore that push from the heavy superincumbent soil into the light of day. The only question now is, How shall we deal with it ? " Crush it down by all means — at any cost" has been the cry of many in past years. " 7/ is a poisonous weed — not a healthy and edible plant — ignore it or crush it. We will have none of this insidious poison in our well-ordered garden plots" But if the time is past when such growths can be ignored, it is equally past when such growths can be crushed. Root out the green shoots in one place — they will inevitably crop up in still greater force and number in a dozen other spots. To drop metaphor, new truths are coming into the world, and the burning question for all of us is no longer whether we can go on ignoring and crushing them. Experience has THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN surely proved by this time the futility of either course ? No ! What we need to find is some means of readjusting the old bottles to the new wine. Now I think hitherto we have been doing the best we knew in the way of patching up these old bottles, and trying to make them capable of holding the strong, new wine that is being poured into them daily, both by Science and by what has been clumsily designated as the New Theology. The attempt to accommodate the old to the new, and to squeeze the new into the old is in its way praiseworthy, and was almost inevitable under recently past conditions. There is, in fact, an evolutionary instinct involved. We feel that there must be no gaps — no violent break in the chain of events, either mental or physical, and this tinkering up of the old to receive the new is proof of this very sound instinct. I venture to think, however, that we have rather overdone matters in this direction. We have been so busy in assuring people that nothing essential is lost ; in stretching texts to cover new conceptions of truth ; in an almost Spartan pulling out or chopping off process, in the wild attempt to fit new facts into old sockets, that we have not always 3 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY taken time to notice the real outcome of our laudable endeavours. Now I think one result has been that orthodox people feel, and quite rightly feel, that they have not been treated fairly. Dust has been thrown in their eyes, but after a short period of bewildered vision they have washed it out, and are prepared to affirm with imperturbable decision that nothing has been really altered by our explanations and ingeni- ous suggestions — that the Bible says one thing and we say another, and pretend that the two are really one, looked at from the proper angle. Such persons may have honestly tried to be open-minded, but the end of it is that they feel they have been hoodwinked, that sym- bolism and analogy have been played for all they are worth, and that the result has been complete failure, so far as they themselves are concerned, and a failure accompanied by quite unnecessary mental and spiritual confusion, forced upon them by our methods. Black is black and white is white, and although you may get some shades of grey by mixing up the two, it is useless to contend that the grey and the original black, or the grey and the original white, are identical I have great sympathy for those amongst THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN the orthodox who feel that they have been unfairly treated in this way. Our intentions have been good, but I think our methods have often been extremely bad. We have taken texts and given them a symbolical meaning when it suited our purpose, and we have taken texts and given them a literal meaning when that suited our purpose. The fact that the purpose itself has been an excellent one, i.e., to reconcile old texts with new truths, does not affect the question except so far as motive is concerned. It was perhaps the only possible method some years ago, by which to avoid the un- doubted disasters attending all iconoclastic movements. But ever-increasing light has been thrown upon many matters since then, and I do not think it is any longer honest to fool ourselves or to attempt to fool others into the belief that the Evangelists and the Apostles said one thing, but that they really intended all the time to convey an entirely different meaning — often a contradictory one — and that exaggerated Eastern symbolism, plus types and analogies, will cover the whole ground. They will not, and I think the sooner we are honest enough to admit this, the better both for ourselves and for those we may endeavour to teach. 5 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY That Christ's personal teaching should have come down to us so practically intact, so little stained by the orthodox beliefs of the " milieu " in which He lived, is proof positive of the Divine Spirit brooding over the work of His recorders. But apart from this, we have numerous examples of the " stained - glass " element which accompanies, more or less, all inspirational or automatic writing of the present day. We have had volumes written to try and prove that the disciples did not look forward to a speedy and almost immediate second coming of their Lord to reign in majesty upon the earth. What does it all amount to? Is anyone really convinced by these ingenious suggestions? Has not the time come when it is truer and therefore wiser to acknowledge that the same difficulties which all psychics experience in keeping the channel unstained by the personality, must have affected these recorders also ; in a lesser degree, doubt- less, because we must believe that a book with such a mission would have very special guardian- ship. But the writers were human as ourselves, and liable to make mistakes with the best of us. I do not wish to plead for a broader theology. We have that, thank God. Scarcely any edu- 6 THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN cated man nowadays would get up in his pulpit or on any public platform to preach or teach the old crude horrors of a physical and eternal Hell — terms which are in them- selves mutually destructive. For how could a Hell of physical flames and physical torture be everlasting ? The very idea is absurd in a scientific age. As an old Scotch lady said to me once in New Zealand — not intending to be blasphemous, I am quite sure — "Why, my dear, if you come to think of it, it is impos- sible ! Either it would kill us, or it wouldn't kill us. If we were put out of existence it wouldn't matter to us, and if we were not, why then, we should be bound to get used to it in time" I quote this to show the very bathos to which such teaching must lead, so soon as our mental conceptions are ahead of it, and so soon as we have learnt to think. I have heard my friend, the late Dr Alfred Williams Momerie say more than once to his congregation : €t My dear friends, I'm afraid you really must think. I am extremely sorry for you, because I know how you hate thinking, and it is a nuisance sometimes, but I see no way of avoiding it. I cannot do the thinking for you." The fact is, many of us don't think and 7 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY won't think, simply because we are afraid to contemplate where it must leave us. We know now that we have only exchanged a physical Hell, of endless and impossible torture, for a very real Hell, which begins here and now, so soon as we become sensitive enough to realise it, and will continue just as long as we live in separation from and antagon- ism to, the Divine Source of our being, whose presence with us spells Love and Life Eternal, and whose absence means Darkness and Hate and Separation and Remorse. An old friend of mine, one of our greatest Mutiny heroes, who was more terribly wounded than almost any other man who has lived to tell the tale, said to me once when I was quite a young girl : a How much more terriblef mental suffering may be than physical, and yet how little sympathy one receives with the former as compared with the latter ! " He continued : "When I was cut to pieces out in India, everyone was full of sympathy and good- ness to me. Yet I have suffered infinitely more in my mind and spirit, and no one has shown the slightest sympathy." There are two obvious reasons for this, which I was too inexperienced in my school- days to suggest. One is, of course, that 8 THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN mental scars don't show as physical wounds generally do, and the other that many people have not yet reached the point where they themselves are capable of any deep mental and spiritual suffering. But the words made a deep impression upon me at the time, and they occur to me now in connection with the orthodox Hell, and the modern conception of spiritual separation and remorse. Many, in the terrible grip of the latter, might also be inclined to think that any physical suffering would be a relief from the spiritual torture. That which makes even a spiritual Hell impossible from the point of view of Retribu- tion rather than Reformation, is the undoubted fact that only the most spiritually advanced, and therefore what we should call " the best " people, are capable of realising such a Hell at all. The sensualist, the materialist, the man of crude and cruel impulses, would be proof (either in this sphere or any other) against the gnawing of remorse, or the agony of separation from the more divine part of his nature ; which is obviously at present a sealed book to him. Therefore we are at once confronted by the awkward fact that only the most highly organised and sensitive people can ever be in 9 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY the most acute form of spiritual Hell, whereas the least developed and most wicked men and women would live in a sort of base material Heaven of their own, absolutely protected from all spiritual suffering when once they have left the theatre of their evil deeds, where material penalties might reach them. These two states suggest little difficulty when looked at from the evolutionary point of view, for they are obvious and inevitable. " The wicked man " may hug his base Heaven to his breast for centuries or even aeons, but some day the turning-point must come ; if only because Evil has no life in itself, and is only galvanised into temporary life by its victims. When that day comes — no matter where or when — then Hell begins for the emerging soul, and will continue until the purging process is complete. We sometimes hear people talk about the " New Theology " as a sign of the times — of the lazy, luxurious, selfish, motor-car times! " They even want to get rid of Hell, with their nasty, selfish, luxurious ways." I have actually heard this said. It seemed to me just a step in advance of the more general remark of a few years ago, which has been addressed to me personally IO THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN many times : Oh y then if you don't believe in Hell, why should we not all be as wicked as we like ? " The last time this was said to me, I felt justified in answering the lady thus : " If that is really your view of the matter, I am thankful that you do believe in a physical Hell ; and what you say shows me that, repugnant as the idea is to most progressive minds,rthe old orthodox teaching has had its^**/wc'< uses from the police-office point of view." d£t *»&&■*£ Then again with regard to the old beliefs 2M- cidJy t in the Atonement as a Blood sacrifice to (J^Aa €*& propitiate an angry God whose laws had been broken. I remember when I was quite a tiny child, with possibly a fairly logical head on very small shoulders, how that question of the Atonement worried and perplexed me. At times it seemed quite clear that only my own wicked obstinacy and stupidity prevented my being absolutely satisfied with the explana- tions given me on the subject. But at other moments something stronger than myself seemed to rebel and to say, " No ! it isn't clear, and it isn't fair, and all the faith in the world won't make it clear, any more than it could make two and two equal five.'' The puzzle for me was this : I was told in the ii PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY Bible and in church that Jesus Christ had died to save us and that God had promised Him every soul in the human race as a consequence of and reward for His death upon the cross. Then again I was told that a great many people would not be saved, because they would die without performing some act of faith or being converted — what- ever that might exactly mean — a process at any rate which appeared a very dim chance, so far as I was personally concerned. Even at seven or eight years of age I had tried hard — and often succeeded — in working up some kind of religious emotion, which made me hope that this mysterious " conversion " might some day take place — but it never did. One was always naughty again under normal temptations, and the exalted mood passed and left a poor, little, lonely child, with no one to confide in, and with less and less hope of this mysterious event taking place in her life. Then despair and depression gave way to honest childish indignation. It was all so horribly unfair ! What nonsense it was to talk about God's promise to His Son that every single human soul should be saved, and then this mysterious f - belief and conversion " were smuggled in somehow, to account for 12 THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN so many people having to go to Hell on account of their flagrant sins and wickedness ! It may sound very blasphemous, but I am sure a great many more children of a thoughtful turn, used to worry and perplex themselves over such questions than any of the this intercourse with my son. It cannot be a right and holy thing, or I should not have had such a terrible experience. It seems to me in my despair as if I had lost my boy over again." She then went on to describe what must certainly have been a most painful and terrify- ing experience. It seems that some entity, giving the name of a man she had known and esteemed, and one well-known in psychic circles, had forced his way in through the door left open by her premature and inexperienced efforts at communication ; that she had felt as if an almost personal combat were going on between him and her son for the supremacy, the clash of personalities and ensuing discord being thrown upon her, and resulting in a terrifying nights experience. Towards morn- ing the attack seemed to be relaxed, and eventu- ally she felt that she and her boy together had won the victory. It had left her naturally much perturbed and with a strong conviction for the time being that she must cut herself off 132 AUTOMATIC WRITING from all intercourse of any sort or kind with her beloved son, on this side of the Veil. Now Mrs Forbes was, and no doubt still is, firmly convinced that the intruding spirit was a false one, assuming the name and personality of an old acquaintance, and that he had nothing in the world to do with the original and true individual. Of course, this may be so ; on the other hand, I think this special episode admits of a far more natural explanation. When this gentleman was alive, Talbot Forbes must have been quite a young child, and probably rather in the way when the former came to see his mother ; as young children requiring a good deal of attention are apt to be in the eyes of casual visitors. Later, the child grows up, is suddenly cut off in early manhood and goes over to the other side, within reach, no doubt, of the mother's old friend. Through com- munication opened up between mother and son, ^he former friend would find himself once more within touch, as it were, of Mrs Forbes. Talbot Forbes (who must have appeared almost a boy to the man, much older when on earth, and still older in spirit life) was, however, in complete monopoly of the spirit telephone, and doubtless resented any interference with his rights. He knew nothing of the man claiming 133 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY to know his mother and who had died in his own childhood. Why should he accept his word and give up his place to a stranger, even for a moment, of this short and precious time of intercourse with his mother? The older man would almost inevitably be put down by the young one as an impostor, whilst the former would doubtless look upon Talbot as a great nuisance, and obstacle in the way of renewing a valued friendship so unexpectedly made possible for him. In fact, Talbot as a young man, was playing the same role con- sciously, as I have suggested may possibly have been played unconsciously by him as a child. The antagonism on either side and the miscon- ception on Talbot's part, who might feel he must guard his mother from this impersonating evil and deceitful spirit ; all this would be thrown upon Mrs Forbes and materialise itself as a deadly conflict between her son and an emissary of Satan. She, on this plane, and the son on the other plane, withstood the enemy, who appears to have given way at last in sheer despair. Now this is only my alternative suggestion, which I have no doubt Mrs Forbes herself would deny from start to finish. Knowing something of human nature in general and by i34 AUTOMATIC WRITING report of this special man's nature in particular, I think my view is at any rate a common-sense one? The suggestion of wickedness in con- nection with the impersonating spirit would not materially affect the question ; because it might obviously be the hypnotic response of Mrs Forbes to her son's preconception. It was on this occasion that I begged my friends in the next sphere to give me some information on the subject. They did not enter into the rights or wrongs of this special case (which may or may not have been clear to them.) They took the more practical course of explaining to me the confusion and decep- tions that might so easily arise through a premature exercise of automatic writing, and for the following very sensible reason. They said practically — "The initial mistake was made when Mrs Forbes adopted this method of communication instead of following your instructions literally. She is not at present sufficiently developed to be able to use auto- matic writing without risk." When I asked why automatic writing was more risky than mental communication with the other side, the answer was — as it seemed to me — both simple and sensible : " The more material your methods of communication, the greater risk i35 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY there is of attracting the more material spirits, who are ever waiting about, watching for suit- able opportunities to make themselves recog- nised by you on earth. Now a pen or pencil is obviously more material than a thought. Therefore the more earth-bound spirits can manipulate pen or pencil or table and Planchette more easily than they can manipulate and mould your thoughts." The mention of Planchette reminds me of another case which came under my own obser- vation, and where the results were obviously and unmistakeably bad, and admit of no such white-washing as I have attempted in the Forbes' case. A lady I know took a house some years ago in the South Kensington district, and she and her husband went to live there with their four children. I think some of the fixtures and possibly a little furniture were taken over with the house. At any rate it turned out subsequently that an old Planchette had been left in one of the nurseries. This lady's eldest daughter, whom I will call Pansy, was at that time a pretty child of twelve, very truthful and straightforward, whose word could be absolutely relied upon. Soon after they were all established in the 136 AUTOMATIC WRITING home, poor little Pansy complained to her mother of seeing a cf wicked-looking old woman, with thin grey hair and terribly cruel black eyes/' in the back drawing-room. Up to this time the lady knew nothing at all about psychic matters and took absolutely no interest in them. She had lived for years in one of our Colonies and had had far more practical matters to occupy her time and thoughts. Naturally, however, she was greatly distressed when this child — whose word she had never had reason to doubt — persisted in her tale. She said the old woman did not frighten her so much when other people were in the room, because she did not put on such a horrible expression then. But when the poor child was left alone by any chance in the drawing-room, especially in the back part of it, the old woman took the opportunity of making faces at her and rendering herself altogether extremely terrifying and unpleasant. When my friend investigated the matter further, she heard for the first time about the Planchette that had been left in a nursery cup- board, and also found that Pansy and her nurse had u been trying to write with it for fun." It was no fun for the poor little girl, for some months at least. i37 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY The door having been opened in this ignorant and casual way, the old woman seems promptly to have walked in and to have done her best to make the poor child's life a burden, owing to her unfortunate and hitherto unsus- pected clairvoyant power. The mother, a very practical and sensible woman, did not waste time in fruitless regrets. She heard of the Society for Psychical Research, and at once became a member, thinking she might in this way get some practical advice in dealing with the matter and releasing her little daughter from the painful and frightening experience. I think as a matter of fact that the relief came eventually either through private friends or through no St Martin's Lane. Anyway, I have great pleasure in mentioning in this connection the name of Mrs Manx, who has been in England and whose absence is regretted by all who knew her. When Pansy's mother went to her, she at once described without the slightest suggestion, exactly the features and appearance of the haunting old woman. I cannot remember whether she was also able to see why this special entity clung to the house. In any case, she gave some excellent and very disinterested advice as to the best means of getting rid of 138 AUTOMATIC WRITING the l< unwelcome guest." For when my friend suggested Mrs Manx coming to the house and holding a seance the latter at once dissuaded her from any such course. " Don't do anything of the kind" she said, "you may attract other undesirable visitors whilst trying to get rid of this one" She then gave some simple instructions which turned out to be quite successful. My friend continues to live in the house, but neither she nor her daughter have experi- enced any discomfort or undesirable visits from other than mundane personalities. As for Pansy, the last I heard of her was a year ago, when she was enjoying her first ball, and I am told she has grown into a very charming and pretty girl. So the "wicked old woman" has mercifully not been allowed to cast any permanent shadow on this bright young life. But matters might have been very different. If a sin-stained man or woman, rather than an innocent young girl, had been in question, what untold misery might have been the result of such a haunting presence ! — a haunting directly due to the apparently innocent but premature and ignorant playing with forces whose powers and conditions were 139 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY not understood, and could therefore not be guarded against. In addition to the initial and most obvious danger in automatic writing, namely that it is one of the most subtle and yet easiest ways in which a door may be opened and left unguarded for the entrance of undesirable spirit visitors, there are many minor dangers on the moral plane associated with any indiscreet use of this alluring phenomenon. In the first place we may give up too much of our time to it, and thus neglect more immediate duties, besides losing all taste for them. Exactly the same argument might be used in regard to excessive novel-reading, and I am quite willing to admit this. Our sceptical friends would probably say there was quite as much fiction in one case as the other ! Then again automatic writing, unless we are very much on our guard, may minister greatly to our natural vanity. Like attracts like, and people with a well-developed bump of vanity on this plane, are apt to attract those of the same class behind the veil. I am thankful to say that my most frequent correspondents from the other side are of rather robust con- stitution, and more apt to give me salutary rebukes than to prophesy smooth things ; 140 AUTOMATIC WRITING but we all need to be on our guard in this respect. We get so many buffets in this world, unless we are extremely rich or excessively dense. In the first case nobody dares to tell us the truth about ourselves — in the second case we don't care " a button " if they do ! But most of us belong to neither extreme, and may very reasonably think that after getting some hard raps down here, our unseen friends might at least put us on good terms with ourselves again — just as a worried business man, who may have been lectured in his office, expects a little soothing syrup at home, ad- ministered by an admiring wife and family. This is all right within due limits, but when we are told that all our views and arguments are in the main true, and those of our neigh- bours mistaken, so far as they diverge from our own — or that a great mission is laid upon us as to which we alone are competent, and for which the world has been waiting for many hundreds of years, then I think we ought to recognise the danger-signals and " go slow." I know it is very difficult, because often these messages may be perfectly sincere with- out being perfectly correct. Apart from the question of deceiving entities, we naturally 141 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY attract to us those who are in affinity with us or have a strong affection for us. Probably they often do think we are right in this or that opinion or action. It does not follow that their view is correct, but one often hears people backing up their own prejudices or actions by telling you of the beautiful messages they have received on the subject ; as though that were a final appeal. So long as we are prepared to keep our automatic script within reasonable bounds and not allow it to encroach unduly upon other duties — so long as we are willing to receive blame as well as praise if need be — to hold our judgment in suspense and receive these com- munications as we should receive those from esteemed friends on earth — and most important of all, so long as we keep our independence of action intact, and don't learn to run to the unseen friends for every small or great decision in life ; so long we may no doubt exercise our gift without abusing it. But all this is a rather large order ! I wonder how many of us, automatic writers, can feel honestly convinced that we have filled in the contract satisfactorily ? There is another less pleasing possibility to contemplate, but one which I don't feel justi- 142 AUTOMATIC WRITING fied in ignoring completely, since it has been more than once brought under my personal notice. It is a temptation which so-called "religious people' ' occasionally fall into, that of thinking they are influenced by the highest motives instead of the lowest ones, and using their religion or their psychic gifts to con- found or humiliate their enemies — as Bishop Creighton used to say to some of his obstinate clergy, who refused to submit on points really not vital : u A great deal that you call conscience is> in reality, temper!' I have seen the germ of this subtle temptation to spiritual priggish- ness and a desire to score off any one who has offended them, in quite small children. I have heard one little girl say to another severely, " Tou are a very naughty little girl, and all I can do is to 'pray for you!'' This is one of my earliest childish reminiscences, and I am always devoutly thankful to have been the " naughty little girl" upon that occasion ! Christian Scientists, in the early stages of their initiation into what one might politely call the technical terms of the sect, are apt to say to any one who disagrees with them or annoys them, "This just shows that you are still in mortal mind." And so I am afraid sometimes we may use 143 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY our automatic script, quite unconsciously, in the same way, to score off our enemies or to put ourselves in a superior spiritual position with regard to them. It may be objected that in such case it would prove that the writing was simply self-suggestion — not necessarily, I think — I have long felt convinced that many of our unkind thoughts of our neighbours are really thrust upon us from outside. If we open the door even an inch or two by a passing criticism, or perhaps a satirical remark upon an acquaintance, how quickly a rush of very unkind thoughts will often dash in and almost frighten us with the strength of the flood! ^If we are wise we shall stem it at once, by trying to say or think something kindly of them. All of us who have any introspective faculty at all, must be aware of the truth of my words/) Then is it difficult to realise that these unseen tempters may mani- pulate our pens more easily than our brains ; especially when we have made ourselves inten- tionally passive and receptive, as in automatic writing ? Asa "pendant" to the "mortal mind" illus- tration, as regards Christian Scientists, I will give a true experience of my own as regards automatic writers. 144 AUTOMATIC WRITING Some years ago a lady who happened to be staying in the same house with me, and who was an acquaintance of some years' standing but not an intimate friend, took occasion to come into a morning-room where I was sitting alone a few days after my arrival. I must tell you, by the bye, that this lady had some psychic development of rather an elementary nature. She brought a square MS. copybook with her and a pencil, and told me at once (without any encouragement on my part) that she had just received an automatic message to the effect that I was obsessed by a very undesir- able spirit who had followed me from India, I think, and that her spirit-friends were greatly perturbed as to the effect my presence might have upon her, under such painful and un- desirable conditions. Now I knew that this lady was slightly piqued by my not having cultivated her acquaintance more energetically, and it seemed to me a very obvious, although probably really unconscious way of taking a mild revenge, in which it is quite possible that she may have had co-operation from the other side. She was quite kindly willing to put her automatic gift at my disposal, and doubtless k 145 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY we should have had sheets of details had I been equally willing to respond, or in any way impressed by the announcement. As it was, I laughed good-naturedly and said quite pleasantly, " To-morrow evening, Mrs X., I shall find out where you are, and come in with a big MS. book of my automatic writing, and I expect you will find you are the victim of several obsessing spirits, and that I have been ordered to leave the house and your company at once ! " She took the hint and I heard no more about that undesirable spirit who had followed me from India. This again I consider may be classed as an abuse of automatic script. In any case we have no right to forget our manners and insist upon thrusting automatic messages upon acquaintances who have not asked for them. There is an unwritten law in all such matters, and one of the first rules should be that we give nobody the benefit of our automatic script about them, unless they have requested this favour at our hands ! Secondly, that we should consider it a point of honour not to attempt in this way to tap the subliminal consciousness of a friend or an acquaintance (far less of an enemy) with the same reservation and with the addi- 146 AUTOMATIC WRITING tional safeguard which Mr W. T. Stead quite rightly imposes upon himself, namely to send any such script at once to the person concerned, even where it has been obtained by that person's express wish and permission. My readers may justly accuse me of speaking, so far, only of the abuse of automatic writing. How about the other portion of my subject ? With the sad case before my eyes, to which I have referred in another chapter, where a young and gifted woman has apparently de- stroyed her health and domestic happiness by ill-advised and unreasoning faith in the entities purporting to communicate with her through her own hand in automatic script, is it any wonder that the abuse should loom largest in my mental horizon ? But this is not the only reason for my devoting the larger part of my chapter to the darker side of the subject. The uses of auto- matic writing are so obvious and so numerous that there is not the slightest fear of their being overlooked. Too many grateful people are ready to testify to the help and comfort and happiness and consolation they have re- ceived through the wise and discreet exercise of the gift. The difficulty is not in realising the use but in realising the possible and very 147 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY probable abuse of it, where a wise reserve and discretion are not observed. To many these dangers have not become apparent , because they have instinctively guarded themselves or have been wisely guarded, as in my own case, where for five years my spirit- friends themselves begged me to leave the subject alone, until sufficiently advanced to take it up without danger to myself and others. There is just one other small danger to which I have not yet referred, but which has come quite lately under my immediate and personal experience. I refer to the constantly increasing tendency to use this means of attempting to scan our own past lives and still more eagerly the past lives of our neighbours. In these days, most progressive minds have a tentative and modified belief in a sort of conditional reincarnation, such as that held by Mr C. C. Massey, and extremely well defined by him in the posthumous papers edited so excellently by Professor W. R. Barrett, F.R.S. We are all inclined to be curious about our "past lives," and to welcome any clairvoyant visions which assign to us important and interesting "parts" when we last trod this earthly stage. 148 AUTOMATIC WRITING Probably 90 per cent, or even more of such announcements are absolutely void of even the most fragile foundation in truth. It is far wiser to wait until insistent memories awake in our own brains, and even these must be taken with many grains of salt when they come spontaneously, for self-suggestion would have to be tabulated as well as outside hypnotic sug- gestion from the thoughts of others with whom we are in contact. Proud and loving parents of a metaphysical turn, would be bound to think their own children had played very important parts in previous lives, and would probably impress these ideas mentally upon their off- spring. All this, however, does not affect the subject of my chapter. What is really to be deprecated is a growing tendency to gain supposed information as to the past lives of our friends, and this I think is palpably unfair, although I am sure it has been done, in many cases, without the slightest notion of going beyond legitimate experiment. You may receive the most appalling state- ments concerning the past lives of your neigh- bours and friends. They are perfectly power- less in your automatic hands, when once this automatic-vivisection game begins. It can have no limits, within the limits of the writer's 149 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY imagination, and as it is obviously impossible to refute such statements or to start a libel case, in which the Prosecutor would have to be your own previous personality (perhaps several hundred years old), there is nothing for it but to beg your intelligent experimental friends to unpin you from the psycho-dissecting table and turn their attention elsewhere. Another grave possibility strikes me in this respect. We will suppose that a perfectly honourable and well-intentioned gentleman, interested in psychology and with some gift of automatic script, receives a message about your supposed past incarnations in which, after the manner of such messages, you may be quite sure some dark and terrible insinuations will be made — probably against your moral character. By chance, some guest staying in the house sees the message or at any rate hears about it. Probably he or she has never set eyes upon you, but the suggestion of immorality — let us say — and the name connected with it } remain in the memory. In these sensational days this is quite sufficient to start the " white hare." People have no time to listen perfectly to anything nowadays ; far less to remember it accurately. "Surely I heard something very doubtful about Mrs So-and-so when I was in Cheltenham ? — 150 AUTOMATIC WRITING a divorce case or something of that kind — any way, r m positive 1 heard she had beeyi the means of separating a man from his wife, etc., etc." The guest in question might quite conceivably have forgotten the circumstances and remembered only the scandal, little dreaming that it was all connected with a supposed previous incarnation of the poor victim. This sounds an exaggeration, but I am absolutely convinced that it is a possibility. In any case I think it is wiser not to tap the supposed previous incarnations of our friends, unless at their special request. Personally, I should refuse to do it, even then. We are all walking just now amongst a good deal of very fragile china, and need to be very careful to avoid breakage. And now to turn to the brighter side of the picture. Automatic writing within reasonable and sane conditions needs no further justifica- tion than the fact that Spirit 'Teachings, by the late Stainton Moses ( M.A. Oxon.), now in its sixth edition, was received in this manner. I do not include the marvellous works of that grand seer and divine philosopher, Andrew Jackson Davis, simply because I believe his inspired writings came from trance utterances, immediately taken down by a secretary on the 151 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY spot, in which case they can hardly be included in our present subject. So far as private experiences go, I suppose every intelligent and well-balanced automatic writer can tell of happy instances where he or she has not only received personal help and comfort, but has been able to convey this to others by the exercise of this gift. I have mentioned several cases of the kind in my own experience in my two last books, and need not refer to them again. Many people speak of automatic writing as if only silly and frivolous messages were received by this means. This is a great mistake. As Emerson has so truly said : " If 'we meet no gods, it is because we harbour none" and if we meet only with silly and lying messages, it may be because we are not very wise, nor even perhaps very truthful, ourselves. But those who are not conversant at first- hand with automatic writing, are apt to repeat this rather general statement, as though it were an axiomatic truth. Even so lately as a few years before the death of Mr Frederic Myers, I remember his giving an address on psychic subjects at the Sesame Club, and in referring to automatic messages he said : " / dont for a moment defend I<52 AUTOMATIC WRITING the substance of these messages. I quite admit the folly and triviality almost without exception of what comes in this way ; but the question of the source is still of interest to us, whether the water that comes through these channels be clear or tainted" I remember this the more readily, because an American friend of mine, a very active old lady, got up at once and indignantly refuted this statement, instancing my own messages as contradicting the truth of it. In connection with these latter and in fact with all automatic messages, Sir Oliver Lodge and many others have raised the very pertinent question of " stained glass," by which, of course, I mean the possible intrusion of the scribe's personal knowledge or prejudices and pre- conceptions upon the supposed communicating intelligence. No doubt we must always allow not only for the possibility but for the certain fact of such intrusion in greater or less degree, the amount of course varying in different writers, and at different stages of their development in this branch of psychic knowledge. Some colouring matter no doubt is bound to come in where the brain of the agent is used, and where the control of him or her is not absolute. The highest spirits object strongly to gaining this i53 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY entire control of their medium (except under very special circumstances), thinking that it weakens the individuality and tends to loss of self-reliance. Invading the personality to this extent is not generally considered desirable. We may get entirely false messages, of course, even where the complete control exists which renders the medium absolutely ignorant of the message conveyed ; but where the control is only partial — given through the conscious brain and not through the submerged part of the person- ality — it seems impossible that some colouring matter from the medium should not be assimil- ated. Sir Oliver Lodge raised another point in saying of some automatic script of mine that i( the ideas were not beyond my own range of thought" We must of course be careful not to jump to the conclusion that what is not beyond the range of a certain brain must therefore of necessity have emanated from that brain alone. Where philosophical and theological subjects are in question, the only evidence worth any- thing would be where statements are made or ideas propounded, which are both directly contrary to the views and also out of the intellectual range of the writing medium. But where other matters are concerned, the i54 AUTOMATIC WRITING question of range must be dropped in favour of corroboration of the evidence. For example, if an automatic script tells me that a friend of mine, greatly perplexed about her future plans, will quite unexpectedly have an opportunity of going to India ; that she will make the voyage within eighteen months at the latest, and will marry a man whom she will meet at Simla during the following hot season, and if all this come to pass within a reasonable period, this automatic script is certainly not beyond the range of my intel- lectual capacity. It is equally certain that it is beyond the range of my normal powers as a prophet. Therefore it points to an intelligence guiding my pen, which is not normal to my ordinary personality, although of course, here as else- where, the theoretically omniscient subliminal may be trotted out, and harnessed up, and we may prefer a galop round on this overridden steed to the more simple but less popular idea of communication from the cxcarnate. Direct writing is rather wide of my present subject. As most of you will know, the term refers to those instances where a blank sheet of paper is locked up, either with or without pen or pencil, and kept carefully under one person's iS5 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY strict guardianship, and yet when opened is found to have been written upon. The paper may be locked away for several days and writing may yet be found upon it when opened after such an interval. This has been considered in times past the most absolute proof we can ever have of direct spirit presence — granted the bona fides of the investigator who locks up the paper and carries the key day and night upon his person. But now that we are daily finding out more of the wonders of our own living personalities — their enormous range of being — their un- limited powers, comparatively speaking, as witnessed by clairvoyance, hypnotic experiments, and abnormal powers of action, perception, and endurance, it becomes more and more difficult to draw any definite line between the capacities of those emancipated from the outer body, and of those still imprisoned, but daily emerging from the prison-house, even now and here, through the cultivation of hitherto undreamed- of powers of will and concentration. How do we know that it is impossible for a highly evolved incarnate spirit to produce " direct writing' ' through those finer forces which must be implicit in the evolutionary 156 AUTOMATIC WRITING being, but not as yet brought forth into normal manifestation ? But this way madness lies ! Again we may develope one part of our entire consciousness abnormally, but at the expense of other and perhaps more immediately important parts of it. Hence the danger of books and pamphlets exhorting to this kind of self-culture. Many things are possible which are not expedient. These may be amongst them. As a wise old ancestress of mine said to me once in automatic script: "You are here to learn Balance, and that will not come through any abnormal development at the cost of atrophy of other equally, and often more, valuable qualities." Even messages from the discarnate may be paid for too heavily, if dis- cretion does not go hand in hand with develop- ment. This may be an appropriate moment to mention a difficulty in automatic writing which I would not speak of earlier, as it cannot come under the heading of either a danger or an abuse of our subject. I can best illustrate it by an example. Some months ago Mr Stead received some automatic script from an unknown corre- i57 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY spondent — a lady — who said it purported to come from Mr Frederic Myers. There was nothing very startling in the communications, which were very sane and sensible, but in a style markedly differing from that of Mr Myers. This, however, need not have pre- sented any insurmountable difficulty as regards evidence, had not the substance of the messages been so accurately and obviously in line, not only with theosophical conceptions in general, but with the modern Western theosophical framing of these conceptions, and even dogmas. It seemed extremely unlikely that if Mr Myers had become a convert to Theosophy on the other side of the veil, that it should be this special blend. Of course it turned out that the lady scribe was herself a convinced modern Western Theosophist, and Mr Myers* supposed statements as regards reincarnation were doubt- less the colouring matter supplied by this fact. But an interesting message with regard to this script came through another and quite inde- pendent source. I give it for what it may be worth evidentially, but the idea conveyed is in any case suggestive : Another lady, also in supposed communication with Mr Myers, gave the following message as to the former com- munication : 158 AUTOMATIC WRITING " Yes, I did certainly try with Miss W., but the trouble is, that I can set the current going with her, but cannot sufficiently direct and control it. I know nothing about reincarnation but often discuss it here with those who do hold the belief firmly. It is quite possible Miss W. took from my mentality some of the remnants of these discussions still present with me." Probably Miss W/s own preconceptions would involuntarily affect the question of which part of his latent mentality she pitched upon. This would then come through, as if it were a direct communication from F. W. H. Myers himself. So we see that the more we learn of these subjects the less we seem to know, and the more perplexing and therefore the more challenging they become ! i59 ^ *M CHAPTER X ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS I have been asked to write this chapter as a special plea against some crude and limited conceptions, or rather misconceptions, as regards the vast and undeniable differences in the varying lots into which Humanity is cast. I think the first and most flagrant of these is the very usual idea of the world at large and the almost universal idea of modern Theoso- phists in the Western World, that the more or less favourable earthly destiny of an individual is the inevitable outcome, not of his Karma (that we might all concede, if Karma is kept within its legitimate meaning), but of his previous good or evil deeds. If Karma is held to mean consequences, we must all agree that every fact or event has its cause as well as its consequence — in fact, its Past — Present — and Future. But the idea I wish to combat is one which I have heard propounded again and again, ad 1 60 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS nauseam, by otherwise intelligent Theosophists and by other people as well ; namely, that happiness and prosperity in this life are the inevitable results, in exact measure, of an excellent life in a previous incarnation, and that suffering and poverty, with all their attend- ant consequences and miseries, demonstrate with equal precision that those who are con- demned to suffering in this life, physical or mental, must have led very wicked lives when I they were last incarnated. I am, for the moment, taking some phase of belief in rein- carnation for granted, but many outside the charmed circle of modern Theosophy seem to hold much the same idea ; only the " past life " would in this case be limited to the earlier years of the present incarnation. No matter from what special camp the idea is promulgated, it has always struck me as such an exceedingly crude, childish and superficial judgment. Generalisations are of necessity always in error, but the measure of error would probably be decidedly less, if we generalised from the exact converse of this proposition. I have many theosophical friends, for whom I have both esteem and affection, and some of whom are decidedly above the average in l 161 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY intelligence. We have discussed this question frequently, but I have never succeeded in oust- ing them from what is surely a most superficial view of life, even as a mere question of personal experience ? I remember once trying to bring the u error in the sum " home to a very intelligent theo- sophical friend, by pointing out two brothers (bo f h of whom she knew), the one extremely sympathetic and benevolent and spiritually advanced ; the other indisputably selfish and material in his views and ideas, and certainly in a most elementary spiritual stage. She knew enough about them to recognise the truth of the facts I have stated, and did not attempt to question them ; the illustration was too flagrant for that. The former brother was crushed down all his life by physical and mental suffer- ing, his best and brightest qualities suppressed by ill-health and atrophied by absence of opportunity. The other from cradle to grave had a life of exceptional and almost abnormal prosperity, and was not sufficiently developed spiritually, to miss or regret in himself the absence of the higher nature of his relative. Even then, with the argument reduced to this one salient fact, under her very eyes, the 162 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS "Karmic" hypnosis worked too strongly not to master her normal intelligence, and she answered feebly that perhaps the prosperous man had been quite unselfish and a most charming and delightful and sympathetic person in his previous life! And this when the whole question was one of character, which we know means the slow accretion and develop- ment of years — probably of many centuries — for aught we know ! Again we have to define what we mean by happiness and prosperity. A certain kind of both of these is obviously more likely to be found in unsympathetic and elementary natures, for the very sound reason that the less we feel for our neighbours and their calamities, the " better time" we are likely to have here. It is quite a mistake to take for granted that extremely selfish people are always very un- happy and continually suffering from remorse on account of their limitation. It is not so, and anybody who has had some experience or life, and has any critical and analytical faculty, knows this as a matter of course. Very selfish people are generally very obtuse, and therefore very comfortable in their personal judgments. It is always the other people who are to blame 163 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY and who get in their way so unjustifiably ! It is only a highly sensitive selfish person who is in the least danger of suffering from remorse. I do not mean a physically highly sensitive person. That is only a usual form of selfish- ness itself. I am referring to a highly sensitive person, mentally and spiritually speaking. As a rule, these latter are very seldom abnormally selfish. Therefore my argument holds good, I think, that the more selfish a person is, the more obtuse, and the less likely to be troubled by scruples or remorse. Such people as the man I have last described, are also apt to be extremely deficient in imagination ; another proof of the crude and elementary character. Here again he is spared much suffering, and although, no doubt, he loses much enjoyment, it is of a kind which he is not as yet sufficiently developed to experience, and therefore for him it has no existence — whereas a comfortable income and absence of cares and well-padded armchairs and broughams, or motor-cars, have a very real existence, to say nothing of other creature comforts or even intellectual luxuries, which money can obtain for such a one. It is, moreover, a mistake to suppose that a man may not be very obtuse morally and yet sufficiently 164 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS advanced intellectually to enjoy good music or good acting or good pictures or well-written books. Again, a very selfish man will often include his wife in a sort of double-selfishness, and even his children, if they don't interfere too much with his comfort, which, under the circumstances, is not likely to happen. Selfish parents have proverbially devoted children, and vice versa, so here again we are confronted by a contradiction of the idea that the happiness and well-being of men and women here is in direct ratio to their deserts. Now given a thoroughly selfish person, with good digestion, a liver that works well, a conscience comfortably on terms with itself, and in addition a good income, good health to enjoy it, and an adoring wife and children who make him feel himself a sort of domestic hero, what more can be needed for " happiness and prosperity," as these terms are generally understood ? I think the confusion of ideas as regards Karmic prosperity and Karmic misery has arisen from a confusion as to standards. Are we judging by the standards of this plane or of the next ? It is necessary to settle this question rather definitely, for the 165 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY two are very seldom compatible. I do not say never , because one or two of the most prosper- ous people I have known, judging by present standards even, have also been the most spiritually-minded and the most sympathetic, but these have been but ff one or two " amongst thousands of my acquaintances, and in their cases a healthful imagination has been one of their most strongly marked charac- teristics. No character can be developed without suffering, but in these rare cases the suffering seems to have taken place elsewhere, even when we have the chance of tracing such exceptional lives from cradle to grave. I think it is Allan Kardec who suggests that every spirit upon earth has three cardinal incarnations : the first in favourable conditions, so that the youthful pilgrim through each planet should not be too much discouraged at the outset ; the second unfavourable, as a test ; and the third dependent upon the use made of the intermediate existence, and therefore either very unfortunate or extremely prosperous. This might help us to see how the rare lives I have referred to may come about ? It has sometimes struck me that the history of Job, if intended, as has been claimed by 1 66 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS mystics, as a history of the soul, seems cer- tainly to point to some such possibility. His first estate was prosperous — the second stage a terrible test of faith and courage and resigna- tion, which he came through with a fair amount of success ; and his last experience gave him back all his prosperity with much more added to it. Now I think it would be a great advantage to ourselves and decidedly a boon to our less fortunate neighbours, if we could give up this crude and superficial judgment, which a mis- taken conception appears to have read into the overridden Karmic argument. I think it must have been started by some opulent and materially prosperous devotees, who naturally would wish to justify their own pleasant destinies in the eyes of less prosperous friends and neighbours. Of course I am perfectly aware that no Western Theosophist upon earth would allow that he or she took the view I have here demonstrated. So many of us judge matters practically, from a point of view we should all condemn as quite foreign to us, theoretically. Not one of us is capable of casting the "first stone," so far as this little human foible is concerned ! 167 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY I would only ask one question : If I have merely described a figment of my own imagina- tion, how does it happen that I have not met a single theosophical friend with whom I have discussed the matter, who has not used some argument of the kind described ? Yet my friends in this Society are certainly equal in intelligence to the average — if not beyond that mark. I should wish to repeat, however, most emphatically, that it is not only amongst Theosophists that some misconception of the kind exists ; but I do think that a misconcep- tion of the word Karma (practically — not theoretically) has given some fresh impetus to the misconception of true standards. I may quote in support of my contention that even such an advanced and wide-minded writer as M. Edouard Schure says, in speak- ing of the light thrown by the doctrine of reincarnation on " the inequality of human con- ditions' 1 : " The variety of souls, of conditions, of destinies, can only be justified by a plurality of lives and by the doctrine of reincarnation. If man is born on this earth for the first time, how can you explain the numberless evils with which a blind Fate seems sometimes to over- 168 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS whelm him ? How can you admit that there is eternal justice, since some are born into conditions which relentlessly bring with them misery and humiliation, whilst others are born fortunate and live happily ? The differences in condition result from an unequal use made of the free will in preceding lives } whilst intellectual differences result from different stages of evolution." He goes on to say : " The earth resembles a ship, and all of us who inhabit it are the travellers, who come from distant countries, and disperse at different stages, to all points of the horizon.' ' Finally : " The doctrine of reincarnation gives a reason compatible with justice and eternal logic , for the most appalling evils as well as for the most enviable joys" (of human beings). We shall all agree with what Monsieur Schure says about the reason for intellectual differences, and probably also all appreciate his simile of the earth as a ship, distributing her crew to all quarters of the horizon, after voyages of varying length. But the first and the last paragraphs of my quotations from him suggest unmistakeably the very point I am trying to make. Here again the standard of happiness as the antithesis of misery, is a 169 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY standard of material happiness as contrasted with material misery. This is proved by his speaking of our seeing and envying one lot, and seeing and deploring the other. Now the things that are seen are decidedly "temporal," because material. I think this proves my point, that the taking of this temporal standard is a mis- conception into which many of our most remarkable writers and teachers are apt to fall, when attempting to justify the ways of Provi- dence via reincarnation. It seems to me it would be better to say boldly, "There are two standards for success and two standards for happiness — the standard of this present plane and the standard of eternal truth, or as much of it as we shall be able to grasp in the next round of our spiral. Although for a time and in rare cases these standards may appear to us to be superimposed, they are in reality entirely distinct, and it is for us to make up our minds which one we are using, in speaking of the cruelty and misery of our fate." " Which world are you booked for ? " as I heard a very young girl say once to an elderly and amused man, who had been speaking of the expediency or inexpediency of some particular course ot 170 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS action. " Ah I that depends entirely upon which world you are booked for" said innocent Fifteen, in a cheerful, practical tone ! This exactly expresses what I mean. If we could see with the r< eyes of the soul/' we should be more likely to judge correctly, and then perhaps from (what Schure himself calls) "la vue den haut" we might see that the " miserable lots" are more really enviable than more "prosperous" ones. They may even be much happier, judged by the real things of life ; for happiness which comes from a plus of prosperity and comfort, or even of intellectual enjoyment alone, cannot weigh in the scale with the smallest true spiritual emotion, but (barring the intellectual) finds its ultimate in the pig and the trough ; even though the trough be gilded and the pig a very refined type of animal, and exceedingly faddy and fastidious in his tastes. When a medium in trance (Mrs Howarth by name) told me once of a previous incarnation of mine, she added, <( but your present one is far more favourable." "Far less favourable," I hastened to assure her, " so far as money and social position are concerned." " What do we care for that?" said the trance control in a 171 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY tone of impatient contempt. " 7/ is far more favourable for spiritual development^ and that is the only thing you need trouble about" It always seems to me that a public school (as Mr C. C. Massey points out) or a garden, gives us our best symbols for the education and development of the soul, under earth conditions. I have spoken of the former already in Do the Dead Depart? Here also we find that the hardest lessons (the hardest lots) are given to the more advanced scholars. In the garden symbol we have the same significant fact taught us in the pruning process, which comes only at a certain stage in the plant's or tree's development. It is "the branch that beareth fruit that is fit for purging." All this seems to me so much wiser and truer than any such crudity as attempting to explain present earthly drawbacks by past earthly sins. We have indeed a famous instance of the latter process being reproved in the well-known words of Scripture tradition, u Neither did this man sin nor his father." Surely Christ came to show us a " more excellent way M — how to escape from this wheel of re-births into the glorious liberty of 172 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS the sons of God ; no longer the slaves of matter ? This escape, however, does not come (as some of us have been erroneously taught) by an act of faith in repeating certain formulas, but by being made partakers of His Blood ; Le. by sharing His Life — the life of the spiritual sonship. Surely this is the inner truth of the outer symbol in our service of the Holy Com- munion? We "drink His Blood" in token of our wish to share (however feebly) in His Life. Blood is the symbol of physical life, and therefore used by " correspondence " as the symbol of spiritual life. All this does not for a moment preclude the teaching of the very salutary lesson that " who breaks — pays" in the spiritual as in the physical world. I don't think an honourable and generous soul would wish to be " let off" trying to make amends, where others have suffered through his fault, especially where the fault or " sin " has been consciously com- mitted? That seems to me as dishonourable and wanting in self-respect as to wish to be "let off" the money debts that we have contracted. But I do earnestly believe that such a flood 173 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY of spiritual apprehension may come through even a poor attempt to share the Christ life (and this apart from any labels), that the soul may be freed from these lower conditions and allowed to " work out its salvation," and even C( to pay its debts" from a higher and probably more effectual plane. I only throw this out as a suggestion to those who feel forced — unwillingly — to accept some form of the reincarnation doctrine. It is only reasonable to suppose that we might be more helpful to others (whether we have injured them here or not) from a more ethereal sphere, should our spirits be sufficiently developed otherwise, to function from there. As to the law of consequences and compen- sation per se, I remember an interesting discussion in a country-house between my old friend Judge Forbes and Dr Richard Hodgson on the subject. The Judge stigmatised it as " a horrible idea," and from his earlier theo- logical training was inclined to trust to the efficacy of (c Chrises sacrifice" for blotting out not only our sins, but their results. Dr Hodgson threw back his head with a delightful gesture of confidence in the Supreme Will, and said, " But it is splendid to feel you 174 ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS have to pay for everything — of course you must! That is just the beauty of it! How else are you going to learn to do better ? 9i This absolute confidence in the love and wisdom of the Father's training, seemed to me the most truly religious attitude to which any of us can attain ? St Paul, in his famous words, " There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," is constrained to add at once, " who walk not after the flesh hut after the spirit" This gives us the whole