Superstition is not Religion; Speculation is not Philosophy; Materialism is not Science; but true religion, true philosophy and true science are ever the handmaids of Truth, and will at last be found in perfect harmony.”
After more than twenty years of continuous and careful study since the foregoing was written, I must still confirm and emphasize these basic propositions to-day.
The attempt is herein made to apply them more particularly to the study of Psychology. To add to what was then discerned and designated as “the Modulus of Nature,” an exact and comprehensive Theorem of Psychology.
I am well aware how presumptuous this would in certain quarters be considered, if there were the least probability that “those in authority” would read these pages at all. The motive is involved in the modulus, and I am quite content to leave it there, while the “common people,” it is hoped, may find herein, as I have found in the search for more light, encouragement, inspiration, and hope. And these may lead to Understanding.
It is the farthest possible from my thought or wish to ignore or belittle the labors of earnest students and writers on Psychology.
But there is a habit of conservatism in Physical Science to-day, that in spirit and effect differs very little from Dogma and Orthodoxy in Religion. It concerns methods rather than results. It is generally incredulous through fear of being over-credulous. It is bound by tradition, or the records of the past, and its dogmas are deductions from the consensus of opinions, rather than “decrees in councils” or “Infallible Popes.”
Occasionally a Scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, seems to be utterly rid of both credulity and incredulity, and for these, Science really means – “the Facts of Nature, demonstrated, classified, and systematized.”
But for the “Common People,” the average intelligent student, for whom Science and the pursuit of Knowledge is not a Profession, but a desire to know, and to understand, in order to be able to use wisely and well, it is of far less importance to know what others think or believe, deny or affirm, on the subject of Psychology, than to realize what are the faculties, capacities, and powers of their own souls.
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, like “Art for Art’s sake,” is one thing, Knowledge for use in daily life, and for illuminating its pathway and revealing the purpose and destiny of man, is something different indeed.
This hunger of the individual soul for real knowledge is perhaps the most patent “Sign of the Times.”
The average intelligent individual has broken away from the traditions of the past, and yet found nothing to take their place. One result is empty churches, and the race for wealth, display, position, and power. Increased idleness begets dissipation, Paresis and Insanity increase, while wasted opportunity both shortens and embitters life.
A very large number of intelligent men and women realizing all this, and repelled by the almost contemptuous conservatism of so-called Science, swing to the side of credulity, and are robbed and exploited by charlatans. They believe the Truth ought to be forthcoming, and their intuitions and demands, though oft leading to sore disappointment, deserve a better fate.
It is for these, and for these reasons, that these pages are written, and with no other hope of fame or reward.
The demand is everywhere for Knowledge of the soul. Facts there are in abundance, but how far these facts are demonstrated, so as to constitute a basis of exact science, and how to classify and systematize them, the average intelligence does not know.
The Psychical Scientist claims to know, and undoubtedly does know, but he busies himself almost exclusively in gathering and verifying more facts. When asked by the average intelligence, “What does it all mean?” – the answer is, “Ah! there’s the rub. Wait! Some day we may know.”
The simple fact is that the Scientist is bewildered, while the theologian and the dogmatist appeal to Faith without Knowledge, and invoke miracle as in all past times.
Spiritualism has had its day and left an immense body of facts, while Mediumship and the dark circle are more often repudiated by intelligent professed Spiritualists. Satisfied as to conscious existence after death as a fact, they have learned how generally unreliable are many messages from departed friends, owing to conditions beyond their control; while the effect of surrender to so-called “spirit-control” contributes to neither health nor a well-balanced mind or character.
Hypnotism maintains a precarious hold, simply through juggling with the words, “Suggestion” and “Hypnosis.” The professional hypnotist, yielding as he must to the public fear and condemnation of Hypnotism, advocates Just a little of it! under the false title “Suggestion,” for the good it is claimed to do in such cases as the drink and drug habit. As though a little further weakening of the will, would ultimately tend to restore and strengthen it!
One is reminded of the baby in “Pendennis.” The Mother “hoped the Lord would forgive her, because it was such a little one!”
Even the leaders in the “Emmanuel Movement” have deceived themselves by this sophistry, and while they applaud the temporary results, they seem unaware that they are still further weakening self-control and real character, by dominating the Will.
It is thus that ignorance, confusion and unrest, like waves of ocean, ebb and flow in the great human tides.
Through impatience and discouragement alone, many give up the quest for knowledge as hopeless, and while too well-balanced to drift into dissipation, they suffer from ennui and become pessimistic.
Real knowledge will not come all at once, like a vision, or a complete revelation.
The first real Light that comes will be that of Faith, a term generally misunderstood and misused.
Faith is the complete antithesis of blind dogma and superstition. It is born within the soul, and never imposed by outward authority enforced by fear.
“Faith is the soul’s intuitive conviction of that which both reason and conscience approve.”
To give intellectual assent to belief in God is one thing; to be able to declare with light and warmth that uplifts and inspires, “I know that my Redeemer liveth” is another thing entirely.
The impatience above referred to would see the end from the beginning, and know all about the development and destiny of the soul before it has learned the first lesson that guides and determines both.
When, however, Science and Religion clasp hands, and the facts of nature guided by the light of Faith, build character and guide progress, there is revealed a Philosophy of Life that needs little revision. It is like the compass that points continually to the pole, and gives unqualified assurance as to the direction we are going.
So also every step in the past enables us to get our bearings and verify our course by checking backward.
Faith is no longer a blind dogma, but a compass in the box of experience, the wise mariner’s guide in the voyage of life.
If neither Science, Religion nor Philosophy, nor all together can thus come to the service of man, can not do it now, after all the weary centuries since Plato and Aristotle, we may as well write qui bono on our banners and trail them in the dust!
Even the theologies of the day, recognizing the dilemma and the difficulties, still cling to the miraculous, and to make the best of a bad bargain, offer dogma in the place of demonstration, and contradictory and blind belief in place of the light of Faith.
While they count thousands as nominally in their communion, the intelligent among all these have many “mental reservations.”
The intelligent thought of the world flows past and beyond them.
The “Soul’s intuitive conviction” agreeing with “both reason and conscience” holds and guides them, in spite of the verbal “confession of faith.”
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