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an unseen world, and none that up to the present time has so tantalized the
anxious and honest inquirer with unperformed promises of solution. The
arguments scattered or hinted at throughout this book are negative so far
as they go, but it must be borne in mind that they would be scattered to the
winds by solid objective evidence on the other side, such as could be
seriously entertained by scientific men desiring above all things to arrive
at truth.
Among the arguments of which I speak, there was evidence that
persons in sound health were liable to see visions of an apparently
objective character, and to hear voices that seemed external, all of these
hallucinations apparently belonging to the same order of phenomena. I
also showed that their existing cause could in some instances be traced
with more or less certainty; that many of these visions and voices were
meaningless or absurd; and that there was not the slightest ground for
accrediting the majority of them to any exalted or external source.
Similarly, I showed that the fluency of ordinary speakers and writers
proceeds in an automatic way, without its being imputed to inspiration,
but that when such speakers or writers are exercised upon devout subjects,
they are apt to suppose the thoughts that then arise to be inspired,
although it would seem to a bystander that all fluency has the same
general origin.
I also pointed out that it is among those hysterical or insane persons in
whom the sexual organization is disturbed, that the extreme forms of
religious rapture chiefly prevail; that the passion of love has many strange
metamorphoses, and that life and love in some form, and with its
customary illusions, can hardly be separated in a healthy and perfect
animal.
An instance of the purely physiological origin of ideas was seen in
those twins who are characterized by simultaneity of conceptions; the
same notion occurring at the same moment to both, and both responding
in nearly the same words and at the same moment to the person who
addresses them, so that the twins appear like a double individual.
I have further shown in many ways how little trust can be placed in
axiomatic belief. For example, certain natural oddities of mind, such as
the perception of number-forms and of colours associated with sounds,
always appear to be axiomatic necessities to those who perceive them, and
so do many of the sentiments that were instilled in early life. I have also
pointed out the necessary untrustworthiness of conscience in some
particulars.
