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SIR WILLIAM CROOKES ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.
Page 6
It is this same accessible temper of mind which leads me to
follow the problems of the Society for Psychical Research
with an interest which, if somewhat calmed by advancing
years, and by a perception of the inevitable slowness of
discovery, is still as deep a feeling as any which life has
left me. And I shall try to utilize this temper of mind
today by clearing away, so far as I can, certain
presuppositions, on one side or on the other, which seem to
me to depend upon a too hasty assumption that we know more
about the universe than as yet we really can know.
I will take the most essential part first, and address
myself to those who believe with me in the survival of man's
individuality after death. I will point out a curious,
inveterate, and widespread illusion-the illusion that our
earthly bodies are a kind of norm of humanity, so that
ethereal bodies, if such there be, must correspond to them
in shape and size.
When we take a physical view of a human being in his highest
form of development, he is seen to consist essentially of a
thinking brain, the brain itself, among its manifold
functions, being a transformer whereby intelligent will
power is enabled to react on matter. To communicate with the
external world, the brain requires organs by which it can be
transported from place to place, and other organs by means
of which energy is supplied to replace that expended in the
exercise of its own special functions. Again, waste of
tissue and reparation have to be provided for; hence the
necessity for organs of digestion, assimilation,
circulation, respiration, etc., to carry on these processes
effectually; and when we consider that this highly complex
organ is fitted to undergo active work for the best part of
a century, we can not but marvel that it can keep in tune so
long. The human creature represents the most perfect
thinking and acting machine yet evolved on this earth,
developing through countless ages in strict harmony with the
surrounding conditions of temperature, atmosphere, light,
and gravitation. The profound modifications in the human
frame, which any important alteration in either of these
factors would occasion, are strangely unconsidered. It is
true there have been questionings as to the effects that
might be occasioned by changes in temperature and
atmospheric composition, but possible variations in
gravitation seem almost to have escaped notice. The human
body, which long experience and habit have taught us to
consider in its highest development as the perfection of
beauty and grace-" formed in the image of God "-is entirely
conditioned by the strength of gravitation on this globe. So
far as has been possible to ascertain, the intensity of
gravity has not varied appreciably within those geologic
ages covering the existence of animated thinking beings.
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