CONAN DOYLE'S LECTURES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 71, 17 December 1920, Page 8

CONAN DOYLE'S LECTURES

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Tour correspondent. Mr. Douglas Feymour, truly appreciated: the risk he ran and-his unfitness to conduct a'con- ■ troversy upon this subject. I quite agree with him in his doubting as to his capacity to give an unbiased judgment on the_ subject. Fancy advising, the suspension of\judgment after the 'finding of the researches of men of tho cepacity «'f Sir W. Crookes, Sir W. 'P. Farrett. Kir Oliver lodge, and 43 other professor's of present-day university institutions; these investigations extending over the past fifty years. Sir Arthur Cohan Doyle, in giving a »hort two hours' talk to a mixed audience, a large percentage of which, quito naturally, were quite content to tako tho technical side of the matter as fully settled by those qualified to express an <H>inion. It is quite evident thnt the leaturer is a better judge of evidente than- your correspondent, who appears , to' approach the subject in the same attitude as a bull attacks a red ing; and. V'ith as little reason. Would your correspondent impute fraud to 'Wallace, l,ombroso, Zolner, FlamaTion. Mndnme Curie, or Lucien Lnrkin ? Those have n reputation for veracity beyond cavil. ? ' T hat the facts' are as well proved ns . ftny other fact of science" was declared ly Alfred Russell Wallace years ngo. Crooks gave_ fifty years of patient research to its study. and declared at the end he had nothing to Totract' but Jnnch to add weight to its validity. Would Mr, Seymour havo us shut our eyes and imagino that what was obvious did.not exist?

Hasty acceptance forsooth! Why not dispense with electricity because it cannot ha defined; with wireless becnuse we eantot see the etheiic waves that operate? Aviation is dangerous to human life, therefore suspend further practice. Does JiT- Seymour intend to enter into the investigation, or will he bo content to »est upon the Assertions of Moses?. Thero Is nothing we have or may yet receive that does not come out of the unsoen; psychic conditions reveal themselves in ell of life; they' do not need to be induced ns Mr. Seymour imagines. It is only his ignoranco ol the fnctp that is evident in his afsiimntions. Doth Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Conan Doyle had studied nnd tested the {acts for thirty years or moro bjforo tho emotional and personal application cf the facts in question. Tour .correspondent admits he is not acquainted with psychology; his effusion abundlantty proves an equal amount of knowledge of spiritual science. Mr. Seymour concludes by admitting his ignorance of tho force of pergonal magnetism; his temerity in rushing in "whero nngels fear to trend" is tho most flagrant example I have ever seen.

Science cannot find a better hypothesis land Mr. Seymour would do well to ioin in the study of the one in question: when he can give us n better, we shall Vie quite willing to accept it. 1 regret he is content to still revel in the conjitions of the dark ages which have been the fruitful source of spectres and superstitions, to tho boundless unhappite?s of the race;■

' When Mr. Seymour has devoted a tithe of the time thnt our most illustrious sons of science have given to this subject he mav become of the opinion cf Air. 4. J- Balfour, who, when at the'height of his political career-ar ' stated by the "Daily Chronicle —m ro- ' ply to a scoffer, said: "Your scepticism carries vou too far. There is nothing in political-life as: I know it com.pai'Pd;to the interest, tho profound mTores> <\nd significance of-psychical rei search."

Apoloirisins for .taking "P eo nmch of your vnlunljlß Giwce.—T am, etc., WALLACE STEWABT. • Chairman, WoUinßton Spiritual Scientist Church.