SIR CONAN DOYLE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1920, Page 3

SIR CONAN DOYLE

SPEAKS OF HIS LIFE’S WORK

WELLINGON, December 13

“1 have been lecturing for about two months in Australia,” stated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, when interviewed “and wherever I went I found a very serious interest in this subject. But the clergy out here, -I find, are rather backward with regard to spiritualism. They are alx.ut where the English clergy were found years ago. But the English clergy, in the meantime, have come on greatly, and in lecturing in England, in every large town on.' this subject, it was quite as common as not that I lmd the vicar in the chair. On one occasion a c-tnon of the Church of England presided, and on another the Dean of Durham invited me to lecture to the clergy of that diocese. On yet another occasion, at the City Temple, which used to be Spurgeon’s Tabernacle and is the great centre of British non-conformity, I addressed over 300 people, who listened with very great sympathy. LIFE AFTER DEATH.

“I mention these facts to show how mistaken the clergy here are in thinking that there is anything irreligious in our views. We, on the contrary, hold that they are a great reinforcement to religion in the .broad sense. Tlie materialist, I would point out, is inaccessible to Biblical quotations, since he denies the authority of the Bible. Further, he will not admit instincts .or 'intuitions. The tonljy argument that will appeal to him is that of objective facts. We are in a position to give him these facts. If lie will either accept our testimony or tome among us and so get first-hand! testimony for himself, he can satisfy himself that personality carries on after death, and that the change is really not a great one ; that the gulf can be bridged and that, we can learn both where they are and what fate has befallen them. END OF VICTORIOUS MATERIALISM. “I think,” he continued, “that the rise of this movement marks the end of the victorious advance of materialism which began in the early part of the eighteenth century, and progressed without a - check to its climax in the Huxleys, the Stuart Mills, the Herbert Spencers, and the Darwins of the last generation. Unfortunately, in

dealing with this question, which, admittedly, opens a door hi charlatans, our critics have been so preoccupied by the occasional charlatan that they have dost sight entirely of the positive result which we have obtained. Wo have not, with a few exceptions had a fair show in the Press throughout the world ; nor do our books reach the general public. Therefore, being deeply impressed with the belief that this is far the most important question in the world, and having thirtyfour years of personal experience in psychic matters, culminating in a remarkable succession of phenomena per-s'-nnlly observed, I felt it my duty to get behind the Press, and, by means of the fllatform, go straight to the public with the facts.and the evidence, so that the people may judge for themselves. My wife concurred in this view, since she also had seen the facts, and we therefore determined to devote the remainder of our lives to this mission. . “ENORMOUS CONSOLATION.” ‘“I have found that our message givjes enormous consolation to those who have lost their loved ones. So when I had completed my task in England, to the extent of -speaking in every large town in the country, I thought it better to c onie with such consolation ns I bring to Australasia where our own folk had made such sacrifices in the war, rather than accept the invitation to go to America, where Sir Oliver Lodge, our. great leader, had already been. NOT A' PROFITEER,

“J need, not say that I take no money out of this work. I have had to bring my family ffith me, beeauso my children were not of an age when they could be left, and that has entailed heavy expenses upon me; hut any surplus which my lectures may show is devoted straight to the spiritual causes in Australasia. I will not take one penny of profit out of tli« country. *