FORETELLING THE FUTURE.

Shannon News, 31 December 1925, Page 3

FORETELLING THE FUTURE.

"The extent and power of inference cannot consider fully known as yet, and it is unwise for the law to condemn people for attempting to forecast the future as if that were so' manifestly impossible as 1 1,0 be ipso facto fraudulent," Sir Oliver Lodge wrote recently in a letter to The Timps." "Admittedly there are certain ridiculous superstitions—as ij human destiny could be determined by the fall of playing cards or by th* position of .planets—but the extent to which forcasting of the future can be achieved is a matter for scientific inquiry. A railway time-table predicts the trains at least a month ahead An astronomer can predict eclipsei several centuries in advance. Soma experts succeed in foretelling the weather for, say twenty-four hours. Anfl statesmen attempt to foresee the re suit of an election or the probable attitude of p. self-governing State. So some power of prediction is known to exist though manifestly subject to uncertaintv. The law against foretelling was passed in times of ignorance and unscientific stupidity. Lesislation should not be used for stopping material for investigation, even if intended only as a wholesome check on fraud. I would not deny that foolish people may be mulcted of shillings or half-crowns by pretended seers—who are an admitted nuisance—but il seems a trivial evil about which to set the law in action. It is proverbially easier to prosecute the rogue who steals the goos e from off the common than the practitioner on a large scale who Steals the- common from the goose. The serious aspect of the present position is that the law makes no discrimination between honesty and dishonesty. How far foretelling of the future is popssible is not a legal but a scientific question."