The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 8. SCEPTICISM AND MYSTICISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 309, 6 January 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 8. SCEPTICISM AND MYSTICISM.

In the Legislative Council lust session, when moving the second reading of the Tnlmngus Suppression Bill, the Hon. Dr. Kindlay delivered a speech which will will repay perusal at any time. At the

very inception of a number of observations which give rise to thought, the iion. gentleman said: "The Maori mind corresponds in a large measure with the mind of our own race not very many I centuries ago, and when we are disposed, Bomewhat su|ierciliounly, to criticize the credulity of the Maori we forget that it in not a great many years since we were just as credulous, and when men and women were put to death by us for offences of mysticism, witchcraft, and the like. These words are true. When

we begin to swell with pride at the ad- 11 vantages we enjoy to-day, at the astounding progrcea the civilised world has made during the comparatively few yenrs that have elapsed since her late Majesty came to her throne, it may be well for us to remember that but a few years before that auspicious event the judges of England sat solemnly trying and coni demning numliers of poor wretches for witchcraft, and many thousands of people firmly believed in old women Hying through the air astride of broomsticks. In relation to mysticism, a couple of hundred years ago the people oi the llritish Isles were very little, if any. further advanced than are the Maoris of to-day- Indeed, in some portions of the West of Ireland, and in parts of the Highlands of Scotland, gross and ridiculous superstitions still prevail." A belief in mysticism attached itself to man in the very earliest days of the human race, when the primeval savage made gods of the elements and later carried his fantasy to the sun, the moon, and the stars. Thus associated through uncountable centuries mysticism dies hard. The unrelenting savage power excreted by -the mystic—ln all ages, in all lands—has clogged the wheels of human progress to an extent that it :s Impossible to conceive. The patriot, the friend of liberty, the (scientist, the adventurer into new domains of thought,

the men of broadest minds ami largest sympathies, have perished before it in flames and fiendish tortures. That is the kind of tiling the world owes the mystic. But still it is a very long way from being a complete account. The Hon. Dr. Findlay refers to the fact that, nihen a student, he read some of the most ghastly pages of the Theodosian code of Roman law, which referred to the penalties devisea by Constautine, and by his successor Constantius, to exterminate the mystics of that day. They were said to be injuring and keeping the people from their industry. They were doing much the same kind of thing as the tohungas of to day are doing; and theie two emperors set themselves, with the savagery charasteristic of the pagan times, and,"later too, of Christian times, to exterminate mystics of every class. When he referred to " mystic* of every class," it is extremely doubtful whether the lion, gentleman fully realised the length to which some of his observations legitimately carried. The charlatan uuack doctor, Indian, African, Maori, or European, who, to aid the sale of sonic filthy useless drug as a remedy for disease', turns to profit the belief in gods, in spirits, charms, trilling with the ignorance and in the superstition ever latent in the people, is perhaps to be counted lass of a mystic than he who deals in spiritual things alone.

Whilst we arc making an audit of the mystic affairs of the Maori would it not he well to pay sonic little attention to what is disclosed in our own hooks? How many people are there in New Zealand today who Mieve in ghost* and spirits and the power, latent in a nut; lets and charms ? How many fortune-tell-ers, palmists, and other humbugs are there who thrive on the absolutely painful errdulity of the European colonist? Then there arc the tahle-rappers and turners, the openly avowed spiritualists, the clairvoyants, the seancers—all myst'ni every one! Are we to busy ourselves in chucking stones at tlm tohunga mystic whilst we allow these, well, mystits to pass? Wry judiciously for his position the Hon. Dr Findlay confined himself to a definition—the definition contained in the Bill—of a Maori mystic; lint here the question may he boldly asked. "Are not all spiritualists and those who lielievc in the superhuman "tititleil to Iw comprehended in the word 'mystic'?" The Hon. gentleman asserted: "The true remedy "for the removal ot superstition, for the removal of idolatory, is not terrorism, but scepticism,'' upon which the Hon. T. Kelly interjected, "lalueation," and as an addition education was accepted. Now, the sceptic docs not pretend to know anything of the spiritualist or the superhuman. He represent.* the opposite extreme. In this Dominion there is no degraded, ignorant poor. It is really lamentable to rellect that a great many of the supporters of the elairvoyantism, seances, •'mystics of every class," are educated, well-informed, well-to-do people. Doubtless, it was a knowledge of this fact that led the lion, gentleman to leave edueai tion out of his suggested remedies in the first instance. With all our liberal educational system, with all the boasted progress the world has allegedly made, the Kurojiean myotic is not so very different from the Maori that our chests need swell. Scepticism as a remedy, well, then, the question arises, How far is scepticism to go in the deslruction of the mystic—that is, if it is possible for scepticism to destroy anything that ministers to the vanity or the covetness of man?