in its direct comiection with social progress, bringB with it ad urgent plea for recognition as conveying into the study of the past a good deal or that critical spirit and close obaerva- tion which have made the lalxtratory and the closet twiu arenas. In its I'eaction from the broad generalization, aud the rotuud expres- sion which was so easily generated out of the now antiquated method, there is some danger, it is trne. of the magntly'ing of minuteness he- yond its inherent deserts ; but it seems quite clear that the hither following upon the thitlior swing of the peudulum will bring a rest within a happy mean. The ex(>eriment is going on success fully, and every one interested in the orderly arranging of historical results will watch its further progress with interest.
��There are sceptics among scienliBc men as well as among other professional men ; and we have no desire to plead extenuating circnm- Btances in favor of those so-called seicntific men who claimed that steara- navigation would he a failure, or that ocean -telegraphy would be impossible. The believer in the truth of alleged psyeJilcal phenomena must encounter scepticism, and the newly formed psychical so- ciety must expect to receive many suggestions of donbtfid espertieucy from both the learned and the unlearned. What no man knows, c\-en the uneducated and untrained can prcten<l to know. The time may come when it will l>e not unusual to study ' veridical phantasms ' hy (wlarized light, and to observe their be- havior in a miignetic Geld. VVhat the result will be to physical science, it is diflicult at preaent to perceive. It is not difficult, how- ever, to conceive of a great influence upon imaginative literature. Why should not a dev- otee of psychical research add another scene to Hamlet, in which is displayed a psychical laboratory, with rows of bottles labelled ■ re- agents for ghostly odors,' ' testa for fragments of bogies,' and ' supersensual platform scales'!' In the midst is Hamlet testing the kinglyghost. A favorable analysis would go far to explain the strength of Hamlet's convictions, which
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��Considering the renewed iutcrest in arcUi logical investigation, is it not surprising tbftt there should not be an archeoli^ical psychi- cal society. — a society, which, in place of exhuming relics of other civihzations, should endeavor to get closer to the primitive state of man by trying psychological investigations upon Hskimo, natives of central Africa, or the denizens of King Prestcr John's domin- ions? The complicated civilization of to-day is fast destroj-iug these more or leas original lypea. If the physicians of the lime of Cho- dorlaomer had taken careflil measures of the phj"8ical dimensions of the giants of those days, and had made cxiieriments upon their appetites and their sense of color (which, of course, must have been enormous) , we should have had accnrate data in physiology and psy- chology, which could compare favorably with that wc have in archeology.
��\n accurate study of a pure Africtin's neiv vous organization, of his instincts, his sense of color, his hypnotic conditions, his reasoning powers in general, must be taken now, or the world will soon lose forever the oppor- tunity. The steam-engine and the l«Iephono will soon change the sable athletic rover of the underwoods to that higher state of civilizatiou which, it is true, obliterates all those fine in- stincts we also had once in common with our animal anceslors, yet gives us in return nervous prostration, and the ability, it may be, to smell ghosts. Here is a great field of investigation. for the neglect of which our descendants will bitterly reproach us. If we are in search of a name, wy might terra the subject to which we desire to call the attention of the Psychical society, ' Darwinian jisyehology. ' Is it not reasonable to suppose, that, by careful and systematic obaenations on young Eskimo and young Africans, we can gain a knowl- edge of still more primitive men. who, alas! arc now only * veritUcal [ihaittasras '
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