; it set up a laboratory; and printed grave reports。 Day by day its sphere widened。 Hypnotism brought matter for the marvel… mongers; and there followed a long procession of words in limping Greek……a little difficult till practice had made perfect。 Another fortunate terminologist hit upon the word 〃psychical〃……the P might be sounded or not; according to the taste and fancy of the pronouncer……and the fashionable children of a scientific age were thoroughly at ease。 〃There MUST be something; you know; one always felt that there MUST be something。〃 And now; if one may judge from what one reads; psychical 〃science〃 is fortably joining hands with the sorcery of the Middle Ages。 It is said to be a lucrative moment for wizards that peep and that mutter。 If the law against fortune…telling were as strictly enforced in the polite world as it occasionally is in slums and hamlets; we should have a merry time。 But it is difficult to prosecute a Professor of Telepathy……and how he would wele the advertisement!
Of course I know very well that all that make use of these words are not in one and the same category。 There is a study of the human mind; in health and in disease; which calls for as much respect as any other study conscientiously and capably pursued; that it lends occasion to fribbles and knaves is no argument against any honest tendency of thought。 Men whom one cannot but esteem are deeply engaged in psychical investigations; and have convinced themselves that they are b