s to recognise that his
whole philosophy is built upon sand and that "Yes" was the answer from
the beginning. But as to the religious bodies, what words can express
their stupidity and want of all proportion in not running halfway and
more to meet the greatest ally who has ever intervened to change their
defeat into victory? What gifts this all-powerful ally brings with
him, and what are the terms of his alliance, will now be considered.

CHAPTER III

THE GREAT ARGUMENT

The physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is a complete
duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest particular,
although constructed in some far more tenuous material. In ordinary
conditions these two bodies are intermingled so that the identity of
the finer one is entirely obscured. At death, however, and under
certain conditions in the course of life, the two divide and can be
seen separately. Death differs from the conditions of separation
before death in that there is a complete break between the two bodies,
and life is carried on entirely by the lighter of the two, while the
heavier, like a cocoon from which the living occupant has escaped,
degenerates and disappears, the world burying the cocoon with much
solemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what has become of its
nobler contents. It is a vain thing to urge that science has not
admitted this contention, and that the statement is pure dogmatism.
The science which has not examined the facts has, it is true, not
admitted the contention, but its opinion is manifestly worthless, or at
the best of less weight than that of the humblest student of psychic
phenomena. The real science which has examined the facts is the only
valid authority, and it is practically unanimous. I have made personal
appeals to at least one great leader of science to examine the facts,
however superficially, without any success, while Sir William Crookes
appealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal Society, one
of the most bitter opponents of the movement, to come down to his
laboratory and see the psychic force at work, but he took no notice.
What weight has science of that sort? It can only be compared to that
theological prejudice which caused the Ecclesiastics in the days of
Galileo to refuse to look through the telescope which he held out to
them.

It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in great
seats of learning who have examined and en