t may be studied objectively, even if not
experienced subjectively; and ought to be so studied by a pure agnostic
desirous of light from any quarter. Even if he does not know it as a
noumenon he can investigate it as a phenomenon. And, supposing it to be
of divine origin, as its subjects believe and he has no reason to doubt,
he may gain much evidence against its being a mere psychological
illusion from identical reports of it in all ages. Thus, if any large
section of the race were to see flames issuing from magnets, there would
be no doubt as to their objective reality.

The testimony given by Socrates to the occurrence in himself of an
internal Voice, having all the definiteness of an auditory
hallucination, has given rise to much speculation by subsequent
philosophers.

Many explanations are suggested, but if we remember the critical nature
of Socrates' own mind, the literal nature of his mode of teaching, and
the high authority which attaches to Plato's opinion on the subject, the
probability seems to incline towards the 'Demon' having been, in
Socrates' own consciousness, an actual auditory sensation. Be this
however as it may, I suppose there is no question that we may adopt this
view of the matter at least to the extent of classifying Socrates with
Luther, Pascal, &c., not to mention all the line of Hebrew and other
prophets, who agree in speaking of a Divine Voice.

If so, the further question arises whether we are to classify all these
with lunatics in whom the phenomena of auditory hallucination are
habitual.

Without doubt this hypothesis is most in accordance with the temper of
our age, partly because it obeys the law of parsimony, and partly
because it [negatives] _a priori_ the possibility of revelation.

But if we look at the matter from the point of view of pure agnosticism,
we are not entitled to adopt so rough and ready an interpretation.

Suppose then that not only Socrates and all great religious reformers
and founders of religious systems both before and after him were
similarly stricken with mental disease, but that similar phenomena had
occurred in the case of all scientific discoverers such as Galileo,
Newton, Darwin, &c.--supposing all these men to have declared that their
main ideas had been communicated by subjective sensations as of spoken
language, so that all the progress of the world's scientific thought had
resembled that of the world's religious thought, and had been attributed