A.M. the Austro-Hungarian X. Corps had also come in. But the attacking forces did not remain long in the evacuated town. In a hurried pursuit they overran the Siedliska position and pushed forward to the E. of the town.
The fall of Przemysl fortress, which had been subdued in barely four days, meant for the Russians the loss of the most powerful pivot of their San front. Not without reason had the Grand Duke who had tried to gain a success over the IV. Army by a violent assault at Rudnik during the hard struggle for Przemysl ordered the fortress to be held " to the last extremity." By its fall the forces of the Austro-Hungarian III. Army and the German XI. Army were set free, and could go to the aid of the dangerously situated IV. Army. On the 4th the Russians abandoned the San front. Thus the recapture of Przemysl, apart from the great moral impression it made, was decisive also in a strategical sense. (E. J.)
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH (or SPIRITUALISM) (see 22.544).
The matters referred to under the general name " Psychical Research " are distinguished from ordinary subjects of scientific
interest by two characteristics. They appeal to the sense of
wonder and the love of the marvellous and are concerned with
" superstitions," that is, with beliefs which, after being ingrained
in the human soul by an immemorial past, are now disavowed by
science, but still affect human action. Secondly, they seem to
involve abnormal extensions of human faculty, and are readily
taken to indicate a survival of human personality after death,
and a possibility of obtaining authentic communications from
the departed. They consequently arouse strong emotional
reactions, provoke strong dislikes and are peculiarly susceptible
of vitiation by self-deception, bias and fraud. Hence they are
usually treated in a partisan spirit on both sides, like matters of
politics, and not with scientific impartiality, and the good faith
as well as the competence of the witnesses have always to be tested
and every allegation has to be verified. In all these respects the
subjects of psychical research are intimately bound up with the
religions; but it would be a mistake, nevertheless, to relegate
them to the " supernatural," and hastily to declare them un-
fit for scientific investigation. Their investigation is difficult,
but not impossible, provided that in a given society it is favoured
or permitted. Of course, if it is proscribed as " sorcery " and
made a capital offence, as was the case all the world over until re-
cently, investigation will languish, and.it may well be that the
practice of burning psychics as " witches," persisted in for many
centuries, has effectively eliminated most of the possessors of un-
usual faculties. However, to begin with, the term " supernat-
ural " should be discarded. It merely assumes what is the car-
dinal point at issue, viz. that the realm of nature has been com-
pletely explored; and only omniscience could assert this. The
allegations to be inquired into by psychical research, therefore,
should be described, neutrally, as " supernormal."
Nevertheless, the peculiarities of the subjects of psychical research condition further differences which should be noted in any account of their history. They render the influence of public opinion far more important than it is in the ordinary subjects of scientific inquiry. It is true, doubtless, that every- where the progress of any subject of human interest depends on two factors, on the quantity and quality of human intelligence devoted to its elucidation, and on the social atmosphere, i.e. the attitude towards it taken up by public opinion. Of these the former is ordinarily more conspicuous and important, for it directly affects the progress made. The latter acts indirectly, by affecting the amount and sort of the attention paid to a subject, and its effects do not all lie on the surface. But if there is in a society a real desire for more knowledge on a subject, research into it will be organized ; inquiries will be set in motion, adequate- ly equipped and endowed, and the conduct of such inquiries will become a career. If, on the other hand, there is little interest, nothing will be done; as also if knowledge is supposed to be absolute or adequate, or if its absence is held to be inevitable and is acquiesced in. If, lastly, the knowledge sought is feared or disapproved of for any reason, various measures will be taken for effectively repressing interest in it ; nor must it be supposed that
such social taboos cease to operate merely because witch-burning has ceased to be a popular entertainment. In general, moreover, subjects which are inchoate and contentious are far more sensitive to changes in the social atmosphere than those which are recog- nized, established and endowed. For toward the latter the social attitude is fairly stable and changes only slowly, and they possess, moreover, a permanent organization, which provides for their cultivation (or is supposed to do so), and on which their progress mainly depends. In the case of the former, progress may depend chiefly on the social attitude, and indeed may even consist chiefly in a change of social attitude. It is unreasonable, for example, to expect progress in psychical research so long as the energies of researchers have to be devoted primarily to eluding the police or the officers of the Holy Inquisition.
The history of psychical research during the decade 1910-20 provides excellent illustrations of all these reflections. It is composed of a short pre-war period of obscure labour in the cold shade of social neglect, a short eclipse due to the complete immersion of all scientific workers in the pursuits and passions of the World War, accompanied by a grotesque ebullition of superstitions long supposed to have become extinct, and followed shortly afterwards by an astonishing revolution in social senti- ment, which rendered psychical research popular and reputable as it had never been before, but is now slowly yielding and re- lapsing into the pre-war tone of feeling. Before the World War the great bulk of public opinion was either hostile to the sub- jects of psychical research, or at any rate indifferent to their scientific investigation. That, at least, seemed to be the obvious construction to be put upon the general indifference towards scientific psychical research, and was borne out by the results of a questionnaire intended to test the extent and depth of the desire to have knowledge of the most exciting of these subjects, viz. the individual's survival after death. The answers, as analyzed by the writer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re- search (pt. 4q, 1904), seemed to indicate that such a desire was actively functional only in comparatively few minds at any one time, and that these were nearly always excited by the stimulus of a recent bereavement. This explanation seemed, moreover, to account sufficiently for the ordinary social attitude towards the subject. For it would follow that under normal circumstances the great majority, who were not animated by the bereavement- sentiment, would effectively repress the few who were, and would mould public opinion and social institutions accordingly as had manifestly happened both to scientific and to religious " ortho- doxy." But it would also follow that if for any reason the bereavement-sentiment should become widespread, powerful and dominant, it might be predicted that there would ensue a great outburst of interest in psychical research, and a passionate demand for any method that held out to the bereaved human heart the immediate consolation of a direct communication with the departed.
Accordingly this is what happened in consequence of the World War. If we put aside, as mere " propaganda " for the benefit of the superstitious, the crop of bogus prophecies that accompanied the outbreak of war, and such successful appeals to primitive credulity as the legends of the " Russians from Archangel," and of the " Angels of Mons " (the latter, though published as fiction, was actually taken as fact) , we find that at first the normal peace-sentiment persisted. It remained en- grossed in mundane affairs and showed itself by a complete and exclusive absorption in the war. Nothing else seemed to matter, and scientific inquiries that did not minister to the war were simply dropped in an ecstasy of patriotic fervour. It seemed, therefore, the sheer waste of a guinea to continue to subscribe to an inquiry whether the human lives that were sacrificed so prodigally on the battle-fields were really dead and done with. No wonder the membership of the Society for Psychical Research in England went down from 1,205 i n i<) l 3 to I >SS in 1916.
Meantime, beneath the surface of social convention, the bereavement-sentiment was growing to proportions unparal- leled in civilized history. It was merely awaiting a signal to re- veal itself. The signal was presently given, in a high academic
