Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/569

568 N. PEAESON : therapeutic results produced solely by means of subjective expect- ancy ; when stigmatisation has taken place under a close medical supervision ; l when hypnotism has become a scientific study, and in skilful hands can be employed with extraordinary precision ; when even the exceptional facts of clairvoyance seem to admit of explanation as the " transference of special sense " : 2 with these and many similar discoveries to lighten our darkness, we now find little difficulty in bringing the mysteries of the past within the natural law of the present. But satisfactory though it be that our l-nmchdge of natural order should be enlarged by the recognition of these phenomena, as orderly, it is obvious that, quite independently of our know- ledge or ignorance of the fact, these same phenomena, though alternately blessed as miraculous or banned as superstitious, were never anything but orderly. These experiences of our errors in the past ought to be useful for our guidance in the future. A vicious extension of the prin- ciple of the ascertainment-clause has led scientific thought to reject as impossible facts which a further inquiry has established, and the same tendency still prevails widely. The phenomena to which I have alluded above are signal instances of what natural order may unexpectedly comprise ; and, with the sciences of psychology and physiology hardly half grown, there is every reason to believe that the list will be largely increased. With these considerations before us, it is surely unwise to pass sentence prematurely on phenomena which are strange to our experience, or to depreciate the re- search which strives to bring them to the light of day. Again, as I have already intimated, the current definition of Natural Law seems to bear too hardly upon theology. The rigorous claims of previous ascertainment brand all the miracles of theology with the stigma of falseness. It is clear, I think, that this is unjustifiable. It is often possible enough that the reputed miracle may have taken place in the sense that, as an event, the record of its occurrence may be true. All that science need dispute is its miraculous character, and this of course is quite incompatible with any sound conception of Natural Law. Theology, it is true, sometimes seeks to evade this conclusion by recourse to the notion of a "higher" law, which is intended 1 For these facts I refer generally to Dr. Carpenter's Alent/d 1'lnj.- chap. 19 ("The Influence of Mental States on Organic Functions "j. One striking instance which he mentions I briefly reproduce : A lady while watching a child playing by a window saw the sa.-h suddenly descend upon its hand. The violent emotion which this eight aroused in her produced a Corresponding injury in her own hand so severe as to necessitate an operation. I may add, perhaps, that I have known a similar though less pronounced ca-e happen to a friend of my own. A paper read before the Royal Society a few years back by Dr. Davey.