FUNGUS GROWTH OP SUPERSTITION

Evening Star, Issue 17850, 22 December 1921, Page 9

FUNGUS GROWTH OP SUPERSTITION

CULT OF FREAKS AND FAIRIES. [By Joseph M'Cabb in ‘ Sunday Chronicle.’] Sixteen and a-half centuries ago the great Roman Empire was in full decay, Tho ablest of tho Romans had not tho least idea that they were decaying, They were still busy chanting about “Immortal Romo” at tho very moment when tho shadow of a terrible” doom lay across their “Eternal City,” And some of oar historians, looking for signs that tho Romans ought to have seen, fasten upon the growth of superstition* Chaldean astrologers did a roaring trade in the Bond street of tho old city. Syrian fortune tellers in weird garments tilted tables in the dainty women’s quarters qf the marble mansions on the hills. Sliteyed Egyptians bade you—for a oonsidcra*turn —see the future in a crystal or a bowl of water. ... Two hundred years later’ the million citizens of Romo had shrunk to a miserable remnant of fewer than a hundred thousand. That is why many social observers look with grave concern on what they call the growth of superstition in modern England, It is, they cay, a sure sign of decay. Look at some old stump of an oak: that still stands by virriw of its deep dead roots amongst the fresh green of the forest. You find pale, flabby, fungus growths as the only sign of actual life in it. Has tha British oak got to that stage? , Learned people often talk nonsense. That is a comfortable and useful thing to hear in mind. Common sense would ask wliether wo really arc more, superstitious than our ancestors wore. Wo are, of course, not one-hundredth part as superstitious as tho “ strong men who fought under Nelson and Wellington, to say nothing of tho Middle Agofl. The crow and the black cat, the horseshoe and tho number 15, and tho Friday, and bo on, are just a few fragments of tho appalling mass of superstitions that then cramped! and threatened the life of a- man at every turn. The chief difference is that in those days they believed in witches and burned; them, wW’eas now we do not believe in them, and so we petition the King to spare them and let them decorate our main streets, THE VENTNOR BONES. But what about these cases which affront one’s common sense in tho Press every few days? Some bones are found in a garden, in the lelo of Might. Very natural, ’arcing that millions of people were buried iln odd corners of England before orthodox cemeteries wore invented. Moreover, the position of tho ekelotonSj with tho knees drawn up to the chin, indicates one of the commonest forma of prehistoric burial; and the bones were (according to recognised experts) very earthy and 1 aged. But the lady of the house seems to have had leisure and money to take an interest in psychic matters. She has a “friend” —they always have—who hna wonderful psychometric powers! tho power of seeing or feeling things which other people cannot see or feel, mainly because they don’t exist. Tiie psychometrist jails into tho usual condition —as if she had taken a sudden 'dose of absinthe —and excitedly declares that there is something more to be discovered.

It is a fairly safe guess; and- we should have heard nothing more about it. if it had not been verified. But it is verified:, and so the lady obviously has very remarkable powers. “ UNSEEN HANDS.” And this reminds somebody else of a case which occurred so recently as seventy years ago; and it further appears that “ unseen hands ” have caused three accidents (probably with the help of the legend) at that very spot this year. No one, of course/thinks of describing the spot to us, that we may see if there is any physical danger in it. I know a. spot in* Chicago, Dead Man’s Garner, where scores of people have met sudden death. It is near where tho gunmen live. On tho top of there partiallydeld stories and ancient reminiscences wc get the usual general and most emphatic assurances of “exports” on psychic matters. Those weird powers arc as certain, as widespread-, and as old as the earth, ae aro told; but there is a very curious conspiracy in science to deny them. It is certainly very curious if there 19 such a conspiracy. Huv is Sir Ernest Rutherford shorting electrons at a- speed of a hundred (bouea-nd miles a second into little tiny targets, each of which is loss than the threc-hillionth of an inch in diameter. It has taken a century ami a-half of brilliant work to get to that pitch, yet we aro still far from the goal; and it 'is a goal on which the fortunes of the whole race largely dep nd. What would wo not g'vc for* a single of “ superncomd ” power to' help vis? ]Te-e arc astronomers fighting about life on Filers and the rm on. Hen’ are r.rchmolog'cts wringing tho'.r ban-la over two craad languages v.'liudi (hey have known tor twenty years and cannot dce-iplm-i. Die, Isle of Wghl psychomct id. even leave;* it to a dozen mere medical men to call each other scientific names ovir tho mystery of the buried bones ! rsmncAL research. Seriously, what ha* become of the haunted houses of out youth? 'they were once as common as pubhc-houfce, yet it is twenty years since the last- pathetic advertisement appeared in the Press imploring somebody to tell of a real Imintcd iiouso.” The Society for Psychical Research made an end of them. The rppmenfc a body with more or less scientific methods took up the matter th. c was an end cf all the old stories. We do well to remember that they ware just, as solid and “certain” as these modern stories. Another thing Ghat the Society for Psychical Research established is that hardly any person ever gives a correct version of bis own experiences. This was shown Bticnt-Ticolly. Even a scientific man, in fact, must not. trust his memory. If ho is on the rack of supernormal things he must distrust his. own judgment. Crawford, of Belfast, gave in one of his books a dcsciipt'bn of a marvellous sign ho had got from the spirit world. I. pointed out that it wo* unquestionably the imprint in putty ef the girl medium's big tee; and wo know what happened to poor Crawford. Sir Oliver Lodge scouts all stories of ghosts ami laities, and photographs of such things; but he wrote 1 Raymond'.’ Sir A. 0. Doyle is the most niomimaltal ptorjp of credulity and inaccuracy in Modern literature. AN AGE OF DISCOVERY. After all, these are exceptions amongst •us. England is far saner inlellectuady than it ever wac before. The higher intelligence—its conscience—has reached -a height that towers above all previous civilsations as the peak of Tencriffc towers above tire- ocean. But it is an age of discovery of new things, ami there will be ninny a “ shout,” as the. Diggers used to say, with nc.thiug behind it. As to tho little world of idle rich ladies, with their psyohornotrr ts and other char-: lafcans, it is no worse than buying diamond collars for Fido. The human mind is tire thing wc know least about. Let idle folk make discoveries about it if they can. Most of us have something more solid to do.