THE SOOTHSAYERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SOOTHSAYERS.

BY FHAXK MORTOX. Jest now, as at all times of great national crisis, the world is full of prophets, seers, and all sorts of queer folks of that class and tendency. 1 am not now referring to ordinary gossips, the infallible company of the know-alls. I am thinking, rather, of people who base, their assertions and opinions regarding current events on their interpretations of ancient scriptures and I so forth, on the motions {eternally predesj tined) of planets and the great suns, of j the order of cards in a pack-all that ! sort of thing. That foolishness seeing to |be an increasing epidemic. Every day I j am ousting eager and voluble folks who I tell mo that this— slaughter, this cruelty, this outrage, this desecration of ! sacred places—is plain fulfilment of proj phecy—so much added proof that in by- ! gone times Uod inspired certain men hero I and thero to an assured fore-knowledge. jof what Lie meant to do. One man told I me. not, more than ten minutes since, . that tins is .Armageddon, and that toe J Millennium wilt follow. The Millennium | would doubtless bo very nice; but I don't j Hunk it will be allowed just yetimagine I the millions of politicians and solicitors i and advertising philanthropists who would Ibe put out of work! Conjure up for your- ! sell ,i shining vision of the shrewd pawnj brokers too suddenly made saints! | Leaving the foolish still to prattle or j pray, each according to his manner, I have i to admit, that there, arc soothsayers (since ! ono name, will serve as well as another) ] quite worthy of attentionmen who, with j earnest scientific honesty of purpose, seek I to pierce the dark places, to make plain ! the apparent labyrinths of the super- ■ norma:, to explore the great universe of ! Mind and approach that tremendous thres- ! hold beyond which the last possibilities |of human knowledge lie. It. is a fascinI ating study, this ot the hiddenselfs that make such embarrassing and erratic appearances, tho subliminal and supralim- , lnal, Tim; man who attempts it without. I hist divesting himself of prejudice bei tomes a raving fanatic; tho man who atj tempts it arrogantly and without discrej tion is likely enough to go mad; 1 have j known both sorts. Investigation along J these tracts must be cool and very honest, [ As to gliosis, no ghost can hurt you unless ! you aro ready to be hurt; but nothing I must, bo accepted on insufficient evidence, I and nothing must be rejected because of I the strangeness of its appearance. What j biack cud devilish wizard y wireless would j havo seemed to Cromwell's Puritans! ; Who would have thought, thirty years ; ago, that in thirty years tho great truth ] of Evolution would bo a commonplace in | the mouths of children? Telegraphy of I that sort conceded, telepathy becomes at | least possible to the average comprehen- | sion. Precognition thing altogether | different from deliberate 60-called proI phecy—seems to be attested by a reason- ; able weight of very respectable evidence. There is even a certain case for automatic writing; and in these days it is only a fool, and to that extent a sadly prejudiced fool, who will insist that there is nothing in" water-divining, dowsing, or whatever you choose to ' call it. Even hauntings and the pranks of poltergeists have been proved fin certain cases) by an overwhelming weight of testimony. The fact of clairvoyance in rare cases is not longer a mere possibility. There are things we can no longer refuse to recognise, even though we cannot as yet explain them. I Of problems of the threshold the ordin- ! ary man does not care pick and choose ; he either ignores and neglects them altogether, or he decides that it is " wrong " lor any fellow to trouble himself about them. But there is one thing, curiously enough, as to which discussion and experiment can proceed without loss of virtue. Any man can talk about his dreams, and express faith in them, and there's not a bishop in the country would threaten hell for that. 1 have known people who have been lifted to radiant pinnacles of joy or sunk to unutterable abysses of gloom, just according to how their dreams went, In my case, I find that dreams are too inconsistent to lead me anywhere. If, for instance. I dream that my vilest enemy has been smothered in the slimo of his own exudations, 1 am sure to hear in a day or two that some special bit of plunder or approved offal has somehow come his way. If I dream that I fall down precipices, I wake up feeling fine; but if I dream of suppers with radiant sylphs, of feasts most exquisite beside glad waters, I am sure to rise with a queasy stomach for my daily battle with the world. The only ghost I ever knew came to me first in sickness. It was a comfort amorphous and elusive at first, a glamour sensed as luminous but still invisible. I had no trace of fever at the lime. I wae arriving at strength through the last luxurious reach of convalescence. j At first, as 1 say, there was nothing very | definite; I was merely conscious of something, person or mere presence, that drew near and somehow lapped me in serenity, i This sense came to me at various times of ' the day and night, and sometimes lingered for an hour or more. And gradually it took shape. The second day it stole upon me "with the morning twilight and was more perceptibly defined. No visible form or outline yet, but a feeling of completer nearness, a, hint as of a filmy ; golden shadow against the greyer light | outside, a curious alluring fragrance that was warm—much as if some blessed thing I sighed and stooped over me. And then, , taithin another day or so a certainty es- I tablished by the sense of touch. I was j at this time quite well again, though ,-t, j scrupulous surgeon insisted that I should I keep entirely recumbent for yet another I day or two. The room was unshadowed ; and alive with sunlight. Trams were rat- , timg by the door along a street entirely I commonplace. And there 1 lav, in a ail- i ence made somehow impregnable and in- I viol.'ible against these harsh impingements [ —all one long forenoon J. lay, motionless, ! intensely interested, waiting very eagerly j for 1 knew not what, adorably com- I panioned. Hours I lay thus before a shade ; fell across my eyes, and it'was as though ! a veil unimaginably delicate and transiu- j cent lay between them and the light, j Something light as thistledown Jay on my , eyes, and slowly grew to substance. I j scarcely dared breathe, lest I should dis i ttirb it. so timid and so sweet it was. It i grew to a definite shadow, and tho shadow j became flesh. I could feel long soft cares- I sing lingers, and I could see tho pinkish glow as the sun stole in between them. I 1 was permitted to clasp that hand in i none, in both of mine, to familiarise my- j self with the giacile strength and beauty I of it. And in the night. Inter, when the j hand was very tender, f knew that the : whole form was there, lying outside the < clothes almost touching me. while 1 clung i to the hand. The hand has haunted me '< ever since, if you like to put it that way. ! It is long and beautiful and firm, utterly '< opposed to your conception of all things i plump and pretty. Once it led me quietlv through pitch darkness in a very perilous place. Subjective hallucination, you will say. Hut wlieic dies the subjective end, ' and what is hallucination? ike chair i ! sit on is ho more real to me than that i guiding hand. When that hand touches j me I am as certain that I am not alone : as I should be if 1 stood embarrassed and perturbed in a crowd of stockbrokers. I Why worry for the. lest? You, per- : haps, believe in nothing less material than i steamships and cabbages. 1. on the other hand, am convinced that wo move among multitudinous unseen tilings. ( don't know what the unseen things may !>•'. '' Busy thoughts lot loose perhaps, wraith-, ' of tli<' living, imperishables personalities that have cast aside their burden of j flesh, immortal entities with some, earthly j mission—how should I know. 1 believe that in certain circumstances these things may become visible to certain people, as I the" hand on more than one occasion has ' been visible to me. I know that, some of these things are roguish and frolicsome, and some may be malign. I know that some are ready to manifest their wills j through human agencies, though human media are not yet delicate enough to make their desires coherent. Supernatural? Not necessarily. It may lie all as natural as is the inscrutable vague intelligence you may sometimes sco beaming from a baby's eyes.