"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 67

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for tbt Witnen Ladies' Page.)

WITCHES— NO.T OF END OR.

Since the days of Saul, when the Witch , >f Endor conjured visions concerning the i Sang, ' witchcraft has been held in more >r less disrepute by the uninitiated. Among I nany other sorts of martyrs, the witch lias long since Bible history dignified her is seer to the King, at different stages of STolution paid the penalty of those who are supposed to^ have contact with evil spirits. Ducked in ponds, burned alive, hunted and haunted by the ghosts of their own raising, these xra wise "wise" women have lived their wretched lives and) died their stretched deaths^for the faith that was in them — or the spell that was on them. Anyhow, with reason or without reason, against persecution, -spite of disfavour, the j wizard ,and the witch, like the poor, we'; have always had with us. But London has ,'decreed that it will have no more witchcraft— r-at «nyrate, witchcraft. After along and -interesting hearting of the matter, the court decided'! against the fortune-tellers, and/ henceforth j the. Bond street ' palmists, crystal gazers,; clairvoyants, '.etc., . among "others, have j been forbidden to carry on their profession-, except at the risk of prosecution and) imprisonment. The case arose from the action of ■ Earmsworth, proprietor, among many other journals, "of the TMly, Mail. A reporter ! was commissioned to go the round of tbe West End fortune-tellers and "produce, "copy." The reporter, of course, kept ' bis commission .dark, till one morning the ! first of- Iris series of experiences appeared, md attached to the interview, the name and j address, Tvith graphic descriptions of the ' prophets themselves — their ■ dress, appearuice7 their rooms, and methods, either of crystal-gazing, reading of the lines of the j band, or other methods of unveiling- .the j future. " ' ] The facts revealed 1 that a number of v men and women who advertised .them- j relVes openly as fortune-tellers under the ' itles of professors of palmistry, etc., have l>ean making fortunes out of the credulity ; »f .that section ~oi the public who have ' guineas to spare. The reporter in qque- t ion- took voluminous notes, and reproduced . the- 1 interviews, with the. result- that one • seef -contradicted -the other on almost syery joint (though there were .some iew^ points of resemblance in the- readings}.^, Whea. these interviews attached j bo . Ilhe - professional - 'names, the - great ' S'Cheiro" among them, there -was a sen- ' jation among -the public of one sort, and 3, sensation .among the" """professors" of ! mother, resulting in an indignation-meet- ' ng of the seers, at which it was declared s ?iat a_ prejudiced and unjust ' persecution > tad l>een set on jfoot Isy *a millionaire newspaper proprietor, against whom it T^ould« >c impossible to JBght. - But Mr Alfred ETarsworth has defended .himself from this sharge by the statement that the investi- ' gatioiuwas ;begun in a spirit of fairness, '• for vras it just that Hie gipsy fortune-teller ■ trio toLd -the fortune. .of a servant for a } shilling should be sent to prison, while j the -Bond street / clairvoyant -might rake in' guineas ,with impunity- — a line of car- \ riages waiting outside his door in open day 5 . far -his wealthy clients? If it were an i illegal practice -for the gipsy, it was siirely j p illegal for the "professor." "Cheiro," j Huong others, was. summoned to appear, at j Court, -and the test .case was, after' some \ clays -of •hearing, decided! against the de- \ fendants. with the result that the pro- j Eessois of fortunes .and magic may no longer : advertise themselves, and are liable to im- j prisonment if discovered surreptitiously I carrying on Iheirv trade. * The decision -of the court has been a ! rentable bombshell- in Bond street, scatter- j ing not only illusion, but the "careers" of men -and. women -who 'have -no other pro-; Eessien now that their- prophesying" is prohibited, and -among; the^practical qf,-the community, there^is S-ejoicing, tSudrthe practice' is'made .illegal, many cases' being-- citedwhere< the fortune-teller- has*Jsowa discord andi uhhapjpiness in the home jjy supposed ; "revelations" ; v wher€' unbalanced i mindshave been '■wrecked^:by the- -suggestions' believed to have emanated from supernatural sources, tragedy culminating from^ a visit to the palmist. But these are extreme cases, . and the question arises whether a hysterical woman who would allow the so-called "prophecy" of another human being to so warp her 'judgment (and paralyse her will would not have proved equally weak in the matter of mastery of fate if no prophecy of evil had been made. Since the days of the Witch of Endor it- has been the business of witches to startle, to charm, /to cajole, or to -warn, and it has not fundamentally interfered) with^the law of life, with the science of living and dying, which in itself is -a mystery. We are steeped in mystery. Dur birth, our life, our -death, our 'life ifter death. — all is wrapped in mystery. Ilie unknown is greater than the known, and thei occult, .the withheld, has ever bad a powerful /fascination, and always srill have, should every prophet be ester- i minated. Humanity wants revelation of the mysteries from, the cradle to the ! Trave. /■ Twinkle, twinkle., little star, Oh I wonder what you are ? is tlie first expression of a hunger for knowledge of the unknown which, although it- -takes many forms, never dies in the human consciousness while reason lasts, rhe mind peers through the mist that jns.hrouds humanity, anxious for sight of j, vista ahead, curious and wistful .to jateh a gleam of Jight. The very facts -that science has revealed to-day are but another :esult of peering into matter — this -.vantng to know more about the heavens and iifl earth and the waters under the earth [

tkan appear on the surface. The scientist laughs at the visionist, yet he himself is a visionist who has demonstrated his suppositions. The very first story of man and woman records this desire for fuller knowledge — to know good from evil. The thing forbidden, the experience denied, was breathed with humanity's birth ; to this objection to -ignorance the world, individually andi collectively, owes all progress, material and) mental, and has been ever ready to barter indolence and bliss to dig the earth and dive beneath the water, to climb far as mountains reach, and soar into the air beyond their altitude. In search of new countries, new experiences, new ideas, mankind has bartered leisure and ease, growing with one knowledge eager for the next, dtetaching himself from the local and finite in search of the universal and infinite. The one thing essential has been, and is, t& know, -and to possess in knowledge, if not in fact, all onf senses. All our powers of mind, consciously or unconsciously, are on the march to the absolute. And \t is because .of this unconscious resentment of being 'shut off from the absolute, the, eagerness to learn what is not obvious, the spiritual curiosity to peer into the unseen, that "seers," true and false, have ever found a -following, and ever will do in spite of London's determination to exterminate the trade of fortune-telling. While credulity and curiosity exist there will be those ready . to accept prophecies, and to, pay for them. And, after all, within certain bounds, -why not? There are legalised) humbugs in all the professions, who prophesy health, wealth, equity, and peacs for a consideration. That they do not always succeed in. bringing their prophecies to pass does not discredit their profession; for the truth that is in the science, they represent many false prophets ; ancLso the clairvoyants and palmists reason "why, because of untruth, condemn wholesale the professors of the occult V Few people in these days of investigation and materialism are, so credulous as tc accept without question any theory, or opinion, or ethic, or even fact, presented,- and it is scarcely likely that people, sceptical on every other "subject, will receive without reservation any sort of prophet, even in his "own or any other country.- * That the character-delineator or fortuneteller, supplies "a long-felt, want," like the theatrical manager or^/other - caterer to illusion^ is proved by the fact that so many of them have -made a- living — and a luxurious living — at the profession. To get a Teal or imaginary glimpse of the future is to some as delightful and edifying as a study .of imaginary situations, imaginary woes and triumphs, and as well worth their money. Scarcely anybody takes the fortune-teller seriouslyj any more than they do lihe heroics of an actor. "To play pretending" is a safety valve in days of high pressure, and we all lose an illusion to escape the prosy, bard facts of jiaily existence. v And, after all, there is enough science in palmistry and physiognomy to exonerate their professors from the wholesale charge of trickery, and many mer. of education and -observation have believed in its demonstration. ' But there may not be a fortune-teller left in the world, yet will part of the world believe in the power of the few to see -visions and reveal the hidden, at least in part. We ace credulous by instinct because more or less,, superstitious, superstition being the outcome of our restricted knowledge and yearning for enlightenment of the darkness and halfjemembrances of tradition. To pin us to the .actual would be to kill imagination and make reality terrible, because there would be.no escape— no fairy tales for childhood, no illusions for youth no emancipation from the fact of age' •