“THE TRUTH ABOUT GHOSTS.”

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2741, 5 January 1882, Page 2

“THE TRUTH ABOUT GHOSTS.”

Under this rather startling title the “ Daily Telegraph ” newspaper has been for some time courting correspondence re the supernatural. The causes thererof are threefold: first alleged apparition reported from the Midlands, and secondly as it is the silly season, the editors .are not sorry to have their colums filled free gratis for nothing by the general public, who are contributing something like two columns a day. First, let me say that the story from the Midlands was to the effect that the figure of a woman, who some years ago disappeared unaccountably, had been seen frequently near a certain spot near to which she lived, and so excited were the population of the district, that subscriptions were raised to open out an old shaft, which, having been filled in since the disappearance of the woman, was supposed to bo the possible scene of foul play. However, not a trace has been discovered of any remains, though the excitement in the neighborhood as the workmen neared the bottom of the excavation was intense. It is reported however, that the woman in question left behind her at the railway station boxes which have never since been claimed, besides money in the savings bank. However, a mystery hangs about the whole affair which has only been added to by a letter, said to be from the heroine of the story, who writes from a distant part that she is now married and doing well. However all this may be, the discussion in the aforesaid newspaper, and which has been extended to other quarters, turns rather on a scientific aspect of the question, for it is now suggested that there may exist in nature a force yet unknown to man, whereby one mind can at a distance influence another, and especially at the supreme moment of death. The theory can be borne out to a certain degree by the proceedings, sufficiently familiar to all, of an accomplished mesmerist. It is true that the operator cannot work at a distance, but while the patient is unconscious he or she can be made to do anything willed by the mesmerist, and hence it would seem that some subtle influence, analogous or perhaps correlalive with electricity in nature, may be constantly at work between persons of certain temperaments, and this may be perhaps most highly intensified in the agony of death and when the thoughts of the dying person are centred on some dearly loved relative or friend, and then it may be that they have power to influence the mind in such a way as to reproduce on the retina the image of the sufferer perhaps thousands of miles away. For my own part I am con vinced that the stories sufficiently well authenticated of the appearance of distant friends to those elsewhere are far too numerous to be gainsaid, and that though a certain percentage is due to purely natural causes and could be easily accounted for, yet that a residuum remains which are only understandable on a supernatural explanation, or by some such "theory as that above referred to. There is, however, one crucial point which would rather tend to upset the explanation based on the physical theory and it is this. That several well authenticated cases have occurred when the apparition, so called, has been distinctly seen, not only by the individual to whom the deceased was known or related, but by those other persons who happened to be present on the occasion, and to whom the deceased was not in any way known. If seen by only one person, the phenomenon may easily be purely subjective, but if by many it is almost certain that it mast be objective, and herein, as I said, is the crucial point of the whole argument, as between believers and non-believers in the supernatural. It would seem as though these phenomena had really something in them beyond the powers of man to adequately explain, and though I should never be surprised if they received explanation on purely scientific grounds, yet lam not of opinion that they ever will. Boast as we will, we are as ignorant of the origin of all things, or of the destiny of man, as were the Chaldean sages who disputed with Job upon the Plains of Uz thousands of years ago. Even Christ’s teaching sheds but little light on the great hereafter, bnt it may be that these violations of Nature’s law may be permitted occasionally, if only as a rebuke to the philosophy of the day, which I note with regret is growing more materialistic than ever, denying the future state and casting over everyone the black snadow of possible annihilation. Against this we would utter the protest of ancient Hamlet, “ There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.’’