What it May be Hereafter W. M'Dougall delivered his presidential address at a well-attended meeting of the Society for Psychical Research, held in_ the rooms of the Royal Society of Medicine, Wimpole Street recently. He said' the grounds of the aloofness of so many men of science from the work of the society, in spite of their minds being 10re or less open to conviction in the society's sphere, was a sense of responsibility towards the public.
Men of science were afraid that the least display of interest or acquiescence on their part might promote a great outburst of superstition among the public, a relapse into belief in witchcraft, necromaney, and black arts generally, with all the mora] evils which must accompany the prevalence of such beliefs, He contended, however, that the most important part of the work of the society did not run the risk feared by these scientists, In regard to cases of nervous disorder there was, he asserted, evidence of the division of the self into two or more parts, each of which seemed to be endowed with the fundamental faculties of mind, conscious knowing, feeling, and striving. a striving that was partly expressed in the control of bodily movements, His intimate study of these cases of divided personalities had led him to the conclusion that the argument for the unity of the ego was as strong as ever.
Ihe inference to be drawn from the facts was'that he, for instance, now addressing them, was only one antong several selves or egos, which his organism comprised—he was only the dominant member of a society, an association of similar members. This hypothesis was compatible with view of the life after death of the body—one directly in line with the development. which that view had already undergone in the slow process of cultural evolution. He contended that they had to purge their conception of ranch that had already been put forward, as this hypothesis seemed to represent the purification from the lower elements of which so many seers had spoken,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.