,,our ,,eternity                        
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,illustration3 ,hope4 ,after the        
painting by ,g4 ,f4 ,,watts4            
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,,our ,,eternity                        
,,by                                    
,,maurice ,,maeterlinck                 
,,translated ,,by                       
,,alexander ,,teixeira ,,de ,,mattos    
,,methuen  ,,co4 ,,ltd4                 
#cf ,,essex ,,street ,w4,c4             
,,london                                
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,,chapter ,i                            
,,our ,,injustice ,,to ,,death          
#a    ,it has been well said3    8,death
 and death alone is what we must consult
 about life2 and not some  vague future 
or survival1 where we shall not be4 ,it 
is our own end2 and  everything happens 
in the interval between death and now4  

,do not talk to  me of those imaginary  
prolongations which wield over us the   
childish  spell of number2 do not talk  
to me--to me who am to die outright--of 
societies and peoples6 ,there is no     
reality1 there is no true duration1     
save that between the cradle and the    
grave4 ,the rest is mere bombast1  show1
 delusion6 ,they call me a master       
because of some magic in my speech  and 
thoughts2 but ,i am a frightened child  
in the presence of death60#a    -----   
,footnote #a3      ,marie ,lenru1 ,les  
,affranchis1 ,act ,,iii41 ,sc4 iv4      
-----                                   
#b    ,that is where we stand4 ,for us1 
death is the one event that counts in   
our life and in our universe4 ,it is the
 point whereat all that escapes  our    
vigilance unites and conspires against  
our happiness4 ,the more our  thoughts  
struggle to turn away from it1 the      
closer do they press around  it4 ,the   
more we dread it1 the more dreadful it  
becomes1 for it but  thrives on our     

fears4 ,he who seeks to forget it has   
his memory filled  with it2 he who tries
 to shun it meets naught else4 ,it      
clouds everything  with its shadow4 ,but
 though we think of death incessantly1  
we do so  unconsciously1 without        
learning to know death4 ,we compel our  
attention  to turn its back upon it1    
instead of going to it with uplifted    
head4 ,all  the forces which might avail
 to face death we exhaust in averting   
our  will from it4 ,we deliver death    
into the groping hands of instinct and  
we  grant it not one hour of our        
intelligence4 ,is it surprising that the
  idea of death1 which should be the    
most perfect and the most luminous of   
ideas--being the most persistent and the
 most inevitable--remains the  flimsiest
 and the only one that is a laggard8    
,how should we know the one  power which
 we never look in the face8 ,how could  
it have profited by  gleams kindled only
 to help us escape it8 ,to fathom its   
abysses1 we wait  until the most        

enfeebled1 the most disordered moments  
of our life  arrive4 ,we do not think of
 death until we have no longer the      
strength1 ,i  will not say1 to think1   
but even to breathe4 ,a man returning   
among us  from another century would    
have difficulty in recognizing1 in the  
depths  of a present-day soul1 the image
 of his gods1 of his duty1 of his love  
or of his universe2 but the figure of   
death1 when everything has changed      
around it and when even that which      
composes it and upon which it depends   
has vanished1 he would find almost      
untouched1 rough-drawn as it was by  our
 fathers1 hundreds1 nay1 thousands of   
years ago4 ,our intelligence1  grown so 
bold and active1 has not worked upon    
this figure1 has not1 so  to speak1     
retouched it in any way4 ,though we may 
no longer believe in  the tortures of   
the damned1 all the vital cells of the  
most sceptical  among us are still      
steeped in the appalling mystery of the 
,hebrew ,sheol1  the pagan ,hades1 or   

the ,christian ,hell4 ,though it may no 
longer be  lighted by very definite     
flames1 the gulf still opens at the end 
of life  and1 if less known1 is all the 
more formidable4 ,and1 therefore1 when  
the  impending hour strikes to which we 
dared not raise our eyes1 everything    
fails us at the same time4 ,those two or
 three uncertain ideas whereon1  without
 examining them1 we had meant to lean   
give way like rushes  beneath the weight
 of the last minutes4 ,in vain we seek a
 refuge among  reflexions that are      
illusive or are strange to us and do not
 know the  roads to our heart4 ,no one  
awaits us on the last shore where all is
  unprepared1 where naught remains afoot
 save terror4                           
#c    ,bossuet1 the great poet of the   
tomb1 says3    8,it is not worthy of a  
,christian0--and ,i would add1 of a     
man--8to postpone  his struggle with    
death until the moment when it arrives  
to carry him  off40    ,it were a       
salutary thing for each of us to work   

out his idea of death in  the light of  
his days and the strength of his        
intelligence and stand by  it4 ,he would
 say to death3    8,i know not who you  
are1 or ,i would be your master2 but1 in
 days when my  eyes saw clearer than    
to-day1 ,i learnt what you were not3    
that is enough  to prevent you from     
becoming mine40    ,he would thus bear1 
graven on his memory1 a tried image     
against which  the last agony would not 
prevail and from which the              
phantom-stricken  eyes would draw fresh 
comfort4 ,instead of the terrible prayer
 of the  dying1 which is the prayer of  
the depths1 he would say his own prayer1
  that of the peaks of his existence1   
where would be gathered1 like angels  of
 peace1 the most lucid1 the most        
rarefied thoughts of his life4 ,is not  
that the prayer of prayers8 ,after all1 
what is a true and worthy prayer1  if   
not the most ardent and disinterested   
effort to reach and grasp the  unknown8 
#d    8,the doctors and the priests10   

said ,napoleon1 8have long been making  
death grievous40    ,and ,bacon wrote3  
8,pompa mortis magis terret quam mors   
ipsa40    ,let us1 then1 learn to look  
upon death as it is in itself1 free from
 the  horrors of matter and stripped of 
the terrors of the imagination4 ,let us 
first get rid of all that goes before   
and does not belong to it4 ,thus1  we   
impute to it the tortures of the last   
illness2 and that is not just4          
,illnesses have nothing in common with  
that which ends them4 ,they form  part  
of life and not of death4 ,we readily   
forget the most cruel  sufferings that  
restore us to health2 and the first sun 
of convalescence  destroys the most     
unbearable memories of the chamber of   
pain4 ,but let  death come2 and at once 
we overwhelm it with all the evil done  
before  it4 ,not a tear but is          
remembered and used as a reproach1 not a
 cry of  pain but becomes a cry of      
accusation4 ,death alone bears the      
weight of  the errors of nature or the  

ignorance of science that have uselessly
  prolonged torments in whose name we   
curse death because it puts a term  to  
them4                                   
#e    ,in point of fact1 whereas        
sicknesses belong to nature or to life1 
the  agony1 which seems peculiar to     
death1 is wholly in the hands of men4   
,now  what we most dread is the awful   
struggle at the end and especially the  
last1 terrible second of rupture which  
we shall perhaps see approaching  during
 long hours of helplessness and which   
suddenly hurls us1 naked1  disarmed1    
abandoned by all and stripped of        
everything1 into an unknown  that is the
 home of the only invincible terrors    
which the soul of man  has ever felt4   
,it is doubly unjust to impute the      
torments of that second to death4 ,we   
shall see presently in what manner a man
 of to-day1 if he would remain  faithful
 to his ideas1 should picture to himself
 the unknown into which  death flings   
us4 ,let us confine ourselves here to   

the last struggle4 ,as  science         
progresses1 it prolongs the agony which 
is the most dreadful  moment and the    
sharpest peak of human pain and horror1 
for the watchers1  at least2 for very   
often the consciousness of him whom     
death1 in  ,bossuet's phrase1 has       
8brought to bay0 is already greatly     
dulled and  perceives no more than the  
distant murmur of the sufferings which  
it  seems to be enduring4 ,all doctors  
consider it their first duty to  prolong
 to the uttermost even the cruellest    
pangs of the most hopeless  agony4 ,who 
has not1 at the bedside of a dying man1 
twenty times wished  and not once dared 
to throw himself at their feet and      
implore them to  show mercy8 ,they are  
filled with so great a certainty and the
 duty which  they obey leaves so little 
room for the least doubt that pity and  
reason1 blinded by tears1 curb their    
revolt and recoil before a law  which   
all recognize and revere as the highest 
law of man's conscience4                

#f    ,one day1 this prejudice will     
strike us as barbarous4 ,its roots go   
down  to the unacknowledged fears left  
in the heart by religions that have     
long since died out in the intelligence 
of men4 ,that is why the doctors  act as
 though they were convinced that there  
is no known torture but is  preferable  
to those awaiting us in the unknown4    
,they seem persuaded that  every minute 
gained amid the most intolerable        
sufferings is snatched  from the        
incomparably more dreadful sufferings   
which the mysteries of  the hereafter   
reserve for men2 and1 of two evils1 to  
avoid that which  they know to be       
imaginary1 they choose the only real    
one4 ,besides1 in  thus postponing the  
end of a torture1 which1 as old ,seneca 
says1 is the  best part of that torture1
 they are but yielding to the unanimous 
error  which makes its enclosing circle 
more iron-bound every day3 the          
prolongation of the agony increasing the
 horror of death2 and the horror  of    

death demanding the prolongation of the 
agony4                                  
#g    ,the doctors1 on their side1 say  
or might say that1 in the present stage 
of science1 two or three cases excepted1
 there is never a certainty of  death4  
,not to support life to its last limits1
 even at the cost of  insupportable     
torments1 might be murder4 ,doubtless   
there is not one  chance in a hundred   
thousand that the patient escape4 ,no   
matter4 ,if that  chance exist which1 in
 the majority of cases1 will give but a 
few days1  or1 at the utmost1 a few     
months of a life that will not be the   
real  life1 but much rather1 as the     
,romans called it1 8an extended death10 
those hundred thousand useless torments 
will not have been in vain4 ,a  single  
hour snatched from death outweighs a    
whole existence of tortures4    ,here   
are1 face to face1 two values that      
cannot be compared2 and1 if we  mean to 
weigh them in the same balance1 we must 
heap the scale which we  see with all   

that remains to us1 that is to say1 with
 every imaginable  pain1 for at the     
decisive hour this is the only weight   
which counts and  which is heavy enough 
to raise by a hair's-breadth the other  
scale that  dips into what we do not see
 and is loaded with the thick darkness  
of  another world4                      
#h    ,swollen by so many adventitious  
horrors1 the horror of death becomes    
such that1 without reasoning1 we accept 
the doctors' reasons4 ,and yet  there is
 one point on which they are beginning  
to yield and to agree4  ,they are slowly
 consenting1 when there is no hope left1
 if not to  deaden1 at least to dull the
 last agonies4 ,formerly1 none of them  
would  have dared to do so2 and1 even   
to-day1 many of them hesitate and1 like 
misers1 measure out miserly drops of the
 clemency and peace which they  ought to
 lavish and which they grudge in their  
dread of weakening the  last resistance1
 that is to say1 the most useless and   
painful quiverings  of reluctant life   

refusing to give place to oncoming rest4
    ,it is not for me to decide whether 
their pity might show greater daring4   
,it is enough to state once more that   
all this has no concern with death4  ,it
 happens before it and beneath it4 ,it  
is not the arrival of death1 but  the   
departure of life that is appalling4 ,it
 is not death1 but life that  we must   
act upon4 ,it is not death that attacks 
life2 it is life that  wrongfully       
resists death4 ,evils hasten up from    
every side at the  approach of death1   
but not at its call2 and1 though they   
gather round  it1 they did not come with
 it4 ,do you accuse sleep of the fatigue
 that  oppresses you if you do not yield
 to it8 ,all those strugglings1 those   
waitings1 those tossings1 those tragic  
cursings are on the side of the  slope  
to which we cling and not on the other  
side4 ,they are1 for that  matter1      
accidental and temporary and emanate    
only from our ignorance4  ,all our      
knowledge merely helps us to die a more 

painful death than the  animals that    
know nothing4 ,a day will come when     
science will turn upon  its error and no
 longer hesitate to shorten our woes4 ,a
 day will come  when it will dare and   
act with certainty2 when life1 grown    
wiser1 will  depart silently at its     
hour1 knowing that it has reached its   
term1 even  as it withdraws silently    
every evening1 knowing that its task is 
done4  ,once the doctor and the sick man
 have learnt what they have to learn1   
there will be no physical nor           
metaphysical reason why the advent of   
death should not be as salutary as that 
of sleep4 ,perhaps even1 as there  will 
be nothing else to take into            
consideration1 it will be possible to   
surround death with profounder ecstasies
 and fairer dreams4 ,in any case  and   
from this day1 with death once acquitted
 of that which goes before1  it will be 
easier to look upon it without fear and 
to lighten that which  comes after4     
#i    ,death1 as we usually picture it1 

has two terrors looming behind it4 ,the 
first has neither face nor form and     
permeates the whole region of our  mind2
 the other is more definite1 more       
explicit1 but almost as powerful4  ,the 
latter strikes all our senses4 ,let us  
examine it first4    ,even as we impute 
to death all the evils that precede it1 
so do we add  to the dread which it     
inspires all that happens beyond it1    
thus doing it  the same injustice at its
 going as at its coming4 ,is it death   
that digs  our graves and orders us to  
keep there that which is made to        
disappear8  ,if we cannot think without 
horror of what befalls the beloved in   
the  grave1 is it death or we that      
placed him there8 ,because death carries
  the spirit to some place unknown1     
shall we reproach it with our bestowal  
of the body which it leaves with us8    
,death descends into our midst to       
change the place of a life or change its
 form3 let us judge it by what  it does 
and not by what we do before it comes   

and after it is gone4 ,for  it is       
already far away when we begin the      
frightful work which we try  hard to    
prolong to the very utmost1 as though we
 were persuaded that it  is our only    
security against forgetfulness4 ,i am   
well aware that1 from  any other than   
the human point of view1 this proceeding
 is very  innocent2 and that1 looked    
upon from a sufficient height1          
decomposing  flesh is no more repulsive 
than a fading flower or a crumbling     
stone4  ,but1 when all is said1 it      
offends our senses1 shocks our memory1  
daunts  our courage1 whereas it would be
 so easy for us to avoid the foul       
ordeal4 ,purified by fire1 the          
remembrance lives enthroned as a        
beautiful  idea2 and death is naught but
 an immortal birth cradled in flames4   
,this  has been well understood by the  
wisest and happiest nations in history4 
,what happens in our graves poisons our 
thoughts together with our  bodies4 ,the
 figure of death1 in the imagination of 

men1 depends before  all upon the form  
of burial2 and the funeral rites govern 
not only the  fate of those who depart1 
but also the happiness of those who     
stay1 for  they raise in the ultimate   
background of life the great image upon 
which  men's eyes linger in consolation 
or despair4                             
#aj    ,there is1 therefore1 but one    
terror particular to death3 that of the 
unknown into which it hurls us4 ,in     
facing it1 let us lose no time in       
putting from our minds all that the     
positive religions have left there4     
,let us remember only that it is not for
 us to prove that they are not  proved1 
but for them to establish that they are 
true4 ,now not one of  them brings us a 
proof before which an honest            
intelligence can bow4 ,nor  would it    
suffice if that intelligence were able  
to bow2 for man lawfully  to believe and
 thus to limit his endless seeking1 the 
proof would need  to be irresistible4   
,the ,god offered to us by the best and 

strongest of  them has given us our     
reason to employ loyally and fully1 that
 is to  say1 to try to attain1 before   
all and in all things1 that which       
appears  to be the truth4 ,can ,he exact
 that we should accept1 in spite of it1 
a  belief whose doubtfulness1 from the  
human point of view1 is not denied  by  
its wisest and most ardent defenders8   
,he only offers us a very  uncertain    
story1 which1 even if scientifically    
substantiated1 would be  merely a       
beautiful lesson in morality and which  
is buttressed by  prophecies and        
miracles no less doubtful4 ,must we here
 call to mind that  ,pascal1 to defend  
that creed which was already tottering  
at a time when  it seemed at its zenith1
 vainly attempted a demonstration the   
mere  aspect of which would be enough to
 destroy the last remnant of faith in  a
 wavering mind8 ,better than any other1 
he knew the stock proofs of the         
theologians1 for they had been the sole 
study of the last years of his  life4   

,if but one of these proofs could have  
resisted examination1 his  genius1 one  
of the three or four most profound and  
lucid geniuses ever  known to humanity1 
must have given it an irresistible      
force4 ,but he does  not linger over    
these arguments1 whose weakness he feels
 too well2 he  pushes them scornfully   
aside1 he glories and1 in a manner1     
rejoices in  their futility3    8,who   
then will blame ,christians for not     
being able to give a reason for  their  
faith1 those who profess a religion for 
which they cannot give a  reason8 ,they 
declare1 in presenting it to the world1 
that it is a  foolishness1 stultitiam2  
and then you complain that they do not  
prove  it6 ,if they proved it1 they     
would not be keeping their word2 it is  
in  being destitute of proofs that they 
are not destitute of sense40    ,his    
solitary argument1 the one to which he  
clings desperately and  devotes all the 
power of his genius1 is the very        
condition of man in the  universe1 that 

incomprehensible medley of greatness and
 wretchedness1  for which there is no   
accounting save by the mystery of the   
first fall3    8,for man is more        
incomprehensible without that mystery   
than the mystery  itself is             
incomprehensible to man40    ,he is     
therefore reduced to establishing the   
truth of the ,scriptures by  an argument
 drawn from the very ,scriptures in     
question2 and--what is more  serious--to
 explain a wide and great and           
indisputable mystery by another1  small1
 narrow and crude mystery that rests    
only upon the legend which it  is his   
business to prove4 ,and1 let us observe 
in passing1 it is a fatal  thing to     
replace one mystery by another and      
lesser mystery4 ,in the  hierarchy of   
the unknown1 mankind always ascends from
 the smaller to the  greater4 ,on the   
other hand1 to descend from the greater 
to the smaller  is to relapse into the  
condition of primitive man1 who carries 
his  barbarism to the point of replacing

 the infinite by a fetish or an  amulet4
 ,the measure of man's greatness is the 
greatness of the mysteries  which he    
cultivates or on which he dwells4    ,to
 return to ,pascal1 he feels that       
everything is crumbling around him2  and
 so1 in the collapse of human reason1 he
 at last offers us the  monstrous wager 
that is the supreme avowal of the       
bankruptcy and despair  of his faith4   
,god1 he says1 meaning his ,god and the 
,christian religion  with all its       
precepts and all its consequences1      
exists or does not  exist4 ,we are      
unable1 by human arguments1 to prove    
that ,he exists or  that ,he does not   
exist4    8,if there is a ,god1 ,he is  
infinitely incomprehensible1 because1   
having  neither divisions nor bounds1   
,he has no relation to us4 ,we are      
therefore  incapable of knowing either  
what ,he is or if ,he is40    ,god is or
 is not4    8,but to which side shall we
 lean8 ,reason can determine nothing    
about it4  ,there is an infinite gulf   

that separates us4 ,a game is played at 
the  uttermost part of this infinite    
distance1 in which heads may turn up or 
tails4 ,which will you wager8 ,there is 
no reason for betting on either  one or 
the other2 you cannot reasonably defend 
either40    ,the correct course would be
 not to wager at all4    8,yes1 but you 
must wager3 this is not a matter for    
your will2 you are  launched in it40    
,not to wager that ,god exists means    
wagering that ,he does not exist1 for   
which ,he will punish you eternally4    
,what then do you risk by wagering1  at 
all hazards1 that ,he exists8 ,if ,he   
does not1 you lose a few small          
pleasures1 a few wretched comforts of   
this life1 because your little          
sacrifice will not have been rewarded2  
if ,he exists1 you gain an  eternity of 
unspeakable happiness4    8#8,it is     
true1 but1 in spite of all1 ,i am so    
made that ,i cannot believe4'    8,never
 mind1 follow the way in which they     
began who believe and who at  first did 

not believe either1 taking holy water1  
having masses said1  etc4 ,that in      
itself will make you believe and will   
reduce you to the  level of the beasts40
    8',but that is just what ,i am      
afraid of4'    8,why8 ,what have you to 
lose80    ,nearly three centuries of    
apologetics have not added one useful   
argument  to that terrible and          
despairing page of ,pascal4 ,and this is
 all that  human intelligence has found 
to compel our life4 ,if the ,god who    
demands  our faith will not have us     
decide by our reason1 by what then must 
our  choice be made8 ,by usage8 ,by the 
accidents of race or birth1 by some     
sthetic or sentimental pitch-and-toss8  
,or has ,he set within us another       
higher and surer faculty before which   
the understanding must yield8 ,if  so1  
where is it8 ,what is its name8 ,if this
 ,god punishes us for not  having       
blindly followed a faith that does not  
force itself irresistibly  upon the     
intelligence which ,he gave us2 if ,he  

chastises us for not  having made1 in   
the presence of the great enigma with   
which ,he confronts  us1 a choice which 
is rejected by that best and most divine
 part which  ,he has implanted in us1 we
 have nothing left to reply3 we are the 
dupes  of a cruel and incomprehensible  
sport1 we are the victims of a terrible 
snare and an immense injustice2 and1    
whatever the torments wherewith  that   
injustice may load us1 they will be less
 intolerable than the  eternal presence 
of its ,author4                         
,,chapter ,,ii                          
,,annihilation                          
#a    ,and now we stand before the      
abyss4 ,it is void of all the dreams    
with  which our fathers peopled it4     
,they thought that they knew what was   
there2 we know only what is not there4  
,it is the vaster by all that we  have  
learnt to know nothing of4 ,while       
waiting for a scientific certainty  to  
break through its darkness--for man has 
the right to hope for that  which he    

does not yet conceive--the only point   
that interests us1 because  it is       
situated in the little circle which our 
actual intelligence traces  in the      
thickest blackness of the night1 is to  
know whether the unknown  for which we  
are bound will be dreadful or not4      
,outside the religions1 there are four  
imaginable solutions and no more3  total
 annihilation2 survival with our        
consciousness of to-day2 survival       
without any sort of consciousness2      
lastly1 survival in the universal       
consciousness1 or with a consciousness  
different from that which we  possess in
 this world4                            
#b    ,total annihilation is impossible4
 ,we are the prisoners of an infinity   
without outlet1 wherein nothing         
perishes1 wherein everything is         
dispersed1 but nothing lost4 ,neither a 
body nor a thought can drop out  of the 
universe1 out of time and space4 ,not an
 atom of our flesh1 not a  quiver of our
 nerves will go where they will cease to

 be1 for there is  no place where       
anything ceases to be4 ,the brightness  
of a star  extinguished millions of     
years ago still wanders in the ether    
where our  eyes will perhaps behold it  
this very night1 pursuing its endless   
road4  ,it is the same with all that we 
see1 as with all that we do not see4 ,to
  be able to do away with a thing1 that 
is to say1 to fling it into             
nothingness1 nothingness would have to  
exist2 and1 if it exists1 under         
whatever form1 it is no longer          
nothingness4 ,as soon as we try to      
analyze  it1 to define it1 or to        
understand it1 thoughts and expressions 
fail us1  or create that which they are 
struggling to deny4 ,it is as contrary  
to  the nature of our reason and        
probably of all imaginable reason to    
conceive nothingness as to conceive     
limits to infinity4 ,nothingness1       
besides1 is but a negative infinity1 a  
sort of infinity of darkness  opposed to
 that which our intelligence strives to 

illumine1 or rather it  is but a        
child-name or nickname which our mind   
has bestowed upon that  which it has not
 attempted to embrace1 for we call      
nothingness all that  escapes our senses
 or our reason and exists without our   
knowledge4                              
#c    ,but1 it will perhaps be said1    
though the annihilation of every world  
and  every thing be impossible1 it is   
not so certain that their death is      
impossible2 and1 to us1 what is the     
difference between nothingness and      
everlasting death8 ,here again we are   
led astray by our imagination and  by   
words4 ,we can no more conceive death   
than we can conceive  nothingness4 ,we  
use the word death to cover those       
fragments of  nothingness which we      
believe that we understand2 but1 on     
closer  examination1 we are bound to    
recognize that our idea of death is much
  too puerile for it to contain the     
least truth4 ,it reaches no higher than 
our own bodies and cannot measure the   

destinies of the universe4 ,we give  the
 name of death to anything that has a   
life a little different from  ours4     
,even so do we act towards a world that 
appears to us motionless  and frozen1   
the moon1 for instance1 because we are  
persuaded that any  form of existence1  
animal or vegetable1 is extinguished    
upon it for  ever4 ,but it is now some  
years since we learnt that the most     
inert  matter1 to outward seeming1 is   
animated by movements so powerful and   
furious that all animal or vegetable    
life is no more than sleep and          
immobility by the side of the swirling  
eddies and immeasurable energy  locked  
up in a wayside stone4    8,there is no 
room for death60 cried ,emily ,bront4   
,but1 even if1 in the infinite series of
 the centuries1 all matter should       
really become inert and motionless1 it  
would none the less persist under  one  
form or another2 and persistence1 though
 it were in total  immobility1 would1   
after all1 be but a form of life stable 

and silent at  last4 ,all that dies     
falls into life2 and all that is born is
 of the same  age as that which dies4   
,if death carried us to nothingness1 did
 birth  then draw us out of that same   
nothingness8 ,why should the second be  
more  impossible than the first8 ,the   
higher human thought rises and the wider
  it expands1 the less comprehensible do
 nothingness and death become4 ,in  any 
case--and this is what matters here--if 
nothingness were possible1  since it    
could not be anything whatever1 it could
 not be dreadful4                       
,,chapter ,,iii                         
,,the ,,survival ,,of ,,our             
,,consciousness                         
#a    ,next comes survival with our     
consciousness of to-day4 ,i have        
broached  this question in an essay on  
,immortality1#b of which ,i will only   
reproduce a few essential passages1     
restricting myself to supporting  them  
with new considerations4    ,what       
composes this sense of the ego which    

turns each of us into the  centre of the
 universe1 the only point that matters  
in space and time8  ,is it formed of    
sensations of our body1 or of thoughts  
independent of  our body8 ,would our    
body be conscious of itself without our 
mind8 ,and1  on the other hand1 what    
would our mind be without our body8 ,we 
know  bodies without mind1 but no mind  
without a body4 ,it is almost certain   
that an intelligence devoid of senses1  
devoid of organs to create and  nourish 
it1 exists2 but it is impossible to     
imagine that ours could thus  exist and 
yet remain similar to that which has    
derived all that inspires  it from our  
sensibility4    ,this ego1 as we        
conceive it when we reflect upon the    
consequences of its  destruction1 this  
ego1 therefore1 is neither our mind nor 
our body1  since we recognize that both 
are waves that roll by and are          
incessantly  renewed4 ,is it an         
immovable point1 which could not be form
 or substance1  for these are always in 

evolution1 nor yet life1 which is the   
cause or  effect of form and substance8 
,in truth1 it is impossible for us      
either  to apprehend or define it1 or   
even to say where it dwells4 ,when we   
try  to go back to its last source1 we  
find little more than a succession of   
memories1 a mass of ideas1 confused1 for
 that matter1 and unsettled1 all        
connected with the same instinct1 the   
instinct of living3 a mass of  habits of
 our sensibility and of conscious or    
unconscious reactions  against the      
surrounding phenomena4 ,when all is     
said1 the most steadfast  point of that 
nebula is our memory1 which seems1 on   
the other hand1 to  be a somewhat       
external1 a somewhat accessory faculty  
and1 in any case1  one of the frailest  
faculties of our brain1 one of those    
which disappear  the most promptly at   
the least disturbance of our health4 ,as
 an ,english  poet has very truly said1 
8that which cries aloud for eternity is 
the  very part of me that will perish40 

-----    ,footnote #b3      ,this essay 
forms part of the volume published under
 the title of ,life    and              
,flowers4--,translator's ,note4    -----
                                        
#b    ,it matters not3 that uncertain1  
indiscernible1 fleeting and precarious  
ego is so much the centre of our being1 
interests us so exclusively1  that every
 reality disappears before this phantom4
 ,it is utterly  indifferent to us that1
 throughout eternity1 our body or its   
substance  should know every joy and    
every glory1 undergo the most splendid  
and  delightful transformations1 become 
flower1 perfume1 beauty1 light1 air1    
star--and it is certain that it does so 
become and that we must look for  our   
dead not in our graveyards1 but in space
 and light and life--it is  likewise    
indifferent to us that our intelligence 
should expand until it  takes part in   
the life of the worlds1 until it        
understands and governs  it4 ,we are    
persuaded that all this will not affect 

us1 will give us no  pleasure1 will not 
happen to ourselves1 unless that memory 
of a few  almost always insignificant   
facts accompany us and witness those    
unimaginable joys4    8,i care not10    
says this narrow ego1 in its firm       
resolve to understand  nothing1 8,i care
 not if the loftiest1 the freest1 the   
fairest portions  of my mind be         
eternally living and radiant in the     
supreme gladnesses3  they are no longer 
mine2 ,i do not know them4 ,death has   
cut the network  of nerves or memories  
that connected them with ,i know not    
what centres  wherein lies the point    
which ,i feel to be my very self4 ,they 
are thus  set loose1 floating in space  
and time2 and their fate is as alien to 
me  as that of the most distant stars4  
,all that befalls has no existence for  
me unless ,i can recall it within that  
mysterious being which is ,i know  not  
where and precisely nowhere and which ,i
 turn like a mirror about  this world   
whose phenomena take shape only in so   

far as they are  reflected in it40      
#c    ,thus our longing for immortality 
destroys itself while expressing        
itself1 since it is on one of the       
accessory and most transient parts of   
our whole life that we base all the     
interest of our after-life4 ,it seems   
to us that1 if our existence be not     
continued with the greater part of  its 
drawbacks1 of the pettiness and         
blemishes that characterize it1  nothing
 will distinguish it from that of other 
beings2 that it will  become a drop of  
ignorance in the ocean of the unknown2  
and that1  thenceforth1 all that may    
come to pass will no longer concern us4 
,what immortality can one promise to men
 who almost necessarily conceive  it in 
this guise8 ,what is the use of it8 asks
 a puerile but profound  instinct4 ,any 
immortality that does not drag with it  
through eternity1  like the fetters of  
the convict that we were1 the strange   
consciousness  formed during a few years
 of movement1 any immortality that does 

not  bear that indelible mark of our    
identity is for us as though it were    
not4 ,most of the religions have been   
well aware of this and have  reckoned   
with that instinct which desires and at 
the same time destroys  the after-life4 
,it is thus that the ,catholic ,church1 
going back to the  most primitive hopes1
 promises us not only the integral      
preservation of  our earthly ego1 but   
even the resurrection of our own flesh4 
,there lies the crux of the riddle4     
,when we demand that this small         
consciousness1 that this sense of a     
special ego--almost childish and1 in    
any case1 extraordinarily limited2      
probably an infirmity of our actual     
intelligence--should accompany us into  
the infinity of time in order that  we  
may understand and enjoy it1 are we not 
wishing to perceive an object  with the 
aid of an organ which is not intended   
for that purpose8 ,are we  not asking   
that our hand should discover the light 
or that our eye  should appreciate      

perfumes8 ,are we not1 rather1 acting   
like a sick man  who1 in order to       
recognize himself1 to be quite sure that
 he is himself1  should think it        
necessary to continue his sickness in   
health and in the  unending sequence of 
his days8 ,the comparison1 indeed1 is   
more accurate  than is the habit of     
comparisons4 ,picture a blind man who is
 also  paralyzed and deaf4 ,he has been 
in this condition from his birth and has
  just attained his thirtieth year4     
,what can the hours have embroidered on 
the imageless web of this poor life8    
,the unhappy man must have gathered  at 
the back of his memory1 for lack of     
other recollections1 a few  halting     
sensations of heat and cold1 of         
weariness and rest1 of more or  less    
active physical sufferings1 of hunger   
and thirst4 ,it is probable  that all   
human joys1 all our hopes and ideals1   
all our dreams of  paradise will be     
reduced for him to the vague sense of   
well-being that  follows the alleviation

 of a pain4 ,there you have the only    
possible  equipment of that             
consciousness and that ego4 ,the        
intellect1 having  never been invoked   
from without1 will sleep soundly1       
all-ignorant of  itself4 ,nevertheless1 
the poor wretch will have his little    
life1 to  which he will cling as closely
 and eagerly as though he were the      
happiest of men4 ,he will dread death2  
and the idea of entering into  eternity 
without carrying with him the emotions  
and the memories of his  dark and silent
 sick-bed will plunge him into the same 
despair into  which we are plunged by   
the thought of abandoning a glorious    
life of  light and love for the icy     
darkness of the tomb4                   
#d    ,let us now suppose that a miracle
 suddenly quicken his eyes and ears and 
reveal to him1 through the open window  
by his bedside1 the dawn rising  over   
the plain1 the song of the birds in the 
trees1 the murmur of the  wind among the
 leaves and of the water lapping its    

banks1 the echoing of  human voices     
among the morning hills4 ,let us suppose
 also that the same  miracle1 completing
 its work1 restore the use of his limbs4
 ,he rises1  stretches his arms to that 
prodigy which as yet for him possesses  
neither reality nor name3 the light6 ,he
 opens the door1 staggers out  amidst   
the effulgence2 and his whole body is   
merged in the wonder of it  all4 ,he    
enters into an ineffable life1 into a   
sky whereof no dream could  have given  
him a foretaste2 and1 by a freak which  
is readily admissible  in this sort of  
cure1 health1 introducing him to this   
inconceivable and  unintelligible       
existence1 wipes out in him all memory  
of days past4    ,what will be the state
 of this ego1 of this central focus1 the
  receptacle of all our sensations1 the 
spot in which converges all that        
belongs in its own right to our life1   
the supreme point1 the 8egotic0  point  
of our being1 if ,i may venture to coin 
a word8 ,memory being  abolished1 will  

that ego recover within itself a few    
traces of the man  that was8 ,a new     
force1 the intellect1 awaking and       
suddenly displaying  unprecedented      
activity1 what relation will that       
intellect keep up with  the inert1 dull 
germ whence it has sprung8 ,where1 in   
his past1 shall the  man fix his        
moorings so that his identity may       
endure8 ,and yet will there  not survive
 within him some sense or instinct1     
independent of his  memory1 his         
intellect and ,i know not what other    
faculties1 that will  make him recognize
 that it is indeed in him that the      
liberating miracle  has been wrought1   
that it is indeed his life and not his  
neighbour's1  transformed1              
irrecognizable1 but substantially the   
same1 that has issued  from the silence 
and the darkness to prolong itself in   
harmony and  light8 ,can we picture the 
disorder1 the wandering hither and      
thither of  that bewildered             
consciousness8 ,have we any idea in what

 manner the ego  of yesterday will unite
 with the ego of to-day and how the     
8egotic0  point1 the only point which we
 are anxious to preserve intact1 will   
behave in that delirium and that        
upheaval8    ,let us first endeavour to 
reply with sufficient precision to this 
question which comes within the province
 of our actual and visible life2  for1  
if we are unable to do this1 how can we 
hope to solve the other  problem that   
stares every man in the face at the hour
 of death8                              
#e    ,this sensitive point1 in which   
the whole problem is summed up--for it  
is  the only one in question2 and1      
except in so far as it is concerned1    
immortality is certain--this mysterious 
point1 to which1 in the presence  of    
death1 we attach so high a value1 we    
lose1 strange to say1 at any  moment in 
life without feeling the least anxiety4 
,not only is it  destroyed nightly in   
our sleep1 but even in waking it is at  
the mercy of  a host of accidents4 ,a   

wound1 a shock1 an illness1 a little    
alcohol1 a  little opium1 a little smoke
 are enough to affect it4 ,even when    
nothing  impairs it1 it is not uniformly
 perceptible4 ,an effort is often       
necessary1 a deliberate looking into    
ourselves1 before we can recover it  and
 become aware of some particular event4 
,at the least distraction1 a  joy passes
 by us without touching us1 without     
giving up the pleasure  which it        
contains4 ,one would say that the       
functions of that organ by  which we    
taste and know life are intermittent and
 that the presence of  our ego1 except  
in pain1 is but a rapid and perpetual   
sequence of  departures and returns4    
,what reassures us is that we think     
ourselves  certain to find it intact on 
awaking1 after the wound1 the shock or  
the  distraction1 whereas we are        
persuaded1 so fragile do we feel it to  
be1  that it is bound to disappear for  
ever in the awful impact between life   
and death4                              

#f    ,one foremost truth1 pending      
others which the future will no doubt   
reveal1 is that1 in these questions of  
life and death1 our imagination  has    
remained very childish4 ,almost every   
elsewhere1 it is ahead of  reason2 but  
here it still loiters over the games of 
infancy4 ,it  surrounds itself with the 
barbaric dreams and longings wherewith  
it  cradled the hopes and fears of      
cave-dwelling man4 ,it asks for things  
that are impossible because they are too
 small4 ,it clamours for  privileges    
which1 if obtained1 were more to be     
dreaded than the most  enormous         
disasters with which nihility threatens 
us4 ,can we think  without shuddering of
 an eternity contained wholly within our
 paltry  present-day consciousness8 ,and
 behold how1 in all this1 we obey the   
illogical whims of fancy1 which men in  
the olden time called la folle  du      
logis4 ,which of us1 if he were to go to
 sleep to-night in the  scientific      
certainty of awaking in a hundred years 

exactly as he is  to-day1 with his body 
intact1 even on condition that he lost  
all memory  of his previous life--would 
such memories not be useless8--which of 
us  would not welcome that age-long     
sleep with the same confidence as the   
brief1 gentle slumbers of his every     
night8 ,and yet between real death  and 
this sleep there would be only the      
difference of that awakening  deferred  
for a century1 an awakening as alien to 
the sleeper as the  birth of a          
posthumous child would be4    ,or else1 
to say very much what ,schopenhauer said
 to one who was  unwilling to admit an  
immortality into which he would not     
carry his  consciousness3    8,suppose  
that1 to snatch you from some           
intolerable suffering1 you were         
promised an awakening and a return to   
consciousness after a wholly            
unconscious sleep of three months80     
8#8,i would accept it gladly4'    8,but 
suppose that1 at the end of the three   
months1 they forgot you and  did not    

wake you until ten thousand years had   
passed1 how much the wiser  would you   
be8 ,and1 sleep once begun1 what        
difference does it make to you  whether 
it last for three months or for ever80  
#g    ,let us then consider that all    
that composes our consciousness comes   
first of all from our body4 ,our mind   
does but organize that which is         
supplied by our senses2 and even the    
images and the words--which in  reality 
are but images--by the aid of which it  
strives to sever itself  from those     
senses and deny their sway are borrowed 
from them4 ,how could  that mind remain 
what it was1 when it has nothing left of
 that which  formed it8 ,when our mind  
no longer has a body1 what shall it     
carry with  it into infinity whereby to 
recognize itself1 seeing that it knows  
itself only by favour of that body8 ,a  
few memories of their common life8      
,will those memories1 which were already
 fading in this world1 suffice to       
separate it for ever from the rest of   

the universe1 in boundless space  and in
 unlimited time8    8,but10 ,i shall be 
told1 8there is more in us than our     
intelligence  discovers4 ,we have many  
things within us which our senses have  
not  placed there2 we contain a greater 
being than the one we know40    ,that is
 probable1 nay1 certain3 the share      
occupied by the inconscient1  that is to
 say1 by that which represents the      
universe1 is enormous and  preponderant4
 ,but how shall the ego which we know   
and whose destiny  alone concerns us    
recognize all those things and that     
greater being  neither of which it has  
ever known8 ,what will it do in the     
presence of  that stranger8 ,if ,i be   
told that the stranger is myself1 ,i    
will readily  agree2 but was that which 
upon earth felt and weighed my joys and 
sorrows and gave birth to the few       
memories and thoughts that remain to    
me1 was that this impassive1 unseen     
stranger who existed in me all          
unsuspected1 even as ,i am probably     

about to live in him without his        
concerning himself with a presence that 
will bring him but the sorry            
recollection of a thing that has ceased 
to be8 ,now that he has taken my  place1
 while destroying1 in order to acquire a
 larger consciousness1 all  that formed 
my small consciousness here below1 is it
 not another life  commencing1 a life   
whose joys and sorrows will pass above  
my head1 not  even brushing with their  
new-born wings the being which ,i am    
conscious  of to-day8                   
#h    ,lastly1 how shall we explain     
that1 in that consciousness which ought 
to  survive us1 the infinity that       
precedes our birth has left no trace8   
,had  we no consciousness in that       
infinity1 or did we perchance lose it on
  coming into the world and did the     
catastrophe that produces the whole     
terror of death take place at the moment
 of our birth8 ,none can deny  that this
 infinity has the same rights over us as
 that which follows our  decease4 ,we   

are as much the children of the first as
 of the second2 and  we must of         
necessity have a part in both4 ,if you  
maintain that you will  always exist1   
you are bound to admit that you have    
always existed2 we  cannot imagine the  
one without having to imagine the other4
 ,if nothing  ends1 nothing begins1 for 
any such beginning would be the end of  
something4 ,now1 although ,i have       
existed since all time1 ,i have no      
consciousness whatever of my previous   
existence1 whereas ,i shall have to     
carry to the boundless horizon of the   
endless ages the tiny  consciousness    
acquired during the instant that elapses
 between my birth  and my death4 ,can my
 true ego1 then1 which is about to      
become eternal1  date only from my short
 sojourn on this earth8 ,and all the    
preceding  eternity1 which is of exactly
 the same value as that which follows1  
since it is the same1 shall it not      
count8 ,will it be flung into  nihility8
 ,why is a strange privilege accorded to

 a few meaningless days  spent on an    
unimportant planet8 ,is it because in   
that previous eternity  we had no       
consciousness8 ,what do we know about   
it8 ,it seems very  unlikely4 ,why      
should the acquisition of consciousness 
be a phenomenon  unrepeated in an       
eternity that had at its disposal       
innumerable billions  of chances1 among 
which--unless we set a limit to the     
infinity of the  ages--it is impossible 
to conceive that the thousands of       
coincidences  which went to form my     
present consciousness did not occur over
 and over  again8 ,the moment we turn   
our gaze upon the mysteries of that     
eternity  wherein all that happens must 
already have happened1 it seems much    
more  credible1 on the contrary1 that we
 have had consciousness upon            
consciousness which our life of to-day  
hides from our view4 ,if they have      
existed and if1 at our death1 one       
consciousness must survive1 the others  
must survive as well1 for there is no   

reason to bestow so  disproportionate a 
favour upon that consciousness which we 
have acquired  here below4 ,and1 if all 
of them survive and awaken at the same  
time1  what will become of the petty    
consciousness of a few terrestrial      
moments1 when it is submerged in those  
eternal existences8 ,besides1 even  if  
it were to forget all its previous      
existences1 what would become of  it    
amid the perpetual buffeting1 the       
endless wash of its posthumous          
eternity8 ,for it is but as a poor      
sand-drift of an island in the          
unrelenting jaws of two boundless       
oceans4 ,it would hold its own there1   
puny and so precarious1 only on         
condition that it acquired nothing more1
  that it remained for ever closed1     
isolated and confined1 impenetrable  and
 insensible to all things1 in the midst 
of the astounding mysteries1  the       
fabulous treasures and visions which it 
would have eternally to pass  through   
without ever seeing or hearing anything2

 and that surely would  be the worst    
death and the worst destiny that could  
befall us4 ,we are1  therefore1 driven  
on all sides towards the theories of an 
universal  consciousness or of a        
modified consciousness1 both of which we
 shall  examine presently4              
,,chapter ,,iv                          
,,the ,,theosophical ,,hypothesis       
#a    ,but1 before broaching those      
questions1 it were perhaps well to study
 two  interesting solutions of the      
problem of personal survival1 solutions 
which1 although not new1 have at least  
been lately renewed4 ,i refer to  the   
neotheosophical and neospiritualistic   
theories1 which are1 ,i think1  the only
 ones that can be seriously discussed4  
,the first is almost as  old as man     
himself2 but a popular movement1 of some
 magnitude in certain  countries1 has   
rejuvenated the doctrine of             
reincarnation1 or the  transmigration of
 souls1 and brought it once more into   
prominence4 ,it  cannot be denied that  

of all the religious theories1          
reincarnation is  the most plausible and
 the least repellent to our reason4 ,nor
 must we  overlook that it has on its   
side the authority of the most ancient  
and  widespread religions1 those which  
have incontestably furnished humanity   
with the greatest aggregate of wisdom   
and which we have not yet  exhausted of 
their truths and mysteries4 ,in reality1
 the whole of ,asia1  whence we derive  
almost everything which we know1 has    
always believed  and still believes in  
the transmigration of souls4    ,as     
,mrs4 ,annie ,besant1 the remarkable    
apostle of the new theosophy1 very      
rightly says3    8,there is no          
philosophical doctrine which has behind 
it so magnificent  an intellectual      
ancestry as the doctrine of             
reincarnation2 none for  which there is 
such a weight of the opinion of the     
wisest of men2 none1  as ,max ,mller    
declared1 on which the greatest         
philosophers of humanity  have been so  

thoroughly in accord40    ,this is all  
quite true4 ,but it would need other    
proofs to win our  distrustful faith    
to-day4 ,i have sought in vain for a    
single one in the  leading works of our 
modern theosophists4 ,they confine      
themselves to a  mere reiteration of    
dogmatic statements1 which are of the   
vaguest4 ,their  great argument--the    
chief and1 when all is said1 the only   
argument which  they adduce--is but a   
sentimental argument4 ,their doctrine   
that the soul1  in its successive       
existences1 is purified and exalted with
 more or less  rapidity according to its
 efforts and deserts is1 they maintain1 
the  only one that satisfies the        
irresistible instinct of justice which  
we  bear within us4 ,they are right2    
and1 from this point of view1 their     
posthumous justice is immeasurably      
superior to that of the barbaric        
,heaven and the monstrous ,hell of the  
,christians1 where rewards and          
punishments are for ever meted out to   

virtues and vices which are for  the    
most part puerile1 unavoidable or       
accidental4 ,but this1 ,i repeat1 is    
only a sentimental argument1 which has  
but an infinitesimal value in the  scale
 of evidence4                           
#b    ,we may admit that certain of     
their theories are rather ingenious2 and
  what they say of the part played by   
the 8shells10 for instance1 or the      
8elementals10 in the spiritualistic     
phenomena1 is worth about as much as    
our clumsy explanations of fluidic and  
supersensible bodies4 ,perhaps1 or  even
 no doubt1 they are right when they     
insist that everything around us  is    
full of living1 sentient forms1 of      
diverse and innumerous types1 8as       
different from one another as a blade of
 grass and a tiger1 or a tiger  and a   
man10 which are incessantly brushing    
against us and through which  we pass   
unawares4 ,if all the religions have    
overpopulated the world with  invisible 
beings1 we have perhaps depopulated it  

too completely2 and it  is extremely    
possible that we shall find one day that
 the mistake was  not on the side which 
one imagines4 ,as ,sir ,william ,crookes
 so well puts  it1 in a remarkable      
passage3    8,it is not improbable that 
other sentient beings have organs of    
sense  which do not respond to some or  
any of the rays to which our eyes are   
sensitive1 but are able to appreciate   
other vibrations to which we are  blind4
 ,such beings would practically be      
living in a different world to  our own4
 ,imagine1 for instance1 what idea we   
should form of surrounding  objects were
 we endowed with eyes not sensitive to  
the ordinary rays of  light but         
sensitive to the vibrations concerned in
 electric and magnetic  phenomena4      
,glass and crystal would be among the   
most opaque of bodies4  ,metals would be
 more or less transparent1 and a        
telegraph wire through  the air would   
look like a long narrow hole drilled    
through an impervious  solid body4 ,a   

dynamo in active work would resemble a  
conflagration1  whilst a permanent      
magnet would realise the dream of       
mediaeval mystics  and become an        
everlasting lamp with no expenditure of 
energy or  consumption of fuel40    ,all
 this1 with so many other things which  
they assert1 would be1 if not           
admissible1 at least worthy of          
attention1 if those suppositions were   
offered for what they are1 that is to   
say1 very ancient hypotheses that  go   
back to the early ages of human theology
 and metaphysics2 but1 when  they are   
transformed into categorical and        
dogmatic assertions1 they at  once      
become untenable4 ,their exponents      
promise us1 on the other hand1  that1 by
 exercising our minds1 by refining our  
senses1 by etherealizing  our bodies1 we
 shall be able to live with those whom  
we call dead and  with the higher beings
 that surround us4 ,it all seems to lead
 to nothing  very much and rests on very
 frail bases1 on very vague proofs      

derived  from hypnotic sleep1           
presentiments1 mediumism1 phantasms and 
so forth4  ,it is rather surprising that
 those who call themselves              
8clairvoyants10  who pretend to be in   
communication with this world of        
discarnate spirits  and with other      
worlds still nearer to the divine1 bring
 us no evidential  proofs4 ,we want     
something more than arbitrary theories  
about the  8immortal triad10 the 8three 
worlds10 the 8astral body10 the         
8permanent  atom10 or the               
8,karma-,loka40 ,as their sensibility is
 keener1 their  perception subtler1     
their spiritual intuition more          
penetrating than  ours1 why do they not 
choose as a field for investigation the 
phenomena  of prenatal memory1 for      
instance1 to take one subject at random 
from a  multitude of others1 phenomena  
which1 although sporadic and open to    
question1 are still admissible8 ,we are 
only too eager to allow ourselves  to be
 convinced1 for all that adds anything  

to man's importance1 range  or duration 
must needs be gladly welcomed4#c        
-----    ,footnote #c3       ,to learn  
the precise truth about the             
neotheosophical movement and its        
first manifestations1 the reader should 
study the striking report    drawn up1  
after an impartial1 but strict enquiry1 
by ,dr4 ,hodgson1 who    was sent to    
,india for this special purpose by the  
,society for    ,psychical ,research4   
,in it he unveils1 in a masterly        
fashion1 the    obvious and often clumsy
 impositions of the famous ,mme4        
,blavatsky and    the whole             
neotheosophical organization            
7,proceedings1 ,vol4 ,,iii1 pp4         
#bja-djj3 ,hodgson's ,report on         
,phenomena connected with ,theosophy74  
-----                                   
,,chapter ,v                            
,,the ,,neospiritualistic               
,,hypothesis3 ,,apparitions             
#a    ,outside theosophy1 investigations
 of a purely scientific nature have     

been made in the baffling regions of    
survival and reincarnation4             
,neospiritualism1 or psychicism or      
experimental spiritualism1 had its      
origin in ,america in #ahgj4 ,in the    
following year1 the first strictly      
scientific experiments were organized by
 ,sir ,william ,crookes1 the man of     
genius who opened up most of the roads  
at the end of which men were  astounded 
to discover unknown properties and      
conditions of matter2 and1  as early as 
#ahgc or #ahgd1 he obtained1 with the   
aid of the medium  ,florence ,cook1     
phenomena of materialization that have  
hardly been  surpassed4 ,but the real   
inauguration of the new science dates   
from the  foundation of the ,society of 
,psychical ,research1 familiarly known  
as the  ,s4,p4,r4 ,this society was     
formed in ,london1 twenty-eight years   
ago1 under  the auspices of the most    
distinguished men of science in ,england
 and  has1 as we know1 made a methodical
 and strict study of every case of      

supernormal psychology and sensibility4 
,this study or investigation1           
originally conducted by ,edmund ,gurney1
 ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers and ,frank ,podmore 
and continued by their successors1 is a 
masterpiece of scientific  patience and 
conscientiousness4 ,not an incident is  
admitted that is not  supported by      
unimpeachable testimony1 by definite    
written records and  convincing         
corroboration2 in a word1 it is hardly  
possible to contest  the essential      
veracity of the majority of them1 unless
 we begin by  making up our minds to    
deny any positive value to human        
evidence and by  making any conviction1 
any certainty impossible that derives   
its source  therefrom4#d ,among those   
supernormal manifestations1 telepathy1  
telergy1 previsions and so forth1 we    
will take cognizance only of those      
which relate to life beyond the grave4  
,they can be divided into two           
categories3 7#a7 real1 objective and    
spontaneous apparitions1 or direct      

manifestations2 7#b7 manifestations     
obtained by the agency of mediums1      
whether induced apparitions1 which we   
will put aside for the moment  because  
of their frequently questionable        
character1#e or communications  with the
 dead by word of mouth or automatic     
writing4 ,we will stop for a  moment to 
consider those extraordinary            
communications4 ,they have been  studied
 at length by such men as ,f4 ,w4 ,h4   
,myers1 ,richard ,hodgson1 ,sir  ,oliver
 ,lodge and the philosopher ,william    
,james1 the father of the new           
pragmatism2 they profoundly impressed   
and almost convinced these men and  they
 therefore deserve to arrest our        
attention4    -----    ,footnote #d3    
,how strict these investigations are is 
shown by the perpetual attacks    on the
 ,s4,p4,r4 in the spiritualistic press1 
which constantly refers to    it as the 
,society 8for the suppression of facts10
 8for the wholesale    imputation of    
imposture10 8for the discouragement of  

the sensitive and    for the repudiation
 of every revelation of the kind which  
was said to    be pressing itself upon  
humanity from the regions of light and  
knowledge40    ,footnote #e3      ,it   
would1 however1 be unjust to assert that
 all these apparitions are    open to   
question4 ,for instance1 it is          
impossible to deny the reality    of the
 celebrated ,katie ,king1 the double of 
,florence ,cook1 whose    actions and   
movements were rigorously investigated  
and controlled by a    man like ,sir    
,william ,crookes for a period of three 
years4 ,but1 looked    upon as a proof  
of survival--notwithstanding that ,katie
 ,king professed    to be a dead person 
who had returned to earth to expiate    
certain    sins--her manifestations are 
not so valuable as the communications   
obtained since her time4 ,in any case1  
they bring us no revelation             
concerning existence beyond the grave2  
and ,katie1 who was so young1 so    much
 alive1 whose pulsations could be       

counted1 whose heart was heard          
beating1 who was photographed1 who      
distributed locks of her hair to        
those present1 who replied to every     
question put to her1 ,katie herself     
never uttered a word on the subject of  
the secrets of the next world4    ----- 
#b    ,as concerns the manifestations of
 the first category1 it is1 of course1  
impossible to give even a summary       
account of the most striking of them  in
 these pages2 and ,i refer the reader to
 the volumes of the  ,proceedings4 ,it  
is enough to remember that numerous     
apparitions of  deceased persons have   
been investigated and studied by men of 
science  like ,sir ,william ,crookes1   
,alfred ,russel ,wallace1 ,robert ,dale 
,owen1  ,professor ,aksakof1 ,paul      
,gibier and others4 ,gurney1 who is one 
of the  classics of this new science1   
gives two hundred and thirty instances  
of  this sort2 and1 since then1 the     
,journal of the ,s4,p4,r4 and the       
spiritualistic reviews have never ceased

 to record new ones4 ,it appears        
therefore to be as well established as a
 fact can be that a spiritual or        
nervous shape1 an image1 a belated      
reflexion of life is capable of         
subsisting for some time1 of releasing  
itself from the body1 of  surviving it1 
of traversing enormous distances in the 
twinkling of an  eye1 of manifesting    
itself to the living and1 sometimes1 of 
communicating with them4    ,for the    
rest1 we have to recognize that these   
apparitions are very  brief4 ,they only 
take place at the precise moment of     
death or follow  very shortly after4    
,they do not seem to have the least     
consciousness of  a new or              
superterrestrial life differing from    
that of the body whence  they issue4 ,on
 the contrary1 their spiritual energy1  
at a time when it  ought to be          
absolutely pure1 because it is rid of   
matter1 seems greatly  inferior to what 
it was when matter surrounded it4 ,these
 more or less  uneasy phantasms1 often  

tormented with trivial cares1 have      
never1  although they come from another 
world1 brought us one single revelation 
of topical interest concerning that     
world whose prodigious threshold  they  
have crossed4 ,soon1 they fade away and 
disappear for ever4 ,are they  the first
 glimmers of a new existence or the     
final glimmers of the old8  ,do the dead
 thus use1 for want of a better1 the    
last link that binds  them and makes    
them perceptible to our senses8 ,do they
 afterwards go on  living around us1    
without again succeeding1 in spite of   
their  endeavours1 in making themselves 
known or giving us an idea of their     
presence1 because we have not the organ 
that is necessary to perceive  them1    
even as all our endeavours would not    
succeed in giving a man who  was blind  
from birth the least notion of light and
 colour8 ,we do not  know at all2 nor   
can we tell whether it be permissible to
 draw any  conclusion from all these    
incontestable phenomena4 ,they would    

really  assume importance only if it    
were possible to verify or to induce    
apparitions of beings whose death dated 
back a certain number of years4  ,we    
should then at last have the positive   
proof1 which has always escaped  us     
hitherto1 that the spirit is independent
 of the body1 that it is  cause1 not    
effect1 that it can thrive1 find        
sustenance and perform its  functions   
without organs4 ,the greatest question  
that humanity has ever  set itself would
 thus be1 if not solved1 at least rid of
 some of its  obscurity2 and1 forthwith1
 personal survival1 while continuing to 
be  wrapped in the mysteries of the     
beginning and the end1 would become     
defensible4 ,but we have not yet reached
 that stage4 ,meanwhile1 it is          
interesting to observe that there really
 are ghosts1 spectres and  phantoms4    
,once again1 science steps in to confirm
 a general belief of  mankind and to    
teach us that a belief of this sort1    
however absurd it  may at first seem1   

still deserves careful examination4     
,,chapter ,,vi                          
,,communications ,,with ,,the ,,dead    
#a    ,the spiritualists communicate or 
think that they communicate with the    
dead by means of what they call         
automatic speech and writing4 ,these are
  obtained by the agency of a medium#f  
in a state of ecstasy or rather of      
8trance10 to employ the vocabulary of   
the new science4 ,this condition is  not
 one of hypnotic sleep1 nor does it seem
 to be an hysterical  manifestation2 it 
is often associated1 as in the case of  
the medium ,mrs4  ,piper1 with perfect  
health and complete intellectual and    
physical  balance4 ,it is rather the    
more or less voluntary emergence of a   
second  or subliminal personality or    
consciousness of the medium2 or1 if we  
admit the spiritualistic hypothesis1 his
 occupation1 his 8psychic  invasion10 as
 ,myers calls it1 by forces from another
 world4 ,in the  8entranced0 subject1   
the normal consciousness and personality

 are  entirely done away with2 and he   
replies 8automatically10 sometimes by   
word of mouth1 more often in writing1 to
 the questions put to him4 ,it  has     
happened that he speaks and writes      
simultaneously1 his voice being         
occupied by one spirit and his hand by  
another1 who thus carry on two          
independent conversations4 ,more rarely1
 the voice and the two hands are        
8possessed0 at one and the same time2   
and we receive three different          
communications4 ,obviously1             
manifestations of this sort lend        
themselves  to frauds and impostures of 
every kind2 and the distrust aroused is 
at  first invincible4 ,but there are    
some that make their appearance         
encompassed with such guarantees of good
 faith and sincerity1 so often1  so long
 and so rigorously checked by scientific
 men of unimpeachable  character and    
authority and of originally inflexible  
scepticism that it  becomes difficult to
 maintain a suspicion at the finish4#g  

,unfortunately1 ,i am not able to enter 
here into the details of some of  these 
purely scientific sittings1 those for   
instance of ,mrs4 ,piper1 the  famous   
medium with whom ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers1    
,richard ,hodgson1 ,professor  ,newbold1
 of the ,university of ,pennsylvania1   
,sir ,oliver ,lodge and ,william  ,james
 worked during a number of years4 ,on   
the other hand1 it is  precisely the    
accumulation and coincidences of these  
abnormal details  which gradually       
produce and confirm the conviction that 
we are in the  presence of an entirely  
new1 improbable1 but genuine phenomenon1
 which  is sometimes difficult of       
classification among exclusively        
terrestrial  phenomena4 ,i should have  
to devote to these 8communications0 a   
special  study which would exceed the   
limits of this essay2 and ,i will       
therefore  content myself with referring
 those who care to know more of the     
subject  to ,sir ,oliver ,lodge's book1 
,the ,survival of ,man1 recently        

translated  into ,french under the title
 of ,la ,survivance humaine2 and1 above 
all1  to the twenty-five bulky volumes  
of the ,proceedings of the ,s4,p4,r41   
notably to the report and comments of   
,william ,james on the ,piper-,hodgson  
sittings in ,vol4 ,,xxiii4 and to ,vol4 
,,xiii41 where ,hodgson examines the    
facts and arguments that may be adduced 
for or against the agency of the  dead2 
and1 lastly1 to ,myers' great work1     
,human ,personality and its  ,survival  
after ,bodily ,death4    -----          
,footnote #f3      ,those who take up   
the study of these supernormal          
manifestations    usually ask           
themselves3      8,why mediums8 ,why    
make use of these often questionable and
 always    inadequate intermediaries80  
,the reason is that1 hitherto1 no way   
has been discovered of doing    without 
them4 ,if we admit the spiritualistic   
theory1 the discarnate    spirits which 
surround us on every side and which are 
separated from    us by the impenetrable

 and mysterious wall of death seek1 in  
order to    communicate with us1 the    
line of least resistance between the two
    worlds and find it in the medium1   
without our knowing why1 even as we     
do not know why an electric current     
passes along copper wire and is         
stopped by glass or porcelain4 ,if1 on  
the other hand1 we admit the            
telepathic hypothesis1 which is the more
 probable1 we observe that the          
thoughts1 intentions or suggestions     
transmitted are1 in the majority    of  
cases1 not conveyed from one            
subconscious intelligence to another4   
,there is need of an organism that is1  
at the same time1 a receiver and    a   
transmitter2 and this organism is found 
in the medium4 ,why8 ,once    more1 we  
know absolutely nothing about it1 even  
as we do not know why    one body or    
combination of bodies is sensitive to   
concentric waves in    wireless         
telegraphy1 while another is not        
affected by it4 ,we here    grope1 as1  

for that matter1 we grope almost        
everywhere1 in the obscure    domain of 
undisputed1 but inexplicable facts4     
,those who care to    possess more      
precise notions on the theory of        
mediumism will do well    to read the   
admirable address delivered by ,sir     
,william ,crookes1 as    president of   
the ,s4,p4,r41 on the #bith of ,january 
#ahig4    ,footnote #g3      ,these     
questions of fraud and imposture are    
naturally the first that    suggest     
themselves when we begin to study these 
phenomena4 ,but the    slightest        
acquaintance with the life1 habits and  
proceedings of the    three or four     
great mediums of whom we are going to   
speak is enough to    remove even the   
faintest shadow of suspicion4 ,of all   
the explanations    conceivable1 that   
one which attributes everything to      
imposture and    trickery is            
unquestionably the most extraordinary   
and the least    probable4 ,moreover1 by
 reading ,richard ,hodgson's report     

entitled1    ,observations of certain   
,phenomena of ,trance 7,proceedings1    
,vols4    ,,viii4 and ,,xiii42 and also 
,j4 ,h4 ,hyslop's report1 ,vol4 ,,xvi471
 we can    observe the precautions      
taken1 even to the extent of employing  
special    detectives1 to make certain  
that ,mrs4 ,piper1 for instance1 was    
unable1    normally and humanly         
speaking1 to have any knowledge of the  
facts    which she revealed4 ,i repeat1 
from the moment that one enters upon    
this study1 all suspicions are dispelled
 without leaving a trace    behind them2
 and we are soon convinced that the key 
to the riddle must    not be sought in  
imposture4 ,all the manifestations of   
the dumb1    mysterious and oppressed   
personality that lies concealed in every
 one    of us have to undergo the same  
ordeal in their turn2 and those which   
relate to the divining-rod1 to name no  
others1 are at this moment    passing   
through the same crisis of incredulity4 
,less than fifty years    ago1 the      

majority of the hypnotic phenomena which
 are now    scientifically classified   
were likewise looked upon as fraudulent4
 ,it    seems that man is loth to admit 
that there lie within him many more     
things than he imagined4    -----       
#b    ,the 8entranced0 mediums are      
invaded or possessed by different       
familiar  spirits to whom the new       
science gives the somewhat inappropriate
 and  ambiguous name of 8controls40     
,thus1 ,mrs4 ,piper is visited in       
succession  by ,phinuit1 ,george        
,pelham1 or 8,g4,p410 ,imperator1       
,doctor and ,rector4 ,mrs4  ,thompson1  
another very celebrated medium1 has     
,nelly for her usual  tenant1 while     
graver and more illustrious personages  
would take  possession of ,stainton     
,moses the clergyman4 ,each of these    
spirits  retains a sharply defined      
character1 which is consistent          
throughout and  which1 moreover1 for the
 most part bears no relation to that of 
the  medium4 ,amongst these1 ,phinuit   

and ,nelly are undoubtedly the most     
attractive1 the most original1 the most 
living1 the most active and1  above all1
 the most talkative4 ,they centralize   
the communications after  a fashion2    
they come and go officiously2 and1      
should any one of those  present wish to
 be brought into touch with the soul of 
a deceased  relative or friend1 they fly
 in search of it1 find it amid the      
invisible  throng1 usher it in1 announce
 its presence1 speak in its name1       
transmit  and1 so to speak1 translate   
the questions and replies2 for it seems 
that  it is very difficult for the dead 
to communicate with the living and  that
 they need special aptitudes and a      
concurrence of extraordinary            
circumstances4 ,we will not yet examine 
what they have to reveal to us2  but to 
see them thus fluttering to and fro amid
 the multitude of their  discarnate     
brothers and sisters gives us a first   
impression of the next  world which is  
none too reassuring2 and we say to      

ourselves that the  dead of to-day are  
strangely like those whom ,ulysses      
conjured up out the  ,cimmerian darkness
 three thousand years ago3 pale and     
empty shades1  bewildered1 incoherent1  
puerile and terror-stricken1 like unto  
dreams1  more numerous than the leaves  
that fall in autumn and1 like them1     
trembling in the unknown winds from the 
vast plains of the other world4  ,they  
no longer even have enough life to be   
unhappy and seem to drag out1  we know  
not where1 a precarious and idle        
existence1 to wander aimlessly1  to     
hover round us1 slumbering or chattering
 among one another of the  minor matters
 of the world2 and1 when a gap is made  
in their darkness1  to come up in haste 
from all sides1 like flocks of famished 
birds1  hungering for light and the     
sound of a human voice4 ,and1 in spite  
of  ourselves1 we think of the ,odyssey 
and the sinister words of the shade  of 
,achilles as it issued from ,erebus3    
8,do not1 ,o illustrious ,ulysses1 speak

 to me of death2 ,i would wish1  being  
on earth1 to serve for hire with another
 man of no estate1 who had  not much    
livelihood1 rather than rule over all   
the departed dead40                     
#c    ,what have these latter-day dead  
to tell us8 ,to begin with1 it is a     
remarkable thing that they appear to be 
much more interested in events  here    
below than in those of the world wherein
 they move4 ,they seem1  above all1     
jealous to establish their identity1 to 
prove that they still  exist1 that they 
recognize us1 that they know everything2
 and1 to  convince us of this1 they     
enter into the most minute and forgotten
  details with extraordinary precision1 
perspicacity and prolixity4 ,they  are  
also extremely clever at unravelling the
 intricate family connexions  of the    
person actually questioning them1 of any
 of the sitters1 or even  of a stranger 
entering the room4 ,they recall this    
one's little  infirmities1 that one's   
maladies1 the eccentricities or         

tendencies of a  third4 ,they have      
cognizance of events taking place at a  
distance3 they  see1 for instance1 and  
describe to their hearers in ,london an 
insignificant episode in ,canada4 ,in a 
word1 they say and do almost all  the   
disconcerting and inexplicable things   
that are sometimes obtained  from a     
first-rate medium2 perhaps they even go 
a little further2 but  there comes from 
it all no breath1 no glimmer of the     
hereafter1 not even  the something      
vaguely promised and vaguely waited for4
    ,we shall be told that the mediums  
are visited only by inferior spirits1   
incapable of tearing themselves from    
earthly cares and soaring towards       
greater and loftier ideas4 ,it is       
possible2 and no doubt we are wrong to  
believe that a spirit stripped of its   
body can suddenly be transformed  and   
reach1 in a moment1 the level of our    
imaginings2 but could they not  at least
 inform us where they are1 what they    
feel and what they do8                  

#d    ,and now it seems that death      
itself has elected to answer these      
objections4 ,frederic ,myers1 ,richard  
,hodgson and ,william ,james1 who so    
often1 for long and ardent hours1       
questioned ,mrs4 ,piper and ,mrs4       
,thompson and obliged the departed to   
speak by their mouths1 are now          
themselves among the shades1 on the     
other side of the curtain of  darkness4 
,they at least knew exactly what to do  
in order to reach us1  what to reveal in
 order to allay men's uneasy curiosity4 
,myers in  particular1 the most ardent1 
the most convinced1 the most impatient  
of  the veil that parted him from the   
eternal realities1 formally promised    
those who were continuing his work that 
he would make every imaginable  effort  
out yonder1 in the unknown1 to come to  
their aid in a decisive  fashion4 ,he   
kept his word4 ,a month after his death1
 when ,sir ,oliver  ,lodge was          
questioning ,mrs4 ,thompson in her      
trance1 ,nelly1 the medium's  familiar  

spirit1 suddenly declared that she had  
seen ,myers1 that he was  not yet fully 
awake1 but that he hoped to come1 at    
nine o'clock in the  evening1 and       
8communicate0 with his old friend of the
 ,psychical ,society4    ,the sitting   
was suspended and resumed at half past  
eight2 and ,myers'  8communication0 was 
at last obtained4 ,he was recognized by 
the first few  words he spoke2 it was   
really he2 he had not changed4 ,faithful
 to his  idiosyncracy when on earth1 he 
at once insisted on the necessity for   
taking notes4 ,but he seemed dazed4     
,they spoke to him of the ,society for  
,psychical ,research1 the sole interest 
of his life4 ,he had lost all           
recollection of it4 ,then memory        
gradually revived2 and there followed a 
quantity of post-mortem gossip on the   
subject of the society's next           
president1 the obituary article in the  
,times1 the letters that should  be     
published and so on4 ,he complained that
 people would not let him  rest1 that   

there was not a place in ,england where 
they did not ask for  him3    8,call    
,myers6 ,bring ,myers60    ,he ought to 
be given time to collect himself1 to    
reflect4 ,he also  complained of the    
difficulty of conveying his ideas       
through the mediums3  8they were        
translating like a schoolboy does his   
first lines of  ,virgil40#h ,as for his 
present condition1 8he groped his way as
 if  through passages1 before he knew he
 was dead4 ,he thought he had lost his  
way in a strange town 444 and1 even when
 he saw people that he knew were  dead1 
he thought they were only visions40     
,this1 together with more chatter of a  
no less trivial nature1 is about  all   
that we obtained from ,myers' 8control0 
or 8impersonation10 of which  better    
things had been expected4 ,the          
8communication0 and many others  which1 
it appears1 recall in a striking fashion
 ,myers' habits1 character  and ways of 
thinking and speaking1 would possess    
some value if none of  those by whom or 

to whom they were made had been         
acquainted with him at  the time when he
 was still numbered among the living4   
,as they stand1  they are most probably 
but reminiscences of a secondary        
personality of  the medium or           
unconscious suggestions of the          
questioner or the sitters4    -----     
,footnote #h3      ,in this and other   
8communications10 ,i have quoted the    
actual ,english    words employed1      
whenever ,i have been able to discover  
them4--,translator4    -----            
#e    ,a more important communication   
and a more perplexing1 because of the   
names connected with it1 is that which  
is known as 8,mrs4 ,piper's             
,hodgson-,control40 ,professor ,william 
,james devotes an account of over a     
hundred and twenty pages to it in ,vol4 
,,xxiii4 of the ,proceedings4 ,dr4      
,hodgson1 in his lifetime1 was secretary
 of the ,american branch of the         
,s4,p4,r41 of which ,william ,james was 
vice-president4 ,for many years1 he     

devoted himself to the medium ,mrs4     
,piper1 working with her twice a week   
and thus accumulating an enormous mass  
of documents on the subject of          
posthumous manifestations1 a mass whose 
wealth has not yet been  exhausted4     
,like ,myers1 he had promised to come   
back after his death2  and1 in his      
jovial way1 he had more than once       
declared to ,mrs4 ,piper  that1 when he 
came to visit her in his turn1 as he had
 more experience  than the other        
spirits1 the sittings would take a more 
decisive shape  and that 8he would make 
it hot for them40 ,he did come back1 a  
week after  his death1 and manifested   
himself by automatic writing 7which1    
with ,mrs4  ,piper as medium1 was the   
most usual method of communication7     
during  several sittings at which       
,william ,james was present4 ,i should  
like to  give an idea of these          
manifestations4 ,but1 as the celebrated 
,harvard  professor very truly observes1
 the shorthand report of a sitting of   

this  kind at once alters its aspect    
from start to finish4 ,we seek in vain  
for  the emotion experienced on thus    
finding one's self in the presence of an
  invisible but living being1 who not   
only answers your questions1 but        
anticipates your thoughts1 understands  
before you have finished  speaking1     
grasps an allusion and caps it with     
another allusion1 grave or  smiling4    
,the life of the dead man1 which1 during
 a strange hour1 had1 so  to speak1     
surrounded and penetrated you1 seems to 
be extinguished for  the second time4   
,stenography1 which is devoid of all    
emotion1 no doubt  supplies the best    
elements for arriving at a logical      
conclusion2 but it  is not certain that 
here1 as in many other cases where the  
unknown  predominates1 logic is the only
 road that leads to the truth4    8,when
 ,i first undertook10 says ,william     
,james1 8to collate this series of      
sittings and make the present report1 ,i
 supposed that my verdict would  be     

determined by pure logic4 ,certain      
minute incidents1 ,i thought1 ought  to 
make for spirit-return or against it in 
a #8crucial' way4 ,but watching  my mind
 work as it goes over the data1         
convinces me that exact logic  plays    
only a preparatory part in shaping our  
conclusions here2 and that  the decisive
 vote1 if there be one1 has to be cast  
by what ,i may call  one's general sense
 of dramatic probability1 which sense   
ebbs and flows  from one hypothesis to  
another--it does so in the present      
writer at  least--in a rather illogical 
manner4 ,if one sticks to the detail1   
one may  draw an anti-spiritist         
conclusion2 if one thinks more of what  
the whole  mass may signify1 one may    
well incline to spiritist               
interpretations40#i    ,and1 at the end 
of his article1 he sums up in the       
following words3    8,i myself feel as  
if an external will to communicate were 
probably  there1 that is1 ,i find myself
 doubting1 in consequence of my whole   

acquaintance with that sphere of        
phenomena1 that ,mrs4 ,piper's          
dream-life1 even equipped with          
#8telepathic' powers1 accounts for all  
the  results found4 ,but if asked       
whether the will to communicate be      
,hodgson's1 or be some mere             
spirit-counterfeit of ,hodgson1 ,i      
remain  uncertain and await more facts1 
facts which may not point clearly to a  
conclusion for fifty or a hundred       
years40#aj    ,as we see1 ,william      
,james is inclined to waver2 and at     
certain points in  his account he       
appears to waver still more and indeed  
to say  deliberately that the spirits   
8have a finger in the pie40 ,these      
hesitations on the part of a man who has
 revolutionized our  psychological ideas
 and who possessed a brain as           
wonderfully organized  and well-balanced
 as that of our own ,taine1 for         
instance1 are very  significant4 ,as a  
doctor of medicine and a professor of   
philosophy1  sceptical by nature and    

scrupulously faithful to experimental   
methods1  he was thrice qualified to    
conduct investigations of this kind to a
  successful conclusion4 ,it is not a   
question of allowing ourselves1 in  our 
turn1 to be unduly influenced by those  
hesitations2 but1 in any  case1 they    
show that the problem is a serious one1 
the gravest1 perhaps1  if the facts were
 beyond dispute1 which we have had to   
solve since the  coming of ,christ2 and 
that we must not expect to dismiss it   
with a shrug  or a laugh4    -----      
,footnote #i3      ,proceedings1 ,vol4  
,,xxiii1 p4 #cc4    ,footnote #aj3      
,ibid4 p4 #abj4    -----                
#f    ,i am obliged1 for lack of space1 
to refer those who wish to form an      
opinion of their own on the             
8,piper-,hodgson0 case to the text of   
the  ,proceedings4 ,the case1 at the    
same time1 is far from being one of the 
most striking2 it should rather be      
classed1 were it not for the  importance
 of the sitters concerned1 among the    

minor successes of the  ,piper series4  
,hodgson1 according to the invariable   
custom of the  spirits1 is1 first of    
all1 bent on making himself recognized2 
and the  inevitable and tedious string  
of trifling reminiscences begins twenty 
times over again and fills page after   
page4 ,as usual in such instances1  the 
recollections common to both the        
questioner and the spirit who is        
supposed to reply are brought out in    
their most circumstantial1 their  most  
insignificant and also their most       
private details with astonishing        
eagerness1 precision and vivacity4 ,and 
observe that1 for all these  details1   
which he discloses with such            
extraordinary facility1 the dead  man   
speaking goes by preference1 one would  
say1 to the most hidden and  forgotten  
treasures of the living listener's      
memory4 ,he spares him  nothing2 he     
harps on everything with childish       
satisfaction and  apprehensive          
solicitude1 not so much to persuade     

others as to prove to  himself that he  
still exists4 ,and the obstinacy of this
 poor invisible  being1 in striving to  
manifest himself through the hitherto   
uncrannied  doors that separate us from 
our eternal destinies1 is at once       
ridiculous  and tragic3    8,do you     
remember1 ,william1 when we were in the 
country at ,so-and-so's1  that game we  
played with the children2 do you        
remember my saying  such-and-such a     
thing when ,i was in that room where    
there was  such-and-such a chair or     
table80    8,why1 yes1 ,hodgson1 ,i do  
remember now40    8,a good test1 that80 
8,first-rate1 ,hodgson60    ,and so on1 
indefinitely4 ,sometimes1 there is a    
more significant incident  that seems to
 surpass the mere transmission of       
subliminal thought4 ,they  are talking1 
for instance1 of a frustrated marriage  
which was always  surrounded with great 
mystery1 even to ,hodgson's most        
intimate friends3    8,do you remember a
 lady-doctor in ,new ,york1 a member of 

our society80    8,no1 but what about   
her80    8,her husband's name was ,blair
 444 ,i think40    8,do you mean ,dr4   
,blair ,thaw80    8,oh1 yes4 ,ask ,mrs4 
,thaw if ,i did not at a dinner-party   
mention something  about the lady4 ,i   
may have done so40    ,james writes to  
,mrs4 ,thaw1 who declares that1 as a    
matter of fact1  fifteen years before1  
,hodgson had said to her that he had    
just proposed  to a girl and been       
refused4 ,mrs4 ,thaw and ,dr4 ,newbold  
were the only  people in the world who  
knew the particulars4    ,but to come to
 the further sittings4 ,among other     
points discussed is the  financial      
position of the ,american branch of the 
,s4,p4,r41 a position  which1 at the    
death of the secretary1 or rather       
factotum1 ,hodgson1 was  anything but   
brilliant4 ,and behold the somewhat     
strange spectacle of  different members 
of the society debating its affairs with
 their defunct  secretary4 ,shall they  
dissolve8 ,shall they amalgamate8 ,shall

 they send  the materials collected1    
most of which are ,hodgson's1 to        
,england8 ,they  consult the dead man2  
he replies1 gives good advice1 seems    
fully aware  of all the complications1  
all the difficulties4 ,one day1 in      
,hodgson's  life-time1 when the society 
was found to be short of funds1 an      
anonymous  donor had sent the sum       
necessary to relieve it from            
embarrassment4  ,hodgson alive did not  
know who the donor was2 ,hodgson dead   
picks him out  among those present1     
addresses him by name and thanks him    
publicly4 ,on  another occasion1        
,hodgson1 like all the spirits1         
complains of the  extreme difficulty    
which he finds in conveying his thought 
through the  alien organism of the      
medium3    8,i find now difficulties    
such as a blind man would experience in 
trying  to find his hat10 he says4      
,but1 when1 after so much idle chatter1 
,william ,james at last puts the        
essential questions that burn our       

lips--8,hodgson1 what have you to tell  
us about the other life80--the dead man 
becomes shifty and does nothing  but    
seek evasions3    8,it is not a vague   
fantasy but a reality10 he replies4     
8,but10 ,mrs4 ,william ,james insists1  
8do you live as we do1 as men do80      
8,what does she say80 asks the spirit1  
pretending not to understand4    8,do   
you live as men do80 repeats ,william   
,james4    8,do you wear clothing and   
live in houses80 adds his wife4    8,oh 
yes1 houses1 but not clothing4 ,no1 that
 is absurd4 ,just wait a  moment1 ,i am 
going to get out40    8,you will come   
back again80    8,yes40    8,he has got 
to go out and get his breath10 remarks  
another spirit1 named  ,rector1 suddenly
 intervening4    ,it has not been waste 
of time1 perhaps1 to reproduce the      
general  features of one of these       
sittings which may be regarded as       
typical4 ,i  will add1 in order to give 
an idea of the farthest point which it  
is  possible to attain1 the following   

instance of an experiment made by ,sir  
,oliver ,lodge and related by him4 ,he  
handed ,mrs4 ,piper1 in her 8trance10  a
 gold watch which had just been sent him
 by one of his uncles and which         
belonged to that uncle's twin brother1  
who had died twenty years before4  ,when
 the watch was in her possession1 ,mrs4 
,piper1 or rather ,phinuit1 one  of her 
familiar spirits1 began to relate a host
 of details concerning  the childhood of
 this twin brother1 facts dating back   
for more than  sixty-six years and of   
course unknown to ,sir ,oliver ,lodge4  
,soon after1  the surviving uncle1 who  
lived in another town1 wrote and        
confirmed the  accuracy of most of these
 details1 which he had quite forgotten  
and of  which he was only now reminded  
by the medium's revelations2 while those
  which he could not recollect at all   
were subsequently declared to be in     
accordance with fact by a third uncle1  
an old sea-captain1 who lived in        
,cornwall and who had not the least     

notion why such strange questions  were 
put to him4    ,i quote this instance   
not because it has any exceptional or   
decisive  value1 but simply1 ,i repeat1 
by way of an example2 for1 like the case
  connected with ,mrs4 ,thaw1 mentioned 
above1 it marks pretty exactly the      
extreme points to which people have up  
to now1 thanks to spirit agency1        
penetrated the mysteries of the unknown4
 ,it is well to add that cases in  which
 the supposed limits of the most        
far-reaching telepathy are so           
manifestly exceeded are fairly uncommon4
                                        
#g    ,now what are we to think of all  
this8 ,must we1 with ,myers1 ,newbold1  
,hyslop1 ,hodgson and so many others1   
who studied this problem at length1     
conclude in favour of the incontestable 
agency of forces and  intelligences     
returning from the farther bank of the  
great river which  it was deemed that   
none might cross8 ,must we acknowledge  
with them that  there are cases ever    

more numerous which make it impossible  
for us to  hesitate any longer between  
the telepathic hypothesis and the       
spiritualistic hypothesis8 ,i do not    
think so4 ,i have no prejudices--what   
were the use of having any1 in these    
mysteries8--no reluctance to admit  the 
survival and the intervention of the    
dead2 but it is wise and  necessary1    
before leaving the terrestrial plane1 to
 exhaust all the  suppositions1 all the 
explanations there to be discovered4 ,we
 have to  make our choice between two   
manifestations of the unknown1 two      
miracles1  if you prefer1 whereof one is
 situated in the world which we inhabit 
and  the other in a region which1       
rightly or wrongly1 we believe to be    
separated from us by nameless spaces    
which no human being1 alive or  dead1   
has crossed to this day4 ,it is natural1
 therefore1 that we should  stay in our 
own world1 as long as it gives us a     
foothold1 as long as we  are not        
pitilessly expelled from it by a series 

of irresistible and  irrefutable facts  
issuing from the adjoining abyss4 ,the  
survival of a  spirit is no more        
improbable than the prodigious faculties
 which we are  obliged to attribute to  
the mediums if we deny them to the dead2
 but the  existence of the medium1      
contrary to that of the spirit1 is      
unquestionable2 and therefore it is for 
the spirit1 or for those who  make use  
of its name1 first to prove that it     
exists4    ,do the extraordinary        
phenomena of which we have              
spoken--transmission of  thought from   
one subconscious mind to another1       
perception of events at a  distance1    
subliminal clairvoyance--occur when the 
dead are not in  evidence1 when the     
experiments are being made exclusively  
between living  persons8 ,this cannot be
 honestly contested4 ,certainly no one  
has ever  obtained among living people  
series of communications or revelations 
similar to those of the great           
spiritualistic mediums1 ,mrs4 ,piper1   

,mrs4  ,thompson and ,stainton ,moses1  
nor anything that can be compared with  
these so far as continuity or lucidity  
is concerned4 ,but1 though the  quality 
of the phenomena will not bear          
comparison1 it cannot be denied  that   
their inner nature is identical4 ,it is 
logical to infer from this  that the    
real cause lies not in the source of    
inspiration1 but in the  personal value1
 the sensitiveness1 the power of the    
medium4 ,for the  rest1 ,mr4 ,j4 ,g4    
,piddington1 who devoted an exceedingly 
detailed study to  ,mrs4 ,thompson1     
plainly perceived in her1 when she was  
not 8entranced0  and when there were no 
spirits whatever in question1           
manifestations  inferior1 it is true1   
but absolutely analogous to those       
involving the  dead4#aa ,these mediums  
are pleased1 in all good faith and      
probably  unconsciously1 to give to     
their subliminal faculties1 to their    
secondary  personalities1 or to accept1 
on their behalf1 names which were borne 

by  beings who have crossed to the      
farther side of the mystery3 this is a  
matter of vocabulary or nomenclature    
which neither lessens nor increases  the
 intrinsic significance of the facts4   
,well1 in examining these facts1        
however strange and really unparalleled 
some of them may be1 ,i never  find one 
which proceeds frankly from this world  
or which comes  indisputably from the   
other4 ,they are1 if you wish1          
phenomenal border  incidents2 but it    
cannot be said that the border has been 
violated4 ,in  the story of ,sir ,oliver
 ,lodge's watch1 for instance1 which is 
one of the  most characteristic and one 
which carries us    farther than most1  
we must attribute to the medium         
faculties that have  ceased to be human4
 ,she must have put herself in touch1   
whether by  perception of events at a   
distance1 or by transmission of thought 
from  one subconscious mind to another1 
or again by subliminal clairvoyance1    
with the two surviving brothers of the  

deceased owner of the watch2 and1  in   
the past subconsciousness of those two  
brothers1 distant from each  other1 she 
had to rediscover a host of             
circumstances which they  themselves had
 forgotten and which lay hidden beneath 
the heaped-up dust  and darkness of     
six-and-sixty years4 ,it is certain that
 a phenomenon of  this kind passes the  
bounds of the imagination and that we   
should refuse  to credit it if1 first of
 all1 the experiment had not been       
controlled  and certified by a man of   
the standing of ,sir ,oliver ,lodge and 
if1  moreover1 it did not form one of a 
group of equally significant facts      
which clearly show that we are not here 
concerned with an absolutely  unique    
miracle or with an unhoped-for and      
unprecedented concourse of              
coincidences4 ,it is simply a matter of 
distant perception1 subliminal          
clairvoyance and telepathy raised to the
 highest power2 and these three         
manifestations of the unexplored depths 

of man are to-day recognized and        
classified by science1 which is not     
saying that they are explained3 that  is
 another question4 ,when1 in connexion  
with electricity1 we use such  terms as 
positive1 negative1 induction1 potential
 and resistance1 we are  also applying  
conventional words to facts and         
phenomena of whose inward  essence we   
are utterly ignorant2 and we must needs 
be content with  these1 pending better4 
,there is1 ,i insist1 between these     
extraordinary  manifestations and those 
given to us by a medium who is not      
speaking in  the name of the dead1 but a
 difference of the greater and the      
lesser1 a  difference of extent or      
degree and in no wise a difference in   
kind4    -----    ,footnote #aa3        
,for a discussion of these cases1 which 
would take us too far from our          
subject1 see ,mr4 ,j4 ,g4 ,piddington's 
paper1 ,phenomena in ,mrs4              
,thompson's ,trance 7,proceedings1 ,vol4
 ,,xviii1 pp4 #ahj et seq472    also    

,professor ,a4 ,c4 ,pigou's article in  
,vol4 ,,xxiii 7pp4 #bhf et    seq471    
which treats of 8,cross ,correspondence0
 without the agency of    spirits4      
-----                                   
#h    ,for the proof to be more         
decisive1 it would be necessary that no 
one1  neither the medium nor the        
witnesses1 should ever have known of the
  existence of him whose past is        
revealed by the dead man1 in other      
words1  that every living link should be
 eliminated4 ,i do not believe that this
  has actually occurred up to the       
present1 nor even that it is possible2  
in any case1 it would be very difficult 
to control such an experiment4  ,be this
 as it may1 ,dr4 ,hodgson1 who devoted  
part of his life to the  quest of       
specific phenomena wherein the          
boundaries of mediumistic power  should 
be plainly overstepped1 believes that he
 found them in certain  cases1 of       
which--as the others were of very much  
the same nature--,i will  merely mention

 one of the most striking4#ab ,in a     
course of excellent  sittings with ,mrs4
 ,piper the medium1 he communicated with
 various dead  friends    who reminded  
him of a large number of common         
memories4 ,the medium1 the  spirits and 
he himself seemed in a wonderfully      
accommodating mood2 and  the revelations
 were plentiful1 exact and easy4 ,in    
this extremely  favourable atmosphere1  
he was placed in communication with the 
soul of  one of his best friends1 who   
had died a year before and whom he      
simply  calls 8,a40 ,this ,a1 whom he   
had known more intimately than most of  
the  spirits with whom he had           
communicated previously1 behaved quite  
differently and1 while establishing his 
identity beyond dispute1  vouchsafed    
only incoherent replies4 ,now ,a 8had   
been troubled much1 for  years before   
his death1 by headaches and occasionally
 mental exhaustion1  though not         
amounting to positive mental            
disturbance40    ,the same phenomenon   

appears to recur whenever similar       
troubles have come  before death1 as in 
cases of suicide4    8,if the telepathic
 explanation is held to be the only     
one10 says ,dr4  ,hodgson 7,i give the  
gist of his observations71 8if it is    
claimed that  all the communications of 
these discarnate minds are only         
suggestions  from my subconscious self1 
it is unintelligible that1 after having 
obtained satisfactory results from      
others whom ,i had known far less       
intimately than ,a and with whom ,i had 
consequently far fewer  recollections in
 common1 ,i should get from him1 in the 
same sittings1  nothing but             
incoherencies4 ,i am thus driven to     
believe that my  subliminal self is not 
the only thing in evidence1 that it is  
in the  presence of a real1 living      
personality1 whose mental state is the  
same  as it was at the hour of death1 a 
personality which remains independent   
of my subliminal consciousness and      
absolutely unaffected by it1 which is   

deaf to its suggestions and draws from  
its own resources the revelations  which
 it makes40    ,the argument is not     
without value1 but its full force would 
be obtained  only if it were certain    
that none of those present knew of ,a's 
madness2  otherwise it can be contended 
that1 the notion of madness having      
penetrated the subconscious intelligence
 of one of them1 it worked upon  it and 
gave to the replies induced a form in   
keeping with the state of  mind         
presupposed in the dead man4    -----   
,footnote #ab3      ,proceedings1 ,vol4 
,,xiii1 pp4 #cdi-cej and #cge4    ----- 
#i    ,of a truth1 by extending the     
possibilities of the medium to these    
extremes1 we furnish ourselves with     
explanations which forestall nearly     
everything1 bar every road and all but  
deny to the spirits any power of        
manifesting themselves in the manner    
which they appear to have chosen4  ,but 
why do they choose that manner8 ,why do 
they thus restrict  themselves8 ,why do 

they jealously hug the narrow strip of  
territory  which memory occupies on the 
confines of both worlds and from which  
none  but indecisive or questionable    
evidence can reach us8 ,are there then  
no  other outlets1 no other horizons8   
,why do they tarry around us1 stagnant  
in their little pasts1 when1 in their   
freedom from the flesh1 they ought  to  
be able to wander at ease over the      
virgin stretches of space and  time8 ,do
 they not yet know that the sign which  
will prove to us that  they survive is  
to be found not with us1 but with them1 
on the other  side of the grave8 ,why do
 they come back with empty hands and    
empty  words8 ,is that what one finds   
when one is steeped in infinity8 ,beyond
  our last hour is it all bare and      
shapeless and dim8 ,if it be so1 let    
them tell us2 and the evidence of the   
darkness will at least possess a        
grandeur that is all too absent from    
these cross-examining methods4 ,of  what
 use is it to die1 if all life's        

trivialities continue8 ,is it really    
worth while to have passed through the  
terrifying gorges which open on  the    
eternal fields1 in order to remember    
that we had a great-uncle  called ,peter
 and that our ,cousin ,paul was         
afflicted with varicose veins  and a    
gastric complaint8 ,at that rate1 ,i    
should choose for those whom ,i  love   
the august and frozen solitudes of the  
everlasting nothing4 ,though  it be     
difficult for them1 as they complain1 to
 make themselves  understood through a  
strange and sleep-bound organism1 they  
tell us  enough categorical details     
about the past to show that they could  
disclose similar details1 if not about  
the future1 which they perhaps do  not  
yet know1 at least about the lesser     
mysteries which surround us on  every   
side and which our body alone prevents  
us from approaching4 ,there  are a      
thousand things1 large or small1 alike  
unknown to us1 which we  must perceive  
when feeble eyes no longer arrest our   

vision4 ,it is in  those regions from   
which a shadow separates us and not in  
foolish  tittle-tattle of the past that 
they would at last find the clear and   
genuine proof which they seem to seek   
with such enthusiasm4 ,without          
demanding a great miracle1 one would    
nevertheless think that we had the      
right to expect from a mind which       
nothing now enthrals some other         
discourse than that which it avoided    
when it was still subject to  matter4   
,,chapter ,,vii                         
,,cross ,,correspondence                
#a    ,this is where things stood when1 
of late years1 the mediums1 the         
spiritualists1 or1 rather1 it appears1  
the spirits themselves--for one  cannot 
tell exactly with whom we have to       
do--perhaps dissatisfied at not  being  
more definitely recognized and          
understood1 invented1 for a more        
effectual proof of their existence1 what
 has been called 8cross                 
correspondence40 ,here1 the position is 

reversed3 it is no longer a  question of
 various and more or less numerous      
spirits revealing  themselves through   
the agency of one and the same medium1  
but of a  single spirit manifesting     
itself almost simultaneously through    
several  mediums often at great         
distances from one another and without  
any  preliminary understanding among    
themselves4 ,each of these messages1    
taken alone1 is usually unintelligible  
and yields a meaning only when          
laboriously combined with all the       
others4    ,as ,sir ,oliver ,lodge says3
    8,the object of this ingenious and  
complicated effort clearly is to prove  
that there is some definite intelligence
 underlying the phenomena1  distinct    
from that of any of the automatists1 by 
sending fragments of a  message or      
literary reference which shall be       
unintelligible to each  separately--so  
that no effective mutual telepathy is   
possible between  them--thus eliminating
 or trying to eliminate what had long   

been  recognized by all members of the  
,society for ,psychical ,research as the
  most troublesome and indestructible of
 the semi-normal hypotheses4 ,and  the  
further object is evidently to prove as 
far as possible1 by the  substance and  
quality of the message1 that it is      
characteristic of the  one particular   
personality who is ostensibly           
communicating1 and of no  other40#ac    
,the experiments are still in their     
early stages2 and the most recent       
volumes of the ,proceedings are devoted 
to them4 ,although the  accumulated mass
 of evidence is already considerable1   
there is no  conclusion to be drawn from
 it as yet2 and1 in any case1 whatever  
the  spiritualists may say1 the         
suspicion of telepathy seems to me to be
 in  no way removed4 ,the experiments   
form a rather fantastic literary        
exercise1 one much superior1            
intellectually1 to the ordinary         
manifestations of the mediums2 but1 up  
to the present1 there is no  reason for 

placing their mystery in the other world
 rather than in this4  ,men have tried  
to see in them a proof that somewhere1  
in time or space1  or else beyond both1 
there is a sort of immense cosmic       
reserve of  knowledge upon which the    
spirits go and draw freely4 ,but1 if the
 reserve  exist1 which is very possible1
 nothing tells us that it is not the    
living rather than the dead who repair  
to it4 ,it is very strange that  the    
dead1 if they really have access to the 
immeasurable treasure1  should bring    
back nothing from it but a kind of      
ingenious child's  puzzle1 although it  
ought to contain myriads of lost or     
forgotten  notions and acquirements1    
heaped up during thousands and thousands
 of  years in abysses which our mind1   
weighed down by the body1 can no longer 
penetrate1 but which nothing seems to   
close against the investigations  of    
freer and more subtle activities4 ,they 
are evidently surrounded by  innumerable
 mysteries1 by unsuspected and          

formidable truths that loom  large on   
every side4 ,the smallest astronomical  
or biological revelation1  the least    
secret of olden time1 such as that of   
the temper of copper1  possessed by the 
ancients1 an archological detail1 a     
poem1 a statue1 a  recovered remedy1 a  
shred of one of those unknown sciences  
which  flourished in ,egypt or          
,atlantis3 any of these would form a    
much more  decisive argument than       
hundreds of more or less literary       
reminiscences4  ,why do they speak to us
 so seldom of the future8 ,and for what 
reason1  when they do venture upon it1  
are they mistaken with such             
disheartening  regularity8 ,one would   
think1 rather1 that1 in the sight of a  
being  delivered from the trammels of   
the body and of time1 the years1 whether
  past or future1 ought all to lie      
outspread on one and the same  plane4#ad
 ,we may1 therefore1 say that the       
ingenuity of the proof turns  against   
it4    ,all things considered1 as in the

 other attempts and notably those of the
  famous medium ,stainton ,moses1 there 
is the same characteristic inability  to
 bring us the veriest particle of truth 
or knowledge of which no  vestige could 
be found in a living brain or in a book 
written on this  earth4 ,and yet it is  
inconceivable that there should not     
somewhere exist  a knowledge that is not
 as ours and truths other than those    
which we  possess here below4    ,the   
case of ,stainton ,moses1 whose name we 
have just mentioned1 is a very  striking
 one in this respect4 ,this ,stainton   
,moses was a dogmatic1  hard-working    
clergyman1 whose learning1 ,myers tells 
us1 in the normal  state1 did not exceed
 that of an ordinary schoolmaster4 ,but 
he was no  sooner 8entranced0 before    
certain spirits of antiquity or of the  
middle  ages1 who are hardly known save 
to profound scholars1 among others ,st4 
,hippolytus1 ,bishop of ,ostia1         
,plotinus1 ,athenodorus1 the tutor of   
,augustus1 and1 more particularly1      

,grocyn1 the friend of ,erasmus1 took   
possession of his person and manifested 
themselves through his agency4  ,now    
,grocyn1 for instance1 furnished certain
 information about ,erasmus  which was  
at first thought to have been gathered  
in the other world1 but  which was      
subsequently discovered in forgotten1   
but nevertheless  accessible books4 ,on 
the other hand1 ,stainton ,moses'       
integrity was never  questioned for an  
instant by those who knew him2 and we   
may therefore  take his word for it when
 he declares that he had not read the   
books in  question4 ,here again1 the    
mystery1 inexplicable though it be1     
seems  really to lie hidden in the midst
 of ourselves4 ,it is unconscious       
reminiscence1 if you will1 suggestion at
 a distance1 subliminal reading1  but1  
no more than in cross correspondence1 is
 it indispensable to have  recourse to  
the dead and to drag them by main force 
into the riddle1  which1 seen from our  
side of the grave1 is dark and          

impassioned enough  as it is4           
,furthermore1 we must not insist unduly 
on this cross  correspondence4 ,we must 
remember that the whole thing is in its 
earliest  stages and that the dead      
appear to have no small difficulty in   
grasping  the requirements of the       
living4    -----    ,footnote #ac3      
,the ,survival of ,man1 ,chap4 xxv1 p4  
#cbe4    ,footnote #ad3      ,in this   
connexion1 however1 we find two or three
 rather perturbing    facts1 a          
remarkable one being1 at a              
spiritualistic meeting held by the      
late ,w4 ,t4 ,stead1 the prediction of  
the murder of ,king ,alexander and      
,queen ,draga1 described with the most  
circumstantial details4 ,a    verbatim  
report of this prediction was drawn up  
and signed by some    thirty witnesses2 
and ,stead went next day to beg the     
,servian minister    in ,london to warn 
the king of the danger that threatened  
him4 ,the    event took place1 as       
announced1 a few months later4 ,but     

8precognition0    does not necessarily  
require the intervention of the dead2   
moreover1    every case of this kind1   
before being definitely accepted1 would 
call    for prolonged investigation in  
every particular4    -----              
#b    ,in regard to this subject1 as to 
the others1 the spiritualists are fond  
of saying3    8,if you refuse to admit  
the agency of spirits1 the majority of  
these  phenomena are absolutely         
inexplicable40    ,agreed2 nor do we    
pretend to explain them1 for hardly     
anything is to be  explained upon this  
earth4 ,we are content simply to ascribe
 them to the  incomprehensible power of 
the mediums1 which is no more improbable
 than  the survival of the dead and has 
the advantage of not going outside the  
sphere which we occupy and of bearing   
relation to a large number of  similar  
facts that occur among living people4   
,those singular faculties  are baffling 
only because they are still sporadic and
 because but a very  short time has     

elapsed since they received scientific  
recognition4  ,properly speaking1 they  
are no more marvellous than those which 
we use  daily without marvelling at     
them3 our memory1 for instance1 our     
understanding1 our imagination and so   
forth4 ,they form part of the great     
miracle that we are2 and1 having once   
admitted the miracle1 we should be      
surprised not so much at its extent as  
at its limits4    ,nevertheless1 to     
close this chapter1 ,i am not at all of 
opinion that we  must definitely reject 
the spiritualistic theory3 that would be
 both  unjust and premature4 ,hitherto1 
everything remains in suspense4 ,we may 
say that things are still very little   
removed from the point marked by  ,sir  
,william ,crookes1 in #ahgd1 in an      
article which he contributed to the     
,quarterly ,journal of ,science3        
8,the difference between the advocates  
of ,psychic ,force and the              
,spiritualists consists in this--that we
 contend that there is as yet           

insufficient proof of any other         
directing agent than the ,intelligence  
of  the ,medium1 and no proof whatever  
of the agency of ,spirits of the ,dead2 
while the ,spiritualists hold it as a   
faith1 not demanding further proof1     
that ,spirits of the ,dead are the sole 
agents in the production of all  the    
phenomena4 ,thus the controversy        
resolves itself into a pure question  of
 fact1 only to be determined by a       
laborious and long-continued  series of 
experiments and an extensive collection 
of psychological  facts1 which should be
 the first duty of the ,psychological   
,society1  the formation of which is now
 in progress40    ,meanwhile1 it is     
saying a good deal that rigorous        
scientific  investigations have not     
utterly shattered a theory which so     
radically  confounds the idea which we  
were wont to form of death4 ,we shall   
see  presently why1 in considering our  
destinies beyond the grave1 we need     
have no reason to linger too long over  

these apparitions or these  revelations1
 even though they should really be      
incontestable and to the  point4 ,they  
would seem1 all told1 to be but the     
incoherent and  precarious              
manifestations of a transitory state4   
,they would at best  prove1 if we were  
bound to admit them1 that a reflexion of
 ourselves1 an  after-vibration of the  
nerves1 a bundle of emotions1 a         
spiritual  silhouette1 a grotesque and  
forlorn image1 or1 more correctly1 a    
sort of  truncated and uprooted memory  
can1 after our death1 linger and float  
in  a space where nothing remains to    
feed it1 where it gradually becomes wan 
and lifeless1 but where a special fluid1
 emanating from an exceptional  medium1 
succeeds1 at moments1 in galvanizing it4
 ,perhaps it exists  objectively1       
perhaps it subsists and revives only in 
the recollection of  certain sympathies4
 ,it would1 after all1 be not unlikely  
that the memory  which represents us    
during our life should continue to do so

 for a few  weeks or even a few years   
after our decease4 ,this would explain  
the  evasive and deceptive character of 
those spirits which1 possessing but a   
mnemonic existence1 are naturally able  
to interest themselves only in  matters 
within their reach4 ,hence their        
irritating and maniacal energy  in      
clinging to the slightest facts1 their  
sleepy dulness1 their  incomprehensible 
indifference and ignorance and all the  
wretched  absurdities which we have     
noticed more than once4    ,but1 ,i     
repeat1 it is much simpler to attribute 
these absurdities to the  special       
character and the as yet                
imperfectly-recognized difficulties of  
telepathic communication4 ,the          
unconscious suggestions of the most     
intelligent among those who take part in
 the experiment are impaired1           
disjointed and stripped of their main   
virtues in passing through the  obscure 
intermediary of the medium4 ,it may be  
that they stray1 make  their way into   

certain forgotten corners which the     
intelligence no  longer visits and      
thence bring back more or less          
surprising discoveries2  but the        
intellectual quality of the aggregate   
will always be inferior to  that which a
 conscious mind would yield4 ,besides1  
once more1 it is not  yet time to draw  
conclusions4 ,we must not lose sight of 
the fact that we  have to do with a     
science which was born but yesterday and
 which is  groping for its implements1  
its paths1 its methods and its aim in a 
darkness denser than the earth's4 ,the  
boldest bridge that men have yet        
undertaken to throw across the river of 
death is not to be built in  thirty     
years4 ,most sciences have centuries of 
thankless efforts and  barren           
uncertainties behind them2 and there    
are1 ,i imagine1 few among  the younger 
of them that can show from the earliest 
hour1 as this one  does1 promises of a  
harvest which may not be the harvest of 
their  conscious sowing1 but which      

already bids fair to yield much unknown 
and  wondrous fruit4#ae    -----        
,footnote #ae3      ,to exhaust this    
question of survival and of             
communications with the    dead1 ,i     
ought to speak of ,dr4 ,hyslop's recent 
investigations1 made    with the        
assistance of the mediums ,smead and    
,chenoweth 7communications    with      
,william ,james74 ,i ought also to      
mention ,julia's famous 8bureau0    and1
 above all1 the extraordinary sittings  
of ,mrs4 ,wriedt1 the trumpet    medium1
 who not only obtains communications in 
which the dead speak    languages of    
which she herself is completely         
ignorant1 but raises    apparitions said
 to be extremely disturbing4 ,i ought1  
lastly1 to    examine the facts set     
forth by ,professor ,porro1 ,dr4        
,venzano and ,m4    ,rozanne and many   
other things besides1 for spiritualistic
    investigation and literature are    
already piling volume upon volume4      
,but it was not my intention nor my     

pretension to make a complete study     
of scientific spiritualism4 ,i wished   
merely to omit no essential point    and
 to give a general1 but accurate idea of
 this posthumous atmosphere    which no 
really new and decisive fact has come to
 unsettle since the    manifestations of
 which we have spoken4    -----         
,,chapter ,,viii                        
,,reincarnation                         
#a    ,so much for survival proper4 ,but
 certain spiritualists go farther and   
attempt the scientific proof of         
palingenesis and the transmigration of  
souls4 ,i pass over their merely moral  
or scientific arguments1 as well  as    
those which they discover in the        
prenatal reminiscences of  illustrious  
men and others4 ,these reminiscences1   
though often  disturbing1 are still too 
rare1 too sporadic1 so to speak2 and the
  supervision has not always been       
sufficiently close for us to be able to 
rely upon them with safety4 ,nor do ,i  
propose to pay attention to the  proofs 

based upon the inborn aptitudes of      
genius or of certain infant  prodigies1 
aptitudes which are difficult to        
explain1 but which may  nevertheless be 
attributed to unknown laws of heredity4 
,i shall be  content to recall briefly  
the results of some of ,colonel de      
,rochas'  experiments1 which leave one  
at a loss for an explanation4    ,first 
of all1 it is only right to say that    
,colonel de ,rochas is a savant  who    
seeks nothing but objective truth and   
does so with a scientific  strictness   
and integrity that have never been      
questioned4 ,he puts  certain           
exceptional subjects into an hypnotic   
sleep and1 by means of  downward passes1
 makes them trace back the whole course 
of their  existence4 ,he thus takes them
 successively to their youth1 their     
adolescence and down to the extreme     
limits of their childhood4 ,at each  of 
these hypnotic stages1 the subject      
reassumes the consciousness1 the        
character and the state of mind which he

 possessed at the corresponding  stage  
in his life4 ,he goes over the same     
events1 with their joys and  sorrows4   
,if he has been ill1 he once more passes
 through his illness1  his convalescence
 and his recovery4 ,if1 for instance1   
the subject is a  woman who has been a  
mother1 she again becomes pregnant and  
again  suffers the pains of child-birth4
 ,carried back to an age when she was   
learning to write1 she writes like a    
child and her writing can be placed     
side by side with the copy-books which  
she filled at school4    ,this in itself
 is very extraordinary2 but1 as ,colonel
 de ,rochas says3    8,up to the        
present1 we have walked on firm ground2 
we have been  observing a physiological 
phenomenon which is difficult of        
explanation1  but which numerous        
experiments and verifications allow us  
to look upon  as certain40    ,we now   
enter a region where still more         
surprising enigmas await us4 ,let  us1  
to come to details1 take one of the     

simplest cases4 ,the subject is a  girl 
of eighteen1 called ,josphine4 ,she     
lives at ,voiron1 in the  department of 
the ,isre4 ,by means of downward passes1
 she is brought  back to the condition  
of a baby at its mother's breast4 ,the  
passes  continue and the wonder-tale    
runs its course4 ,josphine can no longer
  speak2 and we have the great silence  
of infancy1 which seems to be  followed 
by a silence more mysterious still4     
,josphine no longer answers  except by  
signs2 she is not yet born1 8she is     
floating in darkness40  ,they persist2  
the sleep becomes heavier2 and suddenly1
 from the depths  of that sleep1 rises  
the voice of another being1 a voice     
unexpected and  unknown1 the voice of a 
churlish1 distrustful and discontented  
old man4  ,they question him4 ,at first1
 he refuses to answer1 saying that 8of  
course he's there1 as he's speaking20   
that 8he sees nothing20 and that  8he's 
in the dark40 ,they increase the number 
of passes and gradually  gain his       

confidence4 ,his name is ,jean ,claude  
,bourdon2 he is an old man2  he has long
 been ailing and bed-ridden4 ,he tells  
the story of his life4  ,he was born at 
,champvent1 in the parish of ,polliat1  
in #ahab4 ,he went to  school until he  
was eighteen and served his time in the 
army with the  #gth ,artillery at       
,besanon2 and he describes his gay times
 there1 while  the sleeping girl makes  
the gesture of twirling an imaginary    
moustache4  ,when he goes back to his   
native place1 he does not marry1 but he 
has a  mistress4 ,he leads a solitary   
life 7,i omit all but the essential     
facts7  and dies at the age of seventy1 
after a long illness4    ,we now hear   
the dead man speak2 and his posthumous  
revelations are not  sensational1 which1
 however1 is not an adequate reason for 
doubting  their genuineness4 ,he 8feels 
himself growing out of his body20 but he
  remains attached to it for a fairly   
long time4 ,his fluidic body1 which  is 
at first diffused1 takes a more         

concentrated form4 ,he lives in         
darkness1 which he finds disagreeable2  
but he does not suffer4 ,at last1  the  
night in which he is plunged is streaked
 with a few flashes of  light4 ,the idea
 comes to him to reincarnate himself and
 he draws near to  her who is to be his 
mother 7that is to say1 the mother of   
,josphine74  ,he encircles her until the
 child is born1 whereupon he gradually  
enters  the child's body4 ,until about  
the seventh year1 this body was         
surrounded  by a sort of floating mist  
in which he used to see many things     
which he  has not seen since4    ,the   
next thing to be done is to go back     
beyond ,jean ,claude4 ,a  mesmerization 
lasting nearly three quarters of an     
hour1 without  lingering at any         
intermediate stage1 brings the old man  
back to  babyhood4 ,a fresh silence1 a  
new limbo2 and then1 suddenly1 another  
voice and an unexpected individual4     
,this time1 it is an old woman who  has 
been very wicked2 and so she is in great

 torment 7she is dead1 at  the actual   
instant2 for1 in this inverted world1   
lives go backwards and  of course begin 
at the end74 ,she is in deep darkness1  
surrounded by evil  spirits4 ,she speaks
 in a faint voice1 but always gives     
definite replies  to the questions put  
to her1 instead of cavilling at every   
moment1 as  ,jean ,claude did4 ,her name
 is ,philomne ,carteron4    8,by        
intensifying the sleep10 adds ,colonel  
de ,rochas1 whom ,i will now  quote1 8,i
 induce the manifestations of a living  
,philomne4 ,she no longer  suffers1     
seems very calm and always answers very 
coldly and distinctly4  ,she knows that 
she is unpopular in the neighbourhood1  
but no one is a  penny the worse and she
 will be even with them yet4 ,she was   
born in  #agjb2 her maiden name was     
,philomne ,charpigny2 her grandfather on
 the  mother's side was called ,pierre  
,machon and lived at ,ozan4 ,in #agcb1  
she  married1 at ,chevroux1 a man named 
,carteron1 by whom she had two          

children1 both of whom she lost4        
8,before her incarnation1 ,philomne had 
been a little girl1 who died in         
infancy4 ,previous to that1 she was a   
man who had committed murder2 and  it   
was to expiate this crime that she      
endured much suffering in the  darkness1
 even after her life as a little girl1  
when she had had no time  to do wrong4  
,i did not think it necessary to carry  
the hypnosis further1  because the      
subject appeared exhausted and her      
paroxysms were painful to  watch4       
8,but1 on the other hand1 ,i noticed one
 thing which would tend to show  that   
the revelations of these mediums rest on
 an objective reality4 ,at  ,voiron1 one
 of the regular attendants at my        
demonstrations is a young  girl1 ,louise
 ----4 ,she possesses a very sedate and 
thoughtful cast of  mind1 not at all    
open to hypnotic suggestion2 and she has
 in a very high  degree the capacity    
7which is comparatively common in a     
lesser degree7  of perceiving the       

magnetic effluvia of human beings and1  
consequently1  the fluidic body4 ,when  
,josphine revives the memory of her     
past1 a  luminous aura is observed      
around her and is perceived by ,louise4 
,now1 to  the eyes of ,louise1 this aura
 becomes dark when ,josphine is in the  
phase separating two existences4 ,in    
every instance1 there is a strong       
reaction in ,josphine when ,i touch     
points where ,louise tells me that she  
perceives the aura1 whether it be dark  
or light40                              
#b    ,i thought it well to give the    
report of one of these experiments      
almost  in extenso1 because those who   
maintain the palingenesic theory find in
  these the only appreciable argument   
which they possess4 ,colonel de  ,rochas
 renewed them more than once with       
different subjects4 ,among these1  ,i   
will mention only one1 a girl called    
,marie ,mayo1 whose history is more     
complicated than ,josphine's and whose  
successive reincarnations take us  back 

to the seventeenth century and carry us 
suddenly to ,versailles1  among the     
historical personages moving around     
,louis ,,xiv4    ,let us add that       
,colonel de ,rochas is not the only     
mesmerizer who has  obtained revelations
 of this kind1 which may be henceforth  
classed among  the incontestable facts  
of hypnotism4 ,i have mentioned his     
alone1  because they offer the most     
substantial guarantees from every point 
of  view4    ,what do they prove8 ,we   
must begin1 as in all questions of this 
kind1 by  entertaining a certain        
distrust of the medium4 ,it goes without
 saying  that all mediums1 by the very  
nature of their faculties1 are inclined 
to  imposture1 to trickery4 ,i know that
 ,colonel de ,rochas1 like ,dr4 ,richet 
and like ,professor ,lombroso1 was      
occasionally hoaxed4 ,that is the       
inherent defect of the machinery which  
we must perforce employ2 and            
experiments of this sort will never     
possess the scientific value of  those  

made in a physical or chemical          
laboratory4 ,but this is not an a       
priori reason for denying them any sort 
of interest4 ,as a question of  fact1   
are imposture and trickery possible     
here8 ,obviously1 even though  the      
experiments be conducted under the      
strictest supervision4 ,however         
complicated it may be1 the subject can  
have learnt his lesson and can  cleverly
 avoid the traps laid for him4 ,the best
 guarantee1 when all is  said1 lies in  
his good faith and his moral sense1     
which the  experimenters alone are in a 
position to test and to know2 and for   
that  we must trust to them4 ,besides1  
they neglect no precaution necessary to 
make imposture extremely difficult4     
,after taking the subject1 by means  of 
transverse passes1 up the stream of his 
life1 they make him come down  the same 
stream2 and the same events pass in the 
reverse order4 ,repeated  tests and     
counter-tests always yield identical    
results2 and the medium  never hesitates

 or goes astray in the labyrinth of     
names1 dates and  incidents4#af         
,moreover1 it would be requisite for    
these mediums1 who are generally  people
 of merely average intelligence1        
suddenly to become great poets in  order
 thus to create1 down to every detail1 a
 series of characters1  differing       
entirely one from the other1 in which   
everything is in  keeping--gestures1    
voice1 temper1 mind1 thoughts1          
feeling--and ever ready  to reply1 in   
harmony with their inmost nature1 to the
 most unexpected  questions4 ,it has    
been said that every man is a           
,shakspeare in his  dreams2 but have we 
not here to do with dreams which1 in    
their  uniformity1 bear a singular      
resemblance to fact8    ,i think1       
therefore1 that we may be allowed1 until
 we receive evidence to  the contrary1  
to leave fraud out of the question4     
,another objection that  might be       
raised1 as was done with respect to the 
,myers phantoms1 is the  insignificance 

of their revelations from beyond the    
grave4 ,i would  rather look on this as 
an argument in behalf of their good     
faith4 ,those  whose imagination is rich
 enough to create the wonderful persons 
whom we  see living in their sleep would
 doubtless find no great difficulty in  
inventing a few fantastic but plausible 
details on the subject of the  next     
world4 ,not one of them thinks of it4   
,they are ,christians and  therefore    
carry deep down in themselves the       
traditional terror of hell1  the fear of
 purgatory and the vision of a paradise 
full of angels and  palms4 ,they never  
allude to any of it4 ,although they are 
most often  ignorant of all the theories
 of reincarnation1 they conform strictly
 to  the theosophical or                
neospiritualistic hypothesis and are    
unconsciously  faithful to it in their  
very indefiniteness3 they speak vaguely 
of 8the  dark0 in which they find       
themselves4 ,they tell nothing1 because 
they  know nothing4 ,it is impossible   

apparently for them to give any account 
of a state that is still illumined4 ,in 
fact1 it is very likely1 if we  admit   
the hypothesis of reincarnation and of  
evolution after death1 that  nature1    
here as elsewhere1 does not proceed by  
bounds4 ,there is no  special reason why
 she should take a prodigious and       
inconceivable leap  between life and    
death4    ,we did not find the dramatic 
change which1 at first thought1 we are  
rather inclined to expect4 ,the spirit  
is first of all confused at losing  its 
body and every one of its familiar ways2
 it only recovers itself by  degrees4   
,it resumes consciousness slowly4 ,this 
consciousness is  subsequently purified1
 exalted and extended1 gradually and    
indefinitely1  until1 reaching other    
spheres1 the principle of life that     
animates it  ceases to reincarnate      
itself and loses all contact with us4   
,this would  explain why we never have  
any but minor and elementary            
revelations4    ,all that concerns this 

first phase of the survival is fairly   
probable1  even to those who do not     
admit the theory of reincarnation4 ,for 
the  rest1 we shall see presently that  
the solutions which man's imagination   
finds there merely change the question  
and are inadequate and  provisional4    
-----    ,footnote #af3      ,in order  
to hide nothing and to bring all the    
documents into court1 we    may point   
out that ,colonel de ,rochas ascertained
 upon enquiry that the    subjects'     
revelations concerning their former     
existences were    inaccurate in several
 particulars3      8,their narratives   
were also full of anachronisms which    
disclosed the    presence of normal     
recollections among the suggestions that
 came from    an unknown source4        
,nevertheless1 one perfectly indubitable
 fact    remains1 which is that of the  
existence of certain visions recurring  
with the same characteristics in the    
case of a considerable number of        
persons unknown to one another40        

-----                                   
#c    ,we now come to the most serious  
objection1 that of suggestion4 ,colonel 
de ,rochas declares that he and all the 
other experimenters who have  given     
themselves up to this study 8have not   
only avoided everything that  could put 
the subject on a definite tack1 but have
 often tried in vain  to lead him astray
 by different suggestions40 ,i am       
convinced of it3  there can be no       
question of voluntary suggestion4 ,but  
do we not know  that1 in these regions1 
unconscious and involuntary suggestion  
is often  more powerful and effective   
than the other8 ,in the hackneyed and   
rather  childish experiment of          
table-turning1 for instance1 which1     
after all1 is  only a crude and         
elementary form of telepathy1 the       
replies are nearly  always dictated by  
the unconscious suggestion of a         
participant or a mere  on-looker4#ag ,we
 should therefore first of all have to  
make sure that  neither the hypnotizer  

nor the onlookers1 nor yet the subject  
himself1  have ever heard of the        
reincarnated persons4 ,it will be       
enough1 ,i shall  be told1 to employ for
 the counter-tests another operator and 
different  onlookers who are ignorant of
 the previous revelations4 ,yes1 but the
  subject is not ignorant of them2 and  
it is possible that the first           
suggestion has been so profound that it 
will remain for ever stamped  upon the  
unconsciousness and that it will        
reproduce the same  incarnations        
indefinitely1 in the same order4    ,all
 this does not mean that the phenomena  
of suggestion are not  themselves laden 
with mysteries2 but that is another     
question4 ,for the  moment1 as we see1  
the problem is almost insoluble and     
control  impracticable4 ,meanwhile1     
since we have to choose between         
reincarnation  and suggestion1 it is    
right that we should confine ourselves1 
in the  first instance1 to the latter1  
in accordance with the principles which 

we have observed in the case of         
automatic speech and writing4 ,between  
two unknowns1 common sense and prudence 
decree that we should turn first  to the
 one on whose frontiers lie certain     
facts more frequently  recorded1 the one
 which shows a few familiar glimmers4   
,let us exhaust  the mystery of our life
 before forsaking it for the mystery of 
our  death4 ,throughout this vast       
expanse of treacherous ground1 it is    
important that1 until fresh evidence    
arrives1 we should keep to one          
inflexible rule1 namely1 that           
thought-transference exists as long as  
it  is not absolutely and physically    
impossible for the subject or some      
person in the room to have cognizance of
 the incident in question1  whether the 
cognizance be conscious or not1         
forgotten or actual4 ,even  this        
guarantee is not sufficient1 for it is  
still possible1 as we saw in  the case  
of ,sir ,oliver ,lodge's watch1 for some
 one taking no part in the  sitting and 

even very far away from it to be placed 
in communication  with the medium by    
some unknown means and to influence the 
medium at a  distance and unwittingly4  
,lastly1 to provide for every           
contingency1  before letting death come 
upon the boards1 it would be necessary  
to make  certain that atavistic memory  
does not play an unforeseen part4       
,cannot a  man1 for instance1 carry     
hidden in the depths of his being the   
recollection of events connected with   
the childhood of an ancestor whom  he   
has never seen and communicate it to the
 medium by unconscious  suggestion8 ,it 
is not impossible4 ,we carry in         
ourselves all the past1  all the        
experience of our ancestors4 ,if1 by    
some magic1 we could  illumine the      
prodigious treasures of the subconscious
 memory1 why should  we not there       
discover the events and facts that form 
the sources of that  experience8 ,before
 turning towards yonder unknown1 we must
 utterly  exhaust the possibilities of  

this terrestrial unknown4 ,it is        
moreover  remarkable but undeniable     
that1 despite the strictness of a law   
which  seems to shut out every other    
explanation1 despite the almost         
unlimited  and probably excessive scope 
allotted to the domain of suggestion1   
there  nevertheless remain some facts   
which perhaps call for another          
interpretation4    ,but let us return to
 reincarnation and recognize1 in        
passing1 that it is  very regrettable   
that the arguments of the theosophists  
and  neospiritualists are not           
compelling1 for there never was a more  
beautiful1 a juster1 a purer1 a more    
moral1 fruitful and consoling1 nor1  to 
a certain point1 a more probable creed  
than theirs4 ,it alone1 with  its       
doctrine of successive expiations and   
purifications1 accounts for  all the    
physical and intellectual inequalities1 
all the social  iniquities1 all the     
hideous injustices of fate4 ,but the    
quality of a  creed is no evidence of   

its truth4 ,even though it is the       
religion of six  hundred millions of    
mankind1 the nearest to the mysterious  
origins1 the  only one that is not      
odious and the least absurd of all1 it  
will have to  do what the others have   
not done1 to bring unimpeachable        
testimony2 and  what it has given us    
hitherto is but the first shadow of a   
proof begun4    -----    ,footnote #ag3 
,in this connexion may ,i be permitted  
to quote a personal experience8    ,one 
evening1 at the ,abbaye de              
,saint-,wandrille1 where ,i am wont to  
spend my summers1 some newly-arrived    
guests were amusing themselves by       
making a small table spin on its foot4  
,i was quietly smoking in a    corner of
 the drawing-room1 at some distance from
 the little table1    taking no interest
 in what was happening around it and    
thinking of    something quite          
different4 ,after due entreaty1 the     
table replied that    it held the spirit
 of a seventeenth-century monk1 who was 

buried in    the east gallery of the    
cloisters1 under a flagstone dated      
#afic4 ,after    the departure of the   
monk1 who suddenly1 for no apparent     
reason1    refused to continue the      
interview1 we thought that we would go1 
with a    lamp1 and look for the grave4 
,we ended by discovering1 in the far    
cloister on the eastern side1 a         
tombstone in very bad condition1        
broken1 worn down1 trodden into the     
ground and crumbling1 on which1 by      
examining it very closely1 we were able1
 with great difficulty1 to    decipher  
the inscription1 8,a4,d4 #afic40 ,now1  
at the moment of the    monk's reply1   
there was no one in the drawing-room    
except my guests    and myself4 ,none of
 them knew the abbey2 they had arrived  
that very    evening1 a few minutes     
before dinner1 after which1 as it was   
quite    dark1 they had put off their   
visit to the cloisters and the ruins    
until the following day4 ,therefore1    
short of a belief in the 8shells0    or 

the 8elementals0 of the theosophists1   
the revelation could only    have come  
from me4 ,nevertheless1 ,i believed     
myself to be absolutely    ignorant of  
the existence of that particular        
tombstone1 one of the    least legible  
among a score of others1 all belonging  
to the    seventeenth century1 which    
pave this part of the cloisters4        
-----                                   
#d    ,and even that would not put an   
end to the riddle4 ,in principle1       
reincarnation1 sooner or later1 is      
inevitable1 since nothing can be lost   
nor remain stationary4 ,what has not    
been demonstrated in any way and  will  
perhaps remain indemonstrable is the    
reincarnation of the whole  identical   
individual1 notwithstanding the         
abolition of memory4 ,but what  matters 
to him that reincarnation1 if he be     
unaware that he is still  himself8 ,all 
the problems of the conscious survival  
of man start up  anew2 and we have to   
begin all over again4 ,even if          

scientifically  established1 the        
doctrine of reincarnation1 just like    
that of a  survival1 would not set a    
term to our questions4 ,it replies to   
neither  the first nor the last1 those  
of the beginning and the end1 the only  
ones that are essential4 ,it simply     
shifts them1 pushes them a few          
hundreds1 a few thousands of years back1
 in the hope perhaps of losing  or      
forgetting them in silence and space4   
,but they have come from the  depths of 
the most prodigious infinities and are  
not content with a  tardy solution4 ,i  
am most certainly interested in learning
 what is in  store for me1 what will    
happen to me immediately after my death4
 ,you  tell me3    8,man1 in his        
successive incarnations1 will make      
atonement by suffering1  will be        
purified1 in order that he may ascend   
from sphere to sphere  until he returns 
to the divine essence whence he sprang40
    ,i am willing to believe it1        
notwithstanding that all this still     

bears  the somewhat questionable stamp  
of our little earth and its old         
religions2 ,i am willing to believe it1 
but even then8 ,what matters to me  is  
not what will be for some time1 but what
 will be for always2 and your  divine   
principle appears to me not at all      
infinite nor definite4 ,it even  seems  
to me greatly inferior to that which ,i 
conceive without your help4  ,now1 if it
 were based on thousands of facts1 a    
religion that belittles  the ,god       
conceived by my loftiest thought could  
never dominate my  conscience4 ,your    
infinity or your ,god1 while even more  
unintelligible  than mine1 is           
nevertheless smaller4 ,if ,i be again   
immerged in ,him1 it  means that ,i     
emerged from ,him2 if it be possible for
 me to have emerged  from ,him1 then ,he
 is not infinite2 and1 if ,he be not    
infinite1 what is  ,he8 ,we must accept 
one thing or the other3 either ,he      
purifies me because  ,i am outside ,him 
and ,he is not infinite2 or1 being      

infinite1 if ,he  purify me1 then there 
was something impure in ,him1 because it
 is a part  of ,himself which ,he is    
purifying in me4 ,moreover1 how can we  
admit that  this ,god who has existed   
for all time1 who has the same infinity 
of  millenaries behind ,him as in front 
of ,him1 should not yet have found  time
 to purify ,himself and put a period to 
,his trials8 ,what ,he was not  able to 
do in the eternity previous to the      
moment of my existence ,he  will not be 
able to do in the subsequent eternity1  
for the two are  equal4 ,and the same   
question presents itself where ,i am    
concerned4 ,my  principle of life1 like 
,his1 exists from all eternity1 for my  
emergence  out of nothing would be more 
difficult of explanation than my        
existence  without a beginning4 ,i have 
necessarily had innumerable             
opportunities of  incarnating myself2   
and ,i have probably done so1 seeing    
that it is  hardly likely that the idea 
only came to me yesterday4 ,all the     

chances  of reaching my goal have       
therefore been offered to me in the     
past2 and  all those which ,i shall find
 in the future will add nothing to the  
number1 which was already infinite4     
,there is not much to say in answer  to 
these interrogations which spring up    
everywhence the moment our  thought     
glances upon them4 ,meanwhile1 ,i had   
rather know that ,i know  nothing than  
feed myself on illusory and             
irreconcilable assertions4 ,i  had      
rather keep to an infinity whose        
incomprehensibility has no bounds  than 
restrict myself to a ,god whose         
incomprehensibility is limited on  every
 side4 ,nothing compels you to speak of 
your ,god2 but1 if you take  upon       
yourself to do so1 it is necessary that 
your explanations should be  superior to
 the silence which they break4          
#e    ,it is true that the scientific   
spiritualists do not venture as far as  
this ,god2 but then1 tight-pressed      
between the two riddles of the          

beginning and the end1 they have almost 
nothing to tell us4 ,they follow  the   
tracks of our dead for a few seconds1 in
 a world where seconds no  longer count2
 and then they abandon them in the      
darkness4 ,i do not  reproach them1     
because we have here to do with things  
which1 in all  probability1 we shall not
 know in the day when we shall think    
that we  know everything4 ,i do not ask 
that they shall reveal to me the secret 
of  the universe1 for ,i do not believe1
 like a child1 that this secret can  be 
expressed in three words or that it can 
enter my brain without  bursting it4 ,i 
am even persuaded that beings who might 
be millions of  times more intelligent  
than the most intelligent among us would
 not yet  possess it1 for this secret   
must be as infinite1 as unfathomable1 as
  inexhaustible as the universe itself4 
,the fact none the less remains  that   
this inability to go even a few years   
beyond the life after death  detracts   
greatly from the interest of their      

experiments and revelations2  at best1  
it is but a short space gained2 and it  
is not by this juggling  on the         
threshold that our fate is decided4 ,i  
am ready to pass over what  may befall  
me in the short interval filled by those
 revelations1 as ,i am  even now passing
 over what befalls me in my life4 ,my   
destiny does not  lie there1 nor my     
home4 ,i do not doubt that the facts    
reported are  genuine and proved2 but   
what is even much more certain is that  
the dead1  if they survive1 have not a  
great deal to teach us1 whether because1
 at  the moment when they can speak to  
us1 they have nothing yet to tell us1   
or because1 at the moment when they     
might have something to reveal to  us1  
they are no longer able to do so1 but   
withdraw for ever and lose  sight of us 
in the immensity which they are         
exploring4                              
,,chapter ,,ix                          
,,the ,,fate ,,of ,,our ,,consciousness 
#a    ,let us dispense with their       

uncertain aid and endeavour to make our 
way  to the other side alone4 ,to return
 then to the theories which we were     
examining before these necessary        
digressions1 it would seem that         
survival with our present consciousness 
is nearly as impossible and as          
incomprehensible as total annihilation4 
,moreover1 even if it were  admissible1 
it could not be dreadful4 ,it is certain
 that1 when the body  disappears1 all   
physical sufferings will disappear at   
the same time2 for  we cannot imagine a 
spirit suffering in a body which it no  
longer  possesses4 ,with them will      
vanish simultaneously all that we call  
mental  or moral sufferings1 seeing that
 all of them1 if we examine them well1  
spring from the ties and habits of our  
senses4 ,our spirit feels the  reaction 
of the sufferings of our body1 or of the
 bodies that surround  it2 it cannot    
suffer in itself or through itself4     
,slighted affection1  shattered love1   
disappointments1 failures1 despair1     

betrayal1 personal  humiliations1 as    
well as the sorrows and the loss of     
those whom it  loves1 acquire their     
potent sting only by passing through the
 body which  it animates4 ,outside its  
own pain1 which is the pain of not      
knowing1 the  spirit1 once delivered    
from its flesh1 could suffer only in the
  recollection of the flesh4 ,it is     
possible that it still grieves over the 
troubles of those whom it has left      
behind on earth4 ,but to its eyes1      
since it no longer reckons the days1    
these troubles will seem so brief  that 
it will not grasp their duration2 and1  
knowing what they are and  knowing      
whither they lead1 it will not behold   
their severity4    ,the spirit is       
insensible to all that is not happiness4
 ,it is made only  for infinite joy1    
which is the joy of knowing and         
understanding4 ,it can  grieve only at  
perceiving its own limits2 but to       
perceive those limits1  when there are  
no more bonds to space and time1 is     

already to transcend  them4             
#b    ,it is now a question of knowing  
whether that spirit1 sheltered from all 
sorrow1 will remain itself1 will        
perceive and recognize itself in the    
bosom of infinity2 and up to what point 
it is important that it should          
recognize itself4 ,this brings us to the
 problems of survival without           
consciousness1 or survival with a       
consciousness different from that of    
to-day4    ,survival without            
consciousness seems at first sight the  
more probable4  ,from the point of view 
of the good or ill awaiting us on the   
other side  of the grave1 it amounts to 
annihilation4 ,it is lawful1 therefore1 
for  those who prefer the easiest       
solution and that most consistent with  
the  present state of human thought1 to 
limit their anxiety to that4 ,they  have
 nothing to dread2 for1 on close        
inspection1 every fear1 if any          
remained1 should deck itself with hopes4
 ,the body disintegrates and can  no    

longer suffer2 the mind1 separated from 
the source of pleasure and  pain1 is    
extinguished1 scattered and lost in a   
boundless darkness2 and  what comes is  
the great peace so often prayed for1 the
 sleep without  measure1 without dreams 
and without awakening4    ,but this is  
only a solution that fosters indolence4 
,if we press those  who speak of        
survival without consciousness1 we      
perceive that they mean  only their     
present consciousness1 for man conceives
 no other2 and we  have just seen that  
it is almost impossible for that manner 
of  consciousness to persist in         
infinity4    ,unless1 indeed1 they would
 deny every sort of consciousness1 even 
that  cosmic consciousness into which   
their own will fall4 ,but this were to  
solve very quickly and very blindly1    
with a stroke of the sword in the       
night1 the greatest and most mysterious 
question that can arise in a  man's     
brain4                                  
#c    ,it is evident that1 in the depths

 of our thought limited on every side1  
we shall never be able to form the least
 idea of an infinite  consciousness4    
,there is even an essential antinomy    
between the words  consciousness and    
infinity4 ,to speak of consciousness is 
to mean the  most definite thing        
conceivable in the finite2              
consciousness1 properly  speaking1 is   
the finite huddled into itself in order 
to discover and  feel its closest       
limits1 to the end that it may enjoy    
them as closely as  possible4 ,on the   
other hand1 it is impossible for us to  
separate the  idea of intelligence from 
the idea of consciousness4 ,any         
intelligence  that does not seem capable
 of transforming itself into            
consciousness  becomes for us a         
mysterious phenomenon to which we give  
names more  mysterious still1 lest we   
should have to admit that we understand 
nothing of it at all4 ,now1 on this     
little earth of ours1 which is but a    
dot in space1 we see expended in every  

scale of life 7remember1 for  instance1 
the wonderful combinations and organisms
 of the insect world7  a mass of        
intelligence so vast that our human     
intelligence cannot even  dream of      
assessing it4 ,everything that          
exists--and man first of all--is        
incessantly drawing upon that           
inexhaustible reserve4 ,we are therefore
  irresistibly driven to ask ourselves  
if that cosmic intelligence is not  the 
emanation of an infinite consciousness1 
or if it must not1 sooner or  later1    
elaborate one4 ,and this sets us tossing
 between two irreducible                
impossibilities4 ,what is most probable 
is that here again we are judging       
everything from the lowlands of our     
anthropomorphism4 ,at the summit of  our
 infinitesimal life1 we see only        
intelligence and consciousness1 the     
extreme point of thought2 and from this 
we infer that1 at the summits of  all   
lives1 there could be naught but        
intelligence and consciousness1  whereas

 these perhaps occupy only an inferior  
place in the hierarchy of  spiritual or 
other possibilities4                    
#d    ,survival absolutely denuded of   
consciousness would1 therefore1 be      
possible only if we denied a cosmic     
consciousness4 ,as soon as we admit     
this consciousness1 under whatsoever    
form1 we are bound to share in it2  and1
 up to a certain point1 the question is 
indistinguishable from that  of the     
continuance of a more or less modified  
consciousness4 ,there is1  for the      
moment1 no hope of solving it2 but we   
are free to grope in its  darkness1     
which is not perhaps equally dense at   
all points4    ,here begins the open    
sea4 ,here begins the glorious          
adventure1 the only  one abreast with   
human curiosity1 the only one that soars
 as high as its  highest longing4 ,let  
us accustom ourselves to regard death as
 a form of  life which we do not yet    
understand2 let us learn to look upon it
 with  the same eye that looks upon     

birth2 and soon our mind will be        
accompanied to the steps of the tomb    
with the same glad expectation that     
greets a birth4    ,suppose that a child
 in its mother's womb were endowed with 
a certain  consciousness2 that unborn   
twins1 for instance1 could1 in some     
obscure  fashion1 exchange their        
impressions and communicate their hopes 
and  fears to each other4 ,having known 
naught but the warm maternal shades1    
they would not feel straitened nor      
unhappy there4 ,they would probably     
have no other idea than to prolong as   
long as possible that life of  abundance
 free from cares and of sleep free from 
alarms4 ,but1 if1 even  as we are aware 
that we must die1 they too knew that    
they must be born1  that is to say1     
suddenly leave the shelter of that      
gentle darkness and  abandon for ever   
that captive but peaceful existence1 to 
be precipitated  into an absolutely     
different1 unimaginable and boundless   
world1 how  great would be their        

anxieties and their fears6 ,and yet     
there is no  reason why our own         
anxieties and fears should be more      
justified and less  ridiculous4 ,the    
character1 the spirit1 the intentions1  
the benevolence  or the indifference of 
the unknown to which we are subject do  
not alter  between our birth and our    
death4 ,we remain always in the same    
infinity1  in the same universe4 ,it is 
perfectly reasonable and legitimate to  
persuade ourselves that the tomb is no  
more dreadful than the cradle4 ,it      
would even be legitimate and reasonable 
to accept the cradle only on  account of
 the tomb4 ,if1 before being born1 we   
were permitted to choose  between the   
great peace of non-existence and a life 
that should not be  completed by the    
glorious hour of death1 which of us1    
knowing what he  ought to know1 would   
accept the disquieting problem of an    
existence that  would not lead to the   
reassuring mystery of its end8 ,which of
 us would  wish to come into a world    

where we can learn so little1 if he did 
not  know that he must enter it if he   
would leave it and learn more8 ,the best
  thing about life is that it prepares  
this hour for us1 that it is the  one   
and only road leading to the magic      
gateway and into that  incomparable     
mystery where misfortunes and sufferings
 will no longer be  possible1 because we
 shall have lost the body that produced 
them2 where  the worst that can befall  
us is the dreamless sleep which we      
number  among the greatest boons on     
earth2 where1 lastly1 it is almost      
unimaginable that a thought should not  
survive to mingle with the  substance of
 the universe1 that is to say1 with     
infinity1 which1 if it  be not a waste  
of indifference1 can be nothing but a   
sea of joy4                             
#e    ,before fathoming that sea1 let us
 remark to those who aspire to maintain 
their ego that they are calling for the 
sufferings which they dread4 ,the  ego  
implies limits4 ,the ego cannot subsist 

except in so far as it is  separated    
from that which surrounds it4 ,the      
stronger the ego1 the  narrower its     
limits and the clearer the separation4  
,the more painful  too2 for the mind1 if
 it remain as we know it--and we are not
 able to  imagine it different--will no 
sooner have seen its limits than it will
  wish to overstep them2 and1 the more  
separated it feels1 the greater  will be
 its longing to unite with that which   
lies outside4 ,there will  therefore be 
an eternal struggle between its being   
and its aspirations4  ,and really it    
would have served no object to be born  
and die only to  arrive at these        
interminable contests4 ,have we not here
 yet one more  proof that our ego1 as we
 conceive it1 could never subsist in the
  infinity where it must needs go1 since
 it cannot go elsewhere8 ,it  behoves us
 therefore to clear away conceptions    
that emanate only from  our body1 even  
as the mists that veil the daylight from
 our sight  emanate only from the       

lowlands4 ,pascal has said1 once and for
 all3    8,the narrow limits of our     
being conceal infinity from our view40  
#f    ,on the other hand--for we must   
keep nothing back1 nor turn from the    
adverse darkness should it seem nearest 
to the truth1 nor show any  bias--on the
 other hand1 we can grant to those who  
yearn to remain as  they are that the   
survival of an atom of themselves would 
suffice for a  new entrance into an     
infinity from which their body no longer
 separates  them4    ,if it seems       
impossible that anything--a movement1 a 
vibration1 a  radiation--should stop or 
disappear1 why then should thought be   
lost8  ,there will1 no doubt1 subsist   
more than one idea powerful enough to   
allure the new ego1 which will nourish  
itself and thrive on all that it  will  
find in that boundless environment1 just
 as the other ego1 on this  earth1      
nourished itself and throve on all that 
it met there4 ,since we  have been able 
to acquire our present consciousness1   

why should it be  impossible for us to  
acquire another8 ,for that ego which is 
so dear to  us and which we believe     
ourselves to possess was not made in a  
day2 it  is not at present what it was  
at the hour of our birth4 ,much more    
chance  than purpose has entered into   
it2 and much more foreign substance than
  any inborn substance which it         
contained4 ,it is but a long series of  
acquisitions and transformations1 of    
which we do not become aware until  the 
awakening of our memory2 and its kernel1
 of which we do not know the  nature1 is
 perhaps more immaterial and less       
concrete than a thought4 ,if  the new   
environment which we enter on leaving   
our mother's womb  transforms us to such
 a point that there is1 so to speak1 no 
connexion  between the embryo that we   
were and the man that we have become1 is
 it  not right to think that the far    
newer1 stranger1 wider and richer       
environment which we enter on quitting  
life will transform us even more8  ,we  

can see in what happens to us here a    
figure of what awaits us  elsewhere and 
can readily admit that our spiritual    
being1 liberated from  its body1 if it  
does not mingle at the first onset with 
the infinite1  will develop itself there
 gradually1 will choose itself a        
substance and1  no longer trammelled by 
space and time1 will go on for ever     
growing4 ,it  is very possible that our 
loftiest wishes of to-day will become   
the law  of our future development4 ,it 
is very possible that our best thoughts 
will welcome us on the farther shore and
 that the quality of our  intellect will
 determine that of the infinite which   
crystallizes around  it4 ,every         
hypothesis is permissible and every     
question1 provided it be  addressed to  
happiness2 for unhappiness is no longer 
able to answer us4  ,it finds no place  
in the human imagination that           
methodically explores  the future4 ,and1
 whatever be the force that survives us 
and presides  over our existence in the 

other world1 this existence1 to presume 
the  worst1 could be no less great1 no  
less happy than that of to-day4 ,it     
will have no other career than infinity2
 and infinity is nothing if it  be not  
felicity4 ,in any case1 it seems fairly 
certain that we spend in  this world the
 only narrow1 grudging1 obscure and     
sorrowful moment of  our destiny4       
#g    ,we have said that the peculiar   
sorrow of the mind is the sorrow of not 
knowing or not understanding1 which     
includes the sorrow of being  powerless2
 for he who knows the supreme causes1   
being no longer  paralyzed by matter1   
becomes one with them and acts with     
them2 and he  who understands ends by   
approving1 or else the universe would be
 a  mistake1 which is not possible1 an  
infinite mistake being inconceivable4   
,i do not believe that another sorrow of
 the sheer mind can be imagined4  ,the  
only one sorrow which1 at first thought1
 might seem admissible--and  which1 in  
any case1 could be but ephemeral--would 

arise from the sight of  the pain and   
misery remaining on the earth which we  
have left4 ,but this  sorrow1 after all1
 would be but one aspect and an         
insignificant phase of  the sorrow of   
being powerless and of not              
understanding4 ,as for the  latter1     
though it is not only beyond the domain 
of our intelligence1 but  even at an    
insuperable distance from our           
imagination1 we may say that it  would  
be intolerable only if it were without  
hope4 ,but1 for that1 the  universe     
would have to abandon any attempt to    
understand itself1 or else  admit within
 itself an object that remained for ever
 foreign to it4  ,either the mind will  
not perceive its limits and1            
consequently1 will not  suffer from     
them1 or else it will overstep them as  
it perceives them2  for how could the   
universe have parts eternally condemned 
to form no  part of itself and of its   
knowledge8 ,hence we cannot understand  
that the  torture of not understanding1 

supposing it to exist for a moment1     
should  not end by absorption in the    
state of infinity1 which1 if it be not  
happiness as we comprehend it1 could be 
naught but an indifference  higher and  
purer than joy4                         
,,chapter ,x                            
,,the ,,two ,,aspects ,,of ,,infinity   
#a    ,let us turn our thoughts towards 
it4 ,the problem goes beyond humanity   
and embraces all things4 ,it is         
possible1 ,i think1 to view infinity    
under  two distinct aspects4 ,let us    
contemplate the first of them4 ,we are  
plunged in a universe that has no limits
 in space or time4 ,it can  neither go  
forward nor go back4 ,it has no origin4 
,it never began1 nor  will it ever end4 
,the myriads of years behind it are even
 as the myriads  which it has yet to    
unroll4 ,from all time it has been at   
the boundless  centre of the days4 ,it  
could have no aim1 for1 if it had one1  
it would  have attained it in the       
infinity of the years that lie behind   

us2  besides1 that aim would be outside 
itself and1 if there were anything      
outside it1 it would be bounded by that 
thing and would cease to be  infinity4  
,it is not making for anywhere1 for it  
would have arrived  there2 consequently1
 all that the worlds within its pale1   
all that we  ourselves do can have no   
influence upon it4 ,all that it will do 
it has  done4 ,all that it has not done 
remains undone because it can never do  
it4 ,if it have no mind1 it will never  
have one4 ,if it have one1 that  mind   
has been at its climax from all time and
 will remain there1  changeless and     
immovable4 ,it is as young as it has    
ever been and as old  as it will ever   
be4 ,it has made in the past all the    
efforts and all the  trials which it    
will make in the future2 and1 as all the
 possible  combinations have been       
exhausted since what we cannot even call
 the  beginning1 it does not seem as if 
that which has not taken place in the   
eternity that stretches before our birth

 can happen in the eternity that  will  
follow our death4 ,if it have not become
 conscious1 it will never  become       
conscious2 if it know not what it       
wishes1 it will continue in  ignorance1 
hopelessly1 knowing all or knowing      
nothing and remaining as  near its end  
as its beginning4    ,this is the       
gloomiest thought to which man can      
attain4 ,so far1 ,i do not  think that  
its depths have been sufficiently       
sounded4 ,if it were really             
irrefutable--and some may contend that  
it is--if it actually contained the     
last word of the great riddle1 it would 
be almost impossible to live in  its    
shadow4 ,naught save the certainty that 
our conceptions of time and  space are  
illusive and absurd can lighten the     
abyss wherein our last  hope would      
perish4                                 
#b    ,this universe thus conceived     
would be1 if not intelligible1 at least 
admissible by our reason2 but in that   
universe float billions of worlds       

limited by space and time4 ,they are    
born1 they die and they are born  again4
 ,they form part of the whole2 and we   
see1 therefore1 that parts of  that     
which has neither beginning nor end     
themselves begin and end4 ,we1  in fact1
 know only those parts2 and they are of 
a number so infinite  that in our eyes  
they fill all infinity4 ,that which is  
going nowhere  teems with that which    
appears to be going somewhere4 ,that    
which has  always known what it wants1  
or will never learn1 seems to be        
eternally  experimenting with more or   
less ill-success4 ,at what goal is it   
aiming1  since it is already there8     
,everything that we discover in that    
which  could not possibly have an object
 looks as though it were pursuing one   
with inconceivable ardour2 and the mind 
that animates what we see in  that which
 should know everything and possess     
itself seems to know  nothing and to    
seek itself without intermission4 ,thus 
all that is  apparent to our senses in  

infinity gainsays that which our reason 
is  compelled to ascribe to it4         
,according as we fathom it1 we come to  
understand how deep is our want of      
understanding2 and1 the more we  strive 
to penetrate the two incomprehensible   
problems that stand face to  face1 the  
more they contradict each other4        
#c    ,what will become of us amid all  
this confusion8 ,shall we leave the     
finite wherein we dwell to be swallowed 
up in this or the other  infinite8 ,in  
other words1 shall we end by absorption 
in the infinite  which our reason       
conceives1 or shall we remain eternally 
in that which  our eyes behold1 that is 
to say1 in numberless changing and      
ephemeral  worlds8 ,shall we never leave
 those worlds which seem doomed to die  
and  to be reborn eternally1 to enter at
 last into that which1 from all         
eternity1 can neither have been born nor
 have died and which exists  without    
either future or past8 ,shall we one day
 escape1 with all that  surrounds us1   

from this unhappy speculation1 to find  
our way at last  into peace1 wisdom1    
changeless and boundless consciousness1 
or into  hopeless unconsciousness8      
,shall we have the fate which our senses
  foretell1 or that which our           
intelligence demands8 ,or are both      
senses and  intelligence only illusions1
 puny implements1 vain weapons of an    
hour1  which we never intended to       
examine or defy the universe8 ,if there 
really  be a contradiction1 is it wise  
to accept it and to deem impossible that
  which we do not understand1 seeing    
that we understand almost nothing8 ,is  
truth not at an immeasurable distance   
from these inconsistencies which  appear
 to us enormous and irreducible and     
which1 doubtless1 are of no  more       
importance than the rain that falls upon
 the sea8                               
#d    ,but1 even to our poor            
understanding to-day1 the discrepancy   
between the  infinity conceived by our  
reason and that perceived by our senses 

is  perhaps more apparent than real4    
,when we say that1 in a universe that   
has existed since all eternity1 every   
experiment1 every possible  combination 
has been made2 when we declare that     
there is no chance that  what has not   
taken place in the uncountable past can 
take place in the  uncountable future1  
our imagination perhaps attributes to   
the infinity  of time a preponderance   
which it cannot possess4 ,in truth1 all 
that  infinity contains must be as      
infinite as the time at its disposal2   
and  the chances1 encounters and        
combinations that lie therein have not  
been  exhausted in the eternity that has
 gone before us any more than they      
could be in the eternity that will come 
after us4 ,the infinity of time  is no  
vaster than the infinity of the         
substance of the universe4 ,events1     
forces1 chances1 causes1 effects1       
phenomena1 fusions1 combinations1       
coincidences1 harmonies1 unions1        
possibilities1 lives are represented in 

it by innumerous numbers that entirely  
fill a bottomless and vergeless  abyss  
where they have been shaken together    
from what we call the  beginning of the 
world that had no beginning and where   
they will be  stirred up until the end  
of a world that will have no end4 ,there
 is1  therefore1 no climax1 no          
changelessness1 no immovability4 ,it is 
probable  that the universe is seeking  
and finding itself every day1 that it   
has  not become entirely conscious and  
does not yet know what it wants4 ,it is 
possible that its ideal is still veiled 
by the shadow of its immensity2  it is  
also possible that experiments and      
chances are following one upon  the     
other in unimaginable worlds1 compared  
wherewith all those which we  see on    
starry nights are no more than a pinch  
of gold-dust in the ocean  depths4      
,lastly1 if either be true1 it is also  
true that we ourselves1 or  what remains
 of us--it matters not--will profit one 
day by those  experiments and those     

chances4 ,that which has not yet        
happened may  suddenly supervene2 and   
the next state1 with the supreme wisdom 
which  will recognize and be able to    
establish that state1 is perhaps ready  
to  arise from the clash of             
circumstances4 ,it would not be at all  
astonishing if the consciousness of the 
universe1 in the endeavour to  form     
itself1 had not yet encountered the     
combination of necessary  chances and if
 human thought were actually supporting 
one of those  decisive chances4 ,here   
there is a hope4 ,small as man and his  
brain may  appear1 they have exactly the
 value of the most enormous forces that 
they are able to conceive1 since there  
is neither great nor small in the       
immeasurable2 and1 if our body equalled 
the dimensions of all the worlds  which 
our eyes can see1 it would have exactly 
the same weight and the  same importance
 as compared with the universe that it  
has to-day4 ,the  mind alone perhaps    
occupies in infinity a space which      

comparisons do not  reduce to nothing4  
#e    ,for the rest1 if everything must 
be said1 at the cost of constantly and  
shamelessly contradicting one's self in 
the dark1 and to return to the  first   
supposition1 the idea of possible       
progress1 it is extremely  probable that
 this again is one of those childish    
disorders of our brain  which prevent us
 from seeing the thing that is4 ,it is  
quite as probable1  as we have seen     
above1 that there never was1 that there 
never will be  any progress1 because    
there could not be a goal4 ,at most     
there may occur  a few ephemeral        
combinations which1 to our poor eyes1   
will seem happier  or more beautiful    
than others4 ,even so we think gold more
 beautiful than  the mud in the street1 
or the flower in a splendid garden      
happier than  the stone at the bottom of
 a drain2 but all this1 obviously1 is of
 no  importance1 has no corresponding   
reality and proves nothing in           
particular4    ,the more we reflect upon

 it1 the more pronounced is the         
infirmity of our  intelligence which    
cannot succeed in reconciling the idea  
of progress  and even the idea of       
experiment with the supreme idea of     
infinity4  ,although nature has been    
incessantly and indefatigably repeating 
herself  before our eyes for thousands  
of years1 reproducing the same trees and
  the same animals1 we cannot contrive  
to understand why the universe          
indefinitely recommences experiments    
that have been made billions of  times4 
,it is inevitable that1 in the          
innumerable combinations that have  been
 and are being made in termless time and
 boundless space1 there have  been and  
still are millions of planets and       
consequently millions of  human races   
exactly similar to our own1 side by side
 with myriads of  others more or less   
different from it4 ,let us not say to   
ourselves that  it would require an     
unimaginable concourse of circumstances 
to reproduce  a globe like to our earth 

in every respect4 ,we must remember that
 we are  in the infinite and that this  
unimaginable concourse must necessarily 
take place in the innumerousness which  
we are unable to imagine4 ,though  it   
need billions and billions of cases for 
two features to coincide1  those        
billions and billions will encumber     
infinity no more than would a  single   
case4 ,place an infinite number of      
worlds in an infinite number of         
infinitely diverse circumstances3 there 
will always be an infinite  number for  
which those circumstances will be alike2
 if not1 we should be  setting bounds to
 our idea of the universe1 which would  
forthwith become  more incomprehensible 
still4 ,from the moment that we insist  
sufficiently  upon that thought1 we     
necessarily arrive at these conclusions4
 ,if they  have not struck us hitherto1 
it is because we never go to the        
farthest  point of our imagination4 ,now
 the farthest point of our imagination  
is  but the beginning of reality and    

gives us only a small1 purely human     
universe1 which1 vast as it may seem1   
dances in the real universe like  an    
apple on the sea4 ,i repeat1 if we do   
not admit that thousands of  worlds1    
similar in all points to our own1 in    
spite of the billions of  adverse       
chances1 have always existed and still  
exist to-day1 we are  sapping the       
foundations of the only possible        
conception of the universe  or of       
infinity4                               
#f    ,now how is it that those millions
 of exactly similar human races1 which  
from all time suffer what we have       
suffered and are still suffering1       
profit us nothing1 that all their       
experiences and all their schools have  
had no influence upon our first efforts 
and that everything has to be  done     
again and begun again incessantly8      
,as we see1 the two theories balance    
each other4 ,it is well to acquire by   
degrees the habit of understanding      
nothing4 ,there remains to us the       

faculty of choosing the less gloomy of  
the two or persuading ourselves  that   
the mists of the other exist only in our
 brain4 ,as that strange  visionary1    
,william ,blake1 said3                  
8,nor is it possible to thought         
,a greater than itself to know40    ,let
 us add that it is not possible for it  
to know anything other than  itself4    
,what we do not know would be enough to 
create the world afresh2  and what we do
 know cannot add one moment to the life 
of a fly4 ,who can  tell but that our   
chief mistake lies in believing that an 
intelligence1  were it an intelligence  
thousands of times as great as ours1    
directs the  universe8 ,it may be a     
force of quite another nature1 a force  
that  differs as widely from that on    
which our brain prides itself as        
electricity1 for instance1 differs from 
the wind that blows4 ,that is why  it is
 fairly probable that our mind1 however 
powerful it become1 will  always grope  
in mystery4 ,if it be certain that      

everything in us must  also be in       
nature1 because everything comes to us  
from her1 if the mind  and all the logic
 which it has placed at the culminating 
point of our  being direct or seem to   
direct all the actions of our life1 it  
by no  means follows that there is not  
in the universe a force greatly superior
  to thought1 a force having no         
imaginable relation to the mind1 a force
  which animates and governs all things 
according to other laws and of  which   
nothing is found in us but almost       
imperceptible traces1 even as  almost   
imperceptible traces of thought are all 
that can be found in  plants and        
minerals4    ,in any case1 there is     
nothing here to make us lose courage4   
,it is  necessarily the human illusion  
of evil1 ugliness1 uselessness and      
impossibility that is to blame4 ,we must
 wait not for the universe to be        
transformed1 but for our intelligence to
 expand or to take part in the  other   
force2 and we must maintain our         

confidence in a world which knows       
nothing of our conceptions of purpose   
and progress1 because it doubtless  has 
ideas whereof we have no idea1 a world1 
moreover1 which could  scarcely wish    
itself harm4                            
#g    8,these are but vain              
speculations10 it will be said4 8,what  
matters1 after  all1 the idea which we  
form of those things which belong to the
  unknowable1 seeing that the           
unknowable1 were we a thousand times as 
intelligent as we are1 is closed to us  
for ever and that the idea which  we    
form of it will never have any value80  
,that is true2 but there are degrees in 
our ignorance of the unknowable2  and   
each of those degrees marks a triumph of
 the intelligence4 ,to  estimate more   
and more completely the extent of what  
it does not know is  all that man's     
knowledge can hope for4 ,our idea of the
 unknowable was  and always will be     
valueless1 ,i admit2 but it nevertheless
 is and will  remain the most important 

idea of mankind4 ,all our morality1 all 
that is  in the highest degree noble and
 profound in our existence has always   
been based on this idea devoid of real  
value4 ,to-day1 as yesterday1 even      
though it be possible to recognize more 
clearly that it is too  incomplete and  
relative ever to have any actual value1 
it is necessary  to carry it as high and
 as far as we can4 ,it alone creates the
 only  atmosphere wherein the best part 
of ourselves can live4 ,yes1 it is the  
unknowable into which we shall not      
enter2 but that is no reason for  saying
 to ourselves3    8,i am closing all the
 doors and all the windows2 henceforth1 
,i shall  interest myself only in things
 which my everyday intelligence can     
compass4 ,those things alone have the   
right to influence my actions and  my   
thoughts40    ,where should we arrive at
 that rate8 ,what things can my         
intelligence  compass8 ,is there a thing
 in this world that can be separated    
from the  inconceivable8 ,since there is

 no means of eliminating that           
inconceivable1 it is reasonable and     
salutary to make the best of it and     
therefore to imagine it as stupendously 
vast as we are able4 ,the gravest       
reproach that can be brought against the
 positive religions and notably  against
 ,christianity is that they have too    
often1 if not in theory1 at  least in   
practice1 encouraged such a narrowing of
 the mystery of the  universe4 ,by      
broadening it1 we broaden the space     
wherein our mind will  move4 ,it is for 
us what we make it3 let us then form it 
of all that we  can reach on the horizon
 of ourselves4 ,as for the mystery      
itself1 we  shall1 of course1 never     
reach it2 but we have a much greater    
chance of  approaching it by facing it  
and going whither it draws us than by   
turning our backs upon it and returning 
to that place where we well know  that  
it no longer is4 ,not by diminishing our
 thoughts shall we diminish  the        
distance that separates us from the     

ultimate truths2 but by  enlarging them 
as much as possible we are sure of      
deceiving ourselves as  little as       
possible4 ,and the loftier our idea of  
the infinite1 the more  buoyant and the 
purer becomes the spiritual atmosphere  
wherein we live  and the wider and      
deeper the horizon against which our    
thoughts and  feelings stand out1 the   
horizon which is all their life and     
which they  inspire4    8,perpetually to
 construct ideas requiring the utmost   
stretch of our  faculties10 wrote       
,herbert ,spencer1 8and perpetually to  
find that such  ideas must be abandoned 
as futile imaginations1 may realize to  
us more  fully than any other course1   
the greatness of that which we vainly   
strive to grasp4444 ,by continually     
seeking to know and being continually   
thrown back with a deepened conviction  
of the impossibility of knowing1  we may
 keep alive the consciousness that it is
 alike our highest wisdom  and our      
highest duty to regard that through     

which all things exist as  the          
,unknowable40                           
#h    ,whatever the ultimate truth may  
be1 whether we admit the abstract1      
absolute and perfect infinity--the      
changeless1 immovable infinity which    
has attained perfection and which knows 
everything1 to which our reason         
tends--or whether we prefer that offered
 to us by the evidence1  undeniable here
 below1 of our senses--the infinity     
which seeks itself1  which is still     
evolving and not yet established--it    
behoves us above all  to foresee in it  
our fate1 which1 for that matter1 must1 
in either case1  end by absorption in   
that very infinity4                     
,,chapter ,,xi                          
,,our ,,fate ,,in ,,those ,,infinities  
#a    ,the first infinity1 the ideal    
infinity1 corresponds most nearly with  
the  requirements of our reason1 which  
is not a reason for giving it the       
preference4 ,it is impossible for us to 
foresee what we shall become in  it1    

because it seems to exclude any         
becoming4 ,it therefore but remains  for
 us to address ourselves to the second1 
to that which we see and  imagine in    
time and space4 ,furthermore1 it is     
possible that it may  precede the other4
 ,however absolute our conception of the
 universe1 we  have seen that we can    
always admit that what has not taken    
place in the  eternity before us will   
happen in the eternity after us and that
 there  is nothing save an untold number
 of chances to prevent the universe from
  acquiring in the end that perfect     
consciousness which will establish it   
at its zenith4                          
#b    ,behold us1 then1 in the infinity 
of those worlds1 the stellar infinity1  
the infinity of the heavens1 which      
assuredly veils other things from our   
eyes1 but which cannot be a total       
illusion4 ,it seems to us to be peopled 
only with objects--planets1 suns1 stars1
 nebul1 atoms1 imponderous              
fluids--which move1 unite and separate1 

repel and attract one another1  which   
shrink and expand1 are for ever shifting
 and never arrive1 which  measure space 
in that which has no confines and number
 the hours in that  which has no term4  
,in a word1 we are in an infinity that  
seems to have  almost the same character
 and the same habits as that power in   
the midst  of which we breathe and      
which1 upon our earth1 we call nature or
 life4    ,what will be our fate in that
 infinity8 ,we are asking ourselves no  
idle  question1 even if we should unite 
with it after losing all  consciousness1
 all notion of the ego1 even if we      
should exist there as  no more than a   
little nameless substance--soul or      
matter1 we cannot  tell--suspended in   
the equally nameless abyss that replaces
 time and  space4 ,it is not an idle    
question1 for it concerns the history of
 the  worlds or of the universe2 and    
this history1 far more than that of our 
petty existence1 is our own great       
history1 in which perhaps something of  

ourselves or something incomparably     
better and vaster will end by  meeting  
us again some day4                      
#c    ,shall we be unhappy there8 ,it is
 hardly reassuring when we consider the 
ways of nature and remember that we form
 part of a universe that has not  yet   
gathered its wisdom4 ,we have seen1 it  
is true1 that good and bad  fortune     
exist only in so far as regards our body
 and that1 when we have  lost the organ 
of suffering1 we shall not meet any of  
the earthly  sorrows again4 ,but our    
anxiety does not end here2 and will not 
our mind1  lingering upon our erstwhile 
sorrows1 drifting derelict from world to
  world1 unknown to itself in an        
unknowable that seeks itself hopelessly1
  will not our mind know here the       
frightful torture of which we have      
already spoken and which is doubtless   
the last that imagination can  touch    
with its wing8 ,finally1 if there were  
nothing left of our body and  our mind1 
there would still remain the matter and 

the spirit 7or1 at  least1 the obviously
 single force to which we give that     
double name7  which composed them and   
whose fate must be no more indifferent  
to us  than our own fate2 for1 let us   
repeat1 from our death onwards1 the     
adventure of the universe becomes our   
own adventure4 ,let us not1  therefore1 
say to ourselves3    8,what can it      
matter8 ,we shall not be there40    ,we 
shall be there always1 because          
everything will be there4               
#d    ,and will this everything wherein 
we shall be included1 in a world ever   
seeking itself1 continue a prey to new  
and perpetual and perhaps painful       
experiences8 ,since the part that we    
were was unhappy1 why should the  part  
that we shall be enjoy a better fortune8
 ,who can assure us that  yonder        
unending combinations and endeavours    
will not be more sorrowful1  more stupid
 and more baneful than those which we   
are leaving2 and how  shall we explain  
that these have come about after so many

 millions of  others which ought to have
 opened the eyes of the genius of       
infinity8 ,it  is idle to persuade      
ourselves1 as ,hindu wisdom would1 that 
our sorrows  are but illusions and      
appearances3 it is none the less true   
that they  make us very really unhappy4 
,has the universe elsewhere a more      
complete  consciousness1 a more just and
 serene understanding than on this earth
  and in the worlds which we discern8   
,and1 if it be true that it has         
somewhere attained that better          
understanding1 why does the mind that   
presides over the destinies of our earth
 not profit by it8 ,is no  communication
 possible between worlds which must have
 been born of the  same idea and which  
lie in its depths8 ,what would be the   
mystery of that  isolation8 ,are we to  
believe that the earth marks the        
farthest stage and  the most successful 
experiment8 ,what1 then1 can the mind of
 the universe  have done and against    
what darkness must it have struggled1 to

 have come  only to this8 ,but1 on the  
other hand1 that darkness and those     
barriers  which can have come only from 
itself1 since they could have arisen no 
elsewhere1 have they the power to stay  
its progress8 ,who then could have  set 
those insoluble problems to infinity and
 from what more remote and  profound    
region than itself could they have      
issued8 ,some one1 after all1  must know
 the answer to them2 and1 as behind     
infinity there can be none  that is not 
infinity itself1 it is impossible to    
imagine a malignant  will in a will that
 leaves no point around it which is not 
wholly  covered4 ,or are the experiments
 begun in the stars continued           
mechanically1 by virtue of the force    
acquired1 without regard to their       
uselessness and their pitiful           
consequences1 according to the custom of
  nature1 who knows nothing of our      
parsimony and squanders the suns in     
space as she does the seed on earth1    
knowing that nothing can be lost8  ,or1 

again1 is the whole question of our     
peace and happiness1 like that  of the  
fate of the worlds1 reduced to knowing  
whether or not the  infinity of         
endeavours and combinations be equal to 
that of eternity8  ,or1 lastly1 to come 
to what is most likely1 is it we who    
deceive  ourselves1 who know nothing1   
who see nothing and who consider        
imperfect  that which is perhaps        
faultless1 we1 who are but an           
infinitesimal  fragment of the          
intelligence which we judge by the aid  
of the little  shreds of understanding  
which it has vouchsafed to lend us8     
#e    ,how could we reply1 how could our
 thoughts and glances penetrate the     
infinite and the invisible1 we who do   
not understand nor even see the  thing  
by which we see and which is the source 
of all our thoughts8 ,in  fact1 as has  
been very justly observed1 man does not 
see light itself4  ,he sees only matter1
 or rather the small part of the great  
worlds which  he knows by the name of   

matter1 touched by light4 ,he does not  
perceive  the immense rays that cross   
the heavens save at the moment when they
 are  stopped by an object akin to those
 with which his eye is familiar upon    
this earth3 were it otherwise1 the whole
 space filled with innumerable  suns and
 boundless forces1 instead of being an  
abyss of absolute  darkness1 absorbing  
and extinguishing pencils of light that 
shoot across  it from every side1 would 
be but a monstrous and unbearable ocean 
of  flashes4 ,and1 if we do not see the 
light1 at least we think we know a  few 
of its rays or its reflexions2 but we   
are absolutely ignorant of  that which  
is unquestionably the essential law of  
the universe1 namely1  gravitation4     
,what is that force1 the most powerful  
of all and the least  visible1          
imperceptible to our senses1 without    
form1 without colour1  without          
temperature1 without substance1 without 
savour and without  voice1 but so awful 
that it suspends and moves in space all 

the worlds  which we see and all those  
which we shall never know8 ,more rapid1 
more  subtle1 more incorporeal than     
thought1 it wields such sway over       
everything that exists1 from the        
infinitely great to the infinitely      
small1 that there is not a grain of sand
 upon our earth nor a drop of  blood in 
our veins but are penetrated1 wrought   
upon and quickened by it  until they act
 at every moment upon the farthest      
planet of the last  solar system that we
 struggle to imagine beyond the bounds  
of our  imagination4    ,shakspeare's   
famous lines1              8,there are  
more things in heaven and earth1        
,horatio1             ,than are dreamt  
of in your philosophy10    have long    
since become utterly inadequate4 ,there 
are no longer more  things than our     
philosophy can dream of or imagine3     
there is none but  things which it      
cannot dream of1 there is nothing but   
the unimaginable2  and1 if we do not    
even see the light1 which is the one    

thing that we  believed we saw1 it may  
be said that there is nothing all around
 us but  the invisible4    ,we move in  
the illusion of seeing and knowing that 
which is strictly  indispensable to our 
little lives4 ,as for all the rest1     
which is  well-nigh everything1 our     
organs not only debar us from reaching1 
seeing  or feeling it1 but even restrain
 us from suspecting what it is1 just as 
they would prevent us from understanding
 it1 if an intelligence of a  different 
order were to bethink itself of         
revealing or explaining it to  us4 ,the 
number and volume of those mysteries is 
as boundless as the  universe itself4   
,if mankind were one day to draw near to
 those which  to-day it deems the       
greatest and the most inaccessible1 such
 as the  origin and the aim of life1 it 
would at once behold rising up behind   
them1 like eternal mountains1 others    
quite as great and quite as             
unfathomable2 and so on1 without end4   
,in relation to that which it would     

have to know in order to hold the key to
 this world1 it would always  find      
itself at the same point of central     
ignorance4 ,it would be just the  same  
if we possessed an intelligence several 
million times greater and  more         
penetrating than ours4 ,all that its    
miraculously increased power  could     
discover would encounter limits no less 
impassable than at  present4 ,all is    
boundless in that which has no bounds4  
,we shall be the  eternal prisoners of  
the universe4 ,it is therefore          
impossible for us to  appreciate in any 
degree whatsoever1 in the smallest      
conceivable  respect1 the present state 
of the universe and to say1 as long as  
we are  men1 whether it follows a       
straight line or describes an immense   
circle1  whether it is growing wiser or 
madder1 whether it is advancing towards 
the eternity which has no end or        
retracing its steps towards that which  
had no beginning4 ,our sole privilege   
within our tiny confines is to  struggle

 towards that which appears to us the   
best and to remain  heroically persuaded
 that no part of what we do within those
 confines  can ever be wholly lost4     
#f    ,but let not all these insoluble  
questions drive us towards fear4 ,from  
the point of view of our future beyond  
the grave1 it is in no way  necessary   
that we should have an answer to        
everything4 ,whether the  universe have 
already found its consciousness1 whether
 it find it one  day or seek it         
everlastingly1 it could not exist for   
the purpose of  being unhappy and of    
suffering1 neither in its entirety1 nor 
in any one  of its parts2 and it matters
 little if the latter be invisible or   
incommensurable1 considering that the   
smallest is as great as the  greatest in
 what has neither limit nor measure4 ,to
 torture a point is  the same thing as  
to torture the worlds2 and1 if it       
torture the worlds1  it is its own      
substance that it tortures4 ,its very   
fate1 wherein we have  our part1        

protects us2 for we are simply morsels  
of infinity4 ,it is  inseparable from us
 as we are inseparable from it4 ,its    
breath is our  breath1 its aim is our   
aim and we bear within us all its       
mysteries4 ,we  participate in it       
everywhere4 ,there is naught in us that 
escapes it2  there is naught in it but  
belongs to us4 ,it extends us1 fills us1
  traverses us on every side4 ,in space 
and time and in that which1 beyond      
space and time1 has as yet no name1 we  
represent it and summarize it           
completely1 with all its properties and 
all its future2 and1 if its  immensity  
terrifies us1 we are as terrifying as   
itself4    ,if1 therefore1 we had to    
suffer in it1 our sufferings could be   
but  ephemeral2 and nothing matters that
 is not eternal4 ,it is possible1       
although somewhat incomprehensible1 that
 parts should err and go astray2  but it
 is impossible that sorrow should be one
 of its lasting and  necessary laws2 for
 it would have brought that law to bear 

against  itself4 ,in like manner1 the   
universe is and must be its own law and 
its  sole master3 if not1 the law or the
 master whom it must obey would be  the 
universe alone2 and the centre of a word
 which we pronounce without  being able 
to grasp its scope would be simply      
shifted4 ,if it be unhappy1  that means 
that it wills its own unhappiness2 if it
 will its  unhappiness1 it is mad2 and1 
if it appear to us mad1 that means that 
our  reason works contrary to everything
 and to the only laws possible1  seeing 
that they are eternal1 or1 to speak more
 humbly1 that it judges  what it wholly 
fails to understand4                    
#g    ,everything1 therefore1 must end1 
or perhaps already be1 if not in a      
state of happiness1 at least in a state 
exempt from all suffering1 all  anxiety1
 all lasting unhappiness2 and what1     
after all1 is our happiness  upon this  
earth1 if it be not the absence of      
sorrow1 anxiety and  unhappiness8       
,but it is childish to talk of happiness

 and unhappiness where infinity  is in  
question4 ,the idea which we entertain  
of happiness and unhappiness  is        
something so special1 so human1 so      
fragile that it does not exceed  our    
stature and falls to dust as soon as we 
take it out of its little  sphere4 ,it  
proceeds entirely from a few            
contingencies of our nerves1  which are 
made to appreciate very slight          
happenings1 but which could as  easily  
have felt everything the opposite way   
and taken pleasure in that  which is now
 pain4    ,i do not know if my readers  
remember the striking passage in which  
,sir  ,william ,crookes shows how       
well-nigh all that we consider as       
essential  laws of nature would be      
falsified in the eyes of a microscopic  
man1  while forces of which we are      
almost wholly ignorant1 such as         
surface-tension1 capillarity1 the       
,brownian movements1 would              
preponderate4 ,walking on a             
cabbage-leaf1 for instance1 after the   

dew had  fallen1 and seeing it studded  
with huge crystal globes1 he would infer
  that water was a solid body which     
assumes spherical form and rises in  the
 air4 ,at no great distance1 he might   
come to a pond1 when he would  observe  
that this same matter1 instead of rising
 upwards1 now seems to  slope downwards 
in a vast curve from the brink4 ,if he  
managed1 with the  aid of his friends1  
to throw into the water one of those    
enormous steel  bars which we call      
needles1 he would see that it made a    
sort of concave  trough on the surface  
and floated tranquilly4 ,from these     
experiments and  a thousand others which
 he might make1 he would naturally      
deduce  theories diametrically opposed  
to those upon which our entire existence
  is based4 ,it would be the same if the
 changes were made in the direction  of 
time1 to take an hypothesis imagined by 
the philosopher ,william  ,james3       
8,suppose we were able1 within the      
length of a second1 to note distinctly  

ten thousand events instead of barely   
ten1 as now2 if our life were then      
destined to hold the same number of     
impressions it might be a thousand      
times as short4 ,we should live less    
than a month1 and personally know       
nothing of the change of seasons4 ,if   
born in winter1 we should believe  in   
summer as we now believe in the heats of
 the carboniferous era4 ,the  motions of
 organic beings would be so slow to our 
senses as to be  inferred1 not seen4    
,the sun would stand still in the sky1  
the moon be  almost free from change and
 so on4 ,but now reverse the hypothesis1
 and  suppose a being to get only one   
thousandth part of the sensations that  
we get in a given time1 and consequently
 to live a thousand times as  long4     
,winters and summers will be to him like
 quarters of an hour4  ,mushrooms and   
the swifter growing plants will shoot   
into being so  rapidly as to appear     
instantaneous creations2 annual shrubs  
will rise  and fall from the earth like 

restlessly boiling water-springs2 the   
motions of animals will be as invisible 
as are to us the movements of  bullets  
and cannon-balls2 the sun will scour    
through the sky like a  meteor1 leaving 
a fiery trail behind him1 c4 ,that such 
imaginary cases  7barring the           
super-human longevity7 may be realized  
somewhere in the  animal kingdom1 it    
would be rash to deny40                 
#h    ,we believe that we see nothing   
hanging over us but catastrophes1       
deaths1  torments and disasters2 we     
shiver at the mere thought of the great 
interplanetary spaces1 with their       
intense cold and their awful and  gloomy
 solitudes2 and we imagine that the     
worlds that revolve through  space are  
as unhappy as ourselves because they    
freeze1 or disaggregate1  or clash      
together1 or are consumed in unutterable
 flames4 ,we infer from  this that the  
genius of the universe is an abominable 
tyrant1 seized  with a monstrous        
madness1 delighting only in the torture 

of itself and  all that it contains4 ,to
 millions of stars1 each many thousand  
times  larger than our sun1 to nebul    
whose nature and dimensions no figure1  
no  word in our language is able to     
express1 we attribute our momentary     
sensibility1 the little ephemeral play  
of our nerves2 and we are  convinced    
that life there must be impossible or   
appalling1 because we  should feel too  
hot or too cold4 ,it were much wiser to 
say to ourselves  that it would need but
 a trifle1 a few papill more or less to 
our skin1  the slightest modification of
 our eyes and ears1 to turn the         
temperature  of space1 its silence and  
its darkness into a delicious           
spring-time1 an  incomparable music1 a  
divine light4    8,nothing is too       
wonderful to be true10 said ,faraday4   
,it were much more reasonable to        
persuade ourselves that the catastrophes
  our imagination sees there are life   
itself1 the joy and one or other of     
those immense festivals of mind and     

matter in which death1 thrusting  aside 
at last our two enemies1 time and space1
 will soon permit us to  take part4     
,each world dissolving1 extinguished1   
crumbling1 burnt or  colliding with     
another world and pulverized means the  
commencement of a  magnificent          
experiment1 the dawn of a marvellous    
hope and perhaps an  unexpected         
happiness drawn direct from the         
inexhaustible unknown4 ,what  though    
they freeze or flame1 collect or        
disperse1 pursue or flee one  another3  
mind and matter1 no longer united by the
 same pitiful hazard  that joined them  
in us1 must rejoice at all that happens2
 for all is but  birth and rebirth1 a   
departure into an unknown filled with   
wonderful  promises and maybe an        
anticipation of some ineffable event4   
,,chapter ,,xii                         
,,conclusions                           
#a    ,in order to retain a livelier    
image of all this and a more exact      
memory1  let us give a last glance at   

the road which we have travelled4 ,we   
have  put aside1 for reasons which we   
have stated1 the religious solutions and
  total annihilation4 ,annihilation is  
physically impossible2 the religious    
solutions occupy a citadel without doors
 or windows into which human  reason    
does not penetrate4 ,next comes the     
hypothesis of the survival of  our ego1 
released from its body1 but retaining a 
full and unimpaired  consciousness of   
its identity4 ,we have seen that this   
hypothesis1  strictly defined1 has very 
little likelihood and is not greatly to 
be  desired1 although1 with the         
surrender of the body1 the source of all
 our  ills1 it seems less to be feared  
than our actual existence4 ,on the other
  hand1 as soon as we try to extend or  
to exalt it1 so that it may appear  less
 barbarous or less crude1 we come back  
to the hypothesis of a cosmic           
consciousness or of a modified          
consciousness1 which1 together with that
  of survival without any sort of       

consciousness1 closes the field to every
  supposition and exhausts every        
forecast of the imagination4            
,survival without any sort of           
consciousness would be tantamount for us
 to  annihilation pure and simple and   
consequently would be no more dreadful  
than the latter1 that is to say1 than a 
sleep with no dreams and with no        
awakening4 ,the hypothesis is           
unquestionably more acceptable than that
 of  annihilation2 but it prejudges very
 rashly the questions of a cosmic       
consciousness and of a modified         
consciousness4                          
#b    ,before replying to these1 we must
 choose our universe1 for we have the   
choice4 ,it is a matter of knowing how  
we propose to look at infinity4 ,is  it 
the moveless1 immovable infinity1 from  
all eternity perfect and at  its zenith1
 and the purposeless universe that our  
reason will conceive  at the farthest   
point of our thoughts8 ,do we believe   
that1 at our death1  the illusion of    

movement and progress which we see from 
the depths of  this life will suddenly  
fade away8 ,if so1 it is inevitable     
that1 at our  last breath1 we shall be  
absorbed in what1 for lack of a better  
term1 we  call the cosmic consciousness4
 ,are we1 on the other hand1 persuaded  
that  death will reveal to us that the  
illusion lies not in our senses1 but in 
our reason and that1 in a world         
incontestably alive1 despite the        
eternity preceding our birth1 all the   
experiments have not been made1  that is
 to say that movement and evolution     
continue and will never and  nowhere    
stop8 ,in that case1 we must at once    
accept the hypothesis of a  modified or 
progressive consciousness4 ,the two     
aspects1 after all1 are  equally        
unintelligible1 but defensible2 and1    
although really  irreconcilable1 they   
agree on one point1 namely1 that        
unending pain and  unredeemed misery are
 alike excluded from them both for ever4
                                        

#c    ,the hypothesis of a modified     
consciousness does not necessitate the  
loss  of the tiny consciousness acquired
 in our body2 but it makes it almost    
negligible1 flings1 drowns and dissolves
 it in infinity4 ,it is of course       
impossible to support this hypothesis   
with satisfactory proofs2 but it  is not
 easy to shatter it like the others4    
,were it permissible to speak  of       
likeness to truth in this connexion1    
when our only truth is that we  do not  
see the truth1 it is the most likely of 
the interim hypotheses  and gives a     
magnificent opening for the most        
plausible1 the most varied  and the most
 alluring dreams4 ,will our ego1 our    
soul1 our spirit1 or  whatever we call  
that which will survive us in order to  
continue us as  we are1 will it find    
again1 on leaving the body1 the         
innumerable lives  which it must have   
lived since the thousands of years that 
had no  beginning8 ,will it continue to 
increase by assimilating all that it    

meets in infinity during the thousands  
of years that will have no end8  ,will  
it linger for a time around our earth1  
leading1 in regions  invisible to our   
eyes1 an ever higher and happier        
existence1 as the  theosophists and     
spiritualists contend8 ,will it move    
towards other  planetary systems1 will  
it emigrate to other worlds whose       
existence is  not even suspected by our 
senses8 ,everything seems permissible in
 this  great dream1 save that which     
might arrest its flight4                
,nevertheless1 so soon as it ventures   
too far in the ultramondane spaces1  it 
crashes into strange obstacles and      
breaks its wings against them4 ,if  we  
admit that our ego does not remain      
eternally what it was at the  moment of 
our death1 we can no longer imagine     
that1 at a given second1  it stops1     
ceases to expand and rise1 attains its  
perfection and its  fulness1 to become  
no more than a sort of motionless wreck 
suspended in  eternity and a finished   

thing in the midst of that which will   
never  finish4 ,that would indeed be the
 only real death and the more fearful   
inasmuch as it would set a limit to an  
unparalleled life and  intelligence1    
beside which those which we possess here
 below would not  even weigh what a drop
 of water weighs when compared with the 
ocean1 or  a grain of sand when placed  
in the scales with a mountain-chain4 ,in
 a  word1 either we believe that our    
evolution will one day stop1 implying   
thereby an incomprehensible end and a   
sort of inconceivable death2 or we      
admit that it has no limit1 whereupon1  
being infinite1 it assumes all  the     
properties of infinity and must needs be
 lost in infinity and united  with it4  
,this1 withal1 is the latter end of     
theosophy1 spiritualism and  all the    
religions in which man1 in his ultimate 
happiness1 is absorbed  by ,god4 ,and   
this again is an incomprehensible end1  
but at least it is  life4 ,and then1    
taking one incomprehensibility with     

another1 after doing  all that is       
humanly possible to understand one or   
the other riddle1 let  us by preference 
leap into the greatest and therefore the
 most probable1  the one which contains 
all the others and after which nothing  
more  remains4 ,if not1 the questions   
reappear at every stage and the answers 
are always conflicting4 ,and questions  
and answers lead us to the same         
inevitable abyss4 ,as we shall have to  
face it sooner or later1 why not  make  
for it straightway8 ,all that happens to
 us in the interval  interests us beyond
 a doubt1 but does not detain us1       
because it is not  eternal4             
#d    ,behold us then before the mystery
 of the cosmic consciousness4 ,although 
we are incapable of understanding the   
act of an infinity that would have  to  
fold itself up in order to feel itself  
and consequently to define  itself and  
separate itself from other things1 this 
is not an adequate  reason for declaring
 it impossible2 for1 if we were to      

reject all the  realities and           
impossibilities that we do not          
understand1 there would be  nothing left
 for us to live upon4 ,if this          
consciousness exist under the  form     
which we have conceived1 it is evident  
that we shall be there and  take part in
 it4 ,if there be a consciousness       
somewhere1 or some thing  that takes the
 place of consciousness1 we shall be in 
that consciousness  or that thing1      
because we cannot be elsewhere4 ,and1 as
 this  consciousness or this thing      
cannot be unhappy1 because it is        
impossible  that infinity should exist  
for its own unhappiness1 neither shall  
we be  unhappy when we are in it4       
,lastly1 if the infinity into which we  
shall  be projected have no sort of     
consciousness nor anything that stands  
for  it1 the reason will be that        
consciousness or anything that might    
replace  it is not indispensable to     
eternal happiness4                      
#e    ,that1 ,i think1 is about as much 

as we may be permitted to declare1 for  
the moment1 to the spirit anxiously     
facing the unfathomable space  wherein  
death will shortly hurl it4 ,it can     
still hope to find there the  fulfilment
 of its dreams2 it will perhaps find    
less to dread than it had  feared4 ,if  
it prefer to remain expectant and to    
accept none of the  hypotheses which ,i 
have expounded to the best of my power  
and without  prejudice1 it nevertheless 
seems difficult not to welcome1 at      
least1  this great assurance which we   
find at the bottom of every one of them1
  namely1 that infinity could not be    
malevolent1 seeing that1 if it          
eternally tortured the least among us1  
it would be torturing something  which  
it cannot tear out of itself and that it
 would therefore be  torturing its very 
self4    ,i have added nothing to what  
was already known4 ,i have simply tried 
to  separate what may be true from that 
which is assuredly not true2 for1 if  we
 do not know where truth is1 we         

nevertheless learn to know where it is  
not4 ,and1 perhaps1 in seeking for that 
undiscoverable truth1 we shall  have    
accustomed our eyes to pierce the terror
 of the last hour by  looking it full in
 the face4 ,many things1 beyond a doubt1
 remain to be  said which others will   
say with greater force and brilliancy4  
,but we  need have no hope that any one 
will utter on this earth the word that  
shall put an end to our uncertainties4  
,it is very probable1 on the  contrary1 
that no one in this world1 nor perhaps  
in the next1 will  discover the great   
secret of the universe4 ,and1 if we     
reflect upon this  even for a moment1 it
 is most fortunate that it should be so4
 ,we have  not only to resign ourselves 
to living in the incomprehensible1 but  
to  rejoice that we cannot go out of it4
 ,if there were no more insoluble       
questions nor impenetrable riddles1     
infinity would not be infinite2 and     
then we should have for ever to curse   
the fate that placed us in a  universe  

proportionate to our intelligence4 ,all 
that exists would be but  a gateless    
prison1 an irreparable evil and mistake4
 ,the unknown and the  unknowable are   
necessary and will perhaps always be    
necessary to our  happiness4 ,in any    
case1 ,i would not wish my worst enemy1 
were his  understanding a thousandfold  
loftier and a thousandfold mightier than
  mine1 to be condemned eternally to    
inhabit a world of which he had         
surprised an essential secret and of    
which1 as a man1 he had begun to  grasp 
the least tittle4                       
,,the ,,end                             
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,printed by                             
,,morrison  ,,gibb ,,limited            
,edinburgh                              
,transcriber's ,notes    ,obviously     
typographical errors have been silently 
corrected4 ,nothing  else has been      
changed4