that their functions pertain in part to this life. It is true that their primary function is to perpetuate the species; that their normal activity gives life and light and love and joy and happiness to incarnate humanity; and that, perverted, they are the prolific source of sorrow, misery, degradation, and despair. Like every other attribute of the soul when uncontrolled by objective reason, that is, when perverted to base and ignoble uses, they are prolific of evil consequences; whilst their normal exercise is promotive of the highest good to humanity. But, whatever may be the result of their exercise here, the fact that the subjective mind is the seat of the emotions is demonstrative that they have a higher function to pe form in a realm where perversion is impossible.

It will thus be seen that the love and affection which man bears to his fellow-man will not be blotted out of existence when the brain ceases to perform its functions; for it exists in that mind which performs its functions independently of the brain's existence, in that mind which grows stronger as the brain grows weaker, in that mind whose strongest observable manifestations occur in the hour of death. If there is no faculty without a function, it follows that the affectional emotions have a legitimate sphere of exercise in that home not made with hands. In other words, the existence of those emotions in the soul constitutes indubitable evidence that there will exist, in the life to come, ample means for their exercise; and that conclusion presupposes a reunion with the legitimate objects of our love.

There is now but one thing lacking in the attributes and powers of the soul to complete the mental equipment necessary for an enjoyable intellectual and social existence of the highest order conceivable by the mind of man. It is almost superfluous to say that the one other thing needful is a means of communication between disembodied souls, or to remark that this want finds an ample supply in the power of telepathy.

Telepathy, as has again and again been demonstrated, is a power belonging exclusively to the subjective mind; the objective mind does not possess it in the remotest degree. This fact is evidenced by every salient telepathic phenomenon. It is the subjective mind that reads, and it is the subjective mind that is read. The objective thoughts of one cannot be read by the subjective mind of another, unless the objective and subjective thoughts happen to be synchronous. Hence it is very rare that a telepathist reads what the sitter is consciously thinking of. These facts, however, are of such common knowledge that it would be a waste of time to enlarge upon them.

The important fact connected with telepathy is that it performs no normal function in this life. This is obvious from the fact that it is only under abnormal conditions of the body and mind that the phenomenon is observable.

Much ink has been wasted in discussing the question whether telepathy is vestigial or rudimentary. The fact is that there is not a scintilla of valid evidence to show that it is either. If it were vestigial, we should have the right to expect to find indubitable evidence of its existence in the lower animals. But the fact is that there is little evidence to show that they can communicate in that way with each other. They all have an oral or objective language of their own, and all their senses are infinitely more acute than man's. This would hardly be the case if telepathy existed in animals as a normal power capable of affording protection or contributing to their well being. I am not unmindful of the well-known experiment of Prof. C. V. Riley,' an eminent scientist of Washington, who occluded a foreign insect and released it two miles from its mate; and the two were found together the next morning. The learned professor has suggested telepathy as a possible explanation of the fact; but he would hardly regard it as conclusive evidence of the

1 Since deceased.

existence of that power in insects, in view of the well-known sensory powers of many of the lower animals, including insects. Besides, it is a feat that is vastly outdone by the carrier pigeon, whose marvellous powers are referable entirely to the sense of sight. There is, however, much evidence to show that man can influence animals telepathically; but no conclusive evidence has yet been forthcoming to show that animals can so communicate with each other. Neither is there any evidence to show that man ever possessed the power of telepathy in any greater degree than he now possesses it, or that he was ever in a physical or mental condition more or less favorable to the development of that power than he is now. There is therefore no evidence what

ever that the faculty is vestigial.

There is as little evidence that it is a "rudimentary sixth sense," as many learned men, who are fond of rudimentary speculations without facts, would have us believe. It is true that there are more telepathists now than ever existed before; and it is also true that there are more hysterical women, of both sexes, than ever existed before. Besides, telepathy has only recently been scientifically investigated, and the fact that it is a power of the human mind has only recently been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the scientific world. But the demonstration of a fact of such startling import has sent thousands into the field of experimental psychology, with the result that millions of experiments have been made, demonstrating nothing but the bare fact that the power exists, and that it cannot be made useful in this life. It has not advanced human knowledge one step in the direction of any useful result or in the development of any useful power. It would be difficult to show that, of all the experiments that have been made or of all the instances where it has been spontaneously manifested, there is one case where it has proved to be of any benefit whatever. In the very nature of things this must always be true, for the simple

reason that the law of suggestion must always render every experiment uncertain until the result has been verified by objective means. No one who is aware of the existence of that law would ever dare to depend upon a telepathic message where any material interest was at stake; and until the law of suggestion can be nullified, that is to say, until all possible subjective hallucinations, arising from possible suggestions, can be eliminated as possible factors in supposed telepathic experiences, there can be no possible means of rendering telepathy useful in earthly life.

Again, if telepathy were either vestigial or rudimentary, it would be manifested under normal conditions. It would be equivalent to a contradiction in terms to suppose that a normal faculty must always be exercised under abnormal conditions. The only condition approaching normality under which telepathy is ever manifested is in dreams. But until the element of suggestion arising from waking thoughts or peripheral stimuli can be eliminated from dreams, it is obvious that they cannot be depended upon as sources of information in the affairs of this life.

No; telepathy performs no normal function on the physical plane. We can catch only occasional glimpses of it here, just enough to enable us to know that in the future life, when physical organs of speech no longer exist, there is ample provision for intelligent communion with those who share our destiny.

CHAPTER XXI.

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS.

The Abnormality of Psychic Manifestations. - The Dangers attending Psychic Activity. - The Different Forms of Psychic Development. - Psychic Powers inversely Proportioned to Health. Unsuspected Dangers. - Musicians. Stenographers and Typewriters. - Compositors. Genius and Insanity. - Opinions of Scientists. Dr. MacDonald. - Summary. Biographical Facts. The Great Practical Lesson of Psychic Science. - Immorality, Vice, Crime, and Insanity the Result of Psychic Activity.

THE

HE lessons which psychic science teaches pertain not alone to the future world, but they are of the utmost practical value in this life. Indeed, I speak the words of truth and soberness when I declare that there is no subject of human thought and investigation of such transcendent and imminent practical importance to mankind as that of psychic science. And the great lesson which it teaches, the lesson which embraces all the others, is that psychic phenomena are never produced except under the most intensely abnormal conditions of the physical and the mental organism.

It may sound paradoxical to say that man's most important study can be successfully prosecuted only under and by virtue of abnormal conditions; but it must be remembered that it has always been by means of the study of abnormal phenomena that much of what man knows of his normal conditions has been revealed to him.

If man were always physically and mentally normal, there would be comparatively little learned of his physical