the solution—at least no serious attempt by modern investigators, armed with the latest weapons from the scientific armoury. It is a vicious circle: there is no effective desire because men have despaired of success: and success will only come, in this as in any other quest, to men whom the desire of knowledge urges to eager and persistent endeavour. But there are indications now that the question is being asked more methodically and with more perseverence than ever before. Ten years before the foundation of the Society for Psychical Research Henry Sidgwick wrote: "I sometimes feel with somewhat of a profound hope and enthusiasm that the function of the English mind, with its uncompromising matter-of-fact-ness, will be to put the final question to the Universe with a solid, passionate determination to be answered which must come to something."[1] And since those words were written, the enquiry has been steadily pursued and is still proceeding.
But the indifference of the many is also no doubt partly due to distrust of the methods of the enquiry, and of the temper of the investigators. It has been pointed out in the introductory chapter that in the early years of the Society the appreciation of the evidence was a joint work. Further, the lines of work were laid down by the advice and pursued under the personal direction of Henry Sidgwick. His wisdom, his clear insight, the essential sanity of his mind withheld us from rash and premature
- ↑ Memoir, p. 259.
