he life we now know, and then we may hope that what we "can regard as
larval characters of special service in the present stage of
existence," will prove to have been "destined to be discarded, or
modified almost out of recognition, in proportion as a higher state is
attained."[8]

This recognition of the existence within human nature of such
capacities and powers, however imperfectly developed and understood,
would greatly help us to deal with many mysteries of experience that
have hitherto seemed completely beyond the purview of a strict
scientific research. The American psychologist, William James, has
done good service to this highest department of critical inquiry in his
well-known work on "Varieties of Religious Experience." A single
extract may suffice to illustrate his position, and to shew what may
yet lie before those who are prepared to press on in the direction in
which he was able to point.

"The further limits of our being plunge ... into an altogether other
dimension of existence from the sensible and merely 'understandable'
{93} world.... So far as our ideal impulses originate in this region
(and most of them do originate in it, for we find them possessing us in
a way for which we cannot articulately account) we belong to it in a
more intimate sense than that in which we belong to the visible
world... When we commune with it, work is actually done upon our
finite personality, for we are turned into new men... I call this
higher part of the universe by the name of God."[9]

[1] _Man and the Universe_, p. 78.

[2] P. 91.

[3] _Life and Matter_, p. 107.

[4] _Man and the Universe_, p. 93.

[5] Lecture at University College, October, 1911.

[6] Birmingham Lecture, May, 1911.

[7] Bergson. Presidential Address to Society for Psychical Research,
May, 1913.

[8] _Op. cit._, I., p. 97.

[9] Pp. 515, f.

{94}

NOTE

Since the preceding chapters were written, the meeting of the British
Association has been held at Birmingham (September, 1913). Its
interest was unusually great inasmuch as the President's address and
the principal discussions were occupied with the most critical and
debatable scientific questions of the present moment. The following
extracts will give a general idea of the line taken at the outset by
the President, Sir Oliver Lodge.

"Theological controversy is practically in abeyance just now." "It is
the scientific allies, now, who are waging a more or less