h Dr Hodgson. Indeed, if he had not done so, the
omission might have created a doubt as to his identity, for in his
lifetime he was fond of such discussions. But for the present Dr Hodgson
has kept back these speculations from the other side of the grave,
thinking quite rightly that no value would attach to them until
unmistakable evidence had been produced for the existence of "another
world." Still there are to be found among the reports of the sittings
some fragments of these philosophic theories, and they form an
interesting subject of study.

The philosophy may be only that of Mrs Piper. But it may on the other
hand be the philosophy of the discarnate George Pelham, and for that
reason it is not unworthy of examination. Supposing, however, that the
assertions made are actually those of an inhabitant of the other world
who in this world was intelligent, honest and cultivated, the question
still arises whether we must regard them as expressing Absolute Truth.
Surely not; if another world exists beyond this one, its inhabitants
have mounted one step--but one step only--above us on the infinite
ladder of existence. They do not see the Eternal face to face. It is
quite possible that they may be able to see clearly truths of which we
have no glimpse, but we are not bound to believe more than we like of
what they tell us.

If the existence of the discarnate George Pelham is established, a new
light is undoubtedly thrown on the old problem as to the nature of the
soul, a problem as old as the world itself. The disciples of Plato's
Socrates tried to interpret it by the charming analogy of the lyre and
its harmony; asking whether man may not be compared to a lyre and his
soul to its harmony, a harmony which ceases to exist when the instrument
is broken. Using more modern terms, we may ask whether the soul is the
resultant of the forces of the bodily organism, or whether it is the
indestructible and mysterious motor which produces the action of that
organism.

George Pelham declares that the soul is in truth the motor, and that the
body is merely a machine used temporarily by the soul to act upon the
obscure world of matter. He speaks to this effect: Thought exists
outside matter and is in no way dependent upon matter. The destruction
of the body does not have as its consequence the destruction of thought.
After the dissolution of the body the Ego continues its existence, but
it then perceives thought directly, is much mor