Presidential address at the opening of the third session, Nov. 2, 1876 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox.

  • Edward William Cox
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Presidential address at the opening of the third session, Nov. 2, 1876 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/20 page 10
    that it is an intrusion upon her province and a practical dis- puting of her authority. To seek for proof of soul as a fact implies that it is not to be accepted on her authority as a dogma. Shallow as such an argument may be, it prevails very extensively and enlists a second great array of opponents. The third army, not so powerful, perhaps, but still far more numerous than it is thought to be, is formed of those who admit the reality of the abnormal phenomena of Insanity, Delirium, Somnambulism, and Psychism, but say that they are the product of demoniacal agency. The Insane are possessed; the Somnambulist has his wonderful super- sensuous perceptions through devils; the force displayed in Psychism is an infernal power. These opponents have at least the merit of consistency and offer a fair question for examination. Lastly there are the mighty multitude who have no knowledge of their own, who have never witnessed anything, who have not even the capacity for judgment, who take all their opinions from others and who are wholly led by what- ever may be the prevailing views of any question whatever —mere echoes—as noisy and as empty. There is another remarkable feature of this warfare against the existence of Soul as asserted by Psychology. Not only does it unite the most opposing parties but it is conducted by them in quite a novel fashion. The usual course of Scientists is to require each to keep to his own science. If a new fact or a new theory is announced by the electrician, the geographer or the geologist would not dream of passing an opinion upon it. He would defer to the judgment of those whose study it has been. So with individuals. What sane man who knew nothing of magnetism or physiology, who had never witnessed an experiment nor learned its principles, would proclaim himself a fool by denying its facts and denouncing its theory. The chemist takes his electricity from the electrician, the [15(5]
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3