Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/194 (page 35)
    theory. They deny what we call our facts. They think they are the product of delusion, hallucination, preconception, illusory and vain hopes. Well, it is a question of evidence. They would admit that it is a question of evidence. But they cannot form a working opinion without real and not casual study of the specific phenomena. The few that have studied the facts may differ from my interpretation, and especially from my Ether- working hypothesis. By all means. I am willing to abandon it on good ground shown : I hold it lightly : but the facts I do not hold lightly. Pontifically—if opponents like to call it so—I assert emphatically that there is evidence for Survival, and that some of the evidence is thoroughly good. It can no more be treated superficially than any other of our scientific experiences. It has to be examined with caution and patience and critical care, but with an open, not a closed mind. Prepossessions and prejudices, hopes and desires in either direction, must be put aside. The study must be entered on with humility, with a certainty that, whatever else is doubtful, our present conceptions of existence do not exhaust the infinitude of things, and with more than a suspicion that