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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
141
IX.
It
is
amusing
to
note
the
superficial
forms
of
reaction
against
scientific
positivism.
The
triumph
of
Darwin
was
signalized
by
the
invention
of
that
happy
word
Agnostic,
which
had
great
vogue.
But
agnosticism,
as
a
fashion,
was
far
too
reasonable
to
endure.
There
came
a
rumour
of
Oriental
magic,
(how
the
world
repeats
itself!)
and
presently
every
one
who
had
nothing
better
to
do
gossipped
about
"esoteric
Buddhism"--the
saving
adjective
sounded
well
in
a
drawing-room.
It
did
not
hold
very
long,
even
with
the
novelists;
for
the
English
taste
this
esotericism
was
too
exotic.
Somebody
suggested
that
the
old
table-turning
and
spirit-rapping,
which
had
homely
associations,
might
be
re-considered
in
a
scientific
light,
and
the
idea
was
seized
upon.
Superstition
pranked
in
the
professor's
spectacles,
it
set
up
a
laboratory,
and
printed
grave
reports.
Day
by
day
its
sphere
widened.
Hypnotism
brought
matter
for
the
marvel-mongers,
and
there
followed
a
long
procession
of
words
in
limping
Greek--a
little
difficult
till
practice
had
made
perfect.
Another
fortunate
terminologist
hit
upon
the
word
"psychical"--the
p
might
be
sounded
or
not,
according
to
the
taste
and
fancy
of
the
pronouncer--and
the
fashionable
children
of
a
scientific
age
were
thoroughly
at
ease.
"There
must
be
something,
you
know;
one
always
felt
that
there
must
be
something."
And
now,
if
one
may
judge
from
what
one
reads,
psychical
"science"
is
comfortably
joining
hands
with
the
sorcery
of
the
Middle
Ages.
It
is
said
to
be
a
lucrative
moment
for
wizards
that
peep
and
that
mutter.
If
the
law
against
fortune-telling
were
as
strictly
enforced
in
the
polite
world
as
it
occasionally
is
in
slums
and
hamlets,
we
should
have
a
merry
time.
But
it
is
difficult
to
prosecute
a
Professor
of
Telepathy--and
how
he
would
welcome
the
advertisement!
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