The last of the five names mentioned is that of Mr F. W. H. Myers. The written testimony he has left behind enables us to obtain a much clearer view of his conclusions as a whole, than is attainable in the case of Professor Sidgwick and Mr. Gurney. The convictions which he came to in regard to the two most notable "mediums" in the history of modern spiritualism—D. D. Home and W. Stainton Moses—are evidence that he believed in most of the alleged phenomena being proved realities. These convictions are so important from such a careful and competent student of the subject that it is best to quote them in his own words. Of D. D. Home he said: "If our readers ask us—'Do you desire us to go on experimenting in these matters, as though Home's phenomena were genuine?'—we answer 'Yes.'"[78] Of the phenomena which occurred in the presence of W. Stainton Moses, Mr. Myers said: "That they were not produced fraudulently by Dr. Speer or other sitters I regard as proved both by moral considerations and by the fact that they are constantly reported as occurring when Mr. Moses was alone. That Mr. Moses should have himself fraudulently produced them, I regard as both morally and physically incredible. That he should have prepared and produced them in a state of trance, I regard both as physically incredible, and also as entirely inconsistent with the tenour both of his own reports and of those of his friends. I therefore regard the reported phenomena as having actually occurred in a genuinely supernormal manner."[79]
At the same time Mr. Myers believed in the existence of a large amount of conscious and wilful fraud, especially in professional mediumship.
There will be no fitter conclusion to this volume than a few passages from the last chapter, entitled "Epilogue," of "Human Personality," by Mr. F. W. H. Myers. To a large extent they are appropriate to the evidence presented in the preceding pages.
"The task which I proposed to myself at the beginning of this work, is now, after a fashion, accomplished. Following the successive steps of my programme, I have presented—not indeed all the evidence I possess, and which I would willingly present—but enough at least to illustrate a continuous exposition.... Such wider generalisations as I may now add, must needs be dangerously speculative; they must run the risk of alienating still further from this research many of the scientific minds which I am most anxious to influence....
"The inquiry falls between the two stools of religion and science; it cannot claim support either from the 'religious world' or from the Royal Society. Yet even apart from the instinct of pure scientific curiosity (which surely has seldom seen such a field opening before it), the mighty issues depending on these phenomena ought, I think, to constitute in themselves a strong, an exceptional appeal. I desire in this book to emphasise that appeal; not only to produce conviction, but also to attract co-operation. And actual converse with many persons has led me to believe that in order to attract such help, even from scientific men, some general view of the moral upshot of all the phenomena is needed.... The time is ripe for a study of unseen things as strenuous and sincere as that which Science has made familiar for the problems of earth."
Coming now to more definite considerations, Mr. Myers writes thus of Telepathy, lifting it on to an altogether higher plane: "In the infinite Universe man may now feel, for the first time, at home. The worst fear is over; the true security is won. The worst fear was the fear of spiritual extinction or spiritual solitude. The true security is in the telepathic law. Let me draw out my meaning at somewhat greater length. As we have dwelt successively on various aspects of Telepathy we have gradually felt the conception enlarge and deepen under our study. It began as a quasi-mechanical transference of ideas and images from one to another brain." This is illustrated by the series of Thought-Transference Drawings; almost the only telepathic manifestation which strictly comes within the scope of our inquiry into physical phenomena. "Presently we find it assuming a more varied and potent form, as though it were the veritable influence or invasion of a distant mind. Again, its action was traced across a gulf greater than any space of earth or ocean, and it bridged the interval between spirits incarnate and discarnate, between the visible and the invisible world. There seemed no limit to the distance of its operation, or to the intimacy of its appeal....
"Love ... is no matter of carnal impulse or of emotional caprice.... Love is a kind of exalted but unspecialised Telepathy;—the simplest and most universal expression of that mutual gravitation or kinship of spirits which is the foundation of the telepathic law. This is the answer to the ancient fear; the fear lest man's fellowships be the outward, and his solitude the inward thing.... Such fears vanish when we learn that it is the soul in man which links him with other souls; the body which dissevers even while it seems to unite.... Like atoms, like suns, like galaxies, our spirits are systems of forces which vibrate continually to each other's attractive power."
For the further working out of these thoughts the reader must be referred to Mr. Myers' book itself. After a few pages Mr. Myers proceeds:—
"Our duty [the duty of Psychical Researchers] is not the founding of a new sect, nor even the establishment of a new science, but is rather the expansion of Science herself until she can satisfy those questions, which the human heart will rightly ask, but to which Religion alone has thus far attempted an answer.... I see our original programme completely justified.... I see all things coming to pass as we foresaw. What I do not see, alas! is an energy and capacity of our own, sufficient for our widening duty.... We invite workers from each department of science, from every school of thought. With equal confidence we appeal for co-operation to savant and to saint.