CONJECTURAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE NORTH TRANSEPT, WITH THE "CLAUSTRUM" ATTACHED
On the left, under the turret, is the open vestibule, leading to the Chapel of the Loretto (on extreme left).
To face page 154.
[CONCLUSION]
So ends the "Loretto Chapel" script, with a series of precise and categorical statements, offering no means of escape from the final alternative of truth or falsehood, fact or fiction. This situation will be clear to the reader, as it is to the writer of this narrative, who, for the reasons now about to be given, entertains no misgivings as to the course he has taken in publishing it.
His motto here would be, "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." These writings, whose value is at present unproven, and in respect of the detailed statement of names, dates, and places, highly problematical, are put forward as an illustration of the working of his method.
They are not to be accepted with credulity, but are subjects for critical analysis, and must be weighed and examined, with all the rest, in the light of reason, assisted by every useful means of normal research and exploration.
If we are resolved to accept nothing which is not first fully endorsed by reason and common sense, and afterwards fortified by deductions fairly made from data, however slender, we stand but little risk of being deceived. Let us, therefore, apply to this case the same rule which the writer has already successfully applied in the case of the Edgar Chapel.
Intuition has played her part. From the depths of the subconscious mind her power has evoked these images. Now let Reason and Logic take the reins and drive the argument. Let us analyse the facts, such as they are, which bear upon the case, and in the light of the intuitive results see whether an argument may be built up which will be capable of supporting weight.
In this lies the true utility of the method we have chosen. It claims a double value—(1) in its ability to remember and to review subconsciously an infinitude of minor things, slightly or casually impressed upon the mind and unnoticed or unremembered by the working brain; and (2) the faculty of balancing, assessing, and combining these in such manner as the brain itself is rarely if ever able to do, and hence to evolve from slenderest data a scheme in which all probabilities which can lawfully be inferred from these minutiæ are welded into a complete whole.