My Library

Mr. Turvey may be regarded as one of those, like Sylvan Muldoon and Oliver Fox, whose psychic gifts have been stimulated by fragile health; indeed, though something of an athlete in his youth, his continued existence was for many years regarded by a distinguished physician as a leading instance of the possibility of an almost impossible recovery; one illness, pyopneumothorax (the lung having burst like a bicycle tyre and displaced the heart) being sufficient to conclude the activities of ordinary people. The advantage from a scientific point of view, which a seer like Mr. Turvey possesses over the casual projectionist, lies in the availability of his gift. It is not always at his command, but, within reasonable limits, he is ready to give it a chance of functioning. He has so aptly explained those limits that I am tempted to quote his disclaimer. If I were to give an absolutely irrefutable test, 'As registered at Lloyd's', to nine of the greatest sceptics alive, and were to bring their letters as testimony, the tenth man—or his office oy—would say: 'Ah, yes, but they were a lot of fools.' Now if you can only give me a test I will write you a letter and that will convince everybody I' The credulity of the sceptic is marvellous. If he receives a convincing proof that the phenomena really do occur, he hastens to impart the news to his late companions, and is actually surprised to find that they dare to imply that he is nan compos mentis. It is most awfully funny to see the erstwhile Socrates called a deluded idiot by his former disciples, simply because he has learned another fact; and to note the fury with which he resents the 'ignorant denials' which were once his own 'magnificent arguments'. "Whilst being willing to place at the disposal of any investigator facts which may be of use to him in his researches, I am not in the last anxious to convince sceptics."