He has made it a matter of conscience, when writing or speaking on occult
science, to deal only with matters on which he could also report, in what
seemed an adequate manner, the views held by modern science. With this,
however, he does not wish in the least to give the impression that this is
always a necessary prerequisite. Any one may feel a call to communicate or
to publish whatever his judgment, his sense of truth, and his feelings may
prompt him to, even if he is ignorant of the attitude taken by
contemporary science in the matter. The writer wishes to indicate merely
that he holds to the pronouncements he has made. For instance, he would
never have written those few sentences on the human glandular system, nor
those regarding man’s nervous system, contained in this volume, were he
not in a position to discuss both subjects in the terms used by the modern
scientist, when speaking of the glandular and nervous systems from the
standpoint of science.
In spite of the fact that it may be said that he who speaks concerning
“heat,” as is done here, knows nothing of the elements of modern physics,
yet the author feels himself quite justified, because he believes that he
knows present day research along those lines, and because if it were
unknown to him, he would have left the subject alone. He knows that such
utterances may be ascribed to lack of modesty, but it is necessary to
declare his true motives, lest they should be confounded with others of a
very different nature, a result infinitely worse than a verdict of mere
vanity.
He who reads this book as a philosopher, may well ask himself, “Has this
author been asleep to present day research in the field of the theory of
cognition? Had he never heard of the existence of a man called Kant?” this
philosopher might ask, “and did he not know that according to this man it
was simply inadmissible, from a philosophic point of view, to put forward
such statements?” and so on, while in conclusion he might remark that
stuff of so uncritical, childish, and unprofessional a nature should not
be tolerated among philosophers, and that any further investigation would
be waste of time. However, here again, for reasons already advanced and at
the risk of being again misinterpreted, the writer would fain introduce
certain personal experiences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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