Joseph Glanvill and Psychical Research in the Seventeenth Century

JOSEPH GLANVILL AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY -- CONTENTS -- CHAPTER I BIOGRAPHY . 7 CHAPTER I1 PAQE SCIEPTICISM . . 23 CHAPTER I11 PLATONISM . . . 36 CHAPTER IV THE ROYAL SOCIETY . . 48 CHAPTER V CHAPTER V1 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH FACTS AND THEORIES . 78 5, JOSEPH GLANVILL CHAPTER I BIOGRAPHY THERE is no century, perhaps, in English history that exhibits to our sight so many con- trasts as does the seventeenth. Every age, no doubt, is a transition age, and every age ex- hibits change but the seventeenth century may, in a very special sense, be characterised as a time of flux. It was an age of fervent religious enthusiasm, as also an age of licen- tiousness and indifference to religion. It was an age of gross superstition, as also an age in which the foundations of modern scientific knowledge were laid. There was war in the schools, between scholasticism, which for so many centuries had held sway over mens minds, and the new experimental and inductive philosophy which owed its origin to Bacon. There was also war in the land, the mind of the nation oscillating in a choice between republic- anism and monarchism. We may perhaps look upon this outward strife and clash of political theories as, in a way, the manifesta- tion and outcome of an inner and spiritual conflict. But from the vantage point of time we can avoid the error of imagining the political conflict as a contest between the powers of darkness on the one hand and those of light on the other. We can-indeed, we must- admire the love of moral purity and hatred of hypocrisy in religion and tyranny in govern- ment which characterised the Roundhead policy whilst, on the other hand, it is quite obvious to us that, undera continued Round- head administration, neither the arts nor the sciences could have flourished culture would have come to an end, and religion become dry and unbeautiful. The Stuart regime, on the other hand, even if it was based upon absurd nonsense concerning the divine right of kings, and even if it did encourage licentiousness, provided that warm, genial atmosphere in which alone the cultivation of the liberal arts is possible. The Cavalier possessed a sense of beauty that the Roundhead lacked he had either no religion or else a genial and generous one and whatever may be urged against the Stuarts, we must always remember that it was Charles I1 who granted the Charter to The Royal Society-an event of supreme im- portance in the real history of the nation, even if it is not always recognised as such. Into this century of turmoil and stress, Joseph Glanvill was born. He was, in the phraseology of his time, a man of many parts, brilliant, versatile, broad-minded-in a way peculiarly characteristic of his age, since in him very many of the diverse streams of thought of this age seem to meet and combine. He was a staunch Anglican, distrusting Non- conformity because of the narrowness of its creeds but he had a tremendous admiration for Baxter. He was a sceptic, who believed in God. He was a member of The Royal Society, an experimental philosopher, who believed in witchcraft. These things sound somewhat like paradoxes, and in fact some of those critics who have endeavoured to estimate the value of Glanvills work have found the last of these seeming paradoxes rather too much for them. As a matter of factl, they are not paradoxes at all, or at any rate they are paradoxes which Glanvillsucceeded in resolving and we shall find, as we proceed, that his philosophy-that is to say, the sum of his views concerning thb world and the next-forms a consistent whole...