심령 현상 연구.Metapsychical Phenomena, by J. Maxwell

심령 현상 연구.Metapsychical Phenomena, by J. Maxwell
심령과학에 대해서 심령 방법과 관찰에 대해서 씀.
PREFACE
THERE are books in which the author says so clearly and in such precise terms
what he has to say that any commentary weakens their import; and a preface
becomes superfluous, sometimes even prejudicial.
Dr. Maxwell’s work belongs to this category. The author, who has long given
himself up to psychology, has had the opportunity of seeing many interesting
things. He has observed everything with minute care; and having well thought
out the method of observation, the consequences, and the nature itself of the
phenomena, he lays bare his facts and deducts therefrom a few simple ideas,
fearlessly, honestly, sine ira nec studio, before a public which he hopes to find
impartial.
To this same public I address the short introduction, with which my friend Dr.
Maxwell kindly asked me to head this excellent work.
My advice to the reader may be summed up in a few words. He must take up
this book without prejudice. He must fear neither that which is new, nor that
which is unexpected. In other words, while preserving the most scrupulous
respect for the science of to- day, he must be thoroughly convinced that this
science, whatever[ xvi] measure of truth it may contain, is nevertheless terribly
incomplete.
Those imprudent people who busy themselves with ‘occult’ sciences are
accused of overthrowing Science, of destroying that bulwark which thousands
of toilers, at the cost of an immense universal effort, have been occupied in
constructing during the last three or four centuries.
This reproach seems to me rather unjust. No one is able to destroy a
scientific fact.