"
"Keyork, do you believe that the souls of the dead can come back and be
visible to us?"
Keyork Arabian was silent for a few seconds.
"I know nothing about it," he answered.
"But what do you think?"
"Nothing. Either it is possible, or it is not, and until the one
proposition or the other is proved I suspend my judgment. Have you seen
a ghost?"
"I do not know. I have seen something----" She stopped, as though the
recollections were unpleasant.
"Then" said Keyork, "the probability is that you saw a living person.
Shall I sum up the question of ghosts for you?"
"I wish you would, in some way that I can understand."
"We are, then, in precisely the same position with regard to the belief
in ghosts which we occupy towards such questions as the abolition of
death. The argument in both cases is inductive and all but conclusive.
We do not know of any case, in the two hundred generations of men, more
or less, with whose history we are in some degree acquainted, of any
individual who has escaped death. We conclude that all men must die.
Similarly, we do not know certainly--not from real, irrefutable evidence
at least--that the soul of any man or woman dead has ever returned
visibly to earth. We conclude, therefore, that none ever will. There
is a difference in the two cases, which throws a slight balance of
probability on the side of the ghost. Many persons have asserted that
they have seen ghosts, though none have ever asserted that men do not
die.
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