Graves, "who shall say? Of course I do not see any
real objection to the former, when I think of all the love and the
emotion that went to the calling of the little spirit from the
deeps of life; but then I am a woman, and an old woman. If I were a
man of your age who had lived an intellectual life, I should feel
very much as you do."
"But if you believe it," said Howard, "can you give me reasons why
you believe it? I am not unreasonable at all. I hate the attitude
of mind of denying the truth of the experience of others, just
because one has not felt it oneself. Here, it seems to me, there
are two explanations, and my scepticism inclines to what is, I
suppose, the materialistic one. I am very suspicious of experiences
which one is told to take on trust, and which can't be
intellectually expressed. It's the sort of theory that the clergy
fall back upon, what they call spiritual truth, which seems to me
merely unchecked, unverifiable experience. I don't, to take a crude
instance, believe in statues that wink; and yet the tendency of the
priest is to say that it is a matter of childlike faith; yet to me
credulity appears to be one of the worst of sins. It is incredulity
which has disposed of superstition."
"Yes," said Mrs. Graves. "I fully agree with you about that; and
there is a great deal of very objectionable nonsense which goes by
the name of mysticism, which is merely emotion divorced from
commonsense.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279