One critic of Lodge was Dr. Charles A. Mercier. In 1917 Mercier published Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge. Our brief excerpt revolves around a famous event in British history which Mercier recounts: the trial of Scottish witches for trying to harm James VI, in 1591:
'It seems that by a cross-correspondence is meant the concurrent testimony of two independent witnesses. Here we have ...[witnesses] testifying to two things which by a good deal of twisting and forcing and interpretation may be tortured into having a bearing on the same subject, but which certainly do not carry conviction to a mind that is not determined to be convinced... In comparison with the concurrent testimony of independent witnesses in favour of witchcraft, it is contemptible...
'In the year 1591, four persons, Sellie Duncan, Dr.
Fian or Cunningham, Agnes Sampson, and Euphemia
Macalzean, all severally confessed to the following crimes.
Barbara Napier, Gray Meill, and some two dozen other
persons were convicted at the same time of the same
offences, but whether they also confessed is not clear. On
All Hallowmass Eve they assembled with others to the
number of upwards of two hundred, and each embarking
in a sieve, they sailed over the ocean ‘ very substantially/
until they met the devil, bearing in his claws a cat that
had been drawn nine times through fire. This he delivered
to one of the witches, with directions to cast it into the sea
and cry ‘ Hola ! ’ On this being done, a furious tempest
arose, the purpose of which was to shipwreck and drown
James VI of Scotland, who was then returning from Copenhagen with his young bride. The witches sailed in their
sieves through the tempest they had raised, landed on
the coast of Scotland, and, being Scots, naturally proceeded
to the nearest church to hold a preaching. After the
service, .... drank plenty of
excellent wine, which teetotallers will please note the devil
provided, and danced with him in the churchyard until
the cock crew. Upon these confessions, the whole thirty,
.... with the exception of Euphemia Macalzean, were first
strangled and then burned. Euphemia, who was accused
by many of her accomplices of having consulted them
concerning the date of the King’s death, was burned alive
on June 25th, 1591.
'It is to be noted that the witches who made these confessions well knew what was in store for them in consequence of their confessions. The worst that a medium
has in prospect is a paltry fine, and if she is careful not to
make predictions about the future,... she is not only in no danger
of punishment, but she is honoured and applauded. She
is the centre of interest and attention. She is in most
cases the recipient of pecuniary reward. She may make
as much as £50 a month, whether she obtains sitters or
not. Whatever reason we may have, therefore, to believe
in the genuineness of the utterances of the medium, we
have immeasurably more reason to believe in the genuineness of the confessions of the witches.
'I put these questions to Sir Oliver Lodge, and if he does not answer them,
I shall take it, and I think most people will take it, that
he cannot answer them satisfactorily.
First : Does he believe in witchcraft, and in the confessions, all to much the same purpose, all cross-correspondences, made by innumerable witches in different
centuries and in different countries?
Second : If he does not, on what ground does he believe
in the utterances of mediums ? In what respect is the
testimony of a medium more credible and more entitled
to credence than that of a witch?'
Charles A. Mercier was a M.D. He also wrote A New Logic; Psychology, Normal and Morbid; A Text-book of Insanity; Criminal Responsibility; Crime and Insanity and other titles.
It is unclear to me how Mercier differentiated the use of corroborative testimony to establish legitimate conclusions, as in most historical deductions, from his example posed for Lodge. It is unclear to me how Lodge thought modern science could prove a spiritual matter.
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