ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

Entrance Upon Psychical Research. 439
knew Hyslop,-the gentle, amiable and kind friend,-could only
smile if occasionally he got out of patience, blew up and said
things. His nature was intransigently direct, and he could not
understand the complexity of mind which would prompt a college
professor to scoff at established truths, the endorsement of which
might cost him his job. The writer knows of one teacher in one
of our large institutions of learning who was warned by the Collegiate
boss (and what university hasn't a collegiate boss?) that
his interest in psychical research was "seriously objectionable."
In this one respect history uniformly repeats itself. The great
bulk of unthinking, careless, happy-go-lucky humanity lends scant
sympathy and support to great isolated work in new fields of
endeavor.
Rafinesque's body had to be silently spirited away at night,
lest it be seized for debt. Perhaps there is some obscure phychological
necessity in all this, to develop by hard measures the best
that is within and force by suffering that which could not be
wrought by ease. Who has ever listed the martyrs who have
lived and died for a great cause?
In the death of James H. Hyslop the cordial intercourse of a
long and pleasant friendship has been temporarily suspended;
doubtless to be renewed in wider fields of opportunity and usefulness,
when too, my own earthly garments are worn out and cast
aside. In his earthly career he had developed those faculties
which we have reason to believe are the only ones of any particular
use in that life of which this is the mere kindergarten.
His head was too clear to accept, and his heart too human to
hold the current creeds of established orthodox theology; yet in
the routine of his daily work and in his association with his
fellow man it was ever his nature to practise and apply all of
the principles of true religion, of which theology is the mere
scaffolding.
To such a one, when the silver cord is loosed, it is to allow of
a wider freedom and broadening of opportunity; and when the
golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain,
the contents are not spilled into the earth and lost, but are transferred
to imperishable vessels because they have, by virtue and
labor, been clarified and thus rendered vitally useful to the continuing
progress and development of human kind.
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