ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

502 Journal of the American Socidy for Psychical Restarch.
And there liave also been those "historic, holy simpletons" like
John the Baptist, Judas of Galilee* and John Brown who tried to
storm Heaven, attempted the impossible, ran their heads against
stone walls, lived tragically, and died as martyrs, apparently accomplishing
nothing and yet changing the world forever by virtue
of what they were, and by the power of an irresistible example.
For a man of Dr. Hyslop's antecedents, training and mental
capacity, few lonelier or less rewarding lives than his can be conceived.
While other men of lesser endowments were succeeding,
surrounding themselves with admiring pupils and friends, and
gaining a brief reputation, he espoused a despised cause, and went
his solitary way, asking of the world only fairness and justice
wl)ich he seldom received. It is worth inquiring why, at the end
of the nineteenth, and during the first two decades of the twentieth
century, such selfless devotion to truth, such intellectual honesty,
such unswerving application of scientific method in a great field
did not meet with more general recognition. In the first place we
must admit that such labors serve no material, or what men call
practical interests. Lacking the necessary endowment and laboratory
equipment Dr. Hyslop was not able to apply his methods to
the treatment of certain forms of disease, and to the differentiation
of the so-called insane-a field in which Mr. Hickson, employing
without scientific insight the same agencies, has achieved
such brilliant success. Dr. Hyslop therefore was obliged to confine
himself to a purely ideal field-the collection of evidence of
man's survival of bodily death, and the fact that some years before
his death Dr. Hyslop came to definite and affirmative convictions
on this debated theme also militated against him in the
opinion of those who imagine that it is scientific to be skeptical.
and unscientific to arrive at definite conclusions.
In the·course of his long and endless investigation Dr. Hyslop
found himself opposed by three groups of persons-by the
frivolous who, either because they fear death, or because they
are annoyed by any serious spiritqal and moral interests, are accustomed
to mock at that which they do not understand. This
for the most part represents the attitude of the American press
toward Psychical Research on week days, but not in their Sunday
* Not ] udas Iscariot
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