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Sir Oliver Lodge's British Association Address

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Edwin H. Hall
Edwin H. Hall
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The list of Sir Oliver Lodge's writings is long and varied, ranging from school text-books in elementary science through The Ether of Space, School Reform, Life and Matter, Reason and Belief, to The Survival of Man. With most of these writings I have no direct acquaintance, but on the mere evidence of their titles one may with reasonable safety venture certain particulars toward an estimation of their author. He must have intellectual vigor, he must have an instinct for vital questions, he must have the power of popular exposition, and, finally, he cannot be overcautious in the formation and expression of his opinions. All of these particulars would, I believe, be found also in any consensus of judgment that his fellows in science might pass upon his scientific work. This, if not unmixed praise, is much to say for a man, and it may be added that in general he speaks out from a sense of well-being natural to one of cheerful and sturdy temper who has achieved fame, station, ten children, and the confident hope of immortality for all of us. Is it then to be wondered at that he says things which multitudes are glad to hear, and holds a position almost unique in the esteem and confidence of the public at large?

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1915 , pp. 238 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1915

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References

page 245 note 1 The Theory of Relativity, John Wiley & Sons, 1913. Science, February 13, 1914, contains an interesting review, by Professor Edwin B. Wilson, of this book.

page 248 note 1 Evidences of Classical Scholarship and of Cross-Correspondence in Some New Automatic Writings, reprinted in pamphlet form from the proceedings of the S. P. R. for June, 1911.

page 249 note 1 An assumed name, I believe.

page 251 note 1 Professor George F. Moore tells us in his History of Religions that “neither in the Old Testament nor in the New is ‘spirit’ equivalent to ‘immaterial.’” I suppose that a like statement would be true concerning the popular conception of spirit or “spirits” in all ages; but it is nevertheless a curious spectacle to see men of science, like Lodge and Crookes and their followers in matters psychical, holding the view that we approach the spiritual by the mere refinement or attenuation of matter.