You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
You don't believe—I won't attempt to make ye:You are asleep—I won't attempt to wake ye.Sleep on, Sleep on! while in your pleasant dreamsOf Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;For so the Swallow & the Sparrow sings.Reason says “Miracle”: Newton says “Doubt.”Aye! that's the way to make all Nature out.
It is likely that nothing vexed Ernest Jones more in the writing of his three volumes on Freud than his chapter on occultism.9 Skepticism is a principal ally of the scientific spirit; credulity, its corruption. While Jones took personal occasion to voice his own misgivings, he grudgingly made room for Freud's interest in this piece of errant nonsense. That Freud accepted any evidence in support of telepathy and clairvoyance was for Jones an opportunity to praise Freud's “open-mindedness.” “One more example of Freud's far-sightedness and willingness to contemplate the improbable.” But Jones lost no time to record his own reservations “concerning that evidence.” He was “more inclined to regard the conclusions drawn from it as relics of a more primitive type of thinking.” He was compelled to “be more critical of Freud's attitude.”10
Freud reserved the quiet hours after midnight to discuss all manner of psychic and clairvoyant experiences which had come to his attention. When Jones protested at some of the taller stories, Freud would reply with a favorite quotation. “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.”11