CHAPTER XXXII
THE PSYCHIC QUEST
I have not obtruded the psychic question upon the reader, though it has grown in importance with the years, and has now come to absorb the whole energy of my life. I cannot, however, close these scattered memories of my adventures in thought and action without some reference, however incomplete, to that which has been far the most important thing in my life. It is the thing for which every preceding phase, my gradual religious development, my books, which gave me an introduction to the public, my modest fortune, which enables me to devote myself to unlucrative work, my platform work, which helps me to convey the message, and my physical strength, which is still sufficient to stand arduous tours and to fill the largest halls for an hour and a half with my voice, have each and all been an unconscious preparation. For thirty years I have trained myself exactly for the rôle without the least inward suspicion of whither I was tending.
I cannot in the limited space of a chapter go into very lengthy detail or complete argument upon the subject. It is the more unnecessary since I have already in my psychic volumes outlined very clearly how I arrived at my present knowledge. Of these volumes the first and second, called respectively “The New Revelation” and “The Vital Message,” show how gradual evidence was given me of the continuation of life, and how thorough and long were my studies before I was at last beaten out of my material agnostic position and forced to admit the validity of the proofs.
In the days of universal sorrow and loss, when the voice of Rachel was heard throughout the land, it was borne in upon me that the knowledge which had come to me thus was not for my own consolation alone, but that God had placed me in a very special position for conveying it to that world which needed it so badly.
I found in the movement many men who saw the truth as clearly as I did; but such was the clamour of the “religious,” who were opposing that which is the very essence of living religion, of the “scientific,” who broke the first laws of Science by pronouncing upon a thing which they had not examined, and of the Press, who held up every real or imaginary rascality as being typical of a movement which they had never understood, that the true men were abashed and shrank from the public exposition of their views. It was to combat this that I began a campaign in 1916 which can only finish when all is finished.
One grand help I had. My wife had always been averse from my psychic studies, deeming the subject to be uncanny and dangerous. Her own experiences soon convinced her to the contrary, for her brother, who was killed at Mons, came back to us in a very convincing way. From that instant she threw herself with all the whole-hearted energy of her generous nature into the work which lay before us.
A devoted mother, she was forced often to leave her children; a lover of home, she was compelled to quit it for many months at a time; distrustful of the sea, she joyfully shared my voyages. We have now travelled a good 50,000 miles upon our quest. We have spoken face to face with a quarter of a million of people. Her social qualities, her clear sanity, her ardent charity, and her gracious presence upon the platforms all united with her private counsel and sympathy, have been such an aid to me that they have turned my work into a joy. The presence of our dear children upon our journeys has also lightened them for both of us.
I began our public expositions of the subject by three years of intermittent lecturing in my country, during which period I visited nearly every town of importance, many of them twice and thrice. Everywhere I found attentive audiences, critical, as they should be, but open to conviction. I roused antagonism only in those who had not heard me, and there were demonstrations outside the doors, but never in the halls. I cannot remember a single interruption during that long series of addresses. It was interesting to notice how I was upheld, for though I was frequently very weary before the address, and though my war lectures had often been attended by palpitation of the heart, I was never once conscious of any fatigue during or after a lecture upon psychic subjects.
On August 13, 1920, we started for Australia. In proportion to her population she had lost almost as heavily as we during the war, and I felt that my seed would fall upon fruitful ground. I have written all details of this episode in my “Wanderings of a Spiritualist,” in which the reader will find among other things some evidences of that preternatural help which went with us in our journeys. I addressed large audiences in all the big towns of Australia and New Zealand. An unfortunate shipping strike prevented me from reaching Tasmania, but otherwise the venture was an unalloyed success. Contrary to expectation I was able to pay all the expenses of our large party (we were seven) and to leave a balance behind me to help the successor whom I might choose.
At the end of March, 1921, we were back in Paris again, where, greatly daring, I lectured in French upon psychic subjects. Our stay at home was not a very long one, for urgent invitations had come from America, where the Spiritual movement had fallen into a somewhat languishing state. On April 1, 1922, our whole party started for the States. What happened to us I have recorded in “Our American Adventure.” Suffice it to say that the trip was very successful, and that from Boston to Washington, and from New York to Chicago, I spoke in all the larger cities and brought about a great revival of interest in the subject. We were back in England at the beginning of July, 1922.
I was by no means satisfied about America, however, as we had not touched the great West, the land of the future. Therefore we set forth again in March, 1923, getting back in August. Our adventures, which were remarkable upon the psychic side, are recorded in “Our Second American Adventure.” When I returned from that journey I had travelled 55,000 miles in three years, and spoken to quarter of a million of people. I am still unsatisfied, however, for the Southern States of the Union have not been touched, and it is possible that we may yet make a journey in that direction.
I have placed on record our experiences, and no doubt they have little interest at the moment for the general public, but the day will come, and that speedily, when people will understand that this proposition for which we are now fighting is far the most important thing for two thousand years in the history of the world, and when the efforts of the pioneers will have a very real interest to all who have sufficient intelligence to follow the progress of human thought.
I am only one of many working for the cause, but I hope that I may claim that I brought into it a combative and aggressive spirit which it lacked before, and which has now so forced it upon public attention that one can hardly pick up a paper without reading some comment upon it. If some of these papers are hopelessly ignorant and prejudiced, it is not a bad thing for the cause. If you have a bad case, constant publicity is a misfortune, but if you have a good one, its goodness will always assert itself, however much it may be misrepresented.
Many Spiritualists have taken the view that since we know these comforting and wonderful things, and since the world chooses not to examine the evidence, we may be content with our own happy assurance. This seems to me an immoral view.
If God has sent a great new message of exceeding joy down to earth, then it is for us, to whom it has been clearly revealed, to pass it on at any cost of time, money and labour. It is not given to us for selfish enjoyment, but for general consolation. If the sick man turns from the physician, then it cannot be helped, but at least the healing draught should be offered.
The greater the difficulty in breaking down the wall of apathy, ignorance and materialism, the more is it a challenge to our manhood to attack and ever attack in the same bulldog spirit with which Foch faced the German lines.
I trust that the record of my previous life will assure the reader that I have within my limitations preserved a sane and balanced judgment, since I have never hitherto been extreme in my views, and since what I have said has so often been endorsed by the actual course of events. But never have I said anything with the same certainty of conviction with which I now say that this new knowledge is going to sweep the earth and to revolutionize human views upon every topic save only on fundamental morality, which is a fixed thing.
All modern inventions and discoveries will sink into insignificance beside those psychic facts which will force themselves within a few years upon the universal human mind.
The subject has been obscured by the introduction of all sorts of side issues, some of interest but not vital, others quite irrelevant. There is a class of investigator who loves to wander round in a circle, and to drag you with him if you are weak enough to accept such guidance. He trips continually over his own brains, and can never persuade himself that the simple and obvious explanation is also the true one. His intellect becomes a positive curse to him, for he uses it to avoid the straight road and to fashion out some strange devious path which lands him at last in a quagmire, whilst the direct and honest mind has kept firmly to the highway of knowledge. When I meet men of this type, and then come in contact with the lowly congregations of religious Spiritualists, I think always of Christ’s words when He thanked God that He had revealed these things to babes and withheld them from the wise and the prudent. I think also of a dictum of Baron Reichenbach: “There is a scientific incredulity which exceeds in stupidity the obtuseness of the clodhopper.”
But what I say in no way applies to the reasonable researcher whose experiences are real stepping-stones leading to his fixed conclusion. There must to every man be this novitiate in knowledge. The matter is too serious to be taken without due intellectual conviction.
It must not be imagined that I entirely deny the existence of fraud. But it is far less common than is supposed, and as for its being universal, which is the theory of the conjurers and some other critics, such an opinion is beyond reason or argument. In an experience with mediums which has been excelled by very few living men, and which has embraced three continents, I have not encountered fraud more than three or four times.
There is conscious and unconscious fraud, and it is the existence of the latter which complicates the question so badly. Conscious fraud usually arises from a temporary failure of real psychic power, and a consequent attempt to replace it by an imitation. Unconscious fraud comes in that curious halfway state which I have called the “half-trance condition” when the medium seems normal, and yet is actually hardly responsible for his actions.
At such a time the process by which his personality leaves his body seems to have set in, and his higher qualities have already passed, so that he can apparently no longer inhibit the promptings received from the suggestion of those around him, or from his own unchecked desires. Thus one will find mediums doing stupid and obvious things which expose them to the charge of cheating. Then if the observer disregards these and waits, the true psychic phenomena of unmistakable character will follow as he sinks more deeply into trance.
This was, I gather, noticeable in the case of Eusapia Paladino, but I have seen it with several others. In those cases where a medium has left the cabinet, and is found wandering about among the sitters, as has happened with Mrs. Corner, with Madame d’Esperance, and with Craddock--all of them mediums who have given many proofs of their real powers--I am convinced that the very natural supposition that they are fraudulent is really quite a mistaken one.
When, on the other hand, it is found that the medium has introduced false drapery or accessories, which has sometimes occurred, we are in the presence of the most odious and blasphemous crime which a human being can commit.
People ask me, not unnaturally, what it is which makes me so perfectly certain that this thing is true. That I am perfectly certain is surely demonstrated by the mere fact that I have abandoned my congenial and lucrative work, left my home for long periods at a time, and subjected myself to all sorts of inconveniences, losses, and even insults, in order to get the facts home to the people.
To give all my reasons would be to write a book rather than a chapter, but I may say briefly that there is no physical sense which I possess which has not been separately assured, and that there is no conceivable method by which a spirit could show its presence which I have not on many occasions experienced. In the presence of Miss Besinnet as medium and of several witnesses I have seen my mother and my nephew, young Oscar Hornung, as plainly as ever I saw them in life--so plainly that I could almost have counted the wrinkles of the one and the freckles of the other.
In the darkness the face of my mother shone up, peaceful, happy, slightly inclined to one side, the eyes closed. My wife upon my right and the lady upon my left both saw it as clearly as I did. The lady had not known my mother in life but she said, “How wonderfully like she is to her son,” which will show how clear was the detail of the features.
On another occasion my son came back to me. Six persons heard his conversation with me, and signed a paper afterwards to that effect. It was in his voice and concerned itself with what was unknown to the medium, who was bound and breathing deeply in his chair. If the evidence of six persons of standing and honour may not be taken, then how can any human fact be established?
My brother, General Doyle, came back with the same medium, but on another occasion. He discussed the health of his widow. She was a Danish lady, and he wanted her to use a masseur in Copenhagen. He gave the name. I made inquiries and found that such a man did exist. Whence came this knowledge? Who was it who took so close an interest in the health of this lady? If it was not her dead husband then who was it?
All fine-drawn theories of the subconscious go to pieces before the plain statement of the intelligence, “I am a spirit. I am Innes. I am your brother.”
I have clasped materialized hands.
I have held long conversations with the direct voice.
I have smelt the peculiar ozone-like smell of ectoplasm.
I have listened to prophecies which were quickly fulfilled.
I have seen the “dead” glimmer up upon a photographic plate which no hand but mine had touched.
I have received through the hand of my own wife, notebooks full of information which was utterly beyond her ken.
I have seen heavy articles swimming in the air, untouched by human hand, and obeying directions given to unseen operators.
I have seen spirits walk round the room in fair light and join in the talk of the company.
I have known an untrained woman, possessed by an artist spirit, to produce rapidly a picture, now hanging in my drawing-room, which few living painters could have bettered.
I have read books which might have come from great thinkers and scholars, and which were actually written by unlettered men who acted as the medium of the unseen intelligence, so superior to his own. I have recognized the style of a dead writer which no parodist could have copied, and which was written in his own handwriting.
I have heard singing beyond earthly power, and whistling done with no pause for the intake of breath.
I have seen objects from a distance projected into a room with closed doors and windows.
If a man could see, hear, and feel all this, and yet remain unconvinced of unseen intelligent forces around him, he would have good cause to doubt his own sanity. Why should he heed the chatter of irresponsible journalists, or the head-shaking of inexperienced men of science, when he has himself had so many proofs? They are babies in this matter, and should be sitting at his feet.
It is not, however, a question to be argued in a detached and impersonal way, as if one were talking of the Baconian theory or the existence of Atlantis. It is intimate, personal, and vital to the last degree.
A closed mind means an earthbound soul, and that in turn means future darkness and misery. If you know what is coming, you can avoid it. If you do not, you run grave risk. Some Jeremiah or Savonarola is needed who will shriek this into the ears of the world. A new conception of sin is needed. The mere carnal frailties of humanity, the weaknesses of the body, are not to be lightly condoned, but are not the serious part of the human reckoning. It is the fixed condition of mind, narrowness, bigotry, materialism--in a word, the sins not of the body, but of the spirit, which are the real permanent things, and condemn the individual to the lower spheres until he has learnt his lesson.
We know this from our rescue circles when these poor souls come back to bewail their errors and to learn those truths which they might have learnt here, had their minds not been closed by apathy or prejudice.
The radical mistake which science has made in investigating the subject is that it has never troubled to grasp the fact that it is not the medium who is producing the phenomena. It has always treated him as if he were a conjurer, and said, “Do this or do that,” failing to understand that little or nothing comes _from_ him, but all or nearly all comes _through_ him. I say “nearly” all, for I believe that some simple phenomena, such as the rap, can within limits be produced by the medium’s own will.
It is this false view of science which has prevented sceptics from realizing that a gentle and receptive state of mind on the part of sitters and an easy natural atmosphere for the medium are absolutely essential in order to produce harmony with the outside forces.
If in the greatest of all séances, that of the upper room on the day of Pentecost, an aggressive sceptic had insisted upon test conditions of his own foolish devising, where would the rushing wind and the tongues of fire have been? “All with one accord,” says the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, and that is the essential condition. I have sat with saintly people, and I too have felt the rushing wind, seen the flickering tongues and heard the great voice, but how could such results come where harmony did not reign?
That is the radical mistake which science has made. Men know well that even in her own coarse, material work the presence of a scrap of metal may upset the whole balance of a great magnetic installation, and yet they will not take the word of those who are in a position to speak from experience that a psychic condition may upset a psychic experiment.
But indeed when we speak of science in this connection it is a confusion of thought. The fact that a man is a great zoologist like Lankester, or a great physicist like Tyndall or Faraday, does not give his opinion any weight in a subject which is outside his own specialty. There is many an unknown Smith and Jones whose twenty years of practical work have put him in a far stronger position than that of these intolerant scientists; while as to the real Spiritualist leaders, men of many experiences and much reading and thought, it is they who are the real scientific experts who are in a position to teach the world. One does not lose one’s judgment when one becomes a Spiritualist. One is as much a researcher as ever, but one understands better what it is that one is studying and how to study it.
This controversy with bumptious and ignorant people is a mere passing thing which matters nothing. The real controversy, which does matter very much, is with the Continental school who study ectoplasm and other semi-material manifestations, but who have not got the length of seeing independent spirit behind them. Richet, Schrenck-Notzing and other great investigators are still in this midway position, and Flammarion is little more advanced. Richet goes the length of admitting that he has assured himself by personal observation of the materialized form that it can walk and talk and leave moulds of its hands. So far he has gone. And yet even now he clings to the idea that these phenomena may be the externalization of some latent powers of the human body and mind.
Such an explanation seems to me to be the desperate defence of the last trench by one of those old-time materialists, who say with Brewster: “Spirit is the last thing which we will concede,” adding as their reason “it upsets the work of fifty years.” It is hard when a man has taught all his life that the brain governs spirit to have to learn after all that it may be spirit which acts independently of the human brain. But it is their super-materialism which is the real difficulty with which we now have to contend.
And what is the end of it all?
I have no idea. How could those who first noted the electric twitching of muscles foresee the Atlantic cable or the arc lamp? Our information is that some great shock is coming shortly to the human race which will finally break down its apathy, and which will be accompanied by such psychic signs that the survivors will be unable any longer to deny the truths which we preach.
The real meaning of our movement will then be seen, for it will become apparent that we have accustomed the public mind to such ideas, and provided a body of definite teaching, both scientific and religious, to which they can turn for guidance.
As to the prophecy of disaster, I admit that we have to be on our guard. Even the Christ circle was woefully deceived, and declared confidently that the world would not survive their own generation. Various creeds, too, have made vain predictions of the end of the world.
I am keenly aware of all this, and also of the difficulty in reckoning time when seen from the other side. But, making every allowance for this, the information upon the point has been so detailed, and has reached me from so many entirely independent sources, that I have been forced to take it seriously, and to think that some great watershed of human experience may be passed within a few years--the greatest, we are told, that our long-suffering race has yet encountered.
People who have not gone into the subject may well ask, “But what do you get out of it? How are you the better?” We can only answer that all life has changed to us since this definite knowledge has come. No longer are we shut in by death. We are out of the valley and up on the ridge, with vast clear vistas before us.
Why should we fear a death which we know for certain is the doorway to unutterable happiness?
Why should we fear our dear ones’ death if we can be so near to them afterwards?
Am I not far nearer to my son than if he were alive and serving in that Army Medical Service which would have taken him to the ends of the earth? There is never a month, often never a week, that I do not commune with him. Is it not evident that such facts as these change the whole aspect of life, and turn the grey mist of dissolution into a rosy dawn?
You may say that we have already all these assurances in the Christian revelation. It is true, and that is why we are not anti-Christian so long as Christianity is the teaching of humble Christ and not of his arrogant representatives.
Every form of Christianity is represented in our ranks, often by clergymen of the various denominations. But there is nothing precise in the definitions of the other world as given in the holy writings. The information we have depicts a heaven of congenial work and of congenial play, with every mental and physical activity of life carried on to a higher plane--a heaven of art, of science, of intellect, of organization, of combat with evil, of home circles, of flowers, of wide travel, of sports, of the mating of souls, of complete harmony. This is what our “dead” friends describe.
On the other hand we hear from them, and sometimes directly, of the hells, which are temporary spheres of purification. We hear of the mists, the darkness, the aimless wanderings, the mental confusion, the remorse.
“Our condition is horrible,” wrote one of them to me recently at a séance. These things are real and vivid and provable to us. That is why we are an enormous force for the resuscitation of true religion, and why the clergy take a heavy responsibility when they oppose us.
The final result upon scientific thought is unthinkable, save that the sources of all force would be traced rather to spiritual than to material causes.
In religion one can perhaps see a little more clearly. Theology and dogma would disappear.
People would realize that such questions as the number of persons in God, or the process of Christ’s birth, have no bearing at all upon the development of man’s spirit, which is the sole object of life.
All religions would be equal, for all alike produce gentle, unselfish souls who are God’s elect. Christian, Jew, Buddhist, and Mohammedan would shed their distinctive doctrines, follow their own high teachers on a common path of morality, and forget all that antagonism which has made religion a curse rather than a blessing to the world.
We shall be in close touch with other-world forces, and knowledge will supersede that faith which has in the past planted a dozen different signposts to point in as many different directions.
Such will be the future, so far as I can dimly see it, and all this will spring from the seed which now we tend and water amid the cold blasts of a hostile world.
Do not let it be thought that I claim any special leadership in this movement. I do what I can, but many others have done what they could--many humble workers who have endured loss and insult, but who will come to be recognized as the modern Apostles. For my part, I can only claim that I have been an instrument so fashioned that I have had some particular advantages in getting this teaching across to the people.
That is the work which will occupy, either by voice or pen, the remainder of my life. What immediate shape it will take I cannot say. Human plans are vain things, and it is better for the tool to lie passive until the great hand moves it once more.
INDEX
“Admirable Crichton, The,” Barrie, 247
“Adventure of the Priory School, The,” 102
“Adventure of the Second Stain, The,” 102
“Adventure of the Tired Captain, The,” 102
Aeroplane, the author’s one experience in an, 283
Algonquin Park, Canada, 300-301
Allen, Grant, and his unfinished “Hilda Wade”, 254-255; his agnosticism and his last days, 255; as a popular scientist, 256
“All the Year Round,” contributions to, 67
“Amazing Marriage, The,” Meredith, 244
Amery, Lionel, 208
Ancestry, 1-4
Antoine, General, 367, 368
Arctic, seven months in the, on a whaler, 29-41
Armistice Day, 386
Armour, suggestions during World War for use of, for troops, 332-333
Asquith, 241
Athletics, work in the interest of, 229-231
Australian sector of the front, a visit to the, 375-386
“Backwater of Life,” Payn, 256
Balfour, Arthur James, first meeting with, 238-239; his home at Whittinghame, 239-241; abhorrence of cowardice, 240; interest in psychic matters, 241
Ball, Mr., experiments in thought transference with, 78
Balloon ascension, delights of a, 282-283
Bampton, Lord, conflicting characteristics of, 260
Barrett, William, and telepathy, 78
Barrie, Sir James M., parody on Sherlock Holmes, 97-100; a visit with, at Kirriemuir, 246-247; dramatic work, 247; his “The Admirable Crichton”, 247; an unfortunate dramatic venture with, 248-249
Barrington, Sir Eric, 186
Baseball, opinion of the game of, 287-288
Bell, Professor Joseph, 20-21; Sherlock Holmes based on, 69
Bergmann, Doctor, and the demonstration of the Koch cure, 82, 83
Berlin, demonstration of the Koch cure in, 82-84
“Beyond the City,” 93
Billiards, the supposed analogy between golf and, 271; ascertaining one’s “decimal” in, 272; experiences with the game, 272-273
Birkenhead, Lord, 231
“Blackwoods,” contributions to, 68
Blavatsky, Madame, 81
Boer War, the shadow of the, 147; first reverses of the, 148; organizing the Langman Hospital for the, 149-154; press correspondents in the, 156; days with the army in the, 160-173; dum-dum bullets in the, 159, 183
Books, favourite, in boyhood, 7
Boxing, keen relish for the manly art of, 265; some experiences in, 265-266; from the national point of view, 266-267; champions of old and of to-day compared, 267; its influence in France, 268
Boyhood days, 5-7
“Boy’s Own Paper, The,” contributions to, 67
“Brigadier Gerard” stories, 115, 121; dramatization of, 227-228
“British Campaign in France and Flanders, The,” 326-327
British Olympic Committee, 229
British front in the World War, on the, 335-352
Brown, Professor Crum, 19
Buller, Sir Redvers H., 174
Burnham, Lord, 238, 239
“Bush Villa,” Southsea, 75, 87
Business, unfortunate and fortunate ventures in, 234-235
Butler, General, dinner at head-quarters of the Third Corps with, 379
Cambridge, Duke of, 152, 153
Canada, a trip through, in 1914, 287, 292-303
Capetown, South Africa, 154
“Captain of the Polestar,” 67
Carnic Alps, the warfare in the, 356-357
Cassidy, Father, the kindly principal at Hodder, 8
“Cause and Conduct of the War in South Africa, The,” inception of the idea of writing, 184; financing the scheme, 185-188; the several translations of, 188-192; beneficial effect of publication of, 192; disposition of surplus earnings of, 192-194; 204
Caux, Switzerland, 120
“Chambers’ Journal” accepts author’s first story, 24
Channel Tunnel, 311, 312; feasibility and value of a, 314-317
Childers, Erskine, 208
Christian faith, author’s changing views of the, 26-27
Churchill, Winston, 317, 332, 335
Civilian Reserve, formation of the, 323; disbandment, 324
Classics, early distaste and later fondness for the, 9
Clemenceau, Georges, 360-361
Collins, Wilkie, 256
Conan, Michael, author’s granduncle and godfather, 15, 16
Conan, Miss. _See_ DOYLE, MRS. JOHN
_Conan Doyle_, the steam trawler, in the World War, 331
Congo Association, work for the amelioration of conditions in the Belgian Congo, 228-229
Constantinople, a visit to, 222
“Cornhill,” contributions to, 67, 68, 75; 89
Coronation Oath, protest against form of, 220-221
Corporal punishment in school days, 5, 10
Cricket, early recollections of, 273; getting into first-class, 273-275; two unusual experiences at, 275-276; some memorable matches, 276-277; with J. M. Barrie’s team, 278-279; creditable records in bowling, 279
“Crime of the Congo, The,” 229
Cromer, Lord, impressions of, 123
Crowborough, removal to, 215
Crowborough Company, Sixth Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment, 324-329
Cullingworth, Doctor, friendship with, at Edinburgh University, 52; strange character of, 52-54; author’s association with, 54-58
“Curious Experience of the Patterson Family in the Island of Uffa,” 102
Curzon, Lady, establishing a precedent in etiquette with, 259
“Daily Telegraph, The,” article on the Koch cure in, 84
“Danger,” article in “The Strand Magazine,” 310
Davos, Switzerland, 115, 119, 120
“Desert Dream, A,” 124
“Dicky Doyle’s Diary,” 2
Divorce laws, work for reform in the, 231-232
Doctor, determination to become a, 17
“Doings of Raffles Haw, The,” 88
Donald, Robert, of the “Daily Chronicle,” 360-361
Dorando and the great Marathon Race of 1908, 223-225
“Dorian Grey,” Wilde, 73, 74
Doyle, Annette, author’s sister, 5, 17; death of, 91
Doyle, Arthur Conan, birth, 1; ancestry, 1-4; boyhood days, 5-7; the preparatory school at Hodder, 8; the Jesuit public school at Stonyhurst, 8-12; school-mates, 11; first evidence of a literary streak, 11-12; a year at school in Austria, 12-14; feeling toward the Jesuits, 14-15; first visit to Paris, 15-16; adopts medicine as a profession, 17; enters Edinburgh University Medical School, 18; college life, 18-21; outside work in spare time, 21-24; first story accepted by “Chambers’,” 24; his father’s characteristics, 24-25; his spiritual unfolding and the Catholic Church, 25-27; a whaling voyage in the Arctic Ocean, 29-41; the ship’s company on the _Hope_, 30-32; hunting seals, 33-36; physical development, 41; ship’s surgeon on the _Mayumba_ to West Africa, 42-51; experiences on the West Coast, 45-50; fire at sea, 50-51; professional association with an eccentric character, 52-58; in practice at Southsea, 59-61; joined by his brother Innes, 61-62; comedy and tragedy in practice, 62-64; marriage, 64-66; developing literary interests, 67-68; genesis of “Sherlock Holmes,” 69-70; “Micah Clarke,” 71; James Payn, Oscar Wilde and others, 72-74; “The White Company,” 74-75; first ventures in psychic studies, 77-81; birth of daughter Mary, 81; the Koch tuberculosis cure, 81-84; and W. T. Stead, 82; advice from Malcolm Morris, 84-85; first public speaking, 85-86; leaving Portsmouth, 87; a winter in Vienna, 88-89; as an eye specialist in London, 89-90; contributions to the magazines, 90; virulent influenza, 90-91; literature for a livelihood, 91; “The Refugees,” 92-93; and the death of Sherlock Holmes, 93-94; sidelights on Sherlock Holmes, 96-110; ventures in the drama, 96-97; collaboration with Sir James Barrie, 97; and Barrie’s parody on Holmes, 97-100; fact and fiction regarding Sherlock Holmes, 100-110; birth of his son Kingsley, 111; joins the Psychical Research Society, 111; and the literary life of London, 111-113; “A Straggler of ’15” and Henry Irving, 113-114; serious illness of Mrs. Doyle, 114-115; to Davos, Switzerland, 115; beginning of the “Brigadier Gerard” stories, 115; lecturing tour in the United States, 116-119; a strenuous winter, 117-118; anti-British feeling in the States, 118; back to Davos and Caux, 119-120; locating in Hindhead, 121; to Egypt in winter of 1896, 121; some notable men in Egypt, 122-124; a trip to the Salt Lakes, 125-128; the war against the Mahdi, 130; to the front as correspondent pro-tem., 130-138; incidents of the trip, 131-137; dinner with Kitchener, 137; return from the frontier, 138; the house in Hindhead, 140; literary work, 140-141; religious unrest, 141-142; psychic experiences, 142-143; and the little Doctor, 144-146; the shadow of South Africa, 146-147; the Boer War of 1899, 148; early reverses, 148; and the Langman Hospital service, 149-150; experiments with rifle fire, 150-152; and the Duke of Cambridge, 152-153; in South Africa, 153-154; inoculation for enteric fever, 154; Boer prisoners, 155; locating the hospital in Bloemfontein, 155-157; outbreak of enteric fever, 157-159; dum-dum bullets, 159; days at the front with the army, 159-170; return to the hospital, 170-173; temporary illness, 174-175; quelling a mutiny in the unit, 175-176; to Pretoria and Johannesburg, 176-180; interview with Lord Roberts, 178; an unusual surgical operation, 181; return to England, 182-183; misrepresentation concerning England and the Boer War, 184; an appeal to World Opinion, 184-194; and “The Cause and Conduct of the War in South Africa,” 187-188; translations and distribution of the pamphlet, 188-192; success of the undertaking, 192-194; experiences in politics, 195-203; writes “The Great Boer War,” 204; and the accolade of Knighthood, 205; interest in rifle clubs, 207-208; on the use of cavalry in war, 208; completion of “Sir Nigel,” 209; death of Mrs. Doyle, 209; and the Edalji Case, 209-215; second marriage, 215; removal to Crowborough, 215; and the Oscar Slater Case, 216-220; protests the form of the Coronation Oath, 220-221; visits Egypt, Constantinople and Greece, 222-223; the Marathon Race of 1908, 223-225; and the evil administration of the Belgian Congo, 228; work in the interest of athletics in England, 229-231; and reform of the Divorce Laws, 231-232; continued interest in psychic matters, 232; ventures in speculation, 233-235; acquaintance with some notable people, 236-261; impressions of Theodore Roosevelt, 236-238; and Arthur James Balfour, 238-241; Asquith and Lord Haldane, 241-242; visit with George Meredith, 242-245; acquaintance with Kipling, 245-246; friendship with Sir James M. Barrie, 246-249; and Sir Henry Irving, 249-250; on George Bernard Shaw, 250-251; long acquaintance with H. G. Wells, 251-252; and his brother-in-law, William Hornung, 252; correspondence with Stevenson, 253-254; and Grant Allen, 255-256; appreciation of James Payn, 256-257; dinners with Sir Henry Thompson, 258; settling a question of etiquette, 259; impressions of Sir Henry Hawkins, 260-261; and Sir Francis Jeune, 261; recollections of sport, 262-286; views on flat-racing and steeplechasing, 262-263; on hunting for pleasure, 263-264; a liking for fishing, 264-265; on the noble sport of boxing, 265-268; and the Jeffries-Johnson fight, 268-269; love for Rugby football, 269-270; and the game of golf, 270-271; the lure of billiards, 271-273; recollections of cricket, 273-279; some motoring experiences, 280-282; ski-ing in Switzerland, 283-285; a trip to the Canadian Rockies in 1914, 287-300; in New York, 287-289; through the land of Parkman, 289-292; on the wonders of Western Canada, 292-298; in Jasper and Algonquin Parks, 298-301; on the destiny of Canada, 301-302; disbelief in the German menace, 304-305;
## participates in the Prince Henry Competition, 305-308;
effect of Bernhardi’s writings on, 308; “England and the Next War” by, 308-310; interviewed by General Henry Wilson, 310-313; meditations on methods of attack and defence, 313-314; urges building of Channel Tunnel, 314-317; on the lack of foresight in the Admiralty, 317-319; suggests life-saving devices for the Navy, 319-321; a letter from William Redmond, 321; organizing the Volunteers, 323-324; in the Sixth Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment, 324-326; on the writing of “The British Campaign in France and Flanders,” 326-327; conditions in England during the World War, 327-328; communications with British prisoners, 329-330; luncheon with the Empress Eugenie, 331-332; suggests individual armour for troops, 332-333; heavy losses of his kith and kin in the War, 333-334; to the British front in 1916, 335-352; crossing to France with General Robertson, 337-338; a trip through the trenches, 339-341; a medal presentation in Bethune, 341-342; in an observation post, 342-343; a meeting with his brother Innes, 343; the Ypres Salient at night, 344; the destruction and desolation in Ypres, 345-346; on the Sharpenburg, 346-347; luncheon with Sir Douglas Haig, 347-349; an artillery duel at close quarters, 349-350; meets his son Kingsley at Mailly, 350; two days in Paris, 351-352; a mission to the Italian front, 353-359; attempts to reach Monfalcone, 354-356; in the Carnic Alps, 356-357; a day in the Trentino, 357-358; a spiritual intimation of the victory on the Piave, 358-359; effect of the death of Kitchener, 360; an interview with Clemenceau, 360-361; on the French front, 361-371 in Soissons, 362; through the French trenches, 362-365; in the front line, 367; the saviours of France, 371; breakfast and an interesting talk with Lloyd George, 373-375; a visit to the Australian front, 375-385; a second meeting with his brother Innes, 378-379; breaking the Hindenburg Line, 380-383; in London on Armistice Day, 386; the psychic quest, 387-399; public expositions of his psychic belief, 388-390; belief in the universality of the spiritual knowledge, 390-392; tangible evidence for his faith, 392-393; on the mistakes of science in investigations, 395-396; personal assurance in his spiritual belief, 397-398; as to the future, 398-399
Doyle, Mrs. Arthur Conan (_née_ Hawkins), 64; marriage, 65; 85, 87; development of a serious malady, 114; to Switzerland in search of health, 115, 119; a winter in Egypt, 121, 122, 130; in Naples, 152; 204; death of, 209
Doyle, Mrs. Arthur Conan (_née_ Leckie), marriage, 215; Sultan confers Order of Chevekat on, 222; home for Belgian refugees during the World War, 328; psychic interests and activities of, 388
Doyle, Monsignor Barry, 2-3
Doyle, Charles, author’s father, born in London, 2; enters Government Office of Works, Edinburgh, 2; marriage, 4; talent as an artist, 4-5; 17, 24; characteristics of, 25; death of, 25; his religious faith, 25
Doyle, Mrs. Charles, author’s mother, 3; marriage, 4; early struggles of married life, 5, 12; declines to dedicate son to the Church, 12; 17; her changing religious faith, 25; 41, 55, 92
Doyle, Connie, author’s sister, 5, 17, 115
Doyle, Henry, author’s uncle, manager of the National Gallery, Dublin, 2
Doyle, Ida, author’s sister, 17
Doyle, Innes, author’s brother, 17; joins brother in Portsmouth, 61; letter to his mother, 61-62; accompanies author on American lecturing tour, 116; death of, 334; 343, 347, 378
Doyle, James, author’s uncle, 1; literary and artistic ability of, 1-2
Doyle, John, author’s grandfather, reputation as a cartoonist, 1; personal appearance of, 1; his family, 1-2
Doyle, Mrs. John, author’s grandmother, 15
Doyle, Julia, author’s sister, 17
Doyle, Kingsley Conan, author’s son, birth of, 111; death of, 334; 350, 351
Doyle, Lottie, author’s sister, 5, 17, 115, 121
Doyle, Mary, author’s daughter, 81, 85;
## activities during the World War, 328
Doyle, Richard, author’s uncle, his whimsical humour, 2
Doyle, Sir Francis Hastings, 2
Drama, first venture in the, 113
Drayson, General, a pioneer in psychic studies, 79; and spiritualism, 80
Drury, Major, 149, 175
“Duet, A,” 141
Dum-Dum bullets in the Boer War, 159, 183
Dupont, General, 369
Edalji, George, a victim of the miscarriage of justice, 209-215
Edinburgh, birthplace and boyhood home of author, 1; political activities in, in 1900, 195, 196-199
Edinburgh University Medical School, the author a student in, 18-21
Edmonton, Canada, 297
Egypt, a winter in, with Mrs. Doyle, 121-139; men of note in, 122-124; the temples and tombs of, 124-128; the war against the Mahdi, 130-139
“England and the Next War,” the author’s article in the “Fortnightly,” 308-310; result of publication of, 310-313
Enteric fever, inoculation for, 154; in the Boer War, 157-159
“Esoteric Buddhism,” Sinnett, 81
Eugenie, Empress, 331-332
Feldkirch, Austria, a year in the Jesuit school at, 13-14
Fencing, limited experience in, 279
Fenians, first glimpse of the, 6-7
“Fires of Fate, The,” 124, 226-227
“Firm of Girdlestone, The,” 68
Fishing, a liking for the art of, 264-265
Foley, Mary. _See_ DOYLE, MRS. CHARLES
Foley, William, author’s grandfather, 3
Foley, Mrs. William, author’s grandmother, 3-4
Football, the best collective sport, 269-270
Fort William, Ontario, 293, 294
France, Bernhardi’s opinion of the soldiers of, 308; the Channel Tunnel and, 315; typical soldiers of, 363-367, 369; the saviours of, 371
Franco-German War, 8
French, General, Sir John, 330, 331
George, Lloyd, 361; breakfast and an interesting talk with, 373; his estimate of Lord Kitchener, 373-374; and the subject of armour, 375; on the revolution in Russia, 375
Germany, author’s disbelief in possible trouble with, 304-305; Bernhardi as a representative of thought in, 308
“Germany and the Next War,” Bernhardi, 308
Gibbs, Doctor Charles, 150, 175, 181-182
Golf, the fascination of, 270; in Egypt, 270-271; an obituary to the author’s, 271
Gray, Captain John, of the whaling ship, the _Hope_, 29, 30
“Great Boer War, The,” 204
Great Lakes, through the, 292
“Great Shadow, The,” 93
Gwynne, H. A., 137; in South Africa, 156; 205
“Habakuk Jephson’s Statement,” 67
Haig, General Sir Douglas, 331, 347; luncheon with, 348; personal appearance and traits of, 348-349
Haldane, Lord, 242
Hamilton, Sir Ian, 159
Hawkins, Miss. _See_ DOYLE, MRS. ARTHUR CONAN (_née_ HAWKINS)
Hawkins, Sir Henry. _See_ BAMPTON, LORD
Henneque, General, 365, 366
“Hilda Wade,” Allen, completed by author, 254-255
Hindenburg Line, the, 379, 381; the break in the, 382
Hindhead, locating in, 121; 224
“History of the War” (World), 242
Hodder, two years in preparatory school at, 8
Home, Sir Anthony, 76
_Hope_, the Arctic whaling ship the, 29, 30, 33, 34, 36
Hornung, William, the author’s brother-in-law, 115; brilliant in repartee, 252
“House of Temperley, The,” dramatization of “Rodney Stone” 225-226
“Human Personality,” Myers, influence on the study of psychics, 78
Humbert, General, 368
Hunting for sport unjustified, 263-264; its effects on our better instincts, 264
“Idler, The,” contributions to, 112-113
Influenza, virulent attack of, 91
“Inner Room, The,” 94-95
Ireland, founding of the Doyle family in, 2; early visit to, 6-7
Irving, Sir Henry, 113-114; acquaintance with, 249; Bernard Shaw and, 250
Irving, Henry, the younger, 114
Italy, at the front in, 353-358; difficulties of the terrain in, 354, 356-358
“Jane Annie,” in collaboration with Barrie, 248
Jasper Park, Canada, 287, 298-300
Jerome, Jerome K., 112, 253
Jesuits, school life under the, 8-12; in Austria with the, 12-13; author’s feeling for and opinion of the, 14-15
Jeune, Sir Francis, 261
“John Creedy,” Allen, 256
“John Huxford’s Hiatus,” 68
Kipling, Rudyard, 118; the charm of his writing, 245; in his Brattleboro home, 245-246
Kitchener, 123, 131, 137, 138, 178, 179, 241; death of, 360; Lloyd George’s estimate of, 373-374
Knighthood, receiving the accolade of, 204-205
Koch, Doctor, and his so-called cure for consumption, 81, 83
Lang, Andrew, favourable opinion of “Micah Clarke,” 71
Langman, Archie, 149; captured and released by De Wet, 176
Langman, John, 149
Langman Hospital, service with the, in the Boer War, 147-183
Leckie, Jean. _See_ DOYLE, MRS. ARTHUR CONAN, _née_ LECKIE
Lecturing tour in America, 116-119
Lewis, Colonel, of the Egyptian army, 126-129
“Light,” contributes article to, 80; 111
“Lippincott’s Magazine,” contribution to, 73
“Literary Reminiscences,” Payn, 256
Literary work, 67, 90
Literature, first knowledge of talent for, 11-12; first attempts in, 24
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 205
London, residence in, 89; literary life in, 1880-1893, 111-113
McClure, S. S., 119
McLean, Colin, acting mate of the _Hope_, 30
Maloja, Switzerland, 115
Maxse, Leo, 361
Maxwell, W. B., 253, 262
_Mayumba_, S. S., to West Africa on the, as surgeon, 42; life aboard the, 49; on fire at sea, 50-51
Medical practice, Plymouth, 54-56; Portsmouth, 57-87
Medicine, determines on the study of, 17-18; first experiences in practice of, 22-24
Meredith, George, talents and shortcomings of, 242, 243; a visit to, at Box Hill, 243-244; his brilliant conversation, 244; religious convictions, 245; 256
“Micah Clarke,” author’s first historical novel, 71
Milner, Sir Alfred, 182
Mind, opinion on the nature of the, 78
“Miracle Town,” 332
Monash, General Sir John, luncheon at head-quarters of Australian troops with, 378
Monfalcone, Italy, perilous attempt to reach, 354-356
Morris, Doctor Malcolm, 82, 84-85
Motoring, a disagreeable experience in, 280; fascination of, 280; accidents and humorous incidents when, 281; an international competition in, 282
“Mystery of the Sassassa Valley, The,” the author’s first adventure story, 24
Navy, lack of foresight in the, 317-318; protection from mines for, 318-319; safety devices for crews, 319-321
Newton, Lord, 335, 336, 337
New York, a week in, 287-289
Nile, a trip up the river, 124-125
Northcliffe, Lord, 229, 231, 315
Norwood, home in, 91, 111, 113; leaving, 115
O’Callaghan, Doctor, 149
“Occult World,” Sinnett, 81
Olympic Games, of 1908, 223-225
Pack, Sir Denis, 3
Pack, Katherine, author’s grandmother. _See_ FOLEY, MRS. WILLIAM
Pack, Reverend Richard, 3
Padua, Italy, 353
Paget, Sidney, original illustrator of “Sherlock Holmes,” 101
“Parasite, The,” 93
Paris, first visit to, 15-16; 89; during the World War, 351, 352
Parkman, Francis, author’s opinion of, 93; preparation for his life work, 290; the charm of his style and his work, 290-291
Parliament, unsuccessful attempts to enter, 195-203
“Pavilion on the Links, The,” Stevenson, 253
Payn, James, 67, 69, 71, 72, 75; his humorous view of life, 256-257; a kindly critic, 257
“Physiologist’s Wife, The,” 68
Piave River, psychic revelation regarding the, 358-359
Picardy Place, Edinburgh, birthplace of author in, 1
Plymouth, associated with Doctor Cullingworth in, 54-56
Podmore, Mr., psychic experience with, 142-143
Poetry, early attempts in, 11-12
Politics, first entry in, 86; two unsuccessful efforts in, 195-203
Pond, Major, manages author’s lecturing tour in America, 116
Port Arthur, Ontario, 293
Portsmouth, in practice in, 55-87
Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society, the, 85
Pretoria, South Africa, 176, 178
Prince Henry Competition, the so-called motor race, 305-307
Public speaking, first attempts at, 85; in political campaigns, 86
Psychic, studies, early contempt for, 77; author’s materialistic viewpoint in, 77; nature of the mind and soul, 78; influence of telepathy on, 78; table turning, 79; growing interest in, 111; researches and experiences, 142-146; séances, 232; the later quest, 387-399
Psychical Research Society, member of, 111
Racing, author’s lack of interest in flat-, 262-263
Rationalist Association, 141
Reading, early taste for, 7
Redmond, Major William, 321-322
“Refugees, The,” 92, 93, 140-141
Reichenbach, Falls of, the tomb of Sherlock Holmes, 93-94
Reid, Mayne, a favourite author in boyhood, 7
Repington, Colonel, 316, 318, 325, 337
“Richard Feverel,” Meredith, 243, 245
Rifle, value of the, as an arm, 207-208
Rifle clubs, formation of, 207, 285
“Rights and Wrongs,” Cook, 185
“Ring of Thoth, The,” 68
“Robert Elsmere,” Ward, 256
Roberts, Lord, 157, 174, 178, 207, 313
Robertson, General William, 337, 338
Rocky Mountains, first view of the, 298
“Rodney Stone,” 96, 225, 266
Roman Catholic faith, author’s family and the, 2; author’s changing views of the, 25-27
Roosevelt, President Theodore, recollections and impressions of, 236-238
Rosicrucians, 146
Rugby football. _See_ FOOTBALL
Russia, Lloyd George on the revolution in, 375
Rutherford, Professor, 19
Sackville-West, Colonel, and the interview with General Henry Wilson, 310-313
“St. Ives,” unfinished by Stevenson, 254
Sandow, Eugene, 205, 206
Sanna’s Post, in the Boer War, 159
Sault Ste. Marie, 292-293
“Scalp Hunters,” a favourite book in boyhood, 7
Scharlieb, Doctor, 150
School days, early, 5-7; at Hodder, 8; at Stonyhurst, 8-12
Seals, in the Arctic in the close season, 33-34; and the open season, 34-35
Sharpenburg, the view from the, 346-347
Shaw, George Bernard, 250; and Henry Irving, 250; controversial spirit of, 250-251; peculiar characteristics of, 251
“Sherlock Holmes,” the origin of the character of, 69; interest of the public in character of, 92, 93; concern of public at death of, 94; letters addressed to, 94; sidelights on character of, 96-110; dramatizations of the character, 96-97; Barrie’s parody of, 97-100; author’s original conception of, 100-101; film productions of, 101
“Sign of Four, The,” 73
“Silver Blaze,” 102
“Sir Nigel,” 75, 209
Ski-ing, experiences in, 283-285
Slater, Oscar, a victim of the miscarriage of justice, 216-220
Smith, Reginald, 186, 191, 193, 194
Society for Psychic Research, 142-143
Soissons, the ruins of the cathedral of, 362
Sophia, Mosque of, 222-223
Soul, opinion on the nature of the, 78
South Africa, shadow of war in, 146-147; arrival in, 154; first impressions of, 155-156; pamphlets on British methods and objects in, 184-194
“Speckled Band, The,” 96, 226
Speculation, ventures in, 233-234
Spiritualism, 80, 81
Sport, some recollections of and reflections on, 262-286
“Stark Munro Letters, The,” based on first experiences in medical practice, 52; 66, 111
Stead, W. T., 82
Steeplechasing, more of a true sport than flat-racing, 263
Stevenson, Robert Louis, the influence of, on author, 253; correspondence with, 253-254; the unfinished “St. Ives” by, 254
Stonyhurst, the great Jesuit school at, 8; the seven years at, 9-12
“Strand Magazine, The,” 90
“Straggler of ’15, A,” 113; dramatization of, 113-114
“Study in Scarlet,” 69-70, 100
Submarine, possible effect on England in warfare of the, 309-310, 313, 314
Switzerland, visits, 93; to, for Mrs. Doyle’s health, 115, 119, 120
Symonds, Lily Loder, 334
Symonds, Captain William Loder, 329, 330
Tank, its influence on the World War, 333; viewing a battle from the top of a, 381-382
Tariff Reform, in election of 1905, 199-203
Telepathy, first experiments in, 78
“Temple Bar,” contributions to, 67
Territorials, the, 309, 312, 323
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 6
Theosophy, interest in, 80, 81
Thompson, Sir Henry, 184, 185; and his famous “octave” dinners, 258
Thought transference, experiments in, 78
“Three Correspondents, The,” 136
“Three Men in a Boat,” Jerome, 112
Thurston, Father, 11
Ticonderoga, Fort, 291
“To Arms,” in collaboration, 327
“Tragedy of the Korosko, The,” 124
“Transvaal From Within,” Fitz-Patrick, 185
Trentino, in the, during the World War, 357-358
Udine, the Italian head-quarters town, 353
“Uncle Bernac,” 141
“Undershaw,” the home in Hindhead, 140
University of Edinburgh, studies medicine at, 17-18, 21; graduates from, 41
Vaughan, Bernard, 11
Vicars, Sir Arthur, 3
Vienna, a winter of study in, 88-89
Volunteer Force, formation of, at outbreak of the World War, 324
Waller, Lewis, 227, 228
Ward, Mrs. Humphry, and the life of the Victorian era, 256
Watt, A. P., 90
Wells, H. G., democratic frankness of, 251, 252; forecasts of the future, 252
West African Coast, voyage to the, 42-51
“Westminster Gazette,” honorary correspondent in Egypt for the, 130-139
Whaling in the Arctic, 29-41
“White Company, The,” 74; author’s opinion of, 75; its success, 75; 89
Wilde, Oscar, favourable opinion of “Micah Clarke,” 73; as a conversationalist, 73; letter from, 74
Wilson, General Henry, interview with, after publication of “England and the Next War,” 310-313
“Windlesham,” the home in Crowborough, 215
“Window in Thrums, A,” Barrie, 246
Winnipeg, Canada, 294, 295, 297
World War, prologue of the, 304-322; formation of the Volunteer Force at opening of, 324; conditions in England during the, 327-328; on the British front in the, 335-352; the Italian front in the, 353-359; a visit to the French front, 361-371; the Australian sector of the line, 375-386
Wound stripes, on British uniforms, 371
Ypres Salient, the, at night, 344; 345-346
Transcriber’s Note
Obvious printer’s errors and typos have been silently corrected. Legitimate variations in spelling and grammar have been retained. The line “(signature illegible)” on page 151 is presented here as it was in the printed text.
In this txt file, text in _italics_ is marked by underscores.