But they admit things which seem almost
as near to a new supernaturalism, and things quite as incredible
to the old rationalism. Dual personality is not so very far
from diabolic possession. And if the dogma of subconsciousness
allows of agnosticism, the agnosticism cuts both ways.
A man cannot say there is a part of him of which he is quite unconscious,
and only conscious that it is not in contact with the unknown.
He cannot say there is a sealed chamber or cellar under his house,
of which he knows nothing whatever; but that he is quite certain that it
cannot have an underground passage leading anywhere else in the world.
He cannot say he knows nothing whatever about its size or shape
or appearance, except that it certainly does not contain a relic
of the finger-joint of St. Catherine of Alexandria, or that it
certainly is not haunted by the ghost of King Herod Agrippa.
If there is any sort of legend or tradition or plausible probability
which says that it is, he cannot call a thing impossible where he is
not only ignorant but even unconscious. It comes back therefore
to the same reality, that the old compact cosmos depended on a
compact consciousness.
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