ALL MEN ARE GHOSTS

BY L. P. JACKS

AUTHOR OF "MAD SHEPHERDS," "AMONG THE IDOLMAKERS,"
"THE ALCHEMY OF THOUGHT"

LONDON
WILLIAMS & NORGATE
14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1913

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME
TO
STOPFORD BROOKE
TO WHOM I OWE MORE THAN COULD BE TOLD
WERE MANY PAGES EMPLOYED
IN THE RECITAL

CONTENTS

PANHANDLE AND THE GHOSTS
I. PANHANDLE LAYS DOWN A PRINCIPLE
II. PANHANDLE NARRATES HIS HISTORY AND DESCRIBES THE HAUNTED HOUSE
III. PANHANDLE'S REMARKABLE ADVENTURE. THE GHOST APPEARS

THE MAGIC FORMULA


ALL MEN ARE GHOSTS
I. DR PIECRAFT BECOMES CONFUSED
II. "THE HOLE IN THE WATER-SKIN"
III. DR PIECRAFT CLEARS HIS MIND

THE PROFESSOR'S MARE

FARMER JEREMY AND HIS WAYS

WHITE ROSES

By the Same Author

Of the stories in this volume, "Farmer Jeremy and his Ways" has already appeared in the Cornhill; "The Magic Formula," "The Professor's Mare," and "White Roses" in the Atlantic Monthly. These are reprinted with the permission of the respective Editors. Some additions have been made which were precluded by the shorter form of the magazine story.

ALL MEN ARE GHOSTS

PANHANDLE AND THE GHOSTS

I

PANHANDLE LAYS DOWN A PRINCIPLE

"The first principle to guide us in the study of the subject," said Panhandle, "is that no genuine ghost ever recognised itself as what you suppose it to be. The conception which the ghost has of its own being is fundamentally different from yours. Because it lacks solidity you deem it less real than yourself. The ghost thinks the opposite. You imagine that its language is a squeak. From the ghost's point of view the squeaker is yourself. In short, the attitude of mankind towards the realm of ghosts is regarded by them as a continual affront to the majesty of the spiritual world, perpetrated by beings who stand on a low level of intelligence; and for that reason they seldom appear or make any attempt at open communication, doing their work in secret and disclosing their identity only to selected souls. Far from admitting that they are less real than you, they regard themselves as possessed of reality vastly more intense than yours. Imagine what your own feelings would be if, at this moment, I were to treat you as a gibbering bogey, and you will then have some measure of the contempt which ghosts entertain for human beings."

"You must confess, my dear Panhandle," I answered, "that you are flying in the face of the greatest authorities, and have the whole literature of the subject against you. You tell me that no genuine ghost ever recognised itself as such."

"I mean, of course," interrupted Panhandle, "that it never recognised itself as a ghost in your inadequate sense of the term."

"Then," said I, "what do you make of the Ghost's words in Hamlet:

This one, at all events, recognised itself as such."

"In attributing those words to the Ghost," said Panhandle, "Shakespeare was using him as a stage property and as a means of playing to the gallery, which is incapable of right notions on this subject. But there is another passage in the same group of scenes which shows that Shakespeare was not wholly ignorant of the inner mind of ghosts. Listen to this:—

"Now, what does that mean?" he continued. "The words of Horatio imply that the Ghost has usurped a reality which does not belong to him; that he is a wraith, a goblin, or some such absurdity—that, in short, he is going to be treated in the idiotic manner which is usual with men in the presence of such apparitions. Doubtless the Ghost saw that these men were afraid of him, that their hair was standing on end and their knees knocking together. Disgusted at such an exhibition of what to him would appear as a mixture of stupidity and bad manners, he turned up