Blackwell Family Elizabeth Blackwell General Correspondence Maitland, Edward 1899-1890The Studios, Thurloe Sq. S.W. Aug 6 / 89 Dear Dr Blackwell It is but little that I can write now in reply to your letter of the 1st inst. being altogether engrossed by my work & on the point of leaving home. The project of a "Sewing[???] Institute" strikes me as most happy in itself. the only question being as to whether the [*in my mind and communicate to you the results, if any, of my su- [?]. Yrs most faithfully Edward Maitland*]object proposed could be carried out in a strictly central [local] institution, so well as by means of the various appliances already existing in numerous localities, the requisite buttes, & means. As it would, of course, not involve any illegitimate means, such as physiological experimentation, but constitute by its very nature a protest against such methods, the objection emanating from Victoria St., that it would be equivalent to founding [*founding*] a competing Pasteur institute, can be ascribed only to impertinence. Had the names proposed been the Cobbe Institution a very different response would have been rendered. However, all discussion of the subject is beside the [?], now that the project has been abandoned. to come to your other point. I was not aware of the CC Massey's conception respecting a mystical Maternity,such as you describe, but as I expect to see him very shortly I will interrogate him on the matter. Though keeping one eye on the general progress of things, I have been too specially occupied in [?] what I recognized as my particular work, to allow myself to be drawn to right or left towards anything that might divert & absorb my forces. Nor indeed have I felt that craving for human cooperation or communion, which prompts all [????]ments of this kind. Nor is my experience of corresponding endeavours at association, of a favourable kind. I will, however, now bear the [?] The Studios, Thurloe Sq, S. W. March 11, 90 Dear Miss Blackwell The subject on which you address me has for a considerable time exercised me greatly, and the only reason I have not yet withdrawn from the S. P. R. is that I am looking for some opening by which I may be able to make a not ineffectual protest. I have thought that I could so as a member better than as an outsider. I have knownprivately for several years of Mr. F. W. Myers' sanction of vivisection, but have hoped to see his advance in true psychical knowledge lead him to see the sins of his view. But though he has advanced so far as to recognize, or at least to lecture in favour of, the immortality of the soul, I judge by his close association with Professors Sedgewick and Chas. Richet, the Latter an abominable tormentor of animals, that he is still where he was in that respect. But as there are dignitaries of the church who, while bound professionally to the doctrine of the soul's immortality, and consequently to the doctrine of moral responsibility, it is possible that Mr Myers does not see the incompatibility of the two positions. By all I gather, the ruling spirit of the society if the president's wife, and her object is to make the society an engine, not for the formation of knowledge, but for the suppression of evidence pointing to the realityand continued existence of the soul; and that so long as she is in the society its masculine chiefs dare not avow any other conclusion than that favoured by her, be the evidence as stringent as it may. The presidents recent gift of 1500 to complete the Cambridge phys [?] laboratory shows him to be at one with his wife's materialistic views. The only practical idea that has occurred to me at present was to make [pretense?] either orally at only the meetings or in writing to the Council, against the recognition of Profr Ricket as a fit person to take part in the society's investigations on such a subject as that of the soul, or even to associate with people retaining any human characteristics. But the time passed without my being able to act (my health being then such as to incapacitate me), and since then the President has perpetrated his evil deed, which necessitates a different & more comprehensive mode of action, if action there is to be. The matter requires much delibe ration to avoid injuring our cause by injudicious action: and meanwhile I am contemplating [?] sounding such of the members of the council as are in accord with us, to see what course they may indicate as best. When anything is done in the matter, the larger the number who combine, the better. Yours very faithfully Edwd MaitlandThe Studios, Thurloe Sq. S.W. March 19/90 Dear Dr Blackwell I do not think it worth your while to come to London in re the S.P.R. until some preliminary steps have been taken, as by obtaining the opinions ofany members who may be similarly disposed. To this end I propose to see Mr Massey shortly, and any others likely to aid; and when I have done so, I will report to you the results --not that you should not take any measures which occur to you at the same time. I am by no means sanguine either of our early, or of any, success. For besides being overtaxed myself as to time & force by my own regular work, there are great difficulties in the way of interferinginterfering with the President's exercise of his own judgment in matters apart from the Society. And while he is President, it it hopeless to make any reform in the Society of the kind we contemplate-- yrs faithfully Edward Maitland The Studios, Thurloe Sq. S.W. April 1/90 Dear Dr Blackwell The result of my consultations & deliberations is to show that we have no locus standi on which to make efficacious protest to the S.P.R.--the incompatibility of the purpose of the society and the practice objected to, being scarcely demonstrable to minds [so] and consciences so rudimentary as to tolerate the latter. Were we a strong and numerous body, our remonstrances might have weight, if only for pecuniaryreasons. But as it is, we should simply be disregarded & told that we were not forced to belong to the society. So that, greatly as I desire to take action in the matter, I do not at present see that I can do more than to continue my present line of work--that of demonstrating the spiritual nature of man & the world--and thus educate people up to the least of which they would regard such a method of seeking their own advantage as in itself utterly subversive of the humanity they claim to wish to benefit by it. Should however any practical opening for interference suggest itself, I shall be glad to aid in taking advantage of it. yrs most faithfully Edwd Maitland P.S. I send a pamphlet ofmine on the subject, which you may not have seen, but which has been found helpful by many--especially for its statement of principles. I have copies at your service if desired-- London Apr 5/90 Dear Dr Blackwell Your suggestion has prompted to the execution of an idea I have long entertained, --namely, of revising and enlarging my A.V. pamphlet so as to adapt it to present circumstances,and issue it as a new edition. I am doing this now, as fast as I can, and will send it to you when done, for the purpose you mention, together2 together with some copies as it is, to enable the two editions to be compared. You & your friends can thus make such suggestions (as to omission or further additions) as may seem fit, and return to me for final finish, if approved & decided on. yrs faithfully Edwd Maitland 3 P.S. Of course that citation from Mr Myers, sent you by C.C.M., is a bit of mere perfunctoriness--one of the stock phrases used by the experimentalists to delude the public. Anasthetics are impossible, save only just to quiet the creature at starting. if given effectively they either kill, or [they] so impair the experiment as to render the result worthless as in all experiments on the nerves--When he says4 "no complaint" has yet been made &--why, who is to make it? The experiments are witnessed only by the experimenters & their pupils, and there is no inspection, since the reports are made by themselves to the "Inspector", & they omit what they choose--as [is] shown by the fact that the medical journals often contain accounts of experiments not included in the official reports. However "good " a man Mr Myers may be or appear, he has made no secret of his "approval of vivisection, and this, then he claims to be a poet!The Studios, Thurloe Sq. S.W. April 8, 1890 Dear Dr Blackwell As I have completed my proposed alterations in my pamphlet, I think it best to send it to you forthwith (if only to keep myself from yielding to the temptation to make it longer). What I have done to it is in view of your suggestion that if duly revised it might suit the Leigh Browns Trustees to publish and circulate it. I send with it some copies of the unrevised edition as you requested. My idea is that the matter should be submitted to one or two competent judges to decide, first, whether to publish it at all; and, next, to decide upon any omissions or other alterations; and that, as amended by them, it should come back to me for my approval, so that nothing may be published under my name but what I myself approve of. If it is finally determined to print it, I shall require to see the proofs, first in slips, and then in pages. With these remarks I place it in your hands to do the best with for the Cause, adding only that I have no objection to alter the initial motto if desired. As for the title, it is not only an attractive one, but I doubt whether it can be mended. Nor am I particular about its appearing as new edition.on one point especially I shall be glad of criticisms: that is the personal references to the Psychical Research Society. Of course, it is legitimate, as their doings are public. But is it advisable to be so pointed? Your advisers will no doubt counsel wisely in this matter. As to its being placed, if published, on the Victoria Street list that will be a matter for after consideration. But I must caution you against submitting it for judgment before publication to Miss Cobbe or any of her following, as there was many years ago between us a discord which, so far as I am aware, may still be unresolved for them, and incapacitate them for an unbiased judgment. If published at all, I should much prefer its being done in such a way as will bring it before the general public and not restrict it to the members of a society who want no convincing. It is an appeal to the million, the whole electorate, in fact. I have made a duplicate copy, so can refer to any passages without having the M.S. returned to me. I write all my M.S.S. in duplicate--even this letter, by a process of my own devising--so am never uneasy about loss. I shall be glad to meet you on Thursday in Queen Victoria Street, if eligible for admission & do not know the conditions of entrance. Yours faithfully Edwd MaitlandLondon June 25/90 Dear Dr Blackwell I am always grateful for helpful suggestions, but that which you make in reference to the passage in col. 1. p. 295. is due to [a] yr misreading of the text. The "behind the scenes" refers to the usage in the laboratories and not to the hospitals. The reference to the latter is in the following pas. which says "It is no secret thataccording to the degree in which vivisection prevails in the medical schools of any place, there the poor are in danger" &c &c and to this I adhere in the fullest degree, knowing it to be true. Whether at home or abroad, and having [in this] the authority of medical men themselves for the statement. So that the only "modification" I can make would be the addition of an explanation such as the following, "For the habit of experimentation upon living subjects develops a passion for experimentation, in presence of which everything is lost sight of except the particular end in view." Over and over again have I heard the doctrine asserted that the use of the hospital is to provide pauper patients [who shall] to serve as subjects for experimentation for the benefit of the paying patients. (i.e. forthe doctors own profit.) You will find on re-reading my letter that no word is said in denial of the kindly and legitimate treatment of patients in hospitals by non-vivisecting doctors. I have spoken out of the tendency of the practice where it prevails. yrs ffly Edwd Maitland Esoteric Christian Union. "There is no religion so high as love." Thurloe Square, S.W. Feby 14/94 Dear Dr Blackwell Miss Forsyth has forwarded me your letter to answer myself. I am truly glad you have seen your way to join our society and movement, and sorry I shall not number you among my audience on the 20th. But the prospect you kindly propose of a visit to you at Hastings will be compensation, and I shall accordingly look forward to making it when --as you say--the days are longer--For--as I wish our friends to understand--I am anxious to lose no opportunity of being in the world beyond recall, the good tidings of the new light which has been vouchsafed to us in these latter days, so that at least I may not leave it with the consciousness of having neglected opportunities. I know Hastings well and the amount of travelling involved in going & returning, I do not shrink from encountering it. On the contrary A few hours of absence from my writing- table and of sea air is always a welcome change when I can find leisure for them. You may like to know of the article in the Fortnight Review for January last, in which a Catholic writer--Coventry Patmore-- declared that the movement in favour of mystical, as distinguished from sacerdotal, religion, is making way in that communion with such rapidity as to be revolutionary. And I have the authority of sundry Rev Fathers for saying that they required our books astheir textbooks by reason of their [for] containing[?] the long sought for interpretation of their own mysteries. I shall look forward also to the opportunity of at last making the acquaintance of Miss Anna Blackwell. Meanwhile I remain your vy faithfully Edward Maitland