Science and a Future Life

Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901) was a classical scholar who in mid-career turned to the investigation of psychic phenomena. After studying, and later teaching, Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge he resigned his lectureship in 1869, became an inspector of schools, and campaigned for women's higher education. With the encouragement of former colleagues he began a scientific investigation of spiritualism and related phenomena, and in 1882 he helped to found the Society for Psychical Research. This volume, first published in 1893, is a collection of essays that Myers had previously published in journals. Their topics include Charles Darwin's religious beliefs, the capacity of contemporary scientific methods to investigate the existence of the soul after death, and an unusual interpretation of Alfred Tennyson's poetry. These fascinating essays show how Myers engaged with the scientific developments and intellectual currents of his time as he developed his theory of the 'subliminal self'.