Purkyněs Weg. Wissenschaft, Bildung und Nation

the discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Buddhist and Hindhu philosophy testify also that such manifestations are, in every age and culture, the by-products of spiritual maturity. They cannot be curtly diagnosed and dismissed as archaism. If the author is implying that it is undesirable that we should be preoccupied with visionary experience at the expense of our total development, then certainly we must agree with her, but one must refute altogether any idea that the phenomenon itself is basically pathological. Dr. MacDermot could well have given more space to the contrast between the visionary experience of her Middle Eastern seers and those of our contemporary layabouts, but we should not ask too much of one who has put us so much in her debt by opening a window on aspects of culture previously inaccessible to us. I cannot see any early prospect of her being overtaken in the field she has explored with such diligence and competence. ARTHUR GUIRDHAM