If we answer "yes," then, as we have seen, moiety after moiety is filched from us, till we find ourselves left face to face with a tenuous quasi immaterial vital principle or soul as animating an alien body, with which it not only has no essential underlying community of substance, but with which it has no conceivable point in common to render a union between the two possible, or give the one a grip of any kind over the other; in fact, the doctrine of disembodied spirits, so instinctively rejected by all who need be listened to, comes back as it would seem, with a scientific imprimatur; if, on the other hand, we exclude the non-living from the body, then what are we to do with nails that want cutting, dying skin, or hair that is ready to fall off?
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
I would not imply that I have now dived into the metaphysical depths of this marvellous poem; or that its author gave his imprimatur to all he did not alter; but as my "Key" was for some time in his possession, I feel sure that it contains nothing which he disapproved: and it is enough for me, if it shall open the door of comfort and sympathy to any who either mourn or doubt.
"A Key to Lord Tennyson's 'In Memoriam'"
Alfred Gatty
When to such rebellious sentiments is joined an explicit warning against the seductions and intimidations held out by the official religions-their sugar plums and dog whips, as Maeterlinck puts it-one can only wonder how his writings escaped as long as they did the attention of the authorities that swing the power of imprimatur and anathema.
"Prophets of Dissent Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy"
Otto Heller
