was at Rochester, last January, Margaretta told me that when people insisted on seeing her feet and toes, she could produce a few raps with her knees and ankles."

Here is positive testimony added to strong probability; but of course this was quite incredible. The mob had swallowed the deception, and digest it they would and will.

66

come

We have now done with this part of the subject, and with Mr. Spicer's book, which is about as discreditable a piece of literary handicraft as has come under our notice. There is a certain bad style of periodical literature in America that exists entirely by pandering to the last new superstition that may along," as the Americans say. Spirit-rapping has some scores of these papers and reviews in its interest; and Mr. Spicer has made up his book by extracts from these periodicals. This is the secret of "Sights and Sounds." The wonders of the spirit-rappers have taken the place of the stories about men who were so tall that they were obliged to get up a ladder to shave themselves, and such like polished bits of wonderment. The English people who follow such a lead are about upon a par with those who thought there was a great deal in Bloomerism, and who, if it were powerfully put to them, would probably think that Joe Smith might after all not unlikely be a great prophet.

We do hope, in the name of common sense, English good taste, and our common bond of Christianity, that this blasphemous absurdity is now demolished, and that any lady will be henceforth voted mauvais ton who tolerates one of these orgies in her drawing-room.

We have left ourselves very little room to deal with the table-turning miracle; nor, indeed, will it require any great discussion. "Mysteries," says Goethe, "are not necessarily miracles." Philosophy accepts many facts for which she has hitherto found no satisfactory explanation. Sir David Brewster notices with full credence, but without pretending to account for it, the common experiment, whereby a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility when he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs and those of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. Faraday is daily

Sir David Brewster thus states the circumstances of this very curious experiment:

"This experiment was, I believe, first shewn in England a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in a large party at Venice, under the direction of an officer of the American Navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presence, I shall describe, as nearly as possible, the method which he prescribed. The heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each leg and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and they find his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty they experience in supporting him. When he is replaced in the chair, each of the four

producing phenomena scarcely less inconsistent with our preconceived notions of natural laws than is this table-turning; and he appears to be slowly and carefully mining his way to some great result.

The first table-turners were two American

girls. In 1849, when Margaret and Catherine Fox, prompted probably by that mysterious impulse to imposture, which in some persons (as in the "Princess Carraboo," the "Female Jesuit," and a hundred others whom we might name) appears to amount to insanity, invented or adopted the new creed of spirit-rapping, they tables. This table-moving was one of their invented at the same time the rotatory motion of proofs of the presence of departed spirits.

The Germans of course seized upon the new mystery. A German merchant at New York communicated it to his brother in Bremen, with instructions how to repeat the operation. The German succeeded, the news spread, Dr. Andèe published in the "Gazette d'Augsbourg full reports of his experiments.

The "mode operatoire" is thus explained, by M. Roubaud+

1o. THE PENDULUM.

The most simple experiment, and which can be made by a single person, is that performed with a watch, or any other object, such as a ring, a book, a bunch of trinkets, &c., suspended by a metallic chain, or by a thread.

The chain or string, at the end of which the watch is suspended, is held at the other end by the fingers of the experimenter, so as to hang like a plumb-line, or a pendulum. The watch, made immoveable, and left to itself, begins to move after one, two, or three minutes at the utmost, and performs all the movements which are ordered by the will, rotatory motions from right to left, or from left to right, oscillations in any direction, remains immoveable, and delays or quickens its movements; in a word, is entirely submissive to the will.

*

fter the experiment with the pendulum, I think that beginners ought to practise with a man's hat, because that

persons takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted gives two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise, and that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than a feather. On several occasions I have observed that when one of the bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation out of time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is left as it were behind. As you have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have performed the part both of the load and of the bearer, you can testify how remarkable the effects appear to all parties, and how complete is the conviction, either that the load has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened, by the prescribed process."

While translating this extract, we discovered that the book has already been translated into English, and published as an original English work, "by a Physician."Very discreditable this to the publishers.

object, always at hand, offers little resistance, on account of its lightness, and presents nevertheless a surface large enough on which to place four or six hands.

The support to be made use of must be of wood, of any kind, such as a dining-table, but without marble or a cover without marble, because that body is not easily penetrated by the fluid; without a cover, on account of the inequalities caused by the intertwining of the threads, which are in fact physical obstacles.

On the surface of the table, which should be smooth or polished, the hat may be placed in any position; but it had better be placed in a perpendicular position, resting on the external part of the crown.

The phenomenon may be produced by two persons facing one another: they cover the brim of the hat with their hands, only connected by their little fingers; alternating the position, that is to say, by each placing them so that one should cover, and the other be covered. There should be no pressure on the hat; a simple contact is required. Moreover, the wishes of the experimenters must not contradict one another: they must either be withheld or tend towards the same motion. This last condition always quickens the emission of the fluid; but as it is not necessary, the experimenters may talk and laugh, provided they do not alter the position of their hands. All being thus arranged, patience alone is required.

After waiting for a time, which varies from a few minutes to three-quarters or even a whole hour, a strange sensation of heat and tingling is felt in the joints of the elbows, wrist, and fingers, and all along the nerves of the arms and hands. This sensation is always a favourable symptom, and revives the hopes of experimentalists who have waited long.

Almost immediately after, two or three sensations of tingling oscillations are felt; first, hardly perceptible, but they soon become so, and attract the attention of the experimenter. This increased application of the mind would instantaneously produce the phenomenon; but the hands of the experimenters, by an organic contraction, independent of the will, press the hat with greater force, and thus oppose a resistance which it cannot overcome. kind of spasmodic convulsion of the fingers does not take place with persons forewarned. Beginners must think of it, and must not forget that the slightest contact is sufficient.

This

When the hat is not under the influence of the will, the movement produced is always rotatory. It turns with a velocity which varies according to the physical or individual circumstances which act upon the fluid. When the motion is too slow, it can always be increased by the power of the will.

The will can also alter the direction of the rotatory. motion, or change its character, and make the hat advance without rotations, either backwards or forwards, to the right or to the left.

3°. THE TABLE.

The experiment made with a table is similar to that just described, but on a larger scale.

If we bear in mind the conditions of success which I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, we must choose in preference to others a wooden table without marble, standing on castors well oiled, or turning easily on its stand, the weight of which being in proportion with its surface, will correspond with the number of persons about to take part in the experiment.

The floor on which the table is to stand should be perfectly even, and without any carpet. The roughness of the joinings and the intertwining of the threads of the web are obstacles which may prevent the table from either moving or turning. To relieve the tedium of waiting, the experimenters should be of different sex, in nearly equal proportions, and placed alternately. Placed in this manner, whether sitting or standing, the experimenters will lay their hands, with the palm downwards, on the table, and will put them in contact with

their neighbour's by means of their little fingers, so that each will have one finger covered, and the other covering. As in the experiment of the hat, and in all others in which several persons assist, the wills must not be opposed. It would be better in the first experiments to give no particular directions to the table, and to wait until the rotatory motion has been produced. The time required for this is not always the same. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes, and at other times about three-quarters of an hour, or even an hour.

I have said before that the hands should be laid on the table with the palms downwards. But this is not essential, for I have also obtained positive results in laying my hands either on their back, or on the edges of the thenor and hypothenor.

The point of communication throughout the party may also be varied. The little finger may be replaced by any other finger, and even by the whole hand, taking care, however, that each should have a part covered and a part covering. This condition is as necessary to give out the requisite fluid as an alternate piece of zinc and of copper to the voltaic pile.

The experimenters must only communicate with each other by that part of their body which is in direct cominunication with the table. The phenomenon is never produced if any other communication exist either among themselves or with persons who do not form the chain.

But the table may be touched during its motion, for I have often done so with my chest or feet, without stopping its rotation or altering its submissiveness to my will.

Like all other objects submitted to the influence of this fluid, the table alters the direction and the character of its movement at the will of the operators. It will not, however, always be easy to make it go forwards or backwards, to the right or to the left, on account of the resistance offered by stiff castors, or some obstructions in the floor.

With the exception of such material obstacles, which are always avoidable, I do not know of any circumstance which could prevent (I must not say delay) the manifestation of the phenomenon.

Now it is no part of our business to prove that all this is utter nonsense. Directly the supernatural part of the story is given up, we have no objection to table-turning as an experiment. It is possible, just possible, that there may be some subtle fluid, whereby mind acts upon matter; and it may also be that that fluid may be so used as to act, not only upon organic bodies, such as the nerves and muscles of man, but also upon inorganic bodies, such as hats and tables. All this may turn out so to be, but at present nothing seems less likely.

Any one who will take the trouble to observe the conditions of the experiment will see that it is necessary that the table should move with the smallest possible amount of impulsive force. The castors must be oiled, the top must be light, the carpet must be taken up. With all these facilities for locomotion, and with twelve hands pressed upon it, and with twelve earnest wills giving those hands a slight involuntary tendency one way, it must be a very obdurate table that will not move. As to the pendulum experiment, it is, as M. Roubaud ought to know, a vulgar error long since exploded. The matter has recently been inquired into by the Academy of Sciences at

"The pendulum I used was an iron ring suspended by a hempen cord: it had been arranged by a woman who was very desirous that I should myself verify the phenomenon observable whenever she placed it over water, a lump of metal, or a living creature. It was not, I acknowledge, without surprise that I observed its recurrence when I held the string of the pendulum in my right hand over some mercury in my pneumatic trough, then over an anvil, several animals, &c. I concluded from these trials, that if there were only, as I had been assured, a certain number of bodies that would affect the oscillations of the pendulum, it might happen that, in interposing other bodies between these and the pendulum when in motion, it would cease to oscillate. In spite of this presumption, however, to my great astonishment, after having taken in my left hand a plate of glass, a cake of resin, &c., and having placed one of these bodies between the mercury and the pendulum while beating rapidly, I saw the oscillation gradually decrease, and finally cease. They recommenced when the intervening body was withdrawn, and stopped anew by the interposition of the same body. These phenomena were repeated several times, with a regularity truly remarkable, whether the intervening body were held by myself or by another. The more extraordinary the results, the more I felt the necessity of verifying if they were independent of any muscular movement of the arm, as I had been assured in the most positive manner. For this purpose I leant the right arm supporting the pendulum, upon a wooden prop, which I moved forward at will from the shoulder to the hand, and returned from the hand to the shoulder. I soon remarked that, in the first case, the movement of the pendulum decreased in proportion more as the fulcrum was brought nearer to the hand, and that it ceased when the fingers holding the string were themselves propped; while under opposite circumstances the contrary effect resulted.

I thought, after that, that it was very probable that an involuntary muscular movement had given rise to the phenomenon, and was induced to give greater weight to that consideration from a vague recollection of having been in a very remarkable state when following the oscillations of the pendulum held in my hand.

I repeated my experiments, keeping the arm perfectly free; and I convinced myself that the recollection, of which I have just spoken, was not an illusion, for I felt very sensibly, while following the oscillations of the pendulum, a strong tendency to the movement which, quite involuntary as it seemed to me, was still much more powerful when the pendulum described an extended arc. From that I inferred, that if I repeated the experiments with my eyes bandaged the results might be different. This is precisely what happened.

While the pendulum oscillated over the mercury a fillet was applied to my eyes: the motion soon diminished; but although the oscillations were feeble, they did not diminish sensibly by the presence of the bodies which had appeared to arrest them in my first experiments.

Finally, starting from the moment when the pendulum was at rest, I still held it for a quarter of an hour over the mercury, without its shewing any tendency to resume its motion. During this interval, unknown to me, the glass plate and the cake of resin had been interposed and withdrawn several times.

This is the way in which I explain these phenomena :— While I held the pendulum, a muscular movement of the arm, although imperceptible to me, set the pen

dulum moving from its state of rest, and the oscillations, once commenced, were soon augmented by the influence exercised by the sight in inducing that remarkable disposition or tendency to motion. Now, it must be borne in mind that this muscular movement, when even increased by that very disposition, is still feeble enough to stop of itself. I do not say under the empire of the will, but simply under the idea of trying if such a thing can

arrest it.

There is, then, an intimate connection established between certain movements and the action of the idea relating to them, although that idea may not be the will which influences the muscular organs. It is on this account that the phenomena I have described seem to me to be psychologically of some interest besides pertaining, in some respects, to the history of the sciences. They prove how easy it is for us to assume illusions for realities every time that we investigate a phenomenon affecting our senses, and that, too, under circumstances which have not yet been sufficiently analysed. In short, had I limited my experiments to causing the pendulum to oscillate over certain bodies, and to the cessation of these oscillations when the glass, the resin, &c., were interposed between the pendulum and the bodies which seemed to determine the motion, then certainly I should have no reason to doubt the efficacy of the divining rod, or of any other thing of the like kind.

Now it will be easily understood how honest and intelligent men are sometimes induced to entertain altogether chimerical ideas to account for the phenomena not immediately belonging to that physical world with which we are acquainted. I can readily believe, then, that a man acting in all good faith, whose whole attention is fixed at the moment on the motion that a twig in his hand may, from some cause or other, take, unknown to him, may assume, from the slightest circumstance, the tendency to a motion necessary to induce the manifestation which engrosses him for instance, if this man search for a spring, and if his eyes be uncovered, the appearance of the luxuriant green turf over which he walks may incite in him, unconsciously to himself, the muscular motion requisite to agitate the twig by the association established between the idea of active vegetation and that of water.

The preceeding facts, and the interpretation I have given them, have led me to connect them with others observable every day by this connection, the analysis of these things becomes at once more simple and precise, at the same time that it enables us to collect a mass of facts of which the general interpretation is susceptible of great extension. But before proceeding further, let it be borne clearly in mind that my observations present two circumstances worthy of note:

1st. The belief that a pendulum held in the hand can move spontaneously, and that it moves without entailing the consciousness that the muscular agent affords it any impulsion: this is the first fact.

2d. Seeing this pendulum oscillate, the oscillations become quicker by the influence of the sight over the muscular organ, and always unconsciously: this is fact the second.

The tendency to motion developed in us by the sight of a body in motion is indeed observable in many cases: for instance,

1st. When the attention is entirely absorbed by the flight of a bird, by a stone cleaving the air, by flowing water, &c., the body of the beholder receives an impulse in a manner more or less marked in the direction of the moving body.

2d. When any one, playing either at ball or billiards, follows with his eye the body to which he has communicated motion, he insensibly bends in the direction which he desires the body to move, as if it were possible for him still to direct it towards the point he wishes it to attain.

When we walk on a slippery surface, every one knows with what promptitude we throw ourselves into

a direction opposite to that to which the want of equilibrium inclines us; but one circumstance, less generally known, is, that a tendency to motion manifests itself when it is quite impossible for us to move according to that tendency; for example, in a carriage, the fear of being overturned stiffens us in the direction opposed to that which threatens us, and the result of our efforts is strenuous in proportion to the degree of fright and excitement. I believe that, in ordinary falls, the act of falling is less to be dreaded than the exertion to prevent a fall. It is on this ground that I comprehend the applicability of the proverb, "There is a Providence for children and for drunken men."

The tendency to motion, in a determinate sense, resulting from the attention given to a certain object, seems to me the first cause of many phenomena generally attributed to imitation. Thus, in the case of our attention, either by the eye or the ear, being drawn to a person yawning, the muscular impulse of a yawn is commonly the consequence. I might say as much of the contagion of laughter; and that very example, more than any other analogy, presents a fact which seems to me greatly to strengthen the explanation I give of these phenomena. That is, if a fit of laughter, faint at first, can, if it be prolonged, quicken itself (as we have seen the oscillation of the pendulum held in the hand increase in strength under the influence of the sight), and laughter, thus quickening itself, may finally terminate in convulsions. I doubt not but that the spectacle of certain actions is qualified to act strongly upon our frail organization; that the animated recital of the voice, or the gesture accompanying those actions, or even the mere allusion to them occurring in the course of our reading, may impel certain individuals to those very actions, in consequence of a tendency to motion which determines thus mechanically, to an act that would never have entered into their contemplation without some impulse independent of the will, to which they would never have been led by that feeling termed instinct in animals.

In bringing to a close the explanation of the facts which appear to me to be allied with my observations, I think I ought to make a remark in connection with what I have here advanced, but which might escape some readers; it is, that this tendency to motion, to which I refer the first cause of a great number of our actions, only occurs when we are under that peculiar influence which magnetisers style "faith."

The existence of that state is perfectly demonstrated

by my experiments: indeed, so long as I believed the

motion of the pendulum held in my hand possible, so long has it continued; but after having once satisfied myself as to the cause! found it no longer possible to reproduce it. It is because we are not always in the same condition that we do not constantly experience the same impression of the same thing.

Thus the yawning of another does not always make us yawn: laughter does not always communicate itself from the laugher to his neighbour, &c. The great orator, who wishes to make the crowd share in the passion by which he is animated does not at once attain his object he begins by inclining his audience to it, and until he has mastered that, he does not launch his last argument, his last shaft. The great poet, the great author, use continually the same artifice: they first prepare the

reader to receive a final impression.

There is nothing more curious, in the study of the causes which determine men's actions, than the knowledge of the means employed by the trader to arrest and to fix the attention of a purchaser upon the qualities of the goods he endeavours to dispose of; the means adopted by the juggler to draw from the pack one particular card in preference to another, or to force the attention of the spectator upon a certain object, in order to divert it from another; a distraction, without which the juggler would not occasion the surprise it is the leading object of his art to effect. It results from these considerations that

the most opposite callings employ means precisely analagous, however different they may seem, to effect the same end-that of first seizing upon a man's attention, to produce subsequently the effect desired.

I believe that my observations are allied to the explanation of the faculties of animals; that it is to such of their acts as are attributable to the instincts of the class I have spoken of. It is more especially to animals living in herds that these considerations apply; and it seems to me interesting to study, in connection with this topic, the influence of the "leaders" or chiefs over the subordinate individuals. Indeed, do not the facts I have cited throw some light on the cause of the fascination of one animal by another?"

This is the secret of the whole mystery. inclination of the will sets the table spinning. An involuntary muscular motion following the We have ourselves seen a lady moving a hat round with a force that would have almost moved a piano, pale in the face and convulsive in her grasp, yet declaring most conscientiously and solemnly, and, so far as she knew, most truly, that she was doing nothing to move the hat round, and was only following it. If there were any electrical influence exerted upon the table, the table would gyrate under the hands of the operators as soon as charged. In at least fifteen out of twenty of these successful table-turning cases, some one of the party gets tired and bored, and gives the table a little shove to send it off; then every one thinks that his hand must move with the table, so each gives a little pressure, and the table goes round. In the other five, perhaps, all the party may be of good faith, and the result is produced by some accidental motion which induces all the operators to expect that the table is going to turn.

One thing is quite certain, there is no known power in nature by which the effects described can be produced, nor any law of action under which they can occur, except only that power we have already mentioned-that power which persons unwittingly exert when they wish an effect to occur, and that law of human nature under which the pleasure is as great of being cheated as to cheat. Every true philosopher knows how delicate an art that of experimentation is, and how carefully he is obliged to guard himself from producing the results he expects. Thus it happens with your tableturners and ring-swingers: they deceive themselves, and obtain the results they desire.

No, the age of miracles is not returned; madness is not become sense, the laws of nature are not in revolution. Such things serve only to discover and bring into light the cracks in brains that had passed muster as sane. Sir Walter Scott, with his characteristic good sense, once remarked, "I never knew but two men who told me they had seen a ghost-one of them was Lord Castlereagh, but both of them died by their own hand."