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+Project Gutenberg's Mysterious Psychic Forces, by Camille Flammarion
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
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+
+Title: Mysterious Psychic Forces
+       An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical
+       Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
+
+Author: Camille Flammarion
+
+Release Date: March 27, 2012 [EBook #39279]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES ***
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+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
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+
+MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES
+
+
+
+
+  MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES
+
+  AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S INVESTIGATIONS
+  IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, TOGETHER WITH
+  THOSE OF OTHER EUROPEAN SAVANTS
+
+
+  BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION
+
+  _Director of Observatory of Jovisy,
+  France. Author of "The Unknown,"
+  "The Atmosphere," etc._
+
+
+  BOSTON
+  SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
+  1909
+
+
+
+
+  _Copyright, 1907_,
+  BY SMALL, MAYNARD & CO.
+
+  _All rights reserved._
+
+  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+_He who pronounces anything to be "impossible," outside of the field of
+pure mathematics, is wanting in prudence._
+
+  FRANCOIS ARAGO.
+
+_A learned pedant who laughs at the possible comes very near being an
+idiot. To purposely shun a fact, and turn one's back upon it with a
+supercilious smile, is to bankrupt Truth._
+
+  VICTOR HUGO.
+
+_Science is under bonds, by the eternal principles of honor, to look
+fearlessly in the face every problem that is presented to her._
+
+  SIR WILLIAM THOMPSON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The subject treated in the following pages has made great progress in the
+course of forty years. Now what we are concerned with in psychical studies
+is always unknown forces, and these forces must belong to the natural
+order, for nature embraces the entire universe, and everything is
+therefore under the sway of her sceptre.
+
+I do not conceal from myself, however, that the present work will excite
+discussion and bring forth legimate objections, and will only satisfy
+independent and unbiased investigators. But nothing is rarer upon our
+planet than an independent and absolutely untrammelled mind, nor is
+anything rarer than a true scientific spirit of inquiry, freed from all
+personal interest. Most readers will say: "What is there in these studies,
+anyway? The lifting of tables, the moving of various pieces of furniture,
+the displacement of easy-chairs, the rising and falling of pianos, the
+blowing about of curtains, mysterious rappings, responses to mental
+questions, dictations of sentences in reverse order, apparitions of hands,
+of heads, or of spectral figures,--these are only common place
+trivialities or cheap hoaxes, unworthy to occupy the attention of a
+scientist or scholar. And what would it all prove even if it were true?
+That kind of thing does not interest us."
+
+Well, there are people upon whose heads the sky might tumble without
+causing them any unusual emotion.
+
+But I reply: What! is it nothing to know, to prove, to see with one's own
+eyes, that there are unknown forces around us? Is it nothing to study our
+own proper nature and our own faculties? Are not the mysterious problems
+of our being such as are worthy to be inscribed on the program of our
+investigation, and of having devoted to them laborious nights and days? Of
+course, the independent seeker gets no thanks from anybody for his toil.
+But what of that? We work for the pleasure of working, of fathoming the
+secrets of nature, and of instructing ourselves. When, in studying the
+double stars at the Paris Observatory and cataloguing these celestial
+twins, I established for the first time a natural classification of those
+distant orbs; when I discovered stellar systems, composed of several
+stars, swept onward through immensity by one common impulse; when I
+studied the planet Mars and compared all the observations made during two
+hundred years in order to obtain at once an analysis and a synthesis of
+this next-door neighbor of ours among the planets; when, in examining the
+effect of solar radiations I created the new branch of physics to which
+has been given the name "radioculture" and caused variations of the most
+radical and sweeping nature in the dimensions, the forms, and the colors
+of certain plants; when I discovered that a grasshopper, eviscerated and
+kept in straw did not die, and that these insects can live for a fortnight
+after having had their heads cut off; when I planted in a conservatory of
+the Museum of Natural History, in Paris, one of the ordinary oaks of our
+woods (_quercus robur_), thinking that, if withdrawn from the changes of
+seasons, it would always have green leaves (a thing which everybody can
+prove),--when I was doing these things I was working for my own personal
+pleasure; but that is no reason why these studies have not been useful in
+the developing work of science, and no reason for their not being admitted
+within the scope of the practical work of specialists.
+
+It is the same with these psychical studies of ours; only there is a
+little more passion and prejudice connected with them. On the one hand,
+the sceptics cleave fast to their denials, convinced that they know all
+the forces of nature, that all mediums are humbugs, and all experimenters
+imbeciles. On the other hand, there are the credulous Spiritualists, who
+imagine they always have spirits at their beck and call in a centre-table,
+who evoke, with the utmost sang-froid, the spirits of Plato, Zoroaster,
+Jesus Christ, St. Augustine, Charlemagne, Shakespeare, Newton, or
+Napoleon, and who set about stoning me for the tenth or twentieth time,
+affirming that I am sold to the Institute on account of a deep-seated and
+obstinate ambition, and that I dare not declare myself in favor of the
+identity of the spirits for fear of annoying my illustrious friends. The
+individuals of this class refuse to be satisfied just as much as the first
+class.
+
+So much the worse for them! I insist on only saying what I know; but I do
+say this.
+
+And if what I know is displeasing, so much the worse for the prejudices,
+the general ignorance, and the good breeding of these distinguished
+gentry, in whose eyes the maximum of happiness consists in an increase of
+their fortune, the pursuit of lucrative places, sensual pleasures,
+automobile-racing, a box at the Opéra, or five-o'clock teas at a
+fashionable restaurant, and whose lives are frittered away along paths
+that never cross those of the rapt idealist, and who never know the pure
+satisfaction of his mind and heart, or the pleasures of thought and
+feeling.
+
+As for me, a humble student of the prodigious problem of the universe, I
+am only a seeker. What are we? We have scarcely shed a ray more of light
+on this point than at the time when Socrates laid down, as a principle,
+the maxim, _Know thyself_,--notwithstanding we have measured the distances
+of the stars, analyzed the sun, and weighed the worlds of space. Does it
+stand to reason that the knowledge of ourselves should interest us less
+than that of the macrocosm, the external world? It is not credible. Let
+us therefore study on, convinced that all sincere research will further
+the progress of humanity.
+
+_Juvisy Observatory, December, 1906._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                            v
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                    xiii
+
+  CHAPTER
+
+     I. On Certain Unknown Natural Forces                            1
+
+    II. My First Séances In The Allen Kardec Group, And With
+        The Mediums Of That Epoch                                   24
+
+   III. My Experiments With Eusapia Paladino                        63
+
+    IV. Other Séances With Eusapia Paladino                        135
+
+     V. Frauds, Tricks, Deceptions, Impostures, Feats Of
+        Legerdemain, Mystifications, Impediments                   194
+
+    VI. The Experiments Of Count De Gasparin                       229
+
+   VII. The Researches Of Professor Thury                          266
+
+  VIII. The Experiments Of The Dialectical Society Of London       289
+
+    IX. The Experiments Of Sir William Crookes                     306
+
+     X. Sundry Experiments And Observations                        352
+
+    XI. My General Inquiry Respecting Observations Of
+        Unexplained Phenomena                                      376
+
+   XII. Explanatory Hypotheses--Theories And Doctrines--
+        Conclusions Of The Author                                  406
+
+  INDEX                                                            455
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Plate I. Complete Levitation of a Table in Professor
+  Flammarion's Salon through Mediumship of Eusapia
+  Paladino                                               _Facing page_   8
+
+  Plate II. House of Zoroastre of Jupiter from
+  Somnambulistic Drawing by Victorien Sardou             _After page_   26
+
+  Plate III. Animals' Quarters. House of Zoroastre
+  of Jupiter from Somnambulistic Drawing by Victorien
+  Sardou                                                 _After page_   26
+
+  Figure 1. The Inclination of the System of Uranus      _Page_         54
+
+  Figure 1_a_. Orbits of Satellites of Uranus as Seen
+  from the Earth                                         _Page_         56
+
+  Plate IV. Plaster Cast of Imprint Made in Putty
+  without Contact by the Medium Eusapia Paladino         _After page_   76
+
+  Plate V. Eusapia Paladino, Showing Resemblance to
+  the Imprint in Putty                                   _After page_   76
+
+  Plate VI. Photographs Taken by M. G. de Fontenay of
+  an Experiment in Table Levitation                      _Facing page_  82
+
+  Plate VII. Plaster Casts of Impressions in Clay
+  Produced by an Unknown Force                           _Facing page_ 138
+
+  Plate VIII. Drawing from Photograph, Showing Method
+  of Control by Professors Lombroso and Richet of
+  Eusapia. Table Completely Raised                       _Facing page_ 154
+
+  Plate IX. Photographs of Levitation of Table
+  Accompanying Colonel De Rochas' Report                 _Facing page_ 174
+
+  Plate X. Scales Used in Professor Flammarion's
+  Experiments                                            _Facing page_ 200
+
+  Plate XI. Method Used by Eusapia to Surreptitiously
+  Free her Hand                                          _Facing page_ 206
+
+  Plate XII. Cage of Copper Wire, Electrically Charged,
+  Used by Professor Crookes in the Home Accordion
+  Experiment                                             _Facing page_ 308
+
+  Figure 3. Board and Scale Experiment of Sir William
+  Crookes                                                _Page_        312
+
+  Figures 4 and 5. Instruments Used in Scale Experiment
+  by Sir William Crookes                                 _Page_          5
+
+  Figure 6. Glass Vessel Used by Home                    _Page_        318
+
+  Figure 7. Automatically Registered Chart of Unknown
+  Force Generated by Mr. Home                            _Page_        317
+
+  Figures 8, 9, 10. Charts from Sir William Crookes
+  Instruments Used in Experiments with Mr. Home          _Page_        321
+
+  Figures 11 and 12. Third Instrument Devised by Sir
+  William Crookes for Recording Automatically the
+  Unknown Force Generated by Home                        _Page_        322
+
+  Figure 13. Charts Made by Third Instrument             _Page_        323
+
+  Figures 14 and 15. Charts Made by Third Instrument     _Page_        324
+
+  Plate XIII. Instantaneous Photograph Taken by M. de
+  Fontenay of Table Levitation Produced by the Medium
+  Auguste Politi                                         _Facing page_ 368
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+As long ago as 1865 I published, under the title, _Unknown Natural
+Forces_, a little monograph of a hundred and fifty pages which is still
+occasionally found in the book-shops, but has not been reprinted. I
+reprint here (pp. xiii-xxiii), what I wrote at that time in this critical
+study "apropos of the phenomena produced by the Davenport brothers and
+mediums in general." It was published by Didier & Co., book-sellers to the
+Academy, who had already issued my first two works, _The Plurality of
+Inhabited Worlds_ and _Imaginary Worlds and Real Worlds_.
+
+"France has just been engaged in an exciting debate, where the sound of
+voices was drowned in a great uproar, and out of which no conclusion has
+emerged. A disputation more noisy than intelligent has been raging around
+a whole group of unexplained facts, and so completely muddled the problem
+that, in place of illuminating it, the debate has only served to shroud it
+in deeper darkness.
+
+"During the discussion a singular remark was frequently heard, to the
+effect that those who shouted the loudest in this court of assize were the
+very ones who were least informed on the subject. It was an amusing
+spectacle to see these persons in a death-grapple with mere phantoms.
+Panurge himself would have laughed at it.
+
+"The result of the matter is that less is known to-day upon the subject in
+dispute than at the opening of the debates.
+
+"In the mean time, seated upon neighboring heights were certain excellent
+old fellows who observed the writs of arrest issued against the more
+violent combatants, but who remained for the most part grave and silent,
+though they occasionally smiled, and withal did a deal of hard thinking.
+
+"I am going to state what weight should be given to the opinions of those
+of us who do not rashly affirm the impossibility of the facts now put
+under the ban and who do not add their voices to the dominant note of
+opposition.
+
+"I do not conceal from myself the consequences of such sincerity. It
+requires a good deal of boldness to insist on affirming, _in the name of
+positive science_, the POSSIBILITY of these phenomena (wrongly styled
+supernatural), and to constitute one's self the champion of a cause
+apparently ridiculous, absurd, and dangerous, knowing, at the same time,
+that the avowed adherents of said cause have little standing in science,
+and that even its eminent partisans only venture to speak of their
+approval of it with bated breath. However, since the matter has just been
+treated momentarily in fugitive writings by a group of journalists whose
+exacting labors wholly forbid a study of the psychic and physical forces;
+and since, of all this multitude of writers, the greater part have only
+heaped error upon error, puerility upon extravagance; and since it appears
+from every page they have written (I hope they will pardon me) that not
+only are they ignorant of the very _a, b, c_ of the subject they have so
+fantastically treated, but their opinions upon this class of facts rest
+upon no basis whatever,--therefore I have thought it would serve a purpose
+if I should leave, as a souvenir of the long wrangle, a piece of writing
+better based and buttressed than the lucubrations of the above-mentioned
+gentlemen. As a lover of truth, I am willing to face a thousand
+reproaches. Be it distinctly understood that I do not for a moment deem my
+judgment superior to that of my confrères, some of whom are in other
+respects highly gifted. The simple fact is that they are not familiar with
+this subject, but are straying in it at random, wandering through a
+strange region. They misunderstand the very terminology, and imagine that
+facts long ago well authenticated are impossible. By way of contrast, the
+writer of these lines will state that for several years he has been
+engaged in discussions and experiments upon the subject. (I am not
+speaking of historical studies.)
+
+"Moreover, although the old saw would have us believe that 'it is not
+always desirable to state the truth,' yet, to speak frankly, I am so
+indignant at the overweening presumption of certain polemical opponents,
+and at the gall they have injected into the debate, that I do not hesitate
+to rise and point out to the deceived public that, _without a single
+exception_, all the arguments brought up by these writers, and upon which
+they have boldly planted their banner of victory, prove absolutely
+_nothing_, NOTHING, against the possible truth of the things which they,
+in the fury of their denial, have so perverted. Such a snarl of opinions
+must be analyzed. In brief, the true must be disentangled from the false.
+_Veritas, veritas!_"
+
+"I hasten to anticipate a criticism on the part of my readers by apprising
+them, on the threshold of this plea, that I am not going to take the
+Davenport brothers as my subject, but only as the ostensible motive or
+pretext of the discussion,--as they have been, for that matter, of the
+majority of the discussions. I shall deal in these pages with _the facts_
+brought to the surface again by these two Americans,--facts inexplicable
+(which they have put on the stage at Herz Hall here in Paris, but which
+none the less existed before this _mise-en-scène_, and which none the less
+will exist even should the Davenport brothers' representations prove to be
+counterfeit),--things which others had already exhibited, and still
+exhibit with as much facility and under much better conditions;
+occurrences, in short, which constitute the domain of the unknown forces
+to which have been given, one after another, five or six names explaining
+nothing. These forces, mind you, are as real as the attraction of
+gravitation, and as invisible as that. It is about facts that I here
+concern myself. Let them be brought to the light by Peter or by Paul, it
+concerns us little; let them be imitated by Sosie[1] or parodied by
+Harlequin, still less does it concern us. The question is, Do these facts
+exist, and do they enter into the category of known physical forces?
+
+"It amazes me, every time I think of it, that the majority of men are so
+densely ignorant of the psychic phenomena in question, considering the
+fact that they have been known, studied, valued, and recorded for a good
+long time now by all who have impartially followed the movement of thought
+during the last few lustrums.
+
+"I not only do not make common cause with the Davenport brothers, but I
+ought furthermore to add that I consider them as placed in a very
+compromising situation. In laying to the account of the supernatural
+matters in occult natural philosophy which have a tolerable resemblance to
+feats of prestidigitation, they appear to a curious public to add
+imposture to insolence. In setting a financial value upon their talents,
+they seem to the moralist, who is investigating still unexplained
+phenomena, to place themselves on the level of mountebanks. Whatever way
+you look at them, they are to blame. Accordingly, I condemn at once both
+their grave error in assuming to be superior to the forces of which they
+are only the instruments and the venal profit they draw from powers of
+which they are not master and which it is no merit of theirs to possess.
+In my opinion, it is a piece of exaggeration to draw conclusions from
+these unhappy semblances of truth; and it is to abdicate one's right of
+private judgment to make one's self but the echo of the vulgar herd who
+hiss and shout themselves hoarse before the curtain rises. No, I am not
+the advocate of the two brothers, nor of their personal claims. For me,
+individual men do not exist. That which I defend is the superiority of
+nature to us: that which I fight against is the conceited silliness of
+certain persons.
+
+"You satirical gentlemen will have the frankness, I hope, to confess with
+me that the different reasons pleaded by you in explanation of these
+problems are not so solid as they appear to be. Since you have discovered
+nothing, let us admit, between ourselves, that your explanations explain
+nothing.
+
+"I do not doubt that, at the point in the discussion which we have
+actually reached, you would like to change rôles with me, and, stopping me
+here, constitute yourselves in turn my questioners.
+
+"But I hasten to anticipate your proposal. As for me, gentlemen, I am not
+sufficiently well informed to explain these mysteries. I pass my life in a
+retired garden belonging to one of the nine Muses, and my attachment to
+this fair creature is such that I have scarcely ever quitted the
+approaches to her temple. It is only at intervals, in moments of
+relaxation or curiosity, that I have allowed my eyes to wander, from time
+to time, over the landscapes which surround it. Therefore ask me nothing.
+I am making a sincere confession. I know nothing of the cause of these
+phenomena.
+
+"You see how modest I am. All I wanted in undertaking this examination was
+to have the opportunity of saying this:
+
+"You know nothing about it.
+
+"Neither do I.
+
+"If you acknowledge this, we can shake hands. And, if you are tractable, I
+will tell you a little secret.
+
+"In the month of June, 1776 (few among us remember it), a young man
+twenty-five years old, named Jouffroy, was making a trial trip on the
+river Doubs of a new steamboat forty feet in length and six feet in
+breadth. For two years he had been calling the attention of scientific
+authorities to his invention; for two years he had been stoutly asserting
+that there is a powerful latent energy in steam,--at that time a neglected
+asset. All ears were deaf to his words. His only reward was to be
+completely isolated and neglected. When he passed through the streets of
+Baume-les-Dames, his appearance was the signal for jests innumerable. He
+was dubbed 'Jouffroy, the Steam Man' ('_Jouffroy-la-Pompe_'). Ten years
+later, having built a pyroscaphe [literally, fireboat] which had ascended
+the Saône from Lyons to the island of Barbe, he presented a petition to
+Calonne, the comptroller-general of finance, and to the Academy of
+Sciences. They would not look at his invention!
+
+"On August 9, 1803, Fulton went up the Seine in a new steamboat at the
+rate of about four miles an hour. The members of the Academy of Sciences
+as well as government officials were present on the occasion. The next day
+they had forgotten all about it, and Fulton went to make the fortunes of
+Americans.
+
+"In 1791 an Italian at Bologna, named Galvani, having hung on the iron
+railing outside his window some skinned frogs which had been used in
+making a bouillon for his wife, noted that they moved automatically,
+although they had been killed since the evening before. The thing was
+incredible, so everybody to whom he told it opposed his statement. Men of
+sense would have thought it beneath their dignity to take the trouble to
+verify the story, so convinced were they of its impossibility. But Galvani
+had noted that the maximum of effect was attained when he joined the
+lumbar nerves and the ends of the feet of a frog by a metallic arc of tin
+and copper. The frog's muscles then jerked convulsively. He believed it
+was due to a nervous fluid, and so lost the fruit of his investigations.
+It was reserved for Volta to discover electricity.
+
+"And to-day the globe is threaded with a network of trains drawn by
+flame-breathing dragons. Distances have disappeared, annihilated by
+improvements in the locomotive. The genius of man has contracted the
+dimensions of the earth; the longest voyages are but excursions over
+definite lines (the curved paths of the 'ocean lanes'); the most gigantic
+tasks are accomplished by the tireless and powerful hand of this unknown
+force. A telegraphic despatch flies in the twinkling of an eye from one
+continent to another; a man can talk with a citizen of London or St.
+Petersburg without getting out of his arm-chair. And these wonders attract
+no special notice. We little think through what struggles, bitter
+disappointments and persecutions they came into being! We forget that the
+impossible of yesterday is the accomplished fact of to-day. So it comes to
+pass that we still find men who come to us saying: 'Halt there, you little
+fellows! We don't understand you, therefore you don't know what you're
+talking about.'
+
+"Very well, gentlemen. However narrow may be your opinions, there is no
+reason for thinking that your myopia is to spread over the world. You are
+hereby informed that, in spite of you and in spite of your obscurantism
+and obstruction tactics, the car of human progress will roll on and
+continue its triumphal march and conquest of new forces and powers. As in
+the case of Galvani's frog, the laughable occurrences that you refuse to
+believe reveal the existence of new unknown forces. There is no effect
+without a cause. Man is the least known of all beings. We have learned
+how to measure the sun, cross the deeps of space, analyze the light of the
+stars, and yet have not dropped a plummet into our own souls. Man is
+dual,--_homo duplex_; and this double nature remains a mystery to him. We
+think: what is thought? No one can say. We walk: what is that organic act?
+No one knows. My will is an immaterial force; all the faculties of my soul
+are immaterial. Nevertheless, if I _will_ to move my arm, my will moves
+matter. How does it act? What is the mediator between mind and muscle? As
+yet no one can say. Tell me how the optic nerve transmits to the thinking
+brain the perception of outward objects. Tell me how thought is born,
+where it resides, what is the nature of cerebral action. Tell me--but no,
+gentlemen: I could question you for ten years on a stretch, and the most
+eminent of you could not answer the least of my interrogatories.
+
+"We have here, as in the preceding cases, the unknown element in a
+problem. I am far from claiming that the force that comes into play in
+these phenomena can one day be financially exploited, as in the case of
+electricity and steam. Such an idea has not the slightest interest for me.
+But, though differing essentially from these forces, the mysterious
+psychic force none the less exists.
+
+"In the course of the long and laborious studies to which I have
+consecrated many a night, as a relief or by-play in more important work, I
+have always observed in these phenomena the action of a force the
+properties of which are to us unknown. Sometimes it has seemed to me
+analogous to that which puts to sleep the magnetized subject under the
+will of the hypnotizer (a reality this, also slighted even by men of
+science). Again, in other circumstances, it has seemed to me analogous to
+the curious freaks of the lightning. Still, I believe I can affirm it to
+be a force distinct from all that we know, and which more than any other
+resembles intelligence.
+
+"A certain savant with whom I am acquainted, M. Frémy, of the Institute,
+has recently presented to the Academy of Science, apropos of spontaneous
+generation, substances which he has called _semi-organic_. I believe I am
+not perpetrating a neologism bolder than this when I say that the force of
+which I am speaking has seemed to me to belong to the _semi-intellectual_
+plane.
+
+"Some years ago I gave these forces the name _psychic_. That name can be
+justified.
+
+"But words are nothing. They often resemble cuirasses, hiding the real
+impression that ideas should produce in us. That is the reason why it is
+perhaps better not to name a thing that we are not yet able to define. If
+we did, we should find ourselves so shackled afterwards as not to have
+perfect freedom in our conclusions. It has often been seen in history that
+a premature hypothesis has arrested the progress of science, says Grove:
+'When natural phenomena are observed for the first time, a tendency
+immediately arises to relate them to something already known. The new
+phenomenon may be quite remote from the ideas with which one would compare
+it. It may belong to a different order of analogies. But this distinction
+cannot be perceived, since the necessary data or co-ordinates are
+lacking.' Now the theory originally announced is soon accepted by the
+public; and when it happens that subsequent facts, different from the
+preceding, fail to fit the mould, it is difficult to enlarge this without
+breaking it, and people often prefer to abandon a theory now proved
+erroneous, and silently ignore the intractable facts. As to the special
+phenomena in question in this little volume, I find them implicitly
+embodied in three words uttered nearly twenty centuries ago,--MENS AGITAT
+MOLEM (mind acting on matter gives it life and motion); and I leave the
+phenomena embedded in these words, like fire in the flint. I will not
+strike with the steel, for the spark is still dangerous. '_Periculosum est
+credere et non credere_' ('It is dangerous to believe and not to
+believe'), says the ancient fabulist Phædrus. To deny facts _a priori_ is
+mere conceit and idiocy. To accept them without investigation is weakness
+and folly. Why seek to press on so eagerly and prematurely into regions to
+which our poor powers cannot yet attain? The way is full of snares and
+bottomless pits. The phenomena we are treating in these pages do not
+perhaps throw new light upon the solution of the great problem of
+immortality, but they invite us to remember that there are in man elements
+to study, to determine, to analyze,--elements still unexplained, and which
+belong to the psychic realm.
+
+"There has been much talk about Spiritualism in connection with these
+phenomena. Some of its defenders have thought to strengthen it by
+supporting it on so weak a basis as that. The scoffers have thought they
+could positively ruin the creed of the psychics, and, hurling it from its
+base, bury it under a fallen wardrobe (_l'éboulement d'une armoire_).[2]
+Now the first-named have rather compromised than assisted the cause: the
+others have not overturned it after all. Even if it should be proved that
+Spiritualism consists only of tricks of legerdemain, the belief in the
+existence of souls separate from the body would not be affected in the
+slightest degree. Besides, the deceptions of mediums do not prove that
+they are always tricky. They only put us on our guard, and induce us to
+keep a stern watch upon them.
+
+"As to the psychological question of the soul and the analysis of
+spiritual forces, we are just where chemistry was at the time of Albert
+the Great: we don't know.
+
+"Can we not then keep the golden mean between negation, which denies all,
+and credulity, which accepts all? Is it rational to deny everything that
+we cannot understand, or, on the contrary, to believe all the follies that
+morbid imaginations give birth to, one after another? Can we not possess
+at once the humility which becomes the weak and the dignity which becomes
+the strong?
+
+"I end this plea, as I began it, by declaring that it is not for the sake
+of the brothers Davenport, nor of any sect, nor of any group, nor, in
+short, of any person whatever, that I have entered the lists of
+controversy, but solely for the sake of facts the reality of which I
+ascertained several years ago, without having discovered their cause.
+However, I have no reason to fear that those who do not know me will take
+a fancy to misrepresent my thought; and I think that those who are
+acquainted with me know that I am not accustomed to swing a censer in any
+one's honor. I repeat for the last time: I am not concerned with
+individuals. My mind seeks the truth, and recognizes it wherever it finds
+it. '_Gallus escam quærens margaritam reperit._'"[3]
+
+A certain number of my readers have been for some time kindly expressing a
+wish for a new edition of this early book. But strictly speaking I could
+not do this without considerably enlarging my original plan and composing
+an entirely new work. The daily routine of my astronomical labors has
+constantly hindered me from devoting myself to that task. The starry
+heaven is a vast and absorbing field of work, and it is difficult to turn
+aside (even for a relaxation in itself scientific) from the exacting
+claims of a science which goes on developing unceasingly at a most
+prodigious rate.
+
+Still, the present work may be considered as, in a sense, an enlarged
+edition of the earlier one. The foregoing citation of a little book
+written for the purpose of proving the existence of unknown forces in
+nature has seemed to me necessary here; useful in this new volume, brought
+out for the same purpose after more than forty years of study, since it
+may serve to show the continuity and consistent development of my thought
+on the subject.
+
+
+
+
+MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON CERTAIN UNKNOWN NATURAL FORCES
+
+
+I purpose to show in this book what truth there is in the phenomena of
+table-turnings, table-movings, and table-rappings, in the communications
+received therefrom, in levitations that contradict the laws of gravity, in
+the moving of objects without contact, in unexplained noises, in the
+stories told of haunted houses,--all to be considered from the physical
+and mechanical point of view. Under all the just mentioned heads we can
+group material facts produced by causes still unknown to science, and it
+is with these physical phenomena that we shall specially occupy ourselves
+here; for the first point is to definitely prove, by sufficient
+observations, their real existence. Hypotheses, theories, doctrines, will
+come later.
+
+In the country of Rabelais, of Montaigne, of Voltaire, we are inclined to
+smile at everything that relates to the marvellous, to tales of
+enchantment, the extravagances of occultism, the mysteries of magic. This
+arises from a reasonable prudence. But it does not go far enough. To deny
+and prejudge a phenomenon has never proved anything. The truth of almost
+every fact which constitutes the sum of the positive sciences of our day
+has been denied. What we ought to do is to admit no unverified statement,
+to apply to every subject of study, no matter what, the experimental
+method, without any preconceived idea whatever, either for or against.
+
+We are dealing here with a great problem, which touches on that of the
+survival of human consciousness. We may study it, in spite of smiles.
+
+When we consecrate our lives to an idea, useful, noble, exalted, we should
+not hesitate for a moment to sacrifice personalities; above all, our own
+self, our interest, our self-esteem, our natural vanity. This sacrifice is
+a criterion by which I have estimated a good many characters. How many
+men, how many women, put their miserable little personality above
+everything else!
+
+If the forces of which we are to treat are real, they cannot but be
+natural forces. We ought to admit, as an absolute principle, that
+everything is in nature, even God himself, as I have shown in another
+work. Before any attempt at theory, the first thing to do is to
+scientifically establish the real existence of these forces.
+
+Mediumistic experiences might form (and doubtless soon will form) a
+chapter in physics. Only it is a kind of transcendental physics which
+touches on life and thought, and the forces in play are pre-eminently
+living forces, psychic forces.
+
+I shall relate in the following chapter the experiments I made between the
+years 1861 and 1865, previous to the penning of the protest, reprinted in
+the long citation above given (in the Introduction). But, since in certain
+respects they are summed up in those I have just had, in 1906, I will
+begin by describing the latter in this first chapter.
+
+In fact, I have recently renewed these investigations with a celebrated
+medium,--Mme. Eusapia Paladino, of Naples, who has been several times in
+Paris; namely, in 1898, 1905, and, very recently, in 1906. The things I am
+going to speak of happened in the salon of my home in Paris,--the last
+ones in full light without any preparation, very simply, as if during
+after-dinner talks.
+
+Let me add that this medium came to Paris during the first months of the
+year, 1906, at the invitation of the Psychological Institute, several
+members of which have been recently engaged in researches begun long ago.
+Among these savants I will mention the name of the lamented Pierre Curie,
+the eminent chemist, with whom I had a conversation a few days before his
+unfortunate and terrible death. My mediumistic experiences with Mme.
+Paladino formed for him a new chapter in the great book of nature, and he
+also was convinced that there exist hidden forces to the investigation of
+which it is not unscientific to consecrate one's self. His subtle and
+penetrating genius would perhaps have quickly determined the character of
+these forces.
+
+Those who have given some little attention to these psychological studies
+are acquainted with the powers of Mme. Paladino. The published works of
+Count de Rochas, of Professor Richet, of Dr. Dariex, of M. G. de Fontenay,
+and notably the _Annales des sciences psychiques_, have pointed them out
+and described them in such detail that it would be superfluous to recur to
+them at this point. Farther on we shall find a place for discussing them.
+
+Running underneath all the observations of the above-mentioned writers,
+one dominant idea can be read as if in palimpsest; namely, the imperious
+necessity the experimenters are constantly under of suspecting tricks in
+this medium (Mme. Paladino). But all mediums, men and women, have to be
+watched. During a period of more than forty years I believe that I have
+received at my home nearly all of them, men and women of divers
+nationalities and from every quarter of the globe. One may lay it down as
+a principle that all professional mediums cheat. But they do not always
+cheat; and they possess real, undeniable psychic powers.
+
+Their case is nearly that of the hysterical folk under observation at the
+Salpêtrière or elsewhere. I have seen some of them outwit with their
+profound craft not only Dr. Charcot, but especially Dr. Luys, and all the
+physicians who were making a study of their case. But, because hysteriacs
+deceive and simulate, it would be a gross error to conclude that hysteria
+does not exist. And, because mediums frequently descend to the most
+brazen-faced imposture, it would not be less absurd to conclude that
+mediumship has no existence. Disreputable somnambulists do not forbid the
+existence of magnetism, hypnotism, and genuine somnambulism.
+
+This necessity of being constantly on our guard has discouraged more than
+one investigator, as the illustrious astronomer Schiaparelli, director of
+the Observatory of Milan, specially wrote me, in a letter which will
+appear farther on.
+
+Still, we have got to endure this evil.
+
+The words "fraud" (_supercherie_) and "trickery" (_tricherie_) have in
+this connection a sense a little different from their ordinary meaning.
+Sometimes the mediums deceive purposely, knowing well what they are doing,
+and enjoying the fun. But oftener they unconsciously deceive, impelled by
+the desire to produce the phenomena that people are expecting.
+
+They help on the success of the experiment when that success is slow in
+its appearance. Mediums who deal with objective phenomena are gifted with
+the power of causing objects at a distance to move, of lifting tables,
+etc. But they usually appear to apply this power at the ends of their
+fingers, and the objects to be moved have to be within reach of their
+hands or feet, a very regrettable thing, and one which furnishes fine
+sport for the prejudiced sceptics. Sometimes the mediums act like the
+billiard player, who continues for an instant the gesture of hand and arm,
+holding his cue pointed at the rolling ivory ball, and leaning forward as
+if by his will he could push it to a carom. He knows very well that he has
+no further power over the fate of the ball, which his initial stroke
+alone impels; but he guides its course by his thought and his gesture.
+
+It may not be superfluous to caution the reader that the word "medium" is
+employed in these pages without any preconceived idea, and not in the
+etymological sense in which it took its rise at the time of the first
+Spiritualistic theories, which affirmed that the man or the woman endowed
+with psychic powers is an inter_mediary_ between spirits and those who are
+experimenting. The person who has the power of causing objects to move
+contrary to the laws of gravity (even sometimes without touching them), of
+causing sounds to be heard at a distance and without any exertion of
+muscular force, and of bringing before the eyes various apparitions, has
+not necessarily, on that account, any bond of union with disembodied minds
+or souls. We shall keep this word "medium," however, now so long in use.
+We are concerned here only with facts. I hope to convince the reader that
+these things really exist, and are neither illusions nor farces, nor feats
+of prestidigitation. My object is to prove their reality with absolute
+certainty, to do for them what (in my volume _The Unknown and the Psychic
+Problems_) I have done for telepathy, the apparitions of the dying,
+premonitory dreams, and clairvoyance.
+
+I shall begin, I repeat, with experiments which I have recently renewed;
+namely, during four séances on March 29, April 5, May 30, and June 7, of
+1906.
+
+1. Take the case of the levitation of a round table. I have so often seen
+a rather heavy table lifted to a height of eight, twelve, sixteen inches
+from the floor, and I have taken such undeniably authentic photographs of
+these; I have so often proved to myself that the suspension of this
+article of furniture by the imposition _upon it_ of the hands of four or
+five persons produces the effect of a floating in a tub full of water or
+other elastic fluid, that, for me, the levitation of objects is no more
+doubtful than that of a pair of scissors lifted by the aid of a magnet.
+But one evening when I was almost alone with Eusapia, March 29, 1906
+(there were four of us altogether), being desirous of examining at leisure
+how the thing was done, I asked her to place her hands with mine upon the
+table, the other persons remaining at a distance. The table very soon rose
+to a height of fifteen or twenty inches _while we were both standing_. At
+the moment of the production of the phenomenon the medium placed one of
+her hands on one of mine, which she pressed energetically, our two other
+hands resting side by side. Moreover, on her part, as on mine, there was
+an act of will expressed in words of command addressed to "the spirit":
+"Come now! Lift the table! Take courage! Come! Try now!" etc.
+
+We ascertained at once that there were two elements or constituents
+present. On the one hand, the experimenters address an invisible entity.
+On the other hand, the medium experiences a nervous and muscular fatigue,
+and her weight increases in proportion to that of the object lifted (but
+not in exact proportion).
+
+We are obliged to act as if there really were a being present who is
+listening. This being appears to come into existence, and then become
+non-existent as soon as the experiment is ended. It seems to be created by
+the medium. Is it an auto-suggestion of hers or of the dynamic ensemble of
+the experimenters that creates a special force? Is it a doubling of her
+personality? Is it the condensation of a psychic _milieu_ in the midst of
+which we live? If we seek to obtain proofs of actual and permanent
+individuality, and above all of the identity of a particular soul called
+up in our memory, we never obtain any satisfaction. There lies the
+mystery.
+
+Conclusion: we have here an unknown force of the psychic class, a living
+force, the life of a moment only.
+
+May it not be possible that, in exerting ourselves, we give rise to a
+detachment of forces which acts exteriorly to our body? But this is not
+the place, in these first pages, to make hypotheses.
+
+The experiment of which I have just spoken was repeated three times
+running, _in the full light_ of a gas chandelier, and under the same
+conditions of complete proof in each case. A round table weighing about
+fourteen pounds is lifted by this unknown force. A table of twenty-five or
+fifty pounds or more requires a greater number of persons. But they will
+get no result if one at least among them is not gifted with the
+mediumistic power.
+
+And let me add, on the other hand, that there is in such an experiment so
+great an expenditure of nervous and muscular energy that such an
+extraordinary medium as Eusapia, for instance, can obtain scarcely any
+results six hours, twelve hours, even twenty-four hours, after a séance in
+which she has so lavishly expended her psychic energy.
+
+I will add that quite often the table continues to rise even after the
+experimenters have ceased to touch it. This is _movement without contact_.
+
+This phenomenon of levitation is, to me, absolutely proved, although we
+cannot explain it. It is like what would happen if one had his hands
+gloved with loadstone, and, placing them on a table of iron, should lift
+it from the ground. But the action is not so simple as that: it is a case
+of psychic activity exterior to ourselves, momentarily in operation.[4]
+
+Now how are these levitations and movements produced?
+
+How is it that a stick of sealing-wax or a lamp-chimney, when rubbed,
+attracts bits of paper or elder pith?
+
+How is it that a particle of iron grips so firmly to the loadstone when
+brought near it?
+
+How is it that electricity accumulates in the vapor of water, in the
+molecules of a cloud, until it gives rise to the thunder, the thunderbolt,
+the lightning flash, and all their formidable results?
+
+How is it that the thunderbolt strips the clothes from a man or a woman
+with its characteristic nonchalance?
+
+And (to take a simple instance), without departing from our common and
+normal condition of life, how is it that we raise our arm?
+
+2. Take now a specimen of another group of cases. The medium places one of
+her hands upon that of some person, and with the other beats the air, with
+one, two, three, or four strokes or raps. The raps are heard in the table,
+and you feel the vibrations at the same time that you hear them,--sharp
+blows which make you think of electric shocks. It is superfluous to state
+that the feet of the medium do not touch those of the table, but are kept
+at a distance from them.
+
+The medium next places her hands with ours upon the table, and the taps
+heard in the table are stronger than in the preceding case.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE I. COMPLETE LEVITATION OF A TABLE IN PROFESSOR
+FLAMMARION'S SALON THROUGH MEDIUMSHIP OF EUSAPIA PALADINO.]
+
+These taps audible in the table, this "typtology" well known to
+Spiritualists, have been frequently attributed to some kind of trickery or
+another, to a cracking muscle or to various actions of the medium. After
+the comparative study I have made of these special occurrences I believe I
+am right in affirming that this fact also is not less certain than the
+first. Rappings, as is well known, are obtained in all kinds of rhythms,
+and responses to all questions are obtained through simple conventions, by
+which it is agreed, for instance, that three taps shall mean "yes" and two
+mean "no," and that, while the letters of the alphabet are being read,
+words can be dictated by taps made as each letter is named.
+
+3. During our experiments, while we four persons are seated around a table
+asking for a communication which does not arrive, an arm-chair, placed
+about twenty-four inches from the medium's foot (upon which I have placed
+my foot to make sure that she cannot use hers),--an arm-chair, I say,
+begins to move, and comes sliding up to us. I push it back; it returns. It
+is a stuffed affair (_pouf_), very heavy, but easily capable of gliding
+over the floor. This thing happened on the 29th of last March, and again
+on April 5th.
+
+It could have been done by drawing the chair with a string or by the
+medium putting her foot sufficiently far out. But it happened over and
+over again (five or six times), automatically moving, and that so
+violently that the chair jumped about the floor in a topsy-turvy fashion
+and ended by falling bottom side up without anybody having touched it.
+
+4. Here is a fourth case re-observed this year, after having been several
+times verified by me, notably in 1898.
+
+Curtains near the medium, but which it is impossible for her to touch,
+either with the hand or the foot, swell out their whole length, as if
+inflated by a gusty wind. I have several times seen them envelop the
+heads of the spectators as if with cowls of Capuchin monks.
+
+5. Here is a fifth instance, authenticated by me several times, and always
+with the same care.
+
+While I am holding one hand of Eusapia in mine, and one of my astronomical
+friends, tutor at the Ecole Polytechnique, is holding the other, we are
+touched, first one and then the other, upon the side and on the shoulders,
+as if by an invisible hand.
+
+The medium usually tries to get together her two hands, held separately by
+each of us, and by a skilful substitution to make us believe we hold both
+when she has succeeded in disengaging one. This fraud being well known by
+us, we act the part of forewarned spectators, and are positive that we
+have each succeeded in holding her hands apart. The touchings in this
+experiment seem to proceed from an invisible entity and are rather
+disagreeable. Those which take place in the immediate vicinity of the
+medium _could_ be due to fraud; but to some of them this explanation is
+inapplicable.
+
+This is the place to remark that, unfortunately, the extraordinary
+character of the phenomena is in direct ratio with the absence of light,
+and we are continually asked by the medium to turn down the gas, almost to
+the vanishing point: "_Meno luce! meno luce!_" ("Less light, less light").
+This, of course, is advantageous to all kinds of fraud. But it is a
+condition no more obligatory than the others. There is in it no
+implication of a threat.
+
+We can get a large number of mediumistic phenomena with a light strong
+enough for us to distinguish things with certainty. Still, it is a fact
+that light is unfavorable to the production of phenomena.
+
+This is annoying. Yet we have no right to impose the opposite condition.
+We have no right to demand of nature conditions which happen to suit us.
+It would be just as reasonable to try to get a photographic negative
+without a dark room, or to draw electricity from a rotating machine in the
+midst of an atmosphere saturated with moisture. Light is a natural agent
+capable of producing certain effects and of opposing the production of
+others.
+
+This aphorism calls to my mind an anecdote in the life of Daguerre,
+related in the first edition of this book.
+
+One evening this illustrious natural philosopher meets an elegant and
+fashionable woman in the neighborhood of the Opera House, of which he was
+at that time the decorator. Enthusiastic over his progress in natural
+philosophy, he happens to speak of his photogenic studies. He tells her of
+a marvellous discovery by which the features of the face can be fixed upon
+a plate of silver. The lady, who is a person of plain common sense,
+courteously laughs in his face. The savant goes on with his story, without
+being disconcerted. He even adds that it is possible for the phenomenon to
+take place instantaneously when the processes become perfected. But he has
+his pains for his trouble. His charming companion is not credulous enough
+to accept such an extravagance. Paint without colors and without a brush!
+design without pen or crayon! as if a portrait could get painted all by
+itself, etc. But the inventor is not discouraged, and, to convince her,
+offers to make her portrait by this process. The lady is unwilling to be
+thought a dupe and refuses. But the skilful artist pleads his cause so
+well that he overcomes her objections. The blond daughter of Eve consents
+to pose before the object-glass. But she makes one condition,--only one.
+
+Her beauty is at its best in the evening, and she feels a little faded in
+the garish light of day.
+
+    "If you could take me in the evening--"
+
+    "But, madame, it is impossible--"
+
+    "Why? You say that your invention reproduces the face, feature by
+    feature. I prefer my features of the evening over those of the
+    morning."
+
+    "Madame, it is the light itself which pencils the image, and without
+    it I can do nothing."
+
+    "We will light a chandelier, a lamp, do anything to please you."
+
+    "No, madame, the light of day is imperative."
+
+    "Will you please tell me why?"
+
+    "Because the light of the sun exhibits an intense activity, sufficient
+    to decompose the iodide of silver. So far, I have not been able to
+    take a photograph except in full sunlight."
+
+Both remained obstinate, the lady maintaining that what could be done at
+ten o'clock in the morning could also easily be done at ten o'clock in the
+evening. The inventor affirmed the contrary.
+
+So, then, all you have to do, gentlemen, is to forbid the light to blacken
+iodine, or order it to blacken lime, and condemn the photographer to
+develop his negative in full light. Ask Electricity why it will pass
+instantaneously from one end to the other of an iron wire a thousand miles
+long and why it refuses to traverse a thread of glass half an inch long.
+Beg the night-blooming flowers to expand in the day, or those that only
+bloom in the light not to close at dusk. Give me the explanation of the
+respiration of plants, diurnal and nocturnal, and of the production of
+chlorophyll and how plants develop a green color in the light; why they
+breathe in oxygen and exhale carbonic acid gas during the night, and
+reverse the process during the day. Change the equivalents of simple
+substances in chemistry, and order combinations to be produced. Forbid
+azotic acid to boil at the freezing temperature, and command water to boil
+at zero. You have only to ask these accommodations and nature will obey
+you, gentlemen, depend upon it.
+
+A good many phenomena of nature only occur in obscurity. The germs of
+plants, animals, man, in forming a new being, work their miracle only in
+the dark.
+
+Here, in a flask, is a mixture of hydrogen and chlorine in equal volumes.
+If you wish to preserve the mixture, you must keep the flask in the dark,
+whether you want to or not. Such is the law. As long as it remains in the
+dark, it will retain its properties. But suppose you take a schoolboy
+notion to expose the thing to the action of light. Instantly a violent
+explosion is heard; the hydrogen and the chlorine disappear, and you find
+in the flask a new substance,--chloridic acid. There is no use in your
+finding fault: darkness respects the two substances, while light explodes
+them.
+
+If we should hear a malignant sceptic of some clique or other say, "I will
+only believe in jack-o'-lanterns when I see them in the light of day,"
+what should we think of his sanity? About what we should think if he
+should add that the stars are not certainties, since they are only seen at
+night.
+
+In all the observations and experiments of physics there are conditions to
+be observed. In those of which we are speaking a too strong light seems to
+imperil the success of the experiment. But it goes without saying that
+precautions against deception ought to increase in direct ratio with the
+decrease of visibility and other means of verification.
+
+Let us return to our experiments.
+
+6. Taps are heard in the table, or it moves, rises, falls back, raps with
+its leg. A kind of interior movement is produced in the wood, violent
+enough, sometimes, to break it. The round table I made use of (with
+others) in my home was dislocated and repaired more than once, and it was
+by no means the pressure of the hands upon it that could have caused the
+dislocations. No, there is something more than that in it: there is in
+the actions of the table the intervention of mind, of which I have already
+spoken.
+
+The table is questioned, by means of the conventional signs described a
+few pages back, and it responds. Phrases are rapped out, usually banal and
+without any literary, scientific, or philosophical value. But, at any
+rate, words are rapped out, phrases are dictated. These phrases do not
+come of their own accord, nor is it the medium who taps
+them--consciously--either with her foot or her hand, or by the aid of a
+snapping muscle, for we obtain them in séances held without professional
+mediums and at scientific reunions where the existence of trickery would
+be a thing of the greatest absurdity. The mind of the medium and that of
+the experimenters most assuredly have something to do with the mystery.
+The replies obtained generally tally the intellectual status of the
+company, as if the intellectual faculties of the persons present were
+exterior to their brains and were acting in the table wholly unknown to
+the experimenters themselves. How can this thing be? How can we compose
+and dictate phrases without knowing it. Sometimes the ideas broached seem
+to come from a personality unknown to the company, and the hypothesis of
+spirits quite naturally presents itself. A word is begun; some one thinks
+he can divine its ending; to save time, he writes it down; the table
+parries, is agitated, impatient. It is the wrong word; another was being
+dictated. There is here, then, a psychic element which we are obliged to
+recognize, whatever its nature may be when analyzed.
+
+The success of experiments does not always depend on the will of the
+medium. Of course that is the chief element in it; but certain conditions
+independent of her are necessary. The psychical atmosphere created by the
+persons present has an influence that cannot be neglected. So the state of
+health of the medium is not without its influence. If he is fatigued,
+although he may have the best will in the world, the value of the results
+will be affected. I had a new proof of this thing, so often observed, at
+my house, with Eusapia Paladino, on May 30, 1906. She had for more than a
+month been suffering from a rather painful affection of the eyes; and
+furthermore her legs were considerably swollen. We were seven, of whom two
+lookers-on were sceptics. The results were almost nil; namely, the
+lifting, during scarcely two seconds of time, of a round table weighing
+about four pounds; the tipping up of one side of a four-legged table; and
+a few rappings. Still, the medium seemed animated by a real wish to obtain
+some result. She confessed to me, however, that what had chiefly paralyzed
+her faculties was the sceptical and sarcastic spirit of one of the two
+incredulous persons. I knew of the absolute scepticism of this man. It had
+not been manifested in any way; but Eusapia had at once divined it.
+
+The state of mind of the by-standers, sympathetic or antipathetic, has an
+influence upon the production of the phenomena. This is an incontestable
+matter of observation. I am not speaking here merely of a tricky medium
+rendered powerless to act by a too close critical inspection, but also of
+a hostile force which may more or less neutralize the sincerest volition.
+Is it not the same, moreover, in assemblies, large or small, in
+conferences, in salons, etc.? Do we not often see persons of baleful and
+antipathetic spirit defeat at their very beginning the accomplishment of
+the noblest purposes.
+
+Here are the results of another sitting of the same medium held a few days
+afterwards.
+
+On the 7th of June, 1906, I had been informed by my friend Dr. Ostwalt,
+the skilled oculist, who was at that time treating Eusapia, that she was
+to be at his house that evening and that perhaps I would be able to try a
+new experiment. I accepted with all the more readiness because the
+mother-in-law of the doctor, Mme. Werner, to whom I had been attached by a
+friendship of more than thirty years, had been dead a year, and had many a
+time promised me, in the most formal manner, to appear after her death for
+the purpose of giving completeness to my psychical researches by a
+manifestation, if the thing was possible. We had so often conversed on
+these subjects, and she was so deeply interested in them, that she had
+renewed her promise very emphatically a few days before her death. And at
+the same time she made a similar promise to her daughter and to her
+son-in-law.
+
+Eusapia, also, on her part, grateful for the care she had received at the
+doctor's hands and for the curing of her eye, wished to be agreeable to
+him in any way she could.
+
+The conditions, then, were in all respects excellent. I agreed with the
+doctor that we had before us four possible hypotheses, and that we should
+seek to fix on the most probable one.
+
+_a._ What would take place might be due to fraud, conscious or
+unconscious.
+
+_b._ The phenomena might be produced by a physical force emanating from
+the medium.
+
+_c._ Or by one or several invisible entities making use of this force.
+
+_d._ Or by Mme. Werner herself.
+
+We had on that evening some movements of the table and a complete lifting
+of the four feet to a height of about eight inches. Six of us sat around
+the table,--Eusapia, Madame and Monsieur Ostwalt, their son Pierre,
+sixteen years old, my wife and myself. Our hands placed above the table
+scarcely touched it, and were almost wholly detached at the moment it rose
+from the floor. No fraud possible. Full light.
+
+The séance then continued in the dark. The two portières of a great
+double-folding door, against which the medium was seated, her back to the
+door, were blown about for nearly an hour, sometimes so violently as to
+form something like a monk's hood on the head of the doctor and that of
+his wife.
+
+This great door was several times shaken violently, and tremendous blows
+were struck upon it.
+
+We tried to obtain words by means of the alphabet, but without success. (I
+will remark in this connection that Eusapia knows neither how to read nor
+to write.)
+
+Pierre Ostwalt was able to write a word with the pencil. It seemed as if
+an invisible force was guiding his hand. The word he pencilled down was
+the first name of Mme. Werner, _well known to him_.
+
+In spite of all our efforts, we were unable to obtain a single proof of
+identity. Yet it would have been very easy for Mme. Werner to find one, as
+she had so solemnly promised us to do.
+
+In spite of the announcement by raps that an apparition would appear which
+we would be permitted to see, we were only able to perceive a dim white
+form, devoid of precise outline, even when we manipulated the light so as
+to get almost complete darkness. From this new sitting the following
+conclusions are deduced:
+
+_a._ Fraud cannot explain the phenomena, especially the levitation of the
+table, the violent blows and shakings given to the door, and the
+projection of the curtain into the room.
+
+_b._ These phenomena are certainly produced by a force emanating from the
+medium, for they all occur in her immediate neighborhood.
+
+_c._ This force is intelligent. But it is possible that this intelligence
+which obeys our requests is only that of the medium.
+
+_d._ Nothing proves that the spirit evoked had any influence.
+
+These propositions, however, will be examined and developed one by one in
+the pages that follow.
+
+All the experiments described in this first chapter reveal to us unknown
+forces in operation. It will be the same in the chapters that follow.
+
+These phenomena are so unexplained, so inexplicable, so incredible, that
+the simplest plan is to deny them, to attribute them all to fraud or to
+hallucination, and to believe that all the participators are sand-blind.
+
+Unfortunately for our opponents, this hypothesis is inadmissible.
+
+Let me say here that there are very few men--and above all, women--whose
+spirit is completely _free_; that is, in a condition capable of accepting,
+without any preconceived idea, new or unexplained facts. In general,
+people are disposed to admit only those facts or things for which they are
+prepared by the ideas they have received, cherished, and maintained.
+Perhaps there is not one human being in a hundred who is capable of making
+a mental record of a new impression, simply, freely, exactly, with the
+accuracy of a photographic camera. Absolute independence of judgment is a
+rare thing among men.
+
+A single fact accurately observed, even if it should contradict all
+science, is worth more than all the hypotheses.
+
+But only the independent minds, free from the classic leading-strings
+which tie the dogmatists to their chairs, dare to study extra-scientific
+facts or consider them possible.
+
+I am acquainted with erudite men of genius, members of the Academy of
+Sciences, professors at the university, masters in our great schools, who
+reason in the following way: "Such and such phenomena are impossible
+because they are in contradiction with the actual state of science. We
+should only admit what we can explain."
+
+They call that scientific reasoning!
+
+Examples.--Frauenhofer discovers that the solar spectrum is crossed by
+dark lines. These dark lines could not be explained in his time. Therefore
+we ought not to believe in them.
+
+Newton discovers that the stars move _as if_ they were governed by an
+attractive force. This attraction could not be explained in his time. Nor
+is it explained to-day. Newton himself takes the pains to declare that he
+does not wish to explain it by an hypothesis. "_Hypotheses non fingo_" ("I
+do not make hypotheses"). So, after the reasoning of our pseudo-logicians,
+we ought not to admit universal gravitation. Oxygen combined with hydrogen
+forms water. How? We don't know. Hence we ought not to admit the fact.
+
+Stones sometimes fall from the sky. The Academy of Sciences of the
+eighteenth century, not being able to divine where they came from, simply
+denied the fact, which had been observed for thousands of years. They
+denied also that fish and toads can fall from the clouds, because it had
+not then been observed that waterspouts draw them up by suction and
+transport them from one place to another. A medium places his hand upon a
+table and seems actually to transmit to it independent life. It is
+inexplicable, therefore it is false. Yet that is the predominant method of
+reasoning of a great number of scholars. They are only willing to admit
+what is known and explained. They declared that locomotives would not be
+able to move, or, if they did succeed, railways would introduce no change
+in social relations; that the transatlantic telegraph would never transmit
+a despatch; that vaccine would not render immune; and at one time they
+stoutly maintained (this was long ago) that the earth does not revolve.
+It seems that they even condemned Galileo. _Everything_ has been denied.
+
+Apropos of facts somewhat similar to those we are here studying,--I mean
+the stigmata of Louise Lateau,--a very famous German scholar, Professor
+Virchow, closed his report to the Berlin Academy with this dilemma: _Fraud
+or Miracle_. This conclusion acquired a classic vogue. But it was an
+error, for it is now known that stigmata are due neither to fraud nor
+miracle.
+
+Another rather common objection is presented by certain persons apparently
+scientific. Confounding experience with observation, they imagine that a
+natural phenomenon, in order to be real, ought to be able to be produced
+at will, as in a laboratory. After this manner of looking at things, an
+eclipse of the sun would not be a real thing, nor a stroke of lightning
+which sets fire to a house, nor an aërolite that falls from the sky. An
+earthquake, a volcanic eruption, are phenomena of observation, not of
+experiment. But they none the less exist, often to the great damage of the
+human race. Now, in the order of facts that we are studying here, we can
+almost never experiment, but only observe, and this reduces considerably
+the range of the field of study. And, even when we do experiment, the
+phenomena are not produced at will: certain elements, several of which we
+have not yet been able to get hold of, intervene to cross, modify, and
+thwart them, so that for the most part we can only play the rôle of
+observers. The difference is analogous to that which separates chemistry
+from astronomy. In chemistry we experiment: in astronomy we observe. But
+this does not hinder astronomy from being the most exact of the sciences.
+
+Mediumistic phenomena that come directly under the observation, notably
+those I have described some pages back, have for me the stamp of absolute
+certainty and incontestability, and amply suffice to prove that unknown
+physical forces exist outside of the ordinary and established domain of
+natural philosophy. As a principle, moreover, this is an unimpeachable
+tenet.[5]
+
+I could adduce still other instances, for example the following:
+
+7. During séance experiments, phantoms often appear,--hands, arms, a head,
+a bust, an entire human figure. I was a witness of this thing, especially
+on July 27, 1897, at Montfort-l'Amaury (see Chapter III). M. de Fontenay
+having declared that he perceived an image or spirit over the table,
+between himself and me (we were sitting face to face, keeping watch over
+Eusapia, he holding one of her hands, and I the other), and I seeing
+nothing at all, I asked him to change places with me. And then I, too,
+perceived this spirit-shadow, the head of a bearded man, rather vaguely
+outlined, which was moving like a silhouette, advancing and retiring in
+front of a red lantern placed on a piece of furniture. I had not been able
+to see at first from where I sat, because the lantern was then behind me,
+and the spectral appearance was formed between M. de Fontenay and me. As
+this dark silhouette remained rather vague, I asked if I could not touch
+its beard. The medium replied, "Stretch out your hand." I then felt upon
+the back of my hand the brushing of a very soft beard.
+
+This case did not have for me the same _absolute certainty_ as the
+preceding. There are degrees in the feeling of security we have in
+observations. In astronomy, even, there are stars at the limit of
+visibility. And yet in the opinion of all the participators in the séance
+there was no trick. Besides, on another occasion, at my own home, I saw
+another figure, that of a young girl, as the reader will see in the third
+chapter.
+
+8. That same day, at Montfort, in the course of the conversation, some one
+recalled the circumstance that the "spirits" have sometimes impressed on
+paraffin or putty or clay the print of their head or of their hands,--a
+thing that seems in the last degree absurd. But we bought some putty at a
+glazier's and fixed up in a wooden box a perfectly soft cake. At the end
+of the séance there was the imprint of a head, of a face, in this putty.
+In this case, no more than in the other, am I _absolutely certain_ there
+was no trickery. We will speak of it farther on.
+
+Other manifestations will be noted in subsequent pages of this book.
+Stopping right here, for the present, at the special point of view of the
+proved existence of unknown forces, I will confine myself to the six
+preceding cases, regarding them as incontestable, in the judgment of any
+man of good faith or of any observer. If I have considered these
+particular cases so early in the work, it is in response to readers of my
+works who have been begging me for a long time to give my _personal_
+observations.
+
+The simplest of these manifestations--that of raps, for example--is not a
+negligible asset. There is no doubt that it is one or another of the
+experimenters, or their dynamic resultant, that raps in the table without
+knowing how. So, even if it should be a psychic entity unknown to the
+mediums, it evidently makes use of them, of their physiological
+properties. Such a fact is not without scientific interest. The denials of
+scepticism prove nothing, unless it be that the deniers themselves have
+not observed the phenomena.
+
+I have no other aim in this first chapter than to give a preliminary
+summary of the observed facts.
+
+I do not desire to put forth in these first pages any explanatory
+hypothesis. My readers will themselves form an opinion from the narratives
+that follow, and the last chapter of the volume will be devoted to
+theories. Yet I believe it will be useful to call attention at once to
+the fact that matter is not, in reality, what it appears to be to our
+vulgar senses,--to our sense of touch, to our vision,--but that it is
+identical with energy, and is only a manifestation of the movement of
+invisible and imponderable elements. The universe is a dynamism. Matter is
+only an appearance. It will be useful for the reader to bear this truth in
+mind, as it will help him to comprehend the studies we are about to make.
+
+The mysterious forces we are here studying are themselves manifestations
+of the universal dynamism with which our five senses put us very
+imperfectly into relation.
+
+These things belong to the psychical order as well as to the physical.
+They prove that we are living in the midst of an unexplored world, in
+which the psychic forces play a rôle as yet very imperfectly studied.
+
+We have here a situation analogous to that in which Christopher Columbus
+found himself on the evening of the day when he perceived the first hints
+of land in the New World. We are pushing our prow through an absolutely
+unknown sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MY FIRST SÉANCES IN THE ALLAN KARDEC GROUP AND WITH THE MEDIUMS OF THAT
+EPOCH
+
+
+One day in the month of November, 1861, under the Galeries de l'Odéon,[6]
+I spied a book, the title of which struck me,--_Le Livre des Esprits_
+("The Book of Spirits"), by Allan Kardec. I bought it and read it with
+avidity, several chapters seeming to me to agree with the scientific bases
+of the book I was then writing, _The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds_. I
+hunted up the author, who proposed that I should enter, as a free
+associated member, the Parisian Society for Spiritualistic Studies, which
+he had founded, and of which he was president. I accepted, and by chance
+have just found the green ticket signed by him on the fifteenth day of
+November, 1861. This is the date of my début in psychic studies. I was
+then nineteen, and for three years had been an astronomical pupil at the
+Paris Observatory. At this time I was putting the last touches to the book
+I just mentioned, the first edition of which was published some months
+afterwards by the printer-publisher of the Observatory.
+
+The members came together every Friday evening in the assembly room of the
+society, in the little passageway of Sainte Anne, which was placed under
+the protection of Saint Louis. The president opened the séance by an
+"invocation to the good spirits." It was admitted, as a principle, that
+invisible spirits were present there and revealed themselves. After this
+invocation a certain number of persons, seated at a large table, were
+besought to abandon themselves to their inspiration and to write. They
+were called "writing mediums." Their dissertations were afterwards read
+before an attentive audience. There were no physical experiments of
+table-turning, or tables moving or speaking. The president, Allan Kardec,
+said he attached no value to such things. It seemed to him that the
+instructions communicated by the spirits ought to form the basis of a new
+doctrine, of a sort of religion.
+
+At the same period, but several years earlier, my illustrious friend
+Victorien Sardou, who had been an occasional frequenter of the
+Observatory, had written, as a medium, some curious pages on the
+inhabitants of the planet Jupiter, and had produced picturesque and
+surprising designs, having as their aim to represent men and things as
+they appeared in this giant of worlds. He designed the dwellings of people
+in Jupiter. One of his sketches showed us the house of Mozart, others the
+houses of Zoroaster and of Bernard Palissy, who were country neighbors in
+one of the landscapes of this immense planet. The dwellings are ethereal
+and of an exquisite lightness. They may be judged of by the two figures
+here reproduced (Pl. II and III). The first represents a residence of
+Zoroaster, the second "the animals' quarters" belonging to the same. On
+the grounds are flowers, hammocks, swings, flying creatures, and, below,
+intelligent animals playing a special kind of ninepins where the fun is
+not to knock down the pins, but to put a cap on them, as in the cup and
+ball toy, etc.
+
+These curious drawings prove indubitably that the signature "Bernard
+Palissy, of Jupiter," is apocryphal and that the hand of Victorien Sardou
+was not directed by a spirit from that planet. Nor was it the gifted
+author himself who planned these sketches and executed them in accordance
+with a definite plan. They were made while he was in the condition of
+mediumship. A person is not magnetized, nor hypnotized, nor put to sleep
+in any way while in that state. But the brain is not ignorant of what is
+taking place: its cells perform their functions, and act (doubtless by a
+reflex movement) upon the motor nerves. At that time we all thought
+Jupiter was inhabited by a superior race of beings. The spiritistic
+communications were the reflex of the general ideas in the air. To-day,
+with our present knowledge of the planets, we should not imagine anything
+of the kind about that globe. And, moreover, spiritualistic séances have
+never taught us anything upon the subject of astronomy. Such results as
+were attained fail utterly to prove the intervention of spirits. Have the
+writing mediums given any more convincing proofs of it than these? This is
+what we shall have to examine in as impartial a way as we can.
+
+I myself tried to see if I, too, could not write. By collecting and
+concentrating my powers and allowing my hand to be passive and
+unresistant, I soon found that, after it had traced certain dashes, and
+_o_'s, and sinuous lines more or less interlaced, very much as a
+four-year-old child learning to write might do, it finally did actually
+write words and phrases.
+
+In these meetings of the Parisian Society for Spiritualistic Studies, I
+wrote for my part, some pages on astronomical subjects signed "Galileo."
+The communications remained in the possession of the society, and in 1867
+Allan Kardec published them under the head _General Uranography_, in his
+work entitled _Genesis_. (I have preserved one of the first copies, with
+his dedication.) These astronomical pages taught me nothing. So I was not
+slow in concluding that they were only the echo of what I already knew,
+and that Galileo had no hand in them. When I wrote the pages, I was
+in a kind of waking dream. Besides, my hand stopped writing when I began
+to think of other subjects.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE II. HOUSE OF ZOROASTRE OF JUPITER FROM SOMNAMBULISTIC
+DRAWING BY VICTORIEN SARDOU.]
+
+[Illustration: PLATE III. ANIMALS' QUARTERS. HOUSE OF ZOROASTRE OF JUPITER
+FROM SOMNAMBULISTIC DRAWING BY VICTORIEN SARDOU.]
+
+I may quote here what I said on this subject in my work, _The Worlds of
+Space_ (_Les Terres du Ciel_), in the edition of 1884, p. 181:--
+
+    The writing medium is not put to sleep, nor is he magnetized or
+    hypnotized in any way. One is simply received into a circle of
+    determinate ideas. The brain acts (by the mediation of the nervous
+    system) a little differently from what it does in its normal state.
+    The difference is not so great as one might suppose. The chief
+    difference may be described as follows:
+
+    In the normal state we think of what we are going to write _before_
+    the act of writing begins. There is a direct action of the will in
+    causing the pen, the hand, and the fore-arm to move over the paper. In
+    the abnormal state, on the other hand, we do not think before writing;
+    we do not move the hand, but let it remain inert, passive, free; we
+    place it upon the paper, taking care merely that it shall meet with
+    the least possible resistance; we think of a word, a figure, a stroke
+    of the pen, and the hand of its own volition begins to write. But the
+    writing medium must _think_ of what he is doing, not beforehand, but
+    continuously; otherwise the hand stops. For example, try to write the
+    word "ocean," not _voluntarily_ (the ordinary way), but by simply
+    taking a lead-pencil, and letting the hand rest lightly and freely
+    upon the paper, while you think of your word and observe carefully
+    whether the hand will write. Very good; it does begin to move over the
+    paper, writing first an _o_, then a _c_, and the rest. At least that
+    was my experience when I was studying the new problems of spiritualism
+    and magnetism.
+
+    I have always thought that the circle of science is not a closed one,
+    and that there are many things for us still to learn. In the
+    mediumistic writing experiments it is very easy to deceive ourselves
+    and to believe that the hand is under the influence of another mind
+    than our own. The most probable conclusion regarding these experiences
+    has been that the theory of the action of foreign spirits is not
+    necessary for the explanation of such phenomena. But this is not the
+    place to enter into details upon a subject which, up to the present
+    time, has been only slightly examined by scientific criticism, having
+    more often been exploited by speculators than studied by scientists.
+
+So I wrote in 1884; and I will indorse every word I then wrote, just as it
+stands.
+
+In these first experiences with Spiritualists, of which I have just been
+speaking, I soon had the entrée of the chief Parisian circles devoted to
+these matters, and for a couple of years I even took the position of
+honorary secretary of one of them. A natural or necessary result of this
+was that I did not miss a single séance.
+
+Three different methods were employed to receive communications: (1)
+writing with the hand; (2) the use of the planchette to which a
+lead-pencil was attached, and on which the hands were placed; and (3)
+table-rapping (or table-moving), operated by the alphabetic code, these
+raps or the movements of the table marking the desired letter as the
+alphabet was read aloud by one of those present.
+
+The first of these methods was the only one employed at the Society for
+Spiritualistic Studies, of which Allan Kardec was president. It was the
+one which permitted the margin for the most doubt. In fact, at the end of
+two years of investigations of this kind, which I had varied as much as
+possible, and which I had entered upon without any preconceived idea for
+or against, and with the most ardent desire to arrive at the truth, I came
+to the positive conclusion that not only are the signatures of these
+papers not authentic, but that the intervention of another mind from the
+spirit world is not proved at all, the fact being that we ourselves are
+the more or less conscious authors of the communications by some cerebral
+process which yet remains to be investigated. The explanation is not so
+simple as it seems, and there are certain reservations to be made in the
+general statement above.
+
+When writing in the exalted and abnormal state of mind of the medium, we
+do not, as I have just said, form our phrases as in the normal condition;
+rather we wait for them to be produced. But all the same our own mind
+mingles in the process. The subject treated follows the lines of our own
+customary thoughts; the language employed is our native tongue, and, if we
+are uncertain about the spelling of certain words, errors will appear.
+Furthermore, so intimately are our own mental processes mingled with what
+is being written that, if we allow our thoughts to wander to another
+topic, the hand either stops writing or produces incoherent words and
+scrawls. This is the mental state of the writing medium,--at least that
+which I have observed in myself. It is a kind of auto-suggestion. I hasten
+to add, however, that this opinion only binds me to the extent of my own
+personal experiences. I am assured that there are mediums who act in an
+absolutely mechanical way, knowing nothing of the nature of what they are
+writing (see further on, pp. 58, 59), who treat subjects of which they are
+ignorant, and also even write in foreign languages. Such cases would be
+different from that of which I have just been speaking, and would indicate
+either a special cerebral state or great keenness of intellect, or a
+source of ideas exterior to the medium; _i.e._, if it were once proved
+that our mind cannot divine that of which it is ignorant. But now the
+transference of thought from one brain to another, from one mind to
+another, is a fact proved by telepathy. We could conceive, then, that a
+medium might write under the influence of some one near by--or even at a
+distance. Several mediums have also composed (in successive séances)
+genuine romances, such as The _History of Joan of Arc, Written by
+Herself_, or certain voyages to other planets,--seeming to indicate that
+there is a kind of doubling of the personality of the subject, a secondary
+personality. But there is no authentication of this. There is also a
+psychic _milieu_, of which I shall speak farther on. At present I must
+concern myself only with the subject of this chapter, and say with Newton,
+"_Hypotheses non fingo_."
+
+Allan Kardec died on the 30th of March, 1869, and, when the Society of
+Spiritualists came to ask me to deliver a funeral oration at his tomb, I
+took occasion, during this discourse, to direct the attention of the
+Spiritualists to the scientific character of investigations of this class
+and to the manifest danger of allowing ourselves to be drawn into
+mysticism.
+
+I will reproduce at this point a few paragraphs taken from this address:
+
+    I wish I could impress upon you who hear me, as well as upon the
+    millions of men throughout Europe and in the New World who are
+    studying the still mysterious problem of spiritualism, what a deep
+    scientific interest and what a philosophic future there is in the
+    study of these phenomena, to which, as you know, many of our most
+    eminent living scholars have given their time and attention. I wish I
+    could present to your imagination and theirs the new and vast horizons
+    we shall see opening up before us in proportion as we broaden our
+    scientific knowledge of the forces of nature at work around us; and I
+    would that I could show both you and them that such conquests of the
+    mind are the most efficacious antidote to the leprosy of atheism which
+    seems to be particularly the malignant degenerative element in this
+    our epoch of transition.
+
+    What a salutary thing it would be could I but prove here, before this
+    eloquent tomb, that the methodical examination of the phenomena
+    erroneously called supernatural, far from calling back the spirit of
+    superstition, and weakening the energy of the reason, serves, on the
+    contrary, to banish the errors and illusions of ignorance, and assists
+    the progress of truth much more than do the irrational negations of
+    those who will not take the trouble to look at the facts.
+
+    It is high time now that this complex subject of study should enter
+    upon its scientific period. Enough stress has not been laid upon the
+    physical side of the subject, which should be critically studied; for
+    without rigid scientific experiment no proof is valid. This objective
+    _a priori_ method of investigation, to which we owe the glory of
+    modern progress and the marvels of electricity and steam, should take
+    up the still unexplained and mysterious phenomena with which we are
+    acquainted, to dissect them, measure them, and to define them.
+
+    For, gentlemen, _spiritualism is not a religion, but a science_, a
+    science of which we as yet scarcely know the _a, b, c_. The age of
+    dogma is past. Nature includes the Universe; and God himself, who was
+    in old times conceived of as a being of similar shape and form as man,
+    cannot be considered by modern metaphysics as other than _Mind in
+    Nature_.
+
+    The supernatural does not exist. The manifestations obtained by the
+    agency of mediums, such as those of magnetism and somnambulism, belong
+    to the order of nature and ought to be inexorably submitted to the
+    test of experiment. There are no more miracles. We are witnessing the
+    dawning of a new science. Who is there so bold as to predict whither
+    the scientific study of the new psychology will lead, and what the
+    results will be?
+
+    The limitations of human vision are such that the eye only sees things
+    between narrow bounds, and beyond these limits, on this side and on
+    that, it sees nothing. The body may be compared to a harp of two
+    chords,--the optic nerve and the auditory nerve. One kind of
+    vibrations excites the first and another kind the second. That is the
+    whole story of human sensation, which is even inferior to that of many
+    of the lower animals; certain insects, for example, in whom the nerves
+    of vision and of hearing are more delicate than in man.
+
+    Now there are in nature, not two, but ten, a hundred, a thousand kinds
+    of movement or vibration. We learn, then, from physical science, that
+    we are living in the midst of a world invisible to us, and that it is
+    not impossible that there may be living upon the earth a class of
+    beings, also invisible to us, endowed with a wholly different kind of
+    senses, so that there is no way by which they can make themselves
+    known to us, unless they can manifest themselves in acts and ways that
+    can come within the range of our own order of sensations.
+
+    In the presence of such truths as these, which have as yet only been
+    barely announced, how absurd and worthless seems mere blind denial!
+    When we compare the little that we know and the narrow limits of our
+    range of perception with the vast extent of the field of knowledge, we
+    can scarcely refrain from the conclusion that we know nothing and that
+    everything yet remains to be known. With what right do we pronounce
+    the word "impossible" in the presence of facts which we prove to be
+    genuine without yet being able to discover their causes?
+
+    It is by the scientific study of effects that we arrive at the
+    determination of causes. In the class of investigations which we group
+    under the general head "Spiritualism," FACTS EXIST. But no one
+    understands the method of their production. Their existence,
+    nevertheless, is just as true as the phenomena of electricity.
+
+    But, as for understanding them--why, gentlemen, nobody understands
+    biology, physiology, psychology. What is the human body? What is the
+    brain? What is the absolute action of the soul or mind? We do not
+    know. And, neither do we know anything whatever of the essence of
+    electricity or the essence of light. It is prudent, then, to observe
+    with unbiased judgment all such matters as these, and to try to
+    determine their causes, which are perhaps of different kinds and more
+    numerous than has ever been supposed up to the present time.[7]
+
+It will be seen that what I publicly uttered as I stood on the hillock
+above the grave into which Allan Kardec's coffin had just been lowered
+differs not at all from the purely scientific program of the present work.
+
+I have just said that there were three methods employed in our spiritistic
+experiments. I have given my opinion of the first (writing mediums),
+basing it on my personal observations, and without desiring to weaken
+other proofs, if there are any. As to the second (planchette), I became
+familiar with it more especially by the séances of Mme. de Girardin, at
+the home of Victor Hugo in the Isle of Jersey. It works more independently
+than the first method; but it is still only a prolongation, as it were, of
+the hand and the brain. The third method--table-rapping, or typtology; I
+mean taps in the table--seems to me still more emphatically an extension
+of the hand and brain, and some forty-five years ago I often made use of
+this form of experiment.
+
+Rappings made on the floor by one foot of the table, as letters are
+spelled out, have no special value. The least pressure can produce these
+see-saw movements. The chief experimenter himself makes the responses,
+sometimes without suspecting it.
+
+Several persons group themselves about a table, place their hands upon it,
+and wait for something to happen. At the end of five, ten, fifteen, twenty
+minutes, the time depending on the psychic atmosphere[8] and the faculties
+of the experimenters, raps are heard in the table, or the sitters help in
+the movements of the table, which seems possessed. Why choose a table?
+Because it is the only article of furniture around which folks usually
+sit. Sometimes the table is lifted on one or more of its feet and is
+gently rocked to and fro. Sometimes it comes up as if glued to the hands
+placed on it, remaining suspended in the air two, three, five, ten,
+twenty seconds. Again, it is nailed to the floor with such force that it
+seems to have double or triple its usual weight. At other times, and
+usually on demand, it gives forth the sound of a saw, of a hatchet, of a
+lead-pencil writing, etc. We have here material results coming under
+direct observation, and they prove irrefragably the existence of an
+unknown force.
+
+This force is a material force in the psychic class. If we confined our
+attention to blind senseless movements of one kind or another, in relation
+only with the volitions of the experimenters, and not capable of being
+explained by the mere imposition of their hands, we might see proof of the
+existence of a new unknown force, explicable as a transformation of
+nervous force, of organic electricity; and that would be much in itself.
+But the raps made in the table, or by the feet of it, are made in reply to
+questions asked. Since we know the table is only a piece of wood, when we
+ask it questions, we are really addressing some mental agent who hears and
+replies. It was in this class of phenomena that modern Spiritualism took
+its rise; namely, in the United States, in 1848, when the Fox sisters
+heard sounds in their chamber,--raps in the walls and in the furniture.
+Their father, after several months of vexatious investigation, finally had
+recourse to the traditional theory of ghosts, and, addressing his
+questions to the wall, demanded some kind of an explanation from the
+invisible _thing_ therein. This thing responded by conventional taps to
+the questions asked, and declared that it was the spirit of the former
+proprietor once assassinated in this his very home. The spirit asked for
+prayers and the burial of its body. (From this time on the replies were so
+arranged that one rap in response to a question signified _yes_, two meant
+_no_ while three meant an emphatic _yes_.)
+
+I hasten to remark at once that the tapped replies prove nothing, and
+could have been made unconsciously by the Fox sisters themselves, whom we
+can not consider to have been playing a little comedy since the raps
+produced by them in the walls astounded and overwhelmed them more, indeed,
+than they did any one else. The hypothesis of jugglery and mystification,
+dear to certain critics, has not the least application to this case,
+although I admit that rappings and movements are often produced as
+practical jokes by waggish persons.
+
+There is, of course, an unseen cause that originates these rappings. Is it
+within us or outside of us? Is it possible that we might be capable of
+doubling our personality in some way without knowing it, of acting by
+mental suggestion, of answering our own questions without suspecting it,
+of producing material results without being conscious of it? Or does there
+exist, around and about us, an intelligent medium or atmosphere, a kind of
+spiritual cosmos? Or, again, is it possible that we are surrounded by
+invisible non-human beings,--gnomes, spirits, and hobgoblins (there may be
+an unknown world about us)? Or, finally, is it possible that the spirits
+of the dead may survive, and wander to and fro, and hold communication
+with us? All these hypotheses present themselves to our minds, nor have we
+the scientific absolute right to reject any one of them.
+
+The lifting of a table, the displacement of an object, may be attributed
+to an unknown force developed by our nervous system or otherwise. At least
+these movements do not prove the existence of a mind extraneous to that of
+the subject. But when some one is naming the letters of the alphabet or
+pointing them out on a sheet of pasteboard, and the table, either by raps
+in the wood or by levitations, puts together an intelligible sentence, we
+are forced to attribute this intelligent effect to an intelligent cause.
+This cause may be the medium himself; and the simplest way is, evidently,
+to suppose that he himself raps out the letters. But experiments can be
+arranged in such a way that he cannot possibly do this, even
+unconsciously. Our first duty is, in reality, to make fraud impossible.
+
+Those who have sufficiently studied the subject know that fraud does not
+explain what they have observed. To be sure, in fashionable Spiritualistic
+soirées people sometimes amuse themselves. Especially when the séances
+take place in the dark, and the alternation of the sexes is provided for
+so as to "reinforce the fluids," it is not altogether an unheard of thing
+for the gentlemen to profit by the temptation to temporarily forget the
+object of the meeting and break the established chain of hands in order to
+begin another on their own account. The ladies and the young girls like
+these changes in the program, and scarcely a complaint is heard. On the
+other hand, apart from fashionable soirées, to which everybody is invited
+for their amusement, the more serious reunions are frequently no safer;
+for the medium, who is, in one way or another, an interested person, is
+anxious to give the most he can--and something to boot.
+
+Upon the leaf of an old note-book of mine which has just turned up, I
+classed Spiritualistic soirées in the following order, which is doubtless
+a slightly original one:--
+
+1. Amorous caresses. (A similar reproach was made against the ancient
+Christian love-feasts or _agapes_.)
+
+2. Charlatanry of mediums, abusing the credulity of the sitters.
+
+3. _Some_ serious inquirers.
+
+At the time of which I was just now speaking (1861-63) I took part, as
+secretary, in experiments conducted regularly once a week, in the salon of
+a well-known medium,--Mlle. Huet, of Mont-Thabor Street. Mediumship was,
+in a way, her trade, and she had more than once been flagrantly detected
+in some most remarkable trickery. Accordingly, it may be imagined that
+she would quite often give the raps herself by hitting the table-legs with
+her feet. But quite often we also obtained noises of sawing, of planing,
+of drum-beating, and torrents of rain, which it would have been impossible
+for her to imitate. Neither could the holding fast of the table to the
+floor be the work of fraud. As to the levitations of the table, I said
+awhile ago that, when one of us showed an inclination to resist with his
+hand the upward movement, he received an impression as if the table were
+floating on a fluid. Now it is hard to see how the medium could produce
+this result. Everything took place in broad daylight.
+
+The communications received at the very many séances (several hundred) at
+which I have been present, both at that time and since, have always shown
+me that the results were in direct ratio with the cultivation of mind of
+the participants. I naturally asked a great many questions on astronomy.
+The replies never taught us anything new whatever; and, to be perfectly
+loyal to the truth, I must say that if, in these experiments, there are
+spirits, or beings independent of us in action, they know no more than we
+do about the other worlds.
+
+A distinguished poet, P. F. Mathieu, was usually present at the reunions
+at the Mont-Thabor salon, and hence we sometimes obtained very pretty bits
+of verse, which I am sure he did not himself consciously produce; for,
+like all of us, he was there to learn. M. Joubert, vice-president of the
+civil tribunal of Carcassonne, has published a work, entitled _Various
+Fables and Poems, by a Spirit-rapper_, which bears on its face evidence
+that it is but the reflex of his customary thoughts. We had Christian
+philosophers with us at our reunions. Accordingly, the table dictated to
+us fine thoughts signed "Pascal," "Fénelon," "Vincent de Paul," and
+"Sainte Thérèse." One spirit, who signed himself "Balthasar Grimod de la
+Reynière," dictated funny dissertations on the art of cooking. His
+specialty was to make the heavy table dance about in all kinds of
+contortions. Rabelais sometimes appeared, still loving the perfumes of
+savory viands as of old. Some of the spirits took pleasure in making
+_tours de force_ in cryptology (secret writing). The following are
+specimens of these table-rapping communications. The first is from the
+vulgate version of the Bible, the Gospel of John iii. 8:
+
+    "Spiritus ubi vult spirat; et vocem ejus audis, sed nescis unde veniat
+    aut quo vadat. Sic est omnis qui natus est ex spiritu." ("The wind
+    bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
+    canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one
+    that is born of the Spirit.")
+
+    "Dear little sister, I am here, and see that you are as good as ever.
+    You are a medium. I will go to you with great happiness. Tell my
+    mother her dear daughter loves her from this world.[9]
+
+    "LOUISA."
+
+Some one asked one of the spirits if he could indicate by taps the words
+engraved inside of her ring. The response was:
+
+    "I love that one should love me as I love when I love."
+
+A member of the company suspected that the table around which we were
+sitting might conceal a piece of mechanism for producing the raps.
+Accordingly, one of the sentences was dictated by raps made _in the air_.
+
+Here is another series:
+
+    "Je suis ung ioyeux compaignon qui vous esmarveilleray avecques mes
+    discours, je ne suis pas ung Esperict matéologien, je vestiray non
+    liripipion et je diray: Beuvez l'eaue de la cave, poy plus, poy moins,
+    serez content.
+
+    "ALCOFRIBAZ NAZIER."
+
+    ("I am a jollie blade who will astonie you by my speech. I am not a
+    vaine-babbling sperit. I will wear my graduate's hood and saie: Drinke
+    ye water of ye cellar [wine],--no more, no less. Be content.
+
+    "FRANCOIS RABELAIS.")[10]
+
+A rather lively discussion arose upon the subject of this unexpected
+visit,--and of the language, which some erudite persons present thought
+not to be pure Rabelaisian. Whereupon the table rapped:
+
+    "Bons enfants estes de vous esgousiller à ceste besterie. Mieux vault
+    que beuviez froid que parliez chaud."
+
+    "Rabelais."
+
+    ("Ye're regular babies to bawle yourselves hoarse over this selynesse.
+    It is bettaire to drinke cauld than to speak warme.)
+
+    "Liesse et Noël! Monsieur Satan est défun, et de mâle mort. Bien
+    marrys sont les moynes, moynillons, bigotz et cagotz, carmes chaulx et
+    déchaulx, papelards et frocards, mitrez et encapuchonnez: les vécy
+    sans couraige, les Esperictz les ont destrosnez. Plus ne serez roustiz
+    et eschaubouillez ez marmites monachales et roustissoires diaboliques;
+    foin de ces billevesées papales et cléricquales. Dieu est bon, iuste
+    et plein de misérichorde; it dict à ses petits enfancts: aimez-vous
+    les ungs les autres et it pardoint à la repentance. Le grand dyable
+    d'enfer est mort; vive Dieu!"
+
+    ("Hurrah for a merry life! Maister Satan is dead, dead as a door-nail.
+    The monks and the poor-devil friars are married,--bigots and fanatics,
+    Carmelites shod and unshod, the hypocrites and the cowled fellows,
+    the mitres and the hoods. There they stand trembling in their tracks;
+    the Spirits have dethroned them. Gone are the roastings and
+    soup-makings in the Devil's Dutch ovens and in monastic kettles. A
+    plague of these trashy tales of pope and priest! God is good, just,
+    and full of pity. He says to his little children, 'Love one another';
+    and he pardons the repentant. The great devil in hell is dead. Hurrah
+    for God!")
+
+Here is still another series:
+
+    "Suov ruop erètsym nu sruojuot tnores emêm srueisulp; erdnerpmoc ed
+    simrep erocne sap tse suov en li uq snoitseuq sed ridnoforppa ruop
+    tirpse'l sap retnemruot suov en. Liesnoc nob nu zevius."
+
+    "Suov imrap engèr en edrocsid ed tirpse'l siamaj euq."
+
+    "Arevèlé suov ueid te serèrf sov imrap sreinred sel zeyos; évelé ares
+    essiaba's iuq iulec éssiaba ares evèlé's iuq iulec."
+
+These sentences must be read backwards, beginning at the end. Some one
+asked, "Why have you dictated thus?" The reply was:
+
+    "In order to give you new and unexpected proofs."
+
+Read backwards, these Russian-like sentences are as follows:
+
+    "Celui qui s'élève sera abaissé, celui qui s'abaisse sera élevé; soyez
+    les derniers parmi vos frères et Dieu vous élèvera."
+
+    "Que jamais l'esprit de discorde ne règne parmi vous."
+
+    "Suivez un bon conseil. Ne vous tourmenter pas l'esprit pour
+    approfondir des questions qu'il ne vous est pas encore permis de
+    comprendre; plusieurs même seront toujours un mystère pour vous."
+
+    ("Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth
+    himself shall be exalted! Be the least among your brethren, and God
+    will exalt you."
+
+    "Never let the spirit of discord reign among you."
+
+    "Follow good counsel. Do not torment your mind in attempting to fathom
+    questions that it is not yet permitted you to comprehend: several of
+    these will always be a mystery to you.")
+
+Here is another of a different kind:
+
+    "Acmairsvnoouussevtoeussbaoinmsoentsfbiideenlteosuss."
+
+    "Sloeysepzruintissaeinndtieetuesnudrrvaosuessmaairlises."
+
+I asked the meaning of this bizarre and portentous conglomeration of
+letters. The reply was:
+
+    "To conquer your doubts, read by skipping every other letter."
+
+This arrangement using the skipped letters in their turn for the second
+and fourth lines gives the four following verses:
+
+    "Amis, nous vous aimons bien tous,
+    Car vous êtes bons et fidèles.
+    Soyez unis en Dieu: sur vous
+    L'Esprit-Saint étendra ses ailes."
+
+    ("Friends, we love you all,
+    For you are good and faithful.
+    Be united in God: over you
+    The Holy Spirit will spread his wings.")
+
+This is innocent enough, surely and without any great poetic pretensions.
+But it must be admitted that this method of dictating is rather
+difficult.[11]
+
+Some one spoke of human plans. The table dictated as follows:[12]
+
+    "When the shining sun scatters the stars, know ye, O mortal men,
+    whether ye will see the evening of that day? And, when the sombre
+    curtains of night are let fall from the sky, can you tell whether you
+    will see the dawn of another morn?"
+
+Another person asked, "What is faith?"
+
+    "Faith? 'Tis a blessed field that breeds a superb harvest, and every
+    laborer may therein reap and garner to his heart's content, and carry
+    home his sheaves."
+
+Here are three prose dictations:
+
+    "Science is a forest where some are laying out roads, where many lose
+    their way, and where all see the bounds of the forest recede as fast
+    as they go forward."
+
+    "God does not illuminate the world with the lightning and the meteors.
+    He guides peacefully in their courses the stars of the night, which
+    fill the sky with their light. So the divine revelations succeed one
+    another in order, reason, and harmony."
+
+    "Religion and Friendship are twin companions, who aid us to traverse
+    the painful path of life."
+
+I cannot forego the pleasure of inserting here, at the close of this
+chapter, a fable, dictated like the others by table-rappings, and sent to
+me by M. Joubert, vice-president of the civil tribunal of Carcassonne.[13]
+The sentiment of it may be queried by some; but is not the central
+principle applicable to all epochs and to all governments: Do not the
+"_arrivistes_"[14] belong to all times?
+
+    THE KING AND THE PEASANT
+
+    A king who had profaned the public liberties, who for twenty years had
+    slaked his thirst in the blood of heretics; awaiting the quiet peace
+    of the hangman in his declining days; decrepit, surfeited with
+    adulterous amours; this king, this haughty monster of whom they had
+    made a great man,--Louis the Fourteenth, in short, if I must name
+    him,--was one day airing under the leafy arches of his vast gardens
+    his Scarron, his infamy and his troubles. The noble band of court
+    flunkeys came along. Each one at once lost at least six inches of his
+    height. Pages, counts, marquises, dukes, princes, marshals, ministers,
+    bowed low before insulting rivals, the creatures of the king. Grave
+    magistrates made their deep reverences, each humbler than a suitor
+    asking for audience. 'Twas pleasant to see how the ribbons, crosses
+    and decorations on their embroidered coats went ever backwards. Always
+    and always that ignoble bowing and scraping and cringing. I should
+    like to wake up some morning an emperor, that I might sting with my
+    whip the backbone of a flatterer. But see! alone, confronting the
+    despot, yet without abasing his head, forging along with slow steps on
+    his own way, modest, clad in coarse homespun garments, comes one who
+    seems a peasant, perhaps a philosopher, and passes by the groups of
+    insolent courtiers. "Oh," cries the king, in great surprise, "why do
+    you alone confront me without bending the knee?" "Sire," said the
+    unknown, "must I be frank? It is because I alone here expect nothing
+    from you."
+
+If we stop to think how these sentences and phrases and different bits of
+literature were produced, letter by letter, rap by rap, following the
+alphabet as it was read out, we shall appreciate the difficulty of the
+thing. The rappings are made either in the interior of the wood of the
+table (the vibrations of which are perceptible) or in some other piece of
+furniture, or even in the air. The table, as I have already said, is
+alive, pregnant with a kind of momentary vitality. Melodies of well-known
+airs, sounds of sawing and of the workshop, and the report of fusillades
+can be drawn from it. Sometimes it becomes so light that it floats for a
+moment in the air, then so heavy that two men can scarcely lift it from
+the floor or budge it in any way. You must have a distinct picture in your
+mind of all these manifestations,--often puerile, no doubt, sometimes
+vulgar and grotesque, yet striking in their method of operation,--if you
+would accurately understand the phenomena, and realize that you are in the
+presence of an unknown element which jugglery and prestidigitation cannot
+explain.
+
+Some folks can move their toes separately and crack the joints. If we
+should grant that the dictations, by combinations of letters (quoted
+above), were arranged in advance, learned by heart, and thus rapped, the
+matter would be simple enough. But this particular faculty is very rare,
+and it does not explain the noises in the table, the vibrations of which
+are felt by the hands. Again, one could fancy the medium tapping the
+table-legs with his foot, and thus constructing such sentences as he
+pleases. But it would require a wonderful memory in the medium to enable
+him to remember the precise arrangement of letters (for he has no
+memorandum before him), and, further, these curious dictations have been
+secured just the same in select companies where no one would cheat.
+
+As to the theory that the spirits of eminent men are in communication with
+the experimenters the mere statement of the hypothesis shows its
+absurdity. Imagine a table-rapper calling up from the vasty deep the
+spirits of Paul or Saint Augustine, Archimedes or Newton, Pythagoras or
+Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci or William Herschel, and receiving their
+dictations from the interior of a table!
+
+We were speaking, a few pages back, of the séance drawings and
+descriptions of Jupiter made by Victorien Sardou. This is the proper place
+to insert a letter written by him to M. Jules Claretie, and published by
+the latter in _Le Temps_ at the date when that learned Academician was
+putting on the boards his drama _Spiritisme_. The letter is here appended:
+
+    ... As to Spiritualism, I could better tell you verbally in three
+    words what I think of it than I could write here in three pages. You
+    are half right and half wrong. Pardon my freedom of speech. There are
+    two things in Spiritualism,--(1) curious facts, inexplicable in the
+    present state of our knowledge, and yet authenticated; and (2) the
+    folks who explain them.
+
+    The facts are real. Those who explain them belong to three categories:
+    there are, first, Spiritualists who are imbecile, ignorant, or mad,
+    the chaps who call up Epaminondas and whom you justly make fun of, or
+    who believe in the intervention of the devil; those, in short, who end
+    in the lunatic asylum in Charenton.
+
+    _Secundo_, there are the charlatans, commencing with D.; impostors of
+    all sorts, prophets, consulting mediums, such as A. K., and _tutti
+    quanti_.
+
+    Finally, there are the scholars and scientists, who think they can
+    explain everything by juggleries, hallucination, and unconscious
+    movements, men like Chevreul and Faraday, who, while they are right
+    about some of the phenomena described to them, and which really are
+    jugglery or hallucination, are yet wrong about the whole series of
+    original facts, which they will not take the trouble to look at,
+    though they are highly important. These men are much to blame; for, by
+    their plea-in-bar against earnest investigators (such as Gasparin, for
+    example) and by their insufficient explanations, they have left
+    Spiritualism to be exploited by charlatans of all kinds, and at the
+    same time authorized serious amateurs to no longer waste their time
+    over these studies.
+
+    Last of all, there are observers like myself (there are not many of
+    us) who are incredulous by nature, but who have been obliged to admit,
+    in the long run, that Spiritualism concerns itself with facts which
+    defy any _present_ scientific explication, but who do not despair of
+    seeing them explained some day, and who therefore apply themselves to
+    the study of the facts, and are trying to reduce them to some kind of
+    classification which may later prove to be law. We of this persuasion
+    hold ourselves aloof from every coterie, from every clique, from all
+    the prophets, and, satisfied with the convictions to which we have
+    already attained, are content to see in Spiritualism the dawn of a
+    truth, as yet very obscure, which will some day find its Ampère, as
+    did the magnetic currents, and who grieve to see this truth choked out
+    of existence by a dual foe,--excess of credulous ignorance which
+    believes everything and excess of incredulous science which believes
+    nothing.
+
+    We find in our conviction and our conscience the wherewithal to brave
+    the petty martyrdom of ridicule inflicted upon us for the faith we
+    profess, a faith exaggerated and caricatured by the mass of follies
+    people never fail to attribute to us, nor do we deem that the myth in
+    which they dress us up merits even the honor of a refutation.
+
+    Similarly, I have never had any desire to prove to anybody whatever
+    that the influence of either Molière or Beaumarchais cannot be
+    detected in my plays. It seems to me that that is more than evident.
+
+    Respecting the dwellings of the planet Jupiter, I must ask the good
+    folks who suppose that I am convinced of the real existence of these
+    things whether they are well persuaded that Gulliver believed in
+    "Lilliput,"[15] Campanella in the "City of the Sun," and Sir Thomas
+    More in his "Utopia."
+
+    What is true, however, is that the design of which you speak [Pl.
+    III.] was made in less than ten hours. As to its origin, I would not
+    give a penny to know about that; but the fact of its production is
+    another matter
+
+    V. SARDOU.
+
+Scarcely a year passes that mediums do not bring me drawings of plants and
+animals in the Moon, in Mars, Venus, Jupiter, or certain of the stars.
+These designs are more or less pretty, and more or less curious. But there
+is nothing in them that leads us to admit their actual resemblance to
+real things in other worlds. On the contrary, everything proves that they
+are the products of imagination, essentially terrestrial, both in look and
+shape, not even tallying what we know to be the vital possibilities of
+those worlds. The designers of them are the dupes of illusion. These
+plants and animal are metamorphoses (sometimes elegantly conceived and
+drawn) of terrestrial organisms. Perhaps the most curious thing of all is
+that they have a family resemblance in the manner of their execution, and
+have stamped on them, in some way or other, the mediumistic hall-mark.
+
+To return to my own experiences. When I took the rôle of writing-medium, I
+generally produced astronomical or philosophical dissertations signed
+"Galileo." I will quote but one of them as a sample. It is taken from my
+notebooks of 1862.
+
+    SCIENCE.
+
+    The human intellect holds in its powerful grasp the infinite universe
+    of space and time; it has penetrated the inaccessible domain of the
+    Past, sounded the mystery of the unfathomable heavens, and believes
+    that it has explained the riddle of the universe. The objective world
+    has unrolled before the eyes of science its splendid panorama and its
+    magnificent wealth of forms. The studies of man have led him to a
+    knowledge of truth; he has explored the universe, discovered the
+    inexorable reign of law, and the application of the forces that
+    sustain all things. If it has not been permitted to him to see the
+    First Cause face to face, at least he has attained a true mathematical
+    idea of the series of secondary causes.
+
+    In this latest century, above all, the experimental _a priori_ method,
+    the only really scientific one, has been put into practice in the
+    natural sciences, and by its aid man has freed himself from the
+    prejudices of the old school of thought, one by one, and from
+    subjective or speculative theories, and confined himself to a careful
+    and intelligent study of the field of observation.
+
+    Yes, human science is firmly based and pregnant with possibility,
+    worthy of our homage for its difficult and long-proved past, worthy of
+    our sympathy for its future, big with the promise of useful and
+    profitable discoveries. For nature is henceforth to be a book
+    accessible to the bibliographical researches of the studious, a world
+    open to the investigations of the thinker, a fertile region which the
+    human mind has already visited, and in which we must needs advance
+    boldly, holding in our hand experience as our compass....
+
+    An old friend of my terrestrial life recently spoke to me as follows.
+    One of our wanderings had brought us back to the Earth, and we were
+    making a new moral study of this world. My companion remarked that man
+    is to-day familiar with the most abstract laws of mechanics, physics,
+    chemistry, ... that the applications of knowledge to industry are not
+    less remarkable than the deductions of pure science, and that it seems
+    as if the entire universe, wisely studied by man, was to be his royal
+    appanage. As we pursued our journey beyond the bounds of this world, I
+    answered him in the following terms:
+
+    "A feeble atom, lost to sight in an imperceptible point of the
+    infinite, man has believed he could embrace in the sweep of his vision
+    the whole expanse of the universe, whereas he can scarcely pass beyond
+    the region he inhabits; he has thought he could study the laws of all
+    nature, and his investigations have scarcely reached the forces in
+    action about him; he has thought he could determine the grandeur of
+    the starry heaven, and he exhausted his powers in the study of a grain
+    of dust. The field of his researches is so small that, once lost to
+    view, the mind seeks in vain to recover it; the human heaven and earth
+    are so small that scarcely has the soul in its flight had time to
+    spread its wings before it has reached the last regions accessible to
+    the observation of man; for the immeasurable Universe surrounds us on
+    all sides, unfolding beyond the limits of our heavens its unknown
+    riches, putting its inconceivable forces into play, and reaching
+    forward into immensity in the splendor of its life.
+
+    "And the mere flesh-worm, the miserable mite, blind and wingless,
+    whose wretched existence is passed upon the leaf where it was born,
+    would presume (because forsooth it has taken a few steps upon this
+    leaf shaken in the wind) to have the right to speak of the immense
+    tree to which it belongs, of the forest of which this tree forms a
+    part, and to sagely descant upon the nature of the vegetation
+    developed thereon, of the beings that inhabit it, of the distant sun
+    whose rays bring to it movement and life? In very truth, man is
+    strangely presumptuous to desire to measure infinite greatness by the
+    foot-rule of his infinite littleness.
+
+    "Therefore be this truth well impressed on his mind,--if the arid
+    labors of past ages have acquired for him an elementary knowledge of
+    things, if the progress of thought has placed him at the vestibule of
+    knowledge, still he has not yet spelled out more than the first page
+    of the Book, and, like a child, liable to be deceived by every word,
+    far from claiming the right to authoritatively interpret the work, he
+    ought to content himself with humbly studying it, page by page, line
+    by line. Happy, however, those who are able to do this!"
+
+    GALILEO.
+
+These were my customary thoughts. They are the thoughts of a student of
+nineteen or twenty who has acquired the habit of thinking. There can be no
+doubt that they were wholly the product of my own intellect, and that the
+illustrious Florentine astronomer had nothing whatever to do with them.
+Besides, this would have been a collaboration to the last degree
+improbable.
+
+It has been the same with all the communications of the astronomical
+class: they have not led the science forward a single step. Nor has any
+obscure, mysterious, or illusive point in history been cleared up by the
+spirits. We only write that which we know, and even chance has given us
+nothing. Still, certain unexplained thought-transferences are to be
+discussed. But they belong to the psychological or human sphere.
+
+In order to reply at once to objections that certain Spiritualists have
+sent to me apropos of this result of my observations, I will take as an
+example the case of the satellites of Uranus, since it is the chief one
+always brought forward as a _proof_ of scientific discoveries imparted by
+spirits. Furthermore, I received several years ago from divers sources a
+pressing invitation to examine an article by General Drayson, published in
+the journal named _Light_, in 1884, under the title of _The Solution of
+Scientific Problems by Spirits_, in which it is asserted that the spirits
+made known the true orbital movement of the satellites of Uranus. Pressing
+engagements had always hindered me from making this examination; but the
+case having been recently promulgated in several Spiritualistic works as
+decisive, and I being so persistently importuned to discuss it, I believe
+it will prove of some use if I now examine the case.
+
+To my great regret there is an error in their communication, and the
+spirits have taught us nothing. Here is one instance, wrongly selected as
+a demonstration. The Russian writer Aksakof sets it forth in the following
+terms (_Animism and Spiritualism_, p. 341):
+
+    The case of which we are about to give an account seems to be of such
+    a nature as to settle all objections. It was communicated by
+    Major-General A. W. Drayson and published under the title _The
+    Solution of Scientific Problems by Spirits_. I append a translation:
+
+    "Having received from M. Georges Stock a letter asking me if I could
+    mention, were it only as an instance, that, during the holding of a
+    séance, a spirit had solved one of those scientific problems which
+    have always embarrassed scientists, I have the honor to communicate to
+    you the following circumstance, which I witnessed with my own eyes:
+
+    "In 1781 William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and its
+    satellites. He observed that these satellites, contrary to all the
+    other satellites of the solar system, traversed their orbits from east
+    to west. Sir John Herschel says in his _Outlines of Astronomy_:
+
+    "'The orbits of these satellites present peculiarities altogether
+    unexpected and exceptional, contrary to the general laws which govern
+    the other bodies of the solar system. The planes of their orbits are
+    almost perpendicular to the ecliptic, making an angle of 70° 58',[16]
+    and they travel with a retrograde movement; that is to say, their
+    revolution about the centre of their planet takes place from east to
+    west in place of following the inverse course.'
+
+    "When Laplace broached his theory that the sun and all the planets
+    were formed at the expense of a nebulous matter, these satellites were
+    an enigma to him.
+
+    "Admiral Smyth mentions in his _Celestial Cycle_ that the movement of
+    these satellites, to the stupefaction of all astronomers, is
+    retrograde, contrary to that of all the other bodies observed up to
+    that time.
+
+    "All the astronomical works published before 1860 contain the same
+    reasoning on the subject of the satellites of Uranus. For my part, I
+    did not find any explanation for this peculiarity: to me it was a
+    mystery as much as for the writers whom I have cited.
+
+    "In 1858 I had as a guest in my house a lady who was a medium, and we
+    arranged daily séances. One evening she said to me that she saw at my
+    side a spirit who claimed to have been an astronomer during his life
+    on earth.
+
+    "I asked this person if he was wiser at present than when he lived on
+    the earth. 'Much wiser,' he said. I had the idea of asking this
+    so-called spirit a question the object of which was to test his
+    knowledge. 'Can you tell me,' I asked him, 'why the satellites of
+    Uranus make their revolution from east to west and not from west to
+    east?' I received at once the following reply:
+
+    "'The satellites of Uranus do not move in their orbits from east to
+    west: they circle about their planet from west to east, in the same
+    way that the moon moves around the earth. The error comes from the
+    fact that the south pole of Uranus was turned toward the earth at the
+    moment of the discovery of this planet. In the same way that the sun,
+    seen from our southern hemisphere, seems to run its daily course from
+    right to left and not from left to right, so the satellites of Uranus
+    were moving at that time from left to right, though this does not mean
+    they were moving in their orbit from east to west.'
+
+    "In reply to another question which I asked, my interlocutor added:
+    'As long as the south pole of Uranus was turned toward the earth, in
+    relation to a terrestrial observer, the satellites seemed to move from
+    left to right, and it was erroneously concluded from this that they
+    were going from east to west: this state of things lasted for about
+    forty-two years. When the north pole of Uranus is turned toward the
+    earth, his satellites run their course from right to left, but, in
+    either case, always from the west to the east.'
+
+    "I thereupon asked him how it happened that the error had not been
+    detected forty-two years after William Herschel's discovery of Uranus.
+    He replied, 'It is because people repeat that which the authorities
+    who have preceded them have said. Dazzled by the results obtained by
+    their predecessors, they do not take the trouble to think.'"
+
+Such is the "revelation" of a spirit on the system of Uranus, published by
+Drayson and presented by Aksakof and other authors as an undeniable proof
+of the intervention of a spirit in the solution of this problem.
+
+The following is the result of an impartial discussion of this very
+interesting subject. The reasoning of the "spirit" is false. The system of
+Uranus is almost perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. It is the direct
+opposite of that of the satellites of Jupiter, which turn almost in the
+plane of their orbit. The inclination of the plane of the satellites to
+the ecliptic is 98°, and the planet ascends almost in the plane of the
+ecliptic. This is a fundamental consideration in the picture which we
+ought to make to ourselves of the aspect of this system seen from the
+earth.
+
+Let us, however, adopt for the method of movement of these satellites
+around their planet the projection upon the plane of the ecliptic, as has
+always been the custom. The author maintains that, "when the north pole of
+Uranus is turned toward the earth, his satellites run their course from
+right to left, that is to say from west to east"; he indorses the
+communication of the spirit to the effect that the astronomers are in
+error and that the satellites of Uranus really revolve around their planet
+from west to east, in the same way that the moon revolves around the
+earth.
+
+In order to give ourselves an exact account of the position and of the
+method of the movements of this system, let us construct a special
+geometrical figure, clear and precise. Let us represent upon a plane the
+appearance of the orbit of Uranus and of its satellites seen from the
+northern hemisphere of the celestial sphere (Fig. A). The part of the
+orbit of the satellites above the plane of the orbit of Uranus has been
+drawn with heavy lines and hatching, the lower part in dotted lines only.
+
+It is easily seen by the direction of the arrows that the revolution of
+the satellites, projected upon the plane of the orbit, is entirely
+retrograde. All dogmatic affirmations to the contrary are absolutely
+erroneous.
+
+These satellites turn like the hands of a watch,--from left to right,
+looking at the upper part of the circles.
+
+The error of General Drayson's medium comes from the fact that she
+maintained that the south pole of Uranus was turned toward us at the date
+of its discovery. Now, in 1781, the system of Uranus occupied relatively
+to us almost the same situation as in 1862, since the time of its
+revolution is eighty-four years. It is evident from the figure that, at
+that moment, the planet presented to us the pole most elevated above the
+ecliptic; that is, its north pole.
+
+General Drayson allowed himself to be led into error when he adopted
+without verification these paradoxical premises. As a matter of fact, if
+Uranus had presented to us its south pole in 1781, the movement of the
+satellites would have been direct. But the observations of the angle of
+position of the orbits at the time of their passage of the nodes gives us
+abundant evidence that it was really the north pole which was at that
+moment turned toward the sun and the earth,--a fact which renders direct
+movement impossible, retrograde movement certain.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1--The inclination of the system of Uranus. Aspects
+seen from the earth at the four extreme positions.]
+
+For greater clearness, I have placed outside of the orbit, in Fig 1, the
+aspect of the system of Uranus seen from the earth at the four principal
+epochs of the revolution of this distant planet. It is evident that the
+apparent method of the revolution was analogous to that of the hands of a
+watch in 1781 and 1862, the opposite in 1818 and 1902. At these dates the
+apparent orbits of the satellites are almost circles, while during the
+passage of the nodes, in 1798, 1840, and 1882, they are reduced to
+straight lines.
+
+Figure 1a completes these data by presenting the aspect of the orbits and
+the method of revolution for all the positions of the planet, even down to
+our own epoch.
+
+I have desired to completely elucidate this question, which is a little
+technical. _To my great regret_, the spirits have taught us nothing, and
+this example, to which so much importance is attached, is seen to be an
+error.[17]
+
+Aksakof cites, in this same chapter (p. 343), the discovery of the two
+satellites of Mars, also made by Drayson through a medium, in 1859; that
+is to say, 18 years before their discovery, in 1877. This discovery, not
+having been published at the time, remains doubtful. Furthermore, after
+Kepler had pointed out its probability, this subject of the two satellites
+of Mars was several times discussed, notably by Swift and Voltaire (see my
+_Popular Astronomy_, p. 501). This is not, then, to be set down as an
+undeniable instance of a discovery made by the spirits.
+
+The immediately foregoing instances are facts actually observed at
+Spiritualistic séances. I will not treat them under a generalization
+foreign to their proper setting. They do not prove that, in certain
+circumstances, thinkers, poets, dreamers, investigators, may not be
+inspired by influences emanating from others, from loved ones, from
+departed friends. That is another question, a topic quite apart from
+experiments which we are giving an account of in this book.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1a.--Orbits of the satellites of Uranus as seen from
+the earth at different dates since the time of their discovery (1781).]
+
+The same author, otherwise generally very judicious, cites several
+examples of foreign tongues spoken by mediums. I have not been able to
+verify them, and I am asked not to say here anything but what I am
+absolutely sure of.
+
+According to my personal observations, these experiments bring us
+constantly into the presence of ourselves, our own minds. I could cite a
+thousand examples of this.
+
+One day I received an "aërolite" discovered in a forest in the environs of
+Etrepagny (Eure). Mme. J. L., who kindly sent it to me, added that she
+consulted a spirit about its origin and that he replied to her that it
+came from a star named Golda. Now in the first place there is no star of
+this name; and, secondly, this is not an aërolite at all, but a piece of
+slag from an old forge. (See Section 662 of my Inquiry of 1899. The first
+of these sections, relating to telepathy, have been published in my work
+_The Unknown_.)
+
+A lady reader of mine wrote me from Montpellier:
+
+    Your conclusions would perhaps diminish the prestige of Spiritualism
+    in the eyes of certain persons. But, as prestige may produce
+    superstition, it is well to clear up matters. For my part, that which
+    you have observed agrees with what I have myself observed. This is the
+    method which I have employed, aided by a friend:
+
+    I took a book and, opening it, retained in my mind the number of the
+    right-hand page. Suppose it was 132. I said to the table, which had
+    been put in movement by the little manoeuvre ordinarily used, "Does a
+    spirit desire to communicate?"
+
+    Reply--"Yes."
+
+    Question--"Can you see the book which I have just been looking at?"
+
+    Reply--"Yes."
+
+    "How many numbers are there on the page that I have been looking at?"
+
+    "Three."
+
+    "Indicate the number of hundreds."
+
+    "One."
+
+    "Indicate the value of the tens."
+
+    "Three."
+
+    "Indicate the value of the units."
+
+    "Two."
+
+    The amounts indicated in these statements are of course 132. It was
+    enchanting.
+
+    Then, taking the closed book and, without opening it, sliding the
+    paper-knife between the pages, I resumed the conversation, and the
+    result with this last method was always inexact.
+
+    I frequently repeated this little experience (curious at any rate);
+    and, every time, I had exact replies when I knew them, inexact when I
+    was ignorant of them. (Section 657 of my Inquiry.)
+
+These examples might be multiplied _ad infinitum_. Everything leads us to
+think that it is we who are the actors in these experiments. But it is not
+so simple as one might suppose, and there is something else in it as well
+as ourselves. Certain unexplained things take place.
+
+In his remarkable work, _Intelligence_, Taine explains Spiritualistic
+communications by a sort of unconscious duplication of our mind, as I said
+above.
+
+    The more singular a fact is [he writes[18]] the more instructive it
+    is. In this respect, Spiritualistic manifestations themselves point
+    the way to discoveries by showing us the coexistence at the same
+    moment in the same individual of two thoughts, two wills, two distinct
+    actions, the one conscious, the other unconscious; the latter he
+    attributes to invisible beings. The brain is, then, a theatre on the
+    stage of which several pieces are being played at once, upon several
+    planes, of which only one is not subliminal. Nothing is more worthy of
+    study than this plurality of the _me_. I have seen a person who, while
+    speaking or singing, writes, without regard to the paper, consecutive
+    sentences and even entire pages, without any knowledge of what she is
+    writing. In my eyes her sincerity is perfect. Now she declares that at
+    the end of a page she has no idea of what she has written on the
+    paper. When she reads it, she is astonished, sometimes alarmed. The
+    handwriting is different from her ordinary handwriting. The movement
+    of the fingers and of the pencil is stiff and seems automatic. The
+    writing always ends with a signature, that of a deceased person, and
+    bears the mark of intimate thoughts, of a secret and inner reserve of
+    ideas which the author would not like to divulge. Certainly there is
+    proof here of a doubling of the _me_, the coexistence of two parallel
+    and independent trains of thought, of two centres of action, or, if
+    you wish, of two moral persons existing in the same brain, each one
+    doing his work, and each one a different work, the one upon the stage
+    and the other behind the scenes, the second as complete as the first,
+    since, alone and unwitting of the other, it constructs consecutive
+    ideas and fashions connected sentences in which the other has no part.
+
+This hypothesis is admissible, in the light of numerous observations of
+double consciousness.[19]
+
+It is applicable to a great number of cases, but not in all. It explains
+automatic writing. But, as it stands, it is necessary to stretch it
+considerably to make it explain the rappings (for who raps?), and it does
+not explain at all the levitations of the table, nor the displacement of
+objects of which I have spoken in the first chapter, and I do not very
+well see how it can even explain phrases rapped out backwards or by the
+strange combinations described above. This hypothesis is admitted and
+developed in a more unqualified way by Dr. Pierre Janet in his work
+_Psychological Automatism_. This author is one of those who have created a
+narrow circle of observation and study, and who not only never emerge from
+it, but imagine that they have got the whole universe in their circle. In
+going over this kind of reasoning, one thinks involuntarily of that old
+quarrel of the two round eyes who saw everything round and of the two
+square eyes who saw everything square, and of the history of the
+Big-endians and of the Little-endians of _Gulliver's Travels_. An
+hypothesis is worthy of attention when it explains something. Its value
+does not increase by the attempt to generalize it and make it explain
+everything: this is to overpass all reasonable limits.
+
+We may admit that the sub-conscious acts of an abnormal personality,
+temporarily grafted upon our normal personality, explain the greater part
+of mediumistic writing communications. We can see in these also the
+evident effects of auto-suggestion. But these psycho-physiological
+hypotheses do not explain all observations. There is something else.
+
+We all have a tendency to want to explain everything by the actual state
+of our knowledge. In the face of certain circumstances, we say to-day: "It
+is suggestion, it is hypnotism, it is this, it is that." Half a century
+ago we would not have talked in this way, these theories not having yet
+been invented. People will no longer talk in the same way half a century,
+a century, hence, for new words will have been invented. But let us not be
+put off with words; let us not be in such a hurry.
+
+We must know how to explain in what way our thoughts--conscious,
+unconscious, sub-conscious--can strike blows in a table, move it, lift it.
+As this question is rather embarrassing, Dr. Pierre Janet treats it as
+"secondary personality," and is obliged to have recourse to the movements
+of the toes, to the snapping of the muscles of the fibular tendon, to
+ventriloquism and the deceptions of unconscious accomplices.[20] This is
+not a sufficient explanation.
+
+As a matter of fact, we do not understand how our thought, or that of
+another, can cause raps in a table, by which sentences are formed. But we
+are obliged to admit it. Let us call it, if you please, "telekinetsis";
+but does that get us any farther along?
+
+There has been talk for some years about unconscious facts, about
+sub-consciousness, subliminal consciousness, etc. I fear that in these
+things also we are putting ourselves off with words which do not explain
+things very much.
+
+I intend some day, if the time is given me, to write a special book on
+Spiritualism, studied from the theoretic and doctrinal point of view,
+which will form a second volume of my work _The Unknown and Psychic
+Problems_, and which has been in preparation since the publication of that
+work in 1899. Mediumistic communications, dictations received (notably by
+Victor Hugo, Mme. de Girardin, Eugène Nus, and the Phalansterians), will
+be the subject of special chapters in this volume,--as well as the
+problem, otherwise important, of the plurality of existences.
+
+It is not my intention to enlarge in this place upon the aspects of the
+general question. That which I restrict myself to establishing in this
+book is that there are in us, about us, unknown forces capable of putting
+matter in motion, just as our will does. I ought, therefore, to limit
+myself to material phenomena. The range of that class of investigations is
+already immense, and the "communications" of which I have just spoken are
+really outside the limits of this range. But, as this subject and that of
+psychological experiments are continually overlapping, it was necessary to
+give a summary of it in this place. Let us return for the present to the
+material phenomena produced by mediums and to that which I have myself
+ascertained in my experiences with Eusapia Paladino, who unites them
+nearly all in her own personality and experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY EXPERIMENTS WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO.
+
+
+In the earlier pages of this volume some of my later experiments with the
+Neapolitan medium, Eusapia Paladino, have been described. We shall now
+revert to the earlier ones.
+
+My first experimental séance with this remarkable medium took place on the
+27th of July, 1897. In response to the invitation of an excellent and
+honorable family,--that of Blech,--the name of which has for a long time
+been happily associated with modern researches in theosophy, occultism,
+and psychological studies, I betook myself to Montfort-l'Amaury, to make
+the personal acquaintance of this medium, whose case had already been
+studied in several particulars by MM. Lombroso, Charles Richet,
+Ochorowicz, Aksakof, Schiaparelli, Myers, Lodge, A. De Rochas, Dariex, J.
+Maxwell, Sabatier, De Watteville, and a great number of other scholars and
+scientists of high standing. Mme. Paladino's gifts had even been made the
+subject of a work by Count de Rochas upon _The Externalization of
+Motivity_, as well as of innumerable articles in the special reviews.
+
+The impression that results from the reading of all the official reports
+is not altogether satisfactory, and besides leaves us with our curiosity
+entirely ungratified. On the other hand, I can say, as I have already had
+occasion to remark, that, during the last forty years, almost all the
+celebrated mediums have been present at one time or another in my salon in
+the avenue l'Observatoire in Paris, and that I have detected them nearly
+all in trickery. Not that they always deceive: those who affirm this are
+wrong. But, consciously or unconsciously, they bring with them an element
+of trouble against which one is obliged to be constantly on guard, and
+which places the experimenter in conditions diametrically opposed to those
+of scientific observation.
+
+Apropos of Eusapia I had received from my illustrious colleague, M.
+Schiaparelli, director of the observatory at Milan, to whom science is
+indebted for so many important discoveries, a long letter from which I
+will quote a few passages:
+
+    During the autumn of 1892 I was invited by M. Aksakof to be present at
+    a certain number of Spiritualistic séances held under his direction
+    and care, for the purpose of meeting the medium Eusapia Paladino, of
+    Naples. I saw a number of very surprising things, a part of which, to
+    tell the truth, could be explained by very ordinary means. But there
+    are others the production of which I should not know how to explain by
+    the known principles of natural philosophy. I add, without any
+    hesitation, that, if it had been possible to entirely exclude all
+    suspicion of deceit, one would have had to recognize in these facts
+    the beginning of a new science pregnant with consequences of the
+    highest importance. But it must be admitted that these experiments
+    have been made in a manner little calculated to convince impartial
+    judges of their sincerity. Conditions were always imposed that
+    hindered the right comprehension of what was really taking place. When
+    we proposed modifications in the program suited to give to the
+    experiments the stamp of clearness and to furnish evidence that was
+    lacking, the medium invariably declared that, if we did so, the
+    success of the séance would thereby be made impossible. In fine, we
+    did not _experiment_ in the true sense of the word: we were obliged to
+    be content with _observing_ that which occurred under the unfavorable
+    circumstances imposed by the medium. Even when mere observation was
+    pushed a little too far, the phenomena were no longer produced or
+    lost their intensity and their marvellous nature. Nothing is more
+    offensive than these games of hide-and-seek to which we are obliged to
+    submit
+
+    All that kind of thing excites distrust. Having passed all my life in
+    the study of nature, which is always sincere in its manifestations and
+    logical in its processes, it is repugnant to me to turn my thoughts to
+    the investigation of a class of truths, which it seems as if a
+    malevolent and disloyal power was hiding from us with an obstinacy the
+    motive of which we cannot comprehend. In such researches it is not
+    sufficient to employ the ordinary methods of natural philosophy, which
+    are infallible, but very limited in their action. We must have
+    recourse to that other critical method, more subject to error, but
+    more audacious and more powerful, of which police officers and
+    examining magistrates make use when they are trying to bring out a
+    truth in the midst of disagreeing witnesses, a part at least of whom
+    have an interest in hiding that truth.
+
+    In accordance with these reflections, I cannot say that I am convinced
+    of the reality of the things which are comprised under the ill-chosen
+    name of Spiritualism. But neither do I believe in our right to deny
+    everything; for, in order to have a good basis for denial, it is not
+    sufficient to _suspect_ fraud, it is necessary to _prove it_. These
+    experiments, which I have found very unsatisfactory, other
+    experimenters of great confidence and of established reputation have
+    been able to make in more favorable circumstances. I have not enough
+    presumption to oppose a dogmatic and unwarranted denial to proofs in
+    which scientists of great critical ability, such as MM. Crookes,
+    Wallace, Richet, Oliver Lodge, have found a solid basis of fact and
+    one worthy their examination, to such an extent that they have given
+    to it years of study. And we should deceive ourselves if we believed
+    that men convinced of the truth of Spiritualism are all fanatics.
+    During the experiments of 1892 I had the pleasure of knowing some of
+    these men. I was obliged to admire their sincere desire to know the
+    truth; and I found, in the case of several of them, philosophic ideas
+    very sensible and very profound, joined to a moral character
+    altogether worthy of esteem.
+
+    That is the reason why it is impossible for me to declare that
+    Spiritualism is a ridiculous absurdity. I ought, then, to abstain from
+    pronouncing any opinion whatever: my mental state on this subject may
+    be defined by the word "agnosticism."
+
+    I have read with much attention all that the late Professor Zöllner
+    has written on this subject. His explanation has a purely material
+    basis,--that is to say, it is the hypothesis of the objective
+    existence of a fourth dimension of space, an existence which cannot be
+    comprised within the scope of our intuition, but the possibility of
+    which cannot be denied on that ground alone. Once grant the reality of
+    the experiments which he describes, and it is evident that his theory
+    of these things is the most ingenious and probable that can be
+    imagined. According to this theory, mediumistic phenomena would lose
+    their mystic or mystifying character and would pass into the domain of
+    ordinary physics and of physiology. They would lead to a very
+    considerable extension of the sciences, an extension such that their
+    author would deserve to be placed side by side with Galileo and
+    Newton. Unfortunately, these experiences of Zöllner were made with a
+    medium of poor reputation. It is not only the sceptics who doubt the
+    good faith of M. Slade: it is the Spiritualists themselves. M.
+    Aksakof, whose authority is very great in similar matters, told me
+    himself that he had detected him in trickery. You see by this that
+    these theories of Zöllner lose any support they might have derived
+    from the exact demonstration of experiment, at the same time that they
+    remain very beautiful, very ingenious, and quite possible.
+
+    Yes, quite possible in spite of everything; in spite of the lack of
+    success that I had when I tried to reproduce them with Eusapia. On the
+    day when we shall be enabled to make, with absolute sincerity, _a
+    single one_ of these experiments, the matter will have made great
+    progress; from the hands of charlatans it will have passed into those
+    of physicists and physiologists.
+
+Such is the communication made to me by M. Schiaparelli. I found his
+reasoning to be without defect, and it was in a state of mind entirely
+analogous to his that I arrived at Monfort-l'Amaury (with all the more
+interest because Slade was one of the mediums of whom I was just now
+speaking).
+
+Eusapia Paladino was introduced to me. She is a woman of very ordinary
+appearance, a brunette, her figure a little under the medium height. She
+was forty-three years old, not at all neurotic, rather stout. She was born
+on January 21, 1854, in a village of La Pouille; her mother died while
+giving birth to the child; her father was assassinated eight years
+afterward, in 1862, by brigands of southern Italy. Eusapia Paladino is her
+maiden name. She was married at Naples to a merchant of modest means named
+Raphael Delgaiz, a citizen of Naples. She manages the petty business of
+the shop, is illiterate, does not know how to either read or write,
+understands only a little French. I conversed with her, and soon perceived
+that she has no theories and does not burden herself by trying to explain
+the phenomena produced by her.
+
+The salon in which we are going to conduct our experiments is a room on
+the ground floor, rectangular, measuring twenty feet in length by nineteen
+in breadth; there are four windows, an outside entrance door and another
+in the vestibule.
+
+Before the sitting, I make sure that the large doors and windows are
+closely shut by window-blinds with hooks and by wooden blinds on the
+inside. The door of the vestibule is simply locked with a key.
+
+In an angle of the salon, at the left of the large entrance door, two
+curtains of a light color have been stretched on a rod, joining in the
+middle and forming thus a little cabinet. In this cabinet there is a sofa,
+and leaning against this a guitar; on one side is a chair, on which have
+been placed a music-box and a bell. In the recess of the window which is
+included in the cabinet there is a music-rack, upon which has been placed
+a plate containing a well-smoothed cake of glazier's putty, and under
+which, on the floor, is a huge tray containing a large smoothed cake of
+the same. We have prepared these plaques of putty because the annals of
+Spiritualism have often shown the imprint of hands and of heads produced
+by the unknown beings whom it is our business in this work to investigate.
+The large tray weighs about nine pounds.
+
+Why this dark cabinet? The medium declares it is necessary to the
+production of the phenomena "that relate to the condensation of fluids."
+
+I should prefer that there should be nothing of the kind. But the
+conditions must be accepted, though we must have an exact understanding
+about them. Behind the curtain the stillness of the aërial waves is at its
+maximum, the light at its minimum. It is curious, strange, infinitely
+regrettable that light prohibits certain effects. Undoubtedly, it would
+not be either philosophic or scientific to oppose this condition. It is
+possible that the radiations, the forces, which act may be the rays of the
+invisible end of the spectrum, I have already had occasion to remark, in
+the first chapter, that he who would seek to make photographs without a
+dark chamber would cloud over his plate and obtain nothing. The man who
+would deny the existence of electricity because he had been unable to
+obtain a spark in a damp atmosphere would be in error. He who would not
+believe in the existence of stars because we only see them at night would
+not be very wise. Modern progress in natural philosophy has taught us that
+the radiations that impinge on the retina represent only the smallest
+fraction of the totality. We can then admit the existence of forces which
+do not act in the full light of day. But, in accepting these conditions,
+the essential point is not to be their dupe.
+
+Hence, before the séance, I examined carefully the narrow corner of the
+room before which the curtain was stretched, and I found nothing except
+the objects mentioned above. Nowhere in the room was there any sign
+whatever of concealed mechanism, no electric wires or batteries or
+anything of the kind, either on the floor or in the walls. Moreover, the
+perfect sincerity of M. and Mme. Blech is beyond all suspicion.
+
+Before the séance, Eusapia was undressed and dressed before Mme. Zelma
+Blech. Nothing suspicious was found.
+
+The sitting was begun in full light, and I constantly laid stress upon
+obtaining the largest number of phenomena we could in the full light of
+day. It was only gradually, according as the "spirit" begged for it, that
+the light was turned down. But I obtained the concession that the darkness
+should never be absolute. At the last limit, when the light had to be
+entirely extinguished, it was replaced by one of the red lanterns used by
+photographers.
+
+The medium sits _before_ the curtain, turning her back to it. A table is
+placed before her,--a kitchen table, made of spruce, weighing about
+fifteen pounds. I examined this table and found nothing in it suspicious.
+It could be moved about in every direction.
+
+I sit at first on the left of Eusapia, then at her right side. I make sure
+as far as possible of her hands, her legs, and her feet, by personal
+control. Thus, for example, to begin with, in order to be sure that she
+should not lift the table either by her hands or her legs, or her feet, I
+take her left hand in my left hand, I place my right open hand upon her
+knees, and I place my right foot upon her left foot. Facing me, M.
+Guillaume de Fontenay, no more disposed than I to be duped, takes charge
+of her right hand and her right foot.
+
+There is full light,--a big kerosene lamp with a wide burner and a light
+yellow shade, besides two lighted candles.
+
+At the end of three minutes the table begins to move, balancing itself,
+and rising sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. A minute
+afterwards it is _lifted entirely from the floor_, to a height of about
+nine inches, and remains there two seconds.
+
+In a second trial, I take the two hands of Eusapia in mine. A notable
+levitation is produced, nearly under the same conditions.
+
+We repeat the same experiments thrice, in such a way that five levitations
+of the table take place in a quarter of an hour, and for several seconds
+the four feet are completely lifted from the floor, to the height of about
+nine inches. During one of the levitations the experimenters did not touch
+the table at all, but formed the chain above it and in the air; and
+Eusapia acted in the same way.
+
+So then it seems that an object can be lifted, in opposition to the law of
+gravity, without the contact of the hands which have just been acting upon
+it. (Proof already given above, pp. 5-8, 16.)
+
+A round centre table placed at my right comes forward without contact
+towards the table, always in full light, be it understood, as if it would
+like to climb up on it, and falls down. Nobody has moved aside or
+approached the curtain, and no explanation of this movement can be given.
+The medium has not yet entered into a trance and continues to take part in
+the conversation.
+
+Five raps in the table indicate, according to a convention arranged by the
+medium, that the unknown cause asks for less light. This is always
+annoying: I have already said what I think of this. The candles are blown
+out, the lamp turned down, but the light is strong enough for us to see
+very distinctly everything that takes place in the salon. The round table,
+which I had lifted and set aside, approaches the table and tries several
+times to climb up on it. I lean upon it in order to keep it down, but I
+experience an elastic resistance and am unable to do so. The free edge of
+the round table places itself on the edge of the rectangular table, but,
+hindered by its triangular foot, it does not succeed in clearing itself
+sufficiently to climb upon it. Since I am holding the medium, I ascertain
+that she makes no effort of the kind that would be needed for this style
+of performance.
+
+The curtain swells out and approaches my face. It is at this moment that
+the medium falls into a trance. She utters sighs and lamentations and only
+speaks now in the third person, saying that she is John King, a psychic
+personality who claims to have been her father in another existence and
+who calls her "my daughter" (_mia figlia_). This is an auto-suggestion
+proving nothing as to the identity of the force.
+
+Five new taps ask for still _less light_, and the lamp is most completely
+turned down, but not extinguished. The eyes, growing accustomed to the
+clare-obscure, still distinguish pretty well what is taking place.
+
+The curtain swells out again, and I feel that I am touched on the
+shoulder, through the stuff of the curtain, as if by a closed fist. The
+chair in the cabinet, upon which are placed the music-box and the bell, is
+violently shaken, and the objects fall to the floor. The medium asks again
+for _less light_, and a red photographic lantern is placed upon the piano,
+the light of the lamp being extinguished. The control is rigorously kept
+up, the medium agreeing to it with the greatest docility.
+
+For about a minute the music-box plays intermittent airs behind the
+curtain, as if it was turned by some hand.
+
+The curtain moves forward again toward me, and a rather strong hand seizes
+my arm. I immediately reach forward to seize the hand, but I grasp only
+the empty air. I then press the two legs of the medium between mine and I
+take her left hand in my right. On the other side, her right hand is
+firmly held in the left hand of M. de Fontenay. Then Eusapia brings the
+hand of the last named toward my cheek, and imitates upon the cheek, with
+the finger of M. de Fontenay, the movement of a little revolving crank or
+handle. The music-box, which has one of these handles, _plays at the same
+time behind the curtain in perfect synchronism_. The instant that
+Eusapia's hand stops, the music stops: all the movements correspond, just
+as in the Morse telegraphic system. We all amused ourselves with this. The
+thing was tried several times in succession, and every time the movement
+of the finger tallied the playing of the music.
+
+I feel several touches in the back and on the side. M. de Fontenay
+receives a hard slap on the back that everybody hears. A hand passes
+through my hair. The chair of M. de Fontenay is violently pulled, and a
+few moments afterwards he cries, "I see the silhouette of a man passing
+between M. Flammarion and me, above the table, shutting out the red
+light!"
+
+This thing is repeated several times. I do not myself succeed in seeing
+this silhouette. I then propose to M. de Fontenay that I take his place,
+for, in that case, I should be likely to see it also. I soon distinctly
+perceive a dim silhouette passing before the red lantern, but I do not
+recognize any precise form. It is only an opaque shadow (the profile of a
+man) which advances as far as the light and retires.
+
+In a moment, Eusapia says there is some one behind the curtain. After a
+slight pause she adds:
+
+"There is a man by my side, on the right: he has a great soft forked
+beard." I ask if I may touch this beard. In fact, while lifting my hand,
+I feel a rather soft beard brushing against it.
+
+A block of paper is put on the table with a lead-pencil, with the hope of
+getting writing. This pencil is flipped clear across the room. I then take
+the block of paper and hold it in the air: it is snatched violently from
+me, in spite of all my efforts to retain it. At this moment, M. de
+Fontenay, with his back turned to the light, sees a hand (a white hand and
+not a shadow), the arm showing as far as the elbow, holding the block of
+paper; but all the others declare that they only see the paper shaking in
+the air.
+
+I did not see the hand snatch the packet of paper from me; but only a hand
+could have been able to seize it with such violence, and this did not
+appear to be the hand of the medium, for I held her right hand in my left,
+and the paper with arm extended in my right hand, and M. de Fontenay
+declared that he did not let go of her left hand.
+
+I was struck several times in the side, touched on the head, and my ear
+was smartly pinched. I declare that after several repetitions I had enough
+of this ear pinching; but during the whole séance, in spite of my
+protestations, somebody kept hitting me.
+
+The little round table, placed outside of the cabinet, at the left of the
+medium, approaches the table, climbs clear up on it and lies across it.
+The guitar in the cabinet is heard moving about and giving out sounds. The
+curtain is puffed out, and the guitar is brought upon the table, resting
+upon the shoulder of M. de Fontenay. It is then laid upon the table, the
+large end toward the medium. Then it rises and moves over the heads of the
+company without touching them. It gives forth several sounds. The
+phenomenon lasts about fifteen seconds. It can readily be seen that the
+guitar is floating in the air, and the reflection of the red lamp glides
+over its shining surface. A rather bright gleam, pear-shaped, is seen on
+the ceiling in the other corner of the room.
+
+The medium, who is tired, asks for rest. The candles are lighted. Mme.
+Blech returns the objects to their places, ascertains that the cakes of
+putty are intact, places the smallest upon the little round table and the
+large one upon the chair in the cabinet, behind the medium. The sitting is
+resumed by the feeble glimmer of the red lantern.
+
+The medium, whose hands and feet are carefully controlled by M. de
+Fontenay and myself, breathes heavily. Above her head the snapping of
+fingers is heard. She still pants, groans, and sinks her fingers into my
+hand. Three raps are heard. She cries, "It is done" ("_E fatto_"). M. de
+Fontenay brings the little dish beneath the light of the red lantern and
+discovers the impression of four fingers in the putty, in the position
+which they had taken when she gripped my hand.
+
+Seats are taken, the medium asks for rest, and a little light is turned
+on.
+
+The sitting is soon resumed as before, by the extremely feeble light of
+the red lantern. John is spoken of as if he existed, as if it was he whose
+head we perceived in silhouette; he is asked to continue his
+manifestations, and to show the impression of his head in the putty, as he
+has already several times done. Eusapia replies that it is a difficult
+thing and asks us not to think of it for a moment, but to go on speaking.
+These suggestions of hers are always disquieting, and we redouble our
+attention, though without speaking much. The medium pants, groans,
+writhes. The chair in the cabinet on which the putty is placed is heard to
+move. The chair comes forward and places itself by the side of the medium,
+then it is lifted and placed upon the head of Mme. Z. Blech, while the
+tray is lightly placed in the hands of M. Blech, at the other end of the
+table. Eusapia cries that she sees before her a head and a bust, and
+says, "_E fatto_" ("It is done"). We do not believe her, because M. Blech
+has not felt any pressure on the dish. Three violent blows as of a mallet
+are struck upon the table. The light is turned on, and a human profile is
+found imprinted upon the putty.
+
+Mme. Z. Blech kisses Eusapia upon both cheeks, for the purpose of finding
+out whether her face has not some odor (glazier's putty having a very
+strong odor of linseed oil which remains for some time upon the fingers).
+She discovers nothing abnormal.
+
+This discovery of a "spirit head" in the putty is so astonishing, so
+impossible to admit without sufficient verification, that it is really
+still more incredible than all the rest. It is not the head of the man
+whose profile I perceived, and the beard I felt on my hand is not there.
+The imprint has a resemblance to Eusapia's face. If we supposed she
+produced it herself, that she was able to bury her nose up to the cheeks
+and up to the eyes in that thick putty, we should still have to explain
+how that large and heavy tray was transported from the other end of the
+table and gently placed in the hands of M. Blech.
+
+The resemblance of the imprint to Eusapia was undeniable. I reproduce both
+the print and the portrait of the medium.[21] Every one can assure himself
+of it. The simplest thing, evidently, is to suppose the Italian woman
+imprinted her face in the putty.
+
+But how?
+
+We are in the dark as to this, or nearly so. I sit at the right hand of
+Eusapia, _who rests her head upon my left shoulder_, and whose right hand
+I am holding. M. de Fontenay is at her left, and has taken great care not
+to let go of the other hand. The tray of putty, weighing nine pounds, has
+been placed upon a chair, twenty inches behind the curtain, consequently
+behind Eusapia. She cannot touch it without turning around, and we have
+her entirely in our power, our feet on hers. Now the chair upon which was
+the tray of putty has drawn aside the hangings, or portières, and moved
+forward to a point above the head of the medium, who remained seated and
+held down by us; moved itself also over our heads,--the chair to rest upon
+the head of my neighbor, Mme. Blech, and the tray to rest softly in the
+hands of M. Blech, who is sitting at the end of the table. At this moment
+Eusapia rises, declaring that she sees upon the table another table and a
+bust, and cries out, "_E fatto_" ("It is done"). It was not at this time,
+surely, that she would have been able to place her face upon the cake, for
+it was at the other end of the table. Nor was it before this, for it would
+have been necessary to take the chair in one hand and the cake with the
+other, and she did not stir from her place. The explanation, as can be
+seen, is very difficult indeed.
+
+Let us admit, however, that the fact is so extraordinary that a doubt
+remains in our mind, because the medium rose from her chair almost at the
+critical moment. And yet her face was immediately kissed by Mme. Blech,
+who perceived no odor of the putty.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IV. PLASTER CAST OF IMPRINT MADE IN PUTTY WITHOUT
+CONTACT BY THE MEDIUM EUSAPIA PALADINO.]
+
+[Illustration: PLATE V. EUSAPIA PALADINO, SHOWING RESEMBLANCE TO THE
+IMPRINT IN PUTTY.]
+
+Dr. Ochorowicz writes as follows apropos of these prints of faces and of
+the study which he made of them at Rome:[22]
+
+    The imprint of this face was obtained in darkness, yet at a moment
+    when I held the two hands of Eusapia, while my arms were entirely
+    around her. Or, rather, it was she who clung to me in such a way that
+    I had accurate knowledge of the position of all her limbs. Her head
+    rested against mine, and even with violence. At the moment of the
+    production of the phenomenon a convulsive trembling shook her whole
+    body, and the pressure of her head on my temples was so intense that
+    it hurt me.
+
+    At the moment when the strongest convulsion took place, she cried,
+    "_Ah, che dura!_" ("Oh, how severe!") We at once lighted a candle and
+    found a print, rather poor in comparison with those which other
+    experimenters have obtained,--a thing due, perhaps, to the bad quality
+    of the clay which I used. This clay was placed about twenty inches to
+    the right of the medium, while her head was inclined to the left. Her
+    face was not at all soiled by the clay, which was yet so moist as to
+    leave traces upon the fingers when touched. Moreover, the contact of
+    her head with mine made me suffer so much that I am absolutely sure it
+    was not intermitted for a single moment. Eusapia was very happy when
+    she saw a verification made under conditions in which it was
+    impossible to suspect her good faith.
+
+    I then took the tray of clay, and we passed into the dining-room in
+    order to better examine the imprint, which I placed on a large table
+    near a big kerosene lamp. Eusapia, who had fallen into a trance,
+    remained for some moments standing, her hands resting upon the table,
+    motionless and as if unconscious. I did not lose sight of her, and she
+    looked at me without seeing anything. Then, with an uncertain step,
+    she moved backward toward the door and passed slowly into the chamber
+    which we had just left. We followed her, observing her all the while,
+    and leaving the clay behind upon the table. We had already got into
+    the chamber when, leaning against one of the halves of the double
+    door, she fixed her eyes upon the tray of clay which had been left
+    upon the table. The medium was in a very good light: we were separated
+    from her by a distance of from six to ten feet, and we perceived
+    distinctly all the details. All of a sudden Eusapia stretched her hand
+    out abruptly toward the clay, then sank down uttering a groan. We
+    rushed precipitately towards the table and saw, side by side with the
+    imprint of the head, a new imprint, very marked, of a hand which had
+    been thus produced under the very light of the lamp, and which
+    resembled the hand of Eusapia. I have, myself, obtained head prints a
+    dozen times, but always rather poor, owing to the quality of the clay,
+    and often broken while the experiment was going on.
+
+The Chevalier Chiaia, of Naples, who first obtained these fantastic
+pictures through the agency of Eusapia, wrote as follows, in this
+connection, to Count de Rochas:
+
+    I have imprints in boxes of clay weighing anywhere between fifty-five
+    and sixty-five pounds. I mention the weight in order to let you see
+    the impossibility of lifting and transporting _with one hand alone_ so
+    heavy a tray, even upon the supposition that Eusapia might, unknown to
+    us, free one of her hands. In almost every case, in fact, this tray,
+    placed upon a chair _three feet behind the medium_, was brought
+    forward and placed very gently upon the table about which we were
+    seated. The transfer was made with such nicety that the persons who
+    formed the chain and held firmly the hands of Eusapia did not hear the
+    least noise, did not perceive the least rustling. We were forewarned
+    of the arrival of the tray upon the table by seven taps, which,
+    according to our conventional arrangement, John struck in the wall to
+    inform us that we could turn on the light. I did so at once by turning
+    the cock of the gas-fixture which was suspended above the table. (We
+    had never completely extinguished it.) We then found the tray upon the
+    table, and, upon the clay, the imprint which we supposed must have
+    been made before its transfer, and while it was behind Eusapia, in the
+    cabinet where John usually materializes and manifests himself.
+
+The totality of these observations (which are very numerous) leads us to
+the thought that, in spite of the improbability of the thing, these
+imprints are produced at a distance by the medium.
+
+However, some days after the séance at Montfort-l'Amaury I wrote as
+follows:
+
+    These different manifestations are not to me equally authentic. I am
+    not sure of all of them, for the phenomena were not all produced
+    under the same conditions of certainty. I should wish to class the
+    facts in the following order of decreasing certainty:
+
+    1. Levitations of the table.
+
+    2. Movements of the round table without contact.
+
+    3. Mallet blows.
+
+    4. Movements of the curtain.
+
+    5. Opaque silhouette passing before the red lamp.
+
+    6. Sensation of a beard upon the back of the hand.
+
+    7. Touchings.
+
+    8. Snatching of the block of paper.
+
+    9. Throwing of the lead-pencil.
+
+    10. Transference of the round table to the top of the other table.
+
+    11. Music from the little box.
+
+    12. Transfer of the guitar to a point above the head.
+
+    13. Imprints of a hand and of a face.
+
+    The first four events, having taken place in full light, are
+    incontestable. I should put almost in the same rank Nos. 5 and 6. No.
+    7 may perhaps be due very often to fraud. The last in the list, having
+    been produced toward the end of the séance, at a time when attention
+    was necessarily relaxed, and being still more extraordinary than all
+    the others, I confess that I cannot admit it with certainty, although
+    I can not understand how it could have been due to fraud. The four
+    others seem genuine; but I should like to observe them anew; a man
+    could wager ninety-nine to one hundred that they are true. I was
+    absolutely sure of them during the séance. But the vividness of the
+    impressions grows weak, and we have a tendency to listen only to the
+    voice of plain common sense,--the most reasonable and the most
+    deceptive of our faculties.
+
+The first impression we get upon the reading of these reports is that
+these different manifestations are rather vulgar, altogether banal, and do
+not tell us anything about the other world--or about other worlds. Surely
+it does not seem probable that any _spiritual being_ would take part in
+such performances. For these phenomena are of an absolutely material
+class.
+
+On the other hand, however, it is impossible not to recognize the
+existence of unknown forces. The simple fact, for example, of the
+levitation of a table to a height of six and one-half, eight, sixteen
+inches from the floor is not banal at all. It seems to me, speaking for
+myself alone, so extraordinary that my opinion is very well expressed when
+I say that I do not dare to admit it without having seen it myself, with
+my own eyes: I mean that which is called seeing, in full light and under
+such conditions that it would be impossible to suspect. While we are very
+sure that we have proved it, we are at the same time sure that in such
+experiments there emanates from the human body a force that may be
+compared with the magnetism of the loadstone, able to act upon wood, upon
+matter (somewhat as the loadstone acts upon iron), and counterbalancing
+for some moments the action of gravity. From the scientific point of view,
+that is a weighty fact in itself. I am absolutely certain that the medium
+did not lift that weight of fifteen pounds either by her hands or by her
+legs, or by her feet, and, furthermore, no one of the company was able to
+do it. The table was lifted by its upper surface. We are, therefore,
+certainly in the presence of an unknown force here which emanates from the
+persons present, and above all from the medium.
+
+A rather curious observation ought to be made here. Several times during
+the course of this séance, and during the levitation of the table, I said,
+"There is no spirit." Every time I said this two violent blows of
+protestation were struck in the table. I have already remarked that,
+generally, we are supposed to admit the Spiritualistic hypothesis and to
+ask a spirit to exert himself in order that we may obtain the phenomena.
+We have here a psychological matter not without importance. Still, it does
+not seem to me, for all that, to prove the real existence of spirits, for
+it might happen that this idea was necessary to the concentration of the
+forces present and had a purely subjective value. Religious zealots who
+believe in the efficacy of prayer are the dupes of their own imagination;
+and yet no one can doubt that certain of these petitions appear to have
+been granted by a beneficent deity. The Italian or Spanish girl who goes
+to beg of the Virgin Mary that she will punish her lover for an infidelity
+may be sincere, and never suspects the strangeness of her request. In
+dreams we all converse every night with imaginary beings. But there is
+something more here: the medium really duplicates herself.
+
+I take the point of view solely of the physicist whose business is to
+observe, and I say, whatever may be the explanatory hypothesis you may
+adopt, there exists an invisible force derived from the organism of the
+medium, and having the power to emerge from him and to act outside of him.
+
+That is the fact: what is the best hypothesis to explain it? 1. Is it the
+medium who herself acts, in an unconscious manner, by means of an
+invisible force emanating from her? 2. Is it an intelligent cause apart
+from her, a soul that has already lived upon this earth, who draws from
+the medium a force which it needs in order to act? 3. Is it another kind
+of invisible beings? Nothing authorizes us to affirm that there may not
+exist, side by side with us, living, invisible forces. There you have
+three very different hypotheses, none of which seems to me, as far as my
+personal experience goes, to be as yet conclusively proved.
+
+But there certainly emanates from the medium an invisible force; and the
+participants, by forming the psychic chain and by uniting their
+sympathetic wills, increase this force. This force is not immaterial. It
+may be a substance, an agent emitting radiations of wave-lengths which
+make no impression on our retina, and which are nevertheless very
+powerful. In the absence of light rays it is able to condense itself,
+take shape, affect even a certain resemblance to the human body, to act as
+do our organs, to violently strike a table, or touch us.
+
+It acts as if it were an independent being. But this independence does not
+really exist; for this transitory being is intimately connected with the
+organism of the medium, and its apparent existence ceases when the
+conditions of its production themselves cease.
+
+While writing these monstrous scientific heresies, I feel very deeply that
+it is difficult to accept them. Still, after all, who can trace the limits
+of science? We have all learned, especially during the last quarter of a
+century, that our knowledge is not a very colossal affair, and that, apart
+from astronomy, there is as yet no exact science founded upon absolute
+principles. And then, when all is said, there are the _facts_ to be
+explained. Doubtless it is easier to deny them. But it is not decent or
+civil. He who has merely failed to find what satisfies him has no right to
+deny. The best he can do is simply to say, "I know nothing about it."
+
+The fact is that, as yet, we have not elementary data enough to enable us
+to characterize these forces; but we ought not to lay the blame upon those
+who study them.
+
+To sum up, I believe that I am able to go a little farther than M.
+Schiaparelli and affirm the certain existence of unknown forces capable of
+moving matter and of counterbalancing the action of gravity. There is a
+complex totality, as yet difficult to disentangle, of psychic and physical
+forces. But such facts, however extravagant they may appear, are worthy of
+coming within the sphere of scientific observation. It is even probable
+that they tend powerfully to elucidate the problem (a matter of supreme
+importance to us) of the nature of the human soul.
+
+After the end of that séance of the 27th of July, 1897, as I desired to
+see again the levitation of a table in full light, the chain was formed
+_standing_, the hands lightly placed upon the table. The latter began to
+oscillate, then rose up to a height of nine inches from the floor,
+remained there several seconds (all the participators remaining on their
+feet), and fell heavily back again.[23]
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VI
+
+PHOTOGRAPH OF THE TABLE RESTING ON THE FLOOR.
+
+PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SAME TABLE RAISED TO A HEIGHT OF TWENTY-FIVE
+CENTIMETRES. MADE BY M. G. DE FONTENAY.]
+
+M. G. de Fontenay succeeded in getting several photographs by the
+magnesium light. I reproduce two of them here (Pl. VI.). There are five
+experimenters who are, from left to right, M. Blech, Mme. Z. Blech,
+Eusapia, myself, Mlle. Blech. In the first photograph the table rests upon
+the floor. In the second it floats in air, coming up as high as the arms,
+at a height of about ten inches on the left and eight inches on the right.
+I hold my right foot resting upon Eusapia's feet and my right hand upon
+her knees. With my left hand I hold her left hand. The hands of all the
+others are upon the table. It is therefore altogether impossible for her
+to employ any muscular action. This photographic record confirms that of
+Pl. I., and it seems to me difficult not to recognize its undeniable
+documentary value.[24]
+
+After this séance my most ardent desire was to see the same experiments
+reproduced at my own house. In spite of all the care I took with my
+observations, several objections can be taken to the absolute certainty of
+the phenomena. The most important arises from the existence of the little
+dark cabinet. Personally, I was sure of the perfect probity of the
+honorable Blech family, and I am unable to accept the idea of any trickery
+whatever on the part of any of its members. But the opinion of readers of
+the formal report may not be so well assured. It was not _impossible_
+that, even unknown to the members of the family, some one, with the
+connivance of the medium, glided into the room, favored by the dim light,
+and produced the phenomena. An accomplice entirely clothed in black and
+walking barefoot would have been able to hold the instruments up in the
+air, put them in movement, make the touches, and cause the black mask to
+move at the end of a rod, etc.
+
+This objection could be verified or quashed by renewing the experiments at
+my house, in a room of my own, where I should be absolutely certain that
+no confederate could enter. I should myself arrange the curtain, I should
+place the chairs, I should be certain that Eusapia would come alone to my
+apartments, she would be asked to undress and dress in the presence of two
+lady examiners, and every supposition of fraud alien to her proper
+personality would thus be annihilated.
+
+At this epoch (1898) I was preparing, for _l'Annales politiques et
+litteraires_, some articles upon psychic phenomena, which, revised and
+amplified, afterwards formed my work, _The Unknown_. The eminent and
+sympathetic editor of the review showed himself assiduous in examining
+with me the best means of realizing this scheme of personal experiences.
+Upon our invitation, Eusapia came to Paris to pass the month of November,
+1898, and to devote eight soirées especially to us--namely, the 10th,
+12th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 21st, 25th, and 28th of November. We had invited
+several friends to be present. Each one of these séances was the subject
+of a formal report by several of those who were present, notably by MM.
+Charles Richet, A. de Rochas, Victorien Sardou, Jules Claretie, Adolphe
+Brisson, Réne Baschet, Arthur Lévy, Gustave Le Bon, Jules Bois, Gaston
+Méry, G. Delanne, G. de Fontenay, G. Armelin, André Bloch, etc.
+
+We met in my salon in the avenue de l'Observatoire, in Paris. There were
+no special arrangements, except the stretching of two curtains in one
+corner, before the angle of two walls, thus forming a kind of triangular
+cabinet, the walls about which are there unbroken, without door or window.
+The front of the cabinet was closed by these two curtains, reaching from
+the ceiling to the floor and meeting in the middle.
+
+It is before this kind of cabinet that the reader will please imagine the
+medium to be seated, with a white wooden table (kitchen table) before her.
+
+Behind the curtain, upon the plinth of the projection of a bookcase and
+upon a table, we placed a guitar, also a violin, a tambourine, an
+accordion, a music-box, cushions, and several small objects, which were to
+be shaken, seized, thrown about by the unknown force.
+
+The first result of these séances in Paris, at my house, was absolutely to
+establish the fact that the hypothesis of a confederate is inadmissible
+and ought to be entirely eliminated. Eusapia acts alone.
+
+The fifth séance led me, moreover, to think that the phenomena take place
+(at least a certain number) when the hands of Eusapia are closely held by
+two controllers, that it is not generally with her hands that she acts, in
+spite of certain possible trickeries; for it would be necessary to admit
+(an abominable heresy!) that a third hand could be formed in organic
+connection with her body!
+
+Before every séance Eusapia was undressed and dressed again in the
+presence of two ladies charged with seeing that she did not hide any
+tricking apparatus under her clothes.
+
+It would be a little long to go thoroughly into the details of these eight
+sittings, and it would be partly to go over what has already been
+described and commented upon in the first chapter, as well as in the
+preceding pages. But it will not be uninteresting to give here the
+estimate of several of the sitters, by reproducing some of the reports.
+
+I will begin with that of M. Arthur Lévy, because he describes very fully
+the installation, the impression produced upon him by a medium, and the
+greater part of the facts observed.
+
+    Report of M. Arthur Lévy
+
+    (_Séance of November 16_)
+
+    That which I am going to relate I saw yesterday at your house. I saw
+    it with distrust, closely observing all that might have resembled
+    trickery; and, after I had seen it, I found it so far beyond the
+    things that we are accustomed to conceive that I still ask myself if I
+    really saw it. Yet I must confess that I have not been dreaming.
+
+    When I arrived at your salon, I found the furniture and all the other
+    arrangements as usual. On entering, only a single change could be
+    remarked at the left, where two thick curtains of gray and green rep
+    concealed a little corner. Eusapia was to perform her wonders before
+    this kind of alcove. This was the mysterious corner: I examined it
+    very minutely. It had in it a little round uncovered table, a
+    tambourine, a violin, an accordion, castanets, and one or two
+    cushions. After this precautionary visit, I was certain that in this
+    place at least there was no preparation, and that no communication
+    with the outside was possible.
+
+    I hasten to say that from this moment up to the end of the experiments
+    we did not leave the room for a single minute, and that, so to speak,
+    we had our eyes constantly fixed upon this corner, the curtains of
+    which, however, were always partly open.
+
+    Some moments after my examination of the cabinet Eusapia arrives,--the
+    famous Eusapia. As almost always happens, she looks quite different
+    from what I had anticipated. Where I had expected to see--I do not
+    well know why, indeed--a tall thin woman with a fixed look, piercing
+    eyes, with bony hands, and abrupt movements, agitated by nerves
+    incessantly trembling under perpetual tension, I find a woman in the
+    forties, rather plump, with a tranquil air, soft hand, simple in her
+    manners, and slightly shrinking. Altogether, she has the air of an
+    excellent woman of the people. Yet two things arrest the attention
+    when you look at her. First, her large eyes, filled with strange fire,
+    sparkle in their orbits, or, again, seem filled with swift gleams of
+    phosphorescent fire, sometimes bluish, sometimes golden. If I did not
+    fear that the metaphor was too easy when it concerns a Neapolitan
+    woman, I should say that her eyes appear like the glowing lava fires
+    of Vesuvius, seen from a distance in a dark night.
+
+    The other peculiarity is a mouth with strange contours. We do not know
+    whether it expresses amusement, suffering, or scorn. These
+    peculiarities impress themselves on the mind almost simultaneously,
+    without our knowing on which one to fix the attention. Perhaps we
+    should find in these features of her face an indication of forces
+    which are acting in her, and of which she is not altogether the
+    mistress.
+
+    She takes a seat, enters into all the commonplaces of the
+    conversation, speaking in a gentle, melodious voice, like many women
+    of her country. She uses a language difficult for herself and not less
+    difficult for others, for it is neither French nor Italian. She makes
+    painful efforts to make herself understood, and sometimes does this by
+    mimicry (or sign-language) and by willing to obtain that which she
+    wants. However, a persistent irritation of the throat, like a pressure
+    of blood returning at short intervals, forces her to cough, to ask for
+    water. I confess that these paroxysms, in which her face became deeply
+    flushed, caused me great anxiety. Were we going to have the inevitable
+    indisposition of the rare tenor, on the day when he was to be heard on
+    the stage? Happily, nothing of the kind took place. It was rather a
+    sign of the contrary, and seemed like a forerunner of the extreme
+    excitement which was going to take possession of her on that evening.
+    In fact, it is very remarkable that from the moment when she put
+    herself--how shall I say it?--in condition for work, the cough, the
+    irritation of the throat, completely disappeared.
+
+    When her fingers were placed on black wool,--to be frank, upon the
+    trousers cloth of one of the company,--Eusapia called our attention to
+    the kind of diaphanous marks made upon them (the fingers), a
+    distorted, elongated second contour. She tells us that that is a sign
+    that she is going to be given great power to-day.
+
+    While we are talking some one puts a letter-weigher on the table.
+    Putting her hands down on each side of the letter-weigher, and at a
+    distance of four inches, she causes the needle to move to No. 35
+    engraved on the dial plate of the weigher. Eusapia herself asked us to
+    convince ourselves, by inspection, that she did _not_ have a hair
+    leading from one hand to the other, and with which she could
+    fraudulently press upon the tray of the letter-weigher. This little
+    by-play took place when all the lamps of the salon were fully lighted.
+    Then commenced the main series of experiments.
+
+    We sit around a rectangular table of white wood, the common kitchen
+    table. There are six of us. Close to the curtains, at one of the
+    narrow ends of the table, sits Eusapia; at her left, also near the
+    curtains, is M. Georges Mathieu, an agricultural engineer at the
+    observatory in Juvisy; next comes my wife; M. Flammarion is at the
+    other end, facing Eusapia; then Mme. Flammarion; finally myself. I am
+    thus placed at the right hand of Eusapia, and also against the
+    curtain. M. Mathieu and myself each hold a hand of the medium resting
+    upon his knee, and, furthermore, Eusapia places one of her feet upon
+    ours. Consequently, no movements of her legs or arms can escape our
+    attention. Note well, therefore, that this woman has the use only of
+    her head and of her bust, which latter is of course without the use of
+    the arms, and is in absolute contact with our shoulders.
+
+    We rest our hands on the table. In a few moments it begins to
+    oscillate, stands on one foot, strikes the floor, rears up, rises
+    wholly into the air,--sometimes twelve inches, sometimes eight inches,
+    from the ground. Eusapia utters a sharp cry, resembling a cry of joy,
+    of deliverance; the curtain behind her swells out, and, all inflated
+    as it is, comes forward upon the table. Other raps are heard in the
+    table, and simultaneously in the floor at a distance of about ten feet
+    from us. All this in full light.
+
+    Already excited, Eusapia asks in a supplicating voice and broken words
+    that we lessen the lights. She cannot endure the dazzling glare in her
+    eyes. She affirms that she is tortured, wants us to hurry; "for," she
+    adds, "you shall see fine things." After one of us has placed the lamp
+    on the floor behind the piano, in the corner opposite the place where
+    we are (at a distance of about twenty-three feet), Eusapia no longer
+    sees the light and is satisfied; but we can distinguish faces and
+    hands. Let it not be forgotten that M. Mathieu and I each have a foot
+    of the medium on ours, and that we are holding her hands and knees,
+    that we are pressing against her shoulders.
+
+    The table is always shaking and makes sudden jolts. Eusapia calls to
+    us to look. Above her head appears a hand. It is a small hand, like
+    that of a little girl of fifteen years, the palm forward, the fingers
+    joined, the thumb projecting. The color of this hand is livid; its
+    form is not rigid, nor is it fluid; one would say rather that it is
+    the hand of a big doll stuffed with bran.
+
+    When the hand moves back from the brighter light, as it
+    disappears,--is it an optical illusion?--it seems to lose its shape,
+    as if the fingers were being broken, beginning with the thumb.
+
+    M. Mathieu is violently pushed by a force acting from behind the
+    curtain. A strong hand presses against him, he says. His chair is also
+    pushed. Something pulls his hair. While he is complaining of the
+    violence used upon him, we hear the sound of the tambourine, which is
+    then quickly thrown upon the table. Next the violin arrives in the
+    same manner, and we hear its strings sound. I seize the tambourine and
+    ask the Invisible if he wishes to take it. I feel a hand grasping the
+    instrument. I am not willing to let it go. A struggle now ensues
+    between myself and a force which I judge to be considerable. In the
+    tussle a violent effort pushes the tambourine into my hand, and the
+    cymbals penetrate the flesh. I feel a sharp pang, and a good deal of
+    blood flows. I let go of the handle. I just now ascertain, by the
+    light, that I have a deep gash under the right thumb nearly an inch
+    long. The table continues to shake, to strike the floor with redoubled
+    strokes, and the accordion is thrown upon the table. I seize it by
+    its lower half and ask the Invisible if he can pull it out by the
+    other end so as to make it play. The curtain comes forward, and the
+    bellows of the accordion is methodically moved back and forth, its
+    keys are touched, and several different notes are heard.
+
+    Eusapia utters repeated cries, a kind of rattling in the throat. She
+    writhes nervously, and, as if she were calling for help, cries, "_La
+    catena! la catena!_" ("The chain! the chain!"). We thereupon form the
+    chain by taking hold of hands. Then, just as if she was defying some
+    monster, she turns, with inflamed looks, toward an enormous divan,
+    which thereupon _marches up to us_. She looks at it with a satanic
+    smile. Finally she blows upon the divan, which goes immediately back
+    to its place.
+
+    Eusapia, faint and depressed, remains relatively calm. Yet she is
+    dejected; her breast heaves violently; she lays her head on my
+    shoulder.
+
+    M. Mathieu, tired of the blows which he is constantly receiving, asks
+    to change places with some one. I agree to this. He changes with Mme.
+    F., who then sits at the right of Eusapia, while I am at her left.
+    Mme. F. and I never cease to hold the feet, hands, and knees of the
+    medium. M. F. sets a water bottle and a glass in the middle of the
+    table. The latter's brisk, jolting movements overturn the water
+    bottle, and the water is spilled over its surface. The medium
+    imperatively requires that the liquid be wiped up; the water upon the
+    table blinds her, tortures, paralyzes her, she says. M. F. asks the
+    Invisible if he can pour water into the glass. After some moments the
+    curtain advances, the carafe is grasped, and the glass seems to be
+    half full. That takes place several different times.
+
+    Mme. F., being no longer able to endure the blows given her through
+    the curtain, exchanges seats with her husband.
+
+    I put my repeating watch upon the table. I ask the Invisible if he can
+    sound the alarm. (The mechanism of the alarm is very difficult to
+    understand, delicate to operate, even for me, doing it every day. It
+    is formed by a little tube cut in two, one half of which glides
+    smoothly over the other. In reality, there is only a projection of
+    one-fiftieth of an inch of thickness of tube, upon which it is
+    necessary to press with the finger-nail and give quite a push in order
+    to start up the alarm.) In a moment the watch is taken by the
+    "spirit." We hear the stem-winder turning. The watch comes back upon
+    the table without having been sounded.
+
+    Another request is made for the alarm to sound. The watch is again
+    taken; the case is heard to open and shut. (Now I cannot open this
+    case with my hands: I have to pry it open with a tool like a lever.)
+    The watch comes back once more without having sounded.
+
+    I confess that I experienced a disenchantment. I felt that I was going
+    to doubt the extent of the occult power, which had, nevertheless,
+    manifested itself very clearly. Why could it not sound the alarm of
+    this watch? In making my request, had I overstepped the limits of its
+    powers? Was I going to be the cause of all the well-proved phenomena
+    of which we have had testimony losing the half of their value? I said
+    aloud:
+
+    "Am I to show how the alarm is operated?"
+
+    "No, no!" Eusapia warmly replies, "it will do it."
+
+    I will note here that at the moment when I proposed to point out the
+    mechanism, there passed through my mind the method of pressing upon
+    the little tube. Immediately the watch was brought back to the table;
+    and, very distinctly, three separate times, we heard it sound a
+    quarter to eleven.
+
+    Eusapia was evidently very tired; her burning hands seemed to contract
+    or shrivel; she gasped aloud with heaving breast, her foot kept
+    quitting mine every moment, scraping the floor and tediously rubbing
+    along it back and forth. She uttered hoarse panting cries, shrugging
+    up her shoulders and sneering; the sofa came forward when she looked
+    at it, then recoiled before her breath; all the instruments were
+    thrown pell-mell upon the table; the tambourine rose almost to the
+    height of the ceiling; the cushions took part in the sport,
+    overturning everything on the table; M. M. was thrown from his chair.
+    This chair--a heavy dining-room chair of black walnut, with stuffed
+    seat--rose into the air, came up on the table with a great clatter,
+    then was pushed off.
+
+    Eusapia seems shrunken together and is very much affected. We pity
+    her. We ask her to stop. "No, no!" she cries. She rises, we with her;
+    the table leaves the floor, rises to a height of twenty-four inches,
+    then comes clattering down.
+
+    Eusapia sinks prostrated into a chair. We sit there troubled, amazed,
+    in consternation, with a tense and constricted feeling in the head, as
+    if the atmosphere were charged with electricity.
+
+    With many precautions, M. F. succeeds in calming the agitation of
+    Eusapia. After about a quarter of an hour she returns to herself. When
+    the lamps are again lighted, she is seen to be very much changed, her
+    eye dull, her face apparently diminished to half its usual size. In
+    her trembling hands she feels the pricking of needles which she asks
+    us to pull out. Little by little she completely recovers her senses.
+    She appears to remember nothing, not to comprehend at all our
+    expressions of wonder. All that is as foreign to her as if she had not
+    been present at the sitting. She isn't interested in it. So far as she
+    is concerned, it would seem as if we were speaking of things of which
+    she had not the faintest idea.
+
+    What have we seen? mystery of mysteries!
+
+    We took every precaution not to be the dupes of complicity, of fraud.
+    Superhuman forces acting near us, so near that we heard the very
+    breathing of a living being,--if living being it were,--such are the
+    things our eyes took cognizance of for two mortal hours.
+
+    And when, on looking back, doubts begin to creep into the mind, we
+    must conclude that, given the conditions in which we were, the
+    chicanery necessary to produce such effects would be at least as
+    phenomenal as the effects themselves.
+
+    How shall we name the mystery?
+
+So much for the report of M. Arthur Lévy. I have no commentary to make at
+present upon these reports of my fellow-experimenters. The essential
+thing, it seems to me, is to leave to every one his own exposition and his
+personal judgment. I shall proceed in the same way with the other reports
+which are to follow. I shall reproduce the principal ones. In spite of
+some inevitable repetitions, they will surely be read with extreme
+interest, especially when we take into consideration the high intellectual
+standing of the observers.
+
+    Report of M. Adolphe Brisson.
+
+    (_Séance of November 10_)
+
+    (There were present at this séance, besides the hosts of the occasion,
+    M. Prof. Richet, M. and Mme. Ad. Brisson, Mme. Fourton, M. André
+    Bloch, M. Georges Mathieu.)
+
+    The following are occurrences which I personally observed with the
+    greatest care. I did not once cease to hold in my right hand the left
+    hand of Eusapia or fail to feel that we were in contact. The contact
+    was only interrupted twice,--at the moment when Dr. Richet felt a
+    pricking in his arm. Eusapia's hand, making violent movements, escaped
+    from my grasp; but I seized it again after two or three seconds.
+
+    1. After this sitting had begun,--that is, at the end of about ten
+    minutes,--the table was lifted up away from Eusapia, two of its legs
+    leaving the floor simultaneously.
+
+    2. Five minutes later the curtain swelled out as if it had been
+    inflated by a strong breeze. My hand, never letting go of that of
+    Eusapia, pressed gently against the curtain, and I experienced a
+    resistance, just as if I had pressed against the sail of a ship
+    bellied out by the wind.
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    3. Not only was the curtain puffed out, forming a big pocket, but the
+    perpendicular edge of the curtain that touched the window moved
+    automatically aside and drew back as if it were pushed by an invisible
+    curtain holder, making nearly this kind of a movement.
+
+    4. The curtain, inflated anew, took the form of a nose or of an
+    eagle's beak, projecting above the table about eight or ten inches.
+    This shape was visible for several seconds.
+
+    5. We heard behind the curtain the noise of a chair rolling over the
+    floor; by a first push it arrived as far as I was; a second push
+    turned it upside down, its feet in the air, in the position shown. It
+    was a heavy stuffed chair. Succeeding pushes moved it again, lifted it
+    up, and made it turn somersaults; it finally came to a standstill
+    almost in the place where it had fallen over.
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    6. We heard the noise of two or three objects falling to the floor (I
+    mean objects behind the curtain upon the centre-table). The curtain
+    parted in the middle, and in the dim light the little violin appeared.
+    Sustained in the air by an invisible hand, it came gently forward
+    above our table, whence it settled down upon my hand and upon that of
+    my neighbor on the left.[25]
+
+    On two separate occasions the violin rose from the table and at once
+    fell back again, making a vigorous leap, like a fish flopping upon the
+    sand. Then it glided down to the floor, where it remained motionless
+    until the end of the sitting.
+
+    7. A new rolling noise was heard behind the curtain. This time it was
+    the centre-table. A preliminary effort, quite vigorous, enabled it to
+    rise half-way to the top of our table. By a second effort it got clear
+    on top and rested upon my fore-arm.
+
+    8. Several times I distinctly felt light blows upon my right side, as
+    if made with the point of a sharp instrument. But the truth compels me
+    to declare that these blows were no longer given after Eusapia's feet
+    were held under the table by M. Bloch. I note this correlation of
+    things without drawing from it any presumption against Eusapia's
+    loyalty. I have so much the less reason to suspect her in that her
+    left foot did not leave my right foot during the whole sitting.
+
+
+    Report of M. Victorien Sardou
+
+    (_Séance of November 19_)
+
+    (There were present at this séance, besides the hosts of the evening,
+    M. V. Sardou, M. and Mme. Brisson, M. A. de Rochas, M. Prof. Richet,
+    M. G. de Fontenay, M. Gaston Méry, Mme. Fourton, M. and Mlle. des
+    Varennes).
+
+    I shall only relate here phenomena controlled by myself personally in
+    the séance of last Saturday. Consequently, I say nothing of the
+    arrangement of the apartment, of the experimenters, nor of the events
+    which were first produced in the dark and which all the participants
+    were able to authenticate,--such as cracking sounds in the table,
+    levitations, displacements of the table, raps, etc., as well as the
+    blowing out of the curtain over the table, the bringing on of the
+    violin, of the tambourine, and so forth.
+
+    Eusapia having invited me to take the place at her side which had been
+    vacated by M. Brisson, I sat down on her left, while you preserved
+    your place on her right. I took her left hand in my right hand, while
+    my left hand placed upon the table was in contact with that of my
+    neighbor, the medium insisting on this several times in order that the
+    chain might not be broken. Her left foot rested upon my right foot.
+    All through the experiment I never let go her hand for a single
+    second. She grasped my hand with a strong pressure, and it followed
+    her through all her movements. In the same way her foot always kept in
+    contact with mine. My foot always kept touch with hers in all her foot
+    scrapings on the floor, her shiftings of place, shrinkings,
+    twitchings, etc., which never had anything suspicious in them, nor
+    were they of such a nature as to explain the events which took place
+    at my side, behind me, around me, and upon me.
+
+    In the first place, and in less than a minute after I had been placed
+    on the left of the medium, the curtain nearest to me was puffed out
+    and brushed against me, as if impelled by a gust of wind. Then three
+    times I felt upon my right side a pressure which lasted but for a
+    moment, yet was very marked. At that moment we were in a very dim
+    light, yet enough to make the faces and the hands of all who were
+    present distinctly visible. After Eusapia's violent nervous
+    contractions, struggles, and energetic pushes (precisely like those
+    which I had seen in similar cases elsewhere and which only astonish
+    those who have slightly studied these phenomena), suddenly the curtain
+    nearest to me was blown forward with an astonishing propulsive power
+    between Eusapia and me, in the direction of the table, entirely
+    concealing from me the face of the medium; and the violin, which, with
+    the tambourine, had, before my introduction, been replaced in the dark
+    chamber, was hurled to the middle of the table, as if by an invisible
+    arm. To accomplish this, the arm must have lifted the curtain and
+    drawn it along with it.
+
+    After this the curtain returned to its first position, but not
+    completely; for it still remained puffed out a little between Eusapia
+    and me, one of its folds remaining upon the edge of the table at my
+    side.
+
+    Then you took the violin and held it out at such a distance from the
+    two curtains that it was wholly visible to the company; and you
+    invited the occult agent to take it.
+
+    This was done, the mysterious agent taking it back with him into the
+    dark closet, with as much good will as he had shown in bringing it on.
+
+    The violin then fell upon the floor behind the curtains, or portières.
+    One of these which was nearest to me resumed its vertical position,
+    and for a time I heard upon my right upon the floor behind the
+    curtains a kind of scrimmage between the violin and the tambourine,
+    which were displaced, pulled about, and lifted, clashing and
+    resounding at a great rate; and yet it was impossible to attribute any
+    of these manifestations to Eusapia, whose foot never moved, but
+    remained firmly pressed against my own.
+
+    A little after, I felt against my right leg, behind the curtain, the
+    rubbing of a hard body which was trying to climb upon me, and I
+    thought it was the violin. And so it was, in fact; and, after an
+    unsuccessful effort to climb higher than my knee, this apparently
+    living creature fell with a bang upon the floor.
+
+    Almost immediately I felt a new pressure upon my right hip, and
+    mentioned the circumstance. You disengaged your left hand from the
+    chain, and, turning toward me, twice made in the air the gesture of
+    the director of an orchestra moving his bâton to and fro. And each
+    time, with perfect precision, I felt upon my side the repercussion of
+    a blow exactly tallying your gesture, which reached me after the delay
+    of a second more or less, and which seemed to me to correspond exactly
+    to the time necessary for the transference of a billiard ball or a
+    tennis ball from you to me.
+
+    Some one, Dr. Richet, I believe, having spoken at that time of strokes
+    upon the shoulders of the sitters in which the action and shape of a
+    human hand was very marked, I will mention as a proof of his remark
+    that I received in succession three blows upon the left shoulder (that
+    is to say, the one most distant from the curtain and from the medium),
+    more violent than the preceding ones; and this time the heavy pressure
+    of the five fingers was very evident. Then a last blow with the flat
+    of the hand, applied in the small of the back, without hurting me at
+    all, was strong enough to make me lean forward, in spite of myself,
+    toward the table.
+
+    Some moments after, my chair, moving under me, glided over the floor,
+    and was shifted in such a way as to leave my back turned a little in
+    the direction of the dark closet.
+
+    I leave to other witnesses the task of telling the results of their
+    personal observations,--how, for example, the violin, having been
+    picked up by you from the floor and replaced upon the table, was held
+    out by Mme. Brisson, as you had already done, and lifted up in the
+    same way in the sight of all, while I held the left hand of Eusapia,
+    you her right hand, and with the hand which remained free you pressed
+    the wrist of her left hand.
+
+    Nor do I say anything of a hand-pressure through the opening in the
+    curtain, having seen nothing of this myself.
+
+    But that which I did see very well indeed was the sudden appearance of
+    three very vivid little lights between my neighbor and myself. They
+    were promptly extinguished and seemed like a kind of will-o'-the-wisp,
+    similar to electric sparks coming and going with great rapidity.
+
+    In short, I can only repeat here what I have said during the course
+    of these experiments, "If I had not been convinced forty years ago, I
+    should be this evening."
+
+
+    Report of M. Jules Claretie.
+
+    (_Séance of November 25_)
+
+    (There were present at this sitting, in addition to the hosts of the
+    occasion, M. Jules Claretie and his son, M. Brisson, M. Louis Vignon,
+    Mme. Fourton, Mme. Gagneur, M. G. Delanne, M. René Baschet, M. and
+    Mme. Basilewska, M. Mairet, photographer.)
+
+    I note only the impressions I received after the moment when Eusapia,
+    who had taken my hand at the time when M. Brisson was still seated by
+    her, asked me to replace him. I am certain that I did not let go of
+    Eusapia's hand during all the experiments. Every moment I felt the
+    pressure of her foot upon mine, the heel being especially perceptible.
+    I do not believe that I relaxed my fingers for a moment, nor released
+    the hand that I held. I was struck with the throbbing of the arteries
+    at the end of Eusapia's fingers: the blood bounded feverishly through
+    them.
+
+    I sat next the curtain. It goes without saying that it was drawn from
+    right to left or from left to right just as it happened. That which I
+    can't understand is that it could swell out until it floated over the
+    table like a sail inflated by the wind.
+
+    I felt at first a little light blow on my right side. Then, _through
+    the curtain_, two fingers seized me and pinched my cheek. The pressure
+    of the two fingers was evident. A blow more violent than the first hit
+    me on the right shoulder, as if it came from a hard, square body. My
+    chair was twice moved and turned, first backward, then forward.
+
+    Those two fingers which pinched my cheek I had already felt--before I
+    took my place at Eusapia's side--when I was holding over against the
+    curtain the little white book which M. Flammarion had given me. This
+    book was seized by _two naked fingers_ (I say naked, because the folds
+    of the curtain did not cover them) and then disappeared. I did not see
+    these fingers: I touched them, or they touched me, if you will. My
+    son held out and handed over also a leather cigar-holder, which was
+    grabbed in the same way.
+
+    One of the persons present saw a rather heavy little music-box
+    disappear in the same way.
+
+    With hardly a moment's delay the box was removed from our side with
+    some violence; and I can speak with the more feeling of the force of
+    the projection and of the weight of the object, because it struck me
+    under the eye, and this morning I still have upon my face the only too
+    visible mark of it, and feel the pain of it. I don't understand how a
+    woman seated by my side could have the strength to throw with such
+    force a box which, so to speak, should have come from quite a
+    distance.
+
+    I observe, however, that all the phenomena are produced on the same
+    side of the curtain; namely, behind it, or through it, if you will. I
+    saw leafy branches fall upon the table, but they came from the side of
+    the said curtain. Some persons assert that they saw a green twig come
+    in through the open window which gives upon Cassini Street. But I did
+    not see that.
+
+    There was a little round table behind the curtain, very near me.
+    Eusapia takes my hand and places it, held in hers, upon the round
+    table. I feel this table shaking, moving. At a given moment I believe
+    that I perceive two hands near by and upon mine. I am not deceived;
+    but this second hand is that of M. Flammarion, who, on his side, is
+    holding the hand of the medium. The round table bestirs itself. It
+    leaves the floor, it rises. I have the feeling of this at once. Then,
+    the curtain having lifted and, as it were, spread itself over the
+    table, I can distinctly see what passes behind it. The round table
+    moves; it rises; it falls.
+
+    Suddenly tipping partly over, it rises and comes toward me, upon me.
+    It is no longer vertical, but is caught between the table and me in a
+    horizontal position. It comes with sufficient force to make me recoil,
+    draw in my shoulders, and try to push back my chair to let this moving
+    piece of furniture pass. It seems, like a living thing, to struggle
+    between the table and me. Or, again, it seems like an animated being
+    struggling against an obstacle, desiring to pass or move on and not
+    being able to do so, being stopped by the table or by myself. At a
+    given moment the round table is upon my knees, and it moves, it
+    struggles (I repeat the word), without my being able to explain to
+    myself what force is moving it.
+
+    This force is a formidable one. The little table literally pushes me
+    back, and in vain I throw myself backward to let it pass.
+
+    Some of those present, M. Baschet among others, have said to me that
+    at this moment it was upon two fingers. Two fingers of Eusapia push up
+    the round table![26]
+
+    But I, who had not lost my hold on her left hand nor her foot,--I, who
+    had by me the little round table (quite visible in the semi-obscurity
+    to which we had accustomed ourselves), saw nothing, nor did I perceive
+    any effort on the part of Eusapia.
+
+    I should like to have seen _luminous phenomena_ produced, visions of
+    brilliant lights, of sudden gleams of fire. M. Flammarion hoped that
+    we were going to see some of these. He asked for them. But Eusapia was
+    evidently fatigued by this long and very interesting séance. She asked
+    for "_un poco di luce_" ("a little light"). The lamps were relighted.
+    Everything was finished.
+
+    This morning I recall with a kind of anxious curiosity the least
+    details of this very fascinating soirée. When we had returned to the
+    observatory, on leaving our amiable hosts, I asked myself if I had
+    been in a dream. But I said to myself, "We were present at the skilful
+    performances of a woman prestidigitator; we witnessed only theatrical
+    tricks." My son recalled to me the prodigies of skill of the brothers
+    Isola. This morning, strange to say, reflection makes me at once more
+    perplexed and less incredulous. We perhaps witnessed (we undoubtedly
+    did witness) the manifestation of an unknown force which will
+    hereafter be studied and perhaps one day utilized. I should no longer
+    dare to deny the genuineness of Spiritualism. It isn't a question of
+    animal magnetism: it is something else, I know not what; a _quid
+    divinum_ (a divine something), although science will some day analyze
+    it and catalogue it. That which perhaps astonished me the most was
+    the curtain swelling out like a sail! Where did the puff of wind come
+    from? A regular breeze would have been needed to put such life into it
+    as that. However, I do not discuss: I give in my evidence. I have seen
+    these things, observed them carefully. I shall think of them for a
+    long time. I do not stop here. I shall seek an explanation. Possibly I
+    shall find one. But this much is certain, that we ought to be modest
+    in the presence of all that appears to us to be for the moment
+    inexplicable, and that, before affirming or denying, we ought to wait,
+    to reserve our judgment.
+
+    In the mean time, while feeling of my right maxillary tooth, which is
+    a little sore, I think of that line of Regnard and allow myself to
+    mangle it a little while recalling that hard music-box,--
+
+        "_Je vois que c'est un corps et non pas un esprit._"
+        (I see that it is a body and not a spirit.)
+
+
+    Report of Dr. Gustave Le Bon
+
+    (_Séance of November 28_)
+
+    (There were present at this séance, besides the hosts, M. and Mme.
+    Brisson, MM. Gustave Le Bon, Baschet, de Sergines, Louis Vignon,
+    Laurent, Ed. de Rothschild, Delanne, Bloch, Mathieu, Ephrussi, Mme. la
+    Comtesse de Chevigné, Mmes. Gagneur, Syamour, Fourton, Basilewska,
+    Bisschofsheim.)
+
+    Eusapia is undoubtedly a marvellous subject. It struck me as something
+    wonderful that, while I was holding her hand, she was playing on an
+    imaginary tambourine to which the sounds of the tambourine that was
+    behind the curtain accurately corresponded.
+
+    I do not see how any trick is possible in such a case, any more than
+    in the case of the table.
+
+    My cigarette-holder was grasped by a very strong hand, which wrenched
+    the object from me with a good deal of energy. I was on my guard and
+    asked to see the experiment again. The phenomenon was so singular and
+    so beyond all that we can comprehend that we must first try natural
+    explanations.
+
+    1. It is impossible that it could have been Eusapia. I was holding one
+    of her hands and _was looking at the other arm_, and I placed my
+    cigarette-holder in such a position that, _even with her two arms
+    free_, she would not have been able to accomplish such a marvellous
+    thing.
+
+    2. It is not probable that it could have been an accomplice; but is it
+    not possible that the unconscious mind of Eusapia suggested to the
+    unconscious mind of a person near the curtain to pass a hand behind it
+    and operate there? Everybody would be acting in good faith and would
+    have been deceived by the unconscious element. This important point
+    ought to be verified, for no experiment would be so valuable if it
+    were once _demonstrated_.
+
+    Could not Eusapia's departure be put off? We shall not have a similar
+    opportunity, and we surely ought to clear up that phenomenon of the
+    hand.
+
+    It is very evident that the table was lifted; but that is a material
+    phenomenon which one can readily grant. The hand which came to seize
+    my cigarette-holder performed an act of the will implying an
+    intelligence, but the other is nothing of the kind. Eusapia might lift
+    a table to the height of three feet without my scientific conception
+    of the world being changed by it; but to bring in the intervention of
+    a spirit, that would be to prove the existence of spirits, and you see
+    the consequences.
+
+    As for the hand which seized the cigarette-case, it is absolutely
+    certain that it was not that of Eusapia (you know that I am very
+    sceptical and that I was looking about me); but close to the curtain,
+    in the salon, there were a good many people, and several times you
+    heard me ask people to stand aside from the curtain. If we two had
+    been able to study Eusapia _absolutely alone_, in a room to which we
+    had the key, the problem would soon be solved.
+
+I have not been able to make this verification, the sitting at which Dr.
+Le Bon was present having been the last which Eusapia had consented to
+give at my house. But his objection is of no value. I am absolutely
+certain that nobody glided behind the curtain, neither in this particular
+case nor in any other. My wife, also, particularly occupied herself in
+observing what took place in that part of the room and never was able to
+discover anything suspicious. There is only one hypothesis; that is, that
+Eusapia herself handled the objects. Since Dr. Le Bon declares that the
+thing was impossible, he himself personally inspecting it, we are
+compelled to admit the existence of an unknown psychic force.[27]
+
+    Report of M. Armelin
+
+    (_Séance of November 21_)
+
+    (For this sitting I had asked three members of the Astronomical
+    Society of France to exercise the severest control possible; namely,
+    M. Antoniadi, my assistant astronomer at the observatory of Juvisy, M.
+    Mathieu, agricultural engineer at the same observatory, and M.
+    Armelin, secretary of the Astronomical Society. The last-named
+    gentleman sent me the following report. There were also present M. and
+    Mme. Brisson, M. Baschet, M. Jules Bois, Mme. Fourton, Mme. La
+    Comtesse de Labadye.)
+
+    At quarter of ten Eusapia takes her seat, her back to the place where
+    the two curtains meet, her hands resting upon the table. At the
+    invitation of M. Flammarion, M. Mathieu takes his seat at her right,
+    charged with the duty of keeping constant watch upon her left hand,
+    and M. Antoniadi is enjoined to do the same for her right hand. They
+    also make themselves sure of her feet. At the right of M. Mathieu
+    sits Mme. la Comtesse de Labadye; on the left of M. Antoniadi, Mme.
+    Fourton. Facing Eusapia, between Mmes. de Labadye and Fourton, MM.
+    Flammarion, Brisson, Baschet, and Jules Bois.
+
+    The gas chandelier is lighted and the full light turned on. This
+    chandelier is almost over the table. A little lamp with a shade is
+    placed on the floor behind an easy-chair, near the opposite side of
+    the room, in the direction of its greatest length, and to the left of
+    the fireplace.
+
+    At five minutes of ten the table is lifted from the side opposite to
+    the medium and falls back with a bang.
+
+    At ten o'clock it rises from the side of the medium, who withdraws her
+    hands, the other persons holding their hands lifted up. The same
+    effect is produced three times. The second time, while the table is in
+    the air, M. Antoniadi declares that he is leaning on it with all his
+    weight and is unable to lower it. The third time, M. Mathieu leans on
+    it in the same way and experiences the same resistance. During this
+    time, Eusapia holds her closed fist about four inches above the table,
+    looking as if she were strongly grasping something. The action lasts
+    several seconds. There is no doubt whatever about this levitation.
+    When the table falls back, Eusapia experiences something like a
+    relaxation after a great effort.
+
+    At 10.03 the table is lifted clean off its four feet at once, at first
+    on the side opposite to the medium, rising about eight inches; then it
+    falls abruptly back. _While it is in the air, Eusapia calls her two
+    neighbors to witness that they are closely holding her hands and her
+    feet, and that she is not in contact with the table._
+
+    Then light raps are heard in the table. Eusapia makes M. Antoniadi
+    lift his hand about eight inches above the table and taps three times
+    upon his hand with her fingers. The three taps are heard
+    simultaneously in the table.
+
+    To prove that she is not using either her hands or her feet, she sits
+    down sidewise upon her chair on the left, stretches out her legs, and
+    puts her feet on the edge of the chair of M. Antoniadi: she is in full
+    view and her hands are held. At once the curtain is shaken in the
+    direction of M. A.
+
+    From 10.10 to 10.15, several times in succession, five raps are heard
+    in the table. Each time the gas is turned down a little, and each time
+    the table moves without contact.
+
+    At 10.20 it balances itself, suspended in the air, and resting upon
+    the two legs of the longer side. Then _it rises off of its four feet
+    to a height of eight inches_.
+
+    10.25. The curtain moves, and M. Flammarion says that there is some
+    one behind it, that somebody is pressing his hand. He holds his hand
+    out toward the curtain, at a distance of about four inches. The
+    curtain is pushed out into something like a pocket made by a hand
+    which is drawing near. The medium with nervous laugh cries, "Take it,
+    take it." M. A. feels through the curtain the touch of a soft body,
+    like a cushion. But the hand of M. F. is not taken. Objects are heard
+    to move, including the bells of a tambourine.
+
+    All of a sudden the medium, leaving M. Mathieu, stretches her hand
+    above the table toward M. Jules Bois, who takes it. At this moment,
+    behind the curtain, an object falls to the floor with a great noise.
+
+    10.35. Eusapia, again freeing her right hand, lifts it up above her
+    left shoulder, the fingers forward, at a distance of several inches
+    from the curtain, and beats four or five strokes in the air which are
+    heard to sound in the tambourine. Several persons think they see a
+    will-o'-the-wisp through the gap between the curtains.
+
+    Up to that point the gas has been gradually lowered. After the lapse
+    of a full moment I find that I can no longer read, but I can
+    distinguish very clearly the horizontal lines of my writing. I can see
+    the hour perfectly by my watch, as well as the faces of those present,
+    (that of Eusapia especially) turned toward the light. The gas is now
+    completely extinguished.
+
+    At 10.40, the gas being out, I can still read my watch, but with
+    difficulty; I still see the lines of my writing, though without being
+    able to read.
+
+    Eusapia wants somebody to hold her head, which is done. Then she asks
+    somebody to hold her feet. M. Baschet gets down on his knees under the
+    table and holds them.
+
+    M. Antoniadi cries, "I am touched!" and says that he has felt a hand.
+    I have very distinctly seen the curtain puffing out. Mme. Flammarion,
+    whom I see silhouetted on the bright glass of the window, her head
+    leaning forward, goes behind the curtain in order to assure herself
+    that the medium is not doing anything suspicious in the way of
+    motions.
+
+    One of the persons present having changed places, Eusapia utters
+    complaints: "_La catena! la catena!_" ("The chain! the chain!") The
+    chain is re-established.
+
+    At 10.45 the curtain is inflated again. A bump is heard. The round
+    table touches the elbow of M. Antoniadi. Mme. Flammarion, who has kept
+    looking behind the curtain, says that she sees the round table turned
+    over. Its feet are in the air, and it is moving to and fro. She thinks
+    she sees glimmers of light near the floor.
+
+    M. Mathieu feels a hand and an arm pushing the curtain against him. M.
+    Antoniadi says that he is touched by a cushion; his chair is pulled
+    and turns under him as if on a pivot. He is touched again on the elbow
+    by some object.
+
+    It is ascertained that M. Jules Bois is holding Eusapia's right hand
+    above the table; M. Antoniadi assures us that he is holding her left
+    hand, and M. Mathieu her feet.
+
+    The curtain is again shaken twice; M. Antoniadi is hit in the back
+    very hard, he says, and a hand pulls his hair. The only light
+    remaining is the little lamp with a shade, behind an easy-chair at the
+    farther end of the salon. I continue to write, but my strokes take all
+    kinds of shapes.
+
+    Suddenly, M. Antoniadi exclaims that he is enveloped by the curtain,
+    which rests upon his shoulders. Eusapia cries, "What is this that is
+    passing over me?" The round table comes forth beneath the curtain.
+    Mme. Flammarion, who is standing opposite the window, and has kept
+    looking behind the curtain, says that she sees some very white object.
+    At the same moment M. Flammarion, Mme. Fourton, and M. Jules Bois
+    exclaim that they have just seen a white hand between the curtains,
+    above Eusapia's head; and, at the same moment, M. Mathieu says that
+    his hair is being pulled. The hand we saw seemed small, like that of a
+    woman or of a child.
+
+    "If there is a hand there," says M. Flammarion, "could it perhaps
+    grasp an object?" M. Jules Bois holds a book out toward the middle of
+    the right-hand curtain. The book is taken and held two seconds. Mme.
+    Flammarion, whom I see always silhouetted upon the bright glass of the
+    window, and who is looking behind the curtain, _cries that she has
+    seen the book pass through_.
+
+    M. F. proposes to light up and verify. But everybody agrees in
+    thinking that the curtain may have already changed its position. A
+    moment afterwards the curtain is again puffed out, and M. Antoniadi
+    says that he is hit four or five times on the shoulder. Eusapia has
+    asked him more than ten times whether he is quite "_seguro_" (sure)
+    that he has hold of her hand and her foot.
+
+    "Yes, yes," he replies, "_seguro, segurissimo_" ("sure, quite sure").
+
+    Mme. Fourton says that for the second time she has seen a hand
+    stretched out and that this time it touched the shoulder of M.
+    Antoniadi. M. Jules Bois says that for the second time he has seen a
+    hand stretched out at the end of a small arm, the fingers moving, the
+    palm forward. (It is impossible to decide whether these two visions
+    were simultaneous or not.)
+
+    We are getting accustomed to the almost complete darkness; I can still
+    read "11.15" by my watch. M. Antoniadi says his ear is pinched very
+    hard. M. Mathieu says he is touched. M. Antoniadi feels his chair
+    pulled: it falls to the floor. He lifts it again and seats himself on
+    it, and is again hit very hard on the shoulder.
+
+    About 11.20, at the request of Eusapia, M. Flammarion replaces M.
+    Mathieu. He holds her two feet and one hand; M. Antoniadi holds the
+    other hand. The lamp is lowered still more. The darkness is almost
+    complete. M. Flammarion, having remarked that an unknown physical
+    force is evidently present, but perhaps not an individual personality,
+    feels his hand seized all of a sudden by some one (or some thing), and
+    is interrupted. Then, a little after, he complains that his beard is
+    being pulled (on the side opposite the medium, where I am. I did not
+    perceive anything).
+
+    At 11.30 the lamp is turned up. It is comparatively bright in the
+    room. The curtain, after all these movements, is seen to be more and
+    more pushed aside, enveloping the head of Eusapia. Suddenly, above her
+    head, we all see the tambourine slowly appear and fall upon the table
+    with a noise like that of sheep-bells. It seems to me brighter than
+    the feeble glimmer of the concealed lamp would justify and as if
+    accompanied by white phosphorescent gleams; but they are perhaps
+    flashes of light from its gilded ornaments, which, however, ought to
+    appear yellower.
+
+    When the lamp is turned down, the noise of moving furniture is heard;
+    the round table is fetched clear up onto the top of the large table.
+    It is removed, and the tambourine executes a dance all alone with a
+    peculiar sound like the ringing of bells. Mme. Fourton says that she
+    has had her hand pressed and her fore-arm pinched.
+
+    At 11.45 the window curtain is closed in its turn; and, after a
+    moment, we all see in the direction in which the cleft in the corner
+    curtain ought to be, above Eusapia's head, a large white star of the
+    color of Vega, though larger and of a softer light, and which rests
+    motionless for some seconds, then is extinguished. Shortly after, a
+    zigzag glimmer of light, of the same white color, runs over the
+    right-hand curtain, tracing two or three upright lines of several
+    inches in length, like an N very much elongated.
+
+    In spite of the fact that night has fallen, there is still sufficient
+    light entering by the two uncurtained windows, and proceeding from the
+    vague glimmer of the lamp behind the easy-chair, to enable each one
+    of us to distinguish his neighbors. Our silhouettes are outlined in
+    the large mirror near us and above the sofa. The white collars of the
+    men are clearly seen, their faces a little less clearly. Yet on my
+    left I see very plainly M. Baschet, on my right Mme. Brisson, standing
+    and holding her hand up to her face to shield the eyes. I also
+    distinguish Mme. Flammarion, who has come and seated herself near her.
+
+    M. Flammarion feels an object gliding over his hair. He begs Mme. de
+    Labadye to take hold of it; and a music-box falls into his hands,
+    which, before the séance, was placed upon the ogee, in the corner
+    concealed by the curtain. M. Brisson has taken the place at the table
+    formerly occupied by M. Flammarion, facing Eusapia. A cushion hits him
+    full in the face. As I am approaching the mirror, I see the reflection
+    of this passing cushion by the comparatively bright light at the far
+    end of the room.
+
+    M. Baschet seizes the object and rests his elbow upon it. It is
+    snatched from him, flies over our heads, hits the mirror, falls upon
+    the sofa, and rolls upon my foot. All this without my being able to
+    perceive any movement on the part of the medium.
+
+    Midnight draws near. The séance is adjourned.
+
+    MM. Antoniadi and Mathieu then declare that the control with which
+    they were charged has not been successful, and that they are not sure
+    that they have always had hold of the medium's hands.
+
+
+    Report of M. Antoniadi
+
+    (_The Same Séance_)
+
+    I shall give you an exact account of the rôle I played, that I may
+    gratify your desire to know the truth.
+
+    I restricted myself to ascertaining whether there was _a single
+    phenomenon_ which could not be explained in the most simple manner,
+    and I arrived at the conclusion that there was not. I assure you, on
+    my word of honor, that my watchful, silent attitude _convinced me,
+    beyond all manner of doubt, that everything is fraudulent, from the
+    beginning to the end_; that there is no doubt that Eusapia shifts her
+    hands or her feet, and that the hand or the foot that one is thought
+    to control is never held tight or very strongly pressed at the moment
+    of the production of the phenomena. My certain conclusion is that
+    _nothing_ is produced without the substitution of hands. I ought to
+    add that, at first, I was very much astonished when I was hit hard in
+    the back, from behind the curtain, while I was very clearly holding
+    _two hands_ with my right hand. Happily, however, at this moment, Mme.
+    Flammarion having given us a little light, I saw that I held the
+    _right_ hand of Eusapia and--yours!
+
+    The substitution is made by Eusapia with extraordinary dexterity. In
+    order to ascertain it, I was obliged to concentrate my mind upon her
+    very slightest movements with the severest attention. But it is the
+    first step that costs; and, once familiarized with her artifices, I
+    predicted with decision _all_ the phenomena by the sensation of touch
+    alone.
+
+    Being a good observer, I am absolutely certain that I was not
+    deceived. I was neither hypnotized, nor was I at all frightened during
+    the "bringing in" of objects. And, as I am not a lunatic, I believe
+    that a certain weight should be given to my affirmations.
+
+    It is true that, during the séance, I was not sincere, disguising the
+    truth of the efficacy of my control. I did that with the sole purpose
+    of making Eusapia think that I was a convert to Spiritualism. I did
+    this to _avoid scandal_. But, once the sitting was over, the Truth
+    choked me, and I was most eager to communicate it to my great
+    benefactor and official superior.
+
+    It is not prudent to be too affirmative. It is for that reason that I
+    have always been reserved in my interpretation of natural phenomena.
+    Consequently, I am unable to be so terribly affirmative as to take
+    oath to the absolute charlatanism of the manifestations of Eusapia,
+    before, as Shakespeare says, I have "rendered assurance doubly sure."
+
+    I have no personal ambition in the spiritistic line, and all the
+    careful observations that I made during this séance of November 21 are
+    only one stone the more contributed to the edifice of Truth.
+
+    _It is not on account of prejudice_ that I do not believe in the
+    reality of the manifestations, and I can assure you, if I were able to
+    see _the least_ phenomenon that was really extraordinary or
+    inexplicable, I should be the first to confess my error.
+
+    The reading of several books has led me to admit the possible reality
+    of these manifestations, but direct experience has convinced me of the
+    contrary.
+
+    My frankness in this report unhappily borders upon indiscretion. But
+    frankness is here synonymous with devotion, for it would be to betray
+    you if I were false for an instant to the sacred cause of Truth.
+
+
+    Report of M. Mathieu.
+
+    (_Séance of November 25_)
+
+    The séance opens at 9.30. M. Brisson, controller on the left, puts his
+    feet on Eusapia's feet; M. Flammarion, controller on the right, holds
+    her knees. In a moment the table leans to the right, its two left feet
+    are lifted and then it falls back; then follows the lifting of the two
+    right feet, and finally the lifting of the whole table off of its four
+    feet to a height of about seven inches above the floor (contact of
+    feet certain and knees motionless). I take a photograph.
+
+    At 9.37 a slight lifting on the left; then a lifting on the right, and
+    a total levitation (photograph).
+
+    During the levitations of the table the salon is lighted by a strong
+    Auer burner. It is now extinguished and is replaced by a little lamp
+    which is placed behind a fire-screen at the farther end of the room.
+    Absolute control of the hands and of the feet made by MM. Brisson and
+    Flammarion.
+
+    M. Brisson is slightly touched on the right hip, and at this moment
+    the two hands of Eusapia are plainly seen.
+
+    At 9.48 the curtain shakes and then puffs out three times in
+    succession. M. Brisson is again touched on the right hip; the curtain
+    is drawn back as if by a curtain-band. M. Flammarion, who holds
+    Eusapia's hand, makes three gestures and to each of his gestures
+    corresponds a new divergence of the portière. Eusapia recommends that
+    we "give attention to the temperature of the medium; it will be found
+    to be changed after each phenomenon."
+
+    At 9.57 the light is diminished and is henceforth very feeble. The
+    curtain bellies out, and at the same moment M. Brisson is touched;
+    then the curtain is flung forcefully over the table. At the request of
+    Eusapia, M. Delanne lightly touches her head behind, and the curtain
+    slightly trembles.
+
+    Eusapia asks that a window be partly opened, the one in the middle of
+    the salon, saying that we shall see something new. M. Flammarion holds
+    with his left hand the knees of the medium, and with his right hand
+    holds the wrist, the thumb, and the palm of her right hand before him
+    at the height of the eyes. M. Brisson holds the left hand. Eusapia
+    seems to call something from the direction of the window, making
+    gestures, and saying, "I will catch it." Then a little branch of
+    privet comes and touches M. Flammarion's hand, apparently arriving
+    from somewhere near the window. M. F. takes this branch. A moment
+    later two spindle-tree branches come from behind the curtain at the
+    height of M. Brisson's head and past the edge of the curtain, which is
+    pulled up and back. The branches fall on the table.
+
+    M. Brisson, all this time at Eusapia's left, is next touched on the
+    hip, _at a moment when the hand of the medium is at the height of M.
+    Flammarion's beard_. Then the chair of M. Brisson is pulled and pushed
+    about. We hear distinctly, behind the curtain, sounds from the shaking
+    of the round table, upon which is the tambourine. Certain vibrations
+    of the tambourine are produced, corresponding to the movements of the
+    round table. At this moment M. Brisson mentions the fact that he has
+    been out of touch with the foot of the medium for about half a second,
+    but he is then holding her two thumbs about ten inches apart, and M.
+    Flammarion has her right hand close to his breast. The right hand of
+    M. Brisson, holding the left of Eusapia, passes behind the curtain,
+    and M. Brisson says that he has the impression of something like a
+    dress-skirt puffed out against his ankle.
+
+    Thereupon ensues new jolting and bumping of the round table and the
+    tambourine, with displacement of the round table. (Undoubted control
+    by MM. Flammarion and Brisson.)
+
+    10.30. Clattering noises of the round table in the cabinet are heard.
+    M. Flammarion makes gestures with his hand, and synchronistic
+    movements of the table and of the tambourine take place in the dark
+    cabinet.
+
+    10.35. Eusapia asks for a few minutes' rest. The sitting is resumed at
+    10.43. The violin and the bell are hurled with force through the cleft
+    in the curtain (M. Brisson gives assurance that he holds Eusapia's
+    left hand by the thumb, upon her knees, and M. Flammarion the entire
+    right hand). At this moment a photograph is taken by flash-light.
+    Cries and groans from Eusapia, blinded by the light.
+
+    The sitting begins again some minutes afterward, and M. Jules
+    Claretie, sitting at the left of M. Brisson, has his fingers twice
+    touched by a hand. M. Baschet, who is standing away from the table,
+    holds out a violin to the curtain: the violin is seized and thrown
+    into the cabinet. He holds a book out to the curtain: this book is
+    seized, but falls to the floor, _before the curtain_.
+
+    M. Claretie presents a cigarette-holder and feels a hand which tries
+    to seize it, but he resists and will not let it go. M. Flammarion asks
+    him to let go of the object: the hand bears off the prize. A moment
+    after, this object is thrown from the cleft between the two curtains
+    against Mme. de Basilewska at the other end of the table. It had been
+    both presented and removed at the middle of the curtain.
+
+    At eleven o'clock Eusapia begs for a little more light. M. Claretie
+    has become controller of the left in place of M. Brisson. He is
+    touched on the left side. Then the round table is overturned while
+    advancing toward the main table. M. Claretie perceives that his chair
+    is moving backwards, as if pulled back; then he is hit on the shoulder
+    and experiences a strong pressure under the arm-pit. The curtain
+    suddenly approaches M. Claretie, brushes against him, and envelops
+    both himself and the medium. M. Claretie is then pinched in the cheek.
+    M. Flammarion presents to the curtain the hand of Mme. Fourton, and
+    the two hands are pinched through the curtain.
+
+    The music-box, which is in the dark cabinet, falls on the table; Mmes.
+    Gagneur and Flammarion at the same moment make mention of a hand. M.
+    Baschet presents the music-box to the curtain; a hand seizes it
+    through the curtain, he resists, the hand pushes him away; he presents
+    it again, the hand seizes it and throws it back, and the box thus
+    thrown wounds M. Claretie, who is struck beneath the left eye. The
+    tambourine is thrown forward upon the table after having remained
+    suspended a moment above the head of the medium.
+
+    At 11.15 a complete levitation of the table for seven or eight
+    seconds. Absolute control by MM. Flammarion and Claretie. M.
+    Flammarion has his knee pinched by a hand. Next the round table is
+    transferred to the knees of M. Claretie and is forced upon him in
+    spite of all his resistance. Levitations of the table take place in
+    full light. Verification of the feet. The feet of one of the
+    controllers are beneath, those of the other above, and those of the
+    medium between the two.
+
+
+    Report of M. Pallotti
+
+    (_Séance of November 14_)
+
+    (There are present at this séance, besides the hosts of the evening:
+    M. and Mme. Brisson, M. and Mme. Pallotti, M. le Bocain, M. Boutigny,
+    Mme. Fourton.)
+
+    At the commencement of the sitting several levitations of the table
+    took place, and, when I asked the spirit who was present if he could
+    let me see my daughter Rosalie, I obtained an affirmative reply. I
+    then made an agreement with the said spirit that a series of eight
+    regular raps would indicate to me the moment when my dear daughter
+    would be present. After some minutes of waiting, the number of raps
+    agreed on was heard in the table. These raps were vigorous and made at
+    fixed intervals.
+
+    I found, at this time, that I was placed opposite to the medium,--that
+    is to say, facing her,--at the other end of the table. When I asked
+    the spirit to embrace me and caress me, I immediately felt an icy
+    breath before my face, but yet without experiencing the least
+    sensation of contact.
+
+    When the medium announced the materialization of the spirit in these
+    words, "_E venuta, e venuta_" ("She is here, she is here"), I
+    distinguished over the middle of the table a spectral form, dim and
+    confused, but which, little by little, grew brighter, and took the
+    shape of the head of a young girl of the same stature as Rosalie.
+
+    When objects, such as the music-box, violin, or the like, were
+    unexpectedly brought before us, I saw very plainly the shape of a
+    little hand emerging from the curtain that hung close by me, and which
+    placed these different objects upon the table.
+
+    I ought to declare that, during these inexplicable phenomena, the
+    chain was not broken for a single moment: it would consequently have
+    been materially impossible for one of us to have made use of his
+    hands.
+
+    I will now describe the last phenomena in which I was for a little
+    while both actor and spectator. These events closed the séance.
+
+    One of the company, M. Boutigny, who was affianced to my daughter,
+    having left the table to give his place to one of the spectators, I
+    saw him approach the curtain of which I have spoken, which at once
+    gaped open by his side. I ascertained this fact very precisely.
+
+    M. Boutigny then announced to us aloud that he was being very
+    affectionately caressed. The medium, who was at this moment in an
+    extraordinary state of agitation, kept saying, "_Amore mio, amore
+    mio!_" ("My love, my love!"), and, addressing herself to me, called to
+    me several times in the following words, "_Adesso vieni tu! vieni
+    tu!_" ("Come at once, come!")
+
+    I hastened to take the place which M. Boutigny occupied near the
+    curtain, and I was scarcely there when I felt myself kissed several
+    times. I was able for an instant to touch the head which was kissing
+    me, which, however, drew back from the contact of my hands.
+
+    I ought to say that, while these events were taking place, my eyes
+    were carefully observing the medium as well as the persons who were by
+    my side. I can therefore, boldly certify that I was not the victim of
+    any illusion or subterfuge, and that the head which I touched was the
+    head of a real and unknown person. I felt myself afterwards gently
+    stroked several times, upon the face and head, the neck and the
+    breast, by a hand which came out from behind the curtain. At last I
+    saw the portière move aside and a little hand, very moist, very soft,
+    stretched out and placed on my right hand. Quick as thought, I reached
+    my left hand to this place to seize it; but, after having held it
+    closely pressed in mine for several seconds, it seemed to melt away
+    between my fingers.
+
+    Before closing, let me say, by way of additional authentication, that
+    M. Flammarion had the extreme kindness to have this séance given for
+    my family and myself, and it therefore took on a very markedly private
+    character.
+
+    The séance having lasted from 9.20 to 11.45 P.M., we several times
+    asked the medium if she felt fatigued. Eusapia said no. It was only
+    when the last experiment took place, when we (myself and my family)
+    had been caressed and embraced, that the medium, feeling tired,
+    decided to end the sitting.
+
+    My wife is convinced, as I am, that she embraced her daughter,
+    recognizing her hair and the general appearance of her person.
+
+
+    Report of M. Le Bocain
+
+    (_The Same Séance_)
+
+    The following are some extraordinary phenomena which I observed during
+    the course of this séance and of which I believe I can give a report
+    as exact as it is impartial, having personally taken the most minute
+    precautions to assure myself of the perfect fairness of the conditions
+    under which these different wonders were produced.
+
+    I only speak, be it understood, of circumstances or actions with which
+    I myself was associated both as actor and as spectator.
+
+    1. At the opening of the sitting and _during the time_ that the table
+    was engaged in all sorts of noisy pranks, I clearly felt the pressure
+    of a hand clasping me in a friendly way upon the right shoulder. In
+    order to make the matters clear, I ought to depose that--
+
+    a) I sat at the left of the medium and held her hand; that,
+    furthermore, during the whole sitting her foot was placed on mine.
+
+    b) That, with Eusapia's hand always tightly pressed in mine, I proved,
+    by _suddenly_ placing it upon her knees, _at the very moment that the
+    table was rising from beside us_, that her lower limbs were in a
+    normal position and _absolutely motionless_.
+
+    c) For these different reasons, it seems to me, in fact, _impossible_
+    that Eusapia could have made any use whatever of these two limbs
+    (which happened to be placed by me) to execute a movement, even
+    unconscious, that could give rise to the least suspicion.
+
+    2. At a certain point in the proceedings I felt on my right cheek the
+    sensation of a fondling caress. I felt very distinctly that it was a
+    real hand which was touching my skin, and nothing else. The hand in
+    question seemed to me of small size, and the skin was soft and moist.
+
+    3. Towards the end of the séance I felt upon my back a gust of cold
+    air, and at the same time _I heard_ the curtain behind me slowly open.
+
+    Then, when I turned around, very much puzzled, I perceived standing at
+    the lower end of this kind of alcove a form,--indistinct, it is true,
+    but not so much so that I could not recognize the silhouette of a
+    young girl whose figure was slightly beneath the average. I ought to
+    say here that my sister Rosalie was also of short stature. The head of
+    this apparition was not very distinct. It seemed surrounded by a short
+    of shaded aureole. The whole form of the statue, if I may so express
+    myself, stood out very little from the dim obscurity from which it had
+    emerged; that is to say, it was not very luminous.
+
+    4. I addressed myself to the spirit in Arabic, in very nearly the
+    following terms:
+
+    "If it is really thou, Rosalie, who art in the midst of us, pull the
+    hair on the back of my head three times in succession."
+
+    About ten minutes later, and when I had almost completely forgotten
+    my request, I felt my hair pulled three separate times, just as I had
+    desired. I certify this fact, which, besides, formed for me a most
+    convincing truth of the presence of a familiar spirit close about us.
+
+    LE BOCAIN, _Illustrator_,
+      _Rire, Pêle-Mêle, Chronique Amusante, etc._
+
+I have restricted myself to presenting here these different reports,[28]
+in spite of certain contradictions, and even because of them. The reports
+mutually supplement each other and form a complete whole, through the
+entire independence of each observer.
+
+You see how complex the subject is, and how difficult it is to form a
+radical conviction, an absolute scientific judgment. Some phenomena are
+incontestably true: there are others which are doubtful and which we may
+attribute to fraud, conscious or unconscious, and sometimes also to
+illusions of the observers. The levitation of the table, for example, its
+complete detachment from the floor under the action of an unknown force
+acting in opposition to the law of gravity, is a fact which cannot
+reasonably be contested.
+
+I may remark, in this connection, that the table almost always rises
+hesitatingly, after balancings and oscillations, while, on the contrary,
+when it falls back it goes straight down at one swoop, alighting squarely
+on its four feet.[29]
+
+On the other hand, since the medium constantly seeks to release one hand
+(generally her left hand) from the control designed to hinder her from
+doing so, a certain number of the touches felt and of the displacements of
+objects may be due to a substitution of hands. This behavior of hers will
+be the subject of a special examination in the following chapter.
+
+But it would be impossible by the whole force of the hand to produce the
+violent movement of the curtain, which seems to be inflated by a
+tempestuous wind, and projected to the very centre of the table, forming a
+great hood around the heads of the sitters. To fling out the curtain with
+such force, it would be necessary for the medium to rise and push on it as
+hard as she could with her extended arms--not once merely, but again and
+again. But how can she do this when she is all the while seated tranquilly
+in her chair?
+
+These experiments place us in a special environment or atmosphere, on the
+different physical and psychical characters of which it is difficult to
+form an opinion.
+
+At the time of the last séance, during which M. and Mme. Pallotti are sure
+of having seen, touched, and embraced their daughter, I saw nothing, at
+that moment, of this spectral form, although it was only a few yards from
+me, and although I had perceived, some moments before, the head of a young
+girl. It is true that, out of respect for their emotion, I did not
+approach their group. But I kept careful watch, and I perceived no one but
+the living.
+
+At the séance of November 10 the noise of a sonorous object notified us of
+a displacement, a movement. We seem to hear the violin strings lightly
+touched. It is, in fact, the little violin on the round table, which is
+lifted to a height somewhat above that of the head of the medium, passes
+into the opening between the two curtains, and appears before us with the
+neck forward. The idea comes into my head to grasp this instrument during
+its slow passage through the air; but I hesitate, because I wish to see
+what will become of it. It comes as far as the middle of the table,
+descends, then falls, partly upon the table, partly upon the left hand of
+M. Brisson and the right hand of Mme. Fourton.
+
+That was one of the most accurate observations that I made at this séance.
+I did not let go of Eusapia's right hand for a single instant, and M.
+Brisson did not for a moment let go of her left hand.
+
+But in the face of phenomena so incomprehensible we always revert to
+scepticism. In the séance of November 19 we had thoroughly resolved this
+time not to leave any loophole for doubt as to the hands, to hinder every
+attempt at substitution, and to have the most complete control of each
+hand, without having our attention withdrawn from this object for a single
+moment. Eusapia has only two hands. She belongs to the same zoological
+species that we do, and is neither trimanous nor quadrumanous.
+
+It was enough, then, that there were two of us; that each one took a hand
+of the medium and kept hold of it between the thumb and the forefinger,
+that no possible doubt might arise, drew in the elbows, and held the said
+hand as far removed as possible from the axis of the medium's body and
+pressed against our own person, so as to remove the objection about the
+substitution of hands.
+
+That was the essential object of this séance, as far as concerned M.
+Brisson and me. He had charge of the left hand. I had charge of the
+right. I need not add that I am as sure of the loyalty of M. Brisson as he
+is sure of mine, and that, forewarned as we were, and holding this séance
+for the express purpose of this control, we could neither of us be the
+dupes of any attempt at fraud, so far as regards that occasion, at least.
+
+The famous medium, Home, had several times spoken to me of a curious
+experiment that he and Crookes made with an accordion held in one of his
+hands and playing all by itself, without the lower end being held by
+another hand. Crookes has represented this experiment by a sketch in his
+memoir upon this subject. The medium is seen holding the accordion with
+one hand in a kind of open-work cage, and the accordion is playing by
+itself. I shall give the details of this matter farther on.
+
+I tried the experiment in another way, by holding the accordion myself,
+and not letting it be touched by the medium. The feats which we had just
+witnessed, and which were performed while Eusapia had her hands securely
+held, gave me the hope of succeeding, so much the more because we believed
+that we had seen fluid hands in action.
+
+I, therefore, take a little new accordion, bought that evening in a
+bazaar, and, approaching the table and remaining in a standing position, I
+hold the accordion by one side, resting two fingers upon two keys, in such
+a way as to permit the air to pass in case the instrument should begin to
+play.
+
+So held, it is vertically suspended by the stretching out of my right hand
+to the height of my head, and above the head of the medium. We make sure
+that her hands are all the time tightly held and that the chain is
+unbroken. After a short wait of five or six seconds I feel the accordion
+drawn by its free end, and the bellows is immediately pushed in several
+times successively; and at the same time the music is heard. There is not
+the least doubt that a hand, a pair of pincers, or what-not, has hold of
+the lower end of the instrument. I perceive very well the resistance of
+this prehensible organ. All possibility of fraud is eliminated; for the
+instrument is well above Eusapia's head, her hands are firmly held, and I
+distinctly see the distention of the curtain as far as the instrument. The
+accordion continues to make itself heard, and is pulled on so strongly
+that I say to the invisible power, "Well, since you have such a good hold
+on it, keep it!" I withdraw my hand, and the instrument remains as if
+glued to the curtain. It is no longer heard. What has become of it? I
+propose to light a candle to hunt for it. But the general opinion is that,
+since things are going so well, it is better to make no changes in the
+environment. While we are talking, the accordion begins to play,--a slight
+and rather insignificant air. In order to do that, it must be held by two
+hands. At the end of fifteen or twenty seconds it is brought to the middle
+of the table (playing all the while). The certainty that hands are playing
+it is so complete that I say to the Unknown, "Since you hold the accordion
+so well, you can doubtless take my hand itself." I reach out my arm at the
+height of my head, rather a little higher. The curtain inflates, and
+through the curtain I feel a hand (a pretty strong left hand); that is to
+say, three fingers and the thumb, and these grasp the end of my right
+hand.
+
+Let us suppose for an instant that the accordion could have been pulled by
+one of Eusapia's hands, which she had released, lifted up, and screened
+behind the curtain. It is a very natural hypothesis. Let us say that the
+two controllers on the right and on the left respectively were cheated by
+the dexterity of the medium. That is not impossible. But, then, that the
+instrument might play, our heroine would have had to release her two hands
+and leave the two controllers at loggerheads with their own hands. It is
+something not to be thought of.
+
+Apropos of the existence of a third hand, a fluid hand, created on the
+spur of the moment, with muscles and bones (an hypothesis so bold that one
+hardly dares to express it), I relate here what we observed during the
+sitting of November 19.
+
+M. Guillaume de Fontenay, with whom the experiments at Montfort-l'Amaury
+were made, in 1897, at the home of the Blech family, had come on purpose
+from the centre of France, with a great profusion of apparatus and of new
+processes, to try to get some photographs. The medium appeared to be
+enchanted with them, and toward the middle of the soirée said to us, "You
+are going to have, this evening, something that you did not expect,
+something which has never been accomplished by any other medium, and which
+can be photographed as an unimpeachable record." She then explains to us
+that I am to lift my hand up, while firmly holding hers by the wrist; that
+M. Sardou, while holding her left hand, will keep watch over it above the
+table, and that then her third hand will appear in the photograph, her
+fluidic hand, holding the violin near her head, at some distance from her
+right hand, behind her, and against the curtain.
+
+We wait pretty long before anything happens. At length, the medium
+trembles, sighs, recommends that we breathe deeply and thus aid her, and
+we feel, rather than see, the moving of the violin through the air, with a
+slight vibrating noise of the strings. Eusapia cries, "It is time, take
+the photograph, quick, don't wait, fire!" But the apparatus does not work:
+the magnesium won't kindle. The medium grows impatient, still holds out,
+but cries that she cannot hold out much longer. We all vehemently clamor
+for the photograph. Nothing moves. In the darkness, which is needed in
+order that the plate in the camera shall not have to be veiled, M. de
+Fontenay does not succeed in lighting the magnesium, and the violin is
+heard to fall to the floor.
+
+The medium seems exhausted, groans, laments, and we all regret this check
+to the proceedings; but Eusapia declares that she can begin again, and
+asks us to get ready. In fact, at the end of five or six minutes the same
+phenomena are produced. M. de Fontenay explodes a chlorate of potassium
+pistol. The light is instantaneous, but feeble. It enables us to see
+Eusapia's left hand being held upon the table by M. Sardou's right hand,
+her right hand held in the air by my left hand, and at a distance of about
+twelve inches in the rear, at the height of one's head, the violin,
+resting vertically against the curtain. But the photograph gives no
+picture.
+
+Eusapia now asks for a little light ("_poco di luce_"). The small
+hand-lamp is lighted again, and the illumination is sufficient for us to
+see each other distinctly, including the arms, the head of the medium, the
+curtain, etc. The chain is formed again. The curtain flares widely out,
+and M. Sardou is several times touched by a hand which gives him a good
+whack on the shoulder, making him bend his head forward toward the table.
+In the presence of this manifestation and of these sensations we have
+again the impression that there has been a hand there, a hand different
+from those of the medium (which we continue carefully to hold),--and from
+ours, because we are holding each other's hands in the chain. Moreover,
+there is no one near the curtain, which is plainly visible. I thereupon
+remark, "Since there is a hand there, let it take from me this violin, as
+it did day before yesterday." I take the violin by the handle and hold it
+out to the curtain. It is at once taken and lifted, then falls to the
+floor. I do not for a moment let go the hand of the medium. Yet I grasp
+this hand with my right hand, for a moment, in order to pick up with my
+left the violin that has fallen near me. As I stoop down to the floor, I
+feel an icy breath upon my hand, but nothing more. I take the violin and
+put it on the table; then I take again with my left hand the hand of the
+medium, and, seizing the violin with my right, I hold it out again to the
+curtain. But Mme. Brisson, peculiarly incredulous, asks me to let her take
+it herself. She does so, holds it out to the curtain, and the instrument
+is snatched from her, in spite of all the efforts that she makes to retain
+it. Everybody declares they saw very distinctly this time.
+
+The hands of the medium have not been let go a single minute.
+
+It seems as if this experiment, made under these conditions, in sufficient
+light, ought to leave no doubt about the existence of a third hand of the
+medium which acts in obedience to her will. And yet!--
+
+During this same soirée of November 19 I ask that the violin, which has
+fallen to the floor, be brought again upon the table. We keep holding
+carefully the medium's hands, M. Sardou her left hand and I her right.
+Eusapia, wishing to give still more security, more certainty, proposes
+that I take her two hands, the right as I am holding it, and her left
+wrist in my right hand, her left hand always being held by M.
+Sardou,--_the whole show of hands taking place on the table_. A noise is
+heard. The violin is brought on, passes above our hands, thus
+criss-crossed, and is laid down, farther on, in the middle of the table. A
+candle is lighted, and the position of our hands is ascertained. They have
+not moved. Some time after this phenomena, in the dim light, we all saw
+will-o'-the-wisps shining in the cabinet. They were visible through the
+cleft in the curtains, which at that time was rather wide. For my part, I
+saw three of them, the first very brilliant, the others less intense. They
+were not tremulous, nor did they stir in the least, and remained in view
+scarcely more than a second.
+
+M. Antoniadi having remarked that he is not always sure of holding her
+left hand, Eusapia says to me in a flush of passion, "Since he is not
+sure, take my two hands yourself again." I already hold the right, and am
+absolutely certain of it. I thereupon take her left wrist in my right
+hand, M. A. declaring that he will take care of the fingers. In this
+position, Eusapia's two hands being thus held above the table, a cushion,
+which is at my right upon the table, having been forcibly thrown there
+some moments before, is seized and thrown over the sofa, brushing my
+forehead on the left. Those who sit at the table and form the chain affirm
+that the hands of the chain have not lost touch with each other.
+
+Here is another circumstance recorded in the notes of Mme. Flammarion:
+
+    We were almost in complete darkness,--the lamp, removed as far as
+    possible from Eusapia, having only the dim glow of a night-lamp.
+    Eusapia was seated at the experiment table,--between MM. Brisson and
+    Pallotti, who were holding her two hands,--and almost facing this
+    lamp.
+
+    Mme. Brisson and I were seated some yards distant from Eusapia, one of
+    us on the side and the other in the middle of the salon, Eusapia
+    facing us, while we had our backs turned to the light. This allowed us
+    to distinguish well enough everything that passed before us.
+
+    Up to the moment when the event that I am going to relate took place,
+    Mme. Brisson had remained almost as incredulous as I, apropos of the
+    phenomena, and she had just been expressing to me in a low tone her
+    regret at not having yet seen anything herself, when, all of a sudden,
+    the curtain behind Eusapia began to shake and move gracefully back, as
+    if lifted by an invisible curtain band,--and what do I see? The little
+    table on three feet, and leaping (apparently in high spirits) over the
+    floor, at the height of about eight inches, while the gilded
+    tambourine is in its turn leaping gayly at the same height above the
+    table, and noisily tinkling its bells.
+
+    Stupefied with wonder, quick as I can I pull Mme. Brisson to my side,
+    and, pointing with my finger at what is taking place, "Look!" said I.
+
+    And then the table and the tambourine begin their carpet-dance again
+    in perfect unison, one of them falling forcibly upon the floor and the
+    other upon the table. Mme. Brisson and I could not help bursting out
+    into laughter; for, indeed, it was too funny! A sylph could not have
+    been more amusing.
+
+Eusapia had not turned around. She was seen seated; and her hands, placed
+before her, were held by the two controllers. Even if she had been able to
+free both her hands, she would not have been able to take hold of the
+round table and tambourine, except by turning around; and the two ladies
+saw them leaping about all alone.
+
+I observe to Eusapia that she must be very tired, that the séance has
+lasted over two hours and has yielded extraordinary results, and that it
+is perhaps time to end it. She replies that she desires to continue still
+a little longer, and that there will be new phenomena. We accept with
+pleasure, and sit down and wait.
+
+Then she lays her head on my shoulder, takes my entire right arm,
+including the hand, and putting my leg between hers, and my feet between
+her feet, she held me very tight. Then she begins to rub the carpet,
+drawing my feet along with hers, and squeezing me tighter than before.
+Then she cries, "_Spetta! spetta!_" ("Look! look!"); then, "_Vieni!
+vieni!_" ("Come! come!") She invites M. Pallotti to take a place behind
+his wife and see what will happen. I must add that both of them had been
+earnestly asking, for some minutes, if they might see and embrace their
+daughter, as they had done at Rome.
+
+After a new nervous effort on the part of Eusapia, and a kind of
+convulsion accompanied by groans, complaints, and cries, there was a great
+movement of the curtain. Several times I see the head of a young girl
+bowing before me, with high-arched forehead and with long hair.
+
+She bows three times, and shows her dark profile against the window. A
+moment after we hear sounds from M. and Mme. Pallotti. They are covering
+with kisses the face of a being invisible to us, saying to her with
+passionate affection, "Rosa, Rosa, my dear, my Rosalie," etc. They say
+they felt between their hands the face and the hair of their daughter.
+
+My impression was that there was really there a fluidic being. I did not
+touch it. The grief of the parents, revived and consoled at the same time,
+seemed to me so worthy of respect that I did not approach them. But, as to
+the identity of the spectral being, I believed it to be a sentimental
+illusion of theirs.
+
+I come now to the strangest circumstances of all, the most
+incomprehensible, the most incredible, of any that we experienced in our
+séances.
+
+On November 21 M. Jules Bois presents a book before the curtain at about
+the height of a man standing upright. The salon is dimly lighted by a
+little lamp with a shade, set pretty well to one side. Yet objects are
+seen with distinctness.
+
+An invisible hand behind the curtain seizes the book. Then all the
+observers see it disappear as if it had passed through the curtain. It is
+not seen to fall before the curtain. It is an octavo, rather slender,
+bound in red, which I have just taken from my library.
+
+Now Mme. Flammarion, almost as sceptical as M. Baschet about these
+phenomena, had glided past the window to the rear of the curtain, in order
+to observe carefully what was passing. She hoped to detect a movement of
+the medium's arm, and to unmask her, in spite of the courtesy she owed her
+as her hostess. She saw very plainly Eusapia's head, motionless before the
+mirror which reflected the light.
+
+Suddenly the book appears to her, it having passed through the
+curtain,--upheld in the air, without hands or arms, for a space of one or
+two seconds. Then she sees it fall down. She cries, "Oh! the book: it has
+just passed through the curtain!" and, pale and stupefied with wonder, she
+abruptly retires among the observers.
+
+The entire hither side of the curtain was plainly visible, because the
+left portion of the left-hand curtain had been loosened from its rod by
+the weight of a person who had sat down on the sofa where the lower part
+of the curtain had been accidentally placed; and because a large opening
+had been made fronting the mirror which filled the entire wall of the
+farther end of the salon,--a mirror that reflected the light of the little
+lamp.
+
+If such an event had really taken place, we should be forced to admit that
+the book went through the curtain without any opening, for the tissue of
+the fabric is wholly intact; and we cannot suppose for a single moment
+that it passed through at the side, the book having been held out about
+the middle,--that is to say, about twenty-four inches from each side of
+the curtain, the breadth of which is four feet.
+
+Nevertheless, this book was seen by Mme. Flammarion, who was looking
+behind the curtain; and it disappeared from the eyes of the persons who
+were in front, notably M. Baschet, M. Brisson, M. J. Bois, Mme. Fourton
+and myself. We were not expecting this miracle in any way; we were
+stupefied by it; we asked what had become of the book, and it seemed as if
+it had fallen behind the curtain.
+
+Collective hallucination? But we were all in cool blood, entirely
+self-possessed.
+
+If Eusapia had been able to adroitly slip her hand around and seize the
+book through the portière, the bare outline of the book would not have
+been seen, but a protuberance of the portière.
+
+How great a value the sight of this thing passing through a portière would
+have as a scientific datum, if one were only sure of the absolute honesty
+of the medium,--if, indeed, this medium were a man of science, a
+physicist, a chemist, an astronomer, whose scientific integrity would be
+above suspicion! The mere fact of the possibility of fraud takes away
+ninety-nine one-hundredths of the worth of the observation, and makes it
+necessary for us to see it a hundred times before being sure. The
+conditions of certainty ought to be understood by all investigators, and
+it is curious to hear intelligent persons express surprise at our doubts,
+and at the strict scientific obligation we are under to lay down these
+conditions. In order to be sure of abnormalities like these levitations,
+for example, we must make sure of them a hundred times over; not see them
+once, but a hundred times.
+
+It seems to us impossible that matter could pass through matter. You place
+for example a stone upon a napkin. If one should tell you that he has
+found it under the napkin, without any break in the continuity of the
+tissue, you would not believe him. However, I take a piece of ice,
+weighing say two pounds, and place it upon a napkin; I place both upon a
+strainer, in the oven; the piece of ice melts, passes through the napkin,
+and falls drop by drop into a basin. I put the whole thing into a freezing
+machine, the melted water congeals again; the piece of ice weighing two
+pounds has passed through the napkin.
+
+It is very simple, you think. Yes, it is simple because we understand it.
+But, of course, this is not the same case as that of the book. Yet, after
+all, it is matter passing through matter, after a transformation of its
+physical condition.
+
+We might seek explanations, invoke the hypotheses of the fourth dimension,
+or discuss the non-Euclidian geometry. It seems to me more simple,
+however, to think that, on the one hand, these experiments are not yet
+sufficient for us to make an absolute affirmation, and that, on the other
+hand, our ignorance of everything is formidable and forbids us to deny
+anything.
+
+The phenomena of which I am speaking are so extraordinary that one is led
+to doubt them, even when one feels assured that he has seen them. Thus,
+for example, I noticed that M. René Baschet--my learned friend, present
+editor of _Illustration_--affirmed before us all, during the séance and
+afterward, that he saw with his own eyes, under the table, a head like
+that of a young girl of about twelve years of age, together with the bust.
+This head sank down vertically while he was looking at it and disappeared.
+He made the affirmation on the 21st, repeated it on the 22d at a theatre
+where we met, and on the 25th again at his home. Some time after, M.
+Baschet was convinced that he had been deceived, that he had been the dupe
+of an illusion. That is also possible. I was looking at the same time, as
+well as other persons, and we did not see anything.
+
+It is then very human, when we are thinking, some days later, of these
+curious things, for us to suspect ourselves.
+
+But there are prejudices less explicable. Thus, for example, at the séance
+of November 28 a distinguished engineer, M. L., absolutely refused to
+admit the levitation of the table, in spite of the evidence. Of this my
+readers may judge for themselves. Here is a note which I extract from my
+reports:
+
+    M. L. tells me that the medium lifts the table _with her feet_, while
+    resting her hands upon it. I ask Eusapia to draw back her feet under
+    her chair. The table is lifted.
+
+    After this second levitation, M. L. declares that he is not satisfied
+    (although neither of the feet of the medium is under a foot of the
+    table), and that we must begin the experiment again, without having
+    _her legs_ touched at any point. The medium then proposes that her
+    legs be fastened to those of M. L. A third levitation takes place,
+    after the left leg (the incriminated one) of the medium has been bound
+    to the left leg of M. L.
+
+    This gentleman then declares that the hypotheses he has made, in order
+    to explain the phenomenon, are null and void, but that there must be,
+    all the same, a trick in the thing, because he does not believe in the
+    supernatural.
+
+    Neither do I believe in the supernatural. And yet there is no trick.
+
+This manner of reasoning, rather common, does not seem to me scientific.
+It is to claim that we know the limits of the possible and of the
+impossible.
+
+People who deny that the earth moves reason in just this way. That which
+is contrary to common sense is not impossible. Common sense is the average
+state of popular knowledge; that is to say, of general ignorance.
+
+A man acquainted with the history of the sciences, and who reasons calmly,
+cannot succeed in understanding the ostracism to which certain sceptics
+subject unexplained phenomena. "It is impossible," they think. This famous
+common sense on which they plume themselves is nothing after all, let me
+say, but common opinion, which accepts habitual facts without
+comprehending them, and which varies from time to time. What man of good
+sense would formerly have admitted that we should one day be able to
+photograph the skeleton of a living being, or store up the voice in a
+phonograph, or determine the chemical composition of an inaccessible star?
+What was science a hundred years ago, two hundred years, three hundred?
+Look at astronomy five hundred years ago, and physiology, and medicine,
+and natural philosophy, and chemistry. In five hundred years, in a
+thousand years, in two thousand years, what will these sciences of ours
+be? And in a hundred thousand years? Yes, in a hundred thousand years,
+what will human intelligence be? Our actual condition will be to that what
+the knowledge of a dog is to that of a cultivated man; that is to say,
+there is no possible comparison.
+
+We smile to-day at the science of learned men of the time of Copernicus or
+Christopher Columbus or Ambroise Paré, and we forget that, in a few
+centuries, savants will estimate us in the same fashion. There are
+properties of matter which are completely hidden from us, and humanity is
+endowed with faculties still unknown to us. We only advance very slowly in
+the knowledge of things.
+
+The critics do not always give proof that they possess a very compact
+logical power. You speak to them of facts proved by centuries of
+testimony. They challenge the value of popular testimony, and declare that
+these uncultivated folks, these petty merchants, these manufacturers,
+these laborers, these peasants, are incapable of observing with any
+exactitude.
+
+Some days after, you cite the savants, men whose competence has been
+proved in the objective sciences of observation, which attest these very
+facts, and you hear the sneerers answer that those savants are competent
+witnesses in their special lines of study and work, but in nothing apart
+from these.
+
+So, after this fashion, all testimony is refused. They declare that the
+thing, being impossible, cannot have been observed at all.
+
+Of course there is room for a good deal of analysis in discussing the
+claims of human testimony. But, if we suppress every piece of testimony,
+what will there be left?--our native ignorance.
+
+But, to tell the truth, there are some of these negative gentry who are
+sure of everything, and who impose their aphorisms upon us with the
+authority of a czar giving out his ukase or edict.
+
+From these different experiments with Eusapia Paladino, including those
+described in the first and second chapters, the impression is left that
+the phenomena observed are, to a great extent, real and undeniable; that a
+certain number may be produced by fraud; but that, in fact, the subject is
+very complex. Again, certain movements simply belong to the material
+order, while others belong at once to the physical order and the psychical
+order. All this study is vastly more complicated than people in general
+have any idea of. I am going to pass summarily in review other experiments
+made by the same medium, and shall afterwards devote a special chapter to
+the examination of frauds and mystifications.
+
+Let us look, first, at other achievements of Eusapia, and select from them
+whatever they also have to impart in the way of instruction or caution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+OTHER SÉANCES WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO
+
+
+The medium, whose marvellous séance performances we have been describing
+has been the subject of a long series of observations by eminent and
+careful experimenters. Her endowments are indeed exceptional. When you
+study with Eusapia, the comparison of her powers with those of ordinary
+cases makes you think of the difference between a fine electrical machine
+operated under good atmospheric conditions and a bad one operated on a
+rainy day. You see more with her in one hour than in a host of faulty
+trials with other mediums.
+
+Our study of these unknown forces will progress rapidly if, in place of
+limiting the results obtained to one or two groups, such as those which
+precede, we examine the totality of the observations made in the séances
+of this medium. My readers can then compare them with the preceding ones;
+they can judge, they can make their own estimates.
+
+The documents which I am now going to print are all borrowed from the
+_Annales des sciences psychiques_ and from the valuable collection of M.
+Albert de Rochas upon _The Externalization of Motivity_.
+
+A few words, first, about the débuts of Eusapia in her mediumistic career.
+
+Professor Chiaia, of Naples, to whom I owe it that I was able to receive
+Eusapia at my house and obtain the experiments reported above, was the
+first to bring her gifts into public notice. He first published on the 9th
+of August, 1888, in a journal issued at Rome, the following letter
+addressed to Professor Lombroso:
+
+    _Dear Sir_,--In your article, _The Influence of Civilization upon
+    Genius_ (which has incontestable beauties of style and of logic), I
+    noticed a very happy paragraph. It seems to me to sum up the
+    scientific movement (starting from the time when man first invented
+    that head-breaking thing called an alphabet) down to our own day. This
+    paragraph reads as follows:
+
+    "Every generation is prematurely ready for discoveries which it never
+    sees born, since it does not perceive its own incapacity and the means
+    it lacks for making further discoveries. The repetition of any one
+    manifestation, by impressing itself upon our brains, prepares our
+    minds and renders them less and less incapable of discovering the laws
+    to which this manifestation is amenable. Twenty or thirty years are
+    enough to make the whole world admire a discovery which was treated as
+    madness at the moment when it was made. Even at the present day
+    academic bodies laugh at hypnotism and at homoeopathy. Who knows
+    whether my friends and I, who laugh at Spiritualism, are not in error,
+    just as hypnotized persons are? Thanks to the illusion which surrounds
+    us, we may be incapable of seeing that we deceive ourselves; and, like
+    many persons of unsound mind who stubbornly oppose the truth, we laugh
+    at those who are not of our way of thinking."
+
+    Struck by this keen thought, which by chance I find adapted to a
+    certain matter with which I have been occupied for some time, I
+    joyfully accept it, without abatement, without any comment which might
+    change its sense; and, confining myself to the fine old rules of
+    chivalry, I make use of it as a challenge. The consequences of this
+    challenge will neither be dangerous nor bloody: we shall fight fairly;
+    and, whatever may be the results of the encounter, whether I succumb
+    or whether I make my opponent yield, it will always be in a friendly
+    way. The result will tend to the improvement of one of the two
+    adversaries and will be in every way useful to the great cause of
+    truth.
+
+    There is much talk nowadays of a special malady which is found in the
+    human organism. We notice it every day; but we are ignorant of its
+    cause and know not what to call it. The cry is raised that it be
+    subjected to the examination of contemporary science; but science, in
+    reply, only meets the request with the mocking ironical smile of a
+    Pyrrhus, for the precise reason (as you say) that the time is not yet
+    ripe.
+
+    But the author of the paragraph I have quoted above, of course did not
+    write it merely for the pleasure of writing. It seems to me, on the
+    contrary, that he would not smile disdainfully if he were invited to
+    observe a special case that is worthy to attract the attention and to
+    seriously occupy the mind of a Lombroso. The case I allude to is that
+    of an invalid woman who belongs to the humblest class of society. She
+    is nearly thirty years old and very ignorant; her look is neither
+    fascinating nor endowed with the power which modern criminologists
+    call irresistible; but, when she wishes, be it by day or by night, she
+    can divert a curious group for an hour or so with the most surprising
+    phenomena. Either bound to a seat or firmly held by the hands of the
+    curious, she attracts to her the articles of furniture which surround
+    her, lifts them up, holds them suspended in air like Mahomet's coffin,
+    and makes them come down again with undulatory movements, as if they
+    were obeying her will. She increases their weight or lessens it
+    according to her pleasure. She raps or taps upon the walls, the
+    ceiling, the floor, with fine rhythm and cadence. In response to the
+    requests of the spectators, something like flashes of electricity
+    shoot forth from her body, and envelop her or enwrap the spectators of
+    these marvellous scenes. She draws upon cards that you hold out
+    everything that you want--figures, signatures, numbers, sentences--by
+    just stretching out her hand toward the indicated place. If you place
+    in the corner of the room a vessel containing a layer of soft clay,
+    you find after some moments the imprint in it of a small or a large
+    hand, the image of a face (front view or profile), from which a
+    plaster cast can be taken. In this way, portraits of a face taken at
+    different angles have been preserved, and those who desire so to do
+    can thus make serious and important studies.[30]
+
+    This woman rises in the air, no matter what bands tie her down. She
+    seems to lie upon the empty air as on a couch, contrary to all the
+    laws of gravity; she plays on musical instruments--organs, bells,
+    tambourines--as if they had been touched by her hands or moved by the
+    breath of invisible gnomes.
+
+    You will call that a particular case of hypnotism; you will say that
+    this sick woman is a fakir in petticoats, that you would shut her up
+    in a hospital. Let me beg of you, most eminent professor, not to shift
+    the argument. As is well known, hypnotism only causes a momentary
+    illusion; after the séance, everything takes its original form. But
+    here the case is different. During the days which followed these
+    marvellous scenes there remained traces and records worthy of
+    consideration.
+
+    What do you think of that?
+
+    But allow me to continue. This woman, at times, can increase her
+    stature by more than four inches. She is like an india-rubber doll,
+    like an automaton of a new kind; she takes strange forms. How many
+    legs and arms has she? We do not know. While her limbs are being held
+    by incredulous spectators, we see other limbs coming into view,
+    without knowing where they come from. Her shoes are too small to fit
+    these witch-feet of her, and this particular circumstance gives rise
+    to the suspicion of the intervention of mysterious power.
+
+    Don't laugh when I say "_gives rise to the suspicion_." I affirm
+    nothing; you will have time to laugh presently.
+
+    When this woman is bound, a third arm is seen to appear, and nobody
+    knows where it comes from. Then follows a long series of droll teasing
+    tricks. She abstracts bonnets, watches, money, rings, pins, and
+    produces them again with great adroitness and gayety; she takes coats
+    and waistcoats, pulls off boots, brushes hats and puts them back upon
+    the heads of those to whom they belong, curls and strokes mustaches,
+    and occasionally hits you with a fist, for she also has fits of
+    ill-temper. I said _a_ fist, because it is always a clumsy and callous
+    hand that strikes the blow. It has been noticed that the hand of the
+    sorceress is small. She has large finger-nails; has a moist skin, the
+    temperature of which varies from the natural warmth of the body to the
+    icy chill of a corpse the touch of which makes you shiver; she allows
+    herself to be handled, pinched, observed; and ends by rising into the
+    air, remaining suspended there with no visible means of support, like
+    one of those plump wooden hands hung out over the sidewalk as a sign
+    at the shops of the glove merchants.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VII. PLASTER CASTS OF IMPRESSIONS IN CLAY PRODUCED BY
+AN UNKNOWN FORCE.]
+
+    I swear to you that I emerge with a very calm spirit from the cave of
+    this Circe. Freed from her enchantments, I pass all my impressions in
+    review, and end in scepticism, although the testimony of my senses
+    assures me that I have not been the sport of an error or of an
+    illusion.
+
+    All these extraordinary manoeuvres cannot be attributed to
+    prestidigitation. We ought to be on our guard against every kind of
+    trickery, and make a scrupulous investigation in order to forestall
+    mendacity or fraud.
+
+    But the test sometimes fails; the facts do not always meet the demands
+    of the eager and restless spectators. This is one more mystery to
+    explain, and proves that the individual herself who works these
+    wonders is not their sole arbiter. Undoubtedly, she possesses the
+    exclusive power of producing these portentous feats; but they cannot
+    materialize except with the co-operation of an unknown agent, some
+    _deus ex machina_.
+
+    From all this two things result; namely, the great difficulty there is
+    in examining the true inwardness of this stupefying piece of
+    charlatanry, and the necessity of making a series of experiments in
+    order to get together enough of them to illuminate the dark intellects
+    of the dupes and to overcome the obstinacy of the wranglers.
+
+    Now you see my challenge. If you have not written the paragraph cited
+    above simply for the pleasure of writing it; if you have the true love
+    of science; if you are without prejudices,--you, the first alienist in
+    Italy,--please have the kindness to take the field, and persuade
+    yourself that you are going to measure swords with a worthy adversary.
+
+    When you can take a week's vacation, leave your beloved studies, and,
+    instead of going into the country, show me a place where we can meet.
+    Choose the time yourself.
+
+    You are to have a room into which you will enter alone before the
+    experiment; there you will arrange the furniture and other objects
+    just as you wish; you will lock the door with a key. I believe it
+    would be useless to present the lady to you in the costume worn in the
+    Garden of Eden, because this new Eve is incapable of retaliating upon
+    the serpent and of seducing you.
+
+    Four gentlemen will be our seconds, as is fitting in all knightly
+    encounters; you will choose two, and I will bring the other two.
+
+    No easier conditions were ever drawn up by the Knights of the Round
+    Table. It is evident that, if the experiment does not succeed, I shall
+    be able to accuse only the harsh decrees of destiny; you will consider
+    me but as a man suffering from hallucination, who longs to be cured of
+    his extravagances. But, if success crowns our efforts, your loyalty
+    will impose upon you the duty of writing an article, in which, without
+    circumlocution, reticence, or error, you will attest the reality of
+    the mysterious phenomena and promise to investigate their causes.
+
+    If you decline this meeting, please explain to me your sentence, "The
+    time is not yet ripe." Undoubtedly, that might apply to common
+    intellects, but not to a Lombroso, to whom is addressed this advice of
+    Dante: "Honor ought to close the lips of falsehood with truth."
+
+    Yours very devotedly and respectfully,
+      (PROFESSOR) CHIAIA.
+
+M. Lombroso did not at once accept this eloquent and witty challenge.
+However, we shall presently find that learned professor himself
+experimenting. In the mean time read what M. de Rochas tells us of
+Eusapia's youth:--
+
+    Her first mediumistic manifestations began at the age of puberty, when
+    she was about thirteen or fourteen years old. This coincidence is
+    found in almost all the cases in which the singular power of
+    producing movements at a distance has been observed.
+
+    At this epoch of her life it was remarked that the Spiritualistic
+    séances to which she was invited succeeded much better when she was
+    seated at the table. But they tired and bored her, and she refrained
+    from taking part in them for eight or nine years.
+
+    It was only in her twenty-second or twenty-third year that the
+    Spiritualistic education of Eusapia began. It was directed by an
+    ardent Spiritualist, M. Damiani. It was then that the personality of
+    _John King_ appeared, a spirit who took possession of her when she was
+    in the trance state.[31]
+
+    This John King is said to be the brother of Crookes's Katie King, and
+    to have been Eusapia's father in another existence. It is John who
+    speaks when Eusapia is in her trance; when he speaks of her, he calls
+    her "my daughter," and gives advice about the care of her person and
+    life. M. Ochorowicz thinks this John is a personality created in the
+    spirit of Eusapia by the union of a certain number of impressions
+    collected in the different psychic environments in which her life has
+    been passed. This would be almost the identical explanation for the
+    personalities suggested by the hypnotists, and for the variations of
+    personality observed by MM. Azam, Bourru, and Burot, et al.
+
+    Some have thought they noticed that Eusapia prepared herself,
+    consciously or unconsciously, at the séance, by diminishing her
+    respiration,--a very singular thing. At the same time, her pulse
+    gradually rises from 88 to 120 pulsations a minute. Is this a practice
+    analogous to that which the fakirs of India employ, or a simple effect
+    of the emotion which, before every séance, Eusapia experiences?--a
+    fact which has a strong tendency to convince the sitters, but is never
+    sure of the production of the phenomena.
+
+    Eusapia is not hypnotized; she enters of herself into the trance state
+    when she becomes a link in the chain of hands.
+
+    She begins to sigh deeply, then yawns and hiccoughs. A series of
+    varied expressions passes over her face. Sometimes it takes on a
+    demoniacal look, accompanied by a fitful laugh very much like that
+    which Gounod gives to Mephistopheles in the opera of _Faust_, and
+    which almost always precedes an important phenomenon. Sometimes her
+    face flushes; the eyes become brilliant and liquid, and are opened
+    wide. The smile and the motions are the mark of the erotic ecstasy.
+    She says "_mio caro_" ("my dear"), leans her head upon the shoulder of
+    her neighbor, and courts caresses when she believes that he is
+    sympathetic. It is at this point that phenomena are produced, the
+    success of which causes her agreeable and even voluptuous thrills.
+    During this time her legs and her arms are in a state of marked
+    tension, almost rigid, or even undergo convulsive contractions.
+    Sometimes a tremor goes through her entire body.
+
+    To these states of nervous super-activity succeeds a period of
+    depression characterized by an almost corpse-like paleness of the face
+    (which is frequently covered with perspiration) and the almost
+    complete inertia of her limbs. If she lifts her hand, it falls back of
+    its own weight.
+
+    During the trance her eyes are turned up, and only the white is
+    visible. Her presence of mind and her general consciousness are
+    diminished or not at all in evidence. She gives no reply, or, if she
+    does, her reply is retarded by questions. Eusapia has no recollection
+    of what has taken place during the séances, except for states of mind
+    bordering close on those of her normal state; and, consequently, they
+    only relate, as a general thing, to phenomena of slight intensity.
+
+    In order to aid in the manifestations, she frequently asks that her
+    force be increased by putting one more person in the chain. It has
+    frequently happened to her to address a sympathetic spectator, to take
+    his fingers and press them as if to draw something out of them, then
+    push them abruptly away, saying that she has enough force.
+
+    In proportion as her trance increases, her sensibility to light
+    increases. A sudden light causes difficulty in her breathing, rapid
+    beatings of the heart, an hysterical feeling, general irritation of
+    the nerves, pain in the head and eyes, and a trembling of the whole
+    body, with convulsions,--except when she herself asks for light (a
+    thing which frequently happens to her when there are interesting
+    verifications to be made upon the subject of displaced objects), for
+    then her attention is strongly called in other directions.
+
+    She is in constant motion during the active period of the séances.
+    These movements may be attributed to the hysterical crises which then
+    agitate her; but they appear to be necessary to the production of the
+    phenomena. Every time that a movement is being caused at a distance,
+    she imitates it, either with her hands or with her feet, and by
+    developing a much stronger force than would be necessary for producing
+    the movement by contact.
+
+    Here is what she herself says of her impressions when she wishes to
+    produce a movement at a distance. _She suddenly experiences an ardent
+    desire to produce the phenomena; then she has a feeling of numbness
+    and the goose-flesh sensation in her fingers; these sensations keep
+    increasing; at the same time she feels in the inferior portion of the
+    vertebral column the flowing of a current which rapidly extends into
+    her arm as far as her elbow, where it is gently arrested. It is at
+    this point that the phenomenon takes place._
+
+    During and after the levitations of the tables she has a feeling of
+    pain in her knees; during and after other phenomena, in her elbows and
+    all through her arms.
+
+It was only in the end of February, 1891, that Professor Lombroso, whose
+curiosity had finally been strongly excited, decided to come to Naples to
+examine these curious manifestations about which everybody in Italy was
+speaking. The following reports by M. Ciolfi were published apropos of
+this visit.[32]
+
+    _First Séance_
+
+    A large room, selected on the first floor by these gentlemen, had been
+    put at our disposal. M. Lombroso began by carefully examining the
+    medium, after which we took places around a gaming table. Mme.
+    Paladino sat at one end; at her left, MM. Lombroso and Gigli; I faced
+    the medium, between MM. Gigli and Vizioli; then came MM. Ascensi and
+    Tamburini, who closed the circle, the last named at the right of the
+    medium and in contact with her.
+
+    The room was lighted by candles placed upon a table behind Mme.
+    Paladino. MM. Tamburini and Lombroso each held a hand of the medium.
+    Their knees touched hers, at a certain distance from the feet of the
+    table; and her feet were under theirs.
+
+    After a rather long wait the table began to move, slowly at first,--a
+    matter explained by the scepticism, not to say the positively hostile
+    spirit, of those who were this night in a séance circle for the first
+    time. Then, little by little, the movements increased in intensity. M.
+    Lombroso proved the levitation of the table, and estimated at twelve
+    or fifteen pounds the resistance to the pressure which he had to make
+    with his hands in order to overcome that levitation.
+
+    This phenomenon of a heavy body sustained in the air, off its centre
+    of gravity and resisting a pressure of twelve or fifteen pounds, very
+    much surprised and astonished the learned gentlemen, who attributed it
+    to the action of an unknown magnetic force.
+
+    At my request, taps and scratchings were heard in the table. This was
+    new cause for astonishment, and led the gentlemen to themselves call
+    for the putting out of the candles in order to ascertain whether the
+    intensity of the noises would be increased, as had been stated. All
+    remained seated and in contact.
+
+    In a dim light which did not hinder the most careful surveillance,
+    violent blows were first heard at the middle point of the table. Then
+    a bell placed upon a round table, at the distance of a yard to the
+    left of the medium (in such a way that she was placed behind and to
+    the right of M. Lombroso), rose into the air, and went tinkling over
+    the heads of the company, describing a circle around our table, where
+    it finally came to rest.
+
+    In the midst of the expressions of deep amazement which this
+    unexpected phenomenon drew forth, M. Lombroso showed a strong desire
+    to hear and to prove it again. Whereupon the little bell began to
+    sound, and again made the tour of the table, redoubling its strokes
+    upon it, to such a degree that M. Ascensi, divided between
+    astonishment and the fear of having his fingers broken (the bell
+    weighed fully ten ounces), hastened to rise and go and seat himself on
+    a sofa behind me.
+
+    I kept insisting that we had to do with an intelligent force,--a
+    matter that he persistently denied,--and that consequently there was
+    nothing to fear. But M. Ascensi refused, under any circumstances, to
+    take his place again at the table.
+
+    I called attention to the fact that the circle was broken, since one
+    of the experimenters had left, and that, under penalty of no longer
+    being able to observe the phenomena in a cool judicious spirit, it
+    would be necessary that he should at least keep silent and motionless.
+    M. Ascensi was very willing to pledge himself to that.
+
+    The light was extinguished, and the experiments began again. While, in
+    response to a unanimous wish, the little bell was beginning again its
+    tinklings and its mysterious aërial circuits, M. Ascensi, taking his
+    cue, unknown to us, from M. Tamburini, went (unperceived, owing to the
+    darkness), and stood at the right of the medium, and at once with a
+    single scratch lighted a match, so successfully, as he declared, that
+    he could _see the little bell, while it was vibrating in the air_,
+    suddenly fall upon a bed about six feet and a half behind Mme.
+    Paladino.
+
+    I will not attempt to depict for you the amazement of the learned
+    body, the most striking manifestation of which was a rapid exchange of
+    questions and comments upon this strange occurrence.
+
+    After some remarks I made about the intervention of M. Ascensi, who
+    seemed likely to seriously trouble the psychic condition of the
+    medium, the darkness was turned on again, so to speak, in order to
+    continue the experiments.
+
+    At first it was a little work-table, small, but heavy, that moved
+    about. It was placed at the left of Mme. Eusapia, and it was upon it
+    that the little bell was placed at the beginning of the séance. This
+    small piece of furniture struck against the chair on which M. Lombroso
+    was seated, and _tried to hoist itself up_ on our table.
+
+    In the presence of this new phenomenon, M. Vizioli gave up his place
+    at our table to M. Ascensi and went to stand between the work-table
+    and Mme. Eusapia, to whom he turned his back. At least he said he did
+    all this, for we could not see him on account of the darkness. He took
+    the little table between his two hands and tried to hold it; but, _in
+    spite of his efforts, it released itself_ and went rolling over the
+    floor.
+
+    An important point to note is that, although MM. Lombroso and
+    Tamburini had not for a moment let go of the hands of Mme. Paladino,
+    Professor Vizioli announced that he felt a pinch in the back. General
+    hilarity followed this declaration.
+
+    M. Lombroso stated that he had felt his chair lifted up so that he was
+    compelled to remain standing for some time, after which his chair had
+    been so placed as to permit him to sit down again.
+
+    He also experienced twitches upon his clothes. Then he and M.
+    Tamburini felt the touches of an invisible hand upon their cheeks and
+    fingers.
+
+    M. Lombroso, especially struck with the two facts of the work-table
+    and the little bell, judged them of sufficient importance for him to
+    put off till Tuesday his departure from Naples, which had been first
+    fixed for Monday.
+
+    Upon his request I promised a new séance, on Monday, at the Hôtel de
+    Genève.
+
+
+    _Second Séance_
+
+    At eight o'clock in the evening I arrived at the Hôtel de Genève,
+    accompanied by the medium, Eusapia Paladino. We were received under
+    the colonnade by MM. Lombroso, Tamburini, Ascensi, and several other
+    persons whom they had invited; namely Professors Gigli, Limoncelli,
+    Vizioli, and Bianchi (superintendent of the insane asylum at Sales),
+    Dr. Penta, and a young nephew of M. Lombroso, who lives at Naples.
+
+    After the customary introductions, we were asked to go up to the
+    highest story in the house, where we were introduced into a very large
+    room with an alcove. Curtains, or portières, were let down across the
+    front of the alcove. Behind the curtains at a distance of about three
+    feet and a half, measured by MM. Lombroso and Tamburini, there was
+    placed, in this alcove, a round table, with a porcelain salver filled
+    with flour, in the hope of obtaining face-imprints in it. The alcove
+    also contained a tin trumpet, writing-paper, and a sealed envelope
+    containing a sheet of white paper, to see if we could not get _direct
+    writing_ on it.
+
+    The gentlemen inspected the alcove with extreme care, in order to
+    assure themselves that there was nothing there of a fixed-up,
+    suspicious nature.
+
+    Mme. Paladino sat down at the table, a little less than two feet from
+    the alcove curtains, turning her back to them. Then, at her request,
+    she had her body and her feet tied to her chair by means of cloth
+    bands. This was effected by three members of the company, who left
+    only her arms free. That done, places were taken at the table in the
+    following order: on the left of Mme. Eusapia, M. Lombroso; then, in
+    succession, M. Vizioli, myself, the nephew of M. Lombroso, MM. Gigli,
+    Limoncelli, Tamburini; finally, Dr. Penta, who completed the circle
+    and sat at the right of the medium.
+
+    MM. Ascensi and Bianchi refused to form part of the circle, and
+    remained standing behind MM. Tamburini and Penta. I paid little
+    attention to these two, being certain that their action was a
+    premeditated combination in order to redouble the vigilance. I simply
+    recommended that, while they were observing with extreme care, each
+    should remain quiet.
+
+    The experiments began in candlelight strong enough to light up the
+    whole room. After a long wait the table began to move, slowly at
+    first, then more energetically. However, the movements remained
+    intermittent, labored, and much less vigorous than at Saturday's
+    séance.
+
+    The table volunteered a request by taps of its leg designating the
+    letters of the alphabet, that MM. Limoncelli and Penta should exchange
+    places. This exchange effected, the table called for the turning out
+    of lights.
+
+    A moment after, and with more force this time, the movements of the
+    table began again. Suddenly, in the midst of these, violent blows were
+    heard. The chair placed at M. Lombroso's right tried to climb up on
+    the table, then hung suspended upon the arm of the learned professor.
+    All of a sudden the curtains of the alcove were shaken, and swung
+    forward over the table in such a way as to envelop M. Lombroso, who
+    was very much moved by such a wonder, as he himself has declared.
+
+    All these phenomena, happening at long intervals, in the darkness, and
+    in the midst of noisy conversation, were not estimated at their true
+    worth. It was thought that they were only the effects of chance or
+    were jests of some member of the company.
+
+    While we are all waiting and discussing the import of the phenomena
+    and the greater or less value that should be set on them, the noise of
+    the fall of an object is heard. When the room is lighted, there is
+    found at our feet under the table the trumpet which had been placed on
+    the round table in the alcove behind the curtains. This circumstance,
+    which MM. Bianchi and Ascensi receive with a burst of laughter,
+    surprises the experimenters, and has the effect of more completely
+    fixing their attention.
+
+    The room is darkened again, and, by urgent request some fugitive
+    glimmers of light are seen to appear and disappear at long intervals.
+    This phenomenon impressed MM. Bianchi and Ascensi, and put an end to
+    their incessant railleries, so much so that they came and formed a
+    part of the circle. At the moment of the appearance of the gleams, and
+    even some time after they had ceased to show themselves, MM.
+    Limoncelli and Tamburini, at the right of the medium, said that they
+    were touched in several places by a hand. M. Lombroso's young nephew,
+    absolutely sceptical, who had taken a seat by the side of M.
+    Limoncelli, declared that he felt the touch of a flesh-and-blood hand,
+    and asked with some impetuosity who did that. He forgot--being not
+    only sceptical, but artless--that, like himself, all the persons
+    present were helping to form the chain of hands and were in mutual
+    contact.
+
+    It was getting late, and the lack of homogeneity in the circle was
+    abridging the phenomena. Under these conditions I thought I ought to
+    end the séance and cause the candles to be lighted.
+
+    When MM. Limoncelli and Vizioli were taking leave, the medium being
+    still seated and bound, and all of us were standing around the table
+    conversing about the luminous phenomena, and comparing the scattered
+    and feeble effects obtained in this soirée with those of the Saturday
+    preceding, and seeking the reason for this difference, we heard noise
+    in the alcove, and saw the portières which enclosed it vigorously
+    shaken, and the round table which was behind them slowly advancing
+    toward Mme. Paladino, still seated and bound.
+
+    On seeing this strange, unexpected phenomena occur in full light, we
+    were all stupefied with amazement. M. Bianchi and M. Lombroso's nephew
+    dashed into the alcove, under the impression that some person
+    concealed there was producing the movement of the portières and the
+    round table. Their astonishment was unbounded when they ascertained
+    that there was no one there, and that, under their very eyes, the
+    table continued to glide over the floor in the direction of the
+    medium. That is not all. Professor Lombroso observed that, while the
+    table was in movement, the salver on it had been turned upside down
+    without a single particle of the flour which it contained being
+    spilled; and he added that no prestidigitator would have been able to
+    accomplish such a feat. In the presence of these phenomena taking
+    place as they did, after the breaking up of the circle, in such a way
+    as to eliminate the hypothesis of a magnetic current, Professor
+    Bianchi, in obedience to the love of truth, confessed that it was he
+    who, for the sake of a joke, had contrived and brought about the fall
+    of the tin trumpet, but that in the presence of such achievements as
+    this he could no longer be sceptical, and was going to apply himself
+    to the study of them in order to investigate their causes.
+
+    Professor Lombroso complained of the trick, and said to M. Bianchi
+    that, as between professors met in order to make scientific studies
+    and researches in common, mystifying pranks like this could not but
+    cast a slur upon the respect due to science.
+
+    Professor Lombroso, who was a prey both to doubt and to ideas of his
+    own which tormented his mind, made an engagement to be present at
+    further meetings on his return to Naples in the following summer.
+
+M. Ciolfi, having sent these two reports to M. Lombroso, the eminent
+professor of Turin confirmed their accuracy in the following letter, dated
+June 25, 1891:--
+
+    _Dear Sir_,--The two reports that you have sent me are of the utmost
+    accuracy. I add that, before we had seen the salver turned over, the
+    medium had announced that she would sprinkle the faces of those who
+    sat by her with flour; and everything leads to the belief that such
+    was her intention, but that she was not able to realize it,--a new
+    proof, to my mind, of her perfect honesty, especially considering her
+    semi-unconsciousness.
+
+    I am filled with confusion and regret that I combated with so much
+    persistence the possibility of the facts called Spiritualistic. I say
+    facts, because I am still opposed to the theory.
+
+    Please give my greetings to M. E. Chiaia, and, if it is possible, get
+    M. Albini to examine the visual field and the inner recesses of the
+    eye of the medium, about which I desire to inform myself.
+
+    Yours very truly,
+      C. LOMBROSO.
+
+M. Lombroso soon after published his experiences and reflections, in an
+article in the _Annales des sciences psychiques_ (1892) which ends thus:
+
+    None of these facts, (which we must admit, because no one can deny
+    things which he has seen) is of such a nature as to lead us to form
+    for their explanation an hypothesis of a world different from that
+    admitted by the neuro-pathologists.
+
+    Above all, we must not forget that Mme. Eusapia is a neuropath; that
+    in her childhood she received a blow on the left parietal bone, which
+    produced a hole so deep that you could put your finger in it; that she
+    remained subject to attacks of epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria,
+    which take place especially during the séance phenomena; and that,
+    finally, she has a remarkable obtuseness of touch.
+
+    Well, I do not see anything inadmissible in this,--that in the case of
+    hypnotic and hysterical persons the excitation of certain centres,
+    which become powerful by the paralysis of all the others and then
+    provoke a transposition and a transmission of physical forces, may
+    also produce a transformation in luminous force or in motive force.
+    Thus we understand how the force in a medium which I shall call
+    cortical or cerebral may, for example, lift the table, pull somebody's
+    beard, hit him, caress him, etc.
+
+    During the transposition of senses due to hypnotism,--when, for
+    example, the nose and the chin _see_ (and that is a fact which I
+    observed with my own eyes), and when for some moments all the other
+    senses are paralyzed, the cortical centre of vision, which has its
+    seat in the brain, acquires such an energy that it supersedes the eye.
+    It is this which we have been able to prove, Ottolenghi and I, in the
+    case of three hypnotized persons, by making use of the lens and of the
+    prism.
+
+The phenomena observed would be explained, according to this theory, by a
+_transformation_ of the powers of the medium. Let us continue our account
+of the experiments.
+
+Taking into consideration the testimony of Professor Lombroso, several
+savants--including MM. Schiaparelli, director of the observatory at Milan;
+Gerosa, professor of physics; Ermacora, doctor of natural philosophy;
+Aksakof, councillor of state to the Emperor of Russia; Charles du Prel,
+doctor of philosophy in Munich; Dr. Richet, of Paris, and Professor
+Buffern--met in October, 1892, in the apartment of M. Finzi, at Milan, to
+renew these experiments. M. Lombroso was present at several of the
+soirées. There were seventeen in all.
+
+The experimenters present signed the following long declaration:
+
+    The results obtained did not always come up to our expectations. Not
+    that we did not secure a large number of facts apparently or really
+    important and marvellous; but, in the greater number of cases, we were
+    not able to apply the rules of experimental science which, in other
+    fields of observation, are regarded as indispensable in order to
+    arrive at certain and incontestable results. The most important of
+    these rules consists in changing, one after the other, the methods of
+    experiment, in such a way as to bring out the true cause, or at least
+    the true conditions of all the events. Now it is precisely from this
+    point of view that our experiments seem to us still incomplete.
+
+    It is very true that the medium, to prove her good faith, often
+    voluntarily proposed to change some feature of one or the other
+    experiment, and frequently herself took the initiative in these
+    changes. But this applied only to things that were apparently
+    indifferent, according to our way of seeing. On the contrary; the
+    changes which seemed to us necessary to put the true character of the
+    results beyond doubt, either were not accepted as possible or ended in
+    uncertain results.
+
+    We do not believe we have the right to explain these things by the aid
+    of insulting assumptions, which many still find to be the simplest
+    explanation, and of which some journals have made themselves
+    champions. We think, on the contrary, that these experiments are
+    concerned with phenomena of an unknown nature, and we confess that we
+    do not know what the conditions are that are required to produce them.
+    To desire to fix these conditions in our own right and out of our own
+    head would be as extravagant as to presume to make the experiment of
+    Torricelli's barometer with a tube closed at the bottom, or to make
+    electrostatic experiments in an atmosphere saturated with humidity, or
+    to take a photograph by exposing the sensitive plate in full light
+    before placing it in the camera. However, it is a fact that the
+    impossibility of varying the experiments in our own way has diminished
+    the worth and the interest of the results obtained, by depriving them
+    of that rigorous demonstration which we are right in demanding in
+    cases of this kind, or, rather, to which we ought to aspire.
+
+    The following are the principal phenomena observed.
+
+
+    _Levitation of One Side of the Table_
+
+    We agreed to have the medium sit alone at the table, in full light,
+    her two hands placed on its upper surface and her sleeves drawn back
+    to the elbows.
+
+    We remained standing about her, and the space above and under the
+    table was well lighted. Under these conditions the table rose at an
+    angle of twenty to forty degrees, and so remained for some minutes,
+    while the medium was holding her legs stretched out and striking her
+    feet one against the other. When we pressed with the hand upon the
+    lifted side of the table, we experienced a considerable elastic
+    resistance.
+
+    The table was suspended by one of its ends to a dynamometer which was
+    coupled to a cord: this cord was tied to a small beam supported upon
+    two wardrobes.
+
+    Under these conditions, the end of the table having been lifted six
+    and a half inches, the dynamometer showed seventy-seven pounds. The
+    medium sat at the same narrow end of the table, with her hands
+    _wholly_ on the table, to the right and the left of the point where
+    the dynamometer was attached. Our hands formed the chain upon the
+    table, without pressure: they would not have been able in any case to
+    do more than _increase_ the pressure brought to bear on the table. On
+    the contrary, the desire was expressed that the pressure should
+    diminish, and soon the table began to rise on the side of the
+    dynamometer. M. Gerosa, who was following the marks on the apparatus,
+    announced this diminution, expressed by the successive figures 7-1/2,
+    4-1/2, 2-1/2, 0 (pounds). At the last the levitation was such that the
+    dynamometer rested horizontally on the table.
+
+    Then we changed the conditions by putting our hands under the table.
+    The medium, especially, put hers, not under the edge, where it might
+    have touched the vertical border-board and exercised a push downwards,
+    but _under the rail that unites the feet_, and touched this, not with
+    the palm, but _with the back of the hand_. Thus all the hands together
+    could only have diminished the traction upon the dynamometer. Upon the
+    desire being expressed to see this traction augment, it increased from
+    7-1/2 pounds to 13 pounds. During all these experiments each of the
+    medium's feet rested under the foot of her nearest neighbor to right
+    or left.
+
+
+    _Complete Levitation of the Table._
+
+    It was natural to conclude that if the table, in apparent
+    contradiction to the law of gravity, was able to rise partly, it would
+    be able to rise entirely from the floor. As a matter of fact, this is
+    what happened. _This levitation, one of the most frequent phenomena
+    that occur in the experiments with Eusapia, stood a most satisfactory
+    examination._
+
+    The phenomenon always materialized under the following conditions: the
+    persons seated about the table place their hands on it, and form the
+    chain; each hand of the medium is held by the adjacent hand of her two
+    neighbors; each of her feet remains under the feet of her neighbor,
+    who also press her knees with theirs. She is seated, as usual, at one
+    of the small ends of the table, _a position least favorable for a
+    mechanical levitation_. At the end of several minutes the table makes
+    a side movement, rises first to the right, then to the left, and
+    finally mounts off of its four feet straight into the air, and lies
+    there horizontally (as if it were floating on a liquid), ordinarily at
+    a height of from 4 to 8 inches (in exceptional cases from 24 to 27
+    inches); then falls back and rests on its four feet. It frequently
+    remains in the air for several seconds, and while there also makes
+    undulatory motions, during which the position of the feet under the
+    table can be thoroughly examined. During the levitation the right hand
+    of the medium often leaves the table, as well as that of her neighbor,
+    and is held in the air above.
+
+    In order the better to observe this thing, we removed one by one the
+    persons placed at the table, recognizing the truth that the chain
+    formed by several persons was neither necessary for this phenomenon
+    nor for others. Finally, we left only a single person with the medium,
+    seated at her left. This person placed her foot upon Eusapia's two
+    feet and one hand upon her knees, and held with her other hand the
+    left hand of the medium. Eusapia's right hand was on the table, in
+    full view,--though sometimes she held it in the air during the
+    levitation.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VIII. DRAWING FROM PHOTOGRAPH, SHOWING METHOD OF
+CONTROL BY PROFESSORS LOMBROSO AND RICHET OF EUSAPIA. TABLE COMPLETELY
+RAISED.]
+
+    As the table remained in the air for several seconds, it was possible
+    to obtain several photographs of the performance. Three pieces of
+    photographic apparatus were working together in different parts of the
+    room, and the illumination was furnished by a magnesium light at the
+    opportune moment. Twenty photographs were obtained, some of which are
+    excellent. Upon one of them (Pl. VIII) we see Professor Richet, who
+    holds one hand, the knees, and a foot of the medium. The other hand of
+    the latter is held by Professor Lombroso. The table is shown
+    horizontally lifted,--a fact proved by the interval between the
+    extremity of each foot and the extremity of the corresponding
+    projected shadow.
+
+    In all the experiments which precede, we gave our attention
+    principally to a careful inspection of the position of the hands and
+    the feet of the medium; and, in this respect, _we believe we can say
+    that they were safe from all criticism_. Still, a scrupulous sincerity
+    compels us to mention the fact to which we did not begin to call
+    attention before the evening of October 5, but which probably must
+    have occurred also in the preceding experiments. It consists in this,
+    that the four feet of the table could not be considered as perfectly
+    isolated during the levitation, because one of them at least was in
+    contact with the lower edge of the medium's dress.
+
+    On this evening it was remarked that a little before the levitation,
+    Eusapia's skirt was inflated on the left side until it touched the
+    foot of the nearest table. One of us having been charged with the duty
+    of hindering this contact, the table was unable to rise as before, and
+    it only did rise when the observer intentionally permitted the contact
+    to take place. This is shown in the photographs taken during this
+    experiment, and also in those in which the table-foot in question is
+    visible (after a fashion) at its lower extremity. The reader will see
+    that at the same time the medium had her hand placed upon the upper
+    surface of the table, and on the same side, in such a way that this
+    table-foot was under her influence, as much in its lower portion, by
+    means of the dress, as in the upper portion, by means of the hand.
+
+    Now in what way is it possible for the contact of a light dress-stuff
+    with the lower extremity of the foot of a table to assist in the
+    levitation? That is something we do not know. The hypothesis that the
+    dress may conceal a solid support, skilfully introduced, which may
+    serve as a temporary support for the foot of the table, is a very poor
+    one.
+
+    In fact, to keep the whole table resting on this one foot through the
+    influence that a single hand could produce upon the upper surface of
+    the table would require that the hand exercise upon the table a very
+    strong pressure, one that we cannot suppose Eusapia capable of, even
+    during three or four seconds.
+
+    We convinced ourselves of this by ourselves making proof of it with
+    the same table.[33]
+
+
+    _Movements of Objects at a Distance, without Contact with Any of the
+    Persons Present_
+
+    1. Spontaneous movements of objects.
+
+    These phenomena were observed several times during our séances. It
+    often happened that a chair, placed for this purpose not far from the
+    table, between the medium and one of her neighbors, began to move
+    about, and sometimes came up to the table. A remarkable instance
+    occurred in the second séance, everything being _all the time in full
+    light_. A heavy chair, weighing twenty-two pounds, which stood a yard
+    from the table and behind the medium, came up to M. Schiaparelli, who
+    was seated next the medium. He rose to put it back in its place; but
+    scarcely was he seated when the chair advanced a second time toward
+    him.
+
+    2. Movement of the table without contact.
+
+    It was desirable to obtain this phenomenon as a matter of experiment.
+    For that purpose, the table being placed upon casters, the feet of the
+    medium were watched, as has been said, and all of the sitters formed
+    the chain with their hands, including those of the medium. When the
+    table began to move, we all lifted our hands, without breaking the
+    chain, and the table thus isolated made several movements. This
+    experiment was several times renewed.
+
+
+    _The Fetching of Different Objects, the Hands of the Medium Being tied
+    to those of her Neighbors._
+
+    In order to assure ourselves that we were not the victims of a trick,
+    we tied the hands of the medium by a string to those of her two
+    neighbors, in such a way that the movements of the four hands would
+    reciprocally control each other. The length of the cord between the
+    hands of the medium was from eight to twelve inches, and between each
+    one of her hands and the hands of her neighbors four inches. This
+    distance of space was purposely arranged in order that the hands of
+    the neighboring persons might, in addition, readily hold those of the
+    medium during the convulsive movements which usually agitate her.
+
+    The tying was done in the following way: we took three turns of the
+    string around each wrist of the medium, without leaving any slack, but
+    drawn so tightly as almost to give her pain,[34] and then we tied two
+    simple knots. This was done in order that, if by any artifice the
+    hand was able to release itself from the string, the three turns would
+    work against it and the hand could not get back again under the string
+    as it was before.
+
+    A little bell was placed upon a chair behind her. The chain was
+    formed, and her hands as well as her feet were held as usual. The room
+    was darkened in answer to the request that the little bell should at
+    once sound, after which we were to untie the medium. _Immediately_ we
+    heard the chair move, describe a curve upon the floor, approach the
+    table, and presently place itself upon it. The bell rang, then was
+    thrown upon the table. The light having been at once turned on, we
+    ascertained that the knots of the string were in perfect order. It is
+    clear that the fetching on of the chair was not produced by the action
+    of the hands of the medium.
+
+
+    _Impressions of Fingers obtained on Smoked Paper._
+
+    In order to decide if we had to do with a human hand ... or with any
+    other way of dealing, we fixed a sheet of paper, blackened with the
+    smoke of a lamp, upon the table, on the side opposite that of the
+    medium, and expressed a wish that the hand would leave an impression
+    on it, that the hand of the medium should remain unsoiled, and that
+    the lampblack be transferred to the hands of one of us. The hands of
+    the medium were held by those of MM. Schiaparelli and Du Prel. The
+    chain was made in the darkness, then we heard a hand lightly tap upon
+    the table, and presently M. Du Prel announced that his left hand,
+    which he held on the right hand of M. Finzi, had had the sensation of
+    fingers rubbing it. As soon as the room was lighted, we found upon the
+    paper several imprints of fingers, and the back of M. Du Prel's hand
+    was covered with lampblack; _but the hands of the medium, examined
+    then and there, had no trace of it_. This experience was repeated
+    three times. When we insisted upon having a complete impression, we
+    obtained five fingers upon a second sheet of paper, and upon a third
+    the impression of almost an entire left hand. After that the back of
+    M. Du Prel's hand was completely blackened, the hands of the medium
+    remaining perfectly clean.
+
+
+    _Apparition of Hands upon a Dimly Lighted Background_
+
+    We placed upon the table a large cardboard covered with a
+    phosphorescent substance (sulphide of calcium), and we placed other
+    pieces of cardboard upon chairs in different parts of the chamber.
+    Under such conditions we saw very plainly the outline of a hand
+    imposed on the cardboard of the table. Upon the background formed by
+    the other pieces we saw the shadow of the hand pass and repass around
+    us.
+
+    On the evening of September 21 one of us several times saw the image,
+    not of one, but of _two hands at once_, thrown upon the glass panes of
+    a feebly illuminated window (outside it was night, but the darkness
+    was not complete). These hands exhibited a rapid tremulous motion, but
+    not so rapid as to hinder us from seeing the outline clearly. They
+    were wholly opaque and were thrown upon the window as absolutely black
+    silhouettes.
+
+    This simultaneous appearance of two hands is _very significant_, for
+    they cannot be explained on the hypothesis of a trick of the medium,
+    who would not have been able in any way to free more than one of her
+    hands, owing to the surveillance of those who sat beside her. The same
+    conclusion applies to the clapping of two hands, one against the
+    other, which was several times heard in the air.
+
+
+    _The Levitation of the Medium to the Top of the Table_
+
+    We regard this levitation as among the most important and most
+    significant of Spiritualistic achievements. It took place twice, on
+    September 28 and October 3. The medium was seated at one end of the
+    table, uttering deep groans, and was lifted up with her chair and
+    placed upon the table, not moving from her position, those next her
+    still holding her hands as she rose.
+
+    On the evening of September 28, while her two hands were held by MM.
+    Richet and Lombroso, the medium complained of their grasping her under
+    the arm. Then, in a state of trance she said, with the changed voice
+    which she usually has while in this state, "Now I bring up my medium
+    upon the table." At the end of two or three seconds the chair, with
+    the medium seated in it, was not thrown, but lifted with precaution
+    and placed upon the table. MM. Richet and Lombroso are sure they did
+    not assist her in this ascension. After she had spoken, being all the
+    time in a state of trance, the medium announced her descent, and (M.
+    Finzi being substituted for M. Lombroso) was placed upon the floor
+    with care and precision, MM. Richet and Finzi following her movements
+    without at all assisting them.
+
+    Moreover, during the descent, both gentlemen felt a hand touching them
+    lightly several times upon the head. On the evening of October 3 the
+    same phenomenon was repeated in similar circumstances.
+
+
+    _Touchings_
+
+    Some of these merit particular notice, owing to a circumstance capable
+    of giving us an interesting notion of their possible origin. Our first
+    business is to describe the touchings which were felt by persons
+    beyond the reach of the hands of the medium. Thus, on the evening of
+    October 6, M. Gerosa, who was separated from the medium by three
+    places (about four feet, the medium being a little to one side and M.
+    Gerosa in one of the adjacent corners at the opposite short end of the
+    table), having lifted his hand that it might be touched, felt a hand
+    strike his own several times to make him lower it; and, as he
+    persisted, he was hit with a trumpet, which an instant before had been
+    making sounds in the air.
+
+    In the second place, we must note touchings which constitute very
+    delicate operations, and which cannot be made in the darkness with the
+    precision which we have noted in them. Twice (on September 16 and 21)
+    M. Schiaparelli had his spectacles removed from his nose and laid down
+    on the table before another person. These glasses are fixed to the
+    ears by means of two springs, and a certain amount of attention is
+    necessary in order to remove them, even to one working in full light.
+    Yet they were removed in complete darkness with so much delicacy and
+    promptness that the said experimenter only perceived the loss of them
+    when he no longer had the usual feeling of them on his nose, on his
+    temples, and behind his ears, and he was obliged to feel with his
+    hands in order to be sure that they were no longer in their usual
+    place.
+
+    Many other touchings produced similar effects, and were executed with
+    extreme delicacy; for example, when one of the company felt his hair
+    and beard stroked.
+
+    In all of the innumerable manoeuvres executed by mysterious hands,
+    there was never any awkward stumbling or collision to be noted, though
+    ordinarily this is inevitable when one is working in the dark. I may
+    add, in this connection, that bodies tolerably heavy and bulky, such
+    as chairs and vessels full of clay, were deposited upon the table
+    without having collided with any of the numerous hands resting upon
+    the table,--a particularly difficult thing in the case of chairs
+    which, owing to their dimensions, occupied a large part of the table.
+    A chair was turned over on its face upon the table and lay there at
+    full length without causing the least annoyance to anybody; and yet it
+    covered almost the entire surface.
+
+
+    _Contact with a Human Face_
+
+    One of us having expressed the wish to be kissed, felt before his very
+    mouth the peculiar quick sounds of a kiss, but not accompanied by any
+    contact of lips. This happened twice. On three different occasions one
+    of the experimenters felt the touch of a face with hair and beard. The
+    feeling of the skin was exactly that of a living man. The hair was
+    much coarser and more bristly than that of the medium, and the beard
+    seemed very soft and delicate.
+
+Such are the experiments made at Milan in 1892 by the group of savants
+cited above.
+
+How can we help admitting, after the reading of this new official report,
+the following things?
+
+1. The complete levitation of the tables.
+
+2. The levitation of the medium.
+
+3. The movement of objects without contact.
+
+4. Accurate and delicate touches made by invisible organs.
+
+5. The formation of hands and even of human figures.
+
+These phenomena take their place in this book as things which were
+observed with the most scrupulous care.
+
+Let us note also the action of the little piece of furniture (chair or
+round table), which tries to climb up on one of the company or upon the
+large table,--a thing also observed by myself.
+
+Although the savants of the Milan group regretted that they did not make
+_experiments_, but only _observations_ (I said above (p. 20), what we
+ought to think about this), the facts were none the less proved.
+
+I will add that after the reading of this _procès-verbal_, the cautious
+reserves of M. Schiaparelli seem exaggerated. If fraud has sometimes crept
+in, still what has been accurately observed remains safe and sound and is
+an acquisition to science.
+
+Our medium, Eusapia, has been the subject of a fruitful series of
+experiments. Let me also mention those of Naples in 1893, under the
+direction of M. Wagner, Professor of Zoölogy at the University of St.
+Petersburg; that of Rome in 1893-1894, under the direction of M. de
+Siemiradski, correspondent of the Institute; those of Varsovie, from the
+25th of November, 1893, to the 15th of January, 1894, at the house of Dr.
+Ochorowicz; those of Carqueiranne and of l'île Roubaud, in 1894, at the
+house of Professor Richet; those of Cambridge in August, 1895, at the
+house of Mr. Myers; those of the villa de l'Agnellas, from the 20th to the
+29th of September, 1895, at the house of Colonel de Rochas; those of
+Auteuil, in September, 1896, at the house of M. Marcel Mangin, etc. It
+would be entirely superfluous and an unconscionably long task to analyze
+them all. Let us merely select some special characteristic instances.
+
+In the report of M. de Siemiradski we read as follows:
+
+    In the corner of the hall there was a piano, placed to the left of
+    Ochorowicz and Eusapia, and a little in the rear. Some one desired to
+    hear the keyboard touched. We at once hear the moving of the piano.
+    Ochorowicz can even see the displacement, thanks to a ray of light
+    which falls upon the polished surface of the instrument through the
+    window shutters. The piano then opens noisily, and we hear the bass
+    notes of the keyboard sounding. I utter aloud my desire to hear high
+    notes and low notes touched at the same time, as a proof that the
+    unknown force can act at the two ends of the keyboard. My wish is
+    granted, and we hear bass notes and treble notes sounded at the same
+    time, which seems to prove the action of two distinct hands. Then _the
+    instrument advances toward us_. It presses against our group, and we
+    are obliged to get up and move back with our experiment table, and we
+    do not stop until we have thus moved back several yards.
+
+    A glass half full of water, which stands on a buffet, out of reach of
+    our hands, was carried by an unknown power to the lips of Ochorowicz,
+    Eusapia, and another person, who all drank of it. This performance
+    took place in complete darkness and with astonishing precision.
+
+    We were able to prove the existence of a real hand not belonging to
+    any one present. We did it by means of the plaster cast and mould, as
+    follows:
+
+    Having placed a heavy basin filled with modelling-clay upon the large
+    table in the middle of the dining-room, we sat down with Eusapia
+    around the little experiment-table more than a yard distant. After
+    some minutes of waiting, the basin came of itself and stood on our
+    table! Eusapia groaned, writhed, and trembled in all her limbs; yet
+    not for a moment did her hands quit ours. Then she cried, "_E fatto_"
+    ("It is done"). The candle is lighted again, and we find an irregular
+    hollowed place upon the surface of the clay. This hollow place,
+    afterward filled with plaster, gives us a perfect cast of the
+    contracted fingers of a hand.
+
+    We placed upon the table a plate smeared with lampblack. The
+    mysterious hand left there the print of the end of its fingers. The
+    hands of the experimenters, including those of Eusapia, _remained
+    white_. We next induced the medium to reproduce the impression of her
+    own hand upon another lamp-smoked plate. She did so. The layer of soot
+    removed by her fingers had deeply blackened them. A comparison of the
+    two plates enabled us to prove a striking resemblance,--that is to say
+    (to speak more accurately), the identity of the arrangement of the
+    spiral circles in the epidermis of the two hands; and we know that the
+    arrangement of these circles is unique in every individual. This is a
+    particular which speaks eloquently in favor of the hypothesis of the
+    double personality of the medium.
+
+In order mechanically to control the movements of Eusapia's feet, Dr.
+Ochorowicz employed the following piece of apparatus. Two deep and narrow
+cigar-boxes were placed under the table, and Eusapia put her unshod feet
+into them. The boxes had double bottoms and were provided with an
+electrical arrangement of such a nature that she could move her feet
+freely for some inches in every direction; but, if she wished to withdraw
+them from the box, the electric bell tinkled before she had moved them
+half way to the top, and only stopped when they were returned to their
+place. Eusapia cannot remain utterly quiet during the séances. So she was
+given a certain freedom of movement; but it was impossible for her to make
+use of her legs for lifting the table. _Under these conditions the table,
+weighing twenty-five pounds, rose up twice without the bell being heard._
+During the second levitation the table was photographed underneath. (The
+four feet of the table are seen in the photograph. The left is in contact
+with Eusapia's dress, as is always the case when the light is strong; but
+the boxes holding the feet of the medium are in their place.) Then the
+experimenters verified the fact that the bell was heard, not only when
+she removed her foot, but when she lifted it too high in the box.
+
+After all these demonstrations, I will not do my readers the wrong of
+thinking that the levitation of the table is not MORE THAN PROVED for all
+of them.
+
+Here, now, is a curious observation relative to the inflation of the
+curtain: Ten persons were seated around the table. Eusapia had her back
+turned to the curtain; she was controlled by General Starynkiewicz and Dr.
+Watraszewski.
+
+    I was seated (writes M. Glowacki-Prus) opposite Eusapia, near Mlle.
+    X., a very nervous person and easily hypnotized. The séance had lasted
+    for about an hour, with numerous and varied phenomena. Eusapia, as
+    always, was in a semi-conscious state. Suddenly she awoke, and Mlle.
+    X. uttered a cry. Knowing what this cry meant, I grasped her hand with
+    great force and then put my arm about her; for this girl becomes very
+    strong in certain states. The room was well lighted, and this is what
+    we saw (something, be it noted, which I myself experienced by my
+    hands). Every time that the muscles of Mlle. X. became more tense and
+    rigid, the curtain which hung opposite her, at a distance of from
+    seven to ten feet, made a movement. The following table indicates the
+    details of this correlation:
+
+      Feeble tension of the muscles   the curtain is set in motion.
+
+      strong tension                  it bellies out like a sail.
+
+      very strong tension, cries      it reaches as far as eusapia's
+                                      controllers, and almost wholly
+                                      covers them.
+
+      repose                          repose.
+
+      tension of the muscles          movement of the curtain.
+
+      strong tension                  strong inflation of the curtain.
+
+    This tabular view presents the striking proportion which I ascertained
+    between the tension of the medium's muscles (who in this case was
+    Mlle. X.) and the mechanical work of the curtain in movement.
+
+This experiment is so much the more interesting since it was not Eusapia
+who made it; and, if she had a trick for inflating the portières, it was
+not employed in this case. We already know that she had none.
+
+Here are the conclusions of M. Ochorowicz:
+
+    1. I did not find any proofs in favor of the Spiritualistic
+    hypothesis; that is to say, in favor of the intervention of an
+    intelligence other than that of the medium. "John" is for me only a
+    psychic double of the medium. Consequently, I am not a Spiritualist.
+
+    2. Mediumistic phenomena are confirmatory of "magnetism" as opposed to
+    "hypnotism"; that is to say, they imply the existence of a fluidic
+    action apart from suggestion.
+
+    3. Still, suggestion plays an important rôle in them, and the medium
+    is only a mirror reflecting the forces and the ideas of those present.
+    Moreover, she possesses the power of realizing her own somnambulistic
+    visions or those suggested by the company, simply by the process of
+    externalizing them.
+
+    4. No purely physical force explains these phenomena, which are always
+    of a psycho-physical nature, having a centre of action in the mind of
+    the medium.
+
+    5. The phenomena proved do not contradict either mechanics in general
+    or the law of the conservation of forces in particular. The medium
+    acts at the expense of her own proper powers and at the expense of
+    those of the persons present.
+
+    6. There exists a series of transitions between mediumship of an
+    inferior kind (automatism, unconscious fraud) and mediumship of a
+    superior kind or externalization of motivity (action at a distance
+    without visible and palpable connecting link).
+
+    7. The hypothesis of a "fluidic double" (astral body), which, under
+    certain conditions, detaches itself and acts independently of the body
+    of the medium, seems necessary for the explanation of the greater
+    part of the phenomena. According to this conception, the moving of
+    objects without contact would be produced by the fluidic limbs of the
+    medium.[35]
+
+Sir Oliver Lodge, an eminent English physicist, rector of the University
+of Birmingham, says that, on the invitation of Dr. Richet, he went to
+attend the experiments at Carqueiranne, thoroughly convinced that he
+should not see there any instance of physical movement without contact but
+that what he saw completely convinced him that phenomena of that kind can
+have, under certain conditions, a real and objective existence. He vouches
+for the following verified facts:
+
+    1. Movements of a chair at a distance, seen by the light of the moon,
+    and in circumstances which proved that there was no mechanical
+    connection.
+
+    2. The inflation and the movement of a curtain in the absence of wind
+    or of any other ostensible cause.
+
+    3. The automatic winding up and moving about of a music-box.
+
+    4. Sounds proceeding from a piano and from an accordion which had not
+    been touched.
+
+    5. A key turned in a lock, on the inside of the room where the séances
+    were held, then placed upon the table, and again put back into the
+    lock.
+
+    6. The overturning, by means of slow and correct evolutions, of a
+    heavy moving table, which was afterwards found thus turned upside
+    down.
+
+    7. The levitation of a heavy table, under conditions in which it would
+    have been impossible to lift it in ordinary circumstances.
+
+    8. The appearance of blue marks upon a table previously spotless, and
+    this done without the help of the ordinary methods of writing.
+
+    9. The sensation of blows, as if some one were striking the head, the
+    arms, or the back, while the head, the hands, and the feet of the
+    medium were plainly in view or held apart from the portions of the
+    body that were touched.
+
+It is plain enough what part the above statements play in our argument.
+They are throughout simply confirmations of the experiments described
+above.
+
+At Cambridge, Eusapia was taken in the very act of deception; namely, the
+substitution of hands. While the controllers believed that they were
+holding her two hands, they were only holding one of them: the other was
+free. So these experimenters at Cambridge unanimously declared that
+"everything was fraud, from the beginning to the end," in Eusapia
+Paladino's _twenty séances_.
+
+In a paper sent to M. de Rochas, M. Ochorowicz contested this radical
+conclusion, for several reasons. Eusapia is very susceptible to
+suggestion, and, by indulging her inclination to fraud and not hindering
+it, they incite her to it still more by a kind of tacit encouragement.
+Moreover, her fraud is generally of an unconscious kind. I append here, as
+a particular illustration of this, a rather typical story about her:
+
+    One evening, at Varsovie (says M. Ochorowicz), Eusapia is sleeping in
+    her chamber by the side of ours. I have not yet gone to sleep, when
+    suddenly I hear her rising and moving about with bare feet in the
+    drawing-room. Then she enters her chamber again and approaches our
+    door. I make a sign to Mme. Ochorowicz, who has waked up, to be quiet
+    and to observe carefully what is going to take place. A moment after,
+    Eusapia gently opens the door, comes up to my wife's toilet-table,
+    opens a drawer, shuts it, and goes away, carefully avoiding making any
+    noise. I hastily dress myself and we enter her chamber. Eusapia is
+    quietly sleeping. The light of our candle seems to wake her.
+
+    "What were you hunting for in our sleeping-room?"
+
+    "I? I haven't left this place."
+
+    Seeing the uselessness of further questions, we go to bed again,
+    advising her to sleep quietly.
+
+    Next day I ask her the same question. She is very much astonished and
+    even troubled (she blushes slightly).
+
+    "How should I dare," said she, "to enter your chamber during the
+    night?"
+
+    This accusation is very painful to her, and she tries to persuade us
+    by all kinds of insufficient reasons that we are wrong. She denies the
+    whole thing, and I am obliged to admit that she does not remember
+    getting up or _even having conversed with us_ (it was just another
+    somnambulistic state).
+
+    I take a little table, and direct Eusapia to put her hands on it.
+
+    "Very well," says she, "John will tell you that I don't lie."
+
+    I then ask the following questions:
+
+    "Is it you, John, who came into our sleeping chamber last night?"
+
+    "No."
+
+    "Was it the chambermaid?" (I suggest this idea for the express purpose
+    of testing John's veracity.)
+
+    "No," says he.
+
+    "Was it the medium herself?"
+
+    "Yes," says the table.--"No, it is not true," exclaims Eusapia, seeing
+    her hope banished--"Yes," replies the table, forcibly.
+
+    "Was she in the trance state?"
+
+    "No."
+
+    "In her normal state?"
+
+    "No."
+
+    "In a spontaneous somnambulistic state?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    "For what purpose?"
+
+    "_She was hunting matches; for she was frightened in her sleep, and
+    didn't want to sleep without light._"
+
+    Sure enough, there were always matches in the drawer opened by
+    Eusapia, except on this particular night. She therefore returned
+    without getting any.
+
+    While listening to the explanation of the table, Eusapia shrugged her
+    shoulders, but protested no longer.
+
+    Here, then, is a woman who, from time to time, has the power of
+    passing from one psychical state to another. Is it just to accuse such
+    a creature of premeditated fraud, without the slightest medical and
+    psychological examination, without the least attempt at
+    verification?...
+
+M. Ochorowicz adds here that, so far as he is concerned, the phenomena are
+not produced by a personality different from that of the medium, nor by a
+new independent occult force; but it is a special psychic condition which
+permits the vital _dynamism of the medium_ (the astral body of the
+occultists) _to act at a distance_, under certain exceptional conditions.
+It is the only hypothesis which seems _necessary in the actual state of
+our knowledge_.
+
+Why does the medium so often try to release her hand? So far as the
+Cambridge experimenters are concerned, the cause is very simple and always
+the same: she releases her hand in order to indulge in tricks. As a matter
+of fact, the reasons why she frees her hand are many and complicated.
+
+Dr. Ochorowicz's explanations are as follows:
+
+    1. Let me observe, in the first place, that Eusapia frequently
+    releases her hand for no other reason than to touch her head, which is
+    in pain at the moment of the manifestations. It is a natural reflex
+    movement; and, in her case, it is a fixed habit. Since, more often
+    than not, she does not notice that she is doing it, or at least fails
+    to give warning to her controller, the darkness justifies suspicions.
+
+    2. Immediately before the mediumistic doubling of her personality, her
+    hand is affected with hyperæsthesia and, consequently, the pressure of
+    the hand of another makes her ill, especially in the dorsal quarter.
+    She then most frequently places the hand which is to be
+    mediumistically active _above_ and not below that of the controller,
+    trying to touch it as little as possible. When the doubling of the
+    personality is complete, and the dynamic hand more or less
+    materialized, that of the medium contracts and rests heavily upon the
+    controller, exactly at the moment that the phenomenon takes place. She
+    is then almost insensible and all shrunken together. In very good
+    mediumistic conditions the doubling is easy and the initial
+    hyperæsthesia of short duration. In this case the medium allows her
+    hand to be completely covered and the feet of the controllers to be
+    _upon_ hers, as was always the case in our séances at Rome in 1893;
+    but, since that time, she can no longer endure that position, and
+    rather prefers to be held by hands under the table.
+
+    3. In accordance with psychological laws, the hand always proceeds
+    automatically in the direction of our thoughts (Cumberlandism). The
+    medium acts by auto-suggestion, and the order to go as far as an
+    indicated point is given by her brain simultaneously to the dynamic
+    hand and the corporeal hand, since in the normal state they form only
+    one. And since, immediately after the hyperæsthesia, the muscular
+    sensation is excited and the hand grows benumbed, it sometimes happens
+    (especially when the medium proceeds carelessly and does not properly
+    govern her movements) that the dynamic hand remains in place, while
+    her own hand goes in the indicated direction. The former, not being
+    yet materialized, produces only a semblance of pressure; and another
+    person, able to see a little in the darkness, will perceive nothing of
+    it, and will even be able to ascertain by touch the absence of the
+    medium's hand from that of the controller. At the same time the hand
+    of the medium is going in the direction of the object; and _still it
+    may happen that it does not really reach it, acting, as it does, at a
+    distance, by a dynamic prolongation_.
+
+    It is in this way that I explain the cases in which the hand, being
+    released, has not yet been able to reach the point aimed at
+    (physically inaccessible), as well as the numerous experiments made at
+    Varsovie in full light, with a little bell hung in different ways,
+    with compasses of different forms, with a very small table,
+    etc.,--experiments in which Eusapia's fingers were quite near, but did
+    not touch, the object. I proved that there was no electric force at
+    work in these cases, but that things occurred as if the arms of the
+    medium were lengthened and acted invisibly, but _mechanically_. At
+    Varsovie, when one of my friends M. Glowacki, took it into his head
+    "that it was necessary to give the medium free rein, in order to
+    discover her method," we had an entirely fraudulent séance and lost
+    our time to no purpose. On the contrary, in a poor séance at l'île
+    Roubaud, we obtained some good phenomena after having frankly told the
+    medium that she was cheating.
+
+And here are the conclusions of the author upon "the Cambridge frauds":
+
+    1. Not only was _conscious_ fraud not proved on Eusapia at Cambridge,
+    but not the slightest effort was made to do so.
+
+    2. _Unconscious_ fraud was proved in much larger proportions than in
+    all the preceding experiments.
+
+    3. This negative result is vindicated by a blundering method little in
+    accordance with the nature of the phenomena.
+
+Such is also the opinion of Dr. J. Maxwell, and of all who are competent
+judges of the question.
+
+To sum up, we see that the influence of preconceived ideas, opinions, and
+sentiments, upon the production of phenomena, is certain. When all the
+experimenters have nearly the same sympathetic inclination for this kind
+of research, and when they have decided to exercise sufficient "control"
+(that is, watchful oversight) not to be the dupe of any mystification, and
+agree among themselves to accept the regrettable conditions of darkness
+necessary to the activity of these unknown radiations, and not to trouble
+in any way the apparent exigencies of the medium, then the resulting
+phenomena attain an extraordinary degree of intensity.[36]
+
+But if discord reigns, if one or more of the company persistently spy upon
+the acts of the medium, with the conviction that he or she must be
+cheating, the results are very much like the progress of a sailing vessel
+impelled by several contrary winds. The medium simply marks time without
+advancing; and little but sterile results are secured. _Psychic forces are
+no less real than physical or chemical or mechanical forces._ In spite of
+the desire that we may have to convince prejudiced sceptics, it is
+advisable to invite only one of them at a time, and to place him next to
+the medium, in order that he may be at once astonished, shaken, and
+convinced. But in general this is not worth the trouble.
+
+In the month of September, 1895, a new series of experiments was made at
+l'Agnélas, in the residence of Colonel de Rochas, president of the
+polytechnic school, with the assistance of Dr. Dariex, editor of the
+_Annales des sciences psychiques_, Count de Gramont (doctor of science),
+Dr. J. Maxwell, deputy of the attorney-general at the Court of Appeals in
+Limoges, Professor Sabatier, of the faculty of sciences at Montpellier,
+and Baron de Watteville, a licentiate in science. They confirmed all the
+preceding details.[37]
+
+A similar series was held in September, 1896, at Tremezzo, in the rooms of
+the Blech family, then in summer residence at Lake Como; again at Auteuil,
+at the home of M. Marcel Mangin, with MM. Sully-Prudhomme, Dr. Dariex,
+Emile Desbeaux, A. Guerronnan, and Mme. Boisseaux also participating. Let
+us stop for a moment to glance at this last séance.
+
+I will first mention the photograph of the table suspended in the air, a
+levitation which did not leave any doubt in the mind of the experimenters,
+any more than it does in that of the observer who examines with attention
+this photograph (Pl. IX). The table descended slowly and the succession of
+images was registered by the photograph (same plate, Cut B). The following
+is an extract from the report by M. de Rochas upon this séance and the
+succeeding one:
+
+    _September 21._--The table rises off its four feet. M. Guerronnan has
+    time to take a photograph of it, but he fears that it may not be good.
+    We beg Eusapia to begin again. She consents with good grace. The table
+    is again lifted off its four feet. M. Mangin notifies M. Guerronnan
+    who, from his post, could not see, and the table remains in the air
+    until he has had time to take a picture of it (from three to four
+    seconds at the most). The dazzling magnesium light enables us all to
+    verify the reality of the phenomenon.
+
+    The curtain, hung in the corner of the room, suddenly blows out and
+    covers my head. Then I feel in succession three pressures of a hand
+    upon my head, the pressures growing stronger and stronger. I feel
+    fingers which press as those of M. Sully-Prudhomme, my neighbor on the
+    right, might do. I hold his left hand as a part of the chain of hands.
+
+    It is a hand, it is fingers, which have just pressed upon me so; but
+    whose? I have continually had Eusapia's right hand upon my left hand,
+    which she seized and tightly held at the moment of the production of
+    the phenomenon....
+
+    I throw back the curtain, which has remained upon my head, and we sit
+    waiting. "_Meno luce_" ("less light") asks Eusapia. The lamp is turned
+    down more, and the remaining light shut off by a screen.
+
+    Facing me there is a window with closed outside shutters, but through
+    which filters the light of the street. In the silence, my attention
+    is caught by the appearance of a hand, the small hand of a woman. I
+    can see it, owing to the feeble light coming from the window.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IX
+
+PHOTOGRAPH OF TABLE SUSPENDED.
+
+THE TABLE FALLEN BACK.]
+
+    It is not the shadow of a hand: it is a hand of flesh (I do not add
+    "and of bone," for I have the impression that it has no bones). This
+    hand opens and closes three times, sufficiently long to permit me to
+    say:
+
+    "Whose hand is this?--yours, Monsieur Mangin?"
+
+    "No."
+
+    "Then it is a materialization?"
+
+    "Undoubtedly: if you hold the medium's right hand, I hold the other."
+
+    I had the _right hand_ of Eusapia on my left hand, and _her fingers
+    were interlaced with mine_.
+
+    Now the hand which I saw was a _right hand_, stretched out and
+    presented in profile. It remained for a moment motionless in the air,
+    at about from twenty-four to twenty-eight inches above the table and
+    thirty-six inches from Eusapia. As its immobility (I suppose) was the
+    cause of my not seeing it, it therefore opened and closed: it was
+    these movements which attracted my attention.
+
+    My favorable position in respect to the window, unfortunately
+    permitted me alone to see this mysterious hand; but M. Mangin saw, at
+    two separate times, not a hand, but the shadow of a hand outlined in
+    profile upon the opposite window.
+
+    Eusapia turns her head in the direction of the curtain, behind which
+    there is a leather-covered easy-chair, and, displacing the curtain,
+    this chair comes and leans against me.
+
+    She takes my left hand, lifts it above the table the whole length of
+    her right arm, and makes the feint of rapping in the air: the echo of
+    three blows is heard on the table.
+
+    A little bell is placed before her. She stretches out her two hands to
+    the right and the left of the bell at a distance of from three to four
+    inches; then she draws back her hands toward her body, and, lo and
+    behold! the bell comes gliding along over the table until it bumps
+    against something and falls over. Eusapia repeats the experiment
+    several times. You would think that her hands were invisibly
+    prolonged; and that seems to me to justify the term "ectenic force,"
+    which Professor Thury, of Geneva, gave in the year 1855 to this
+    unknown energy.
+
+    I was just asking if she did not perchance have some invisible thread
+    between her fingers, when suddenly, an irresistible itching made her
+    put her left hand to her nose; her right had remained upon the table
+    near the bell; the two hands at this moment were about two feet apart.
+    I observed carefully. Eusapia rested her left hand upon the table,
+    some inches from the bell, and this was again set in motion.
+    Considering the gesture made by her, it would have been necessary, in
+    order to perform this feat, to have a wonderfully elastic thread,
+    absolutely invisible; for our eyes were, so to speak, upon the bell,
+    and the light was abundant. My eyes were only a foot distant from the
+    bell, at the utmost.
+
+    This was a certain and undeniable case, and Sully-Prudhomme returned
+    to his home with me as thoroughly convinced as I am.
+
+The poet of _Solitudes_ and of _Justice_, wrote on his part, as follows:
+
+    After a rather long wait, an architect's stool came marching up all
+    alone toward me. It grazed my left side, rose to the height of the
+    table, and succeeded in placing itself upon it. As I lifted my hand, I
+    felt it at once seized.
+
+    "Why do you take my hand?" I asked of my neighbor.
+
+    "It was not I," said he.
+
+    While these phenomena were taking place, Eusapia seemed to be
+    suffering. It seemed as if out of her own physiological fund or stock
+    she were furnishing all the force required to put the objects in
+    motion.
+
+    After the séance, while she was still very much prostrated, we saw an
+    easy-chair which was behind the curtain come rolling up behind her, as
+    if to say, "Hold on there! you've forgotten me!"
+
+    My conviction is that I witnessed phenomena which I cannot relate to
+    any ordinary physical law. My impression is that fraud, in any case,
+    is more than improbable,--at least so far as concerns the displacement
+    at a distance of heavy articles of furniture arranged by my
+    companions and myself. That is all that I can say about it. For my
+    part, I call "natural" that which is scientifically proved. So that
+    the word "mysterious" means that which still astonishes us because it
+    cannot be explained. I believe that the scientific spirit consists in
+    verifying facts, in not denying _a priori_ any fact which is not in
+    contradiction with known laws, and in accepting none which has not
+    been determined by safe and verifiable conditions.
+
+    _Séance of September 26._--A dark bust moves forward upon the table,
+    coming from where Eusapia sits; then another, and still another. "They
+    look like Chinese ghosts," says M. Mangin, with this difference, that
+    I, who am better placed, owing to the light from the window, am able
+    to perceive the dimensions of these singular images, and above all
+    their _thickness_. All these black busts are busts of women, of life
+    size; but, although vague, they do not look like Eusapia. The last of
+    them, of fine shape, is that of a woman who seems young and pretty.
+    These half-lengths, which seem to emanate from the medium, glide along
+    between us; and, when they have gone as far as the middle of the table
+    or two-thirds of its length, they sink down altogether (all of a
+    piece, as it were), and vanish. This rigidity makes me think of the
+    reproductions, or fac-similes, of a bust escaped from a sculptor's
+    atelier, and I murmur, "One would think he was looking at busts
+    moulded in papier-maché." Eusapia heard me. "No, not papier-maché,"
+    she says indignantly. She does not give any other explanation, but
+    says (this time in Italian), "In order to prove to you that it is not
+    the body of the medium, I am going to show you a man with a beard.
+    Attention!" I do not see anything, but Dr. Dariex feels his face
+    rubbed against for quite a while by a beard.
+
+New experiments made at Genoa in 1901, at which Eurico Morselli, professor
+of psychology at the University of Genoa, was present, were reported by my
+learned friend the astronomer Porro, successively director of the
+observatories of Genoa and Turin, to-day director of the national
+observatory of the Argentine Republic at La Plata. Here are some extracts
+from this report:[38]
+
+    Nearly ten years have passed since Eusapia Paladino made her first
+    appearance in the memorable séances at Milan during the course of her
+    mediumistic tours through Europe. The object of shrewd investigations
+    on the part of experienced and learned observers; the butt of jokes,
+    accusations, sarcasms; exalted by certain fanatics as a
+    personification of supernatural powers and scoffed at by others as a
+    mountebank,--the humble haberdasher of Naples has made so much stir in
+    the world that she is herself bored and displeased by it.
+
+    I had good proof of this when I took leave of her, after I had
+    listened with much curiosity to the anecdotes which she related to me
+    of her séances and of the well-known men with whom she has been
+    associated,--Ch. Richet, Schiaparelli, Lombroso, Flammarion, Sardou,
+    Aksakof, et al. She then very emphatically asked me not to speak in
+    the journals of her presence at Genoa and of the experiments in which
+    she should figure there. Happily, she has good reasons herself for not
+    reading the journals.[39]
+
+    Why was an astronomer chosen to give an account of the experiments at
+    Genoa? Because astronomers are occupied with researches into the
+    unknown.[40]
+
+    If a man absorbed in his own private studies and attached to an
+    austere and laborious manner of life, such as my venerated master M.
+    Schiaparelli, has not hesitated to defy the irreverent jests of the
+    comic journals, it behooves us to conclude that the bond between the
+    science of the heavens and that of the human soul is more intimate
+    than appears. The following is the most probable explanation. We have
+    to do in these studies with phenomena which are manifested under
+    wholly special and still undetermined conditions, in conformity with
+    laws almost unknown and, in any case, of such a character that the
+    will of the experimenter has but little influence upon the unshackled,
+    self-regulating, and often adverse volitions which betray themselves
+    at every moment in the study of these psychical marvels. Nobody is
+    better prepared to study these things than an astronomer, possessing,
+    as he does, a scientific education precisely adapting him to the
+    investigation of such conditions. In fact, by the systematic
+    observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies, the astronomer
+    contracts the habit of being a vigilant and patient spectator of
+    phenomena, without attempting either to arrest or to accelerate their
+    irresistible development. In other words, the study of the stars
+    belongs to the science of _observation_ rather than to that of
+    _experiment_.
+
+Professor Porro then sets forth the actual state of the question relating
+to mediumistic phenomena.
+
+    The explanation that everything is fraud, conscious or unconscious
+    [says he], is to-day almost entirely abandoned, as much so as that
+    which supposes that all is hallucination. In fact, neither one nor the
+    other of these hypotheses is sufficient to throw light upon the
+    observed facts. The hypothesis of unconscious automatic action on the
+    part of the medium has not obtained any better fate; for the most
+    rigorous controls have only proved that the medium finds it impossible
+    to excite a direct dynamic effect. Physio-psychology has therefore
+    been obliged, in these latter years, to have recourse to a supreme
+    hypothesis, by accepting the theories of M. de Rochas, against which
+    they had heretofore directed the fire of their heaviest guns. It has
+    become resigned to the admission that a medium whose limbs are held
+    motionless by a rigorous control may, under certain conditions,
+    project outside of herself, to a distance of several yards, a force
+    sufficient to produce certain phenomena of movement in inanimate
+    bodies.
+
+    The boldest partisans of this hypothesis go so far as to accept the
+    temporary creation of pseudo-human limbs,--arms, legs, heads,--in the
+    formation of which the energies of other persons present probably
+    co-operate with those of the medium. The theory is that as soon as the
+    energizing power of the medium is withdrawn these phantom dynamic
+    limbs at once dissolve and disappear.
+
+    For all that, we do not yet go so far as to admit the existence of
+    free and independent beings who would be able to exercise their powers
+    only through the human organism; and still less do we admit the
+    existence of spirits who once animated the forms of human beings....
+
+M. Porro openly declares that, for his part, he is neither a materialist
+nor a Spiritualist: He says that he is not ready to accept, _a priori_,
+either the negations of psycho-physiology or the faith of Spiritualists.
+
+He adds that the nine persons who were present with him at the séances
+represented the greatest variety of opinions on the subject, from the most
+firmly persuaded Spiritualists to the most incorrigible sceptics.
+Moreover, his task was not that of writing an official report, approved by
+all the experimenters, but solely that of faithfully relating his own
+impressions.
+
+The following are the _most important_ of these, selected from his reports
+on the different séances:
+
+    I saw, and plainly saw, the rough deal table (a table a yard long and
+    nearly two feet wide and resting on four feet) rise up several times
+    from the floor and, without any contact with visible objects, remain
+    suspended in the air, several inches above the floor, during the space
+    of two, three, and even four seconds.
+
+    This experiment was renewed _in full light_ without the hands of the
+    medium and of the five persons who formed the chain about the table
+    touching the latter in any way. Eusapia's hands were looked after by
+    her neighbors, who controlled also her legs and her feet in such a way
+    that no part of her body was able to exercise the least pressure for
+    the lifting or maintaining in the air of the rather heavy article of
+    furniture used in the experiments.
+
+    It was under such absolutely trustworthy conditions as these that I
+    was able to see inflated _a very thick piece of black cloth_ and the
+    red curtains which were behind the medium, and which served to close
+    the embrasure of the window. The casement was carefully closed, there
+    was no current of air in the room, and it is absurd to suppose that
+    persons were hidden in the embrasure of the window. I believe, then,
+    that I can affirm with the utmost confidence that _a force_, analogous
+    to that which had produced the levitation of the table, was manifested
+    in the curtains, _inflated them, shook them, and pushed them_ out in
+    such a way that they touched now one and now another of the company.
+
+    During the sitting an event took place which deserves to be mentioned
+    as a proof, or at least as an indication, of the _intelligent_
+    character of the force in question.
+
+    Being face to face with Mme. Paladino, at a point in the table the
+    most removed from her, I complained that I had not been touched as had
+    the four other persons who formed the company. No sooner had I said
+    this than I saw the heavy curtain sweep out and come and hit me in the
+    face with its lower edge, at the same time that I felt a light blow
+    upon the knuckles of my fingers, as if from a very fragile and light
+    piece of wood.
+
+    Next a formidable blow, like the stroke of the fist of an athlete, is
+    struck in the middle of the table. The person seated at the right of
+    the medium feels that he is grasped in the side; the chair in which he
+    was seated is taken away and placed upon the table, from which it then
+    returns to its place without having been touched by anybody. The
+    experimenter in question, who has remained standing, is able to take
+    his seat in the chair again. The control of this phenomenon left
+    nothing to desire.
+
+    The blows are now redoubled, and are so terrific that it seems as if
+    they would split the table. We begin to perceive hands lifting and
+    inflating the curtains and advancing so far as to touch first one,
+    then the other, of the company, caressing them, pressing their hands,
+    daintily pulling their ears or clapping hands merrily in the air above
+    their heads.
+
+    It seems to me very singular and perhaps intentional,--this contrast
+    between the touches (sometimes nervous and energetic, and again
+    delicate and gentle, but always friendly) and the deafening, violent,
+    brutal blows struck upon the table.
+
+    A single one of these fist-blows, planted in the back, would suffice
+    to break the vertebral column.
+
+    The hands that perform these feats are the strong and brawny hands of
+    a man, the daintier hands are those of a woman, the very small hands
+    those of children.
+
+    The darkness is rendered a little less dense, and at once the chair of
+    No. 5 (Professor Morselli), which had already made a jump to one side,
+    is slipped from under him, while a hand is placed on his back and on
+    his shoulder. The chair gets up on the table, comes down again to the
+    floor, and, after different horizontal and vertical oscillations,
+    soars up and rests upon the head of the professor, who has remained
+    standing. It remains there for some minutes in a state of very
+    unstable equilibrium.
+
+    The loud blows and the delicate touches of hands, large and small,
+    succeed each other uninterruptedly in such a way that, without our
+    being able mathematically to prove the simultaneousness of different
+    phenomena, it is yet almost certain in several cases.
+
+    While our opportunities for obtaining so valuable a subject of
+    demonstration increase, the simultaneity which we ask for is at last
+    granted; for the table raps, the bell sounds, and the tambourine is
+    carried tinkling over our heads all about the room, rests for a moment
+    on the table, and then resumes its flight in the air....
+
+    A bouquet of flowers, placed in a carafe on the larger table, comes
+    over onto ours, preceded by an agreeable perfume. Stems of flowers are
+    placed in the mouth of No. 5; and No. 8 is hit by a rubber ball, which
+    rebounds upon the table. The carafe comes over to join the flowers on
+    our table; it is then immediately lifted and put to the mouth of the
+    medium, and she is made to drink from it twice; between the two times
+    it sinks down to the table and stands there for a moment right side
+    up. We distinctly hear the swallowing of the water, after which Mme.
+    Paladino asks some one to wipe her mouth with a handkerchief. Finally,
+    the carafe returns to the large table.
+
+    But a transfer of a totally different character is effected in the
+    following way. I had complained several times that my position in the
+    chain at a distance from the medium had hindered me from being touched
+    during the séance. Suddenly, I hear a noise on the wall of the room,
+    followed by the tinkling of the strings of the guitar, which vibrate
+    as if some one were trying to take down the instrument from the wall
+    on which it hung. At last the effort succeeds, and the guitar comes
+    toward me in an oblique direction. I distinctly saw it come between me
+    and No. 8, with a rapidity which rendered the impact of it rather
+    unpleasant. Not being able at first to account to myself for this dim
+    black object which was driving at me, I slipped to one side (No. 8 was
+    seated at my left). Then the guitar, changing its route, struck
+    forcibly with its handle three blows upon my forehead (which remained
+    a little bruised for two or three days), after which it came to a rest
+    with delicate precision upon the table. It did not remain there very
+    long before it began to circle about the hall, with a rotation to the
+    right, quite high above our heads, and at great speed.
+
+    It is proper to remark that, in this rotation of the guitar, the
+    vibration of its own strings was added to the sound of the tambourine
+    struck sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, in the air; and
+    the guitar, bulky as it was, never once struck the central supporting
+    electric-light rod, nor the three gas lamps fixed on the walls of the
+    chamber. When we take into consideration the contracted dimensions of
+    the room, we see that it was very difficult to avoid these obstacles,
+    since the space remaining free was very limited.
+
+    The guitar took its flight twice around the room, coming to a
+    stand-still (between the two times) in the middle of the table, where
+    finally it came to a rest. In a final supreme effort, Eusapia turns
+    toward the left, where upon a table is a typewriting machine weighing
+    fifteen pounds. During the effort the medium falls exhausted and
+    nervous upon the floor; but the machine rises from its place and
+    betakes itself to the middle of our table, near the guitar.
+
+    In full light, Eusapia calls M. Morselli, and, controlled by the two
+    persons next her, brings him with her toward the table, upon which is
+    placed a mass of modelling-plaster. She takes his open hand and
+    pushes it three times toward the plaster, as if to sink the hand into
+    it and leave upon it an impression. M. Morselli's hand remains at a
+    distance of more than four inches from the mass: nevertheless, at the
+    end of the séance, the experimenters ascertain that the lump of
+    plaster contains the impression of three fingers,--deeper prints than
+    it is possible to obtain directly by means of voluntary pressure.
+
+    The medium lifts her two hands, all the time clasped in mine and in
+    those of No. 5 (Morselli), and uttering groans, cries, exhortations,
+    _she rises with her chair_, so far as to place its two feet and the
+    ends of its two front cross-bars upon the top of the table. It was a
+    moment of great anxiety. The levitation was accomplished rapidly, but
+    without any jarring or jolting or jerking. In other words, if, in an
+    effort of extreme distrust you insisted on supposing that she employed
+    some artifice to obtain the result, you would rather have to think of
+    a pulling up, by means of a cord and pulley, rather than of a pushing
+    from beneath.
+
+    But neither of these hypotheses can stand the most elementary
+    examination of the facts....
+
+    There is more to follow. Eusapia was lifted up still farther with her
+    chair, from the upper part of the table, in such a way that No. 11 on
+    one side and I on the other were able to pass our hands under her feet
+    and under those of the chair.
+
+    Moreover, the fact that the posterior feet of the chair were entirely
+    off of the table, without any visible support makes this levitation
+    still more irreconcilable with the supposition that Eusapia could have
+    made her body and the chair take an upward leap.
+
+M. Porro judges that this phenomenon is one of those which are less easily
+explained if we decline to have recourse to the Spiritualistic hypothesis.
+It is a little like the man who fell into the water and thought he could
+pull himself out by his own hair.
+
+    Eusapia [adds M. Porro] descended without any jolting, little by
+    little, No. 5 and I never letting go her hands. The chair, having
+    risen up a little higher, turned over and placed itself on my head,
+    whence it spontaneously returned to the floor.
+
+    This thing was tried again. Eusapia and her chair were transported
+    again to the top of the table, only, this time, the result of the
+    fatigue undergone by her was such that the poor woman fell in a faint
+    upon the table. We lifted her down with all due care.
+
+    The experimenters desired to know whether these phenomena, the success
+    of which depends in so great measure upon the conditions of light,
+    could not have better success in the white and quiet light of the
+    moon.
+
+    They were obliged to admit that there was no appreciable difference
+    between the lunar light and other kinds. But the table around which
+    they had formed the chain quitted the veranda where the sitting was
+    being held, and, in spite of the strongly expressed wishes of the
+    sitters and of the medium herself, betook itself into the neighboring
+    room, where the sitting then continued.
+
+    This room was a little salon crowded with elegant furniture and
+    fragile objects, such as crystal chandeliers, porcelain vases,
+    bric-à-brac, etc. The experimenters feared very much that these things
+    would suffer damage in the bustle of the séance; but not the slightest
+    object suffered any damage.
+
+    Mme. Paladino, who was now herself again, took the hand of No. 11 and
+    placed it gently upon the back of a chair, at the same time placing
+    her own hand upon his. Then, as she lifted her hand and that of No.
+    11, _the chair followed the same ascending movement_ several times in
+    succession.
+
+    This thing was repeated in full light.
+
+    No. 5, as well as other gentlemen, perceived, in a manner that
+    admitted of no doubt, a vague, indistinct figure thrown upon the air
+    in the doorway of an antechamber which was feebly illuminated. The
+    figure consisted of changing and fugitive silhouettes, sometimes with
+    the outline of a human head and body, sometimes like hands reaching
+    out from the curtains. Their objective character was demonstrated by
+    the agreement of impressions, which were controlled in their turn by
+    means of continual inquiries. There was no possibility of their being
+    shadows voluntarily or involuntarily projected by the bodies of the
+    experimenters, since we were mutually watching each other.
+
+The tenth séance (the last) was one of the best-attended, and was perhaps
+the most interesting of all.
+
+    Scarcely has the electric light been extinguished when we remark an
+    automatic movement of the chair upon which a lump of plaster has been
+    placed, while the hands and feet of Eusapia are watchfully controlled
+    by me and by No. 3. However, as we wish to forestall the objection of
+    critics that the phenomena take place in the dark, the table
+    typtologically (that is, by taps) asks for light, and the
+    experimenters light the electric lamp.
+
+    Presently, _all the company see the chair_ on which the lump of
+    plaster lies (not at all a light chair) _moving between myself and the
+    medium_, without our being able to understand the determining cause of
+    the movement.
+
+    Mme. Paladino puts her outspread hand upon the back of the chair and
+    her left above it. When our hands rise up, the chair rises also
+    without contact, reaching a height of about six inches. This
+    performance is several times repeated, with the addition of the
+    intervention of the hand of No. 5, under conditions of light and of
+    control which leave nothing to be desired.
+
+    The room is again almost completely darkened.... A current of cold air
+    upon the table precedes the arrival of a little branch with two green
+    leaves. We know that there are no plants in the neighborhood of the
+    company: it appears then that we have here a case of _bringing-in_
+    from the outside.
+
+    No. 3 is greatly exhausted with the heat. And, lo! a hand, which takes
+    his handkerchief from his neck and with it dries the perspiration on
+    his face. He tries to seize the handkerchief with his teeth, but it is
+    snatched from him. A big hand lifts his left hand and makes him rap
+    several strokes with it on the table.
+
+    Gleams of light begin to appear, at first on the right hand of No. 5,
+    then in different parts of the hall. They are perceived by everybody.
+
+    The curtain is inflated, as if it were pushed against by a strong
+    wind, and touches No. 11, who is seated in a small easy-chair a yard
+    and a half from the medium. The same person is touched by a hand,
+    while another hand pulls a fan from the inside pocket of his jacket,
+    carries it to No. 5 and then to No. 11. The fan is soon returned to
+    its owner, and is moved to and fro above our heads, to the great
+    satisfaction of all of us. A tobacco pouch is taken from the pocket of
+    No. 3: the Invisible empties it on the table, and then gives it to No.
+    10. Various stems of plants drop upon the table.
+
+    Transfers of the fan from one hand to another begin again. Then No. 11
+    believes that he ought to announce that the fan had been offered to
+    him by a young girl who had expressed the wish that it be transferred
+    to No. 11, then given back to No. 5. Nobody knew about this except No.
+    11.
+
+    No. 5, who at present occupies the small arm-chair where formerly No.
+    11 was seated, a yard and a half from the medium, feels the edge of
+    the curtain touching him and then perceives the presence of the body
+    of a woman whose hair rests on his head.
+
+    The séance is adjourned about one o'clock.
+
+    At the moment of parting, Eusapia sees a bell on the piano; she
+    extends her hand; the bell glides along on the piano, turns over, and
+    falls on the floor. The experiment is renewed, in full light as
+    before, the hand of the medium remaining several inches from the
+    bell....
+
+It is evident that these exploits are still more extraordinary than the
+preceding ones, in certain respects. The following are the _conclusions_
+of the report of Professor Porro.
+
+    The phenomena are real. They cannot be explained either by fraud or by
+    hallucination. Do they find their explanation in certain strata of the
+    unconscious (the subliminal), in some latent faculty of the human
+    soul, or indeed do they reveal the existence of other entities living
+    under conditions wholly different from ours and normally inaccessible
+    to our senses? In other words, will the _animistic_ hypothesis suffice
+    to solve the problem and to do away with the _Spiritualistic_
+    hypothesis? Or, rather, do not the phenomena serve here, as in the
+    psychology of dreams, to complicate the problem by hiding the
+    Spiritualistic solution within them? It is to this formidable query
+    that I am going to attempt a reply.
+
+    When, eleven years ago, Alexander Aksakof stated the dilemma between
+    Animism and Spiritism, and in a masterly work clearly proved that
+    purely animistic manifestations were inseparable from those which
+    direct our thoughts to a belief in the existence of independent,
+    intelligent, and active entities, no one could have expected that the
+    first term of the dilemma would be disputed and criticised in a
+    thousand ways, under a thousand varying forms, by persons who would be
+    dismayed at the second term.
+
+    In fact, what are all the hypotheses which for ten years now have been
+    invented in order to reduce mediumistic phenomena to the simple
+    manifestation of qualities latent in the human _psyche_ (or soul), if
+    not different forms of the animistic hypothesis, so jeered at when it
+    appeared in the work of Aksakof?
+
+    From the idea of the unconscious muscular action of the spectators
+    (put forth half a century ago by Faraday) to the projection of
+    protoplasmic activity or to the temporary emanation from the body of
+    the medium imagined by Lodge; from the psychiatric doctrine of
+    Lombroso to the psycho-physiology of Ochorowicz; from the
+    externalization admitted by Rochas to the eso-psychism of Morselli;
+    from the automatism of Pierre Janet to the _duplication of
+    personality_ of Alfred Binet,--there was a perfect flood of
+    explanations, having for their end the elimination of an exterior
+    personality.
+
+    The process was logical and in agreement with the principles of
+    scientific philosophy, which instructs us to exhaust the possibilities
+    of what is already known before having recourse to the unknown.
+
+    But this principle, unassailable in theory, may lead to erroneous
+    results when it is wilfully stretched too far into a given field of
+    research. Vallati has cited, in this connection, a curious marginal
+    note of Galileo, recently published in the third volume of the
+    national edition of his works:
+
+    "If we heat amber, the diamond, and certain other very dense
+    substances by chafing them, they attract small light bodies, because,
+    in cooling off, they attract the air, which draws these corpuscles
+    along with it." Thus the desire to bring still unexplained material
+    facts under the known physical laws of his day led an observer and
+    thinker so prudent and practical as Galileo to formulate a false
+    proposition. If anybody had said to him that in the attraction
+    exercised by amber there was the germ of a new branch of science and
+    the rudimentary manifestation of an energy (electricity) then unknown,
+    he would have replied that it was useless to "have recourse to the aid
+    of the unknown."
+
+    But the analogy between the error committed by the great physicist and
+    that which modern scholars commit can be pushed still farther.
+
+    Galileo was familiar with a form of energy which the natural
+    philosophy of our times investigates simultaneously with electric
+    energy, with which it has close relations confirmed by all recent
+    discoveries. If it had been perceived that the explanation which he
+    gave of the phenomenon of amber had no foundation, he would have been
+    able to give his attention to the analogies which the attraction
+    exercised by amber rubbed over light bodies presents with the
+    attraction exercised by the loadstone upon iron filings. When he had
+    got so far, he would very probably have discarded his first hypothesis
+    and would have admitted that the attractive power of amber is a
+    _magnetic phenomenon_. He would have been deceived, however, for it is
+    an _electric phenomenon_.
+
+    In the same way might not those persons deceive themselves who, in
+    order to escape at any cost the necessity of the hypothesis of
+    spiritistic entities, should insist with a too persistent predilection
+    upon the animistic hypothesis, even when this would be found
+    insufficient to explain all mediumistic manifestations? Might it not
+    be true that, like electric and magnetic phenomena, which are in close
+    interchangeable connection, and frequently appear to us inseparable,
+    animistic and spiritistic phenomena have a common bond? And let us
+    well note that a single fact, inexplicable by the animistic hypothesis
+    and explicable by the spiritistic hypothesis, would suffice to confer
+    upon the latter that degree of scientific value which up to the
+    present time has been so energetically denied to it, just as the
+    discovery of a secondary phenomenon, that of the polarization of
+    light, sufficed to make Fresnel reject the Newtonian theory of
+    emission and admit that of undulation.
+
+    Did we obtain, during the course of our ten séances with Eusapia, the
+    one fact which is enough to make the spiritistic hypothesis
+    necessarily take precedence of all others?
+
+    It is impossible to reply categorically to this question because it is
+    not possible, and never will be, to have a scientific proof of the
+    identity of the beings who manifest themselves.
+
+    The fact that I hear, that I see, that I touch a phantom; that I
+    recognize in it the form and the attitude of persons whom I have known
+    and whom the medium has neither known nor of whom she has even heard
+    the names; that I have the most lively and affecting testimony to the
+    presence of this ephemeral apparition,--all that will not be
+    sufficient to constitute the scientific fact which none can refute,
+    and which shall be worthy to remain in the annals of science along
+    with the experiments of Torricelli, Archimedes and Galvani. It will
+    always be possible to imagine an unknown mechanism by the aid of which
+    elemental substance and power may be drawn from the medium and the
+    sitters and combined in such a way as to produce the indicated
+    effects. It will always be possible to find in the special aptitudes
+    of the medium, in the thought of the sitters, and even in their
+    attitude of expectant attention, the cause of the _human_ origin of
+    the phenomena. It will always be possible to unearth from the arsenal
+    of the attacks made upon these studies during the last fifty years,
+    some generic or specific argument, either _ad rem_ or _ad hominem_,
+    while ignoring or feigning to ignore the refutation of the argument
+    which has already been made.
+
+    The question, then, reduces itself at once to an individual study of
+    cases either directly observed or obtained from some sure hand, in
+    order on the one hand, to create a personal conviction capable of
+    resisting the scathing ridicule of the sceptics, and, on the other
+    hand, to prepare public opinion to admit the truth of cases observed
+    by persons worthy of credence.
+
+    With regard to the first of these, the illustrious experimenter
+    Sidgwick, has already said that no fact or case exists capable of
+    convincing everybody, but that each one, by patiently and calmly
+    observing, may find such fact or case as will suffice to establish his
+    own conviction. I may say that for myself such a case exists. I need
+    only refer to the phenomena in which I have personally participated in
+    the séances with Eusapia.
+
+    With regard to the second point I could say much, but that would lead
+    me beyond the subject matter and the limits of this study.
+
+    On the one hand, we have the universal belief in the objective
+    existence of a world unknown to us in our normal state; that faith
+    (the basis of all religions) in a future life where the injustices of
+    this one will be atoned for and where we shall be confronted with the
+    good or evil deeds that we have done on earth; that uninterrupted
+    tradition of systematic or spontaneous observances and rituals, thanks
+    to which man is constantly kept in relation more or less with that
+    unknown world.
+
+    On the other hand, we have the sceptical and disheartening negation of
+    systems of pessimistic philosophy and of atheism, a negation which
+    takes its rise in the absence of positive proofs of the survival of
+    the soul; the ever more and more marked tendency of science toward a
+    monistic interpretation of the enigma of human life; and the belief
+    that all the known phenomena of life appear only in connection with
+    special organs.
+
+    In order to decide in so abstruse a matter as this, mediumistic
+    experiments do not suffice; everyone may draw from these as much of
+    credence or of incredulity as he may need in order to resolve his
+    doubts in one way or another; but he will never divest himself of the
+    substratum of temperamental tendencies which the more or less
+    scientific education of his mind or the more or less mystical
+    inclinations of his nature shall have developed in him.
+
+    One word more and I have done.
+
+    While admitting it as the most probable hypothesis that the
+    intelligent beings to whom we owe these psychical phenomena are
+    pre-existing, independent entities, and that they only derive from us
+    the conditions necessary for their manifestation in a physical plane
+    accessible to our senses, ought we to admit also that they are really
+    the spirits of the dead?
+
+    To this question I will reply that I do not feel that I am as yet
+    capable of giving a decisive answer.
+
+    Still I should be inclined to admit it, if I did not see the
+    possibility that these phenomena might form part of a scheme of things
+    still more vast. In fact, nothing hinders us from believing in the
+    existence of forms of life wholly different from those which we know,
+    and of which the life of human beings before birth and after death
+    forms only a special case, just as the organic life of man is a
+    special case of animal life in general.
+
+    But I am leaving the solid ground of facts to explore that of the most
+    hazardous hypotheses. I have already spoken at too great length, and
+    will therefore close the discussion of this particular topic.
+
+I have considered the above subjects in several of my own works.[41]
+
+We are surrounded by unknown forces and there is no proof that we are not
+also surrounded by invisible beings. Our senses teach us nothing about
+reality. But logically the discussion of theories ought to be reserved as
+a complement to the ensemble or summary of our observations and
+experiments; that is to say, for the last chapter. It behooves us before
+everything else positively to ascertain that mediumistic phenomena exist.
+
+It seems to me, that _this has been done_ for every impartial reader. This
+will be overwhelmingly confirmed by the following chapters. But there is
+one point on which we ought to dwell a moment. I mean the question of
+fraud, conscious or unconscious, which it would be natural, but unfair,
+to here ignore and cover up. Our judicial review would not be complete did
+we not consecrate a special chapter to these mystifications, which
+unhappily are too frequently employed by mediums.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+FRAUDS, TRICKS, DECEPTIONS, IMPOSTURES, FEATS OF LEGERDEMAIN,
+MYSTIFICATIONS, IMPEDIMENTS
+
+
+Several times in the preceding chapters the question has come up of fraud
+in the mediums. I am sorry to say that experimenters must be constantly on
+their guard against them. It is this which has discouraged certain eminent
+men and prevented them from continuing their researches, for their time is
+too precious to waste. This may be especially noticed in the letter of M.
+Schiaparelli above (p. 64) whom Spiritualists keep citing (wrongly) as
+among the number of their partisans. But he absolutely refuses to be
+identified with them. He accepts no theory; he is not even sure of the
+actual existence of the facts, and has declined to give the time needed
+for their authentication.
+
+I shall take occasion in the second volume of _The Unknown_ to treat of
+Spiritualism (properly so called), of the doctrine of the plurality of
+worlds, of the plurality of existences, of re-incarnation, of
+pre-existence, and of communications with the departed,--subjects
+independent of the material phenomena to a discussion of which the present
+work is devoted. To these subjects the physical manifestations only
+contribute in an indirect manner. As we have already several times said in
+the preceding pages, we are only concerned here to _prove the actual
+existence of these extraordinary phenomena_. The establishing of the proof
+depends above all upon the elimination of fraud.
+
+In the case of Eusapia (the medium most thoroughly examined in the
+present volume) fraud, unhappily, has been only too well established in
+more than one instance.
+
+But a very important remark must here be made. All physiologists know that
+hysterical persons have a tendency to falsehood and simulation. They lie,
+apparently without reason, and solely for the pleasure of lying. There are
+hysterics among the women and young girls of the higher classes.
+
+Does this characteristic defect prove that hysteria does not exist? It
+proves just the contrary.
+
+Consequently, those who think that the frauds of the mediums give the
+death blow to mediumship are deceived. Mediumship exists, as well as
+hysteria, as well as hypnotism, as well as somnambulism. Trickery also
+exists.
+
+I will not say, with certain theologians, "There are _false_ prophets,
+_therefore_ there are _true_ ones," for that is a sophism of the worst
+kind. The existence of the false does not hinder the existence of the
+true.
+
+I knew a kleptomaniac, who got herself arrested more than once in the
+great shops of Paris for stealing various articles. That does not prove
+that she never bought anything, and only obtained by theft all the
+articles she needed. On the contrary, the objects stolen must have
+represented but a small part of the materials of her toilet. But the fact
+that she stole is incontestable. In the experiments which we are
+considering in these pages, deception is a co-efficient which cannot be
+neglected.
+
+It is my duty to point out here some examples of this failing. Before
+doing so, I ought to recall the fact that for a period of forty years I
+have examined all the mediums whose achievements have had the widest
+celebrity,--including Daniel D. Home, gifted with the most astounding
+powers, who gave at the Tuileries, before the Emperor Napoleon III, his
+family, and his friends, such extraordinary séances, and who was later
+employed by William Crookes in the accurate scientific researches made by
+that gentleman; Mme. Rodière, a remarkable typtologic medium; C. Brédif,
+who produced strange apparitions; Eglington, with the enchanted slates;
+Henry Slade, who made with the astronomer Zöllner those incredible
+experiments from which geometry only saved itself by admitting the
+possibility of a fourth dimension of space; Buguet whose photographic
+plates caught and held the shadows of the dead, and who, having allowed me
+to experiment with him, let me conduct my researches for five weeks before
+I detected his fraudulent methods and mechanisms; Lacroix, to whom spirits
+of all ages seemed to troop in crowds; and many others who inspire deep
+interest in Spiritualists and scientific investigators by manifestations
+more or less strange and marvelous.
+
+I have quite often been absolutely deceived. When I took the precautions
+that were necessary to put the medium beyond the possibility of trickery,
+I obtained no result; if I pretended not to see anything I would perceive
+out of the corner of my eye attempts at deceit. And, in general, the
+phenomena which took place happened only in the moments of distraction in
+which my attention was for an instant relaxed. While I was pushing my
+investigation a little farther, I saw with my own eyes Buguet's prepared
+negatives; saw with my own eyes Slade writing under the table upon a
+concealed slate, and so forth. Apropos of this famous medium Slade, I may
+recall the fact that after his experiments with Zöllner, director of the
+observatory at Leipzig, he came to Paris, and for the purpose of
+experimentation, placed himself at my disposal (and that of all the
+astronomers at the Observatory to whom I should introduce him). He said he
+got direct writings from the spirits by a bit of pencil placed between two
+slates tied together, by oscillations of the magnetic needle,
+displacements of furniture, the automatic throwing about of objects, and
+the like. He was very willing to give me one séance a week, for six weeks
+(on Monday at 11 o'clock A. M., at 21 Beaujon Street). But I obtained
+nothing certain. In the cases that did succeed, there was a possible
+substitution of slates. Tired of so much loss of time, I agreed with
+Admiral Mouchez, director of the Observatory of Paris, to confide to Slade
+a double slate prepared by ourselves, with the precautions which were
+necessary in order that we should not be entrapped. The two slates were
+sealed in such a way with paper of the Observatory that if he took them
+apart he could not conceal the fraud. He accepted the conditions of the
+experiment. I carried the slates to his apartment. They remained under the
+influence of the medium, in this apartment, not a quarter of an hour, not
+a half-hour or an hour, but ten consecutive days, and when he sent them
+back to us there was not the least trace of writing inside; and yet
+specimens of this were always furnished by him when he had the opportunity
+of transposing slates prepared in advance.[42]
+
+Without entering into other details, let it suffice me to say, that, too
+frequently deceived by dishonest and mendacious mediums, I brought to my
+experiments with Eusapia a mental reserve of scepticism, of doubt, and of
+suspicion.
+
+The conditions of experimenting are in general so crooked that it is easy
+to be duped. And scientists and scholars are perhaps most easily duped of
+all men, because scientific observation of experiments is always honest,
+since we are not obliged to distrust nature,--when the question is of a
+star or of a molecule,--and since we have the habit of describing facts as
+they present themselves to our intelligence.
+
+That granted, we may now look at certain curious doings of Eusapia.
+
+We considered a little farther back (p. 173) Col. de Rochas's strange
+experiment with the letter-weigher. This was considered by the
+experimenters as absolutely conclusive. I was curious to verify it. Here
+are my notes on the matter.
+
+    I.
+
+    November 12, 1898.--This afternoon we took a drive in a landau
+    (Eusapia and I) in company with M. and Mme. Pallotti of Cairo, and,
+    among other things, we visited the exhibition of chrysanthemums at the
+    Tuileries. Eusapia is enchanted. We return about 6 o'clock. My wife
+    seats herself at the piano, and Eusapia sings some Neapolitan airs and
+    some little fragments of Italian operas. Afterwards we all three chat
+    confidentially with each other.
+
+    She is in a very happy state of mind, tells us how sometimes on stormy
+    days she experiences electric cracklings and sparkling in her hair,
+    especially on an old wound that she once received on the head. She
+    also tells us that when she has been a long time without holding a
+    séance she is in a state of irritation, and feels the need of freeing
+    herself of the psychic fluid which saturates her. This avowal
+    astonishes me, for, at the end of every séance, she seems rather to be
+    listless and melancholy and seems to hold a sitting rather unwillingly
+    than otherwise. She adds that she frequently has fluidic prolongations
+    of the ends of her fingers, and, putting her two hands on my knees,
+    the inside of the hand turned upward, at the same time spreading out
+    the fingers and placing them opposite each other face to face, at a
+    distance of several inches, and alternately bringing the hands
+    together and withdrawing them, she tells us to observe from time to
+    time the radiations which prolong the fingers by forming a sort of
+    luminous aureole at their extremities. My wife thinks she perceives
+    some of them. I am unable to see anything at all, in spite of all my
+    efforts, although I change the light and shade in all sorts of ways.
+    The salon is lighted at this time by two intense Auer burners. We go
+    into the bedroom, lighted only by candles, and I cannot see them any
+    better. I snuff out the candles, on the supposition that this is
+    perhaps a case of phosphorescence; but I never perceive anything. We
+    return to the salon. Eusapia spreads a black woollen shawl over her
+    silk skirt and shows me the luminous effluence. But all the time I can
+    see nothing, unless it be for a moment a kind of pale ray at the end
+    of the index finger of her right-hand.
+
+    The dinner hour approaches. It is seven o'clock. A letter-weigher (Pl.
+    X), which I had bought to renew the curious experiment of M. de
+    Rochas, is upon the table. I ask Eusapia if she remembers having made
+    a piece of mechanism like this move downward on its spring by placing
+    her hands on each side of it, at a distance, and making something like
+    magnetic passes. She doesn't seem to remember anything about it and
+    hums a little stanza from _Santa Lucia_. I beg that she will try it.
+    She does so. Nothing moves. She asks me to place my hands on hers. We
+    make the same passes, and, to my amazement (for I really was not
+    expecting it at all) the little tray sinks down to the point where it
+    touches the lever and produces the sharp sound of contact. This point
+    is beyond the graduation of the scale, which stops at fifty grams, and
+    may go to sixty, and represents seventy grams at the lowest. The tray
+    immediately rises again. We begin a second time. Nothing. A third
+    time: the same lowering and the same return to equilibrium. Then I beg
+    her to try the experiment alone. She rubs her hands together and makes
+    the same passes. The letter weigher goes down to the same maximum
+    point. We are all standing close by her, in the full light of the Auer
+    burners. The same performance is repeated, the tray remaining down for
+    an interval of about five minutes. The movement does not take place at
+    once; there are sometimes three or four trials without success, as if
+    the force were exhausted by the result. The tray had already sunk down
+    four times before our eyes, always as far as the maximum point, when
+    the valet de chambre, passing by upon some matter of service, I tell
+    him to stop and look. Eusapia begins again and does not succeed. She
+    waits a moment, rubs her hands, begins again, and the same movement
+    without contact is produced for the seventh time, before the three
+    witnesses, each as much astonished as the other. Her hands are
+    sensibly chilled. I think of the trick of the hair, pass my hands
+    between both of hers and find nothing there; I did not see anything.
+    Besides, she does not seem to have touched her head, and her hands
+    have remained before us since the commencement of the experiment, free
+    and untouched.
+
+    On the supposition that there may be here some electric force in
+    operation, I beg her to place her fingers upon an extremely sensitive
+    compass. In whatever way she grasps this, it refuses to move.
+
+    We sit down to the dinner-table. I ask her to lift a fork as she had
+    done at Montfort. At the third trial she succeeds--and without the use
+    of a hair, at least any that was apparent.
+
+
+    II.
+
+    November 16.--In order to entertain Eusapia, Adolphe Brisson yesterday
+    evening offered her a box at the Folies-Bergère, where Loie Fuller was
+    giving her magnificent spectacular exhibitions. We went there with
+    her. She returned enchanted, is to-day very gay and very animated,
+    speaks of her candid and loyal character and blames the comedies of
+    fashionable life. During dinner she tells us a part of the story of
+    her life.
+
+    Nine o'clock.--M. and Mme. Levy and M. G. Mathieu have just arrived.
+
+    We are conversing. Placing her hands on a leg of M. Mathieu in the
+    darkness she shows him the radiations emanating from her fingers,
+    which are however scarcely apparent to us.
+
+    It was after having shown me these radiations, the other day, that the
+    experiment of the letter-weigher took place. She associates the two
+    phenomena, and undertakes to try the latter again.
+
+    She asks me to give her a little water. I go to the dining-room in
+    search of a carafe and a glass. During my absence, M. Mathieu remarks
+    that, while my wife is talking with M. and Mme. Levy, Eusapia reaches
+    her hand to her head and makes a little gesture as if she were pulling
+    out a hair.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XI
+
+METHOD USED BY EUSAPIA TO SURREPTITIOUSLY FREE HER HAND.]
+
+    I return with a glass and a carafe and pour out for her as much as she
+    wishes. She drinks a quarter of a glass of water. At my request, she
+    moves her hands downward on each side of the letter-weigher in the
+    same way as day before yesterday, and after two or three passes the
+    tray sinks, not to its full length as day before yesterday, but to the
+    mark of thirty-five or forty grams.
+
+    The experiment was tried a second time and succeeded in the same way.
+
+    Under pretext of going in search of a photographic camera M. Mathieu
+    draws me into another room and shows me a long, very fine hair which
+    fell into his hand after the experiment, at the moment when Eusapia
+    was making a gesture as if she were going to shake his hand.
+
+    This hair is of a rich chestnut tint (the color of Eusapia's hair) and
+    measures fourteen inches in length. _I have preserved it._
+
+    This took place at quarter past nine. The sitting begins at 9:30 and
+    finishes at 11:30. After the sitting, Eusapia asks me for another
+    glass of water, and shows me a little hair between her fingers.
+
+    Just as she is going, at midnight, half laughingly, half seriously,
+    she pulls a hair from the front part of her head and, taking the hand
+    of my wife, puts this hair in it and closes the hand while looking her
+    in the eye. She certainly noticed that we had perceived fraud.
+
+
+    III.
+
+    November 19.--Eusapia is a sly one. She is gifted with great sharpness
+    of sight and has unusually sensitive ears. She is very intelligent and
+    is a person of rare delicacy of feeling. She perceives and divines
+    everything which concerns herself. Never reading, since she doesn't
+    know how to read; never writing, since she doesn't know how to write;
+    speaking little when here, since she rarely finds persons who
+    understand and speak Italian, she remains always concentrated in
+    herself and nothing turns her from permanent thought about her own
+    personality. It would undoubtedly be impossible to discover a similar
+    state of mind in the case of other persons; for we, as they, are
+    generally occupied with a thousand things which scatter our attention
+    over many different objects.
+
+    I arrive, at 11:30, at the rooms of Dr. Richet in order to escort
+    Eusapia to Mme. Fourton's, where we are to take luncheon. She is cold
+    and constrained. I pretend not to notice it, and keep talking with the
+    doctor. She goes to put on her hat and we descend the stairs. At the
+    foot of the staircase she says, "What did M. Richet say to you? What
+    were you speaking of?" A moment after, returning in thought to our
+    last séance, she says, "Were you completely satisfied?" In the
+    carriage I take her hand and converse with her in a friendly way.
+    "Everything is going very well," I say to her "but some experiments
+    will still be necessary in order to leave no room for doubt." Then I
+    speak to her of other things.
+
+    She becomes gradually sociable and her clouded brow seems to clear up.
+    However, she evidently feels that in spite of my rather superficial
+    amiability, I am not absolutely the same to her. During the luncheon
+    she holds out her champagne glass to me and drinks my health. Mme.
+    Fourton is convinced of Eusapia's genuineness, beyond all manner of
+    doubt. During conversation, a little later, Eusapia says to her, "I am
+    sure of you, I am sure of Mme. Blech, of M. Richet, of M. de Rochas;
+    but I am not sure of M. Flammarion."
+
+    "You are sure of Mme. Fourton," I replied. "Very well. But think for a
+    moment of the several thousand persons who are waiting for my opinion
+    in order to fix their own. M. Chiaia told you this at Naples, M. de
+    Rochas repeated it to you in Paris. You see I have a very great
+    responsibility and you yourself certainly see that I cannot affirm
+    that of which I am not absolutely certain. You ought yourself loyally
+    to aid me in obtaining that certainty."
+
+    "Yes," she replied, "I understand the difference very well. However,
+    if it had not been for you I should not have made the journey from
+    Naples, for the climate of Paris does not agree with me very well. Oh,
+    certainly; we must have you convinced beyond the possibility of
+    doubt."
+
+    She has now returned to her habitual intimacy. We took her to the
+    Museum at the Louvre, which she had not visited, then to a meeting
+    with M. Jules Bois who was making suggestion-experiments with Mme.
+    Lina. Eusapia is very much interested in these. We speak of the jests
+    and mimickings of the comedians.
+
+    In the evening, at dinner, the brilliant conversation of Victorien
+    Sardou, the repartees of Col. de Rochas, the questions (a little
+    insidious) of Brisson, all interest her but it is evident that she
+    never forgets herself. Thus, before dinner, she tells me that she has
+    the headache, especially in the neighborhood of her wound, passes her
+    hand through her hair ("which hurts her"), and asks me for a brush.
+    "In order," she says, that "in case of a séance experiment, a stray
+    hair shall not be found in the wrong place." And she carefully brushes
+    her shoulders. I do not always appear to understand her. But there is
+    no doubt that she understands that we have--found a hair!
+
+
+    IV.
+
+    (MORE RECENT NOTE,--MARCH, 1906.)
+
+    On Thursday, March 29, Eusapia, being in Paris, came to see me. I had
+    not seen her since her séances at my house in November, 1898. We kept
+    her to dinner, and after dinner I asked her to take part with me in
+    some experiments.
+
+    I first asked her to place her hands upon the piano, thinking that
+    perhaps some of its strings would vibrate. But nothing happened.
+
+    I then induced her to place her hands on the covered keyboard. She
+    asked that it be slightly opened by means of a little block. I placed
+    my hands upon it, by the side of hers. My object was, by keeping up
+    contact, to keep her from slipping a finger over the keys. She kept
+    trying to substitute one hand for the two that I held, in such a way
+    as to leave one of them free, and a few notes sounded. Result of the
+    experiment, _nil_. We left the piano and went over to a white-wood
+    table. We got some insignificant balancings.
+
+    "Is there a spirit there?"
+
+    "Yes" (indicated by three raps.)
+
+    "Does it wish to communicate?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    I pronounce slowly and in their proper order the letters of the
+    alphabet.
+
+    Reply, "_Tua matre_," ("thy mother.")
+
+    This certainly means "Tua madre." (note once more that Eusapia does
+    not know how to read or write.)
+
+    Eusapia noticed that I was in mourning and I had told her that my
+    mother had died on the first of last July. I then asked to be told her
+    name. (Eusapia does not know it.)
+
+    No reply.
+
+    The movements of the table which were next asked for gave no results
+    of any particular value.
+
+    However, a stuffed arm-chair near by was several times shifted out of
+    its place without contact, advancing of itself toward Eusapia. Since
+    the chandelier was lighted, and there was no possibility of any string
+    being used, and since I had my foot upon that one of Eusapia's which
+    was nearest the arm-chair, the movement must evidently have been due
+    to a force emanating from the medium.
+
+    I pushed the easy chair back three times. Three times it returned. The
+    same phenomenon was reproduced several days afterward.
+
+    It is observable that if she had been able to detach her foot from
+    mine, she would have been able to reach the chair (by some little
+    twisting,) and the production of the phenomenon must have been within
+    the range of her circle of activity (and of possible trickery). But,
+    as the case was, deception was impossible.
+
+    Since we could not obtain any levitation of the table, and since the
+    psychical force of the four of us (Eusapia, myself, my wife, and
+    Eusapia's companion, who had joined us for a moment, but, who at other
+    times, always remained apart) was clearly insufficient, I went and
+    secured a lighter round table. Then, with her hands placed _upon_ it
+    in contact with mine, three of its feet were raised to a height of ten
+    or twelve inches from the floor. We repeated the experiment three
+    times, with gratifying success. Eusapia squeezed my hands violently in
+    one of hers (the right hand) which rested on the table.
+
+    The whole séance is thus seen to have been a web of intermingled truth
+    and falsehood.
+
+These notes remind us once more that there is almost always a mingling of
+veritable fact and of fraudulent performance.
+
+It is easy to admit that the medium, wishing to produce an effect, and
+having at her disposal for this purpose two means,--the one easy and
+demanding only skill and cunning, the other distressing, costly, and
+painful,--is tempted to choose, consciously or _even unconsciously_, that
+which costs her the least.
+
+The following is her method of procedure for obtaining the substitution of
+hands. The figures shown in Plate XI represent four successive positions
+of the medium's hands and those of the sitters. They show how, owing to
+the darkness and to a skilful combined series of movements, she can induce
+the sitter on the right to believe that he still feels the right hand of
+the medium on his own, while he really feels her left hand, which is
+firmly held by the sitter on the left. This right hand of hers, being then
+free, is able to produce such effects as are within its reach.
+
+The substitution may be obtained in different ways. But, whichever method
+is used, it is evident that the freed hand can only operate in a space
+within its reach.
+
+    Who of us is always master of his impressions and of his faculties?
+    writes Dr. Dariex in this connection.[43] Who of us can at will put
+    himself into such and such a physical condition and such and such a
+    moral state? Is the composer of music master of his inspiration? Does
+    a poet always write verses of equal worth? Is a man of genius always a
+    man of genius? Now, what is there less normal, more impressionable,
+    and more capricious than a sensitive, a medium, especially when she is
+    away from home, thrown out of the routine of her daily life, and
+    staying with those with whom she is unacquainted or knows very
+    slightly, who are to be her judges and who expect from her the rare
+    and abnormal phenomenon the production of which is not under the
+    constant and complete control of her will?
+
+    A sensitive placed in such a situation, will have a fatal propensity
+    to feign the phenomenon which does not spontaneously materialize or to
+    heighten by deceit the intensity of a partially successful experiment.
+
+    This feigning is of course a very vexatious and regrettable thing. It
+    throws suspicion upon the experiments, renders them much more
+    difficult and less within the reach of the investigator. But this is
+    only an impediment, and ought not to fetch us up short and lead us to
+    give a premature decision. All of us who have experimented with and
+    handled these sensitives know that at every step we run foul of fraud,
+    conscious or unconscious, and that all mediums--or almost all--are
+    used to the thing. We know that we must, unfortunately, take our
+    share, for the moment, of this regrettable weakness, and be
+    perspicacious enough to hinder, or at least to unearth the trickery,
+    and to disentangle the true from the false.
+
+    More than one of those who have engaged perseveringly in psychic
+    experiments, can say that he has been sometimes enervated and
+    irritated while waiting for a phenomenon which does not take place,
+    and that he has felt something like a desire to put an end to this
+    waiting by himself giving the extra twist or decisive touch.[44]
+
+    Such experimenters can understand that if, in place of being
+    conscientious workers, always masters of themselves, incapable of
+    deceiving, and engaged solely in the search for scientific truth, they
+    were, on the contrary, somewhat dreamy and impulsive persons who were
+    susceptible to suggestion and whose _amour propre_ was active, and in
+    whose minds scientific probity did not hold the first and pre-eminent
+    place, they would undoubtedly engage, more or less involuntarily, in
+    the artificial production of phenomena which refused to take place in
+    smooth and natural order.
+
+    As to Eusapia, if she does sometimes counterfeit, she does it only by
+    eluding the watchful inspection of the experimenters and by escaping
+    for a moment from their control; but she does it without any other
+    artifice. Her experiments are not planned, and, contrary to the habit
+    of prestidigitators, she does not carry any apparatus upon her person.
+    It is easy to assure one's self of this, for she is very willing to
+    completely undress before a lady charged with keeping watch of her.
+
+    Furthermore, she exhibits her powers _ad libitum_ with the same
+    persons, and repeats indefinitely the same experiments before them.
+    Prestidigitators do not act in this way.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE X. SCALES USED IN PROFESSOR FLAMMARION'S EXPERIMENT.]
+
+It is infinitely to be regretted that we cannot trust the loyalty of the
+mediums. They almost all cheat. This is extremely discouraging to the
+investigator, and the constant perplexity of mind we feel during our
+investigations renders them altogether painful. When we have passed
+several days in these inexplicable researches and then return to
+scientific work,--to an observation or to an astromical calculation, for
+example, or to the examination of a problem in pure science,--we
+experience a sensation of freshness, calmness, relief, and serenity which
+give us, by contrast, the most lively satisfaction. We feel that we are
+walking on solid ground and that we have not got to distrust anybody.
+Indeed, all the intrinsic interest of psychic problems is needed,
+sometimes, to give us the courage to renounce the pleasure of scientific
+study in order to give ourselves to investigations so laborious and
+perplexed.
+
+I believe that there is only one way to assure ourselves of the reality of
+the phenomena, and that is to put the medium under conditions in which
+trickery is impossible. To catch her in the very act of deceit would be
+extremely easy. It would only be necessary to give her free rein. And then
+one can very easily aid her to cheat and to get caught. All that is
+necessary is that we be convinced of her dishonesty. Eusapia, especially,
+very easily takes suggestion. While going one day in an open carriage to
+dine at his residence, Colonel de Rochas said to her, in my presence,
+"You can't lift your right hand any more. Try it!" She did try, but in
+vain. "Non posso, non posso!" ("I can't do it, I can't do it!"). The mere
+suggestion had been sufficient.
+
+In the phenomena concerned with the movements of objects without contact
+she always makes a gesture corresponding to the phenomenon. A force darts
+forth from her and performs the deed. Thus, for example, she strikes with
+her fist three or four strokes in the air at a distance of ten or twelve
+inches from the table: the same strokes are heard in the table. And it is
+positively in the wood of the table. It is not beneath it, nor upon the
+floor. Her legs are held and she does not move them. She strikes five
+strokes with the middle finger upon my hand in the air: the five strokes
+are rapped upon the table (November 19).
+
+Nay more, this force can be transmitted by another. I hold her legs with
+my left hand spread out upon them; M. Sardou holds her left hand; she
+takes my right wrist in her right hand and says to me, "Strike in the
+direction of M. Sardou." I do so three or four times. M. Sardou feels upon
+his body my blows tallying my gesture, with the difference of about a
+second between my motion and his sensation. The experiment is tried again
+with the same success.
+
+That same evening, not only did we not let go for a single instant of
+Eusapia's hands, separated from each other by the width of her body and
+placed near our own, but we did not allow them to be moved from the side
+of the objects to be displaced. It took considerable time to obtain
+results. But, all the same, they were wholly successful.
+
+She has a tendency to go and take hold of the objects; she must be stopped
+in a good time. However, she herself does take hold of them, in fact,
+through the prolongation of her muscular force, and she says so: "I am
+grasping it, I have hold of it." It is our part to carefully retain her
+normal hands in ours.
+
+We sometimes have good reason to suspect that Eusapia seizes the objects
+to be moved (such as musical instruments) with one of her hands which she
+has freed. But there is plenty of proof that she does not always do so.
+Here is a case, for example. The scene is Naples, 1902, at a séance with
+Professor von Schrenck-Notzing:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
+
+    The séance took place in a little room, by a feeble light, but one
+    sufficient for us to distinguish the personages and their movements.
+    Behind the medium, upon a chair, there was a harmonica, at the
+    distance of about a yard.
+
+    Now, at a certain moment, Eusapia took between her hands a hand of the
+    professor and commenced to separate his fingers one from another and
+    bring them together again, as may be seen in the accompanying cut. The
+    harmonica was at that moment playing at a distance in tones that
+    perfectly synchronized the movements made by Eusapia. The instrument
+    was isolated in the room. We made sure that there were no threads
+    connecting it with the medium. Still less could anybody fear
+    accomplices, for the light would easily have betrayed their
+    intervention. This performance was analogous to that which occurred in
+    my presence on the 27th of July, 1897. (see above p. 72.)
+
+The following is a typical example of "sympathetic" movements, taken from
+a report by Dr. Dariex. The matter in hand was to make a key spring out
+from a lock.
+
+    The light was strong enough for us to perfectly distinguish Eusapia's
+    every movement. All at once, the key of the chest is heard to rattle
+    in its lock; but, caught in some unknown way, it refuses to budge.
+    Eusapia grasps with her right hand the left of M. Sabatier, and, at
+    the same time, curls the fingers of her other hand around his index
+    finger. Then she begins to make alternate movements of rotation back
+    and forth around his finger. We at once hear synchronous rattlings of
+    the key which turns in its lock just as the fingers of the medium are
+    doing.[45]
+
+Let us suppose that the chest, instead of being at a distance from the
+medium, had been within her reach; let us still further suppose that the
+light, instead of being abundant, had been feeble and uncertain: the
+sitters would not have failed to confound this kind of synchronous
+automatism with conscious and impudent fraud on the part of Eusapia. And
+they would have been deceived.
+
+Without excusing fraud, which is abominable, shameful, and despicable in
+each and every case, it can undoubtedly be explained in a very human way
+by admitting the reality of the phenomena. In the first place the real
+phenomena exhaust the medium, and only take place at the cost of an
+enormous expenditure of vital force. She is frequently ill on the
+following day, sometimes even on the second day following, and is
+incapable of taking any nourishment without immediately vomiting. One can
+readily conceive, then, that when she is able to perform certain wonders
+without any expenditure of force and merely by a more or less skilful
+piece of deception, she prefers the second procedure to the first. It does
+not exhaust her at all, and may even amuse her.
+
+Let me remark, in the next place, that, during these experiments, she is
+generally in a half-awake condition which is somewhat similar to the
+hypnotic or somnambulistic sleep. Her fixed idea is to produce phenomena;
+and she produces them, no matter how.
+
+It is, then, urgent, indispensable, to be constantly on the alert and to
+control all her actions and gestures with the greatest care.
+
+I could cite hundreds of analogous examples observed by myself in the
+years gone by. Here is one taken from my notes.
+
+    On the second of October, 1889, a spiritualistic séance had brought
+    together certain investigators in the hospitable mansion of the
+    Countess of Mouzay, at Rambouillet. We were told that we had the rare
+    good fortune to have with us a veritable and excellent medium,--Mme.
+    X., the wife of a very distinguished Paris physician, herself well
+    educated and inspiring by her character the greatest confidence.
+
+    We arranged ourselves, four in all, around a little table of light
+    wood. Scarcely a minute has passed when the little table seems to be
+    taken with trembling, and almost immediately it rises and then falls
+    back. This vertical movement is repeated several times in the full
+    light of the lamps of the salon.
+
+    The next day the same levitation occurred in broad daylight, at noon,
+    while we were waiting for a guest who was late to luncheon. This time
+    the round table used was much heavier.
+
+    "Is there a spirit there?" some one asks.
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    "Is he willing to give his name?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    Someone takes an alphabet, counts the letters, and receives, by taps
+    made by one of the feet of the table, the name Léopoldine Hugo.
+
+    "Have you something to say to us?"
+
+    "Charles, my husband, would like to be reunited to me."
+
+    "But where is he?"
+
+    "Floating in space."
+
+    "And you?"
+
+    "In the presence of God."
+
+    "All that is very vague. Could you give us a proof of identity to show
+    us that you are really the daughter of Victor Hugo, the wife of
+    Charles Vacquerie? Do you remember the place where you died?"
+
+    "Yes, at Villequier."
+
+    "Inasmuch as the accident of your shipwreck in the Seine is well
+    known, and since the whole thing may be latent in our brains, could
+    you please give us other facts? Do you remember the year of your
+    death?"
+
+    "1849."
+
+    "I do not think so," I replied, "for I have in my mind's eye a page of
+    the _Contemplations_ where the date of September 4, 1843, is written.
+    Has my memory played me false?"
+
+    "Yes. It is 1849."
+
+    "You astonish me very much, for in 1843, Victor Hugo returned from
+    Spain on account of your death, while in 1849 he was a representative
+    of the people in Paris. Moreover, you died six months after your
+    marriage, which took place in February, 1843."
+
+    At this point, the Countess of Mouzay remarked that she was very well
+    acquainted with Victor Hugo and his family, that they were living then
+    in the street of Latour-d'Auvergne, and that the date 1849 must be
+    correct.
+
+    I maintain the contrary. The spirit sticks to its fact.
+
+    "In what month did the event take place?"
+
+    "July."
+
+    "No, it was in September. You are not Léopoldine Hugo. How old were
+    you when you died?"
+
+    "Eighteen years. They don't remember very often to decorate my tomb
+    with flowers."
+
+    "Where?"
+
+    "At Père-Lachaise."
+
+    "You are wrong, it was at Villequier that you were buried, and I went
+    myself to visit your tomb. Your husband, Charles Vacquerie is also
+    there, with the two other victims of the catastrophe. You don't know
+    what you are talking about."
+
+    At this point our hostess declares that she was not thinking at all of
+    Père-Lachaise, and that, in her opinion, Léopoldine Hugo and her
+    husband remained at the bottom of the Seine.
+
+    After luncheon we sit down again at the séance table. Various
+    oscillations. Then a name is dictated.
+
+    "Sivel."
+
+    "The aeronaut?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    "In what year did you die?"
+
+    "1875." (Correct.)
+
+    "What month?"
+
+    "March." (It was April 15.)
+
+    "From what point did your balloon start?"
+
+    "La Villette." (Correct.)
+
+    "Where did you fall?"
+
+    "In the river Indre."
+
+    All these "elements" were more or less known to us. I ask for a more
+    special proof of identity.
+
+    "Where did you know me?"
+
+    "With Admiral Mouchez."
+
+    "It is impossible. I first knew Admiral Mouchez at the time of his
+    appointment to the directorship of the Paris Observatory. He succeeded
+    Le Verrier in 1877, two years after your death."
+
+    The table is agitated and dictates as follows:
+
+    "Give your name."
+
+    "Witold. Marchioness, I love you still."
+
+    "Are you happy?"
+
+    "No, I behaved badly to you."
+
+    "You know very well that I pardon you, and that I preserve the
+    happiest recollection of you."
+
+    "You are too good."
+
+    These thoughts were evidently in the mind of the lady; so there was
+    here no more proof of identity than in the other case.
+
+    All of a sudden the table begins to move vigorously, and another name
+    is dictated, "Ravachol."[46]
+
+    "Oh, what is he going to say to us?"
+
+    I will set down here what he said, though not without shame, and with
+    all due apologies to my lady readers. Here it is in all its crudity:
+
+    "_Bougres de crétins, votre sale gueule est encore plaine des odeurs
+    du festin._"
+
+    ("Nasty blackguards and idiots, your dirty throat is still full of the
+    odors of the feast.")
+
+    "Monsieur Ravachol, this language of yours is exquisite! Have you
+    nothing more refined than this to say to us?"
+
+    "You be blowed!"
+
+    Certainly no one of us was capable of consciously composing such a
+    sentence as that. But everybody knows the words that were used.
+    Perhaps our conscious or sub-conscious thoughts spoke in them? Did
+    they emanate from Mme. X., the medium?
+
+    In the uncertainty into which we were plunged by these two séances, we
+    asked M. and Mme. X. to come and pass a Sunday at Juvisy and try some
+    new studies and tests.
+
+    They came, and on Sunday, October 8, we obtained some remarkable
+    levitations. But there are some dregs of doubt yet in our minds, and
+    we make engagements for another reunion that day fortnight.
+
+    On Sunday, the 22d of October, 1899, in furtherance of my desire to
+    exercise careful control over the investigators, I had four broad
+    boards nailed together, forming a vertical frame in which I placed the
+    little table to be used during the sitting. This framework made it
+    impossible for the feet of the sitters to pass under the table; and
+    if it rose in spite of this, then we should know that the levitation
+    was due to an unknown force.
+
+    The remarks of Mme. X., when she saw this device, made me think at
+    once that no levitation was going to take place.
+
+    "This power of ours," said she, "is capricious; on some days we get
+    good results, on others none at all, and for no apparent reason."
+
+    "But we shall perhaps have raps, at any rate?"
+
+    "Certainly. We ought not to anticipate results. One can always try."
+
+    Two hours after luncheon, Mme. X. agrees to try a sitting. _No
+    levitation whatever occurred._
+
+    I had some suspicions that this would be the case. I ardently desired
+    the contrary, and we willed the levitation with all our might. I was
+    expressly careful to have the same experimenters (Mme. X. and Mme.
+    Cail, and myself) as a fortnight before, when everything succeeded so
+    admirably,--same places, same chairs, same room, temperature, hour,
+    etc.
+
+    Raps indicate that a spirit wishes to speak. I notice that the raps
+    correspond to a muscular movement of Mme. X.'s leg.
+
+    "Who are you?"
+
+    "In the library of the master of the house my name will be found in a
+    book."
+
+    "How shall we find it?"
+
+    "It is written on a piece of paper."
+
+    "In what book?"
+
+    "_Astronomia._"
+
+    "Of what date?"
+
+    No reply.
+
+    "Of what color?"
+
+    "Yellow."
+
+    "Bound?"
+
+    "No."
+
+    "Stitched?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    "On what shelf?"
+
+    "Hunt."
+
+    "It impossible to go through thousands of volumes, and, besides, there
+    is not such a book in the whole library."
+
+    No reply.
+
+    After a series of questions we learn that the book is on the sixth
+    shelf of the main body of the library, to the right of the door. But
+    first, we all went into the room to make sure it contained no such
+    book as was described.
+
+    "Then the volume is bound in boards?"
+
+    "Yes, there are four _low_ volumes."
+
+    We return to the room, and, sure enough, find in a volume entitled
+    _Anatomia Celeste_, Venice, 1573, a piece of paper, upon which is
+    pencilled the name "Krishna." We return to the séance table.
+
+    "Is it really you, Krishna?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    "In what epoch did you live?"
+
+    "In the time of Jesus."
+
+    "In what country?"
+
+    "In the neighborhood of the Himalaya mountain system."
+
+    "And how did you write your name on this piece of paper?"
+
+    "By passing through the thought of my medium."
+
+    Etc., etc.
+
+    I thought it would be superfluous to persist any farther.
+
+    Mme. X. not being able to raise the table had chosen the device of
+    table rappings. The calling up of the Hindu prophet, however, I
+    thought was a fine piece of audacity.
+
+    The simplest hypothesis is that the woman went into my library and put
+    the piece of paper in the book. In fact, she was seen there. But even
+    had she not been, the conclusion would be no less certain. For the
+    room was open, and Mme. X. had remained about an hour in the next
+    room, detained by "a nervous headache."
+
+This specimen of mediumistic trickery is, as I have said, one among
+hundreds. Really, one must be endowed with the most unweariable
+perseverance to enable him to devote to those studies hours which would be
+much better employed even in doing nothing at all. However, when one has
+the conviction that something real exists he always returns, in spite of
+incessant trickery.
+
+In the month of May, 1901, Princess Karadja introduced to me a
+professional medium, Frau Anna Rothe, a German, whose specialty consisted
+in her alleged ability to spirit flowers into a tightly closed room in
+broad daylight.
+
+I made arrangements for a séance with her at my apartments in Paris.
+During its continuance, bouquets of flowers of all sizes, did, in truth,
+make their appearance, but always from a quarter in the room the opposite
+of that to which our attention was drawn by Frau Rothe and her manager,
+Max Ientsch.
+
+Being well nigh convinced that all was fraud, but not having the time to
+devote to such sittings, I begged M. Cail to be present, as often as he
+could, at the meetings which were to be held in different Parisian salons.
+He gladly consented, and got invited to a séance at the Clément Marot
+house. Having taken his station a little in the rear of the
+flower-scattering medium, he saw her adroitly slip one hand beneath her
+skirts and draw out branches which she tossed into the air.
+
+He also saw her take oranges from her corsage, and ascertained that they
+were warm.
+
+The imposture was a glaring one, and he immediately unmasked her, to the
+great scandal of the assistants, who heaped insults upon him. A final
+séance had been planned, to be held in my salon on the following Tuesday.
+But Frau Rothe and her two accomplices took the train at the Eastern
+Railway station that very morning, and we saw them no more. In the
+following year she was arrested in Berlin, after a fraudulent séance, and
+sentenced to one year in jail for swindling.
+
+In this class of things, cheatings and hoaxings are as numerous as
+authenticated facts. Those who are curious in such things will not have
+forgotten the scandalous hoax and misdemeanor of the celebrated Mrs.
+Williams, an American woman who was received in full confidence, in 1894,
+in Paris, by my excellent friend, the Duchess of Pomar. Already made
+distrustful by the ingenious observations of the young duke, the sitters
+were determined not to be the butt of her fooleries very long, and a
+sitting was agreed on. The participators were MM. de Watteville, Dariex,
+Mangin, Ribero, Wellemberg, Lebel, Wolf, Paul Leymarie (son of the editor
+of _La Revue Spirite_), etc.
+
+The specialty of Mrs. Williams (who was, by the way, quite a stout person)
+was the showing of apparitions, or ghosts. Said apparitions proved to be
+manikins, rather poorly got up; the lady spectators, as well as the
+gentlemen, were quite disappointed at the absence of the rich and flowing
+outlines of _form_ under the draperies of the wretched puppets. Thin and
+limp, tatterdemalion things, they showed not the faintest resemblance to
+the normal and classic contours of woman, the lines of which we should
+have been able to glimpse at least to some extent under the light gauze
+that enwrapped the figures. Several bright-witted, but rather irreverent,
+ladies took no pains to conceal the fact that they should prefer
+annihilation if it were necessary to be so ... "reduced," so "incomplete"
+in the other world! The gentlemen added that they would certainly not be
+alone in lamenting such a state of things!
+
+There was no religious atmosphere at all about these sittings. The
+imposture was discovered, or, one might rather say, seized, by M. Paul
+Leymarie. He simply grasps Mme. Impostor around the waist (having slipped
+behind the curtain for the purpose), and holds her fast for the inspection
+of the audience. Lights are brought on, and, in the midst of the confused
+uproar made by twenty-five duped sitters, the heroine of the entertainment
+is compelled to show herself in flesh tights, while the whole apparatus of
+her ghostly puppet-show is discovered in the cabinet!
+
+Mrs. Williams had the effrontery to defend herself, a little later, in the
+American Journal _Light_, bestowing the playful epithet of "bandits" upon
+those who had unmasked her in Paris.
+
+That was a case of high mystification, of jugglery worthy of a
+street-corner mountebank. But, as we have already seen, matters do not
+usually attain to such a height of audacity, and quite often fraud only
+intervenes when the genuine powers have become enfeebled. This well
+appeared in the accounts of the "girl torpedo-fish," Angelica Cottin, who
+attained a good deal of notoriety.
+
+On the 15th of January, 1846, in the village of Bouvigny, near Perrière
+(Orne), a young girl thirteen years old, named Angelica Cottin, light and
+robust, but extremely apathetic in physical temperament and in morals,
+suddenly exhibited strange powers. Objects touched by her, or by her
+clothing, were forcibly repelled. Sometimes, even on her mere approach,
+people were thrown into commotion and excitement, and pieces of furniture
+and household utensils were seen to move and vibrate. With some variations
+in intensity, and with intermittences, sometimes, of two or three days,
+this curious virtue held good for about a month, then disappeared as
+unexpectedly as it had appeared. It was authenticated by a large number of
+persons, some of whom submitted the little girl to genuine scientific
+experiments, and embodied their observations in formal reports, which were
+collected and published by Dr. Tanchou. This gentleman first saw Angelica
+on February 12 (1846), in Paris, where she had been taken to be exhibited.
+The manifestations (which had decreased from the day when the basis, or
+usual course of her habits had been altered) were on the point of
+disappearing altogether. Yet they were still distinct enough to enable the
+investigator to draw up the following note, which was read to the Academy
+of Science, on February 17, by Arago, an eye-witness of the facts.[47]
+
+    I saw the young "electric" girl twice (says Dr. Tanchou).
+
+    A chair which I was holding as hard as I could with my foot and both
+    hands was forcibly wrenched from me the moment she sat down in it.
+
+    A little slip of paper which I held poised on one finger was several
+    times carried away as if by a gust of wind.
+
+    A dining-table of moderate size, though rather heavy, was more than
+    once displaced by the mere touch of her dress.
+
+    A little paper wheel, placed vertically or horizontally upon its axis
+    was put into rapid movement by the radiations which darted from this
+    child's wrist and the bend of her arm.[48]
+
+    A large and heavy sofa upon which I was seated was pushed with great
+    force against the wall the moment the girl came to seat herself by me.
+
+    A chair was held fast upon the floor by strong men and I was seated on
+    it in such a way as to occupy only the half of the seat. It was
+    forcibly wrenched away from under me as soon as the young girl sat
+    down on the other half.
+
+    One curious thing is that every time the chair is lifted it seems to
+    cling to Angelica's dress. It follows her for an instant before it
+    becomes detached.
+
+    Two little elder-pith balls or feather-balls, suspended by a silken
+    thread, are set in motion, attracted to each other and sometimes
+    repelled.
+
+    This girl's radiations of psychic force (_émanations_) are not
+    permanently present during all the hours of the day. They are
+    especially strong in the evening, from seven to nine o'clock,--which
+    leads me to surmise that perhaps her last meal (taken at six o'clock)
+    is not without its influence.
+
+    The emanations are given forth only from the front part of the body,
+    especially at the wrist and at the bend of the arm. They only occur on
+    the left side, and the arm of this side is of a higher temperature
+    than that of the other. It gives off a gentle heat, as from a part
+    where a lively reaction is going on. The arm trembles and is
+    continually disturbed by unusual contractions and quiverings which
+    seem to be imparted to the hand that touches it.
+
+    During the time I observed this subject, her pulse varied from 105 to
+    120 pulsations a minute. It seemed to me frequently irregular.
+
+    When she is isolated from the common reservoir of electric or magnetic
+    power, either by being seated upon a chair without her feet touching
+    the floor or when placing them upon the chair of a person in front of
+    her, the phenomena do not take place. They also cease when she is made
+    to sit down on her own hands. A waxed floor, a piece of oiled silk, a
+    plate of glass under her feet or on the chair, all have the effect of
+    antagonizing and destroying for the time the electro-dynamic property
+    of her body.
+
+    During the paroxysm she can touch scarcely anything with her left hand
+    without throwing it from her as if it burned her. When her clothes
+    touch the articles of furniture in a room she attracts them, displaces
+    them, and overturns them.
+
+    One will understand this more easily when it is realized that at every
+    electric discharge she runs away to escape the pain. She says "it
+    pricks" or "stings" her in the wrist or bend of the elbow. Once when I
+    was feeling for her pulse in the temporal artery (not having been able
+    to locate it in the left arm) my fingers chanced to touch the nape of
+    the neck. She uttered a cry and drew back quickly from me. I several
+    times assured myself of the fact that, near the cerebellum, at the
+    place where the muscles of the upper part of the neck are joined to
+    the cranium, there is a spot so sensitive that she allows no one to
+    touch it. All the sensations she feels in her left arm are here echoed
+    or repeated.
+
+    The electric emanations of this child seem to move by waves,
+    intermittently, and in succession through different parts of the
+    anterior portion of the body. But be that as it may, _they are
+    certainly accompanied by an aëriform current which gives the sensation
+    of cold_. I plainly felt upon my hand a quick puff of air like that
+    produced by the lips.
+
+    Every time the mysterious force strikes through her frame and
+    materializes in an act, terror and dismay fill the mind of this child,
+    and she seeks refuge in flight. Every time she brings the end of her
+    fingers near the north pole of a piece of magnetized iron, she
+    receives a severe shock; the south pole produces no effect. If I
+    manipulated the iron in such a way that I could not myself tell the
+    north pole on it, _she_ could always tell it very well.
+
+    She is thirteen years old and has not yet reached the age of puberty.
+    I learned from her mother that nothing like menstruation has yet
+    appeared. She is very strong and healthy, but her intellect is as yet
+    little developed. She is a peasant cottager (_villageoise_) in every
+    sense of the word; yet she knows how to read and write. Her occupation
+    is the making of thread gloves for ladies. The first electric
+    phenomena began a month ago.
+
+It is desirable to add to the foregoing note extracts from other reports.
+Here, for example, is a citation from M. Hébert:
+
+    On the 17th of January,--that is to say, the second day of the
+    appearance of the phenomena,--the scissors suspended from her waist by
+    a cotton tape, flew from her without the cord being broken, and no one
+    could imagine how it got untied. This circumstance, incredible from
+    its resemblance to the pranks of lightning, makes one think at once
+    that electricity must play an important rôle in the production of such
+    astonishing effects. But this way of looking at the thing did not last
+    long. For the miracle of the scissors only occurred twice, once in the
+    presence of the curé of the village, who guaranteed to me upon his
+    honor the truth of the statement. In the middle of the day almost no
+    effects were obtained, but in the evening, at the usual hour, they
+    redoubled in intensity. It was at that time that action without
+    contact took place, and effects were produced in organic living
+    bodies. These latter made their first appearance in the form of
+    violent shocks felt in the ankles by one of the women laborers who
+    happened at the time to be facing Angelica, the points of their sabots
+    being about four inches apart.
+
+Dr. Beaumont Chardon, a physician of Mortagne, also published similar
+notes and observations,--among others the following:
+
+    The repulsion and attraction, hopping about and displacement, of a
+    rather solid table; of another table six feet by nine, mounted on
+    casters; of another four-feet-and-a-half square oak table; of a very
+    massive mahogany easy-chair,--_all these displacements took place
+    through contact with the Cottin girl's clothes,--contact either
+    involuntary or purposely brought about by experiments_.
+
+    There was a sensation of violent prickings when a stick of sealing-wax
+    or a glass tube suitably rubbed was placed in contact with a bend in
+    the left arm or with the head, or simply when brought somewhat near
+    there. When the sealing-wax or the tube had not been rubbed, or when
+    they were being wiped dry or moistened, there was a cessation of
+    effects. The hairs on one's arm, made to slope or lie flat by a little
+    saliva, rose up again at the approach of the child's left arm.
+
+I have already remarked that this young girl was brought to Paris as a
+subject of scientific observation. Arago, at the Observatory, in the
+presence of his colleagues MM. Mathieu, Laugier, and Goujon, established
+the truth of the following phenomena:
+
+When Angelica held out her hand toward a sheet of paper laid near the edge
+of a table, the paper was strongly attracted by the hand. Approaching a
+centre-table, she grazed it with her apron, and the table drew back from
+her. When she sat down on a chair and put her feet on the floor, the chair
+was thrown back violently against the wall, and she herself was thrown
+forward to the other side of the room. This last experiment, repeated
+several times, always succeeded. Neither Arago nor the astronomers of the
+Observatory were able to hold the chair down. M. Goujon, who had sat down
+in advance upon one half of the chair which was going to be used by
+Angelica, was upset at the moment when she came to share the seat with
+him.
+
+Following a favorable report of its illustrious perpetual secretary,[49]
+the Academy of Science named a commission to examine Angelica Cottin. This
+commission confined its efforts exclusively to the task of determining
+whether or not the electrical force of the subject was similar to that of
+the machines or that of the torpedo-fish. They could not come to any
+conclusion, probably on account of the emotion excited in the girl at the
+sight of the formidable apparatus of experimentation; and then her
+peculiar powers were already on their decline. Thus the commission
+hastened to declare all the communications on this subject made to the
+Academy previous to this to be null and void.
+
+Upon this topic my old master and friend Babinet, who was a member of the
+commission, wrote as follows:
+
+    The members of the commission were not able to verify any of the
+    features announced. There was no report made, and Angelica's parents,
+    worthy people of the most exemplary probity, returned with her from
+    Paris to their own locality. The good faith of this couple and of a
+    friend who accompanied them interested me very much, and I would have
+    given anything in the world to find some reality in the wonders that
+    had been proclaimed about the girl. The only remarkable thing she did
+    was to rise from her chair in the most matter of fact way in the
+    world and hurl it behind her with such force that often the chair was
+    broken against the wall. But the supreme experiment,--that in which,
+    according to her parents, the miracle was revealed of motion produced
+    without contact,--was as follows: She was placed standing before a
+    light centre-table covered with a thin silken stuff. Her apron also
+    made of a very light and almost transparent silk, rested on the
+    centre-table (though this last condition was not indispensable). Then,
+    _when the electric force appeared_, the table was overturned, while
+    "the electric girl" maintained her usual stupid impassivity. I had
+    never personally seen any success attained in this particular feature
+    of the girl's performances; nor had my colleagues of the commission of
+    the Institute, nor the physicians, nor certain writers, who, with
+    great assiduity, had attended all the séances appointed at the
+    headquarters of the girl's parents in Paris. As for myself, I had
+    already overstepped all the bounds of friendly complaisance, when, one
+    evening the parents came to beseech me, in virtue of the interest I
+    had shown in them, to attended one more séance, saying that the
+    electric force was going to declare itself anew with great energy. I
+    arrived about eight o'clock in the evening at the hotel where the
+    Cottin family was staying. I was disagreeably surprised at finding a
+    séance intended only for myself, and the friends whom I brought with
+    me, overrun by a crowd of physicians and journalists who had been
+    attracted by the announcement of the prodigies which were to begin
+    again. After due excuses had been made I was introduced to a back room
+    which served as dining-room, and there I found an immense kitchen
+    table made of oak planks of an enormous thickness and weight. At the
+    moment when dinner was being served the electric girl had, by an act
+    of her will (it was said), overturned this massive table, and, as a
+    necessary result, broken all the plates and bottles that were on it.
+    But her excellent parents did not regret the loss, nor the poor dinner
+    that resulted from it, on account of the hope that animated them that
+    the marvellous qualities of the poor idiot were going to manifest
+    themselves and receive the official stamp of authenticity. There was
+    no possibility of doubting the veracity of these honest witnesses. An
+    octogenarian who accompanied me (M. M.--, the most sceptical of men)
+    believed their recital as I did; but, after entering with me the room
+    full of people, this distrustful observer took his stand in the very
+    entrance-door, alleging as a pretext the crowd in the room, and so
+    placed himself as to have a side view of the electric girl with her
+    centre-table before her. The crowd that faced the girl occupied the
+    farther end and the sides of the room.
+
+    After an hour of patient waiting, and all in vain, I withdrew,
+    expressing my sympathy and my regrets. M. M. remained obstinately at
+    his post. He _pointed_ the electric girl with his unwearied eye, as a
+    crouching setter does a partridge. At last, at the end of another
+    hour, when the attention of the company was distracted by innumerable
+    preoccupations and several centres of conversation had been
+    formed--suddenly the miracle occurred: the centre-table was
+    overturned. Great amazement! great expectations! They were just
+    beginning to cry "Bravo!" when M. M., advancing by warrant of age and
+    the love of truth, declared that he had seen Angelica, by a convulsive
+    movement of the knee, push the table that was placed before her. He
+    drew the conclusion that the effort she must have made before dinner
+    in the overturning of the heavy kitchen table would have occasioned a
+    severe contusion above her knee,--a matter that was investigated and
+    found to be true. Such was the end of this melancholy affair in which
+    so many people had been duped by a poor idiot, who yet had enough
+    crafty cunning to inspire illusion by her very calmness and
+    impassivity. We have still to account for the singular facts observed
+    near Rambouillet (see the _Reports_ of the Academy), at the house of a
+    wealthy manufacturer, all whose vases and other vessels of
+    pottery-ware burst into a thousand pieces at the moment when least
+    expected. Kettles and other large vessels cast in metal also flew into
+    fragments, to the great loss of the proprietor, whose troubles,
+    however, ceased with the discharge of a servant, who had come to an
+    understanding with a man who was to occupy the factory so that he
+    might get it at a better bargain. Nevertheless, it is to be regretted
+    that the matter ended before it was discovered what fulminating powder
+    had been employed to produce such curious results, so new, and,
+    apparently, so well proved.[50]
+
+Babinet adds farther on in the same volume the following remarks on
+Angelica Cottin:
+
+    In the midst of wonders which she did _not_ perform there was seen a
+    very natural effect of _the first relaxation of muscles_ which was
+    curious in the highest degree. The girl, of slight figure and torpid
+    physique, who was correctly styled the "torpedo-fish," being first
+    seated on a chair and then rising very slowly (in the midst of the
+    movement she was making in the act of rising) had the _power_ of
+    throwing backward, with terrifying suddenness, the chair she was
+    leaving, without anybody being able to perceive the slightest movement
+    of the trunk of the body, and solely by the relaxation of the muscle
+    which had been in contact with the chair. At one of the test-séances
+    in the laboratory of physics at the Jardin des Plantes, several
+    amphitheatre chairs of white wood were hurled against the walls in
+    such a way as to break them. A second chair, which I had once taken
+    the precaution to place behind that in which the electric girl was
+    seated (for the purpose of protecting, if need were, two persons who
+    were conversing at the back part of the room) was drawn along with the
+    propelled chair and went with it to arouse from their
+    absent-mindedness the two savants. I will add that several young
+    employees at the Jardin des Plantes succeeded in performing--although
+    in a less brilliant way--this pretty trick in bodily mechanics. In
+    order to get a good idea of this play of the muscles by a similar
+    effect, you have only to gently squeeze that part of the muscle of
+    some one's arm that is most developed, at the same time that he makes
+    the motion of opening and closing his fist several times. You will at
+    once feel the swelling up of the muscles and divine the movement that
+    would result from it were the change of shape made very rapid.
+
+Such is the report of the learned physicist. It is thus that fraud once
+more hindered the recognition of the reality of phenomena that had been
+duly proved before. Accompanying this there was also a weakening of the
+faculties of the performer. But it is absurd to conclude from this that
+the observers of the earlier days in this case (including Arago and his
+colleagues of the Observatory,--Mathieu, Laugier, and Goujon,--as well as
+the examiner Hébert, Dr. Beaumont Chardon, and others) were poor
+observers, and were deceived by movements of the foot of this child.
+
+We may allow for the fraud, conscious and unconscious of mediums. We may
+deplore it, for it throws an unpleasant gloom upon all the phenomena; but
+let us render justice to incontestable facts, and continue to observe
+them.
+
+_Quære et invenies!_ Seek and thou shalt find. _The Unknown_, the science
+of to-morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE EXPERIMENTS OF COUNT DE GASPARIN
+
+
+One of the most important series of experiments that has been made on the
+subject of moving tables is that of Count Agénor de Gasparin at Valleyres,
+Switzerland, in September, October, November, and December of the year
+1853. The Count has published formal reports of these studies in two large
+volumes.[51] These séances may be called purely scientific, for they were
+conducted with the most scrupulous care and were under the severest
+control. The table usually employed had a round oak top thirty-two inches
+in diameter, which rested on a heavy three-footed central column, the feet
+being about twenty-two inches apart. There were usually ten or twelve
+experimenters, and they formed the chain on the table by touching each
+other with their little fingers in such a way that the thumb of the left
+hand of each operator touched that of his right hand, and the little
+finger of the right hand touched that of the left hand of his neighbor. In
+the opinion of the author, this chain is useful, but not absolutely
+necessary. The rotation of the table usually began after a waiting of five
+or ten minutes. Then it lifted one foot to a height that varied from time
+to time, and fell back again. The levitation took place even when a very
+heavy man was seated on the table. Rotations and levitations were obtained
+without the contact of hands. But let us hear the author himself:
+
+    It is a question of positive fact that I wish to solve. The theory
+    will come later. To prove that the phenomenon of turning tables is
+    real and of a purely physical nature; that it can neither be explained
+    by the mechanical action of our muscles nor by the mysterious action
+    of spirits,--such is my thesis. It is my wish to state it with
+    precision and circumscribe its limits here at the very start. I
+    confess I find some satisfaction in meeting with unanswerable proofs
+    the sarcasms of people who find it easier to mock than to examine. I
+    am well aware that we have got to put up with that. No new truth
+    becomes evident without having been first ridiculed. But it is none
+    the less agreeable to reach the moment when things assume their
+    legitimate place, and when rôles cease to be inverted. This moment
+    might have been long in coming. For a long time I feared that
+    table-phenomena would not admit of a definite scientific
+    demonstration; that, while they inspired absolute certainty in the
+    minds of the operators and witnesses at first hand, they would not
+    furnish irrefutable arguments to the public. In the presence of bare
+    possibilities, each person would be free to cherish his own particular
+    opinion; we should have had believers and sceptics. The classification
+    would have taken place in virtue of tendencies rather than by reason
+    of one's knowledge or ignorance of the facts. Some, in the agreeable
+    sensation of their intellectual superiority, would have carried their
+    head very high, and others would have abandoned themselves in despair
+    to the current superstitions of the day. The truth incompletely
+    demonstrated would have been treated as a lie, and, what is worse,
+    would have ended by becoming such.
+
+    But thank God! it will not be so now. Our meetings were real and
+    formal séances, to which the best hours of the day were given. The
+    results, verified with the most minute care, were embodied in formal
+    and official declarations. I have these _procès-verbaux_ before me
+    now, and it seems to me that I could not do better than to take up one
+    after another and extract from each the interesting observations it
+    may contain. I shall thus follow the method of certain historians, and
+    relate the truth rather than systematize it. The reader will, as it
+    were, follow us step by step. He will examine and check my various
+    assertions by comparing them; he will form his own conviction, and
+    will judge whether my proofs have that character of frequent
+    occurrence, of persistency, of progressive development which false
+    discoveries, based upon some fortuitous and poorly described
+    coincidence, never have.
+
+These are promising premises. We shall see whether the promises will be
+kept. The report (or minutes) of the first meeting bears the date of
+September 20, 1853. Numerous séances had been held before, but it had not
+been thought necessary to write down the results. What those results were
+will be seen by the following brief account:
+
+    Only those have an invincible conviction (writes Count de Gasparin)
+    who have participated in séance studies frequently and directly, who
+    have felt under their very fingers the production of those peculiar
+    movements which the action of our muscles cannot imitate. They know
+    the limitations of their powers and where to stop. For they have seen
+    the table refuse to rotate at all, in spite of the impatience of the
+    investigators, and in spite of their clamorous appeals. Then again,
+    they have been present when it started to move so gently, so softly
+    and spontaneously started, it can be said, under fingers which hardly
+    touched it. They have at times seen the legs of the table (riveted by
+    some enchantment to the floor) refuse to budge on any terms, in spite
+    of the incitement and coaxing of those who composed the chain. On
+    other occasions they have seen the same table-legs perform levitations
+    that were so free and energetic that they anticipated the hands, got
+    the start of the orders, and executed the thoughts almost before they
+    were conceived, and with an energy well-nigh terrifying. They have
+    heard with their own ears stunning raps and gentle raps, the one
+    threatening to break the table, the others of such incredible fineness
+    and delicacy that one could scarcely catch the sounds, and none of us
+    could in any degree imitate them. They have remarked that the force of
+    the levitations is not diminished when the sitters are removed from
+    the side of the table that is to form the fulcrum. They have
+    themselves commanded the table to lift that one of its legs over
+    which rest the only hands that compose that portion of the chain still
+    remaining, and the leg has risen as often and as high as they wished.
+    They have observed the table in its dances when it beats the measure
+    with one foot or with two; when it reproduces exactly the rhythm of
+    the music that has just been sung; when, yielding in the most comic
+    way to the invitation to dance the minuet, it takes on grandmotherly
+    airs, sedately makes a half turn, curtsies, and then comes forward
+    turning the other side! The manner in which the events took place told
+    the experimenters more than the events themselves. They were in
+    contact with a reality which soon made itself understood.
+
+    The persevering experiments we had made before the 20th of September
+    had already given us proof of two principal things,--the levitation of
+    a weight that the muscular action of the operators was powerless to
+    move, and the reproduction of numbers by mind reading.
+
+I shall now give the formal declarations or reports, by Count de Gasparin,
+or at least the essential parts of them. I shall present them here as the
+author has done, séance after séance. The reader will judge. He is urged
+to read the reports with the greatest attention. They are scientific
+documents of the highest value, and quite as important as the preceding
+ones.
+
+    _Séance of September 20_
+
+    Some one proposed the experiment which consists in causing a table to
+    rotate and give raps while it has on it a man weighing say a hundred
+    and ninety pounds. We accordingly placed such a man on the table, and
+    the twelve experimenters, in chain, applied their fingers to it.
+
+    The success was complete: the table turned, and rapped several
+    strokes. Then _it rose up entirely off the floor_ in such a way as to
+    upset the person who was upon it. Let me be permitted here, in
+    passing, to make a general remark. We had already had numerous
+    meetings. Our experimenters, among whom were several young ladies of
+    delicate physique, had worked with very unusual perseverance and
+    energy. Their bodily fatigue at the end of each sitting was naturally
+    very great. It seems as if we should therefore have expected some
+    nervous collapses more or less grave, to show themselves among us. If
+    explanations based upon involuntary acts performed in a state of
+    extraordinary excitement had the least foundation in fact, we should
+    have had trances, almost possessions, and, at any rate, nervous
+    attacks. Now, in spite of the exciting and noisy character of our
+    meetings, it did not happen, in five months time, that any one of us
+    experienced a single moment of indisposition or sickness of any kind.
+    We learned something more: when a person is in a state of nervous
+    tension, he or she becomes positively unfit to act upon the table. It
+    must be handled cheerfully, lightly, and deftly, with confidence and
+    authority, but without passion. This is so true that the moment I took
+    too much interest in things I ceased to obtain obedience. If, on
+    account of public discussions in which I had been engaged, I chanced
+    to desire success too ardently and to grow impatient over delay, I had
+    no longer any control over the table; it remain inert.
+
+
+    _Séance of September 24_
+
+    We began pretty poorly, and were almost inclined to think that the net
+    result of the day's experiments would be limited to the two following
+    observations, which have their value, to tell the truth, and which our
+    experience has always confirmed: First, there are days when nothing
+    can be done, nothing prospers, although the sitters are as numerous,
+    as strong, and as excited as ever,--which proves that the movements of
+    the table are not obtained by fraud or by the involuntary pressure of
+    the muscles. Second, there are persons (those among others who are
+    sickly or fatigued) whose presence in the chain is not only of no use,
+    but even detrimental. Destitute themselves of the fluidic force, they
+    seem, besides, to hinder its circulation and transmission. Their good
+    will, their faith in the table are of no avail; as long as they are
+    there the rotations are feeble, the levitations spiritless, the drafts
+    drawn on the table are not honored; that one of its feet facing them
+    is especially struck with paralysis. Beg them to retire, and
+    immediately the vitality appears again and everything succeeds as if
+    by magic. Indeed, it was only after we had taken this course that we
+    finally obtained the free and energetic movements to which we had been
+    accustomed. We had become quite discouraged; but when the purging of
+    which I have just spoken took place, lo, what a change! Nothing seems
+    difficult to us. Even those who (like myself) ordinarily have only
+    mediocre success, now think of numbers and make the table rap them out
+    with complete success, or with the slight imperfection (that
+    frequently occurs) of a tap too many, owing to the delay in giving the
+    mental order to stop the taps.
+
+    Seeing that everything was going according to our wish, and having
+    decided to try the impossible, we next undertake an experiment which
+    marks our entrance into a wholly new phase of the study and places our
+    former experimental demonstrations under the guarantee of a positively
+    irrefutable demonstration. We are going to leave probability behind
+    and dwell with evidence. We are going to make the table move _without
+    touching it_. And this is how we succeeded that first time:
+
+    At the moment when the table was whirling with a powerful and
+    irresistible rotation, at a given signal we all lifted our fingers.
+    Then keeping our hands united by means of the little fingers, and
+    continuing to form the chain at a height of say an eighth or a quarter
+    of an inch above the table, we continued our circular movement. _To
+    our great surprise the table did the same_; it made in this way three
+    or four turns! We could scarcely believe our good fortune; the
+    by-standers (witnesses) could not keep from clapping their hands. And
+    the way in which the rotation took place was as remarkable as the
+    rotation itself. Once or twice the table stopped following us because
+    the little accidents and interruptions of our march had withdrawn our
+    fingers from their regular distance from the top of the table. Once or
+    twice the table had come to life again--if I may so express
+    myself--when the turning chain had again got into the right relation
+    with it. We all had the feeling that each hand had carried along in
+    its course that portion of the table immediately beneath it.
+
+
+    _Séance of September 29_
+
+    We were naturally impatient to submit rotation without contact to a
+    new test. In the confusion of the first success we forgot to renew and
+    vary this decisive experiment. When we got to thinking about it
+    afterwards we saw that it behooved us to do the thing over again with
+    more care and in the presence of new witnesses; that it was, above
+    all, important to produce the movement and not merely to continue it,
+    and to produce it in the form of levitations instead of limiting it to
+    rotations. Such was the program of our meeting of September 29. Never
+    was program carried out with greater precision. As a preliminary, we
+    repeated our successful feat of the 24th. While the table was rotating
+    rapidly, the interlocked hands were lifted from it, though continuing
+    to turn above it and form the chain. The table followed, making now
+    one or two revolutions, and now a half or a quarter turn only. The
+    success, more or less prolonged, was certain. We confirmed it several
+    times. But some one might say that, the table being already in motion,
+    the momentum carried it along mechanically while we imagined it was
+    yielding to our fluidic force. The objection was absurd, and we would
+    have challenged anybody to obtain a single quarter of a turn without
+    forming the chain, however rapid might have been the rotation
+    imparted. Above all, would we have challenged anyone to renew its
+    motion when it had been for an instant suspended. However, it is well
+    in such cases to forestall even absurd objections, however little of
+    plausibility they may have. And this particular objection might seem
+    plausible to the inattentive man. It was imperative, then, that we
+    should produce rotation starting from a state of complete inertia.
+    This we did. The table being as motionless as we were, the chain of
+    hands parted from it and began to turn slowly at a height of about
+    three-eighths of an inch above its edge. In a moment the table made a
+    slight movement, and each of us striving to draw along by his will
+    that part situated under his own fingers, we succeeded in drawing the
+    disk in our train. The details that followed resembled those of the
+    preceding case. There is such difficulty in maintaining the chain in
+    the air without breaking it, in keeping it near the border of the
+    table without going too quick and thus destroying the harmonious
+    relation established, that it often happens that the rotation stops
+    after a turn or a half-turn. Yet it is sometimes prolonged during
+    three or even four revolutions. We expected to encounter still greater
+    obstacles when we should undertake levitation without contact. But the
+    matter turned out quite otherwise. This is easily explained when we
+    remember that in this ease there is no circular movement and it is
+    much easier to maintain the normal position of the hands above the
+    table. The chain, then, being formed at a distance of an eighth of an
+    inch or so above the round top of the table, we ordered one of its
+    legs to lift itself up, and it did so.
+
+    We were highly delighted, and repeated this pretty experiment many
+    times. Without touching it in any way, we ordered the whole table to
+    rise into the air, and to resist the witnesses, who had to put forth
+    effort to bring it down to the floor. We commanded it to turn bottom
+    side up, and it fell over with its feet in the air, although we never
+    touched it with our fingers, but kept them in advance of it as it
+    fell, at the distance agreed upon.
+
+    Such were the essential results of this meeting. They are such that I
+    hesitate to mention in the same connection incidents of secondary
+    importance.
+
+    I will only say, in passing, that the séance was very discouraging at
+    the start; for, not only was it found necessary to remove certain new
+    operators, but several of the old ones did not bring to it their usual
+    high spirits. The table responded poorly; raps were made faintly and
+    as if with reluctance; the telepathic reading of numbers did not
+    succeed. Then we took a resolution from which we derived much benefit:
+    we persevered, and persevered gaily; we sang, we made the table dance;
+    we gave up all thoughts of new experiments and persisted in easy and
+    amusing ones. After a while conditions changed; the table fairly
+    bounded, and hardly waited for our orders; we were now in condition to
+    try more serious things.
+
+
+    _Séance of October 7_
+
+    A long meeting, and very fatiguing. It was principally devoted to the
+    trial of various mechanical devices which had no success
+    whatever,--such as metal rings; frameworks of canvas or of paper
+    placed upon the table; plates on pivots and spring-keys. Whether the
+    sight of all this gear hindered the radiation of the fluidic force
+    from the operators, whether the contrivances themselves stopped its
+    circulation in the table, or whether, in fine, the natural conditions
+    of the phenomenon were disturbed in some other way, it is certain that
+    the results amounted to nothing or were doubtful.
+
+    One new experiment succeeded. A plate turning on a pivot held a tub. I
+    filled this tub with water, and two of my collaborators and I plunged
+    our hands into it. We formed the chain and began a circular walk,
+    being careful not to touch the tub. This at once imitated our
+    movement. We repeated the thing several times in succession.
+
+    Since it might be supposed that the impulse given to the water would
+    suffice to set in motion a tub resting on so delicately balanced a
+    plate, we at once proceeded to prove the contrary. The water was given
+    a circular whirl causing it to move with much greater rapidity than
+    when we formed the chain; but the tub moved not a peg. Undoubtedly the
+    point remains to be considered whether one of us three did not touch
+    the inside of the tub and so determine its movement. To that I reply,
+    first, that the way in which our hands were held in the water
+    obviously proves that none of our fingers could really touch bottom;
+    secondly, that, taking pains as we did to form the chain at the
+    centre, it would have been scarcely less difficult for us to touch the
+    vertical sides of the tub.
+
+    And yet, the doubt being not wholly inadmissible, I class this
+    experiment among those of which I do not purpose to make any use. I
+    wish to show that I am hard to please in the matter of evidence.
+
+    The proof which the rapping of numbers by mind-reading furnishes has
+    always seemed to be one of the most convincing. In the sitting I am
+    describing, it had this special feature, that each of the ten
+    operators in turn received the communication of a number in writing,
+    the others having their eyes shut. Now, in the whole ten, one alone
+    failed to obtain perfect obedience from the table-leg which had been
+    assigned to him by very suspicious witnesses, or by-standers. If my
+    readers will reflect carefully they will see that the combinations of
+    movements communicated and of cheating tricks which such a solid
+    result as this would require passes far beyond the bounds of
+    admissible things. To justify it the objector must invent a miracle
+    much more astounding than ours.
+
+    Let us turn again to the finest of all demonstrations, that of
+    levitation without contact. We began by performing it three times.
+    Then, since it was thought by some that the inspection of the
+    witnesses could be carried on in a surer way in the case of a small
+    table than in that of a large one, and with five operators more
+    certainly than with ten, we had a plain deal centre-table brought
+    which the chain, reduced by half, sufficed to put in rotation. Then
+    the hands were lifted, and, _contact with the table being entirely
+    broken, it rose seven times into the air at our command_.
+
+
+    _Séance of October 8_
+
+    Two circumstances occurred to confirm the results we had obtained in
+    preceding séances. Among the numbers selected for the thought-test the
+    roguery of one of the witnesses had placed a zero, and the leg
+    selected by him to respond was at the left of the operator and beyond
+    the reach of his muscular action. Now, the command having been given
+    to the leg and no action resulting, we were all feeling disconsolate,
+    being convinced that our weakness that day was so great that we were
+    not going to obtain even simple levitations. I affirm most
+    emphatically that if movement had ever been imparted by an
+    experimenter to a table leg, it would have appeared at that moment.
+    Our nerves were in an exalted state and our impatience was at its
+    height. Yet no movement of the table took place, and we were
+    consequently all the more solaced when we learned that the figure
+    communicated had been a cipher.
+
+    Movement without contact was accomplished twice.
+
+    To our experiment of a table that gave raps while having a man upon
+    it, it had been objected that this man might lend his aid to the
+    movement, and even incite it in part. Determined to seek out the truth
+    with the most anxious care, we had recognized a certain plausibility
+    in this objection, and had decided to meet it fairly. The being who
+    was living, intelligent, and consequently suspected must be replaced
+    by an inert weight. Buckets filled with sand must be placed in the
+    precise centre of the table, which should then be called on to exhibit
+    its skill.
+
+    But the day was badly chosen. After we had placed on the table two
+    buckets, one upon the other, both weighing in all 143 pounds, it was
+    discovered that we were unable to produce the levitation. It was
+    necessary for us to content ourselves with continuing them in circular
+    movement after they had been started. The buckets were removed, the
+    table was set in motion, and the buckets replaced while the movement
+    was at its height. They did not arrest it in the least, but were
+    carried around with such force that the sand flew out on all sides.
+
+    The remainder of the sitting was given up to an investigation of the
+    subject of (alleged) divination, or guessing.
+
+    When the table was asked to guess something known to one of the
+    members of the chain, it pretty frequently and quite naturally
+    happened that it guessed it. It is the case of thought-reading by
+    numbers,--nothing more, nothing less.
+
+    When it is asked to guess a thing known to a member of the company who
+    does not form at the time a part of the chain, it happens sometimes
+    that it guesses it. But the person in question must be endowed with
+    great fluidic power and be able to exercise it at a distance. We did
+    not ourselves obtain anything like this; but others have succeded, and
+    their testimony seems too well established to be called in question.
+
+    Up to the present moment, it is plain, there is not the least trace of
+    divination. It is fluidic action, near-by or distant.
+
+    If the tables divine, if they think, if there are spirits, we ought to
+    get decisive responses in the case where no one knows the facts,
+    either in the chain or out of the chain. The problem thus stated, the
+    solution is not difficult.
+
+    Take a book. Do not open it, but invite the table to read the first
+    line of the page you will designate,--say page 162 or page 354. The
+    table will not flinch: it will rap, and will compose words for you. It
+    was thus, at least, that it always acted with us. At any rate, one
+    thing is certain, that neither here nor elsewhere, has any spirit,
+    however cunning, read, this simple line; nor will it be able in the
+    future to do so. I recommend the experiment to the partisans of spirit
+    evocations.
+
+    As to the test of pieces of money in a purse, hours, playing-cards
+    etc., the tables betake themselves to a strict calculation of
+    probabilities; they guess just as much as you do, or as I do. Inasmuch
+    as it is a question of small numbers of which one can form in advance
+    an approximate idea, the range of possible combinations is not very
+    extensive. The mind fixes upon a number which has a fairly good chance
+    of being the true one, and the proportion between the failures of the
+    table and its successes is in such a case just what it would be apart
+    from all question of miraculous divination.
+
+
+    _Séance of November 9_
+
+    Before entering upon the description of this sitting,--a very
+    remarkable one,--I will say that neither the thermometer nor the
+    mariners' compass have furnished the slightest indication of anything
+    interesting. I thought I ought to note this, in passing, to show to
+    the reader that we did not neglect to employ instruments which seemed
+    likely to put us in the way of obtaining a scientific explanation. In
+    general, I pass by that phase of our work, as well as the different
+    trials which remained merely trials, and did not lead to any positive
+    results.
+
+    Our first care was to renew the experiment of the levitation of an
+    inert weight. It was agreed among us this time that we would always
+    start from the state of absolute immobility in the object: we wanted
+    to produce movement, not to continue it.
+
+    The centre of the table, then, having been fixed with nice precision,
+    a first tub of sand, weighing 46 pounds, was placed upon it. _The legs
+    easily rose from the floor when they got the order._
+
+    A second tub, weighing 42 pounds, was next placed in the middle of the
+    other. _They were both lifted_--less easily, but very neatly and
+    clearly.
+
+    Then a third tub, smaller, and weighing 28-3/5 pounds, was placed on
+    top of the two others. The levitations took place.
+
+    We had still further got ready enormous stones weighing altogether
+    48-1/2 pounds. They were placed on the third tub. After rather long
+    hesitation, _the table lifted several times in succession each of its
+    three legs_. It lifted them with a force, a decision, an élan, which
+    surprised us. But its strength, already put to so many proofs, could
+    not resist this last one. Bending under the powerful swaying motion
+    imparted by the total mass of 165 pounds, _it suddenly broke down_,
+    and its massive centre-post was split from top to bottom--to the great
+    peril of the operators on the side of whom the entire load rolled off.
+
+    I shall not stop to comment on such an experiment. It answers all
+    demands. Our united muscular force would not have sufficed to
+    determine the movements that took place. A mass of inert matter free
+    from the suspicion of being obliging, had replaced the person whose
+    complicity was held in suspicion. Finally, when the three legs had
+    been lifted, each in turn, critics no longer had as a resource the
+    insinuation that we had caused the weight to be laid more on one side
+    than on the other.
+
+    Inasmuch as our poor table had been wounded on the field of honor and
+    could not be repaired on the spot, we got a new one which much
+    resembled it. But it was a little larger and a little lighter.
+
+    The interesting point was to be settled whether we were going to be
+    obliged to wait for it to be charged with the psycho-physical fluid.
+    The occasion was a famous one for solving this important problem:
+    Where does the fluid reside?--in the operators or in the piece of
+    furniture. The solution was as prompt as it was decisive. Scarcely had
+    our hands, in chains, been placed upon this second table than it began
+    to revolve with the most unexpected and the most comic rapidity!
+    Evidently, the fluid was in us, and we were free to apply it in
+    succession to different tables.
+
+    We lost no time. In the mood in which we then were, movement without
+    contact must succeed better than ever. Nor did we deceive ourselves in
+    so thinking. We first developed rotations without contact to the
+    number of five or six.
+
+    As to levitations without contact, we discovered a method of
+    proceeding that renders their success easier. The chain, formed a few
+    millimetres above the top disk, is arranged so as to go in the
+    direction in which the movement is to take place; the hands the
+    nearest to the leg called on to rise are outside of and beyond the
+    top; they draw near and pass gradually by, while the hands that are
+    opposite, and which had at first advanced toward the same leg, move
+    away from it while they attract it. It is during this progression of
+    the chain, while all our wills are fixed upon a particular spot on the
+    wood, and when the orders to levitate are forcibly given, that the
+    foot quits the ground and the table-top follows the hands,--to the
+    point of upsetting, if one did not keep hold of it.
+
+    This levitation without contact was produced about thirty times. We
+    produced it by each of the three legs in succession, in order to
+    remove every pretext for criticism. Moreover, we watched the hands
+    with scrupulous care. If the reader will please observe that this
+    surveillance was exercised during thirty operations without detecting
+    the slightest contact, I think it will be concluded that the reality
+    is henceforth placed beyond all doubt.
+
+
+    _Séance of November 21_
+
+    The chief characteristic of this séance was the absence of that one of
+    our number who exercised the greatest authority at the table.[52] In
+    working without her we were put in a position to establish two things:
+    first, that one cannot with impunity do without an extraordinary
+    gifted experimenter; and, second, that one can, nevertheless, do
+    without him or her, if it is absolutely necessary, and that success,
+    although less brilliant in this case, is not impossible. I call
+    special attention to this last point, as well as to the frequent
+    modifications of our personnel, for the benefit of suspicious persons
+    who, not knowing the mental worth of the persons in question, might be
+    disposed to place to the account of their dexterity the results to
+    which they essentially contribute. The psycho-physical working power
+    of a "sensitive" table-turner is of a mixed nature: a resolute posture
+    and a circular movement are not sufficient to give birth to it.
+    Besides this, and above all, there is needed _the will_.
+
+    Our will having at last asserted itself, and muscular pressure having
+    yielded its place to the pressure of commands, the fluidic rotation
+    arrives, after five or six minutes of concentration of our thoughts.
+    We felt, indeed, keenly that some important person was lacking and
+    that we did not possess our usual power. However, we were determined
+    to succeed, even at the price of greater mental fatigue.
+
+    So we took up boldly our most difficult feat; namely, movements
+    without contact. Rotations without touch were obtained thrice. I
+    should add that they were very incomplete,--a quarter of a turn, or a
+    half-turn at most.
+
+    As to levitations without touch our success was more decisive; but it
+    was purchased at the price of a very considerable expenditure of
+    force. After each levitation we had to rest, and, when we had reached
+    No. 9 we were absolutely obliged to stop, overcome with fatigue. One
+    must have had personal knowledge of such experiments to understand
+    what drafts they make upon one's attention and energy, and at what
+    point it is indispensible to will, and to will peremptorily, that such
+    and such a knot of wood in the table shall follow the opened fingers
+    that are alluring it at a distance.
+
+    But be that as it may, our attempt was crowned with success, and we
+    could end the sitting with less exhausting exercises.
+
+    The idea came to us then and there to try our powers on a large table
+    with four legs. It had often been claimed that three-legged
+    centre-tables alone would respond to our manipulations. It was time to
+    furnish undeniable proof to the contrary. So we took a table three
+    feet five inches in diameter, a folding half of which (independent of
+    the leg that supports it when it is raised) can be turned up at will.
+
+    Scarcely were our fingers in place than the table began a rotation
+    with noisy bustle, the sprightliness of which surprised us. It thus
+    showed that tables with four legs were no more refractory than others.
+    In addition to this, it furnished a new argument in favor of one of
+    our former observations,--that the fluid is in the persons and not in
+    the tables. In fact the movement of the large table took place almost
+    immediately, and before it could be considered as charged with fluid.
+
+    The next task before us was to make it give raps with its different
+    legs. We began with those fastened to one half of the top, three in
+    number. They rose from the floor two at a time with such force that at
+    the end of a moment one of the casters flew to pieces.[53] Now it is
+    difficult to form an idea of the intensity which a fraudulent action
+    of the fingers must have acquired in order to exercise a leverage upon
+    so heavy a table, and launch it into the air to such a height.
+
+    There remained the leg of the table which was independent of the top.
+    We thought it would obey as well as the others. But no! In vain did we
+    pour out the most prodigal and pressing invitations: it was never
+    willing to rise, either along with its right-hand neighbor or with its
+    neighbor on the left. Our next thought was that this was due to the
+    persons placed near it, and certain members of the chain changed
+    seats. In vain! All combinations failed one after another.
+
+    We drew great deductions from this circumstance. But since it was
+    refuted later, when the contumacious leg yielded perfect obedience at
+    another meeting, I will not take the public into our confidence by a
+    display of our reasonings on the subject. I will only ask that two
+    things be noted; first, the care we took to verify many times the
+    phenomena before affirming them; and, second, that we have here once
+    more a fine refutation of the critics who assert that muscular action
+    can explain everything. If this were so, why did not muscular action
+    lift the free leg as well as those fastened tight to the table? It
+    could have done so just as easily; and yet for some _unknown reason_,
+    but one evidently _foreign to the laws of mechanics_, only the
+    attached legs consented to move.
+
+
+    _Séance of November 27_
+
+    We were in full muster; but two or three of the operators were
+    slightly indisposed. On the whole, whatever was the cause, the
+    occasion was scarcely remarkable for anything except the almost total
+    absence of fluidic power. For a single moment we had a little of it. A
+    half-hour of action and two hours and a half of inertia--this was our
+    net result.
+
+    Nothing was more lamentable, and at the same time more curious, than
+    to see us about the different tables, passing from one to another,
+    enjoining them to do the most elementary things, and only obtaining a
+    weak and languid rotation, which soon stopped altogether.
+
+
+    _Séance of December 2_
+
+    I should have been vexed to have to close my recital with so dull and
+    spiritless a record as the preceding one. By good fortune the last of
+    our reports gives me the right to leave a totally different impression
+    on the reader's mind.
+
+    We were in fine temper. Perhaps the beautiful weather helped. It is
+    not the first time I have noticed this. What is certain is that the
+    very same persons who, on November 27, had only a half-hour of success
+    and had passed the rest of the sitting in beseeching in vain for
+    anything better than poor abortive rotations or faint raps, to-day
+    governed the table with an authority, a quickness, and, if I may so
+    put it, an elasticity of bearing that left nothing to be desired.
+
+    The large table with four legs was set in motion. And this time, the
+    ease with which the free leg lifted its share of the table proved that
+    we were right in not drawing too definite conclusions from its former
+    refusal. Every time that we tried to lift without contact that part of
+    the table the farthest removed from myself I felt the table-leg
+    nearest me gradually approach and press against my leg. Struck with
+    this occurrence, which took place several times I drew the conclusion
+    that the table _was gliding forward_, not having enough force to rise.
+    We were, then, exercising a perceptible influence on this large table
+    without touching it in any way.
+
+    In order the better to assure myself of it, I left the chain and
+    observed the movement of the feet of the table on the floor. It ranged
+    from fractions of an inch to several inches. When we then tried to
+    turn up without contact the folding leaf of a gaming-table covered
+    with cloth, we obtained the same result: the folding leaf would not
+    yield to our influence, but the entire table advanced in the direction
+    of the prescribed movement. Now, I ought to add that the gliding was
+    not at all easy, for the floor of our room was rough and uneven.
+
+    It is interesting to note in this connection the moment when this
+    gliding movement ordinarily begins. It occurs at precisely the same
+    time that the levitation without contact takes place when that
+    manifestation is in process. When the portion of the chain which is
+    pushing on has just advanced beyond the side of the table-top, where
+    it begins to turn, and when that portion of the chain that is pulling
+    has just crossed the middle point in its recession, then the
+    ascensional movement--or, in default of that, the _gliding
+    motion_--manifests itself. Our fluidic power is then at its maximum,
+    precisely at the instant when our mechanical power is at its minimum,
+    when the hands that are pushing have ceased to act (supposing the case
+    of fraud) and when the hands that pull are powerless to act.
+
+    Let us now revert to our ordinary table. We tried to produce rotations
+    and levitations without contact, and had complete success.
+
+Such reports as the foregoing are of more value than all the
+dissertations. They show the undeniable reality of the levitation not
+total, but partial,--of the table which remained in an oblique position
+poised on two legs only. They show also rotations and levitations _without
+contact_, as well as glidings under the influence of a natural force
+hitherto only slightly studied.
+
+_Levitations of a heavy table, having on it a man weighing 191 pounds, or
+of tubs of sand and stones weighing 165 pounds_,--no denial of these
+occurrences can be admitted.
+
+The same is true of the movements of the table dancing in accordance with
+the rhythm of certain airs, of its over-turnings, of its obedience to the
+orders given. These facts have been observed precisely as mechanical,
+physical, chemical, meteorological, astronomical facts have been
+observed.
+
+To the above reports I will add here a supplementary experiment described
+in the preface of Count de Gasparin's book:
+
+    Certain distinguished savants to whom I had communicated the results
+    we had secured, agreed in assuring me that levitations without contact
+    would have the character of absolute certain proof if we succeeded in
+    verifying them by the following practical device: "Sprinkle flour upon
+    the table," they said, "at the instant your hands have just left it;
+    then produce one or more levitations; finally assure yourselves that
+    the layer of flour bears not the slightest sign of any touch, and all
+    objectors will be dumb."
+
+    Why, it is precisely this experiment that we have performed
+    successfully several times. Let me give a few details:
+
+    Our first trial had succeeded very badly. We used a coarse sieve which
+    we had to move to and fro over the entire table. This produced the
+    double inconvenience; first, of suspending too long, and so of
+    nullifying the action of the operators; and, secondly, of spreading a
+    layer of flour much too thick. The buoyant spring and impulse of the
+    wills of the operators was abated, the fluidic action was thwarted,
+    the table-top got chilled down, so to speak; nothing moved. The
+    mischief went so far that the table not only refused us levitations
+    and rotations without contact, but almost all the ordinary ones.
+
+    Then a brilliant idea came to one of us. We possessed one of those
+    bellows used in blowing sulphur upon vines attacked by the
+    grape-mildew. In place of sulphur we put flour into it, and, so
+    prepared, began the test.
+
+    The conditions were most favorable. The weather was dry and warm, the
+    table went leaping under our fingers, and, indeed, before the order to
+    lift hands had been given, the greater part of the band of us had
+    spontaneously ceased to touch the table-top. Then the command rings
+    out; the whole chain lifts up from the table, and at the same instant
+    the bellows covers its entire surface with a light dusting of flour.
+    Not a second had been lost; the levitation without contact had
+    already taken place. But to leave no doubt, the thing was repeated
+    three or four times in succession.
+
+    That done, the table was scrupulously examined; _no finger had touched
+    it, or even grazed it in the slightest degree_.
+
+    The fear of grazing it involuntarily had even been so great that the
+    hands had acted fluidically from a height much greater than in
+    previous sittings. Each one had thought he could not raise his hands
+    too high, and the hands removed to such a distance from the top, had
+    not had recourse to any of the manoeuvres or passes of which we had at
+    other times made use. Keeping its place, above the table to be lifted,
+    the chain had preserved its form intact; it had made hardly a
+    perceptible motion in the direction of the movement it was producing
+    at a distance from the table.
+
+    I will add, finally that we did not content ourselves with a single
+    experience. A careful inspection following each of several
+    levitations, always showed that the dust-like layer of flour was
+    absolutely untouched; and no portion of the table had escaped its
+    tell-tale coat of white.
+
+The author of these reports himself estimates as follows the results he
+has recorded:
+
+    The phenomena observed confirm and elucidate each other. Large
+    four-legged tables compete with three-legged ones. Inert weights,
+    placed on these, come forward as substitutes for persons suspected of
+    giving a helping hand to the table charged with the task of lifting
+    them. At last the great discovery arrives in its turn: we begin by
+    continuing without contact movements already initiated, and we end by
+    producing them; we succeed almost in creating the process, to such an
+    extent that these extraordinary facts manifest themselves sometimes in
+    an uninterrupted series of fifteen or thirty performances. The
+    glidings round out the subject by throwing light on one phase of
+    action at a distance: they reveal it as powerless (at times) to lift
+    the table, but able to draw it along over the floor.
+
+    Such is the rapidly sketched account of our progress. Taken just by
+    itself alone, it constitutes a solid proof and I recommend a study of
+    it to serious men. It is not thus that error proceeds. Illusions
+    originating in accident, or chance, do not thus resist a long study,
+    and do not pass unmasked through a long series of experiments that
+    justify them more and more.
+
+    The reading of numbers in others' minds, and the balance of forces,
+    merit special consideration.
+
+    When all the operators but one are ignorant of the number to be
+    materialized by raps, the operation (unless it is fluidic) ought to
+    proceed either from the person who knows the number and furnishes at
+    once the movement and the arrest, or else it ought to proceed from a
+    relation instinctively established between that person who furnishes
+    the arrest and his vis-à-vis who furnishes the movement. Let us
+    examine both hypotheses.
+
+    The first is untenable; for, in the case where some one chooses a leg
+    of the table upon which the operator who knows the number can exercise
+    no muscular action, the leg thus designated none the less rises at his
+    command.
+
+    The second is untenable; for, in the case where some one indicates a
+    zero, the movement which ought to take place does not do so. Nay more.
+    If you place at loggerheads two persons placed on opposite sides of
+    the table and enjoin each to make a different number triumph, the more
+    powerful operator secures the execution of the chief number although
+    his vis-à-vis is interested not only in not furnishing it to him, but
+    in arresting it.
+
+    I know that this matter of the divining of numbers thought of is in
+    bad odor. It lacks a certain pedantic and scientific form. Yet I have
+    not hesitated to insist on it; for there are few experiments in which
+    is better manifested the _mixed character_ of the
+    phenomenon,--physical power developed and applied outside of ourselves
+    by the effect of our will. Just because it forms the great offense, or
+    stumbling block, I am unwilling to be shame-faced about it. I
+    maintain, besides that this is just as scientific as anything else.
+    True science is not tied to the employment of such and such a process
+    or such and such an instrument. That which a fluidometer would show
+    would be no less scientifically demonstrated than what is seen with
+    the eyes and estimated by the reason.
+
+    Let us go on, however. We have not yet reached the end of our proofs.
+    One of these has always especially struck me: I mean the proof derived
+    from failures.
+
+    It is claimed that the movements are produced by the action of our
+    muscles, by involuntary pressure. Now here are the same operators who
+    yesterday secured from the table the fulfilment of their most
+    capricious desires; their muscles are as strong, their vivacity is as
+    great, their desire to succeed is perhaps keener--and yet nothing!
+    absolutely nothing! A whole hour will pass without the least rotation
+    beginning; or, if there are rotations, levitations are impossible to
+    procure; what little is done by the table is done feebly, dismally,
+    and as if reluctantly. I repeat it again, the muscles have not
+    changed; then why this sudden incapacity? The cause remaining
+    identically the same, whence comes it that the effect varies to such a
+    degree?
+
+    "Ah!" says an objector, "you are talking of involuntary pressure, and
+    say nothing about voluntary pressure, of fraud, in short. Don't you
+    see that the cheaters may be present at one sitting and not appear at
+    another, that they may act one day and not give themselves the trouble
+    on the next?"
+
+    I will reply very simply, and by facts.
+
+    "The cheaters are absent when we do not succeed!" But it has happened
+    many a time that our personnel has not been changed in any way. The
+    same persons, absolutely the same, have passed from a state of
+    remarkable power to a state of comparative impotence. And that is not
+    all. If there exists no operator whose presence has preserved us from
+    failures, no more does any exist whose absence has rendered us
+    incapable of success. With and without each one of the members of the
+    chain we have succeeded in performing all the experiments,--all
+    without exception.
+
+    But 'the cheaters do not take so much pains every day!' The pains
+    would be great indeed, and those who infer fraud little think what
+    prodigies they are invoking. The accusation is an absurdity which
+    verges on silliness, and its silliness removes its sting. One does not
+    take offense at things like that. But come now, let us suppose for the
+    moment that Valleyres were peopled with disciples of Bosco, that
+    prestidigitation were generally practised there, and that it had been
+    thrust under our very eyes for five months, and under the eyes of
+    numerous and very suspicious witnesses without a single case of
+    perfidy having been pointed out. We have so well concealed our game
+    that we have invented a secret telegraphic code for the experiment of
+    reading numbers, a particular turn of the finger for moving the most
+    enormous masses, a method of gradually lifting tables that we do not
+    seem to touch. We are all liars, all; for we have been mutually
+    watching each other for a long time now, and do not denounce anybody.
+    Nay, more, the contagion of our vices is so swift to take that, as
+    soon as we admit a stranger, a hostile witness, into the chain, he
+    becomes our accomplice; he voluntarily closes his eyes to the
+    transmission of signals, to muscular efforts, to the repeated and
+    prolonged suspicious actions of his next neighbors in the chain! Well
+    and good; suppose we grant all that, we shall not have got farther
+    along for that. It will still remain to be explained why our cheaters
+    sometimes do nothing at the very moment when it would be to their
+    interest to succeed. It has happened, indeed, that a certain sitting
+    at which we had many witnesses and a great desire to convince turned
+    out to be a mediocre one. Such and such another, under the same
+    conditions, was, on the contrary, a brilliant success.
+
+    There you have real and important inequalities, and they dare to talk
+    to us of muscular action and of fraud.
+
+    Fraud and muscular action! Here for instance is a fine opportunity to
+    put them to the proof. We have just placed a weight on the table. This
+    weight is inert and cannot be accessory to any device. Fraud is all
+    around it perhaps, but it is not in the tubs of sand. This weight is
+    equally divided among the three legs of the table, and they are going
+    to prove it by each one rising in turn. The total load weighs 165
+    pounds, and we scarcely dare to increase it, for, as it is, it was
+    enough, one day, to break our very solid table. Very well; now let
+    someone try to move this weight. Since muscular action and fraud must
+    explain everything, it will be easy for them to put the mass in
+    motion. Now they cannot do it. Their fingers contract and the knuckles
+    whiten without their obtaining a single levitation, whereas, some
+    moments later, levitations will take place at the touch of the same
+    fingers, which gently graze the table's top and make no effort at all,
+    as any one may easily convince himself.
+
+    Certain very ingenious scientific rules of measurement, for the
+    invention of which I cannot claim the credit, put us in the way of
+    translating into figures the effort which the rotation or levitation
+    of the table demands, when loaded in the way just described. With the
+    above-mentioned weight of 165 pounds, rotation is secured by means of
+    a lateral traction of about 17-1/2 pounds, while levitation is only
+    obtained by a perpendicular pressure of 132 pounds at least (which I
+    will reduce, however, to 110, in deference to the presumed wishes of
+    the critic, and on the supposition that the pressure might not be
+    absolutely vertical). Several deductions are to be drawn from these
+    figures.
+
+    In the first place, muscular action may cause the table to turn, but
+    it cannot lift it. As a matter of fact, the ten operators have one
+    hundred fingers applied to its surface. Now, the vertical, or
+    quasi-vertical, pressure of each finger cannot exceed twelve ounces on
+    the average, the chain being composed as it is. They only develop,
+    then, a total pressure of 66 pounds, which is quite insufficient to
+    produce levitation.
+
+    In the next place, this striking thing befalls, that the phenomenon
+    which muscular action could easily produce is precisely the one that
+    we most rarely and with the greatest difficulty obtain, and that the
+    phenomenon which muscular action could not compass is the one the most
+    habitually realized when the chain is formed. Why does not our
+    involuntary impulse always make the table turn? Why should not our
+    "fraud" always procure such a triumph? Why, as a general thing, do we
+    only succeed in effecting that which is mechanically impossible?
+
+    I advise people who like to make fun of table-turnings not to
+    investigate them too closely, and to beware of giving too careful
+    attention to our supreme demonstration,--that of movements without
+    contact, for it will leave them not the slightest pretext for
+    incredulity.
+
+    Thus the fact is established. Multiplied experiments, diverse and
+    irrefutable proofs, which are, moreover, joined in the closest
+    solidarity, give to the fluidic action the stamp of complete
+    certainty. Those who have had the patience to follow me thus far will
+    have felt their suspicions vanishing one after another, and their
+    faith in the new phenomenon more and more strengthened. They will have
+    made good what we ourselves have substantiated and made good; for no
+    one has opposed more difficulties to table-turning than have we, no
+    one has shown himself more inquisitorial and exacting respecting them.
+
+    It is not our fault if the results have been conclusive (and more and
+    more so), nor ours the blame if they have reciprocally confirmed each
+    other, if they have ended by forming one body and taking on the
+    character of perfect evidence. To study, to compare, to repeat and
+    repeat again, and to finally exclude all that admits of doubt or
+    question--this was our duty. Nor have we failed to perform it. I make
+    no affirmations in these reports which I have not proved over and over
+    again.
+
+Such are the memorable experiments of the Count de Gasparin. Their worth
+will be appreciated by all who read them. I have been anxious to reproduce
+these careful reports; for they establish of themselves _the absolute and
+undeniable reality of these movements that contradict the normal law of
+gravitation_. Let us hear the Count's explanatory hypotheses.
+
+    The reader will have noticed the care I have taken to confine myself
+    to the verification of the facts, without hazarding any explanatory
+    hypothesis. If I have employed the word "fluid," it was to avoid
+    circumlocutions. Strict scientific precision would have demanded that
+    I always write "the fluid, the force, or physical agent whatever it
+    may be." I shall be pardoned for having been a little less exact than
+    this in my language. It was enough that my thought was perfectly
+    clear. That we have to do with a fluid, properly so called, in the
+    phenomena of table turning and lifting I cannot absolutely affirm. I
+    affirm that there is an agent, and that this agent _is not
+    supernatural_, that it is _physical_, imparting to physical objects
+    the movements which our will determines.
+
+    Our will, I have said. And this is in fact the fundamental idea we
+    have gathered out of this subject of a physical agent. It is this
+    which characterizes it, and it is this also which compromises it in
+    the eyes of a good many folks. They might, perhaps, be resigned to a
+    new agent, if it were the necessary and exclusive product of the hands
+    forming the chain, if only it were true that certain positions or
+    certain acts insured its manifestation. But this is not the case with
+    it: the mental and the physical must combine in order to give it
+    birth. Here are hands that tire themselves out in forming the chain,
+    and yet obtain no movement: the will has not been mingled in the act.
+    Here is a will that commands in vain: the hands have not been placed
+    in a suitable position.
+
+    We have thrown light upon both these sides of the phenomenon, for they
+    are both essential.
+
+    Another fact has been noted by us, and ought to enter into a
+    description of the physical agent in question: this agent inheres in
+    the persons and not in the table. Let the operators, when they are in
+    rapport, pass to a new table and encircle it: they will be able
+    immediately to exercise all their authority over it; their will will
+    continue to dispose of the physical agent and to make use of it for
+    rapping numbers mentally selected by persons present or for producing
+    movements without contact.
+
+    Such are the facts. The explanation of them will come later. It is,
+    however, very natural to want to find this at once, and to make
+    hypotheses which may be regarded as possible, if not true. I have
+    taken the risk of doing this, and I do not repent of it. Was it not
+    imperative to prove to our opponents that they have not even the
+    pretext of "a scientific impossibility"? Hypotheses have their
+    legitimate place and their utility, even if they are incorrect. If
+    they are admissible in themselves, that is sufficient, for that
+    defends the facts to which they are applied from the accusation of
+    monstrosity. The critic has no longer the right to demand the previous
+    question.
+
+    Seeing that it was asked for on all sides, I have risked the following
+    statement:
+
+    You assert that our pretensions are false, for the simple reason that
+    they _cannot be_ true! Very well. But, at all events, allow me to lay
+    before you certain postulates. Suppose, in the first place, that you
+    do not know everything, that the moral and even the material nature of
+    man have obscurities which you have not been able to remove. Suppose
+    that the smallest blade of grass springing up in the field, that the
+    smallest grain reproducing its kind, that the finger of your hand in
+    the act of executing the order you give it, enclose mysteries that
+    surpass the powers of the learned doctors to fathom, and which they
+    would declare absurd if they were not compelled to recognize them as
+    real. Then, in the second place, suppose that certain men who will so
+    to do, and whose hands are joined one to another in a certain way,
+    give birth to a fluid or to a special kind of force. I do not ask you
+    to admit that such force exists; you will only agree with me that it
+    is possible. There is no natural law opposed to it that I know of.
+
+    Now, let us take one more step. The will disposes of this fluid. It
+    gives an impulse to external objects only when we will it, and in
+    quarters selected by us. Would there be anything impossible in this?
+    Is it an unheard-of thing that we transmit movement to matter that is
+    outside of ourselves? Why, we do so every day, and every instant; our
+    mechanical action is nothing more or less than this. The horrible
+    thing in your eyes doubtless is that we do not act mechanically! But
+    there is something besides mechanical action in this world. There are
+    physical causes of movement that are something else than this. The
+    caloric that penetrates a living body produces dilatation there; that
+    is to say, universal movement. The loadstone placed in the
+    neighborhood of a piece of iron attracts it, and makes it leap across
+    the intervening space.
+
+    "Yes," some one will exclaim, "we should make no objection, provided
+    your pretended fluid did not obey one special direction in its
+    progress. If it went straight on, as a blind force, well and good! It
+    would then be like the caloric, that dilates everything it meets in
+    its passage. It would be like the magnet which attracts
+    indiscriminately toward a fixed point all the particles of iron in its
+    vicinity. As for you, your invention of the theory of a rotative fluid
+    calls vividly to mind the explanation of the dormitive properties of
+    opium."
+
+    It is impossible to more completely misunderstand things. No one
+    dreams of a "rotative fluid." All we maintain is, that, when the fluid
+    is emitted and imparts either repulsion or lateral attraction to a
+    piece of furniture resting on legs, a very simple mechanical law
+    transforms the lateral action into rotation.
+
+    I do not say, "The tables turn because my fluid is rotative." I say,
+    "The tables turn, because, when they receive an impelling force or
+    undergo an attraction, they cannot help turning." Stated in this way,
+    it is a little less naïve. Consequently, I should be under no
+    obligation to undertake the cause of the poor university scholar of
+    the _Malade Imaginaire_, and defend his famous reply: "_Opium facit
+    dormire quia est in eo virtus dormitiva_" ("opium puts people to sleep
+    because it has the sleep-producing virtue or property"). Nevertheless,
+    I can't help it, out it must come: I find the reply an excellent one.
+    I doubt whether the savants have found a better one to this day, and I
+    advise them to resign themselves sometimes to the following kind of
+    reasoning: "Opium puts us to sleep because it puts us to sleep; things
+    are because they are." In other words, I see the facts and do not know
+    the causes. I do not know. "I do not know!" terrible words, which one
+    finds difficulty in pronouncing! Now, I suspect very strongly that the
+    sly roguishness of Molière is for the benefit of the doctors, who
+    pretend to know everything, invent explanations which do not explain,
+    and do not know how to accept the facts while waiting for more light.
+
+    But there is more to come. The hypothesis of the fluid (a pure
+    hypothesis, remember) must still prove that it is a hypothesis
+    reconcilable with the different circumstances of the phenomenon. The
+    table does not merely turn: it lifts its legs up, it raps numbers
+    mentally indicated to it; in a word, it obeys the will, and obeys it
+    so well that the removal of contact does not terminate its obedience.
+    The impelling force or lateral attraction which account for rotations
+    cannot account for levitations.
+
+    But why? Because the will directs the fluid now into one leg of the
+    table, now into another. Because the table identifies itself with us,
+    after a fashion, becomes a limb of our own body, and produces
+    movements thought of by us in the same manner as our arm produces
+    them. Because we have no conscious knowledge of the direction imparted
+    to the fluid, and govern the movements of the table without imagining
+    that any kind of fluid or force whatever is in action.
+
+    In all our acts, in all without exception, we have no consciousness of
+    the direction imparted by our will. When you explain to me how I lift
+    my hand, I will explain to you how I make the table-leg rise from the
+    floor. I "willed to raise my hand." Yes, and I also willed to lift
+    this table-leg. As for the executing of the mandates of the will, the
+    putting into play of the muscles required to lift the hand, or of the
+    fluid-power required to lift the table-leg, I have no knowledge of
+    what passes in me apropos of this. Strange mystery, and one which
+    ought to inspire in us a little modesty! There is in me an executive
+    power, a power of such a nature that, when I have willed such or such
+    an act, it addresses detailed orders to the different muscles and sets
+    in motion a hundred complicated movements to bring about a final
+    result which has been merely thought of, merely willed. That miracle
+    goes on within me, and I understand it not at all, and never shall
+    understand it. Do you not agree that the same executive power can give
+    to the fluid the directions it gives to the muscles? I have willed to
+    play a sonata on the piano, and, unknown to me, something within me
+    has given orders to hundreds of thousands of muscular acts. I have
+    willed that the leg of this table should be lifted up, and, unknown to
+    me, something within me has directed the attractions and impulsions of
+    the fluid to the designated place.
+
+    The hypothesis of a fluid is, then, defensible. It accords with the
+    nature of things and with the nature of man. I have no wish to go
+    farther and furnish at once a definitive explanation. But I am not
+    worrying. Let the facts once be admitted, and explanations will not
+    be wanting. What seems impossible now will seem very simple then.
+    About incontestable things no trouble is made. We are so constituted
+    that, after we have asserted the impossibility of everything we do not
+    comprehend, we declare comprehensible all that we have recognized as
+    real. People are everywhere to be met with who shrug their shoulders
+    when you speak to them of table-turnings and who make nothing of the
+    Puck-like performance of the electric current in putting the girdle of
+    its circuit around the earth in the fraction of a moment, and who find
+    the miracle of the transmission of the mental and moral qualities of
+    the fathers to the children a very simple thing to understand! The
+    tables of the psychic experimenter cannot escape the common lot. Their
+    phenomena, absurd to-day, are to-morrow self-evident.
+
+These experiments of Count de Gasparin and his associates have been known
+for over half a century, and it is really incomprehensible that even the
+fact of the levitation of tables and of their movements has continued to
+be denied. Verily, if the tables are sometimes light, it must be confessed
+that the human race is a little heavy.
+
+As to the theory, the hypothesis of the fluid,--_felix qui potuit rerum
+cognoscere causas_ (Happy the man who can know the cause of things)--I
+shall return to this matter in the chapter on explanatory theories. But it
+is incontestable that, in such experiences, we act by means of an
+invisible force emanating from us. One must be blind not to admit that.
+
+After a series of experiments so admirably conducted we can understand
+that the author might well be allowed to indulge in a little derision of
+obstinately prejudiced unbelievers. In closing this chapter, I cannot
+forego the pleasure of citing Count de Gasparin apropos of the learned
+negations of Babinet and his emulators of the Institute.
+
+    The savants are not the only ones to stand on their dignity. I also
+    stand on mine, and I make bold to think that a certificate signed with
+    my name would not be rated by anybody as a piece of imposture or
+    frivolity. It is known that I am in the habit of weighing my words; it
+    is known that I love the truth, and that I will not sacrifice it on
+    any consideration; it is known that I prefer to admit an error rather
+    than persist in it; and when, after a long-continued inquiry, I
+    persist with a firmer and profounder conviction than ever, the import
+    or scope of the declaration I make is not to be misapprehended.
+
+    I can tell you, in the next place, that the testimony of the eyes has,
+    in my opinion, a scientific value. Independently of instruments and
+    figures, on which I set the highest values, I believe that the true
+    _seeing_ of things may serve. I believe that this also is of itself an
+    instrument. If a sufficient number of good pairs of eyes have
+    ascertained and proved, ten, twenty, a hundred times, that a table is
+    put in motion without contact; if, furthermore, the explanation of the
+    fact by fraudulent or involuntary contacts passes the limits which
+    must be assigned to incredulity, the conclusion is clear. Nobody is
+    warranted in crying out: "You have neither fluidometer nor alembic;
+    you do not give a specimen of your physical agent in a bottle; you do
+    not describe how it acts upon a column of mercury or upon the dip of a
+    needle. We don't believe you, for you have done nothing but see."
+
+    "I do not believe you because you have done nothing but see!" "I do
+    not believe you because I have not seen with my own eyes!" So many
+    pedants, so many objections. They hardly take the trouble to agree
+    among themselves; in a war waged against the tables any weapon is
+    fair, nothing comes amiss.
+
+    I do not wish to forget that scientists were still talking only of
+    rotations at the moment when Faraday invented his disks.[54] In the
+    presence of a phenomenon so inadequate, and, let us admit it, so
+    suspicious, we can understand how the savants showed themselves
+    sceptical and contented themselves with flimsy refutations. They
+    proportioned the number and size of their weapons to the appearance of
+    the enemy. The one among them who showed the most penetration, and who
+    proposed the most plausible explanation, is most assuredly Chevreul.
+    His theory of the tendency to movement is incontestably true. It
+    explains how the objects we suspend from our finger finally take a
+    vibratory movement in the direction indicated by our will. I am not
+    astonished that some have thought this theory sufficient to explain
+    how experimenters can, in the end, impart a rotation to the table and
+    participate in the movement themselves. I need not say that our proved
+    levitations of weights, and our movements without contact, will not
+    henceforth permit anyone to take refuge in such an explanation. If all
+    the tendencies to movement were united into one they would not be able
+    to produce at a distance an impelling power, nor move a mass that
+    mechanical action could not set in motion.
+
+    Really, the learned doctors ought not to throw out to the public these
+    explanations which do not explain. They ought rather to get to work
+    and show us, in fact, how to set about the lifting directly and
+    mechanically of a weight of 220 pounds without applying to the task a
+    force of 220 pounds.
+
+    But they prefer to use insulting expressions, and then proceed to
+    invent some theory or other which has only one little fault--that it
+    has no legs to walk with. The recent article of M. Babinet in the
+    _Revue des Deux Mondes_ is a masterpiece in its way. If I needed to be
+    convinced of the reality of the phenomena of table-turning, etc., I
+    should most assuredly have been convinced by the reading of this
+    refutation of it.
+
+    In the opinion of M. Babinet, the phenomena of the tables offer no
+    difficulty whatever! Happy science of physics, happy science of
+    mechanics which has an answer ready for everything! We poor, ignorant
+    fellows thought we had detected something extraordinary, and did not
+    know we were merely obeying two extremely elementary laws,--the law of
+    unconscious movements, and, above all, that of nascent movements,
+    movements the power of which seems to surpass that of developed
+    movements.
+
+    As far as regards unconscious movements, M. Babinet adds nothing to
+    previous explanations--nothing but the story of that lord (an English
+    lord, he says) whose horse was so admirably trained that it seemed as
+    if it were only necessary for one to think the movement one wished to
+    have him execute, and he instantly realized it. I am thoroughly
+    convinced, as is M. Babinet, that the aforesaid lord gave an impulse
+    to the bridle without suspecting it, and I am just as thoroughly
+    convinced that the experimenters whose hands are touching a table may
+    exert a pressure of which they are not conscious. Only--I think there
+    should be some proportion between the cause and the effect. Suppose
+    the movements are unconscious: they are none the less vigorous for all
+    that. The burden is upon M. Babinet and his followers, to prove that
+    the very same fingers that in vain clench themselves till they are
+    stiff in the endeavor to lift a weight of eighty-eight pounds, will
+    lift double this weight by simply being unconscious that they are
+    making any effort.
+
+    My honorable and learned opponent will not hear of movements obtained
+    without contact. "Everything that has been said about action exercised
+    at a distance ought to be banished to the realm of fiction." The
+    judgment is curt and summary. Movements without contact are a
+    fiction,--first because they are impossible; secondly because powdered
+    soapstone has hindered the rotation of a table; and, finally, because
+    perpetual movement is impossible.
+
+    Movements at a distance are impossible! To be strictly logical, M.
+    Babinet ought to have stopped there, remembering the reply made by
+    Henry IV to the magistrates who had thus begun an address to him:
+
+    "We did not give a salute of cannon on the approach of Your Majesty,
+    and that for three good reasons. In the first place, because we had no
+    cannon--"
+
+    "That reason is sufficient," said the king.
+
+    We are fain to believe that M. Babinet himself has little doubt about
+    his "impossibility." He has acted wisely in doing so; for this
+    impossibility is based entirely on a vicious circle of reasoning. "Is
+    there a single known example of movement produced without a force
+    acting from the outside? No. Well, movement at a distance would very
+    plainly take place by an active external force. Therefore movement at
+    a distance is impossible." I feel very much disposed to say to M.
+    Babinet, in the technical language of the schools, that his major
+    premise is true and that his conclusion would be legitimate if his
+    minor were not purely and simply a begging of the question. You claim
+    that there is no active force exterior to the table which lifts it
+    without the touch of the hands. But that is precisely the point at
+    issue between us. A fluid is an external active force. It is handy for
+    my critic, indeed, to begin by establishing this axiom. Now (he says),
+    there is no fluid, or analogous physical agent, in the case of the
+    tables; _therefore_ there is no effect produced.
+
+    The learned gentlemen, Faraday, Babinet, and others, do not limit
+    themselves to objections derived from nascent or unconscious
+    movements, small causes producing great effects. They have still
+    another method of proceeding. If an experiment has succeeded it has no
+    longer any value. Oh, if one could succeed in performing such another
+    experiment, well and good! But this would not hinder the new
+    experiment from becoming insignificant in its turn and giving place to
+    a new desideratum. The phrasing runs somewhat in this way:
+
+    "You are doing such and such a thing. Very well; but now let us see
+    you do a different thing. You are employing such or such a method; be
+    pleased to be contented with those which we prescribe you. To succeed
+    in your way is not enough; you must succeed in ours. Your way is not
+    scientific; it runs contrary to the traditions. We shut the door in
+    the face of facts if they do not come in the regulation claw-hammer
+    coat of full dress. We shall pay no attention to your experiments if
+    our experimental apparatus does not figure in them."
+
+    Strange way of verifying and establishing the results of experiments!
+    You begin by changing the conditions under which they are produced.
+    You might as well say to the man who has seen the harvesting of barley
+    in Upper Egypt in January, "I will believe it when I see it done
+    before my eyes in Bourgogne." One can understand, of course, how an
+    unreasonable and troublesome fastidiousness might be shown regarding
+    travellers' tales. But scientific experiments are of another
+    character. In the presence of facts so evident, it is almost
+    incredible that they wish to impose upon us instruments, needles, and
+    mechanical devices. The idea of introducing _becauses_ and
+    _therefores_ into an investigation in which the real nature of the
+    acting force is a mystery to all the world!
+
+    Polemical essays are not scientific studies. In general, they are the
+    direct opposite. When persons who have seen nothing, who have not
+    devoted any considerable portion of their energy and time to
+    experimentation, who have perhaps been present only at some ridiculous
+    rotations of centre-tables, take their pen in hand for the purpose of
+    exposing theories or giving lofty reprimands to experimenters, I do
+    not look at them in the light of scientific students.
+
+    I am convinced that a man never really studies that which he declares
+    _a priori_ to have no sense in it. If attacks are studies, there is no
+    lack of them, and (I may add) never will be. At the time when the
+    Academy of Medicine buried the report of M. Husson and published what
+    everybody in Europe persisted in calling a refusal to examine, there
+    was issued every morning a paper against magnetism; every morning some
+    new writer vociferated that the partisans of magnetism were imbeciles,
+    and proposed an explanatory system of his own. If you call that making
+    a study, then I grant that they have studied table-turnings, for there
+    certainly has been no dearth of insults and of theories about these
+    phenomena. They have received every attention, except that no one was
+    willing to inspect, experiment, listen, and read.
+
+    Twice, a month apart, the Institute has announced (without protest
+    from anybody whatever) to the students of table-turnings that it was
+    shelving papers relating to that topic; that it was not obliged to
+    occupy itself with nonsense; that there was a place in its archives
+    for lucubrations of that kind; namely, the place to which were
+    consigned papers on perpetual motion.
+
+    Oh, Molière! why are you not present with us? But, in reality, you are
+    here. Your genius has limned with ineffaceable lines that everlasting
+    disease of venerable big-wigs and mouldy specialists,--disdain of the
+    laity, respect for their fellow-members, idolatry of the past. A most
+    singular deformity, this! And it appears in all ages, in various
+    disguises, in the midst of all branches of human activity, now in the
+    name of religion, now in that of medicine, and again in the name of
+    science or of art. Yes, even surviving the wreck of revolutions which
+    spare nothing, appearing even within the walls of learned academies
+    the members of which write for the furtherance of the great movements
+    of modern progress, one thing remains,--the spirit of partisanship, of
+    cliques, the spirit of tradition, the superstitious regard for forms.
+
+    Really, it would seem as if people must be still taking Bible oaths
+    like those in the baccalaureate ceremony at the end of Molière's
+    _Malade Imaginaire_. M. Foucault is fond of this scene, and will
+    therefore not take it ill if I recall to his mind a couple of stanzas:
+
+            _Essere in omnibus
+              Consultationibus
+            Ancieni aviso,
+              Aut bono,
+            Aut mauvaiso._
+              --JURO!
+
+            _De non jamais te servire
+              De remediis alcunis
+      Quam de ceux soulement doctæ facultatis,
+              Maladus dut-il crevare,
+              Et mori de suo malo._
+              --JURO![55]
+
+    If you don't call that a refusal to examine, I don't know what the
+    words mean in good French.
+
+With such ingenious candor and with such authority did the Count Agénor de
+Gasparin express himself in the year 1854. It seems to me that the
+experiments made known in this volume furnish abundant evidence that he is
+right.
+
+Yet I have still friends, at the Institute, who smile with the utmost
+scorn when I ask their opinion on the phenomena of the levitation of
+tables, the movement of objects without perceptible cause, unexplained
+noises in haunted houses, communication of thought at a distance,
+premonitory dreams, and apparitions of the dying. Although these
+unexplained phenomena have undeniably been proved to be facts of
+occurrence, those learned friends of mine remain convinced that "such
+things as that are impossible."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE RESEARCHES OF PROFESSOR THURY
+
+
+The insufficient explanations of Chevreul and of Faraday, the scientific
+negations of Babinet, the conscientious experiments of the Count de
+Gasparin had led several scientists to study the question from the purely
+scientific point of view. Among them was a highly-gifted savant whom I
+visited at Geneva,--M. Marc Thury, professor of natural history and of
+astronomy in the Academy of that city. We are indebted to him for a
+remarkable and little known monograph,[56] which it is my duty to condense
+for this volume.
+
+    When we were in the presence of new phenomena (writes Thury) there was
+    only one alternative:
+
+    First, either to reject, in the name of common sense and of the
+    results acquired by science, all the pretended phenomena of tables as
+    so many childish sports unworthy of taking up the time of the true
+    scientist or scholar, since, on the very face of it, their absurdity
+    is evident; in short, to let the matter drop by refusing to give it
+    serious attention.
+
+    Or, second, to make a determined examination of it at whatever cost,
+    to study the fact in its details in order to lay fully open all the
+    sources of illusion by which the public is duped, separate the true
+    from the false, and throw a strong light on all aspects of the
+    phenomenon, physical, physiological, and psychological, in order that
+    the matter may be so superabundantly clear and evident that no further
+    excuse for doubt may remain.
+
+Superfluous to say, the last method is the one adopted by Thury (as it was
+by Gasparin). He considers it to be the only suitable, efficient, and
+legitimate method.
+
+Darkness saps the strength of science. Its strongest hold lies in bringing
+everything out into the full light of day. Here, then, lies the question:
+In these curious phenomena of the tables, is the explanation so clear that
+you can lay a finger on the causes of illusion and clearly show that there
+is in them no new and unknown element at work?
+
+    I do not think (replies the Genevan professor) that we have attained
+    to that degree of evidence. I wish only one proof, the explanation of
+    what has already been attempted.
+
+    If, then, it is well established that the common explanation is not
+    self-evident, in the eyes of all intelligent and sensible men, there
+    remains a task to do, a duty owed to science,--that of throwing full
+    light upon the phenomenon in question; and this task cannot be
+    exchanged for the easier one of treating with irony or disdain those
+    who have gone astray in the path that Science refused to illuminate.
+
+The savants are, however, excusable for not going too quick (let us admit
+with Thury).
+
+What! a perturbative force lurking, by the hypothesis, in the human
+organism sufficiently powerful to lift tables, and which yet had never
+produced the slightest derangement in the thousands of experiments that
+physicists are daily making in their laboratories! Their balances,
+responsive to the weight of a tenth of a milligram, their pendulums whose
+oscillations take place with mathematical regularity, had never felt the
+slightest disturbing effect of these forces, whose source is there present
+wherever there is a man and a volition! Now, it is the ardent wish of the
+physicist that the experiment shall always exactly tally the forecasts of
+theory. Must he then admit an unknown disturbing force?
+
+And, even without going outside of the limits of the human organism,
+think, if the organism is unable to move the smallest part of itself when
+the part is deprived of muscles and nerves, or, when a single hair of our
+head is absolutely withdrawn from the influence of the will--think, I say,
+how much less (and with how much stronger reason) that nervous organism of
+ours would seem to be able to move inert bodies residing outside the
+limits of our own frames!
+
+But, if there is a profound improbability in the thing, still, we cannot
+say that it is impossible. No one can show _a priori_ the impossibility of
+the phenomena described, as they demonstrate the impossibility of
+perpetual motion or the squaring of the circle. Consequently, no one has
+the right to treat as absurd the evidences which tend to confirm the
+experiments. Provided these evidences are furnished by judicious and
+truthful men, then they are worth the trouble of examination. If this
+logical course had been followed--the only true and equitable one,--the
+work would now have been done, and the learned men would have the glory
+thereof.
+
+Thury begins by examining the experiments of Count de Gasparin at
+Valleyres.
+
+    The experiments of Valleyres (he writes) tend to establish the two
+    following principles:
+
+    1. The will, in a certain condition of the human organism, can act,
+    from a distance, upon inert bodies, and by an agency different from
+    that of muscular action.
+
+    2. Under the same conditions, thought can be communicated directly,
+    though unconsciously, from one individual to another.
+
+    As long as we were ignorant of any other facts than those resulting
+    from a movement effected by contact with the fingers of the hand, in a
+    way in which the mechanical action of the fingers became possible, the
+    results of the experiments upon the table were always of difficult and
+    doubtful interpretation. These results had to be necessarily based
+    upon an estimate of the mechanical force exerted by the hands
+    compared with the strength of the resistance to be overcome. But the
+    mechanical force of the hands is difficult to measure exactly, under
+    the conditions necessary to produce the phenomena.
+
+    Yet over and above that plan of work there remained two methods, of
+    operation to employ.
+
+    _a._ So to dispose the apparatus employed that the movement to be
+    produced shall be one that the mechanical action of the fingers could
+    not compass.
+
+    _b._ To set up movements at a distance without any kind of contact.
+
+    The following were our first experiments:
+
+    A. _Mechanical action rendered impossible._ The first experiment
+    attempted along this line gave wholly negative results. We suspended a
+    table by a cord that passed over two pulleys fixed in the ceiling and
+    had a counter-weight attached to the free end. It was easy, by
+    regulating this counterpoise, to balance in the air either the total
+    weight of the table or only a fraction, more or less great, thereof.
+
+    As a matter of fact, the table hung almost in equilibrium with the
+    weight, one only of its three legs touching the floor. The operators
+    placed their hands upon the top surface. We acted at first in a
+    circular direction, a disposition of the force the efficacy of which
+    had been established by previous experiments. We then tried in vain to
+    lift the table by detaching it from the floor. No positive result was
+    obtained.
+
+    We had already (during the previous year) had a table suspended to a
+    dynamometer, and the efforts of four mesmerizers were powerless to
+    relieve the dynamometer of an appreciable fraction of the weight of
+    the table.
+
+    But the conditions necessary for the production of the phenomena were
+    still unknown to us, and, consequently, when the experiments tried led
+    to negative results, we had to try others, without pressing too
+    hastily for inferences and conclusions. It was thus that we secured
+    the results which I am going to describe.
+
+    _Experiment with the Swinging Table._--We needed a piece of apparatus
+    of such a kind that the mechanical action of the fingers would be
+    rendered impossible. For this purpose we had a table made with a top
+    about 33 inches in diameter, and a central trifurcated leg
+    underneath. This table bore a close resemblance to the one which had
+    served our purposes up to that time, and could turn like its
+    predecessor. Still, the new table was capable of being transformed in
+    a moment into a mechanism such as I shall now describe.
+
+    The summit of the tripod becomes the fulcrum of a lever of the first
+    order which is able to balance freely in a vertical plane. This lever,
+    whose two arms are equal to each other and to the radius of the table
+    bears at one of its extremities the table-top, held by the edge, and,
+    toward the other extremity, a counterpoise which just balances the
+    weight of the table, but which can be modified at will. To the under
+    side of the table-top is fastened a leg resting on the floor.
+
+    After the necessary preliminary rotations, the table is harnessed up
+    in its second form. Equilibrium is first secured, then 3-5 of a pound
+    is taken from the counterpoise. The force required to lift the top by
+    its centre is then 4 ounces, and previous experiments have proved that
+    the adherence of the fingers of the operators (the top was polished,
+    and not varnished), together with the possible effects of elasticity,
+    form a total lower than that figure. Yet the top is lifted by the
+    action of the fingers placed lightly on its upper surface, at a
+    certain distance from the edge. Then the counterpoise is diminished;
+    the mechanical difficulty of lifting is augmented, yet still it takes
+    place. The weight is again diminished, and more and more, up to the
+    limit of the apparatus. The force necessary to lift the top is then 8
+    1-5 pounds, and the counterpoise has been relieved of 24 pounds; yet
+    the levitation is easily accomplished. The number of the operators is
+    gradually lessened from eleven to six. The difficulty goes on
+    increasing, yet six operators still suffice; but five are not enough.
+    Six operators lift 9 1-3 pounds,--an average for each man of about
+    1-1/2 pounds.
+
+    We now possess, in the apparatus just described, a gauge or instrument
+    of measurement.
+
+    B. The following movements were produced without contact:
+
+    The table on which were made the trials I witnessed has a diameter of
+    32 inches and weighs 31 pounds. An average tangential force of 4 2-5
+    pounds, which may be raised to 6 3-5 pounds, according to the greater
+    or less inequalities of the floor, applied to the edge of the table,
+    is necessary to give to it a movement of rotation. Ten is usually the
+    number of persons who operate about this table.
+
+    In order to assure ourselves of the absence of all contact, we placed
+    our eye on a level with the table in such a way as to see light
+    between our fingers and the surface of the table, the fingers
+    themselves remaining a little less than an inch above the top.
+    Usually, two persons would be observing at once. For instance, M.
+    Edmond Boissier was observing the legs of the table, while I was
+    watching the top. Then we exchanged rôles. Sometimes two persons took
+    places at the extremities of one and the same diameter, the one
+    opposite the other, for the purpose of watching the top of the table.
+    Several times we saw it move, although we could not detect the
+    slightest touch by the fingers. According to my calculations, it would
+    require the contact of at least 100 fingers, or the light pressure of
+    thirty, acting voluntarily and fraudulently, to explain in terms of
+    mechanics the movements we observed.
+
+    Much more frequently still we obtained balancings without contact,
+    balancings which sometimes went so far as to tip the table entirely
+    over. To explain in terms of mechanical movement the effects we
+    observed, we should have to admit the involuntary contact of 84
+    fingers, or the light pressure of 25, or two hands acting with intent
+    to deceive. But these suppositions, also, are not at all admissible.
+
+    Nevertheless, we always felt that someone might present the objection
+    that it was difficult to observe these operations with precision, and
+    we were constantly urging M. Gasparin to convince the doubters and
+    sceptics in the matter of the non-contact of the fingers by means of
+    some mechanical device. Out of this arose the last experiment made at
+    that time, and the most conclusive of all. A light film of flour was
+    almost instantaneously spread over the table by means of a sulphur
+    bellows such as is used in vineyards. The movement of the chain of
+    hands above the table set it whirling. Then the film of flour was
+    examined and found to be inviolate from the touch of hands. Several
+    repetitions on different days always gave the same results.
+
+Such are the principal facts which establish the reality of the
+phenomenon. Thury next takes up the more difficult investigation of
+courses.
+
+    _The Seat of the Force._--It is possible that the force which produces
+    the phenomena is a general telluric force which is merely transmitted
+    by the operators or set in action by them; or, possibly, the force
+    resides in the operators themselves.
+
+    To decide this question, we had a large movable platform constructed
+    which revolved on a perfectly vertical axis. Near the outer periphery
+    of the platform stood four chairs, and there was a table at the
+    centre. Four operators, experts in nervo-magnetic action, took their
+    places on the chairs, and, placing their hands on the table in the
+    centre, tried to give it circular movement by non-mechanical power. In
+    fact, the table soon began to move. Then it was stopped and fastened
+    to the platform by means of three screws. The effort exerted upon this
+    table by the four magnetizers was such that, at the end of
+    three-quarters of an hour of experimentation, the central supporting
+    leg, was broken. Yet the movable platform did not turn. The tangential
+    force required to mechanically move the empty platform was only a few
+    grams; loaded with the four operators, 250 grams was necessary,
+    applied about 28 inches from the centre. This figure would have been
+    much less if it had been possible to distribute the weight of the
+    operators uniformly.
+
+    The result of this experiment (of June 4, 1853) showed that the force
+    which tends to make the table turn is in the individuals and not in
+    the ground. For the force exerted upon the table tends to draw along
+    the platform with it. If, then, the platform remains motionless, it
+    must be that an equal and contrary force is exerted by the operators.
+    It is therefore in them that the base of the seat of the force
+    resides. If, on the contrary, this force had emanated, wholly or in
+    large part, from the ground, if it had been a force directly telluric,
+    the platform would have turned, the effort which the table exerted
+    upon it being no longer counterbalanced by an equal reaction
+    proceeding from the individuals.
+
+    _Conditions of the Production and Action of the Force._--I have said
+    that the conditions for the production of the force are little known.
+    In the absence of precise laws, I shall present what has been verified
+    in a greater or less degree in the case of the three following points:
+
+    _a._ Conditions of action relative to the operators.
+
+    _b._ Conditions relative to the objects to be moved.
+
+    _c._ Conditions relative to the mode of action of the operators upon
+    the objects to be moved.
+
+    THE WILL. The first and the most indispensable condition, according to
+    M. Gasparin, is the will of the operator. "Without the will," he says,
+    "we obtain nothing; we might sit there in chain twenty-four hours in
+    succession without getting the slightest movement." Farther on, the
+    author speaks, it is true, of unexpected movements different from
+    those which the will prescribes; but it is evident that he is
+    referring to a necessary combination of prescribed movements and
+    external resistances, the effective movements being the _resultant_ of
+    those that have been willed and of forces of resistance developed in
+    external objects. In short, the will is always the prime mover and
+    originator.
+
+    Nothing, it is true, in the experiments at Valleyres gave any
+    authority for believing that it could be otherwise than this. But it
+    is also certain that this purely negative result, or provisional
+    generalization, deduced from a limited number of experiments,--cannot
+    invalidate the results of experiments inconsistent with those, in case
+    such should exist. In other words, the will may ordinarily be
+    necessary, without always being so. Similarly, contact is ordinarily
+    necessary, and _always_ has been so with a large number of operators,
+    without, however, giving them the right to conclude that contact is
+    the indispensable condition of the phenomenon, and that the different
+    results obtained at Valleyres were only illusions or error.
+
+    Since we are dealing here with a point of capital importance, I shall
+    take the liberty of stating with some detail circumstances which seem
+    opposed to the thesis maintained by M. Gasparin. These facts, or data,
+    have as guarantee the testimony of a man whom I should like to be able
+    to name, because his scientific culture and his character are known of
+    all men. It was in his house and under his eyes that the events took
+    place which I am going to relate.
+
+    At the time when everyone was amusing himself with making tables turn
+    and speak, or in directing the motions of lead-pencils, fixed in
+    movable sockets, over sheets of paper, the children of the house
+    amused themselves several times with this sport. At first, the
+    responses obtained were such that you could see in them a reflex of
+    the unconscious thought of the operators, a "dream of waking
+    performers." Soon, however, the character of the replies seemed to
+    change. It seemed as if what they revealed could hardly have emanated
+    from the mind of the young interrogators. Finally, there was such an
+    opposition to the commands given that M. N., uncertain as to the true
+    nature of these manifestations in which a will different from the
+    human will _seemed_ to appear, forbade their being called forth again.
+    From that time forth, sockets and table rested undisturbed.
+
+    A week had scarcely rolled by, after the events just narrated, when a
+    child of the family, he who had formerly succeeded best in the table
+    experiments, became the actor, or the instrument, in strange
+    phenomena. The boy was receiving a piano-lesson, when a low noise
+    sounded in the instrument, and it was shaken and displaced in such a
+    way that pupil and teacher closed it in haste and left the room. On
+    the next day, M. N., who had been informed of what had happened, was
+    present at the lesson, given at the same time,--namely, when the dusk
+    was coming on. At the end of five or ten minutes he heard a noise in
+    the piano difficult to define, but which was certainly the kind of
+    sound one would expect a musical instrument to produce. There was
+    something about it musical and metallic. Soon after, the two front
+    legs of the piano (which weighed over six hundred and sixty pounds)
+    were lifted up a little from the floor. M. N. went to one end of the
+    instrument and tried to lift it. At one time it had its ordinary
+    weight, which was more than the strength of M. N. could manage; at
+    another, it seemed as if it had no longer any weight at all, and
+    opposed not the least resistance to his efforts. Since the interior
+    noises were becoming more and more violent, the lesson was brought to
+    a close, for fear the instrument might suffer some damage. The lesson
+    was changed to the morning and given in another room situated on the
+    ground floor. The same phenomena took place, and the piano, which was
+    lighter than the one up-stairs, was lifted up much more; that is to
+    say, to a height of several inches. M. N. and a young man nineteen
+    years old tried leaning with all their might on the corners of the
+    piano which were rising. Then one of two things happened: either their
+    resistance was in vain, and the piano continued to rise, or else the
+    music-stool on which the child sat moved rapidly back as if pushed or
+    jerked.
+
+    If occurrences like that had only taken place once we might think that
+    the child or the persons present were laboring under some illusion.
+    But they were repeated a great number of times, for a fortnight, in
+    the presence of different witnesses. Then, one day, a violent
+    manifestation took place, and thenceforth no unusual event occurred in
+    the house. At first, it was in the morning and in the evening that
+    these perturbations manifested themselves; then, invariably at any and
+    all hours, they occurred every time the child took his seat at the
+    piano, after five or ten minutes of playing. The phenomena happened
+    only with this boy, although there were others present (musicians);
+    and it made no difference which of the pianos in the house he used.
+
+    I saw these instruments. The smaller, on the ground floor, is a
+    rectangular horizontal piano. According to my calculations, a force of
+    about 165 pounds applied to the edge of the case, beneath the
+    key-board, is necessary to lift this piano as it was lifted by the
+    unknown force. The instrument in the first story of the house is a
+    heavy Erard piano, weighing, with the packing-box in which it was
+    sent, 812 pounds, as stated in the way-bill, which I myself saw.
+    According to my approximate calculations a pressure of 440 pounds is
+    required to lift this piano, under the same conditions as the first
+    was lifted.
+
+    I do not think that anyone will be tempted to attribute to the direct
+    muscular effort of a child eleven years old the lifting up a weight of
+    440 pounds.[57] A lady who had attributed the effect produced to the
+    action of the knees passed her own hand between the edge of the piano
+    and the knees of the child, and was thus able to convince herself that
+    her explanation had no foundation in fact. Even when the child got
+    upon his knees upon the piano-stool to play, he did not find that the
+    perturbations he dreaded ceased any the more.
+
+These authenticated facts of Professor Thury are at once precise and
+formidable. What! two pianos rise from the floor and jump about! What do
+the physicists, the chemists, the learned pedants in office need, then, to
+arouse them from their torpor and make them shake their ears and open
+their eyes? What shall be done to remove their noble and pharisaical
+indolence?
+
+But, happen what may, no one is occupying himself with the fascinating
+problem as stated, except scattered investigators who are freed from the
+fear of ridicule and are aware of the exact value of the human race, in
+large and small, and the worth of its judgments.
+
+M. Thury next discusses the explanation based on "the will."
+
+    Did this boy (he says) _will_ what took place, as the theory of M. de
+    Gasparin would require us to admit? According to the boy's testimony,
+    which we believe to be wholly true, he did not will it; he seemed to
+    be visibly annoyed by what occurred; it disturbed his custom of
+    industriously practicing his lesson and offended his taste for
+    regularity and order, a thing well known to his intimates. My personal
+    conviction is that we positively cannot admit, in the case of this
+    lad, a conscious will, a settled design, to produce these strange
+    occurrences. But it is known that sometimes we have a double
+    personality, and one of them converses with the other (as in dreams);
+    that our nature then unconsciously desires what it does not will, and
+    that between will and desire there is only a difference in degree
+    rather than in kind. It would be necessary to have recourse to
+    explanations of this kind,--too subtle, perhaps,--in order to square
+    these piano-facts with the theory of M. Gasparin; and it would still
+    be necessary to modify and enlarge the facts if you admit that _even
+    unconscious desire_ suffices, in the absence of the expressed will.
+    There is, then, reason for doubt on this essential point. That is the
+    sole deduction that I wish to draw from the events I have related.
+
+This levitation, equivalent to an effort exerted of 440 pounds, has its
+scientific value. But how could the will, conscious or unconscious, lift a
+piece of furniture of that weight? By an unknown force which we are
+obliged to recognize.
+
+    _Preliminary Action._--Power is developed by action. The rotations
+    prepare for the tippings and the levitations. The rotations and the
+    tippings, with contact, seem to develop the force necessary to produce
+    the rotations and tippings without contact. In their turn, the
+    rotations and the tippings without contact prepare for the production
+    of true levitations, such as those of the swinging table; and the
+    persons who have this latent force awaked in them are better fitted to
+    appeal to it a second time.
+
+    There is, then, a gradual preparation required, at least for the
+    majority of operators. Does this preparation consist in a modification
+    that takes place in the operator, or in the inert body on which he
+    acts, or in both? In order to resolve this problem, experimenters who
+    had been practicing at one table went over to another, operating on
+    which they found their full power unabated. The preparation therefore
+    consists in a modification that takes place in the individuals, and
+    not in the inert body.[58] This modification occurring in individuals
+    is dissipated rather rapidly, especially when the chain of
+    experimenters is broken.
+
+    _Inner Development of the Operators._--It is only after a certain
+    period of waiting that the operators, who have not so far acted, cause
+    even the easiest movement,--that of rotation with contact. It is
+    during this time that the force, or the conditions determining the
+    manifestation of the force, develop themselves. From that time on, the
+    developed force has nothing to do but to increase. That which takes
+    place, therefore, in this time of waiting, is a very important thing
+    to be considered. We already know that it is the operators themselves
+    who are modified. But what is it that takes place within them?
+
+    It must be that a kind of activity is set up in the organism, an
+    activity which ordinarily requires the intervention of the will. This
+    activity, this work, is accompanied by a certain fatigue. The action
+    is not aroused in all operators with equal ease and promptness. There
+    are even persons (the author estimates their number at one in ten) in
+    whom it appears that it cannot be produced at all.
+
+    In the midst of this great diversity of natural aptitudes, it is
+    observed that children "can secure obedience from the table just like
+    grown folks." Nevertheless, children do not magnetize. Thus, although
+    several facts seem to show that magnetizers (or mesmerizers) have
+    frequently a strong power over the tables, yet one cannot admit the
+    identity of magnetic power and power over the tables; the one is not
+    the measure of the other. Only, the magnetic power would constitute
+    (or presume) a favorable subjective condition.
+
+    A will simple and strong, animation, high spirits, the concentration
+    of the thought upon the work to do, good bodily health, perhaps the
+    very physical act of turning around the table, and, finally,
+    everything that can contribute to unity of will-power among the
+    experimenters,--all these things help to make efficacious the commands
+    addressed to the table with force and authority.
+
+    The tables (says M. de Gasparin) "wish to be handled gaily, freely,
+    with animation and confidence; they must be humored at the start with
+    amusing and easy exercises." The first condition necessary for success
+    with the table is good health and the second, confidence.
+
+    Among unfavorable circumstances, on the other hand, must be reckoned a
+    state of nervous tension; fatigue; a too passionate interest; a mind
+    anxious, preoccupied or distracted.
+
+    The tables--M. de Gasparin further says, in his metaphorical
+    language--"detest folks who quarrel, either as their opponents or as
+    their friends." "As soon as I took too deep an interest, I ceased to
+    command obedience." "If it happened that I desired success too
+    ardently, and showed impatience at delay, I no longer had any power of
+    action on the table." "If the tables encounter preoccupied minds or
+    nervous excitement, they go into a sulking mood." "If you are touchy,
+    over-anxious ... you can't do anything of any value." "In the midst of
+    distractions, chatterings, pleasantries, the operators infallibly lose
+    all their power." Away with salon experiments!
+
+    Must one have faith? It is not necessary; but confidence in the result
+    predisposes to a larger endowment of power in the séance of the
+    occasion. It does not suffice to have faith there are persons who have
+    faith and good will, yet with whom power of action is altogether
+    wanting.
+
+    Muscular force or nervous susceptibility do not seem to play any rôle.
+
+    Meteorological conditions have seemed to exercise some influence,
+    probably by acting upon the physique and the spirits of the operators.
+    Thus fine weather, dry and warm weather (but not a suffocating heat)
+    act favorably.
+
+    The especially efficacious influence of dry heat upon the surface of
+    the table[59] will perhaps receive a different explanation.
+
+    _Unconscious Muscular Action, produced during an especially Nervous
+    Condition._--So long as only movements with contact were known, in
+    which the movement observed was one of those which muscular action
+    might produce, explanations based on the hypothesis of unconscious
+    muscular action were certainly sufficient and much more probable than
+    all the other explanations which had been up to that time proposed.
+
+    From this point of view (entirely physiological) it is settled that we
+    must distinguish between the effort which a muscle exerts and the
+    consciousness we have of this effort. It will be remembered that there
+    exist in the human organism a great number of muscles that habitually
+    exert considerable effort without our being in the slightest degree
+    aware of it. It has been pointed out that muscles exist whose
+    contractions are perceptible by us in a certain state of the system
+    and unperceived in another state. It is therefore conceivable that the
+    muscles of our limbs might as an exceptional thing, exhibit the same
+    phenomenon. The preparation for the movement of the table, the special
+    kind of reaction that takes place at this interval of waiting, put the
+    nervous system into a particular condition in which certain muscular
+    movements may take place in an unconscious manner.
+
+    But, evidently, this theory is not sufficient to account for movements
+    without contact, nor those that take place in such a way that muscular
+    action could not produce them. It is therefore these two classes of
+    movements which must serve as the basis of new experiments and as the
+    foundation of a new theory.
+
+    How also explain the very peculiar and truly inconceivable character
+    of the movements of the table?--this starting to move, so insensible,
+    so gentle, so different from the abruptness characteristic of the
+    impetus given by mechanical force; these levitations so spontaneous,
+    so energetic, which leap up to meet the hands; these dances and
+    imitations of music which you would in vain attempt to equal by means
+    of the combined and voluntary action of the operators; these little
+    raps succeeding the loud ones, when the command is given, the
+    exquisite delicacy of which nothing can express. Several times when
+    someone asked a so-called spirit his age, one of the legs of the
+    centre-table lifted up and rapped 1, 2, 3, etc. Then the movement was
+    accelerated. Finally, the three legs beat a kind of drum-roll so rapid
+    that it was impossible to count, and which the most skilful could
+    never succeed in imitating. On another occasion, under the contact of
+    hands, the table was turning upon three legs, upon two, upon a single
+    one; and, in this last position, changed feet, throwing its weight
+    first upon one and then upon another with great ease, and with nothing
+    abrupt or jerky in its motions. Neither the experimenters nor their
+    most eminent opponents would ever be able to imitate mechanically this
+    dance of the table, and, above all, the whirling pirouettes and
+    changes of feet.
+
+    _Electricity._--Many have tried to explain the movements of tables by
+    electricity. Even supposing that they involve the very abundant
+    production of this agent, no known effect of electricity would account
+    for the movement of the tables. But, in fact, it is easy to show that
+    there is no electricity produced; for, when a galvanometer was
+    interposed in the chain, no deviation of the needle took place. The
+    electrometer remains as indifferent to the solicitations of the tables
+    as does the mariner's compass.
+
+    _Nervo-magnetism._--There is certainly some analogy between several
+    phenomena of nervo-magnetism and those of the tables. Those passes
+    which seem to favor balancing without contact; the motion imparted by
+    the chain to this man whom they cause to turn about (unless, indeed,
+    there is in this some effect of the imagination); finally, the power
+    that many mesmerizers exert over the tables--all this seems to
+    indicate a kinship between the two orders of phenomena. But, since the
+    laws of nervo-magnetism are little known, there is no conclusion to be
+    drawn from this, and it seems to me preferable, for the present, to
+    study separately the phenomena of tables, which are better adapted to
+    the experiments of the physicist, and which, well studied, will render
+    more service to nervo-magnetism than it could receive in a long time
+    from this obscure branch of physiology.
+
+Thury next touches upon M. de Gasparin's theory of fluidic action. Being
+certain that he accurately understands this theory, he gives a résumé of
+it in the following items:
+
+    1. A fluid is produced by the brain, and flows along the nerves.
+
+    2. This fluid can go beyond the limits of the body; it can be
+    _emitted_.
+
+    3. Under the influence of the will, it can move hither and thither.
+
+    4. This fluid acts upon inert bodies; yet it shuns contact with
+    certain substances, such as glass.
+
+    5. It lifts the parts toward which it moves, or in which it
+    accumulates.
+
+    6. It further acts upon inert bodies by attraction or by repulsion,
+    with a tendency to either join or separate the inert body and the
+    organism.
+
+    7. It can also determine interior movements in matter, and give rise
+    to noises.
+
+    8. This fluid is especially produced and developed by turning, and by
+    the will, and by the joining of hands in a certain manner.
+
+    9. It is communicated from one person to another by vicinage or by
+    contact. Yet certain persons impede its communication.
+
+    10. We have no knowledge of special movements of the fluid, which are
+    determined by the will.
+
+    11. This fluid is probably identical with the nervous fluid and with
+    the nervo-magnetic fluid.
+
+    _Application._--Rotation is a resultant of the action of the fluid and
+    of the resistances of the wood.
+
+    Tipping results from the accumulation of the fluid in the leg of the
+    table which is lifted.
+
+    The glass placed in the middle of the table stops the movement because
+    it drives away the fluid.
+
+    The glass placed on one side of the table makes the opposite side rise
+    because the fluid, fleeing from the glass, accumulates there.
+
+Thury does not attempt the discussion of this theory. But we may repeat
+with Gasparin, "When you shall have explained to me how I lift my hand, I
+will explain to you how I cause the leg of the table to rise."
+
+The whole problem lies in that,--the action of mind on matter. We must not
+dream that we can give a final solution of it at the present time. To
+reduce the new facts to conformity with the old ones; that is to say, to
+relate the action of mind upon inert bodies outside of us to the action of
+mind upon the matter in our bodies--such is the only problem which the
+science of to-day can reasonably propose to itself. Thury states it in
+general terms as follows:
+
+    _General Question of the Action of Mind upon Matter._--We shall seek
+    to formulate the results of experiment up to the point where
+    experiment abandons us. From there on we shall study all the
+    alternatives offered to our mind, as simple possibilities, some of
+    which will give place to hypotheses explanatory of the new phenomena.
+
+    _First principle: In the ordinary state of the body, the will acts
+    directly only in the sphere of the organism._--Matter belonging to the
+    external world is modified _on contact with the organism_, and the
+    modifications which it undergoes gradually produce others by
+    contiguity. It is thus that we can act upon objects at a distance from
+    us. Our action at a distance upon all that surrounds us is _mediate_
+    and not immediate. We believe that this is true of the action of all
+    physical forces, such as gravity, heat, electricity. Their effect is
+    gradually communicated, and thus alone they put distance behind them
+    and come into relation with man as a sentient being.
+
+    _Second principle: In the organism itself there is a series of mediate
+    acts._--Thus the will does not act directly upon the bones which
+    receive the movement of the muscles; nor does the will modify any more
+    directly the muscles, since, when deprived of nerves, they are
+    incapable of movement. Does the will act directly upon the nerves? It
+    is a mooted question whether it modifies them directly or indirectly.
+    Thus the substance upon which the soul immediately acts is still
+    undetermined. The substance may be solid, may be fluid; it may be a
+    substance still unknown, or perhaps a particular state of known
+    substances. In order to avoid a circumlocution, let me give it a name.
+    I shall call it the _psychode_ ([Greek: psychê], soul, and [Greek:
+    odos], way).
+
+    _Third principle: The substance upon which the mind immediately
+    acts--the psychode--is only susceptible of very simple modifications
+    under the influence of the mind_, for, since the movements are to be
+    somewhat varied, an extensive and complicated apparatus appears in the
+    organism,--a whole system of muscles, vessels, nerves, etc., which are
+    wanting in the inferior animals (among whom movements are very
+    simple), and which would have been unnecessary had matter been
+    directly susceptible of modifications equally varied under the
+    influence of mind. When movements are intended to be very simple (as
+    in the case of infusoria) the complicated apparatus is wanting and the
+    life-spirit acts upon matter that is almost homogeneous.
+
+    The following four hypotheses regarding the psychode may be formed:
+
+    _a._ The psychode is a substance peculiar to the organism, and not
+    capable of emerging from it. It acts only mediately upon everything
+    outside of the visible organism.
+
+    _b._ The psychode is a substance peculiar to the organism, capable of
+    extending beyond the limits of the visible organism under certain
+    special conditions. The modifications it receives necessarily act upon
+    other inert bodies. The will acts upon the psychode, and thus
+    mediately, upon the bodies that the sphere of this substance embraces.
+
+    _c._ The psychode is a universal substance which is conditioned in its
+    action on other inert bodies by the structure of living organisms, or
+    by a certain state of inorganic bodies--a state determined by the
+    influence of living organisms in certain special conditions.
+
+    _d._ The psychode is a peculiar state of matter, a state habitually
+    produced within the sphere of the organism, but which may also be
+    produced beyond its limits under the influence of a certain state of
+    the organism,--an influence comparable to that of magnets in the
+    phenomena of diamagnetism.
+
+Thury proposes the adjective _ecteneic_ (from [Greek: ekteneia],
+extension) to describe that special state of the organism in which the
+mind can, in some measure, extend the habitual limits of its action, and
+he styles "ecteneic force" that which is developed in this state.
+
+    The first hypothesis (he adds) would not be at all adapted to explain
+    the phenomena with which we are concerned. But the three others give
+    rise to three different explanations, in which (he assures us) the
+    greater part of the phenomena investigated will be comprised.
+
+    _Explanations based upon the Intervention of Spirits._--M. de Gasparin
+    has shown the error of all these explanations:
+
+    1. By theological considerations.
+
+    2. By the very just remark that we should not resort to explanations
+    which introduce spirits into the problem until other interpretations
+    have been proved to be entirely insufficient.
+
+    3. Finally, by physical considerations.
+
+    Looking at the question here solely from the general physical point of
+    view, I do not follow M. de Gasparin (says Thury) in his exploitation
+    of theological explanations. As to the second, I will only call
+    attention to the suggestion that the sufficiency of explanations
+    purely physical should strictly apply only to the Valleyres
+    experiments, where, in truth, nothing gives evidence of the
+    intervention of wills other than the human will.
+
+    The question of the intervention of spirits might be decided from the
+    tenor or content of the revelations, in any case in which this content
+    would be such as evidently could not have originated in the human
+    mind. It is not my intention to discuss this point. The present study
+    takes cognizance solely of movements of inert bodies, and we have only
+    to consider, among the arguments of M. de Gasparin, those which are
+    included in this field of view.
+
+    Now, his arguments on this point seem to me to be all summed up in
+    these slightly ironical lines: "Strange spirits! ... whose presence or
+    absence could depend upon a rotation, depend upon cold or warmth, or
+    health or disease, on high spirits or lassitude, on an unskilful
+    company of unconscious magicians! I have the headache or the grip,
+    therefore the daemonic beings will not be able to appear to-day."
+
+    M. de Mirville, who believes in spirits who manifest themselves
+    through the agency of the fluid, might reply to Gasparin that the
+    conditions of the ostensible manifestation of spirits are perhaps the
+    fluidic state itself; that if this is so, we might very well, in a
+    séance phenomenon, have a fluidic manifestation without the
+    intervention of spirits, but not the intervention of spirits without a
+    preliminary fluidic manifestation, and that, thus, anyone will invite
+    such manifestation only at his own risk and peril.
+
+Thury next discusses how the question of spirits ought to be considered.
+
+    The task of science (he writes) is to bear witness to the truth. It
+    cannot do so if it borrows a part of its data from revelation or from
+    tradition; to do this would be a begging of the question, and the
+    testimony of science would become worthless.
+
+    The facts of the natural order are connected with two categories of
+    forces, the one that of _necessity_, the other that of _freedom_. To
+    the first belong the general forces of gravitation, heat, light,
+    electricity, and the vegetative force. It is possible that we may
+    discover others some day; but at present they are the only ones we
+    know. To the second category belong solely the mind of animals and
+    that of man. These are truly _forces_, since they are the cause of
+    _movements_ and of various phenomena in the physical world.
+
+    Experience instructs us that these mental forces manifest themselves
+    by the intermediary of special organisms, very complex in the case of
+    man and the superior animals, but simple in that of the lowest, among
+    which latter class mind has no need of muscles and nerves in order to
+    manifest itself externally, but seems to act directly upon a
+    homogeneous matter, the movements of which it determines (the amoeba
+    of Ehrenberg). It is in these elementary organizations that the
+    problem of the action of mind on matter is stated, after a fashion, in
+    its simplest terms.
+
+    When once we have admitted the existence of the will as distinct, at
+    least in principle, from the material body, it becomes solely a
+    question of experience to ascertain whether other wills than that of
+    man and the animals play any rôle whatever, frequent or occasional, on
+    the stage of life. If these wills exist, they will have some means or
+    other of manifestation, with which _experience alone_ can make us
+    acquainted. As a matter of fact, all that it is possible to affirm, _a
+    priori_, is that, in order to appear, they _must_ manifest themselves
+    through some one of the forms of the eternal substance we call matter.
+    But, to say that this matter must necessarily have an organization of
+    muscles, nerves, etc., would be to hold to a very narrow idea, and one
+    already belied by observation of the animal kingdom in its lower
+    types. As long as we do not know what the bond is that unites the mind
+    to the matter in which it manifests itself, it would be perfectly
+    illogical to lay down, _a priori_, particular conditions which matter
+    must observe in this manifestation. These conditions are at present
+    wholly undetermined. Thus we are at liberty to seek for signs of these
+    manifestations in the cosmic ether or in ponderable matter; in the
+    gases, the liquids, or the solids; in unorganized matter, or
+    particularly in matter already organized, such as that of which man
+    and the animals are built up. It would be poor logic to affirm that
+    other wills than those of men and animals cannot be discovered, on the
+    ground that, heretofore, nothing of the kind has been seen; for facts
+    of this kind may have been observed, but not scientifically elucidated
+    and authenticated. Furthermore these wills might appear only at long
+    intervals, or what seem long to us; but the vast abysses of nature's
+    epochs are not to be spanned by our little memories or measured by the
+    momentary duration of our lives.
+
+Such are the facts and the ideas set forth in this conscientious monograph
+of Professor Thury. It is easily seen that, in his opinion (1) the
+phenomena are positive facts; (2) that they are produced by an unknown
+substance, to which he gives the name _psychode_, a something that, by the
+hypothesis, exists in us and serves as the intermediary between the mind
+and the body, between the will and the organs, and can project itself
+beyond the limits of the body; (3) that the hypothesis of spirits is not
+absurd, and that there may exist in this world other wills than those of
+man and the animals, wills capable of acting on matter.
+
+Professor Marc Thury died in 1905, having devoted his entire life to the
+study of the exact sciences. His specialty was astronomy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE EXPERIMENTS OF THE DIALECTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON
+
+
+A well-known association of scholars and scientists, the Dialectical
+Society of London, founded in 1867 under the presidency of Sir John
+Lubbock, resolved, in the year 1869, to include within the sphere of its
+observations, the physical phenomena which it is the object of this volume
+to study. After a series of experiments the society published a report, to
+which it added the attestations, upon the same subject, of a certain
+number of scientists, among whom I had the honor of being included.[60]
+This report was translated into French by Dr. Dusart and published[61] in
+the series of psychic works so happily planned and directed by Count de
+Rochas. To give a true idea here of the results reached by this society I
+cannot do better than cite the salient and essential portions of this
+purely scientific memoir.
+
+Two or three paragraphs from the beginning of the report will show how and
+at what time the society first took up psycho-physical studies:
+
+    At a Meeting of the London Dialectical Society, held on Wednesday, the
+    6th of January, 1869, Mr. J. H. Levy in the chair, it was resolved:--
+
+    "That the Council be requested to appoint a Committee in conformity
+    with Bye-law VII., to investigate the Phenomena alleged to be
+    Spiritual Manifestations, and to report thereon."
+
+This committee was formed on January 26 following. It was composed of
+twenty-seven members. Among these we note Alfred Russel Wallace, the
+learned naturalist and member of the Royal Society, of London. Professor
+Huxley and George Henry Lewis were asked to collaborate with the
+committee. They refused. Professor Huxley's letter is too characteristic
+to be omitted:
+
+    Sir,--I regret that I am unable to accept the invitation of the
+    Council of the Dialectical Society to co-operate with a Committee for
+    the investigation of "Spiritualism;" and for two reasons. In the first
+    place, I have no time for such an inquiry, which would involve much
+    trouble and (unless it were unlike all inquiries of that kind I have
+    known) much annoyance. In the second place, I take no interest in the
+    subject. The only case of "Spiritualism" I have had the opportunity of
+    examining into for myself, was as gross an imposture as ever came
+    under my notice. But supposing the phenomena to be genuine--they do
+    not interest me. If any body would endow me with the faculty of
+    listening to the chatter of old women and curates in the nearest
+    cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having better things
+    to do.
+
+    And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk more wisely and
+    sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put them in the same
+    category.
+
+    The only good that I can see in a demonstration of the truth of
+    "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide.
+    Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by
+    a "medium" hired at a guinea a séance.
+
+    I am, sir, etc.,
+      T. H. HUXLEY.
+
+    29th January, 1869.
+
+As if opposing a direct negative and rebuke to this radical scepticism,
+based on a single séance of observation (!) the learned electrician,
+Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, in 1867, who did so much to forward and
+encourage the laying of the third (and finally successful) Atlantic cable
+between Europe and America, hastened to identify himself with the
+investigations, and by his aid materially furthered the progress of this
+scientific examination.
+
+The report, with its various pieces of testimony, was presented to the
+Dialectical Society on the 20th of July, 1870. But, in order not to
+compromise the society, it was decided not to publish it officially, under
+the ægis of the association. Consequently the committee unanimously
+resolved to publish the report on its own responsibility. It reads as
+follows:
+
+    Your Committee have held fifteen meetings, at which they received
+    evidence from thirty-three persons, who described phenomena which,
+    they stated, had occurred within their own personal experience.
+
+    Your Committee have received written statements relating to the
+    phenomena from thirty-one persons.
+
+    Your Committee invited the attendance and requested the co-operation
+    and advice of scientific men who had publicly expressed opinions,
+    favourable or adverse, to the genuineness of the phenomena.
+
+    Your Committee also specially invited the attendance of persons who
+    had publicly ascribed the phenomena to imposture or delusion.
+
+    As it appeared to your Committee to be of the greatest importance that
+    they should investigate the phenomena in question by personal
+    experiment and test, they resolved themselves into sub-committees as
+    the best means of doing so.
+
+    Six Sub-committees were accordingly formed.
+
+    These reports, hereto subjoined, substantially corroborate each other,
+    and would appear to establish the following propositions:--
+
+    1. That sounds of a varied character, apparently proceeding from
+    articles of furniture, the floor and walls of the room (the vibrations
+    accompanying which sounds are often distinctly perceptible to the
+    touch) occur, without being produced by muscular action or mechanical
+    contrivance.
+
+    2. That movements of heavy bodies take place without mechanical
+    contrivance of any kind or adequate exertion of muscular force by the
+    persons present, and frequently without contact or connection with any
+    person.
+
+    3. That these sounds and movements often occur at the times and in the
+    manner asked for by persons present, and, by means of a simple code of
+    signals, answer questions and spell out coherent communications.
+
+    4. That the answers and communications thus obtained are, for the most
+    part, of a commonplace character; but facts are sometimes correctly
+    given which are only known to one of the persons present.
+
+    5. That the circumstances under which the phenomena occur are
+    variable, the most prominent fact being that the presence of certain
+    persons seem necessary to their occurrence, and that of others
+    generally adverse. But this difference does not appear to depend upon
+    any belief or disbelief concerning the phenomena.
+
+    6. That, nevertheless, the occurrence of the phenomena is not insured
+    by the presence or absence of such persons respectively.
+
+    The oral and written evidence received by your Committee not only
+    testifies to phenomena of the same nature as those witnessed by the
+    sub-committees, but to others of a more varied and extraordinary
+    character.
+
+    This evidence may be briefly summarized as follows:--
+
+    1. Thirteen witnesses state that they have seen heavy bodies--in some
+    instances men--rise slowly in the air and remain there for some time
+    without visible or tangible support.
+
+    2. Fourteen witnesses testify to having seen hands or figures, not
+    appertaining to any human being, but life-like in appearance and
+    mobility, which they have sometimes touched or even grasped, and which
+    they are therefore convinced were not the result of imposture or
+    illusion.
+
+    3. Five witnesses state that they have been touched, by some invisible
+    agency, on various parts of the body, and often where requested, when
+    the hands of all present were visible.
+
+    4. Thirteen witnesses declare that they have heard musical pieces well
+    played upon instruments not manipulated by any ascertainable agency.
+
+    5. Five witnesses state that they have seen red-hot coals applied to
+    the hands or heads of several persons without producing pain or
+    scorching; and three witnesses state that they have had the same
+    experiment made upon themselves with the like immunity.
+
+    6. Eight witnesses state that they have received precise information
+    through rappings, writings, and in other ways, the accuracy of which
+    was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons present, and
+    which, on subsequent inquiry, was found to be correct.
+
+    7. One witness declares that he has received a precise and detailed
+    statement which, nevertheless, proved to be entirely erroneous.
+
+    8. Three witnesses state that they have been present when drawings,
+    both in pencil and colors, were produced in so short a time, and under
+    such conditions, as to render human agency impossible.
+
+    9. Six witnesses declare that they have received information of future
+    events, and that in some cases the hour and minute of their occurrence
+    have been accurately foretold, days and even weeks before.
+
+    In addition to the above, evidence has been given of trance-speaking,
+    of healing, of automatic writing, of the introduction of flowers and
+    fruits into closed rooms, of voices in the air, of visions in crystals
+    and glasses, and of the elongation of the human body.
+
+Some extracts from the reports will give my readers a better idea of these
+experiments and show their wholly scientific character:
+
+    All of these meetings were held at the private residences of members
+    of the Committee, purposely to preclude the possibility of prearranged
+    mechanism or contrivance.
+
+    The furniture of the room in which the experiments were conducted was
+    on every occasion its accustomed furniture.
+
+    The tables were in all cases heavy dining-tables, requiring a strong
+    effort to move them. The smallest of them was 5ft. 9in. long by 4ft.
+    wide, and the largest, 9ft. 3in. long and 4-1/2ft. wide, and of
+    proportionate weight.
+
+    The room, tables, and furniture generally were repeatedly subjected to
+    careful examination before, during, and after the experiments, to
+    ascertain that no concealed machinery, instrument or other
+    contrivances existed by means of which the sounds or movements
+    hereinafter mentioned could be caused.
+
+    The experiments were conducted in the light of gas, except on the few
+    occasions specially noted in the minutes.
+
+    Your Committee have avoided the employment of professional or paid
+    mediums, the mediumship being that of members of your Sub-committee,
+    persons of good social position and of unimpeachable integrity, having
+    no pecuniary object to serve, and nothing to gain by deception.
+
+    Of the members of your Sub-committee about _four-fifths_ entered upon
+    the investigation wholly sceptical as to the reality of the alleged
+    phenomena, firmly believing them to be the result either of
+    _imposture_ or of _delusion_, or of _involuntary muscular action_. It
+    was only by irresistible evidence, under conditions that precluded the
+    possibility of either of these solutions, and after trial and test
+    many times repeated, that the most sceptical of your Sub-committee
+    were slowly and reluctantly convinced that the phenomena exhibited in
+    the course of their protracted inquiry were veritable facts.
+
+    A description of one experiment, and the manner of conducting it, will
+    best show the care and caution with which your Committee have pursued
+    their investigations.
+
+    So long as there was contact, or even the possibility of contact, by
+    the hands or feet, or even by the clothes of any person in the room,
+    with the substance moved or sounded, there could be no perfect
+    assurance that the motions and sounds were not produced by the person
+    so in contact. The following experiment was therefore tried:
+
+    On an occasion when eleven members of your Sub-committee had been
+    sitting round one of the dining-tables above described for forty
+    minutes, and various motions and sounds had occurred, they, by way of
+    test, turned the backs of their chairs to the table, at about nine
+    inches from it. They all then knelt upon their chairs, placing their
+    arms upon the backs thereof. In this position, their feet were of
+    course turned away from the table, and by no possibility could be
+    placed under it or touch the floor. The hands of each person were
+    extended over the table at about four inches from the surface.
+    Contact, therefore, with any part of the table could not take place
+    without detection.
+
+    In less than a minute the table, untouched, moved _four_ times; at
+    first about _five_ inches to one side, then about _twelve_ inches to
+    the opposite side, and then, in like manner, four inches and six
+    inches respectively.
+
+    The hands of all present were next placed on the backs of their
+    chairs, and about a foot from the table, which again moved, as before,
+    _five_ times, over spaces varying from four to six inches. Then all
+    the chairs were removed twelve inches from the table, and each person
+    knelt on his chair as before, this time however folding his hands
+    behind his back, his body being thus about eighteen inches from the
+    table, and having the back of the chair between himself and the table.
+    The table again moved four times, in various directions. In the course
+    of this conclusive experiment, and in less than half-an-hour, the
+    table thus moved, without contact or possibility of contact with any
+    person present, thirteen times, the movements being in different
+    directions, and some of them according to the request of various
+    members of your Sub-committee.
+
+    The table was then carefully examined, turned upside down and taken to
+    pieces, but nothing was discovered to account for the phenomena. The
+    experiment was conducted throughout in the full light of gas above the
+    table.
+
+    Altogether, your Sub-committee have witnessed upwards of _fifty_
+    similar motions without contact on _eight_ different evenings, in the
+    houses of members of your Sub-committee, the most careful tests being
+    applied on each occasion.
+
+    In all similar experiments the possibility of mechanical or other
+    contrivance was further negatived by the fact that the movements were
+    in various directions, now to one side, then to the other; now up the
+    room, now down the room--motions that would have required the
+    co-operation of many hands or feet; and these, from the great size and
+    weight of the tables, could not have been so used without the visible
+    exercise of muscular force. Every hand and foot was plainly to be seen
+    and could not have been moved without instant detection.
+
+    The motions were witnessed simultaneously by all present. They were
+    matters of measurement, and not of opinion or fancy. And they occurred
+    so often, under so many and such various conditions, with such
+    safeguards against error or deception, and with such invariable
+    results, as to satisfy the members of your Sub-committee by whom the
+    experiments were tried, wholly sceptical as most of them were when
+    they entered upon the investigation, that _there is a force capable of
+    moving heavy bodies without material contact, and which force is in
+    some unknown manner dependent upon the presence of human beings_.
+
+Such was the first verdict of science upon Spiritualistic doings in
+England, a verdict rendered by physicists, chemists, astronomers and
+naturalists, several of them members of the London Royal Society. The
+investigations were under the especial care of Professor Morgan, president
+of the Mathematical Society, of London; of Varley, chief electrical
+engineer of the department of telegraphs, and Alfred Wallace, naturalist,
+etc. Several members of the Dialectical Society refused to join in the
+conclusions of the committee, and declared they ought to be verified by
+another scientist; for example, by the chemist, Crookes. This gentleman
+accepted the proposition, and in this way it was that he began his
+experiments, of which more anon.
+
+But, before presenting an account of the experiments of the eminent
+chemist, I should like to place before my readers the chief points settled
+by the Experimental Committee, of which I have just spoken.
+
+    SPECIAL OBSERVATIONS.
+
+    _March 9th._ Nine members present. Reunion at eight o'clock. The
+    following phenomena were produced: 1. The members of the circle
+    standing, rested the tips of their fingers only on the table. It made
+    a considerable movement. 2. Holding their hands a few inches above the
+    table, and no one in any way touching it, it moved a distance of more
+    than a foot. 3. To render the experiment absolutely conclusive, all
+    present stood clear away from the table, and stretching out their
+    hands over it without touching it, it again moved as before, and about
+    the same distance. During this time, one of the Committee was placed
+    upon the floor to look carefully beneath the table, while others were
+    placed outside to see that no person went near to the table. In this
+    position it was frequently moved, without possibility of contact by
+    any person present. 4. Whilst thus standing clear of the table, but
+    with the tips of their fingers resting upon it, all at the same moment
+    raised their hands at a given signal; and on several occasions the
+    table jumped from the floor to an elevation varying from half an inch
+    to an inch. 5. All held their hands close above the table, but not
+    touching it, and then on a word of command raised them suddenly, and
+    the table jumped as before. The member lying on the floor, and those
+    placed outside the circle, were keenly watching as before, and all
+    observed the phenomena as described.
+
+    _April 15th._ Eight members present. Sitting at 8 p. m. Within five
+    minutes tapping sounds were heard on the leaf of the table. Various
+    questions, as to order of sitting, etc., were put, and answered by
+    rappings. The alphabet was called for, and the word "laugh" was
+    spelled out. It was asked if it was intended that we should laugh. An
+    affirmative answer being given, the members laughed; upon which the
+    table made a most vigorous sound and motion imitative of and
+    responsive to the laughter, and so ludicrous as to cause a general
+    peal of real laughter, to which the table shook, and the rapping kept
+    time as an accompaniment. The following questions were then put and
+    answered by the number of raps given:--"How many children has Mrs.
+    M----?" "Four;" "Mrs. W----?" "Three;" "Mrs. D----?" No rap; "Mrs.
+    E----?" "Five;" "Mrs. S----?" "Two." It was ascertained, upon inquiry
+    that these replies were perfectly correct, except in the case of Mrs.
+    E----, who has only four children living, but has lost one. Neither
+    the medium nor any person present, was aware of all the above numbers,
+    but each number was known to some of them. The inquiry for a written
+    communication being responded to by three raps, some sheets of paper
+    with a pencil were laid under the table, and at the end of the sitting
+    examined, but no letter or mark was found on the paper. In order to
+    test whether these sounds would continue under different conditions,
+    all sat some distance from the table, holding hands in a circle round
+    it. But instead of upon the table as before, loud rappings were heard
+    to proceed from various parts of the floor, and from the chair on
+    which the medium sat; while some came from the other side of the room,
+    a distance of about fifteen feet from the nearest person. A desire
+    having been expressed for a shower of raps, loud rapping came from
+    every part of the table at once, producing an effect similar to that
+    of a shower of hail falling upon it. The sounds throughout the evening
+    were very sharp and distinct. It was observed that, although during
+    the conversation the rappings are sometimes of a singularly lively
+    character, yet when a question is put they cease instantly, and not
+    one is heard until the response is given.
+
+    _April 29th._ Nine members present. Medium and conditions as before.
+    In about a quarter of an hour the table made sundry movements along
+    the floor, with rappings. The sounds at first were very softly given,
+    but subsequently became much stronger. They beat time to the airs
+    played by a musical box, and came from any part of the table requested
+    by the members. Some questions were put and followed by raps, but more
+    frequently by tilting of the table at its sides, ends, or corners, the
+    elevation being from one to four inches. An endeavour was made by
+    those sitting near, to prevent the table from rising, but it resisted
+    all their efforts. The chair on which the medium was seated was drawn
+    several times over the floor. First it moved backward several feet;
+    then it gave several twists and turns, and finally returned with the
+    medium to nearly its original position. The chair had no casters, and
+    moved quite noiselessly, the medium appearing perfectly still and
+    holding her feet above the carpet; so that during the entire
+    phenomenon no part of her person or of her dress touched the floor.
+    There was bright gaslight, and the members had a clear opportunity to
+    observe all that occurred; and all agreed that imposture was
+    impossible. While this was going on, a rapping sound came continually
+    from the floor beneath and around the chair. It was then suggested
+    that trials should be made if the table would move without contact.
+    All present, including the medium stood quite clear of the table,
+    holding their hands from three to six inches above it, and without any
+    way of touching it. Observers were placed under it to see that it was
+    not touched there. The following were the observations:
+
+    1. The table repeatedly moved along the floor in different directions,
+    often taking that requested. Thus, in accordance with a desire
+    expressed that it should move from the front to the back room, it took
+    that direction, and, on approaching the folding doors and meeting with
+    an obstruction, turned as if to avoid it.
+
+    2. On a given signal all raised their hands suddenly, and the table
+    immediately sprang or jerked up from the floor about one inch.
+
+    Various members of the Committee volunteered by turns to keep watch
+    below the table, whilst others standing round them carefully noted
+    everything that took place; but no one could discover any visible
+    agency in their production.
+
+    _May 18th._ Music was played on the piano-forte, and one piece was
+    accompanied by tapping sounds from all parts of the table, and another
+    piece both by tapping sounds, vibrations, and slight vertical
+    movements of the table at its sides, ends, and corners. The sounds and
+    movements all kept time with the music. The same phenomena also
+    occurred when a song was sang. During the _séance_ the sounds were
+    very equally distributed, being seldom confined to one part of the
+    table.
+
+    _June 9th._ Eight members present. The most interesting fact this
+    evening was, that though the tapping sounds proceeded from different
+    parts of the table, but principally from that in front of the medium;
+    yet, when she went into the hall to receive a message, they still
+    continued to come from that part of the table.
+
+    The alphabet being repeated in accordance with the signal, "Queer
+    Pals" was spelt out. These words seemed to amuse and puzzle the
+    meeting. However, it was suggested they might apply to the Christy
+    Minstrels, whose nigger melodies, at St. George's Hall, were very
+    clearly heard through the open window of the back room. At this
+    suggestion the table gave three considerable tilts.
+
+    _June 17th._ The medium held a sheet of note paper at arm's length
+    over the table by one of its corners, and, at request, faint but
+    distinct taps were heard upon it. The other corners of the paper were
+    then held by members of the Committee, and the sounds were again heard
+    by all at the table; while those who held the paper felt the impact of
+    the invisible blows. One or more questions were answered in this way
+    by three clear and distinctly audible taps, which had a sound similar
+    in character to that produced by dropping water. This new and curious
+    phenomenon occurred close under the eyes of all present, without any
+    physical cause for it being detected.
+
+    _June 21st. Movement of harmonican without contact._ On the medium and
+    two other members holding their hands above the harmonican without in
+    any way touching it, it moved almost entirely round, by successive
+    jerks, on the table on which it was placed. The dining-table was
+    strongly moved a distance of six feet, the hands of the members
+    present resting lightly on it.
+
+    _Oct. 18th._ A cylinder of canvas, three feet in height, and about two
+    feet in diameter, was placed under a small table, the legs of which
+    were contained within it. Inside the cylinder was a bell, resting on
+    the floor. No sounds proceeded from the bell, but there were repeated
+    rappings upon and jerkings of the table. This cylinder precluded the
+    possibility of contact with the table by a foot of any of the persons
+    present, during the entire continuance of the knockings and jerkings
+    of the table.
+
+    _Dec. 14th. Sounds from table without contact._--All sat away from the
+    table, without in any manner touching it, and the sounds, although
+    somewhat fainter, continued to proceed from it.
+
+    _Dec. 28th. Movements without contact._--Question: "Would the table
+    now be moved without contact?" Answer: "Yes," by three raps on the
+    table.
+
+    All chairs were then turned with their backs to the table, and nine
+    inches away from it; and all present _knelt_ on the chairs, with their
+    wrists resting on the backs, and their hands a few inches above the
+    table.
+
+    Under these conditions, the table (the heavy dining-room table
+    previously described) moved four times, each time from four to six
+    inches, and the second time nearly twelve inches.
+
+    Then all hands were placed on the backs of the chairs, and nearly a
+    foot from the table, when four movements occurred, one slow and
+    continuous, for nearly a minute. Then all present placed their hands
+    behind their backs, kneeling erect on their chairs, which were removed
+    a foot clear away from the table; the gas also was turned up higher,
+    so as to give abundance of light, and under these test conditions,
+    distinct movements occurred, to the extent of several inches each
+    time, and visible to every one present.
+
+    The motions were in various directions, towards all parts of the
+    room--some were abrupt, others steady. At the same time, and under the
+    same conditions, distinct raps occurred, apparently both on the floor
+    and on the table, in answer to requests for them. The above described
+    movements were so unmistakable, that all present unhesitatingly
+    declared their conviction, that no physical force, exerted by any one
+    present, could possibly have produced them. And they declared,
+    further, in writing, that a rigid examination of the table, showed it
+    to be an ordinary dining-table, with no machinery or apparatus of any
+    kind connected with it. The table was laid on the floor with its legs
+    up, and taken to pieces as far as practicable.
+
+_Special Observations._
+
+These experiments are only a repetition and absolute confirmation of those
+that have been described all through this volume, from its very first
+pages. Yet they are enough in themselves alone to justify one's
+convictions.
+
+This first sub-committee, the principal experiments of which we have been
+giving, was studying only physical phenomena. Sub-committee No. 2 was more
+especially occupied with intelligent communications and mediumistic
+dictations. They need not detain us here, but will find their place in a
+special work on Spiritualism.
+
+The same committee published in its general report the following letter,
+which it did me the honor of requesting:
+
+    I must confess to you, in the first place, gentlemen, that, of those
+    who call themselves "mediums" and "spiritists," a considerable number
+    are persons of limited intelligence, incapable of bringing the
+    experimental method to bear on the investigation of this order of
+    phenomena, and consequently are often the dupes of their credulity or
+    ignorance; while others, of whom the number is also considerable, are
+    impostors whose moral sense has become so blunted by the habit of
+    fraud that they seem to be incapable of appreciating the heinousness
+    of their criminal abuse of the confidence of those who apply to them
+    for instruction or for consolation.
+
+    And even where the subject is being investigated seriously and in good
+    faith, the force to which the production of these phenomena is due is
+    so capricious in its action that much delay and disappointment is
+    inevitable in the prosecution of any experimental inquiry in regard
+    to them. It is, therefore, no easy matter to put aside the obstacles
+    thus placed in the way of the serious inquirer, to eliminate these
+    sources of error, and to get at genuine manifestations of the
+    phenomena in question; carefully guarding one's own mind against all
+    error, all self-deception in the methodical and scrupulous examination
+    of the order of facts now under discussion. Nevertheless, I do not
+    hesitate to affirm my conviction, based on personal examination of the
+    subject, that any scientific man who declares the phenomena
+    denominated "magnetic" "somnambulistic," "mediumistic," and others not
+    yet explained by science, to be "impossible," is one _who speaks
+    without knowing what he is talking about_; and also any man
+    accustomed, by his professional avocations, to scientific
+    observation--provided that his mind be not biased by preconceived
+    opinions, nor his mental vision blinded by that opposite kind of
+    illusion, unhappily too common in the learned world, which consists in
+    imagining that the laws of Nature are already known to us, and that
+    everything which appears to overstep the limit of our present formulas
+    is impossible--may acquire a radical and absolute certainty of the
+    reality of the facts alluded to.
+
+    After an affirmation so categorical, it is hardly necessary for me to
+    assure the members of the Dialectical Society that I have acquired,
+    through my own observation, the absolute certainty of the reality of
+    these phenomena....
+
+    But although thus compelled, in the absence of conclusive data in
+    regard to _the cause_ of the so-called "Spiritual Phenomena," to
+    refrain from making any positive affirmation in regard to this part of
+    the subject, I may add that while the general assertion of its
+    spiritual nature, on the part of the occult force which, within the
+    last quarter of a century, has thus manifested itself all over the
+    globe, constitutes a feature of the case which, from its universality,
+    merits the attention of the impartial investigator--the history of the
+    human race, from the earliest ages, furnishes instances of
+    coincidences, previsions and presentiments of warnings experienced in
+    certain critical moments, of apparitions more or less distinctly seen,
+    which are stated, on evidence as trustworthy as that which we possess
+    with regard to any other branch of historical tradition, to have
+    occurred, spontaneously, in the experience of all nations, and which
+    may therefore be held to strengthen the presumption of the possibility
+    of communication between incarnate and discarnate spirits.
+
+    I may also add that my own investigations in the fields of philosophy
+    and of modern astronomy have led me, as is well known, to adopt a
+    personal and individual way of regarding the subject of space and
+    time, the plurality of inhabited worlds, the eternity and ubiquity of
+    the acting forces of the universe, and the indestructibility of souls,
+    as well as of atoms.
+
+    The everlastingness of intelligent life ought to be regarded as the
+    result of the harmonious succession of sidereal incarnations.
+
+    Our earth being one of the heavenly bodies, a province of planetary
+    existence, and our present life being a phase of our eternal duration,
+    it appears only natural (the _super_natural does not exist) that there
+    should exist a permanent link between the spheres, the bodies, and the
+    souls of the universe, and therefore altogether probable that the
+    existence of this link will be demonstrated, in course of time, by the
+    advance of scientific discovery.
+
+    It would be difficult to over-rate the importance of the questions
+    thus brought forward for consideration; and I have seen with lively
+    satisfaction the noble initiative which, through the formation of your
+    Committee of Inquiry, has been taken by a body of men so justly
+    eminent as the members of the Dialectical Society, in the experimental
+    investigation of these deeply interesting phenomena. I am most happy,
+    therefore, to comply with the tenor of your letter, by sending you the
+    humble tribute of my observations on the subject in question, and thus
+    to have the opportunity of offering to your society the expression of
+    my sincerest good wishes for the speedy elucidation of the mysteries
+    of nature that have not yet been brought within the domain of positive
+    science.
+
+    I am, sir, yours faithfully,
+      CAMILLE FLAMMARION,
+        10, Rue des Moineaux (Palais Royal).
+
+    Paris, May 8, 1870.
+
+The foregoing résumé of the labors of the Dialectical Society of London
+shows once more that mediumistic phenomena long ago entered upon the road
+of scientific experiment. It would seem as if only the wilfully blind
+could henceforth deny their allegiance.
+
+The results of the studies described also form an answer to the question
+frequently asked, whether one can undertake similar experiments without
+knowing a true medium. I reply that, in any meeting of a dozen persons,
+there will always be one or more mediums. This was proved by the séances
+of the Count de Gasparin.
+
+The English report also contains (May 25, 1869) a communication from the
+electrician, Cromwell Varley, declaring that mediumistic phenomena could
+not be discredited by any observer of good faith, and that, to him, the
+hypothesis of disembodied spirits is the one that best explains them--just
+plain, common spirits (as a general thing), like the majority of the
+citizens of our planet.
+
+The scientific experiments of the Dialectical Society's committee were
+continued by the "Society for Psychical Research," founded in 1882, the
+successive presidents of which were Professor Sidgwick, Professor Balfour
+Stewart, Professor Sidgwick for a second time, Professor William James,
+Sir William Crookes, Frederick Myers, Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor
+Richet--all eminent in the departments of science and education. Let me
+mention here the splendid work of Dr. Hodgson and of Professor Hyslop in
+the American branch of this society.
+
+The experiments were continued, in a masterly way, by the celebrated
+chemist, Sir William Crookes, and yielded him the most wondrous results.
+My readers will presently realize this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EXPERIMENTS OF SIR WILLIAM CROOKES
+
+
+The learned chemist, Sir William Crookes, member of the Royal Society of
+London, the author of several discoveries of the first rank (among which
+should be placed the discovery, in 1861, of the metal, thallium), and of
+ingenious experiments on "radiant matter," published his first researches
+on the subject we are here considering in a review of which he was the
+editor--the _Quarterly Journal of Science_.
+
+I had the honor of contributing certain astronomical papers to this
+journal.[62] I will first lay before my readers an extract from Mr.
+Crookes's article of the 1st of July, 1871, entitled "Experimental
+Investigation of a New Force," in which he describes his studies with
+Home. I also had occasion myself more than once to hold conversation with
+this medium.[63]
+
+    Twelve months ago in this journal, July 1, 1870, I wrote an article,
+    in which, after expressing in the most emphatic manner my belief in
+    the occurrence, under certain circumstances, of phenomena inexplicable
+    by any known natural laws, I indicated several tests which men of
+    science had a right to demand before giving credence to the
+    genuineness of these phenomena. Among the tests pointed out were, that
+    a "delicately poised balance should be moved under test conditions;"
+    and that some exhibition of power equivalent to so many "foot-pounds"
+    should be "manifested in his laboratory, where the experimentalists
+    could weigh, measure, and submit it to proper tests." I said, too,
+    that I could not promise to enter fully into this subject, owing to
+    the difficulties of obtaining opportunities, and the numerous failures
+    attending the enquiry; moreover, that "the persons in whose presence
+    these phenomena take place are few in number, and opportunities for
+    experimenting with previously arranged apparatus are rarer still."
+
+    Opportunities having since offered for pursuing the investigation, I
+    have gladly availed myself of them for applying to these phenomena
+    careful scientific testing experiments, and I have thus arrived at
+    certain definite results which I think it right should be published.
+    These experiments appear conclusively to establish the existence of a
+    new force, in some unknown manner connected with the human
+    organization, which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force.
+
+    Of all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this psychic
+    force, and who have been termed "mediums" upon quite another theory of
+    its origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is
+    mainly owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+    investigation in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so
+    conclusively the existence of this force. The experiments I have tried
+    have been very numerous, but owing to our imperfect knowledge of the
+    conditions which favor or oppose the manifestations of this force, to
+    the apparently capricious manner in which it is exerted, and to the
+    fact that Mr. Home himself is subject to unaccountable ebbs and flows
+    of the force, it has but seldom happened that a result obtained on one
+    occasion could be subsequently confirmed and tested with apparatus
+    specially contrived for the purpose.
+
+    Among the remarkable phenomena which occur under Mr. Home's influence,
+    the most striking, as well as the most easily tested with scientific
+    accuracy, are--(1) the alteration in the weight of bodies, and (2) the
+    playing of tunes upon musical instruments (generally an accordion, for
+    convenience of portability) without direct human intervention, under
+    conditions rendering contact or connection with the keys impossible.
+    Not until I had witnessed these facts some half-dozen times, and
+    scrutinized them with all the critical acumen I possess, did I become
+    convinced of their objective reality. Still, desiring to place the
+    matter beyond the shadow of doubt, I invited Mr. Home on several
+    occasions to come to my own house, where, in the presence of a few
+    scientific enquirers, these phenomena could be submitted to crucial
+    experiments.
+
+    The meetings took place in the evening, in a large room lighted by
+    gas. The apparatus prepared for the purpose of testing the movements
+    of the accordion, consisted of a cage, formed of two wooden hoops,
+    respectively 1 foot 10 inches and 2 feet diameter, connected together
+    by 12 narrow laths, each 1 foot 10 inches long, so as to form a
+    drum-shaped frame, open at the top and bottom; round this 50 yards of
+    insulated copper wire were wound in 24 rounds, each being rather less
+    than an inch from its neighbor. The horizontal strands of wire were
+    then netted together firmly with string, so as to form meshes rather
+    less than 2 inches long by 1 inch high. The height of this cage was
+    such that it would just slip under my dining-table, but be too close
+    to the top to allow of the hand being introduced into the interior, or
+    to admit of a foot being pushed underneath it. In another room were
+    two Grove's cells, wires being led from them into the dining-room for
+    connection, if desirable, with the wire surrounding the cage.
+
+    The accordion was a new one, having been purchased by myself for the
+    purpose of these experiments at Wheatstone's, in Conduit Street. Mr.
+    Home had neither handled nor seen the instrument before the
+    commencement of the test experiments.
+
+    In another part of the room an apparatus was fitted up for
+    experimenting on the alteration in the weight of a body. It consisted
+    of a mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide and 1 inch
+    thick. At each end a strip of mahogany 1-1/2 inches wide was screwed
+    on, forming feet. One end of the board rested on a firm table, whilst
+    the other end was supported by a spring balance hanging from a
+    substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted with a
+    self-registering index, in such a manner that it would record the
+    maximum weight indicated by the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted
+    so that the mahogany board was horizontal, its foot resting flat on
+    the support. In this position its weight was 3 lbs., as marked by the
+    pointer of the balance.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XII. CAGE OF COPPER WIRE, ELECTRICALLY CHARGED, USED
+BY PROFESSOR CROOKES IN THE HOME ACCORDION EXPERIMENT.]
+
+    Before Mr. Home entered the room the apparatus had been arranged in
+    position, and he had not even the object of some parts of it explained
+    before sitting down. It may, perhaps, be worth while to add, for the
+    purpose of anticipating some critical remarks which are likely to be
+    made, that in the afternoon I called for Mr. Home at his apartments,
+    and when there he suggested that, as he had to change his dress,
+    perhaps I should not object to continue our conversation in his
+    bedroom. I am, therefore, enabled to state positively, that no
+    machinery, apparatus, or contrivance of any sort was secreted about
+    his person.
+
+    The investigators present on the test occasion were an eminent
+    physicist, high in the ranks of the Royal Society,[64] a well-known
+    Serjeant-at-Law;[65] my brother; and my chemical assistant.
+
+    Mr. Home sat in a low easy-chair at the side of the table. In front of
+    him under the table was the aforesaid cage, one of his legs being on
+    each side of it. I sat close to him on his left, and another observer
+    sat close to him on his right, the rest of the party being seated at
+    convenient distances round the table.
+
+    For the greater part of the evening, particularly when anything of
+    importance was proceeding, the observers on each side of Mr. Home kept
+    their feet respectively on his feet, so as to be able to detect his
+    slightest movement.
+
+    The temperature of the room varied from 68 degrees to 70 degrees F.
+
+    Mr. Home took the accordion between the thumb and middle finger of one
+    hand at the opposite end to the keys (see Pl. XII A) (to save
+    repetition this will be subsequently called "in the usual manner").
+
+    Having previously opened the bass key myself, and the cage being drawn
+    from under the table so as just to allow the accordion to be pushed in
+    with its keys downwards, it was pushed back as close as Mr. Home's
+    arm would permit, but without hiding his hand from those next to him
+    (Pl. XII, Cut B). Very soon the accordion was seen by those on each
+    side to be waving about in a somewhat curious manner; then sounds came
+    from it, and finally several notes were played in succession. Whilst
+    this was going on, my assistant went under the table, and reported
+    that the accordion was expanding and contracting; at the same time it
+    was seen that the hand of Mr. Home by which it was held was quite
+    still, his other hand resting on the table.
+
+    Presently the accordion was seen by those on either side of Mr. Home
+    to move about, oscillating and going round and round the cage, and
+    playing at the same time. Dr. A. B. now looked under the table, and
+    said that Mr. Home's hand appeared quite still whilst the accordion
+    was moving about emitting distinct sounds.
+
+    Mr. Home still holding the accordion in the usual manner in the cage,
+    his feet being held by those next him, and his other hand resting on
+    the table, we heard distinct and separate notes sounded in succession,
+    and then a simple air was played. As such a result could only have
+    been produced by the various keys of the instrument being acted upon
+    in harmonious succession, this was considered by those present to be a
+    crucial experiment.
+
+    But the sequel was still more striking, for Mr. Home then removed his
+    hand altogether from the accordion, taking it quite out of the cage,
+    and placed it in the hand of the person next to him. The instrument
+    then continued to play, no person touching it and no hand being near
+    it.
+
+    I was now desirous of trying what would be the effect of passing the
+    battery current round the insulated wire of the cage, and my assistant
+    accordingly made the connection with the wires from the two Grove's
+    cells. Mr. Home again held the instrument inside the cage in the same
+    manner as before, when it immediately sounded and moved about
+    vigorously. But whether the electric current passing round the cage
+    assisted the manifestation of force inside, it is impossible to say.
+
+    After this experiment, the accordion, which he kept holding in one
+    hand, then commenced to play, at first chords and runs, and
+    afterwards a well-known sweet and plaintive melody, which was executed
+    perfectly in a very beautiful manner. Whilst this tune was being
+    played I grasped Mr. Home's arm, below the elbow, and gently slid my
+    hand down it until I touched the top of the accordion. He was not
+    moving a muscle. His other hand was on the table, visible to all, and
+    his feet were under the feet of those next to him.
+
+    Having met with such striking results in the experiments with the
+    accordion in the cage, we turned to the balance apparatus already
+    described. Mr. Home placed the tips of his fingers lightly on the
+    extreme end of the mahogany board, which was resting on the support,
+    whilst Dr. A. B. and myself sat, one on each side of it, watching for
+    any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the pointer of
+    the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose again.
+    This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves of
+    the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+    slowly up and down during the experiment.
+
+    Mr. Home now of his own accord took a small hand-bell and a little
+    card match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each
+    hand, to satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the
+    downward pressure (see Fig. 3). The very slow oscillation of the
+    spring balance became more marked, and Dr. A. B., watching the index,
+    said that he saw it descend to 6-1/2 lbs. The normal weight of the
+    board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the additional downward pull was
+    therefore 3-1/2 lbs. On looking immediately afterwards at the
+    automatic register, we saw that the index had at one time descended as
+    low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a board whose
+    normal weight was 3 lbs.
+
+    In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+    spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home's fingers had
+    been, I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the
+    board. Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said
+    that the whole weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the
+    index 1-1/2 lbs., or 2 lbs. when I shook it. Mr. Home had been sitting
+    in a low easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his
+    utmost, have exerted any material influence on these results. I need
+    scarcely add that his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded
+    by all in the room.
+
+    This experiment appears to me more striking, if possible, than the one
+    with the accordion. As will be seen on referring to the cut (Fig. 3),
+    the board was arranged perfectly horizontally, and it was particularly
+    noticed that Mr. Home's fingers were not at any time advanced more
+    than 1-1/2 inches from the extreme end, as shown by a pencil-mark,
+    which, with Dr. A. B.'s acquiescence, I made at the time. Now, the
+    wooden foot being also 1-1/2 inches wide, and resting flat on the
+    table, it is evident that no amount of pressure exerted within this
+    space of 1-1/2 inches could produce any action on the balance. Again,
+    it is also evident that when the end farthest from Mr. Home sank, the
+    board would turn on the farther edge of this foot as on a fulcrum.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+    The arrangement was consequently that of a see-saw, 36 inches in
+    length, the fulcrum being 1-1/2 inches from one end; were he,
+    therefore, to have exerted a downward pressure, it would have been in
+    opposition to the force which was causing the other end of the board
+    to move down.
+
+    The slight downward pressure shown by the balance when I stood on the
+    board was owing probably to my foot extending beyond this fulcrum.
+
+    I have now given a plain, unvarnished statement of the facts from
+    copious notes written at the time the occurrences were taking place,
+    and copied out in full immediately after.
+
+    Respecting the cause of these phenomena, the nature of the force to
+    which, to avoid periphrasis, I have ventured to give the name of
+    _Psychic_, and the correlation existing between that and the other
+    forces of nature, it would be wrong to hazard the most vague
+    hypothesis. Indeed, in inquiries connected so intimately with rare
+    physiological and psychological conditions, it is the duty of the
+    inquirer to abstain altogether from framing theories until he has
+    accumulated a sufficient number of facts to form a substantial basis
+    upon which to reason. In the presence of strange phenomena as yet
+    unexplored and unexplained following each other in such rapid
+    succession, I confess it is difficult to avoid clothing their record
+    in language of a sensational character. But, to be successful, an
+    inquiry of this kind must be undertaken by the philosopher without
+    prejudice and without sentiment. Romantic and superstitious ideas
+    should be entirely banished, and the steps of his investigation should
+    be guided by intellect as cold and passionless as the instruments he
+    uses.
+
+Apropos of this Mr. Cox wrote to Mr. Crooks:
+
+    The results appear to me conclusively to establish the important fact,
+    that there is a force proceeding from the nerve-system capable of
+    imparting motion and weight to solid bodies within the sphere of its
+    influence.
+
+    I noticed that the force was exhibited in tremulous pulsations, and
+    not in the form of steady continuous pressure, the indicator rising
+    and falling incessantly throughout the experiment. The fact seems to
+    me of great significance, as tending to confirm the opinion that
+    assigns its source to the nerve organization, and it goes far to
+    establish Dr. Richardson's important discovery of a nerve atmosphere
+    of various intensity enveloping the human structure.
+
+    Your experiments completely confirm the conclusion at which the
+    Investigation Committee of the Dialectical Society arrived, after more
+    than forty meetings for trial and test.
+
+    Allow me to add that I can find no evidence even tending to prove that
+    this force is other than a force proceeding from, or directly
+    dependent upon, the human organization, and therefore, like all other
+    forces of nature, wholly within the province of that strictly
+    scientific investigation to which you have been the first to subject
+    it.
+
+    Now that it is proved by mechanical tests to be a fact in nature (and
+    if a fact, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance to physiology
+    and the light it must throw upon the obscure laws of life, of mind and
+    the science of medicine) it cannot fail to command the immediate and
+    most earnest examination and discussion by physiologists and by all
+    who take an interest in that knowledge of "man," which has been truly
+    termed "the noblest study of mankind."
+
+    To avoid the appearance of any foregone conclusion, I would recommend
+    the adoption for it of some appropriate name, and I venture to suggest
+    that the force be termed the Psychic Force; the persons in whom it is
+    manifested in extraordinary power Psychics; and the science relating
+    to it Psychism as, being a branch of psychology.
+
+The preceding article was published separately by William Crookes in a
+special brochure which lies before me,[66] and which contains, in
+addition, the following study, not less curious from the human and
+anecdotical point of view than from the point of view of the experimenter
+in physics:
+
+    When I first stated in this journal that I was about to investigate
+    the phenomena of so-called Spiritualism, the announcement called forth
+    universal expressions of approval. One said that my "statements
+    deserved respectful consideration"; another expressed "profound
+    satisfaction that the subject was about to be investigated by a man so
+    thoroughly qualified as," etc.; a third was "gratified to learn that
+    the matter is now receiving the attention of cool and clear-headed
+    men of recognized position in science"; a fourth asserted that "no one
+    could doubt Mr. Crookes's ability to conduct the investigation with
+    rigid philosophical impartiality"; and a fifth was good enough to tell
+    its readers that "if men like Mr. Crookes grapple with the subject,
+    taking nothing for granted until it is proved, we shall soon know how
+    much to believe."
+
+    Those remarks, however, were written too hastily. It was taken for
+    granted by the writers that the results of my experiments would be in
+    accordance with their preconceptions. What they really desired was not
+    _the truth_, but an additional witness in favor of their own foregone
+    conclusion. When they found that the facts which that investigation
+    established could not be made to fit those opinions, why--"so much the
+    worse for the facts." They try to creep out of their own confident
+    recommendations of the enquiry by declaring that "Mr. Home is a clever
+    conjurer, who has duped us all." "Mr. Crookes might, with equal
+    propriety, examine the performances of an Indian juggler." "Mr.
+    Crookes must get better witnesses before he can be believed." "The
+    thing is too absurd to be treated seriously." "It is impossible, and
+    therefore can't be."[67] "The observers have all been biologized (!)
+    and fancy they saw things occur which really never took place," etc.
+
+    These remarks imply a curious oblivion of the very functions which the
+    scientific enquirer has to fulfill. I am scarcely surprised when the
+    objectors say that I have been deceived merely because they are
+    unconvinced without personal investigation, since the same
+    unscientific course of _a priori_ argument has been opposed to all
+    great discoveries. When I am told that what I describe cannot be
+    explained in accordance with preconceived ideas of the laws of nature,
+    the objector really begs the very question at issue, and resorts to a
+    mode of reasoning which brings science to a standstill. The argument
+    runs in a vicious circle: we must not assert a fact till we know that
+    it is in accordance with the laws of nature, while our only knowledge
+    of the laws of nature must be based on an extensive observation of
+    facts. If a new fact seems to oppose what is called a law of nature,
+    it does not prove the asserted fact to be false, but only that we have
+    not yet ascertained all the laws of nature, or not learned them
+    correctly.
+
+    In his opening address before the British Association at Edinburgh
+    this year (1871), Sir William Thomson said, "Science is bound by the
+    everlasting law of honor to face fearlessly every problem which can
+    fairly be presented to it." My object in thus placing on record the
+    results of a very remarkable series of experiments is to present such
+    a problem, which, according to Sir William Thomson, "Science is bound
+    by the everlasting law of honor to face fearlessly." It will not do
+    merely to deny its existence, or try to sneer it down. Remember, I
+    hazard no hypothesis or theory whatever; I merely vouch for certain
+    facts, my only object being--the _truth_. Doubt, but do not deny;
+    point out, by the severest criticism, what are considered fallacies in
+    my experimental tests, and suggest more conclusive trials; but do not
+    let us hastily call our senses lying witnesses merely because they
+    testify against preconceptions. I say to my critics, Try the
+    experiments; investigate with care and patience as I have done. If,
+    having examined, you discover imposture or delusion, proclaim it and
+    say how it was done. But, if you find it be a fact, avow it
+    fearlessly, as "by the everlasting law of honor" you are bound to do.
+
+In this part of his work Professor Crookes recalls the experiments of
+Count de Gasparin and of Thury (detailed above) on the phenomenon of the
+movement of bodies without contact, a thing proved and demonstrated. We
+need not recur to that. He adds that the ecteneic force of Professor Thury
+and psychical force are equivalent terms, and that the nervous atmosphere
+or fluid of Dr. Benjamin Richardson also belongs here.
+
+Professor Crookes sent his observations to the Royal Society, of which he
+is a member. The society refused his communications. The evidence goes to
+show that it had only approved of the gifted chemist's mixing in
+heretical and occult researches on consideration of his demonstrating the
+fallacy of all those prodigies.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
+
+Professor Stokes, the secretary, refused to consider the subject at all,
+or to inscribe even the title of the papers in the society's
+publications. It was an exact repetition of what took place at the Academy
+of Science in Paris in 1853. Professor Crookes scorned these arbitrary and
+anti-scientific judgments and denials and answered them by publishing the
+detailed description of his experiments. The following are the essential
+points of this description:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
+
+    On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+    contact between Mr. Home's hands and the suspended body whose weight
+    was to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I
+    found afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I
+    therefore arranged my apparatus in the following manner:
+
+    The accompanying cuts (Figs. 4, 5, 6) explain the arrangement. Fig. 4
+    is a general view, and Figs. 5 and 6 show the essential parts more in
+    detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B
+    is a mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide and 1 inch
+    thick. It is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C,
+    furnished with an automatic register, D. The balance is suspended
+    from a very firm tripod support, E.
+
+    The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+    moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is
+    soldered, projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance,
+    and firmly fastened to it, is a grooved frame carrying a flat box
+    similar to the dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to
+    travel by clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it
+    contains a sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame.
+    The projecting steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface.
+
+    If the balance is at rest, and the clock set going, the result is a
+    perfectly straight horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and
+    weights are placed on the end, B, of the board, the result is a
+    vertical line, whose length depends on the weight applied. If, whilst
+    the clock draws the plate along, the weight of the board (or the
+    tension on the balance) varies, the result is a curved line, from
+    which the tension in grains at any moment during the continuance of
+    the experiments can be calculated.
+
+    The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+    gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+    were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will only
+    here refer to results in which an increase of gravitation was
+    experienced.
+
+    The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the
+    end, A, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower
+    side and cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 6). This fulcrum rests on a
+    firm and heavy wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the
+    fulcrum, is placed a large glass vessel filled with water, I. L is a
+    massive iron stand, furnished with an arm and ring, M N, in which
+    rests a hemispherical copper vessel perforated with several holes at
+    the bottom.
+
+    The iron stand is two inches from the board, A B, and the arm and
+    copper vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the
+    water 1-1/2 inches, being 5-1/2 inches from the bottom of I, and 2
+    inches from its circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the
+    vessel, N, produces no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A
+    B, capable of affecting the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest
+    extent into the water in N, does not produce the least appreciable
+    action on the balance.
+
+    As the mechanical transmission of power by Mr. Home is by this means
+    entirely cut off between the copper vessel and the board, A B, it
+    follows that the power of muscular control is thereby completely
+    eliminated.
+
+    There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+    conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.
+    Furthermore, I repeated the experiments, not only with Mr. Home, but
+    also with another person possessing similar powers.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 7.]
+
+    _Experiment I._--The apparatus having been properly adjusted before
+    Mr. Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his
+    fingers in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped
+    the tips of the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand
+    and his feet being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or
+    influence, proceeding from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost
+    immediately the end, B, of the board was seen to descend slowly and
+    remain down for about 10 seconds; it then descended a little farther,
+    and afterwards rose to its normal height. It then descended again,
+    rose suddenly, gradually sunk for 17 seconds, and finally rose to its
+    normal height, where it remained till the experiment was concluded.
+    The lowest point marked on the glass was equivalent to a direct pull
+    of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying figure 7 is a copy of the
+    curve traced on the glass.
+
+    _Experiment II._--Contact through water having proved to be as
+    effectual as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power
+    or force could affect the weight, either through other portions of the
+    apparatus or through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc.,
+    were therefore removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's
+    hands were placed on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 4). A
+    gentleman present put his hand on Mr. Home's hands, and his foot on
+    both Mr. Home's feet, and I also watched him closely all the time. At
+    the proper moment the clock was again set going; the board descended
+    and rose in an irregular manner, the result being a curved tracing on
+    the glass, of which Fig. 8 is a copy.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 8.]
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 9.]
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 10.]
+
+    _Experiment III._--Mr. Home was now placed 1 foot from the board, A B,
+    on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a
+    bystander, and another tracing, of which Fig. 9 is a copy, was taken
+    on a moving glass plate.
+
+    _Experiment IV._--(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger
+    than on the previous occasions.) Mr. Home was now placed three feet
+    from the apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock
+    was set going when he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board
+    soon descended, and again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in
+    Fig. 10.
+
+    The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+    apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As
+    the lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has,
+    however, consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for
+    purposes of investigation.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 11.]
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 12.]
+
+    A piece of thin parchment, A, Figs. 11 and 12, is stretched tightly
+    across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At
+    the end, B, is a vertical needle-point touching the membrane, A, and
+    at C is another needle-point, projecting horizontally and touching a
+    smoked glass plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the
+    direction, H G, by clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted
+    so that it shall quickly follow the movements of the centre of the
+    disc, A. These movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass
+    plate, E F, by means of the lever and needle-point, C. Holes are cut
+    in the side of the hoop to allow a free passage of air to the under
+    side of the membrane. The apparatus was well tested beforehand by
+    myself and others, to see that no shaking or jar on the table or
+    support would interfere with the results. The line traced by the
+    point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly straight in spite of all
+    our attempts to influence the lever by shaking the stand or stamping
+    on the floor.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 13.]
+
+    _Experiment V._--Without having the object of the instrument explained
+    to her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her
+    fingers on the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 11. I then placed
+    my hands over hers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious
+    movement on her part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the
+    parchment, resembling the dropping of grains of sand on its surface.
+    At each percussion a fragment of graphite which I had placed on the
+    membrane was seen to be projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and
+    the end, C, of the lever moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the
+    sounds were as rapid as those from an induction-coil, whilst at others
+    they were more than a second apart. Five or six tracings were taken,
+    and in all cases a movement of the end, C, of the lever was seen to
+    have occurred with each vibration of the membrane.
+
+    In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the membrane as L M,
+    but were at N O, Fig. 12.
+
+    The accompanying figure 13 gives tracings taken from the plates used
+    on these occasions.
+
+    _Experiment VI._--Having met with these results in Mr. Home's absence,
+    I was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument
+    in his presence.
+
+    Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument
+    to him.
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 14.]
+
+    [Illustration: FIG. 15.]
+
+    I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held his hand over
+    the membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown
+    at P, Fig. 12. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in
+    this position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some
+    influence passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the
+    index, C, moving up and down. The movements were much slower than in
+    the former case, and were almost entirely unaccompanied by the
+    percussive vibrations then noticed.
+
+    Figs. 14 and 15 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+    occasions.
+
+    Figs. 13, 14, 15 are magnified.
+
+    These experiments _confirm beyond doubt_ the conclusion at which I
+    arrived in my former paper; namely, the existence of a force
+    associated, in some manner not yet explained, with the human
+    organization, by which force increased weight is capable of being
+    imparted to solid bodies without physical contact.
+
+    Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it
+    is that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing
+    the terms _vital force_, or _nervous energy_, I am aware that I am
+    employing words which convey very different significations to many
+    investigators; but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and
+    bodily prostration in which some of these experiments have left Mr.
+    Home--after seeing him lying in an almost fainting condition on the
+    floor, pale and speechless--I could scarcely doubt that the evolution
+    of psychic force is accompanied by a corresponding drain on vital
+    force.
+
+    To witness exhibitions of this force it is not necessary to have
+    access to known psychics. The force itself is probably possessed by
+    all human beings, although the individuals endowed with an
+    extraordinary amount of it are doubtless few. Within the last twelve
+    months I have met in private families five or six persons possessing a
+    sufficiently vigorous development to make me feel confident that
+    similar results might be produced through their means to those here
+    recorded, though less intense.
+
+These experiments continued to be the object of bitter and relentless
+criticism on the part of the recognized authorities in science and
+education in England. These persons absolutely refused to recognize their
+value. Professor Crookes amused himself, at times, by replying to these
+fantastic attacks, but, naturally, without convincing his uncompromising
+opponents. It is unnecessary to reproduce these letters here; they can be
+found in the French edition of Crookes's _Researches_. The learned chemist
+did better still: he continued his researches into the domain of the
+Unknown, and got still more remarkable results--still more extraordinary,
+more inexplicable, more incomprehensible.
+
+His notes continue as follows:
+
+    Like a traveler exploring some distant country, the wonders of which
+    have hitherto been known only through reports and rumors of a vague or
+    distorted character, so for four years have I been occupied in pushing
+    an inquiry into a territory of natural knowledge which offers almost
+    virgin soil to a scientific man.
+
+    As the traveller sees in the natural phenomena he may witness the
+    action of forces governed by natural laws, where others see only the
+    capricious intervention of offended gods, so have I endeavored to
+    trace the operation of natural laws and forces, where others have seen
+    only the agency of supernatural beings, owning no laws, and obeying no
+    force but their own free will.
+
+    The phenomena I am prepared to attest are so extraordinary and so
+    directly oppose the most firmly rooted articles of scientific
+    belief--amongst others, the ubiquity and invariable action of the
+    force of gravitation--that, even now, on recalling the details of what
+    I witnessed, there is an antagonism in my mind between _reason_, which
+    pronounces it to be scientifically impossible, and the consciousness
+    that my senses, both of touch and sight--and these corroborated, as
+    they were, by the senses of all who were present,--are not lying
+    witnesses when they testify against my preconceptions.
+
+    But the supposition that there is a sort of mania or delusion which
+    suddenly attacks a whole roomful of intelligent persons who are quite
+    sane elsewhere, and that they all concur to the minutest particulars,
+    in the details of the occurrences of which they suppose themselves to
+    be witnesses, seems to my mind more incredible than even the facts
+    they attest.
+
+    The subject is far more difficult and extensive than it appears. Four
+    years ago I intended only to devote a leisure month or two to
+    ascertain whether certain marvellous occurrences I had heard about
+    would stand the test of close scrutiny. Having, however, soon arrived
+    at the same conclusion as, I may say, every impartial inquirer, that
+    there was "something in it," I could not, as a student of nature's
+    laws, refuse to follow the inquiry wheresoever the facts might lead.
+    Thus a few months have grown into a few years, and, were my time at
+    my own disposal it would probably extend still longer.
+
+    My principal object will be to place on record a series of actual
+    occurrences which have taken place in my own house, in the presence of
+    trustworthy witnesses, and under as strict test conditions as I could
+    devise. Every fact which I have observed is, moreover, corroborated by
+    the records of independent observers at other times and places. It
+    will be seen that the facts are of the most astounding character, and
+    seem utterly irreconcilable with all known theories of modern science.
+    Having satisfied myself of their _truth_, it would be moral cowardice
+    to withhold my testimony because my previous publications were
+    ridiculed by critics and others who knew nothing whatever of the
+    subject, and who were too prejudiced to see and judge for themselves
+    whether or not there was truth in the phenomena. I shall state simply
+    what I have seen and proved by repeated experiment and test.
+
+    Except where darkness has been a necessary condition, as with some of
+    the phenomena of luminous appearances, and a few other instances,
+    everything recorded has taken place _in the light_. In the few cases
+    where the phenomena noted have occurred in darkness I have been very
+    particular to mention the fact. Moreover, some special reason can be
+    shown for the exclusion of light, or the results have been produced
+    under such perfect test conditions that the suppression of one of the
+    senses has not really weakened the evidence.
+
+    I have said that darkness is not essential. It is, however, a
+    well-ascertained fact that when the force is weak a bright light
+    exerts an interfering action on some of the phenomena. The power
+    possessed by Mr. Home is sufficiently strong to withstand this
+    antagonistic influence; consequently, he always objects to darkness at
+    his _séances_. Indeed, except on two occasions, when, for some
+    particular experiments of my own, light was excluded, everything which
+    I have witnessed with him has taken place in the light. I have had
+    many opportunities of testing the action of light on different sources
+    and colors,--such as sunlight, diffused daylight, moonlight, gas,
+    lamp, and candle-light, electric light from a vacuum tube,
+    homogeneous yellow light, etc. The interfering rays appear to be those
+    at the extreme end of the spectrum.
+
+Professor Crookes next proceeds to classify the phenomena observed by him,
+going from the more simple to the more complex and giving in rapid review
+under each head, a sketch of some of the facts. In the abridgment of his
+report which follows I eliminate what has already been fully demonstrated
+elsewhere in this book.
+
+    FIRST CLASS: _The movement of Heavy Bodies with Contact, but without
+    Mechanical Exertion._
+
+    (This movement has been fully proved in this volume.)
+
+    SECOND CLASS: _The Phenomena of Percussive and other Allied Sounds._
+
+    An important question here forces itself upon the attention. _Are the
+    movements and sounds governed by intelligence?_ At a very early stage
+    of the inquiry, it was seen that the power producing the phenomena was
+    not merely a blind force, but was associated with or governed by
+    intelligence. Thus the sounds to which I have just alluded will be
+    repeated a definite number of times. They will come loud or faint, and
+    in different places at request; and by a pre-arranged code of signals,
+    questions are answered, and messages given with more or less accuracy.
+
+    The intelligence governing the phenomena is sometimes manifestly below
+    that of the medium. It is frequently in direct opposition to the
+    wishes of the medium. When a determination has been expressed to do
+    something which might not be considered quite right, I have known
+    urgent messages given to induce a reconsideration. The intelligence is
+    sometimes of such a character as to lead to the belief that it does
+    not emanate from any person present.
+
+    THIRD CLASS: _The Alteration of Weights of Bodies._--(Experiments
+    which have been already described.)
+
+    FOURTH CLASS: _Movements of Heavy Substances when at a distance from
+    the Medium._--The instances in which heavy bodies, such as tables,
+    chairs, sofas, etc., have been moved, when the medium has not been
+    touching them, are very numerous. I will briefly mention a few of the
+    most striking. My own chair has been twisted partly round, whilst my
+    feet were off the floor. A chair was seen by all present to move
+    slowly up to the table from a far corner, when all were watching it.
+    On another occasion an arm-chair moved to where we were sitting, and
+    then moved slowly back again (a distance of about three feet) at my
+    request. On three successive evenings a small table moved slowly
+    across the room, under conditions which I had specially pre-arranged,
+    so as to answer any objection which might be raised to the evidence. I
+    have had several repetitions of the experiment considered by the
+    Committee of the Dialectical Society to be conclusive, viz., the
+    movement of a heavy table, in full light, the chairs turned with their
+    backs to the table, about a foot off, and each person kneeling on his
+    chair, with hands resting over the back of the chair, but not touching
+    the table. On one occasion this took place when I was moving about so
+    as to see how everyone was placed.
+
+    FIFTH CLASS: _The Rising of Tables and Chairs off the Ground, without
+    Contact with any Person._
+
+    (We need not recur to these matters.)
+
+    SIXTH CLASS: _The Levitation of Human Beings._--The most striking
+    cases of levitation which I have witnessed have been with Mr. Home. On
+    three separate occasions have I seen him raised completely from the
+    floor of the room. Once sitting in an easy-chair, once kneeling on his
+    chair, and once standing up. On each occasion I had full opportunity
+    of watching the occurrence as it was taking place.
+
+    There are at least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home's rising
+    from the ground, in the presence of as many separate persons, and I
+    have heard from the lips of the three witnesses to the most striking
+    occurrence of this kind--the Earl of Dunraven, Lord Lindsay, and
+    Captain C. Wynne--their own most minute accounts of what took place.
+    To reject the recorded evidence on this subject is to reject all human
+    testimony whatever; for no fact in sacred or profane history is
+    supported by a stronger array of proofs.
+
+    SEVENTH CLASS: _Movement of Various Small Articles without Contact
+    with any Person._--(As in the case of the sixth class, this is well
+    known to my readers.)
+
+    EIGHTH CLASS: _Luminous Appearances._--These, being rather faint,
+    generally require the room to be darkened. I need scarcely remind my
+    readers again that, under these circumstances, I have taken proper
+    precautions to avoid being imposed upon by phosphorized oil or other
+    means. Moreover, many of these lights are such as I have tried to
+    imitate artificially, but cannot.
+
+    Under the strictest test conditions, I have seen a solid self-luminous
+    body, the size and nearly the shape of a turkey's egg, float
+    noiselessly about the room, at one time higher than any one present
+    could reach standing on tiptoe, and then gently descend to the floor.
+    It was visible for more than ten minutes, and before it faded away it
+    struck the table three times with a sound like that of a hard solid
+    body.
+
+    During this time the medium was lying back, apparently insensible, in
+    an easy-chair.
+
+    I have seen luminous points of light darting about and settling on the
+    heads of different persons; I have had questions answered by the
+    flashing of a bright light a desired number of times in front of my
+    face. I have seen sparks of light rising from the table to the
+    ceiling, and again falling upon the table, striking it with an audible
+    sound. I have had an alphabetic communication given by luminous
+    flashes occurring before me in the air, whilst my hand was moving
+    about amongst them. I have seen a luminous cloud floating upwards to a
+    picture. Under the strictest test conditions, I have more than once
+    had a solid, self-luminous, crystalline body placed in my hand by a
+    hand which did not belong to any person in the room. _In the light_, I
+    have seen a luminous cloud hover over a heliotrope on a side table,
+    break a sprig off, and carry it to a lady; and on some occasions I
+    have seen a similar luminous cloud visibly condense to the form of a
+    hand and carry small objects about.
+
+    NINTH CLASS: _The Appearance of Hands, either Self-Luminous or Visible
+    by Ordinary Light._--During a séance in full light a
+    beautifully-formed small hand rose up from an opening in a
+    dining-table and gave me a flower; it appeared and then disappeared
+    three times at intervals, affording me ample opportunity of satisfying
+    myself that it was as real in appearance as my own. This occurred in
+    the light in my own room, whilst I was holding the medium's hands and
+    feet.
+
+    On another occasion, a small hand and arm, like a baby's, appeared
+    playing about a lady who was sitting next to me. It then patted my arm
+    and pulled my coat several times.
+
+    At another time, a finger and thumb were seen to pick the petals from
+    a flower in Mr. Home's button-hole, and lay them in front of several
+    persons who were sitting near him.
+
+    A hand has been repeatedly seen by myself and others playing the keys
+    of an accordion, both of the medium's hands being visible at the same
+    time, and sometimes being held by those near him.
+
+    The hands and fingers do not always appear to me to be solid and
+    life-like. Sometimes, indeed, they present more the appearance of a
+    nebulous cloud partly condensed into the form of a hand. This is not
+    equally visible to all present. For instance, a flower or other small
+    object is seen to move; one person present will see a luminous cloud
+    hovering over it, another will detect a nebulous-looking hand, whilst
+    others will see nothing at all but the moving flower. I have more than
+    once seen, first an object move, then a luminous cloud appear to form
+    about it, and, lastly, the cloud condense into shape and become a
+    perfectly-formed hand. At this stage the hand is visible to all
+    present. It is not always a mere form, but sometimes appears perfectly
+    life-like and graceful, the fingers moving, and the flesh apparently
+    as human as that of any in the room. At the wrist, or arm, it becomes
+    hazy, and fades off into a luminous cloud.
+
+    To the touch, the hand sometimes appears icy-cold and dead, at other
+    times, warm and life-like, grasping my own with the firm pressure of
+    an old friend.
+
+    I have retained one of these hands in my own, firmly resolved not to
+    let it escape. There was no struggle or effort made to get loose, but
+    it gradually seemed to resolve itself into vapor, and faded in that
+    manner from my grasp.
+
+    TENTH CLASS: _Direct Writing._--(The learned chemist cites some
+    remarkable examples obtained by him. We need not speak of them in this
+    book.)
+
+    ELEVENTH CLASS: _Phantom Forms and Faces._--These are the rarest of
+    the phenomena I have witnessed. The conditions requisite for their
+    appearance appear to be so delicate, and such trifles interfere with
+    their production, that only on very few occasions have I witnessed
+    them under satisfactory test conditions. I will mention two of these
+    cases.
+
+    In the dusk of the evening, during a _séance_ with Mr. Home at my
+    house, the curtains of a window about eight feet from Mr. Home were
+    seen to move. A dark, shadowy, semi-transparent form, like that of a
+    man, was then seen by all present standing near the window, waving the
+    curtain with his hand. As we looked, the form faded away, and the
+    curtains ceased to move.
+
+    The following is a still more striking instance. As in the former
+    case, Mr. Home was the medium. A phantom form came from a corner of
+    the room, took an accordion in its hand, and then glided about the
+    room playing the instrument. The form was visible to all present for
+    many minutes, Mr. Home also being seen at the same time. Coming rather
+    close to a lady who was sitting apart from the rest of the company,
+    she gave a slight cry, upon which it vanished.
+
+    TWELFTH CLASS: _Special Instances which seem to point to the Agency of
+    an Exterior Intelligence._--It has already been shown that the
+    phenomena are governed by an intelligence. It becomes a question of
+    importance as to the source of that intelligence. Is it the
+    intelligence of the medium, of any of the other persons in the room,
+    or is it an exterior intelligence? Without wishing at present to speak
+    positively on this point, I may say that whilst I have observed many
+    circumstances which appear to show that the will and intelligence of
+    the medium have much to do with the phenomena, I have observed some
+    circumstances which seem conclusively to point to the agency of an
+    outside intelligence, not belonging to any human being in the room.
+    Space does not allow me to give here all the arguments which can be
+    adduced to prove these points, but I will briefly mention one or two
+    circumstances out of many.
+
+    I have been present when several phenomena were going on at the same
+    time, some being unknown to the medium. I have been with Miss Fox when
+    she has been writing a message automatically to one person present,
+    whilst a message to another person on another subject was being given
+    alphabetically by means of "raps," and the whole time she was
+    conversing freely with a third person on a subject totally different
+    from either.
+
+    Perhaps a more striking instance is the following:
+
+    During a _séance_ with Mr. Home, a small lath, which I have before
+    mentioned, moved across the table to me, in the light, and delivered a
+    message to me by tapping my hand, I repeating the alphabet, and the
+    lath tapping me at the right letters. The other end of the lath was
+    resting on the table, some distance from Mr. Home's hands.
+
+    The taps were so sharp and clear, and the lath was evidently so well
+    under control of the invisible power which was governing its
+    movements, that I said, "Can the intelligence governing the motion of
+    this lath change the character of the movements, and give me a
+    telegraphic message through the Morse alphabet by taps on my hand?" (I
+    have every reason to believe that the Morse code was quite unknown to
+    any other person present, and it was only imperfectly known to me.)
+    Immediately I said this, the character of the taps changed, and the
+    message was continued in the way I had requested. The letters were
+    given too rapidly for me to do more than catch a word here and there,
+    and consequently I lost the message; but I heard sufficient to
+    convince me that there was a good Morse operator at the other end of
+    the line, wherever that might be.
+
+    Another instance. A lady was writing automatically by means of the
+    planchette. I was trying to devise a means of proving that what she
+    wrote was not due to "unconscious cerebration." The planchette, as it
+    always does, insisted that, although it was moved by the hand and the
+    arm of the lady, the _intelligence_ was that of an invisible being who
+    was playing on her brain as on a musical instrument, and thus moving
+    her muscles. I therefore said to this intelligence, "Can you see the
+    contents of this room?" "Yes," wrote the planchette. "Can you see to
+    read this newspaper?" said I, putting my finger on a copy of the
+    _Times_, which was on a table behind me, but without looking at it.
+    "Yes," was the reply of the planchette. "Well," I said, "if you can
+    see that, write the word which is now covered by my finger, and I
+    will believe you." The planchette commenced to move. Slowly and with
+    great difficulty the word "however" was written. I turned round and
+    saw that the word "however" was covered by the tip of my finger.
+
+    I had purposely avoided looking at the newspaper when I tried this
+    experiment, and it was impossible for the lady, had she tried, to have
+    seen any of the printed words, for she was sitting at one table, and
+    the paper was on another table behind, my body intervening.
+
+    THIRTEENTH CLASS: _Miscellaneous Occurrences of a Complex Character._
+
+    (Professor Crookes here cites two examples of the _transference of
+    matter through matter_,--a bell passing from neighboring room into
+    that in which the séance was being held, and a flower separating from
+    a bouquet and _passing through the table_.)
+
+The spare at my disposal will not permit me to give more details here; but
+all my readers must appreciate, as I do, the importance of these
+experiments of the eminent chemist. I will especially call attention to
+the proofs they afford of the presence of a mind or intelligence, other
+than that of the experimenters; to the formation of hands and
+spirit-forms; and to the passage of matter through matter.
+
+These experiments date from the years 1871 to 1873. During the last
+mentioned year, a new medium, endowed with particularly remarkable powers,
+appeared in London, namely, Miss Florence Cook, who was born in 1856, and
+was, therefore, seventeen in 1873. Since the preceding year (1872), she
+had often seen the apparition by her side of a young girl. This spectral
+form had taken a liking to her, and told her she was called _Katie King_
+in the other world, and had been a lady called Annie Morgan during one of
+her lives on earth. Some observers told marvellous stories of these
+apparitions, which they also saw,--among them being William Harrison,
+Benjamin Coleman, Mr. Luxmore, Dr. Sexton, Dr. Gully, the Prince of Sayn
+Wittgenstein, who have all published accounts of them which breathe an
+air of sincere belief. Professor Crookes got in touch with this new medium
+in December, 1873. In _The Spiritualist_--a journal edited by Mr.
+Harrison, at whose home several sittings had taken place--there appeared
+in the numbers for February and March, 1874, two letters from Professor
+Crookes. A few extracts from these letters here follow:
+
+    I have reason to know that the power at work in these phenomena, like
+    Love, "laughs at locksmiths."
+
+    The séance of which you speak and at which I was present, was held at
+    the house of Mr. Luxmore, and the "cabinet" was a back drawing-room
+    separated from the front room in which the company sat by a curtain.
+
+    The usual formality of searching the room and examining the fastenings
+    having been gone through, Miss Cook entered the cabinet.
+
+    After a little time the form of Katie appeared at the side of the
+    curtain, but soon retreated, saying her medium was not well, and could
+    not be put into a sufficiently deep sleep to make it safe for her to
+    be left.
+
+    I was sitting within a few feet of the curtain close behind which Miss
+    Cook was sitting, and I could frequently hear her moan and sob, as if
+    in pain. This uneasiness continued at intervals nearly the whole
+    duration of the _séance_, _and once, when the form of Katie was
+    standing before me in the room, I distinctly heard a sobbing, moaning
+    sound, identical with that which Miss Cook had been making at
+    intervals the whole time of the séance, come from behind the curtain
+    where the young lady was supposed to be sitting_.
+
+    I admit that the figure was startlingly life-like and real, and, as
+    far as I could see in the somewhat dim light, the features resembled
+    those of Miss Cook; but still the positive evidence of one of my own
+    senses that the moan came from Miss Cook in the cabinet, whilst the
+    figure was outside, is too strong to be upset by a mere inference to
+    the contrary, however well supported.
+
+    Your readers, sir, know me, and will, I hope, believe that I will not
+    come hastily to an opinion, or ask them to agree with me on
+    insufficient evidence. It is perhaps expecting too much to think that
+    the little incident I have mentioned will have the same weight with
+    them that it had with me. But this I do beg of them--Let those who are
+    inclined to judge Miss Cook harshly suspend their judgment until I
+    bring forward positive evidence which I think will be sufficient to
+    settle the question.
+
+    Miss Cook is now devoting herself exclusively to a series of private
+    séances with me and one or two friends. The séances will probably
+    extend over some months, and I am promised that every desirable test
+    shall be given to me. These séances have not been going on many weeks,
+    but enough has taken place to thoroughly convince me of the perfect
+    truth and honesty of Miss Cook, and to give me every reason to expect
+    that the promises so freely made to me by Katie will be kept.
+
+    WILLIAM CROOKES.
+
+Here is the second letter from the cautious investigator:
+
+    In a letter which I wrote to this journal early in February last,
+    speaking of the phenomena of spirit-forms which have appeared through
+    Miss Cook's mediumship, I said, "Let those who are inclined to judge
+    Miss Cook harshly suspend their judgment until I bring forward
+    positive evidence which I think will be sufficient to settle the
+    question."
+
+    In that letter I described an incident which, to my mind, went very
+    far towards convincing me that Katie and Miss Cook were two separate
+    material beings. When Katie was outside the cabinet, standing before
+    me, I heard a moaning noise from Miss Cook in the cabinet. I am happy
+    to say that I have at last obtained the "absolute proof" to which I
+    referred in the above-quoted letter.
+
+    On March 12th, during a séance here, after Katie had been walking
+    amongst us and talking for some time, she retreated behind the curtain
+    which separated my laboratory, where the company was sitting, from my
+    library which did temporary duty as a cabinet. In a minute she came to
+    the curtain and called me to her, saying, "Come into the room and lift
+    my medium's head up, she has slipped down." Katie was then standing
+    before me clothed in her usual white robes and turban head-dress. I
+    immediately walked into the library up to Miss Cook, Katie stepping
+    aside to allow me to pass. I found Miss Cook had slipped partially
+    off the sofa, and her head was hanging in a very awkward position. I
+    lifted her on to the sofa, and in so doing had satisfactory evidence,
+    in spite of the darkness, that Miss Cook was not attired in the
+    "Katie" costume, but had on her ordinary black velvet dress, and was
+    in a deep trance. Not more than three seconds elapsed between my
+    seeing the white-robed Katie standing before me and my raising Miss
+    Cook onto the sofa from the position into which she had fallen.
+
+    On returning to my post of observation by the curtain, Katie again
+    appeared, and said she thought she would be able to show herself and
+    her medium to me at the same time. The gas was then turned out and she
+    asked for my phosphorus lamp. After exhibiting herself by it for some
+    seconds, she handed it back to me, saying, "Now come in and see my
+    medium." I closely followed her into the library, and by the light of
+    my lamp saw Miss Cook lying on the sofa just as I had left her. I
+    looked round for Katie, but she had disappeared. I called her, but
+    there was no answer.
+
+    On resuming my place, Katie soon reappeared, and told me that she had
+    been standing close to Miss Cook all the time. She then asked if she
+    might try an experiment herself, and taking the phosphorus lamp from
+    me she passed behind the curtain, asking me not to look in for the
+    present. In a few minutes she handed the lamp back to me, saying she
+    could not succeed, as she had used up all the power, but would try
+    again another time. My eldest son, a lad of fourteen, who was sitting
+    opposite me, in such a position that he could see behind the curtain,
+    tells me he distinctly saw the phosphorus lamp apparently floating
+    about in space over Miss Cook, illuminating her as she lay motionless
+    on the sofa, but he could not see anyone holding the lamp.
+
+    I pass on to a séance held last night at Hackney. Katie never appeared
+    to greater perfection, and for nearly two hours she walked about the
+    room, conversing familiarly with those present. On several occasions
+    she took my arm when walking, and the impression conveyed to my mind
+    that it was a living woman by my side, instead of a visitor from the
+    other world, was so strong that the temptation to repeat a recent
+    celebrated experiment became almost irresistible.
+
+    Feeling, however, that if I had not a spirit, I had at all events a
+    _lady_ close to me, I asked her permission to clasp her in my arms, so
+    as to be able to verify the interesting observations which a bold
+    experimentalist has recently somewhat verbosely recorded. Permission
+    was graciously given, and I accordingly did--well, as any gentleman
+    would do under the circumstances. Mr. Volckman will be pleased to know
+    that I can corroborate his statement that the "ghost" (not
+    "struggling" however) was as material a being as Miss Cook herself.
+
+    Katie now said she thought she would be able this time to show herself
+    and Miss Cook together. I was to turn the gas out, and then come with
+    my phosphorus lamp into the room now used as a cabinet. This I did,
+    having previously asked a friend who was skillful at shorthand to take
+    down any statement I might make when in the cabinet, knowing the
+    importance attaching to first impressions, and not wishing to leave
+    more to memory than necessary. His notes are now before me.
+
+    I went cautiously into the room, it being dark, and felt about for
+    Miss Cook. I found her crouching on the floor.
+
+    Kneeling down, I let air enter the lamp, and by its light I saw the
+    young lady dressed in black velvet, as she had been in the early part
+    of the evening, and to all appearance perfectly senseless; she did not
+    move when I took her hand and held the light quite close to her face,
+    but continued quietly breathing.
+
+    Raising the lamp, I looked around and saw Katie standing close behind
+    Miss Cook. She was robed in flowing white drapery as we had seen her
+    previously during the séance. Holding one of Miss Cook's hands in
+    mine, and still kneeling, I passed the lamp up and down so as to
+    illuminate Katie's whole figure, and satisfy myself thoroughly that I
+    was really looking at the veritable Katie whom I had clasped in my
+    arms a few minutes before, and not at the phantasm of a disordered
+    brain. She did not speak, but moved her head and smiled in
+    recognition. Three separate times did I carefully examine Miss Cook
+    crouching before me, to be sure that the hand I held was that of a
+    living woman, and three separate times did I turn the lamp to Katie
+    and examine her with steadfast scrutiny, until I had no doubt whatever
+    of her objective reality. At last Miss Cook moved slightly, and Katie
+    instantly motioned me to go away. I went to another part of the
+    cabinet, and then ceased to see Katie, but did not leave the room till
+    Miss Cook woke up, and two of the visitors came in with a light.
+
+    Before concluding this article I wish to give some of the points of
+    difference which I have observed between Miss Cook and Katie. Katie's
+    height varies; in my house I have seen her six inches taller than Miss
+    Cook. Last night, with bare feet, and not "tiptoeing," she was
+    four-and-a-half inches taller than Miss Cook. Katie's neck was bare
+    last night; the skin was perfectly smooth both to touch and sight,
+    whilst on Miss Cook's neck is a large blister, which under similar
+    circumstances is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. Katie's
+    ears are unpierced, whilst Miss Cook habitually wears earrings.
+    Katie's complexion is very fair, while that of Miss Cook is very dark.
+    Katie's fingers are much longer than Miss Cook's, and her face is also
+    larger. In manners and ways of expression there are also many decided
+    differences.
+
+After the observations summarized in these two letters Professor Crookes
+continued his experiments at his own home, for a space of two months. The
+result of all is embodied in the following statements made by Crookes
+himself:
+
+    During the week before Katie took her departure she gave séances at my
+    house almost nightly, to enable me to photograph her by artificial
+    light. Five complete sets of photographic apparatus were accordingly
+    fitted up for the purpose, consisting of five cameras, one of the
+    whole-plate size, one half-plate, one quarter-plate, and two binocular
+    stereoscopic cameras, which were all brought to bear upon Katie at the
+    same time on each occasion on which she stood for her portrait. Five
+    sensitizing and five fixing baths were used, and plenty of plates were
+    cleaned ready for use in advance, so that there might be no hitch or
+    delay during the photographic operations, which were performed by
+    myself, aided by one assistant.
+
+    My library was used as a dark cabinet. It has folding doors opening
+    into the laboratory; one of these doors was taken off its hinges, and
+    a curtain suspended in its place to enable Katie to pass in and out
+    easily. Those of our friends who were present were seated in the
+    laboratory facing the curtain, and the cameras were placed a little
+    behind them, ready to photograph Katie when she came outside, and to
+    photograph anything also inside the cabinet, whenever the curtain was
+    withdrawn for the purpose. Each evening there were three or four
+    exposures of plates in the five cameras, giving at least fifteen
+    separate pictures at each séance; some of these were spoilt in the
+    developing, and some in regulating the amount of light. Altogether, I
+    have forty-four negatives, some inferior, some indifferent, and some
+    excellent.
+
+    Katie instructed all the sitters but myself to keep their seats and to
+    keep conditions; but for some time past she has given me permission to
+    do what I liked--to touch her, and to enter and leave the cabinet
+    almost whenever I pleased. I have frequently followed her into the
+    cabinet, and have sometimes seen her and her medium together, but most
+    generally I have found nobody but the entranced medium lying on the
+    floor, Katie and her white robes having instantaneously disappeared.
+
+    During the last six months Miss Cook has been a frequent visitor at my
+    house, remaining sometimes a week at a time. She brings nothing with
+    her but a little hand-bag, not locked. During the day she is
+    constantly in the presence of Mrs. Crookes, myself, or some other
+    member of my family, and, not sleeping by herself, there is absolutely
+    no opportunity for any preparation even of a less elaborate character
+    than would be required for enacting Katie King. I prepare and arrange
+    my library myself as the dark cabinet, and usually, after Miss Cook
+    has been dining and conversing with us, and scarcely out of our sight
+    for a minute, she walks directly into the cabinet, and I, at her
+    request, lock its second door, and keep possession of the key all
+    through the séance. The gas is then turned out, and Miss Cook is left
+    in darkness.
+
+    On entering the cabinet, Miss Cook lies down upon the floor, with her
+    head on a pillow, and is soon entranced. During the photographic
+    séance, Katie muffled her medium's head up in a shawl to prevent the
+    light falling upon her face. I frequently drew the curtain on one side
+    when Katie was standing near, and it was a common thing for the seven
+    or eight of us in the laboratory to see Miss Cook and Katie at the
+    same time, under the full blaze of the electric light. We did not on
+    these occasions actually see the face of the medium because of the
+    shawl, but we saw her hands and feet; we saw her move uneasily under
+    the influence of the intense light, and we heard her moan
+    occasionally. I have one photograph of the two together, but Katie is
+    seated in front of Miss Cook's head.
+
+    During the time I took an active part in these séances Katie's
+    confidence in me gradually grew, until she refused to give a séance
+    unless I took charge of the arrangements. She said she always wanted
+    me to keep close to her, and near the cabinet, and I found that after
+    this confidence was established, and she was satisfied I would not
+    break any promise I might make to her, the phenomena increased greatly
+    in power, and tests were freely given that would have been
+    unobtainable had I approached the subject in another manner. She often
+    consulted me about persons present at the séances, and where they
+    should be placed, for of late she had become very nervous, in
+    consequence of certain ill-advised suggestions that force should be
+    employed as an adjunct to more scientific modes of research.
+
+    One of the most interesting of the pictures is one in which I am
+    standing by the side of Katie; she has her bare foot upon a particular
+    part of the floor. Afterwards I dressed Miss Cook like Katie, placed
+    her and myself in exactly the same position, and we were photographed
+    by the same cameras, placed exactly as in the other experiment, and
+    illuminated by the same light. When these two pictures are placed over
+    each other, the two photographs of myself coincide exactly as regards
+    stature, etc., but Katie is half a head taller than Miss Cook, and
+    looks a big woman in comparison with her. In the breadth of her face,
+    in many of the pictures, she differs essentially in size from her
+    medium, and the photographs show several other points of difference.
+
+    But photography is as inadequate to depict the perfect beauty of
+    Katie's face as words are powerless to describe her charms of manner.
+    Photography may, indeed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it
+    reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever-varying
+    expression of her most mobile features, now overshadowed with sadness
+    when relating some of the bitter experiences of her past life, now
+    smiling with all the innocence of happy girlhood when she had
+    collected my children round her and was amusing them by recounting
+    anecdotes of her adventures in India?
+
+      "Round her she made an atmosphere of life;
+        The very air seemed lighter from her eyes,
+      They were so soft and beautiful, and rife
+        With all we can imagine of the skies;
+      Her overpowering presence made you feel
+        It would not be idolatry to kneel."
+
+    Having seen so much of Katie lately, when she has been illuminated by
+    the electric light, I am enabled to add to the points of difference
+    between her and her medium which I mentioned in a former article. I
+    have the most absolute certainty that Miss Cook and Katie are two
+    separate individuals so far as their bodies are concerned. Several
+    little marks on Miss Cook's face are absent on Katie's. Miss Cook's
+    hair is so dark a brown as almost to appear black; a lock of Katie's,
+    which is now before me, and which she allowed me to cut from her
+    luxuriant tresses, having first traced it up to the scalp and
+    satisfied myself that it actually grew there, is a rich golden auburn.
+
+    One evening I timed Katie's pulse. It beat steadily at 75, whilst Miss
+    Cook's pulse a little time after was going at its usual rate of 90. On
+    applying my ear to Katie's chest I could hear a heart beating
+    rhythmically inside, and pulsating even more steadily than did Miss
+    Cook's heart when she allowed me to try a similar experiment after the
+    séance. Tested in the same way, Katie's lungs were found to be sounder
+    than her medium's, for at the time I tried my experiment Miss Cook was
+    under medical treatment for a severe cough.
+
+This mysterious being, this strange Katie King, had announced, from the
+time of her first appearances, that she would be able to show herself in
+this way for only three years. The end of this period was now approaching.
+
+    When the time came for Katie to take her farewell I asked that she
+    would let me see the last of her. Accordingly when she had called each
+    of the company up to her and had spoken to them a few words in
+    private, she gave some general directions for the future guidance and
+    protection of Miss Cook. From these, which were taken down in
+    shorthand, I quote the following: "Mr. Crookes has done very well
+    throughout, and I leave Florrie with the greatest confidence in his
+    hands, feeling perfectly sure he will not abuse the trust I place in
+    him. He can act in any emergency better than I can myself, for he has
+    more strength." Having concluded her directions Katie invited me into
+    the cabinet with her, and allowed me to remain there to the end.
+
+    After closing the curtain she conversed with me for some time, and
+    then walked across the room to where Miss Cook was lying senseless on
+    the floor. Stooping over her, Katie touched her, and said: "Wake up,
+    Florrie, wake up! I must leave you now."
+
+    Miss Cook then woke and tearfully entreated Katie to stay a little
+    time longer. "My dear, I can't; my work is done. God bless you," Katie
+    replied, and then continued speaking to Miss Cook. For several minutes
+    the two were conversing with each other, till at last Miss Cook's
+    tears prevented her speaking. Following Katie's instructions I then
+    came forward to support Miss Cook, who was falling onto the floor,
+    sobbing hysterically. I looked round, but the white-robed Katie had
+    gone. As soon as Miss Cook was sufficiently calmed, a light was
+    procured and I led her out of the cabinet.
+
+One word more about this astonishing phenomenon. The medium Home,
+employed, as we have seen, in the first experiments of Professor Crookes,
+gave it to me as his personal opinion that Miss Cook was only a skilful
+trickster, and had shamefully deceived the eminent scientist, and as for
+mediums, why _there was only one absolutely trustworthy and that was
+himself, Daniel Dunglas Home_! He even added that the fiancé of Miss Cook
+had given striking proofs of her extreme cantankerousness!
+
+He who has observed at close hand the rivalries of mediums--which are as
+strongly marked as those of doctors, actors, musicians and women--will
+not, it seems to me, find in this talk of Home any intrinsic value
+whatever. But I must confess that this matter of Katie King is really so
+extraordinary that I am forced to try every possible explanation before
+admitting its truth. This is also the opinion of Mr. Crookes himself.
+
+    In order to convince myself (says he) I was constantly on my guard,
+    and Miss Cook readily assisted me in all my investigations. Every test
+    that I have proposed she has at once agreed to submit to with the
+    utmost willingness; she is open and straightforward in speech, and I
+    have never seen anything approaching the slightest symptom of a wish
+    to deceive. Indeed, I do not believe she could carry on a deception if
+    she were to try, and if she did she would certainly be found out very
+    quickly, for such a line of action is altogether foreign to her
+    nature. And to imagine that an innocent school-girl of fifteen would
+    be able to conceive and then successfully carry out for three years so
+    gigantic an imposture as this, and in that time would submit to any
+    test which might be imposed upon her, would bear the strictest
+    scrutiny, would be willing to be searched at any time, either before
+    or after a séance, and would meet with even better success in my own
+    house than at that of her parents, knowing that she visited me with
+    the express object of submitting to strict scientific tests--to
+    imagine, I say, the Katie King of the last three years to be the
+    result of imposture does more violence to one's reason and common
+    sense than to believe her to be what she herself affirms.
+
+It will perhaps not be superfluous to round out these accounts of William
+Crookes by giving an extract from the journal _The Spiritualist_ of the
+29th of May, 1874.
+
+    From the beginning of the mediumship of Miss Cook, the spirit Katie
+    King or Annie Morgan, who had produced the greater portion of the
+    physical part of the manifestations, had announced that she would not
+    be able to be with her medium longer than three years, and that after
+    that time she would say good-bye to her forever.
+
+    The end of that period came last Thursday; but before leaving her
+    medium, she gave her friends three more séances.
+
+    The last took place on Thursday, the 21st of May, 1874. Among the
+    spectators was Prof. William Crookes.
+
+    At 7.23 in the evening Professor Crookes led Miss Cook into the dark
+    cabinet, where she lay down upon the floor, her head resting on a
+    cushion. At 7.28 Katie spoke for the first time, and at 7.30 she
+    showed herself outside of the curtain in her full form. She was
+    dressed in white, short sleeves and bare neck. She had long light
+    auburn hair of a rich tint, falling in curls on each side of her head
+    and down her back to her waist. She wore a long white veil which was
+    not drawn down over her face more than once or twice during the
+    sitting.
+
+    The medium wore a light blue merino robe. During almost the whole of
+    the séance, Katie remained standing before us. The curtain of the
+    cabinet was drawn aside and all could distinctly see the medium lying
+    asleep, having her face covered with a red shawl, in order to shield
+    it from the light. Katie spoke of her approaching departure and
+    accepted a bouquet which Mr. Tapp had brought her, as well as a bunch
+    of lilies offered by Mr. Crookes. She asked Mr. Tapp to untie the
+    bouquet and to put the flowers before her on the floor. She then sat
+    down in the Turkish style and asked all to sit around her in the same
+    way. Then she divided the flowers and gave to each a little bouquet
+    tied up with a blue ribbon.
+
+    She then wrote letters to some of her friends, signing them "Annie
+    Owen Morgan," saying that was her true name during her life on earth.
+    She also wrote a letter to her medium, and chose for her a rosebud as
+    a good-bye gift. Katie then took the scissors, cut off a lock of her
+    hair and gave some of it to all of us. She then took Mr. Crookes' hand
+    and made the tour of the room, pressing the hand of each of us in
+    turn. She then sat down again and cut off several pieces of her robe
+    and of her veil for remembrances. Seeing such holes in her robe (she
+    being seated all this while between Mr. Crookes and Mr. Tapp), some
+    one asked her if she could repair the damage, as she had done on
+    previous occasions. She then held the cut part of the robe in the
+    light, gave one rap upon it, and instantly that part was whole and
+    unblemished as before. Those near her touched and examined the stuff,
+    with her permission. They affirmed that there was neither hole nor
+    scam, nor anything added at the very place where an instant before
+    they had seen holes several inches in diameter.
+
+    She next gave her last instructions to Mr. Crookes. Then, seeming
+    fatigued, she added that her force was disappearing, and repeated her
+    good-bye to everyone in the most affectionate manner. All present
+    thanked her for the wonderful manifestations which she had given them.
+
+    While she was directing toward her friends a last grave and pensive
+    look, she let fall the curtain, and it hid her from our view. We heard
+    her waking up the medium, who begged her with tears to remain a little
+    longer. But Katie said, "It is impossible, my dear; my mission is
+    accomplished; God bless you!" And we heard the sound of a kiss. The
+    medium then came out among us wholly exhausted and in a state of deep
+    dismay.
+
+Such are the experiments of Sir William Crookes. I have restricted myself
+to relating his own personal observations, as set forth by himself. The
+story of Katie King is truly one of the most mysterious, the most
+incredible, to be found in the whole history of Spiritualistic research,
+and is at the same time, one of the cases that have been most scrupulously
+studied by the experimental method, including photography.
+
+The medium, Miss Florence Cook, married in 1874 Mr. Elgie Corner, and,
+from that time on, her contributions to psychical research almost ceased.
+I have several times been assured that she also had been caught in the
+very act of cheating. (Always that feminine hysteria!) But the
+investigations of Crookes were conducted with such care and competence,
+that it is very difficult to refuse our credence. Besides, this scientist
+was not the only one to study the mediumship of Florence Cook. Among other
+works that may be consulted on this subject is one containing a large
+number of proofs and testimonies, as well as several photographs (alluded
+to above).[68]
+
+These recorded cases, or testimonies, form a collection of records, the
+study of which is most instructive. The study of the great chemist surpass
+the rest, to be sure, but it does not diminish the intrinsic value of the
+others. All the observations agree and mutually confirm each other.
+
+As to the explanation of the phenomena, Crookes thinks that we cannot
+discover it. Was this apparition what it claimed to be? There is nothing
+to prove it.
+
+Might it not be a _double_ of the medium, a product of her psychic force?
+
+The learned chemist did not change his opinion (as has been claimed) about
+the authenticity of the phenomena studied by him. In an address delivered
+at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
+held at Bristol in 1898, and of which he was President, he expressed
+himself as follows:
+
+    No incident in my scientific career is more widely known than the part
+    I took many years ago in certain psychic researches. Thirty years have
+    passed since I published an account of experiments tending to show
+    that outside our scientific knowledge there exists a Force exercised
+    by intelligence differing from the ordinary intelligence common to
+    mortals. This fact in my life is, of course, well understood by those
+    who honored me with the invitation to become your President. Perhaps
+    among my audience some may feel curious as to whether I shall speak
+    out or be silent. I elect to speak, although briefly.
+
+    To enter at length on a still debatable subject would be to insist on
+    a topic which,--as Wallace, Lodge and Barrett have already
+    shown,--though not unfitted for discussion at these meetings, does not
+    yet enlist the interest of the majority of my scientific brethren. To
+    ignore the subject would be an act of cowardice, an act of cowardice I
+    feel no temptation to commit.
+
+    To stop short in any research that bids fair to widen the gates of
+    knowledge, to recoil from fear of difficulty or adverse criticism, is
+    to bring reproach on science. There is nothing for the investigator to
+    do but to go straight on, "to explore up and down, inch by inch, with
+    the taper, his reason;" to follow the light wherever it may lead, even
+    should it at times resemble a will-o'-the wisp.
+
+    I have nothing to retract. I adhere to my already published
+    statements. Indeed, I might add much thereto. I regret only a certain
+    crudity in those early expositions, which, no doubt justly, militated
+    against their acceptance by the scientific world. My own knowledge at
+    that time scarcely extended beyond the fact that certain phenomena new
+    to science had assuredly occurred, and were attested by my own sober
+    senses, and, better still, by automatic record.
+
+    I was like some two-dimensional being who might stand at the singular
+    point of a Riemann's surface, and thus find himself in infinitesimal
+    and inexplicable contact with a plane of existence not his own.
+
+    I think I see a little farther now. I have glimpses of something like
+    coherence among the strange elusive phenomena; of something like
+    continuity between those unexplained forces and laws already known.
+    This advance is largely due to the labors of another Association of
+    which I have also this year the honor to be President--the Society for
+    Psychical Research. And were I now introducing for the first time
+    these inquiries to the world of science I should choose a starting
+    point different from that of old. It would be well to begin with
+    _telepathy_; with the fundamental law, as I believe it to be, that
+    thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to another
+    without the agency of the recognized organs of sense, that knowledge
+    may enter the human mind without being communicated in any hitherto
+    known or recognized ways.
+
+    Although the inquiry has elicited important facts with reference to
+    the mind, it has not yet reached the scientific stage of certainty
+    which would entitle it to be usefully brought before one of our
+    sections. I will therefore confine myself to pointing out the
+    direction in which scientific investigation can legitimately advance.
+
+    If telepathy take place we have two physical facts--the physical
+    change in the brain of A, the suggester, and the analogous physical
+    change in the brain of B, the recipient of the suggestion. Between
+    these two physical events there must exist a train of physical causes.
+    Whenever the connecting sequence of intermediate causes begins to be
+    revealed the inquiry will then come within the range of one of the
+    sections of the British Association. Such a sequence can only occur
+    through an intervening medium. All the phenomena of the universe are
+    presumably in some way continous, and it is unscientific to call in
+    the aid of mysterious agencies when with every fresh advance in
+    knowledge it is shown that ether vibrations have powers and attributes
+    abundantly equal to any demand--even to the transmission of thought.
+    It is supposed by some physiologists that the essential cells of
+    nerves do not actually touch, but are separated by a narrow gap which
+    widens in sleep while it narrows almost to extinction during mental
+    activity. This condition is so singuarly like that of a Branly or
+    Lodge coherer as to suggest a further analogy.
+
+    The structure of brain and nerve being similar, it is conceivable
+    there may be present masses of such nerve coherers in the brain whose
+    special function it may be to receive impulses brought from without
+    through the connecting sequence of ether waves of appropriate order of
+    magnitude. Röntgen has familiarized us with an order of vibrations of
+    extreme minuteness compared with the smallest waves with which we
+    have hitherto been acquainted, and of dimensions comparable with the
+    distances between centers of the atoms of which the material universe
+    is built up; and there is no reason to suppose that we have here
+    reached the limit of frequency. It is known that the action of thought
+    is accompanied by certain molecular movements in the brain, and here
+    we have physical vibrations capable from their extreme minuteness of
+    acting directly on individual molecules, while their rapidity
+    approaches that of the internal and external movements of the atoms
+    themselves.
+
+    Confirmation of telepathic phenomena is afforded by many converging
+    experiments, and by many spontaneous occurrences only thus
+    intelligible. The most varied proof, perhaps, is drawn from analysis
+    of the sub-conscious workings of the mind, when these, whether by
+    accident or design, are brought into conscious survey. Evidence of a
+    region below the threshold of consciousness has been presented, since
+    its first inception, in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+    Research;" and its various aspects are being interpreted and welded
+    into a comprehensive whole by the pertinacious genius of F. W. H.
+    Myers.
+
+    A formidable range of phenomena must be scientifically sifted before
+    we effectually grasp a faculty so strange, so bewildering, and for
+    ages so inscrutable, as the direct action of mind on mind.
+
+    An eminent predecessor in this chair declared that "by an intellectual
+    necessity be crossed the boundary of experimental evidence, and
+    discerned in that matter, which we, in our ignorance of its latent
+    powers, and notwithstanding our professed reverence for its Creator,
+    have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the potency and promise of all
+    terrestrial life." I should prefer to reverse the apophthegm, and to
+    say that in life I see the promise and potency of all forms of matter.
+
+    In old Egyptian days a well-known inscription was carved over the
+    portal of the temple of Isis: "I am whatever hath been, is, or ever
+    will be; and my veil no man hath yet lifted." Not thus do modern
+    seekers after truth confront Nature,--the word that stands for the
+    baffling mysteries of the Universe. Steadily, unflinchingly, we
+    strive to pierce the inmost heart of Nature, from what she is to
+    re-construct what she has been, and to prophesy what she yet shall be.
+    Veil after veil we have lifted, and her face grows more beautiful,
+    august, and wonderful, with every barrier that is withdrawn.
+
+It would be difficult to find truer thought better expressed. It is the
+language of true science, and is also the expression of the highest
+philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SUNDRY EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
+
+
+Abundant testimony as to the existence of a hitherto little explored
+psychic realm has doubtless been given in the preceding pages. Mediumistic
+phenomena proclaim the existence of unknown forces. It is almost
+superfluous to heap up in this place a still greater number of recorded
+instances.
+
+However, these facts are so extraordinary, so incomprehensible, so hard to
+believe, that a mere increase in the number of cases is not without value,
+especially when they are furnished by men of incontestable skill and
+learning. The old law proverb _Testis unus, testis nullus_ ("One witness
+is no witness") is applicable here. We must not verify once, we must
+verify a hundred times, such apparently scientific extravagances, in order
+to make sure they are not delusions, but sober facts.
+
+In short, the whole subject is so curious, so strange that the
+investigator of these mysteries is never surfeited.
+
+Hence, in addition to what has already been given, I shall select and
+present in this place, out of the immense collection of observations which
+I have for a long time been making, those which most strike the attention
+and give added confirmation to what has preceded.
+
+In addition to the experiments of Crookes, it is fitting to add in this
+place those of the great English naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, also a
+member of the Royal Society of London, President of the English
+Anthropological Society, and well known as the scientist, who at the same
+time with Darwin (June, 1858), gave to the world the theory of the
+variation of species by natural selection.
+
+He himself gives the following account[69] of his studies in this matter
+of the mysterious psychic force:
+
+    It was in the summer of 1865 that I first witnessed any of the
+    phenomena of what is called Spiritualism, in the house of a friend,--a
+    sceptic, a man of science, and a lawyer, with none but members of his
+    own family present. Sitting at a good-sized round table, with our
+    hands placed upon it, after a short time slight movements would
+    commence--not often "turnings" or "tiltings" but a gentle intermittent
+    movement, like steps, which after a time would bring the table quite
+    across the room. Slight but distinct tapping sounds were also heard.
+    The following notes made at the time were intended to describe exactly
+    what took place:--
+
+    "July 22nd, 1865.--Sat with my friend, his wife, and two daughters at
+    a large loo table, by daylight. In about half an hour some faint
+    motions were perceived, and some faint taps heard. They gradually
+    increased; the taps became very distinct, and the table moved
+    considerably, obliging us all to shift our chairs. Then a curious
+    vibratory motion of the table commenced, almost like the shivering of
+    a living animal. I could feel it up to my elbows. These phenomena were
+    variously repeated for two hours. On trying afterwards, we found the
+    table could not be voluntarily moved in the same manner without a
+    great exertion of force, and we could discover no possible way of
+    producing the taps while our hands were upon the table."
+
+    On other occasions we tried the experiment of each person in
+    succession leaving the table, and found that the phenomena continued
+    the same as before, both taps and the table movement. Once I requested
+    one after another to leave the table. The phenomena continued, but, as
+    the number of sitters diminished, with decreasing vigor, and, just
+    after the last person had drawn back, leaving me alone at the table,
+    there were two dull taps or blows, as with a fist on the pillar or
+    foot of the table, the vibration of which I could feel as well as
+    hear.
+
+    Some time before these observations I had met a gentleman who had told
+    me of most wonderful phenomena occurring in his own family,--among
+    them the palpable motion of solid bodies when no person was touching
+    them or near them; and he had recommended me to go to a public medium
+    in London (Mrs. Marshall), where I might see things equally wonderful.
+    Accordingly, in September, 1865, I began a series of visits to Mrs.
+    Marshall, generally accompanied by a friend,--a good chemist and
+    mechanic, and of a thoroughly sceptical mind.
+
+    1. A small table, on which the hands of four persons were placed
+    (including my own and Mrs. Marshall's), rose up vertically about a
+    foot from the floor, and remained suspended for about twenty seconds,
+    while my friend, who was sitting looking on, could see the lower part
+    of the table with the feet freely suspended above the floor.
+
+    2. While sitting at a large table, with Miss T. on my left and Mr. R.
+    on my right, a guitar which had been played in Miss T's hand slid down
+    onto the floor, passed over my feet, and came to Mr. R., against whose
+    legs it raised itself up till it appeared above the table. I and Mr.
+    R. were watching it carefully the whole time, and it behaved as if
+    alive itself, or rather as if a small invisible child were by great
+    exertions moving it and raising it up. These two phenomena were
+    witnessed in bright gaslight.
+
+    3. A chair, on which a relation of Mr. R's sat, was lifted up with her
+    on it. Afterwards, when she returned to the table from the piano,
+    where she had been playing, her chair moved away just as she was going
+    to sit down. On drawing it up, it moved away again. After this had
+    happened three times, it became apparently fixed to the floor, so that
+    she could not raise it. Mr. R. then took hold of it, and found that it
+    was only by a great exertion he could lift it off the floor. This
+    sitting took place in broad daylight, on a bright day, and in a room
+    on the first floor with two windows.
+
+    However strange and unreal these few phenomena may seem to readers who
+    have seen nothing of the kind, I positively affirm that they are
+    facts which really happened just as I have narrated them, and that
+    there was no room for any possible trick or deception. In each case,
+    before we began, we turned up the tables and chairs, and saw that they
+    were ordinary pieces of furniture, and that there was no connection
+    between them and the floor, and we placed them where we pleased before
+    we sat down. Several of the phenomena occurred entirely under our own
+    hands, and quite disconnected from the "medium." They were as much
+    realities as the motion of nails towards a magnet, and, it may be
+    added, not in themselves more improbable or more incomprehensible.
+
+    The mental phenomena which most frequently occur are the spelling out
+    of the names of relatives of persons present, their ages, or any other
+    particulars about them. They are especially uncertain in their
+    manifestation, though when they do succeed they are very conclusive to
+    the persons who witness them. The general opinion of sceptics as to
+    these phenomena is, that they depend simply on the acuteness and
+    talent of the medium in hitting on the letters which form the name, by
+    the manner in which persons dwell upon or hurry over them,--the
+    ordinary mode of receiving these communications being for the person
+    interested to go over a printed alphabet, letter by letter, loud taps
+    indicating the letters which form the required names. I am going to
+    choose some of our experiments which show how impossible it is to
+    accept this explanation.
+
+    When I first received a communication myself I was particularly
+    careful to avoid giving any indication, by going with steady
+    regularity over the letters; yet there was spelt out correctly, first,
+    the place where my brother died, Para; then his Christian name,
+    Herbert; and lastly, at my request, the name of the mutual friend who
+    last saw him, Henry Walter Bates. On this occasion our party of six
+    visited Mrs. Marshall for the first time, and my name as well as those
+    of the rest of the party, except one, were unknown to her. That one
+    was my married sister, whose name was no clue to mine.
+
+    On the same occasion a young lady, a connection of Mr. R.'s was told
+    that a communication was to be made to her. She took the alphabet,
+    and instead of pointing to the letters one by one, she moved the
+    pencil smoothly over the lines with the greatest steadiness. I watched
+    her, and wrote down the letters which the taps indicated. The name
+    produced was an extraordinary one, the letters being Thomas Doe
+    Thacker. I thought there must be an error in the latter part; but the
+    names were Thomas Doe Thacker, the lady's father, every letter being
+    correct. A number of other names, places, and dates were spelt out on
+    this occasion with equal accuracy; but I give only these two, because
+    in these I am _sure_ no clue was given by which the names could have
+    been guessed by the most preternaturally acute intellect.
+
+    On another occasion, I accompanied my sister and a lady who had never
+    been there before to Mrs. Marshall's, and we had a very curious
+    illustration of the absurdity of imputing the spelling of names to the
+    receiver's hesitation and the medium's acuteness. She wished the name
+    of a particular deceased relative to be spelled out to her, and
+    pointed to the letters of the alphabet in the usual way, while I wrote
+    down those indicated. The first three letters were y r n. "Oh!" said
+    she, "that's nonsense; we had better begin again." Just then an e
+    came, and, thinking I saw what it was, I said, "Please go on, I
+    understand it." The whole was then spelt out thus: yrnehkcocffej. The
+    lady even then did not see it, till I separated it thus: yrneh
+    kcocffej, or Henry Jeffcock,--the name of the relative she had wanted,
+    accurately spelt backwards.
+
+    Another phenomenon, necessitating the exertion both of force and
+    intellect, is the following: The table having been previously
+    examined, a sheet of note paper was marked privately by me, and placed
+    with a lead-pencil under the centre foot of the table, all present
+    having their hands upon the table. After a few minutes, taps are
+    heard, and, on taking up the paper, I find written on it, in a free
+    hand, "William." On another occasion, a friend from the country--a
+    total stranger to the medium, and whose name was never
+    mentioned--accompanied me; and, after receiving what purported to be a
+    communication from his son, a paper was put under the table, and in a
+    few minutes there was found written on it "Charley T. Dodd." the
+    correct name. In these cases it is certain there was no machinery
+    under the table; and it simply remains to ask if it were possible for
+    Mrs. Marshall to slip off her boots, seize the pencil and paper with
+    her toes, and write on it a name she had to guess at, and again put on
+    her boots without removing her hands from the table, or giving any
+    indication whatever of her exertions.
+
+    It was in November, 1866, that my sister discovered that a lady living
+    with her had the power of inducing loud and distinct taps and other
+    curious phenomena; and I now began a series of observations in my own
+    house, the most important of which I shall briefly narrate.
+
+    When we sat at a large loo table without a cloth, with all our hands
+    upon it, the taps would generally commence in a few minutes. They
+    sound as if made on the under side of the leaf of the table, in
+    various parts of it. They change in tone and loudness, from a sound
+    like that produced by tapping with a needle or a long finger-nail, to
+    others like blows with a fist or slaps with the fingers of a hand.
+    Sounds are produced also like scraping with a finger-nail, or like the
+    rubbing of a damp finger pressed very hard on the table. The rapidity
+    with which these sounds are produced and are changed is very
+    remarkable. They will imitate, more or less exactly, sounds which we
+    make with our fingers above the table; they will keep good time to a
+    tune whistled by one of the party; they will sometimes, at request,
+    play a very fair tune themselves, or will follow accurately a hand
+    tapping a tune upon the table.
+
+    Of course, the first impression is that some one's foot is lifting up
+    the table. To answer this objection, I prepared the table before our
+    second trial without telling any one, by stretching some thin tissue
+    paper between the feet an inch or two from the bottom of the pillar,
+    in such a manner that any attempt to insert the foot must crush or
+    tear the paper. The table rose up as before, resisted pressure
+    downwards, as if it was resting on the back of some animal, sunk to
+    the floor, and in a short time rose again, and then dropped suddenly
+    down. I now with some anxiety turned up the table, and, to the
+    surprise of all present, showed them the delicate tissue stretched
+    across altogether uninjured! Finding that this test was troublesome,
+    as the paper or threads had to be renewed every time, and were liable
+    to be broken accidentally before the experiment began, I constructed a
+    cylinder of hoops and laths, covered with canvas. The table was placed
+    within this as in a well, and, as it was about eighteen inches high,
+    it kept the feet and dresses of the ladies away from the table. The
+    latter rose without the least difficulty, the hands of all the group
+    being held above it.
+
+    A small centre-table suddenly moved up of its own accord to the table
+    by the side of the medium, as if it had gradually got within the
+    sphere of a strong attractive force. Afterwards, at our request, it
+    was thrown down on the floor without any person touching it, and it
+    then moved about in a strange life-like manner, as if seeking some
+    means of getting up again, turning its claws first on one side and
+    then on the other. On another occasion, a very large leather arm-chair
+    which stood at least four or five feet from the medium, suddenly
+    wheeled up to her, after a few slight preliminary movements. It is, of
+    course, easy to say that what I relate is impossible. I maintain that
+    it is accurately true; and that no man, whatever be his attainments,
+    has such an exhaustive knowledge of the powers of nature as to justify
+    him in using the word "impossible" with regard to facts which I and
+    many others have repeatedly witnessed.
+
+We evidently have here facts similar to those which I observed in my
+experiments with Eusapia and with other mediums.
+
+Alfred Russel Wallace continues his account by the citation of cases
+analogous to those which have been described in this work; then sums up
+the experiments of Crookes, of Varley, Morgan, and other English
+scientists; does me the honor of citing my letter to the Dialectical
+Society which I have printed above; passes in review the history of
+Spiritualism, and declares that (1) _the facts are incontestable_, and
+that (2), in his opinion, the best explanatory hypothesis is that of
+_spirits_, or _the souls of the disembodied_--the theory of "the
+unconscious" being _evidently inadequate_.
+
+Such is also the opinion of the electrician Cromwell Varley. Neither he
+nor Wallace believes that there is anything supernatural in the phenomena.
+Discarnate spirits are in nature, as well as the incarnate. "The
+triviality of the communications ought not to astonish us, if we consider
+the myriads of trivial and fantastic human beings who every day become
+ghosts and are the same beings the day after their death that they were
+the day before."
+
+Professor Morgan, the brilliant author of the _Budget of Paradoxes_ (an
+excellent piece of work, and highly complimented by the London _Athenæum_,
+in 1865), expresses the same opinion in his work on _Mind_ (1863). Not
+only does he think that the facts are incontestable, but he also believes
+that the hypothesis that explains the facts by intelligences exterior to
+ourselves is the only satisfying one. He relates, among other things,
+that, in one of the séances attended by him, a friend of his (a very
+sceptical person), was making a little fun of the spirits, whereupon,
+while they were all standing (a dozen experimenters of them) around the
+dining room table, and forming the chain above it, _without contact_, the
+heavy table began to move of its own accord, and, dragging along the whole
+group, made a rush at the sceptic, and pinned him against the back of the
+sofa, until he cried "Hold! enough!"
+
+Still, does that constitute proof of an independent spirit? Was it not an
+expression of the collective thought of the company? And, likewise, in the
+experience which Wallace has just cited, were not the dictated names
+latent in the brain of the questioner? And was not the little
+centre-table, in its climbings acting under the physical and pyschical
+influences of the medium?
+
+Whatever may be the explanatory hypothesis, the FACTS are undeniable.
+
+We have here, before all, a group of substantial English scientists of
+the first rank, in whose opinion the denial of the phenomena is a sort of
+madness.
+
+French scientists are a little more belated than their neighbors.
+Nevertheless, I have already called attention to some of them during the
+course of this work. I should have taken pleasure in adding the names of
+the lamented Pierre Curie and of Professor d'Arsonval, if they had
+published the experiments they made with Eusapia during July, 1905, and
+March and April, 1906, at the General Institute of Psychology.
+
+Among the most judicious of experimenters in psychical phenomena I ought
+also to mention M. J. Maxwell, a doctor of medicine and (a very different
+function) advocate-general at the Court of Appeals in Bordeaux.
+
+The reader may have already noticed (p. 173) the part which this
+investigator, at once a magistrate and a scientist, took in the
+experiments made at l'Agnélas in 1895. Eusapia is not the only medium with
+whom he studied, and his acquaintance with our subject is supported by the
+best of documentary evidence.
+
+It is fitting that I present to the reader at this point the most
+characteristic facts and the essential conclusions set forth in his
+work.[70]
+
+    The author has made a special examinations of _raps_.
+
+    _Raps (coups frappés)._--The contact of hands is not necessary to
+    obtain raps. With certain mediums I have very readily obtained them
+    without contact.
+
+    When one has succeeded in obtaining raps with contact, one of the
+    surest means of continuing to thus obtain them, is to keep the hands
+    resting on the table for a certain time, then to lift them _very
+    slowly_, keeping the palms turned downward toward the table, the
+    fingers loosely opened, but not held stiffly. It rarely happens under
+    such circumstances, that the raps do not continue to make themselves
+    heard, at least for some time. I need not add that the experimenters
+    should not only avoid touching the table with their hands, but even
+    with any other part of their bodies, or their clothes. The contact of
+    garments with the table may be sufficient to produce raps which have
+    in them nothing supernormal. It is necessary therefore to exercise
+    great care that the dresses of ladies do not come in contact with the
+    legs of the table. When the necessary precautions are used, the raps
+    sound in a very convincing way.
+
+    In the case of certain mediums, the energy set free is powerful enough
+    to act at a distance. I once happened to hear raps upon a table which
+    was almost six feet from the medium. We had had a very short sitting
+    and had left the table. I was reclining in an easy-chair; the medium,
+    standing, was conversing with me, when a series of raps was made upon
+    the table which we had just left. It was broad daylight in midsummer,
+    about five o'clock in the evening. The raps were forcible and lasted
+    for several minutes.
+
+    I have often observed facts of this kind. I happened once, while
+    travelling, to meet an interesting medium. He did not allow me to use
+    his name, but I may say that he is an honorable man, well informed,
+    occupying an official position. I obtained with him lively raps in
+    restaurants and in railway lunch counters. He did not suspect that he
+    possessed this latent faculty before he had experimented with me. To
+    have observed the raps produced under these conditions would have been
+    sufficient to convince anyone of their authenticity. The unusual noise
+    made by these raps attracted the attention of persons present and gave
+    us much annoyance. The result surpassed our expectations. It is to be
+    noted that the more we were confused with the noise made by our raps,
+    the more frequent they became. One would have said that some waggish
+    creature was producing them and amusing himself with our
+    embarrassment.
+
+    I also obtained fine raps upon the floors of museums before the
+    pictures of the old masters. The most common are those made, with
+    contact, upon the table or upon the floor; next, those made at a
+    distance upon various articles of furniture.
+
+    More rarely, I have heard them on the garments of the sitters or of
+    the medium, or upon the coverings of pieces of furniture. I have heard
+    them on sheets of paper laid on the experiment-table, in books, in
+    walls, in tambourines, in small wooden objects, especially in a
+    planchette used for automatic writing. I noticed very curious raps in
+    the case of a writing-medium. When she had automatic writing, the raps
+    were produced with extreme rapidity at the end of her pencil; but, the
+    pencil itself did not tap the table. Several times and very carefully
+    I put my hand on the end of the pencil opposite the point, without the
+    latter leaving for a single moment the paper on the table: the raps
+    sounded in the wood, not on the paper. In this case, of course, the
+    medium held the pencil.
+
+    The raps occur even when I place my finger on the upper end of the
+    pencil and when I press its point against the paper. You feel the
+    pencil vibrating, but it is not displaced. Inasmuch as these raps are
+    very resonant, I calculated that it would be necessary to give a
+    pretty strong blow in order to produce them artificially. The
+    necessary movement requires a lifting of the point from two to five
+    millimeters, according to the intensity of the raps. Now the point
+    does not seem to be displaced. Furthermore, when the writing is going
+    on, these raps take place with great rapidity, and the examination of
+    the writing does not show any place where a stop occurred. The text is
+    continuous, no trace of tapping is perceptible in it, no thickening of
+    the strokes can be perceived. Observations made under such conditions
+    seem to me to exclude the possibility of fraud.
+
+    I have observed that these raps occur, without apparent cause, as far
+    as nine feet from the medium. They manifest themselves as the
+    expression of an activity and of a will distinct from those of the
+    observers. Such is the _appearance_ of the phenomenon. A curious fact
+    results from all this, that not only do the raps occur as the product
+    of an intelligent action, but they also usually agree to perform as
+    often as asked, and to produce definite rhythms, for example, certain
+    airs. In like manner they imitate the raps made by the experimenters,
+    upon demand of the latter.
+
+    The different raps frequently respond to each other, and it is one of
+    the prettiest experiments in which one can take part to hear these
+    blows, now slight and muffled, now sharp and abrupt, or again soft and
+    gentle, sounding simultaneously upon the table, the floor, and the
+    frame-work and coverings of the furniture.
+
+    I had the good fortune to be able to study these curious rappings at
+    close range, and I believe I have reached certain conclusions. The
+    first, and the best attested, is that the raps are closely connected
+    with the muscular movements of the sitters. I will sum up my
+    observations on this point as follows:
+
+    1. Every muscular movement, even a feeble one, is generally followed
+    by a rap.
+
+    2. The intensity of the raps did not seem to me to be proportional to
+    the muscular movement made.
+
+    3. The intensity of the raps did not seem to me to vary in proportion
+    to their distance from the medium.
+
+    The following are the facts upon which my conclusions rest:
+
+    I frequently observed that when we had raps that were feeble and
+    occurred only at intervals, an excellent means of producing them was
+    to form the chain upon the table, the hands resting upon it, and the
+    observers putting their fingers in light contact. One of them, without
+    breaking the chain (a feat he accomplished by holding in the same hand
+    the right hand of his neighbor on the left and the left hand of his
+    neighbor on the right) moved his released hand in circular sweeps or
+    passes over the table, at the level of the circle formed by the opened
+    hands of the observers. After having made this movement four or five
+    times, always in the same direction,--that is to say, after having
+    thus traced four or five circles over the table, the experimenter
+    brought his hand over toward the centre at a variable height and moved
+    it down towards the table. Then he abruptly arrested this movement at
+    a distance of seven or eight inches from the top. The abrupt stoppage
+    of his hand was tallied by a rap in the wood. It is an exceptional
+    case when this process does not yield taps,--that is to say, when
+    there is a medium in the circle capable, even feebly, of producing
+    them.
+
+    The same experiment can be made without touching the table, but
+    forming around it a kind of closed chain. One of the operators then
+    acts as in the preceding case.
+
+    I have no need to recall to the minds of my readers that with certain
+    mediums, raps are produced without any movement being made. Almost all
+    mediums can obtain them in this way by keeping perfectly quiet and
+    having patience. But one would say that the execution of the movement
+    acts as a determining cause. It seems as if the accumulated energy
+    received a kind of stimulus.
+
+    _Levitations._--One day we improvised an experiment in the afternoon,
+    and I remember that I observed a very interesting levitation made
+    under these circumstances. It was about five o'clock in the evening
+    (at any rate it was broad daylight), in the salon at l'Agnélas. We
+    took our places about the table, _standing_. Eusapia took the hand of
+    one of us and placed it on the corner of the table, at her right. The
+    table thereupon rose up to the height of our foreheads; that is to
+    say, the top of the table rose at least as high as five feet above the
+    floor.
+
+    Such experiments were very convincing, for it was impossible for
+    Eusapia, the circumstances being such as they were, to lift the table
+    by a normal act. It is enough to suppose that she merely touched the
+    corner of the table, to find out how heavy a weight she would have had
+    to lift if she had made a muscular movement. Besides, she had not a
+    sufficient grip on the table to lift it. Evidently, the conditions of
+    the experiment being such, she could not make use of one of the
+    fraudulent processes mentioned by her critics, such as straps or hooks
+    of any kind. The phenomenon is undeniably authentic.
+
+    The breathing seems to have a very great influence. In the way things
+    take place, it seems as if the sitters released, by breathing, an
+    amount of motor energy comparable to that which they release when
+    rapidly moving their limbs. There is something in this very curious
+    and difficult to explain.
+
+    The more complete analysis of the facts allows us to think that the
+    liberation of the energy employed depends upon the contraction of the
+    muscles and not upon the movement made. The thing which reveals this
+    peculiarity is easy to observe. When we are forming the chain about
+    the table, we can set up a movement without contact by mutually
+    pressing our hands together with a certain force, or by pressing the
+    feet hard upon the floor. The first of these means is much the better
+    of the two. The arms have only made an insignificant movement, and one
+    can say that the muscular contraction is almost the only physiological
+    phenomenon observable. Yet it suffices.
+
+    All these authenticated experiments tend to show that the agent which
+    determines movements without contact has some connection with our
+    organism, and probably with our nervous system.
+
+    _Conditions of the Experiments._--We must never lose out of our sight
+    the relative importance of the moral and intellectual status of the
+    group of experimenters. That is one of the most difficult things to
+    seize and comprehend. But when the force is abundant, the simple
+    manifestation of the will is sometimes able to determine the movement.
+    For example, upon a desire to that affect being expressed by the
+    sitters, the table moves in the way it is requested to do. The
+    phenomena occur as if this force were guided by an Intelligence
+    distinct from that of the experimenters. I hasten to say that I regard
+    that only as a probability, and that I think I have observed a certain
+    resemblance between these personifications and the secondary
+    personalities of somnambulists.
+
+    In this apparent bond between the _indirect_ will of the sitters and
+    the phenomena there is a problem the solution of which has so far
+    completely escaped me. I suspect that this bond has nothing
+    supernatural about it and I realize that the Spiritualistic hypothesis
+    is a poorer explanation and inadequate to meet the facts; but I cannot
+    formulate any satisfactory explanation.
+
+    Close observations of the relations existing between the phenomena and
+    the will of the sitters brings out other discoveries also. I mean, in
+    the first place, the bad affect which disagreement among the
+    experimenters produces. It sometimes happens that one of them
+    expresses the desire to perceive a certain phenomenon. If the thing is
+    slow in taking place, the same experimenter, or another one, will ask
+    for a different spectacle. Sometimes different sitters will ask for
+    several contradictory things at the same time. The confusion which
+    reigns in the collective thought manifests itself in the phenomena,
+    which themselves become confused and vague.[71]
+
+    However, things do not happen absolutely as if the phenomena were
+    directed by a will which is only the shadow or the reflex of that of
+    the sitters. It sometimes happens that they show great independence,
+    and flatly refuse to yield to the desires expressed.
+
+    _Forms and Phantoms._--At Bordeaux, in 1897, the room where we held
+    our sittings was lighted by a very large window. The outside Venetian
+    blinds of this window were closed; but when the gas was lighted in a
+    little building which formed an adjunct to the kitchen, in the corner
+    of the court near the garden, a feeble light penetrated the room and
+    dimly illuminated the window panes. The window itself formed in this
+    way a bright background upon which certain dark forms were perceived
+    by a part of the experimenters. We all saw these forms, or rather this
+    form, for it was always the same one that appeared,--a long bearded
+    profile, with a very high arched nose. This apparition said it was
+    head of John, a personification who always appears with Eusapia.[72]
+    This is a very extraordinary phenomenon. The first idea which presents
+    itself to the mind is that this is a case of collective hallucination.
+    But the care with which we observed this curious phenomenon--and, it
+    seems needless for me to add, the calmness with which we
+    experimented--renders this hypothesis very unlikely.
+
+    The supposition of fraud is still less admissible. The head, which we
+    saw was of life size, measuring say sixteen inches from the forehead
+    to the end of the beard. It is impossible to understand how Eusapia
+    could have hidden in her pockets or under her clothes any kind of a
+    cardboard profile. Nor can one understand any better how, unknown to
+    us, she could have taken out this paper figure, mounted it upon a
+    stick, or upon a wire, and so operated with it. Eusapia had not gone
+    into a trance: she herself sometimes saw the profile which appeared,
+    and, thoroughly awake and conscious, took pleasure in assisting in the
+    phenomena which she was producing. The feeble light which the
+    illumined window shed was sufficient to enable us to see her hands
+    being carefully held by the controllers on the right and on the left.
+    It would have been impossible for her to manipulate these objects. In
+    fact, however, the profile observed seemed to form at the top of the
+    cabinet, at the height of about three and a half feet above Eusapia's
+    head. It descended rather slowly and so took its place above and in
+    front of her. Then at the end of some seconds it disappeared, only to
+    reappear some time afterwards in the same circumstances. Every time,
+    we carefully assured ourselves of the relative immobility of the hand
+    and arms of the medium. Hence I regard the prodigy which I am relating
+    as one of the most certain I ever verified, so incompatible was the
+    hypothesis of fraud with the conditions under which we observed.
+
+    I am persuaded that these facts will one day (soon perhaps) receive
+    the stamp of scientific approval as subjects of study. They will do
+    this in spite of the obstacles which obstinate infatuation and the
+    fear of ridicule pile in the way.
+
+    The intolerance of certain beings matches that of certain dogmas.
+    Catholicism, for example, considers psychic phenomena as the work of
+    the Devil. Is it worth while at the present time to combat such a
+    theory? I do not think it is.
+
+    But this question is foreign to the psychic facts themselves. So far
+    as my experience permits me to judge, these phenomena are entirely
+    natural. The Devil does not show his claws in them. If the tables
+    should announce that they were Satan himself, there would be nothing
+    on the face of things which would lead us to believe they were
+    speaking the truth. If called on to prove his power, this
+    grandiloquent Satan would turn out, I fear, to be a sorry
+    thaumaturgist. The religious prejudice which proscribes these
+    experiments as supernatural is as little justified as the scientific
+    prejudice which only sees in them fraud and imposture. Here again the
+    old adage of Aristotle finds its application: Equity lies between the
+    two extremes of opinion.
+
+It is evident that these experiments of Dr. Maxwell are in accord with all
+the preceding ones. The results ascertained mutually confirm each other.
+
+Apropos of mediums who produce physical or material effects, I should also
+like to mention here the one who was very specially examined at Paris, in
+1902, by a group of men composed in large part of former pupils of the
+Polytechnic School. They held a dozen séances in July and August. This
+group was composed of MM. A. de Rochas, Taton, Lemerle, Baclé, de
+Fontenay, and Dariex. The medium was Auguste Politi, of Rome. He was
+forty-seven years old.
+
+Several very remarkable table-levitations were observed and photographed
+by these gentlemen during their sittings. I reproduce here (Pl. XIII) one
+of these photographs, taken by M. de Fontenay which he kindly allows me to
+use. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful that has been obtained,
+and one of the most striking. All the hands that form the chain are
+carefully held away from the table. It seems to me that not to recognize
+the value of this photograph as a record would be to deny the evidence
+itself. It was taken instantaneously by a flash of magnesium light. The
+eyes of the medium had been bandaged, that the light might not give him a
+nervous shock.
+
+This same medium was studied at Rome, in February, 1904, by a group
+composed of Professor Milési, of the University of Rome, M. Joseph
+Squanquarillo, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Simmons (American travellers passing
+through Rome), and M. and Mme. Cartoni.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIII. INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY M. DE
+FONTENAY OF TABLE LEVITATION PRODUCED BY THE MEDIUM AUGUSTE POLITI.]
+
+They declare that they heard scales very well executed upon the piano
+(which was an upright one), at quite a distance from the sitters; yet none
+of the sitters knew how to play on the piano, while Professor Milési's
+deceased sister, who was called upon to manifest herself, was a very good
+pianist.
+
+Another musical phenomenon was produced: A mandolin placed on the lid of
+the piano, began of its own accord to play, balancing itself in the air
+until it went and fell down (playing all the while) between the hands of
+the experimenters who formed the chain.
+
+Later, at intervals, the piano was lifted in its turn, falling back
+noisily. It must be remarked that two men scarcely sufficed to lift this
+piano, even by one of its sides. After the sitting, it was ascertained
+that the instrument had been displaced about a foot and a half.
+
+But here follows a résumé of the phenomena observed with this medium.
+
+    In every séance, very vigorous raps were obtained in the table around
+    which were grouped the experimenters and the medium (they together
+    forming the chain), while the lamp with red light was on the table
+    itself. "If we wished to produce raps so sharp and strong (says M. C.
+    Caccia, the reporter of these séances), we had to rap with all our
+    might on the table with some solid object, while the kind of raps
+    which were produced in the séances with Politi seemed to issue from
+    the interior of the table with loud sounds like explosions."
+
+    But now the table begins to be shaken. The white curtain of the
+    cabinet which was behind the medium, at a distance of twenty inches,
+    swelled out and floated in every direction, as if a violent wind had
+    inflated it from the other side. We heard a chair moving with a
+    gliding motion over the floor. It had been placed there before the
+    beginning of the sitting and was now thrown violently over. During the
+    course of the fifth sitting it came clear out of the cabinet, in the
+    presence of everybody, and did not stop until it got near the medium.
+
+    These phenomena took place by the red light of a photographic lamp. In
+    the complete darkness which attended the third séance an extraordinary
+    thing occurred,--so much the more extraordinary because we had taken
+    special measures to forestall any attempt at fraud. The medium was
+    held by two sitters who, being very sceptical, had taken their places
+    on his right and on his left, and were holding his hands and his feet.
+
+    At a certain moment the medium ordered the operators to lift their
+    hands from the table and not to hinder its movements; above all, not
+    to break the chain. Whereupon a great uproar was heard in the cabinet.
+    The medium calls for light, and, to the great amazement of all of us,
+    we discover that the table, which was rectangular in form and did not
+    weigh less than thirty-nine pounds, was found turned upside down upon
+    the floor of the cabinet. The controllers declared that the medium had
+    not stirred. It is to be remarked:
+
+    1. That the table must have been lifted high enough to pass over the
+    heads of the sitters.
+
+    2. That it must have passed above the group forming the chain.
+
+    3. That as the opening in the curtains of the cabinet only measured
+    thirty-seven inches across, and the table, on its shortest side,
+    thirty inches, there only remained free seven inches for passing
+    through this opening.
+
+    4. That the table must have come forward endwise, then moved around
+    lengthwise (it was three feet long), and turned upside down, resting
+    on the floor; that the whole of this difficult manoeuvre was executed
+    in a few seconds in complete darkness and without any of the sitters
+    having touched the table in the slightest degree.[73]
+
+    Luminous phenomena were also obtained. Lights appeared and disappeared
+    in the air. Some of them gave the outline of a curve. They did not
+    show any radiation. In the fifth séance, everybody was able to testify
+    to the appearance of two luminous crosses, about four inches in
+    height.
+
+    At the last séance, the tambourine fringed with bells, which had been
+    rubbed with phosphorous, went circling around the whole room, and in
+    such a way that all its movements could be followed.
+
+    During almost all the sittings, mysterious touchings were
+    noticed,--among others, those produced by an enormous hairy hand!
+
+    In the first, fourth and fifth séances there were "materializations."
+    Prof. Italo Palmarini believed that he recognized his daughter, who
+    had been dead three years. He felt himself embraced; everybody heard
+    the sound of a kiss. The same manifestation took place in the fifth
+    séance. Professor Palmarini believed that he still recognized the
+    person of his daughter.
+
+    At the opening of each séance the medium was searched, and was then
+    placed _in a kind of big sack_, made to order for this purpose, _and
+    fastened at the neck, the wrists, and the feet_.
+
+Another medium, the Russian Sambor, was the object of numerous experiments
+at St. Petersburg during a period of six years. (1897-1902.) It will be
+interesting also to give a summing up in this place of the report about
+this man published by M. Petrovo Solovovo.[74]
+
+    In the first séances a large folding screen placed behind the medium
+    was observed to be vigorously shaken. The medium's feet and hands were
+    carefully held. A table in a neighboring chamber moved of its own
+    accord. In a metal cone placed on the table, enclosing a bit of paper
+    and a lead-pencil, and then riveted up, there was found, when it was
+    unriveted, a ribbon, and a phrase written on the paper in script that
+    had to be read in a looking-glass (_écriture en miroir_). Other cases
+    of the passage of matter through matter were tried, none of which
+    succeeded. But further on the reports relate the following
+    experiments:
+
+    In the month of February, 1901, one of Sambor's séances took place at
+    my house, in my study, against the windows of which I had hung
+    curtains of black calico in such a way that the room was plunged in
+    the deepest darkness. The medium occupied a place in the chain. Next
+    to the medium were M. J. Lomatzsch, on his right, myself on his left.
+    Sambor's hands and feet were faithfully held the whole time in a way
+    that gave perfect satisfaction.
+
+    The phenomena soon began to develop. I do not intend to take the time
+    here to describe them, but I wish to mention a remarkable case of the
+    passage of matter through matter.
+
+    M. Lomatzsch, controller on the right, declares that someone is
+    pulling his chair from under him. So, redoubling our attention, we
+    continue to hold the medium. M. Lomatzsch's chair is soon positively
+    lifted up, so that he is obliged to stand. Sometime after, he declares
+    that someone is trying to hang the chair on the hand with which he is
+    holding Sambor. Then the chair suddenly disappears from the arm of M.
+    Lomatzsch, and at the same moment I feel a light pressure upon my left
+    arm (I do not mean the one which was in contact with the medium, but
+    with my neighbor on the left M. A. Weber); after which I feel that
+    something heavy is hanging from my arm. When the candle was lighted,
+    we all saw that _my left arm had been passed through the back of the
+    chair_. In this way the chair was nicely balanced upon that one of my
+    arms which was not in contact with Sambor, but with my neighbor on the
+    left. I had not let go of the hands of my neighbors.
+
+Such an observation as this needs no commentary (says the reporter of this
+occurrence, M. Petrovo Solovovo). The fact is simply incomprehensible. I
+give here some other phenomena which were observed in May, 1902:
+
+    1. A cedar apple, an old copper coin which was found to be a Persian
+    coin of 1723, and an amateur photographic portrait of a young woman in
+    mourning unknown to anybody present were found (coming from nobody
+    knew where, nor in what way), upon the table about which we were
+    seated.
+
+    2. Several different objects in the room were transported to the table
+    by the mysterious force; such, for example, as a thermometer, which
+    had been hung on the wall behind the piano at a distance of from
+    one-half to seven feet from the medium; a large lantern placed upon
+    the piano somewhere between two and four feet behind the medium;
+    several piles of music-books which had rested on the same piano; a
+    framed portrait; and, finally, the candlesconce, the candle, and the
+    different parts of a candlestick belonging to the piano.
+
+    3. Several times a bronze bell placed on the table was lifted into the
+    air by the mysterious force and noisily rung. On the request of the
+    sitters it was once carried over to the piano (against which it struck
+    a sounding blow), and from there again over to the table.
+
+    4. Unoccupied chairs had been placed behind the medium. One of them
+    was several times lifted and placed noisily on the table in the midst
+    of the sitters, and without having run against any of them. When upon
+    the table, this chair several times moved about, fell over, and picked
+    itself up.
+
+    5. One of these same chairs was found to be hung by the back upon the
+    joined hands of the medium and M. de Poggenpohl. Before the beginning
+    of that part of the séance which witnessed this phenomenon, a strip of
+    cloth, slipped over the sleeves of the medium, had been several times
+    tightly twisted around the wrists of M. de Poggenpohl.
+
+    6. At the request of the sitters, the mysterious force several times
+    stopped the playing of the music-box (it stood on the table around
+    which we were seated), after which it began to play again.
+
+    7. A sheet of paper and a lead pencil, placed on the table, were
+    thrown on the floor, and everybody distinctly heard the pencil moving
+    over the paper with a heavy pressure and, with a sharp tap, putting a
+    period at the end of what had been written. After this the pencil was
+    laid on the table.
+
+    8. Five of the experimenters declared that they had been touched by
+    some mysterious hand.
+
+    9. Twice the mysterious force drew sounds from the piano. The first
+    time, this took place when the lid of the piano was open. The second
+    time, the sounds were heard after the lid had been _locked with a
+    key_, the key remaining on the table in the midst of the circle of
+    experimenters. At first the unknown force began to play a melody on
+    the high notes, and two or three times produced trills. Then chords on
+    the bass notes were heard at the same time with the melody, and, when
+    the piano was playing, the music-box also began to play, both
+    performances lasting several minutes.
+
+    10. During all the phenomena which have just been described, the
+    medium (Sambor), seemed sunk in a profound trance, and remained almost
+    motionless. The phenomena were not accompanied by any bustle or
+    confusion. His hands and his feet were all the time controlled by his
+    neighbors. M. de Poggenpohl and Loris-Melikow several times saw
+    something long, black, and slender detaching itself from him during
+    the phenomena and moving toward the objects.
+
+    I will add, in closing (says M. Petrovo Solovovo), that this medium
+    was accused of cupidity and intemperance. These séances were the last
+    he gave (he died a few months afterward). But, to tell the truth, I
+    have a tender spot in my heart for the late M. Sambor. This
+    Little-Russian, a former telegraph operator, polished and humanized by
+    the six or seven winters that he had passed in St. Petersburg--can it
+    be that blind Nature had chosen this man to be the intermediary
+    between our world and the doubtful Beyond?--or, at least, another
+    world of beings whose precise nature (begging the pardon of the
+    spirits) would be an enigma to me, provided I positively believed in
+    them.
+
+    It is with that word "doubt" (alas! is not _doubt_ the most _certain_
+    result of mediumistic experiments?) that I end this Report.
+
+To this whole series of varied observations and experiments we could still
+add many more. In 1905 MM. Charles Richet and Gabriel Delanne held some
+famous séances in Algiers. But is not impossible that fraud may have crept
+into their experiments, in spite of all the precautions taken by them.
+(The photographs of the phantom Bien-Boa have an artificial look.) In
+1906, the American medium, Miller, gave in Paris several séances in which
+it really seems as if true apparitions were manifested. I cannot say
+anything personally about it, not having been present. Among other
+experimenters, there were two very competent ones, who studied this
+medium; namely, MM. G. Delanne and G. Méry. The first concludes that the
+apparitions were what they represented themselves to be (see _Revue
+scientifique et morale du spiritisme_); that is to say, the spirits of the
+departed. The second, on the other hand, declares in _L'Echo du
+Merveilleux_, that, "until there is fuller information, we must be
+satisfied with not comprehending."
+
+It is not within the scope of my plan to discuss in this particular place,
+"apparitions" or "materializations." We may ask ourselves whether the
+fluid which certainly emanates from the medium may not produce a kind of
+condensation able to furnish to the most interested observer of the
+manifestation the elusive vision of an unreal personality which, besides,
+only lasts, as a general thing, for a few seconds. Is it a melange or
+combination of fluids? But it is not yet time to make hypotheses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MY GENERAL INQUIRY RESPECTING OBSERVATIONS OF UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA
+
+
+A certain number of my readers perhaps remember the general inquiry that I
+instituted in the course of the year 1899 respecting observation of the
+unexplained phenomena of telepathy, manifestations of the dying,
+premonitory dreams, etc.--an inquiry published in part in my work
+_L'Inconnu et les problémes psychiques_. I received 4280 replies composed
+of 2456 _no_ and 1824 _yes_. Among the latter there are 1758 letters with
+more or less of detail. A large number of these were not presented in such
+a shape that their claims could be discussed. But I was able to use 786 of
+the most important of them. They were classified, the essential matters
+transcribed, and summed up in the work of which I have just spoken. The
+most striking thing in all these accounts is the loyalty,
+conscientiousness, the frankness, and the sensitive refinement of the
+narrators, who are anxiously concerned to say only what they know, and as
+they know it, without adding or subtracting anything. In doing this, each
+becomes the servant of truth.
+
+These 786 letters, transcribed, classified, and numbered, contained 1130
+different facts or observations. My examination of the instances recorded
+in the letters reveals several kinds of subjects which may be classified
+as follows:
+
+    Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dying.
+    Manifestations of the Living (in Health).
+    Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dead.
+    Clairvoyance.
+    Premonitory Dreams. Forecast of the Future.
+    Dreams that give Information of the Dead.
+    Meetings foreseen by Presentiment.
+    Presentiments realized.
+    Doubles of the Living.
+    Communications of Thought at a Distance (Telepathy).
+    Instinctive Presentiments of Animals.
+    Calls heard at Great Distances.
+    Movements of Objects without Apparent Cause.
+    Bolted Doors Opening of Themselves.
+    Haunted Houses.
+    Spiritualistic Experiments.
+
+Since my first publication of these documents, I have received many new
+ones. More than one thousand are to-day crowded into my manuscript
+library. They contain about fifteen hundred observations which seem to me
+to be sincere and authentic. The doubtful ones have been eliminated. These
+narratives emanate as a general thing from persons who are filled with
+astonishment and are extremely desirous of receiving, if possible, an
+explanation of these strange events (often very affecting). All the
+narratives which I have been able to verify have been found to be
+fundamentally accurate--sometimes modified afterwards, as respects their
+mere form, by a memory more or less confused.
+
+In _L'Inconnu_, I published a portion of these narratives. But I excluded
+from that work[75] phenomena not properly included within the limits of
+its main plan, which was to show the existence of unknown faculties of the
+soul.
+
+I excluded, I say, "movements of objects without apparent cause," "bolted
+doors opening of themselves," "haunted houses," "Spiritualistic
+experiments;" that is to say, the very cases studied in the present work,
+in which I hoped to be able to publish them. But space fails me. In my
+desire to offer to my readers a set of records as complete as possible,
+for the purpose of giving them a firmly based opinion, I have been swamped
+by the abundance of material, and, can only rescue a few of the most
+interesting specimens of them for presentation here.
+
+First of all, I select the following communication as having a certain
+intrinsic value. It was sent me by my regretted friend Victorin Joncières,
+the well-known composer of music.
+
+    I was on a tour of inspection of the music-schools of the Provinces
+    (he says), and happened to be in a city which I cannot name to you for
+    the reasons which I gave. I was coming out of the branch establishment
+    of our Conservatory, after having examined the piano-class there, when
+    I was addressed by a lady who asked me what I thought of her daughter,
+    and whether I judged that she ought to enter upon an artistic career.
+
+    After a rather long conversation, in the course of which I promised to
+    go to hear the young artist, I found myself engaged to go the same
+    evening (for I was leaving the next day) to the house of one of their
+    friends, a high official in the state service, to take part in a
+    Spiritualistic séance.
+
+    The master of the house received me with extreme cordialty, recalling
+    the promise I had given him to keep secret his name and that of the
+    city in which he lived. He presented his niece, _the medium_, to whom
+    he attributes the phenomena which take place in his house. It was, in
+    fact, after the young girl's mother had died, and she came to live
+    with him, that the strange occurrences began to take place.
+
+    They began with unusual noises in the walls, and in the floors, with
+    the displacement of articles of furniture that moved without being
+    touched, and with the warblings of birds. M. N. at first believed that
+    it was a piece of foolery planned either by one of his own family or
+    by one of his clerks. However, in spite of the most vigilant watching,
+    he could not discover any trickery, and he finally came to the
+    conclusion that the phenomena were produced, by invisible agents,
+    with whom he believed he could communicate. He soon obtained raps,
+    direct writing, the mysterious appearance of flowers, etc.
+
+    After this account, he led me into a large room with bare walls, in
+    which several persons had assembled, among whom were his wife and a
+    professor of natural philosophy at the lyceum--altogether, a dozen of
+    experimenters. In the middle of the room there was a big oak table,
+    upon which were placed paper, a pencil, a small harmonica, a bell, and
+    a lighted lamp.
+
+    "The spirit announced to me a little while ago that he would come at
+    ten o'clock," said the gentleman to me. "We have a good hour before
+    us. I am going to utilize it by reading to you the minutes of our
+    meetings for a year past." He laid on the table his watch, which
+    showed five minutes to nine, and covered it with a handkerchief.
+
+    For a whole hour he applied himself to reading what seemed to be very
+    improbable stories; but I was longing to see some of the wonders.
+
+    Suddenly a loud cracking sound was heard in the table. M. N. lifted
+    the handkerchief which covered the watch. It was just ten o'clock.
+
+    "Art thou there, spirit?" said he.
+
+    Nobody was touching the table; and on his recommendation, we formed
+    the chain about it, holding each other by the hand.
+
+    A vigorous rap was heard.
+
+    The young niece placed her two fingers against the edge of the table
+    and asked us to imitate her. Thereupon this extremely heavy table rose
+    up well _above our heads_, in such a way that we were obliged to stand
+    on tip-toe in order to follow it in its ascent. It hung poised for
+    some moments in the air and then slowly descended to the floor and
+    came to a stop without noise.
+
+    Then M. N. went to look up a large design for a church window. He put
+    it on the table and placed beside it a glass of water, a box of
+    colors, and a camel's hair brush. Then he put the lamp out. He lighted
+    it again at the end of two or three minutes: the sketch (still damp)
+    was painted in two colors, yellow and blue, and not a single brush
+    mark had passed beyond the traced lines of the sketch.
+
+    Even if we admit that some one of the sitters might have been able to
+    play the rôle of spirit, how, in the darkness of the room, could he
+    have so handled the brush as to precisely follow the lines of the
+    design? I will add that the door was closely shut, and, that, during
+    the very short space of time in which the performance took place, I
+    heard nothing but the sound of the water splashing in the glass.
+
+    Raps were next struck in the table, corresponding to the letters of
+    the alphabet. The spirit announced that he was going to produce a
+    special phenomenon in order to convince me personally.
+
+    By his order the light was again extinguished. The harmonica then
+    played a little sprightly _motif_, in six-eight. Scarcely had the last
+    note sounded when M. X. lighted the lamp. Upon a sheet of music-paper
+    which had been placed near the harmonica, the theme was written very
+    correctly in pencil. It would have been impossible for any one of the
+    company, in the complete darkness of the room, to write down these
+    notes upon the ruled staff-lines.
+
+    Thirteen freshly cut daisies lay scattered over the table.
+
+    "Hello!" says M. X. "these are daisies from the flower-pot at the end
+    of the passageway."
+
+    As I said a moment ago, the door of the room where we were met had
+    remained closed, and no one had stirred. We went into the passageway,
+    and, on noticing the stems denuded of their flowers, we could see very
+    plainly that the daisies came from the place indicated.
+
+    Scarcely had we entered the room, when the bell on the table rose up
+    to the very ceiling, ringing as it went, but fell abruptly back as
+    soon as it touched it.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    On the next day, before my departure, I went to pay a visit to M. X.
+    He received me in his dining-hall. Through the large open window a
+    beautiful June sun flooded the room with its brilliant light.
+
+    While we were conversing in a desultory way, a piece of military music
+    rang out in the distance. "If there is a spirit here," said I,
+    smiling, "it ought by rights to accompany the music." At once
+    rhythmic taps, in exact harmony with the double quick time, were heard
+    in the table. The crackle of sounds in it died away little by little
+    in a decrescendo very skilfully timed to the last vanishing blare of
+    the bugles.
+
+    "Give us a fine tattoo to finish," said I, when the sounds had
+    completely ceased. The reply was a series of sounds like the heavy
+    roll of drums, given with such force that the table trembled on its
+    legs. I put my hand on it and very plainly felt the vibrations of the
+    wood as it was struck by the invisible force.
+
+    I asked if I might inspect the table. It was turned upside down in my
+    presence, and I examined it, as well as the floor, very carefully. I
+    discovered nothing. Besides, M. X. could not, you know, foresee, that,
+    during my visit, a military band would pass by, and that I should ask
+    the table to accompany it by imitating the drum.
+
+    I afterwards returned to the city where these things occurred and was
+    present at other very curious séances. I should be enchanted, my dear
+    master and friend, as I have said to you, to be your guide there some
+    day. But this "high functionary" absolutely insists on his incognito.
+
+These remarkable observations by my friend Joncières evidently have their
+value, and belong here, in the train of all the preceding ones.
+
+I give a few others below which we owe to an attentive and sceptical
+observer, M. Castex-Dégrange, sub-director of the National School Of Fine
+Arts at Lyons, upon whose veracity and sincerity not the least shadow of
+suspicion can rest, any more than in the preceding instances. I owe to his
+kindness a large number of interesting letters, and I will ask his
+permission to cite from them the most important passages.
+
+The following is dated the 18th of April, 1899.
+
+    For the second time, I affirm upon my honor that I will tell you
+    nothing that is not strictly true, and usually easy to verify.
+
+    In spite of the calling I follow, I am not at all gifted with
+    imagination. I have lived much in the company of physicians, men from
+    the nature of their profession little given to credulity; and, whether
+    it is in consequence of my natural disposition, or by reason of the
+    principles which I absorbed in this kind of company, I have always
+    been very sceptical.
+
+    This is, indeed, one of the reasons why I abandoned my psychical
+    experiments. I reached the most stupifying results, and yet it was
+    impossible for me to get to believe myself. I was thoroughly convinced
+    that I was not seeking to deceive myself or to deceive others, and,
+    not being able to surrender myself to the evidence, I was always
+    seeking some other reason than the one given by the believers. That
+    made me suffer, and I stopped.
+
+    I here end this preamble, and am going to unfold to you the course of
+    my observations.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I was acquainted with a company of people, who were occupied with
+    Spiritualism and with turning-tables, and had made them the butt of my
+    wit,[76] a little; for, although not bitter or severe, I never
+    neglected to play a good practical joke on them when occasion served.
+
+    It seemed to me that these worthy people, who were, moreover, very
+    sincere, were all a little "cracked" (_maboules_), if I may be allowed
+    so uncouth, or _fin de siècle_, an expression.
+
+    One day I was visiting them. The drawing-room was lighted by two large
+    windows. I began, as usual, by some pleasantries. Their reply was in
+    the shape of an invitation to me to take part in the experiments.
+
+    "But," said I, "if I take a seat at your table it will not turn any
+    more, because I shall not push it."
+
+    "Come all the same."
+
+    Well, I declare upon my honor that, just for a joke, I tried it. I had
+    scarcely put my hands on the table when it made a rush at me.
+
+    I said to the person facing me, "Don't push so hard."
+
+    "But, dear sir, I was not pushing."
+
+    I put the centre-table back in its place, but the same thing occurred
+    again, once, twice, thrice. I began to get impatient and said,
+
+    "What you are doing is not very clever. If you want to convince me,
+    don't push."
+
+    He replied to me, "Nobody is pushing, only you probably have so much
+    fluid in you that the table is attracted toward you. _Perhaps you
+    could make it go, by yourself._"
+
+    "Oh, if I myself could make it go, that would be different!"
+
+    "Try it."
+
+    They all moved back. I remained alone face to face with the table. I
+    took hold of it, lifted it, thoroughly examined it. There was no trick
+    about it. I made every body go behind me. I was facing the windows,
+    and had my eyes open, I assure you. I stretched my arms out as far as
+    possible, in order to have a good view, only placing the ends of my
+    fingers on the table.
+
+    In a little less than two minutes it began to rock to and fro. I
+    confess that I felt a little foolish, not wishing to surrender--
+
+    "Yes, perhaps it moves," said I. "It is possible that an unknown fluid
+    is acting upon it; at any rate, it does not come toward me, and just
+    now some one was pushing it."
+
+    "No," said one of the sitters, "nobody was pushing it; but, although
+    you are highly charged with fluid, the assistance of another person is
+    needed for the production of the phenomenon: you are not enough by
+    yourself. Will you allow one of us to put a hand _upon_ yours, without
+    touching the table?"
+
+    "Yes."
+
+    Someone put a hand on mine and _I watched_. The table at once began to
+    move, and came and pressed against me. They all cried out, and claimed
+    that they had caught a medium in me. I was not very much flattered
+    with the title, which I considered as synonymous with "lunatic."
+
+    "You ought to try to write," said some one to me.
+
+    "What do you mean by that?"
+
+    "Why, see here. You take paper and pen, let your arm lie passive, and
+    have the wish in your mind that _some unknown person or force_ shall
+    cause you to write."
+
+    I tried it. At the end of five minutes, my arm felt as if it were
+    wrapped in a woolen blanket. Then, in spite of myself, my hand began
+    to trace at first mere strokes, then _o's_, _a's_, letters of all
+    sorts, as a schoolboy learning to write would do. Then, all of a
+    sudden, came the notorious word attributed to Cambronne at Waterloo! I
+    assure you, my dear sir, that I am never in the habit of using this
+    coarse and dirty term, and that there was no auto-suggestion, or
+    unconscious act of my own, in the case. I was absolutely _stupefied_
+    by the occurrence.
+
+    I continued these experiments at my own home.
+
+    1. One day, when I was seated at my writing-desk, I felt the weird
+    seizure in my arm. I let my arm remain passive. The Unknown wrote:
+
+    "Your friend Aroud is coming to see you. He is at this moment in such
+    and such an omnibus-office in the suburbs. He is asking the price of
+    tickets and the hour of departure."
+
+    (This M. Aroud is chief of the bureau of police, prefecture of the
+    Rhone.) In fact, a half-hour afterwards, Aroud made his appearance. I
+    told him what had taken place.
+
+    "It is a good thing for you that you are living in the nineteenth
+    century," said he to me. "A few hundred years ago you would not have
+    escaped death at the stake."
+
+    2. On another occasion the phenomenon occurred again, and this time
+    also I was at my writing desk:
+
+    "Your friend Dolard is coming to see you."
+
+    An hour afterward, sure enough he came. I told him how it happened
+    that I was waiting for him. Although he was very incredulous by
+    nature, yet, for all that, this fact set him to thinking. The next day
+    saw his re-appearance.
+
+    "Can you get a reply to a question I am going to ask you?" said he.
+
+    "Don't ask," I replied, "think it. We will try."
+
+    I must here tell you parenthetically that I had known of Dolard for
+    thirty years. He was my comrade at the Beaux-Arts. I knew that he had
+    lost an elder brother, that he had been married, and had had the
+    misfortune to lose, one by one, all the members of his family. That
+    was all I knew about them.
+
+    I took the pen and the Invisible wrote, "The sufferings of your sister
+    Sophia have just ended."
+
+    Now Dolard had mentally asked what had become of the spirit of a
+    sister named Sophia, whom he had lost forty-two years ago, and about
+    whom I had never heard a word spoken.
+
+    3. My principal at the School of Fine Arts in Lyons, a former
+    architect of the city of Paris, was M. Hédin. This M. Hédin had an
+    only daughter, who some years ago had married another architect, M.
+    Forget, in Paris. The woman became enceinte.
+
+    One day when I was thinking of anything but her, the same thing
+    occurred as before. The Invisible wrote:
+
+    "_Mme. Forget is going to die._"
+
+    Mme. Forget was not at all ill, apart from her being in a delicate
+    situation. The next day morning, M. Hédin said to me that his daughter
+    was in her pains; and the same evening he told me that his wife had
+    just set out for Paris to be with her. The next day I received
+    instructions to assume his duties. Mme. Hédin had telegraphed to her
+    husband to come to her. Her daughter was taken with puerperal fever.
+    When the father got there he found only a corpse.
+
+    4. I had a cousin named Poncet (since dead) who was formerly an
+    apothecary, at Beaune (Côte-d' Or). I had never been at his
+    apartments. One day he came to Lyons to see our aunt (she who had the
+    vision about which I spoke to you). We conversed about these
+    extraordinary psychical occurrences. He was incredulous.
+
+    "Well then," said he, "try to find for me a thing which has no
+    particular market value, but which I laid great store by, because it
+    belonged to my deceased wife. I had a little packet of laces that she
+    was very fond of, and I can't put my hand on it."
+
+    The Unknown wrote, "_It is in the middle drawer of the secretary in
+    the chamber, behind a package of visiting cards_."
+
+    My cousin wrote to his servant at Beaune, _without giving her any hint
+    of our experiment_, "Send by post a little packet which you will find
+    in [such a place] behind a package of visiting cards."
+
+    The laces arrived by return mail.
+
+    You will notice, my dear sir, that, during the experiments, I was by
+    no means asleep or in a state of trance, and that I was conversing in
+    my usual manner.
+
+    5. One of my childhood friends, M. Laloge, at the present time a
+    dealer in coffees and chocolates at Saint-Etienne (Loire), had had as
+    his professor, as well as I, an excellent man whom we most highly
+    esteemed, and who was named Thollon.[77]
+
+    M. Thollon, after having directed the education of the children of the
+    Prince of Oldenburg, uncle of the present emperor of Russia, had
+    returned to France and entered the Nice Observatory.
+
+    We had the misfortune to lose him shortly after. Laloge had a
+    photograph of him but had lost it. He came and begged me to try to
+    find it. The Unknown wrote, "_The photograph is in the upper drawer of
+    the secretary in the chamber_."
+
+    Laloge had two rooms,--one which he called the "salon," and another
+    called the "chamber."
+
+    "There is some mistake," said he. "I have turned everything
+    topsy-turvy in the place you mention and have found nothing."
+
+    In the evening having to search for some object in the drawer, he saw
+    in the middle of a package of letter-paper a little dark end of
+    something sticking out. He pulled it forth: it was the photograph.
+
+    6. Camille Bellon, No. 50 Avenue de Noailles, at Lyons, had three
+    young children whose education he had intrusted to a young governess.
+    This person left when the children entered college, and, sometime
+    after, she married a very fine man, whose name I have unfortunately
+    forgotten, but which I can easily find again if there is any need of
+    it.
+
+    This young woman came on her wedding trip to visit her old employer. I
+    was invited to go and pass a day with them at the château of my friend
+    Bellon. During the course of this visit, we talked of spiritualistic
+    phenomena; and the newly married man, a highly educated veterinary
+    doctor, joked me about my so-called mediumship. I, of course, laughed
+    about it and we parted the best kind of friends.
+
+    Some days afterward, I received a letter from my friend. He had
+    himself received a letter from the young lady, who was in a great
+    state of mind. She had lost her wedding ring, and was in despair. She
+    begged my friend to ask me to recover it for her.
+
+    The Mysterious Force wrote, "_The ring slipped from her finger while
+    she was asleep. It is on one of the cleats which hold up the mattress
+    of the bed_."
+
+    I transmitted the _despatch_. The husband put his hands between the
+    wood of the bed and the mattress. The wife did the same thing. Nothing
+    was found. Some days afterwards, having decided to change the
+    arrangement of their apartments, they moved their bed into another
+    room. Of course they had to lift up the mattress, in order to get it
+    into the other chamber. The ring was upon one of the cleats. They had
+    not found it when they were hunting for it, because it had slipped
+    _under_ the mattress, which did not adhere to the cleat in that
+    particular place.
+
+    7. One of my friends, named Boucaut, who lived at 15 quai de la
+    Guillotière at Lyons, had lost a letter which he sadly wanted. He
+    begged me to ask where it was.
+
+    The Invisible replied in writing, "_He must remember that he has an
+    oven in his garden_."
+
+    Before showing it to him, I began to laugh, saying that it was a joke
+    and had nothing to do with his request. As he insisted that it did, I
+    read it to him.
+
+    "Why yes," he said to me, "that agrees very well. My tenant-farmer had
+    just had his bread baked. I had heaps of papers which I wanted to get
+    rid of, to burn up. My letter must have been burned in the pile which
+    I reduced to ashes."
+
+    8. One evening, in an assembly composed of a score of persons, a lady
+    dressed in black greeted my entrance with a little nervous laugh.
+    After the customary introductions, this lady spoke to me as follows:
+
+    "Sir, would it be possible to ask your spirits to reply to a question
+    I am going to ask you?"
+
+    "In the first place, madam, I have no spirits at my disposal; but I
+    should be a lack-wit indeed if I said yes. You, of course, don't
+    suppose that I am unintelligent enough not to find some kind of an
+    answer; and, consequently, if any 'spirits,' as you so kindly call
+    them should happen to respond, you would not be convinced, and you
+    would be right. Write your request. Put it in an envelope there on the
+    table and we will try. You see that I am not in a somnambulistic
+    state, and you must believe that it is wholly impossible for me to
+    know the contents of what you are going to enclose in it."
+
+    So said, so done.
+
+    At the end of five minutes I assure you I was very much embarrassed. I
+    had written a reply, but it was such that I did not dare to
+    communicate it. But here it is:
+
+    "You are in a very bad way, and, if you persist, you will be severely
+    punished. Marriage is something sacred, it should never be regarded as
+    a question of money."
+
+    After some oratorical precautions, I decided to read her this reply.
+    The lady blushed up to the roots of her hair and stretched out her
+    hands to seize her envelope.
+
+    "Pardon me, madam," I replied, putting my hand upon it. "You began by
+    making fun of me. You wished a reply. It is only just, since we are
+    making an experiment, that we know what the request was."
+
+    I tore open the envelope. Behold its contents:
+
+    "Will the marriage take place that I am trying to bring about between
+    M. X. and Mlle. Z? And, in that case, shall I get what I have been
+    promised?"
+
+    Notwithstanding this shameful exposure, the woman did not consider
+    that she was beaten. She asked a second question under the same
+    conditions.
+
+    Reply: "Leave me alone! When I was living you abandoned me. Now don't
+    bother me."
+
+    Upon this, the lady got up and disappeared! I told you she was in
+    mourning. This last request of hers was as follows: "What has become
+    of the soul of my father?"
+
+    Her father had been ill for six months. Persons who were present and
+    who were stupefied at the results, told me that during his illness she
+    had not paid him a single visit.
+
+    9. One day, shortly after I had lost one of my good friends, I was
+    seated at my writing-desk with my head resting on my hand, and I was
+    thinking of what the hereafter might possibly be. If all the work that
+    a man had done was to be irretrievably lost, and if the beyond
+    existed, I was wondering what the life might be that one would lead
+    there. All of a sudden, the phenomenon well known to me occurred (that
+    weird seizure of the arm). Of course, I allowed my arm to remain
+    passive, and here is what I read:
+
+        "You wish to know what our occupations are? We organize matter, we
+        ameliorate the condition of the spirits, and, above all, we adore
+        the Creator of your souls and ours."
+
+        ARAGO.
+
+    In _all_ the communications which I have obtained, every time a word
+    representing an idea of the Supreme Being--such as God, the
+    All-Powerful, etc.--came under my pen, the writing doubled in size,
+    but immediately after resumed the same dimensions as before.[78] It
+    would be very easy for me to give you still more numerous examples of
+    the strange things that happened to me, but those I have given seem to
+    me quite remarkable. I shall be happy if this true account can give
+    you any assistance in your important researches.
+
+The letter which my readers have just perused contains a series of cases
+of such great interest that I lost no time in entering into regular
+correspondence with the author. And first I thought I ought to ask him
+about the conclusions which he himself had been able to draw from his
+personal experience. The following is an abstract of his replies:
+
+    May 1st, 1899.
+
+    You ask me, my dear sir, the following questions:
+
+    1. Whether I have reached absolute conviction as to the existence of
+    one or of several _spirits_?
+
+    I am a person of absolute good faith. I examined myself as a surgeon
+    would examine an invalid. I am a person of such good faith that I have
+    long been seeking (without finding him) a skilful practitioner who
+    would consent to study in my own person the phenomenon while it was
+    taking place; to ascertain the state of my pulse, the warmth of the
+    skin, etc.,--in a word, the apparent physical side. Furthermore, in my
+    opinion there is no auto-suggestion in this thing; and the proof is
+    that I was _absolutely ignorant_ of the things that I was writing
+    _mechanically_,--so mechanically that, when, by chance, my attention
+    was called away, whether by reading or by conversation, and I forgot
+    to look where my hand was going, when it approached the edge of the
+    paper the writing would continue backward across the sheet in
+    _reversed letters and just as fast_, so that I was obliged to turn the
+    paper over in order by holding it to the light to read what was
+    written on it.
+
+    So then, if there is neither auto-suggestion in it, nor a
+    somnambulistic condition (I was completely awake and not at all
+    hypnotized), then there must be external "forces" acting upon my
+    senses, "intelligent forces." This is my fixed and unalterable
+    opinion.
+
+    Now are these forces spirits? Do they belong to beings like ourselves?
+    It is evident that this hypothesis would explain many things, but
+    leave quite a number obscure. Since I several times discovered a
+    mental state of the lowest kind among these "beings," I have reached a
+    conclusion that it is not absolutely necessary to think that they are
+    "men."
+
+    We are told that there are stars which photography alone can reveal,
+    and which, possessing a color imperceptible to our eye, are invisible
+    to us. Then there are the gases through which a human body passes
+    without experiencing resistence. Who will say then, that there are not
+    around us invisible beings?
+
+    And look at the instinct of the child, of the woman, of feeble beings
+    in general. They fear darkness; isolation makes them afraid. This
+    sentiment is instinctive, irrational. Is it not due to an intuitive
+    perception of the presence of these invisible personages, or forces,
+    against which they are helpless? That is pure hypothesis on my part,
+    but after all it seems to me defensible. As to the number of the
+    invisible beings, I believe they are legion.
+
+    2. You ask me whether I have been able to establish their identity.
+
+    I answer that they sign some name or other, choosing in preference
+    names of illustrious persons, in whose mouths they sometimes put the
+    most stupid sort of expressions.
+
+    Furthermore the writing frequently ceases abruptly, as if an electric
+    current has just been interrupted, and that without any appreciable
+    reason. Then the writing changes, and sometimes sensible things end in
+    absurdities, etc.
+
+    How explain this tangle of contradictions? I was so chafed and fretted
+    by these incoherent results that I had for a long time abandoned the
+    study of psychic forces, when your alluring researches came to wake in
+    me my old self.
+
+    If the unconscious doubling of the personality of the individual (his
+    externalization) can, in an extreme case, be sometimes admitted, it
+    seems to me that there are cases in which this explanation becomes
+    possible.
+
+    But I will explain. If, as respects the facts which happened to me
+    personally, and _the authenticity of which I affirm to you upon my
+    honor_, there are some in which this externalization could have been
+    possible, there are others in which it seems to me impossible.
+
+    Yes, strictly speaking, I might have been able, without suspecting it,
+    to externalize myself, or, rather, unknown to myself, to be influenced
+    by my friend Dolard when, in my own presence, he mentally asked me
+    what had become of the soul of a deceased sister of whose name and
+    very existence I was ignorant; yes, the same thing may, strictly
+    speaking, explain the responses I made to the lady who questioned me
+    on the subject of a marriage and her father, although it would in that
+    case be necessary to suppose that she dictated to me the words that I
+    was writing; yes, my friend Boucaud, who was hunting letters, might,
+    at the moment when he was asking me about them, have thought of that
+    oven, of the existence of which I was ignorant; yes, all of that is
+    (in the last analysis) possible, although it would need a large amount
+    of good will to admit it.
+
+    Yes, once more I say--and always with much good will--a table may be
+    under the unconscious domination of a musician present and dictate a
+    musical phrase. But, as it stands, it is difficult to admit the same
+    phenomenon in the case of Victor Hugo, whose curious séances you have
+    just described to the public. Why, just look at this great poet who,
+    when he is asked by the table to put one or more questions _in verse_,
+    and, not feeling that he is man enough, in spite of his genius, to
+    improvise something passable, asks for a breathing spell to prepare
+    his questions, and brings them in next day!--and yet you would wish
+    that, on this same next day, a part of himself should perform its
+    functions, _unknown to himself_, and compose _illico_, without any
+    preparation, verses at least as fine as those which he took an entire
+    day to create!--verses of a pitiless logic and more profound than his
+    own!
+
+    Yet let us admit even that. You see, dear sir, that I have all the
+    good will possible, and that I have the most profound respect for the
+    scientific method. But can you explain by externalization the case of
+    finding a lost object when one is even ignorant of the way in which
+    the apartment is arranged where it has been lost? or the ability to
+    know, two days in advance, of the death of a person about whom one was
+    not thinking at all? A possible coincidence, you will tell me, but at
+    least very strange.
+
+    And those inverted dictations? and those in which we are obliged to
+    skip every other letter?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    No, I believe that we need not give ourselves so much trouble and rack
+    our brains, for it seems to me that it is like looking for mid-day at
+    two o'clock in the afternoon. It would require the labor of all the
+    devils to explain how this phenomenon can take place in our nature
+    without the knowledge of the proprietor. I do not like to see a part
+    of my personality scampering away, and then housing itself again
+    without my knowing anything about it.
+
+    As to what concerns the production of this externalization in a way
+    which I may call voluntary--when a person who feels himself dying
+    thinks intensely about those whom he loves and whose absence he
+    deplores, yes, it may be that his will, even unknown to himself,
+    suggesting the absent person produces the phenomena of telepathy;
+    but, in the phenomena of which we are speaking, that explanation seems
+    to me more than doubtful.
+
+    I find much more simple the explanation that the phenomena are caused
+    by the presence and the action of an independent being,--a spirit,
+    phantasm, or elemental.
+
+    In fine what are we all seeking? The proof of the survival of the ego,
+    of _the individuality_ after death. _To be or not to be_--it is all in
+    that. For I frankly confess to you if I am going to dissolve away
+    again into the great All, I should just as soon be annihilated. That
+    is perhaps a weakness; but it cannot be helped. I hold above
+    everything else to my individuality; not that I set a great value on
+    it, but the feeling is instinctive and I believe that at bottom
+    everybody is of this opinion. This then is the goal or end, which at
+    all epochs has powerfully interested man and interests him still
+    to-day.
+
+    One of the weightiest proofs of the survival of the individual being
+    that I have ever met with is, in my opinion, the vision which my aunt
+    had _several days_ after the death of a friend of hers who, in order
+    to give her a proof of the reality of her apparition, inspired in her
+    by mental suggestion the power of seeing her in the dress she had on
+    in her coffin, _a costume which my aunt had never seen_.
+
+    This is one of the fine and rare arguments in favor of the survival of
+    the soul, so far as my experience goes. Many things are explained by
+    this survival,--above all, what is apparently the frightful injustice
+    of this world.
+
+To these important observations of M. Castex-Dégrange, I should like to
+add those of a distinguished scientist, who has also for a long time now
+devoted himself to the analysis and synthesis of these phenomena. I mean
+M. Goupil. Some of his studies are yet in manuscript form, and I am
+indebted to this savant for permission to use them. Others have been
+reprinted in a curious brochure (_Pour et Contre_, Tours, 1893). But in
+citing such a large number of instances and experiments, I am abusing the
+kindness of my readers, even the most curious and the most eager for
+knowledge. However, I will at least point out the conclusions drawn by M.
+Goupil from his personal experiences. They are to be found in the work of
+which I have just spoken, and are as follows:
+
+    Table-turning séances yield very insignificant results, regarded as
+    pure science obtained from the spirits; but they are not lacking in
+    interest from the point of view of the analysis of the facts and of
+    the science to be established in accordance with the causes and the
+    laws which govern these phenomena.
+
+    I believe that I can draw the conclusion from these phenomena that two
+    theories (the _reflex_ and the _Spiritualistic_) may be drawn from the
+    facts. It seems to me impossible to maintain that an intelligent agent
+    other than that of the experimenters is not operative in them. What is
+    this intelligence? I believe it is very hazardous to express a
+    confident opinion on this point in view of the incongruity of all
+    these communications.
+
+    It is also undeniable that the intellects of the operators enter into
+    the phenomena to a great extent, and that in many cases they alone
+    seem to act.
+
+    I should perhaps be sufficiently near the truth if I gave the
+    following definition of the phenomenon:
+
+    _Functions external to the animistic principle of the operators, and
+    above all of the medium, and governed by their intellects, but
+    sometimes associated with an intellect unknown and relatively
+    independent of man._
+
+    Experimenters have maintained that communications obtained from the
+    so-called spirits through mediums never show more intellectual
+    capacity than is possessed by the most intelligent person among the
+    sitters. This assertion is generally justified, but it is not
+    absolute.
+
+    I will mention, in connection with this point, some séances which took
+    place at my house. The medium was Mme. G., whose life I had been
+    familiar with for twenty-seven years, day by day, and consequently had
+    an intimate acquaintance with her character, her manners, temperament
+    and education.
+
+    The communications which were obtained through mediumistic writing in
+    these séances extended over a period of more than fifteen months.
+
+    Mme. G. had the sense of a kind of _mental_, rather than auricular,
+    psychical rather than physical, audition which dictated to her what
+    she had to write in bits of sentences one after another; and this
+    impression was accompanied by a strong desire to write, somewhat like
+    the intense longing that a woman with child experiences.
+
+    If this medium gave her attention to the sense of the writing during
+    the composition, the current of power was shut off, and everything
+    resumed the state of ordinary composition. Her condition was that of a
+    clerk writing unconcernedly and mechanically under the dictation of a
+    superior. It resulted from this that the writings, executed at the
+    maximum speed of the subject, and generally without retardation or
+    stoppage after the questions, were in one long string, without
+    punctuation or paragraphs, and full of mistakes in spelling, resulting
+    from the fact that the medium was acquainted with the sense of the
+    writing only when she had read it over, at least in the case of rather
+    long communications.
+
+    The gist or substance of the _writings_ seems very frequently to be
+    drawn from our ideas, our conversation, our reading, or our thoughts;
+    but there are certain plainly marked exceptions.
+
+    While Mme. G. was writing, I applied myself to other
+    occupations,--calculations, music, etc., or I walked up and down in
+    the room; but I only examined the replies when she had stopped
+    writing.
+
+    Nothing indicated that the physical and physiological condition of the
+    medium during these writings was in any way different from that of her
+    ordinary condition. Mme. G. could interrupt her writing at will and
+    apply herself to other occupations or make responses about things
+    unconnected with the séance, and it never happened that she found
+    herself short of an answer.
+
+    There is no parallelism between these writings and the mental
+    endowments of Mme. G., either in promptness of repartee, in breadth of
+    view, or in philosophic depth.
+
+    In 1890 I bought Flammarion's _Uranie_, which Mme. G. did not read
+    until 1891. I found in it doctrines absolutely similar to those which
+    I had deduced from my experiments and from our communications. Any one
+    who should compare these mediumistic writings with the philosophical
+    works of the French astronomer would be led to believe that Mme. G.
+    had previously read them.
+
+    Psychic phenomena have this peculiarity, that identical assertions are
+    made in far distant places through mediums who have never known each
+    other,--a fact which would tend to demonstrate that, running through
+    many declarations which apparently contradict each other, there is a
+    certain uniformity of action on the part of the intelligent occult
+    power.
+
+    In 1890 I also read the work of Dr. Antoine Cros, _The Problem_, in
+    which I also found astonishing agreements between the ideas of this
+    author and those of our Unknown Inspirer,--among others this: that man
+    himself creates his Paradises and becomes that to which he has
+    aspired.
+
+    We should always seek the simplest explanation of the facts, without
+    desiring to find the occult in them, and above all without looking for
+    spirits everywhere, but also without wishing, under any circumstances,
+    to reject the intervention of unknown agents and deny the facts when
+    they cannot be explained.
+
+    It is rather curious to remark that if we compare the dictations given
+    by the tables and the other so-called mediumistic phenomena with
+    observations made in conditions of natural or hypnotic somnambulism,
+    we find the same phases of incoherence, hesitation, error, lucidity
+    and supernormal excitation of the faculties.
+
+    On the other hand, the supernormal excitation of the faculties neither
+    explains the cases of prediction nor the citation of unknown facts. In
+    the case of many telepathic or other phenomena every explanation limps
+    that excludes the intervention of external intelligences. But it is
+    still impossible to formulate a theory. There exists a gap to be
+    filled by new discoveries.[79]
+
+I will add to these conclusions two short extracts from a letter which M.
+Goupil wrote me on the 13th of April, 1899, and from another one on the
+1st of June, in the same year.
+
+    1. Replying to the request which you address to your readers, I will
+    say that I have never observed telepathic cases, but that I have for a
+    long time been experimenting with the phenomena _called_
+    Spiritualistic, of which I was a simple analyst. I have come to no
+    conclusions as to explanatory theories. However, I consider it
+    _probable_ that there exists powerful intelligences other than human
+    that intervene under certain circumstances. My opinion is based upon a
+    large number of very curious personal occurrences. In my opinion, we
+    have not in these phenomena the appearance of simple coincidences, but
+    of circumstances willed, foreseen, and produced by an intelligent _x_.
+
+    2. Of the ensemble--of all that I have seen--there is simultaneously
+    the reflex action of the experimenters and an independent personality.
+    This hypothesis seems to me true, while I should make at the same time
+    this reservation, that the personality or spirit is not a finished
+    being, with limitations of form, such as an invisible man would have,
+    going, coming and executing commissions for human beings. I have
+    glimpses of a grander and vaster system.
+
+    Take a handful of the ocean, and you have _water_.
+
+    Take a handful of the atmosphere, and you have _air_.
+
+    Take a handful of space, and you have _mind_.
+
+    That is the way I interpret it. That is why mind is always present,
+    ready to respond when it finds in any place a stimulus that incites
+    it, and an organism which permits it to manifest itself.
+
+Let us confess that the problem is complex and that it is good to compare
+all the hypotheses.[80]
+
+From the numerous papers and documents laid out at this moment upon my
+writing-desk, I can only select a small number for insertion here,
+although they all have their special interest. One is overwhelmed by the
+richness and vastness of the material. However, out of the material
+acquired in the course of the Inquiry of which I spoke above, let me give
+here one piece which I should regret not to be able to include within the
+compass of the present work.
+
+The former governess of the poet Alfred de Musset, Mme. Martelet, née
+Adèle Colin,--who still lives in Paris and who has just been present (in
+1906) at the unveiling of the statue of the poet (although his death dates
+from the year 1857),--has given the following account, which may be added
+here to that of movements without contact.
+
+    An inexplicable occurrence which my sister, Mme. Charlot, and myself
+    witnessed impressed us most deeply. It took place at the time of the
+    last sickness of M. de Musset. I shall never forget the emotion we
+    felt that evening, and I still have the minutest incidents of the
+    strange occurrence stamped on my memory.
+
+    My master, who had taken no rest during all the previous night, had
+    toward the end of the day, fallen into a doze in a large easy-chair.
+    My sister and I had entered the chamber on tip-toe, in order not to
+    trouble this precious rest of his, and we sat quietly down in a corner
+    where we were concealed by the curtains of the bed.
+
+    The invalid could not perceive us, but we saw him very well, and I
+    sorrowfully contemplated that suffering face which I knew I could not
+    much longer look upon. And still, even now, when I recall the features
+    of my master, I see them as they appeared to me on that evening,--the
+    eyes closed, his finely shaped head resting upon the easy-chair, and
+    his long, thin, pale hands (the paleness of the dead already upon
+    them), crossed upon his knees in a contracted and shriveled way. We
+    remained motionless and silent, and the chamber, lighted only by a
+    feeble lamp, seemed wrapped in shadows and was filled with that
+    peculiar mournful atmosphere that characterizes the chamber of the
+    dying.
+
+    Suddenly we heard a deep sigh. The invalid had waked up and I saw his
+    looks go toward the bell-cord that hung near the fireplace some steps
+    from the easy-chair. He evidently wanted to ring, and I do not know
+    what feeling it was that held me nailed to my place. Still I did not
+    move, and my master, having a horror of solitude and believing that he
+    was alone in his chamber, rose up, stretched out his arm with the
+    evident intention of calling someone; but, already fatigued by this
+    effort, he fell back into the chair without having taken a step. It
+    was at this moment that we had an experience that terrified us. The
+    bell, which the sick man had not touched, rang, and instinctively, at
+    the same moment, my sister and I seized each other's hands, each
+    anxiously interrogating the face of the other.
+
+    "Did you hear?"--"Did you see?"--"He did not move from his chair!"
+
+    At this moment the nurse entered and innocently asked, "Did you ring,
+    sir?"
+
+    This event put us into an extraordinary state of mind, and if I had
+    not had my sister with me I should have believed that it was an
+    hallucination. But both of us saw, and all three of us heard. It is a
+    good many years now since all that took place, but I can still hear
+    the ominous and mournful sound of that bell ringing in the silence of
+    the chamber.
+
+This account, also, seems not to be devoid of value. There are undoubtedly
+several ways of explaining it. The first is that which occurs to
+everybody.
+
+The Frenchman, born malign, says Boileau, does not mince matters, and,
+apropos of this story of De Musset, simply exclaims in his language
+(always flashy and devoid of literary distinction), "What a fine piece of
+rot!" And that is all there is to it. A few may reflect for a moment more,
+and not admit that there is necessarily any invention on the part of the
+governess, and may think that she, as well as her sister, believed that De
+Musset had not touched the bell cord, while in reality he touched it with
+the ends of his fingers. But these ladies can answer that the distance
+between the hand of the poet and the cord was too great, that the cord was
+inaccessible in that position, _and that it was that very thing which
+impressed them_, and without which there would have been no story to tell.
+We may also suppose that the bell was rung by some external force
+impinging on it, although the cord was not pulled. We may still further
+suppose that, in the restlessness of these hours of distress, the
+waiting-woman came in without having heard anything, and that the
+coincidence of her arrival with the gesture of De Musset surprised the two
+watchers, who afterward thought that they had heard the bell. However, to
+sum up the whole thing, while we may regard the occurrence as
+inexplicable, we may yet admit its truth as narrated. This seems to me the
+most logical view, and the more so that the gentle poet had, several times
+in his life, given other proofs of possessing faculties of this kind.
+
+I will add here one more instance of the _movement of objects without
+contact_ which is not without value. It was published by Dr. Coues in the
+_Annales des sciences psychiques_, for the year 1893. The views stated are
+also worthy of being summed up here. The observers, Dr. and Mrs. Elliott
+Coues, speak out of their own personal experience.
+
+    It is a principle of physics that a heavy body can only be put in
+    motion by the direct application of a mechanical force sufficient to
+    overcome its inertia, and orthodox science maintains that the idea of
+    action at a distance is an erroneous idea.
+
+    The authors of the present study assert, on the contrary, that heavy
+    bodies may be, and frequently are, put in motion without any kind of
+    direct application of mechanical force, and that action at a distance
+    is a well-established fact in nature. We offer proofs of these
+    propositions based on a series of experiments undertaken for this
+    purpose.
+
+    We often repeated these experiments, _during more than two years_,
+    with results that were convincing not only to ourselves but to many
+    other witnesses.
+
+    We do not understand how the scientific world has been able to accept
+    the idea that the expression "action at a distance" is a false one,
+    unless those who see an error in the assertion attach to these words a
+    special meaning of which we are ignorant.
+
+    It is certain that the sun acts at a distance upon the earth and the
+    other planets of the solar system. It is certain that a piece of
+    anything thrown into the air falls back in consequence of the
+    attraction of gravitation,--and that, too, at no matter what distance.
+    The law of gravitation, so far as we know it, is universal, and it is
+    not yet proved that there exists a ponderable, or otherwise palpable,
+    medium which serves to transmit the force.[81]
+
+    We go a little farther, even, and declare that, probably, all action
+    of matter is an action at a distance, especially since (so far as our
+    knowledge goes) there are not in the whole universe two particles of
+    matter in absolute contact; and, consequently, if they act the one
+    upon the other, it must be at some distance, this distance being
+    infinitely small and entirely inappreciable to our senses.
+
+    We therefore maintain that the law of movement at a distance is a
+    universal mechanical law and that the idea that it does not exist is a
+    kind of a paradox, simply a hair-splitting quibble.
+
+The two authors of this study sometimes experimented together, sometimes
+separately, more often with one or more additional experimenters,
+sometimes with four, five, six, seven or eight. They witnessed at
+different times, in full light, the vigorous and even violent movements of
+a large table which nobody touched directly or indirectly. The persons
+mentioned were all friends of theirs, living, like them, in the city of
+Washington, and all sincerely desirous of knowing the truth of the matter.
+There was no professional medium.
+
+    The scene opens in a little parlor in our house (they write). In the
+    centre of the room is a large heavy oak table in marquetry, which
+    weighs about one hundred pounds. The top is oval and measures four
+    feet and a half by three and a half. It has only a single support, in
+    the middle, branching off into three legs, or feet, with casters.
+    Above it is the chandelier, several burners of which are lighted and
+    give sufficient light for the ladies to read and work by the table.
+    Dr. Coues is seated in his easy-chair, in a corner of this large room,
+    at a distance from the table, reading or writing by the light of two
+    other burners.
+
+    The ladies express the wish to see if the table "will do something,"
+    as they say.
+
+    The cloth is removed. Mrs. C., seated in a low rocking-chair, places
+    her hands on the table. Mrs. A., also seated in a low easy-chair, does
+    the same, facing her at the opposite side of the table. Their hands
+    are opened and placed upon the upper surface of the table. In this
+    position, they cannot lift the table by themselves with their hands:
+    that is an entire impossibility. Neither can they push it by leaning
+    on it in order to make it rise on the opposite side, except by
+    muscular effort easily observed. Neither can they lift the table
+    unaided with their knees, since these are at least a foot away from
+    the top and since moreover their feet never leave the floor. Finally,
+    they cannot lift the table by means of their toes slipped under a foot
+    of the table, because the table is too heavy.
+
+    Under these conditions, and beneath the full light of at least four
+    gas jets, the table habitually began to crack or snap, and produced
+    divers strange noises quite different from those which could be
+    obtained by leaning upon it. These noises soon showed, if I may so
+    say, some reason in their incoherence, and certain definite strokes or
+    rappings came to represent "yes," and "no." According to an arranged
+    code of signals, we were able to enter into a conversation with an
+    unknown being. Then the table was generally polite enough to do what
+    it was asked. One side or another of it tipped as we wished. It went
+    from one side or the other according as we requested. Under these
+    circumstances we made the following experiments:
+
+    The two ladies removed their hands from the table and drew back their
+    chairs, while still remaining seated in them at a distance of _one or
+    two feet_. Dr. Coues from his arm chair saw distinctly above and
+    beneath the table. The feet of the ladies were from twelve to
+    thirty-six inches distant from the feet of the table. Their heads and
+    their hands were still farther off. There was no contact with it. Even
+    their dresses were not within a foot or two of it. Under these
+    conditions, the table lifted one of its feet and let it fall heavily
+    back. It lifted two feet to a height of from two to six inches, and,
+    when they fell back, the blow was heavy enough to make the floor
+    shake, and make the glass globes of the chandelier tinkle. Besides
+    these energetic, even violent movements, the table displayed its power
+    by means of raps or balancings.
+
+    Its _yes's_ or its _no's_ were commonly rational, sometimes in
+    agreement with the ideas of the one who put the question, sometimes in
+    persistent opposition to those ideas. Sometimes the invisible agent
+    affirmed that he was a certain person, and maintained that
+    individuality during an entire séance. Or possibly this character was
+    dropped, so to speak, or at least ceased to appear, and another
+    person, or another being, took its place, with different ideas and
+    opinions. Thereupon, the raps or the movements also differed. Finally
+    the inanimate table, which was supposed to be inert, took on for the
+    moment all the appearance of a living being possessing an intelligence
+    as keen as that of an ordinary person. It expressed itself with as
+    much will and individuality as our friends caused it to do by their
+    voices and their gestures. And yet, during this whole time _no one of
+    the three persons present touched the table_, the two ladies being at
+    a distance of two or three feet, and Dr. Coues seven to ten feet, in a
+    corner of the room, which was lighted by four gas jets. There was no
+    other person present that one could see. If this was not a case of
+    telekinesis, or movement of objects without contact, absolutely
+    different from ordinary and normal mechanical movement, we can
+    certainly no longer put trust in our senses.
+
+These observations of Dr. and Mrs. Elliott Coues are all as positively
+accurate and authentic as the occurrence of an earthquake, the falling of
+a fire-ball from the sky, a chemical combination, an experiment with an
+electrical machine. The sceptics who smile at them and say that everything
+is fraud are persons in whom the sense of logic is wanting.
+
+As to the explanation to be given of them, that is a different question
+from that of the pure and simple authentication of the facts.
+
+    Those to whom these descriptions of phenomena and experiments appeal
+    (adds the narrator) must take particular notice that the authors of
+    this study, although they have had occasion to speak of conversations
+    held with the table and to mention special tones of voice, and
+    intelligible messages imparted by pieces of inert wood, _categorically
+    refuse to approach the question of the source or origin of the
+    intelligence thus manifested_. That is an entirely different question,
+    with which we do not meddle. The single, or at least the principal,
+    object of the publication of this study is to establish the truth of
+    movement without contact.
+
+    But, having very plainly verified the fact and established it by
+    proofs in our possession, it might perhaps be expected of us that we
+    offer some explanation of the extraordinary things that we vouch for.
+    We respectfully reply that we are both too old and perhaps too wise to
+    claim to explain anything. When we were younger, and fancied that we
+    knew everything, we could explain everything,--at least to our own
+    satisfaction. Now that we have lived long enough, we have discovered
+    that every explanation of a thing raises at least two new questions,
+    and we do not feel any desire to stumble against new difficulties; for
+    these multiply in geometrical ratio, in proportion to the extent and
+    accuracy of our researches. We hold to this principle, that nothing is
+    explained so long as there still remains an explanation to be sought.
+    Under these conditions, we shall do better to recognize the
+    inexplicability of these psychical mysteries, before, rather than
+    after, futile theories about them.
+
+There you have what is absolutely reasonable, whatever may be said of it.
+
+And now, after these innumerable verifications of facts, and after all
+these professions of faith, shall I myself, have the courage, the
+pretension, the pride or the simplicity of mind, to start in search of the
+much desired information?
+
+Whether we find it or not, the facts nevertheless exist. It was the object
+of this book to convince my readers of this,--readers who should give to
+the subject their close attention, be possessed of unbiased judgment and
+good faith, and have the eyes of the spirit wide open and free from all
+weakness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EXPLANATORY HYPOTHESES--THEORIES AND DOCTRINES--CONCLUSIONS OF THE AUTHOR
+
+
+It is quite in the fashion, as a general thing, to profess absolute
+scepticism regarding the phenomena which form the subject of the present
+work. In the opinion of three-quarters of the citizens of our planet all
+unexplained noises in haunted houses; all displacements without contact of
+bodies more or less heavy; all movements of tables, pianos, or other
+objects produced in the experiments styled Spiritualistic; all
+communications dictated by raps or by unconscious writing; all
+apparitions, partial or total, of phantom forms--are illusions,
+hallucinations, or hoaxes. No explanation is needed. The only rational
+opinion is that all "mediums," professional or not, are imposters, and the
+participators in a séance are imbeciles.
+
+Sometimes one of these eminent judges consents, not to cease tipping the
+wink and smiling in his royal competency, but to condescend to be present
+at a séance. If, as only too frequently happens, no response to the
+command of the will is obtained, the illustrious observer retires, firmly
+convinced that, by his extraordinary penetration, he has discovered the
+cheat and blocked everything by his clairvoyant intuition. He at once
+writes to the journals, shows up the fraud, and sheds humanitarian
+crocodile tears over the sad spectacle of men, apparently intelligent,
+allowing themselves to be taken in by impostures, detected by him at the
+first blush.
+
+This first and easy explanation, that everything in the manifestations is
+fraud, has been so often exposed, discussed, and refuted during the course
+of this work that my readers probably consider it (at least I hope they
+do) as entirely, absolutely, and definitely decided and thrown out of the
+ring.
+
+However, I advise you not to speak too freely of these things at table, or
+in a drawing room if you do not like to have people making fun of you,
+more or less discreetly. If you air your views in public, you will produce
+the same effect as those eccentric fellows of the time of Ptolemy, who
+dared to speak of the movement of the earth and excited such
+inextinguishable laughter in respectable society that the echoes ring with
+it still in Athens, Alexandria, and Rome. It is only a repetition of what
+took place when Galileo spoke of the spots on the sun, Galvani of
+electricity, Jenner of vaccine, Jouffroy and Fulton of the steamship,
+Chappe of the telegraph, Lebon of gas-lighting, Stephenson of railways,
+Daguerre of photography, Boucher de Perthes of the fossil man, Mayer of
+thermodynamics, Wheatstone of the transatlantic cable, etc. If we could
+gather up all the sarcasms launched at the heads of these "poor
+crazy-wits," we should get a fine basket of venerable blunders, moldy as a
+remainder biscuit after a voyage.
+
+So let us not speak too much of our mysteries--unless it amuses us, in our
+turn, to ask some questions of the prettiest dolls in the company. One of
+them inquired in my presence, yesterday evening, what the man named
+Lavoisier did, and whether he was dead. Another thought that Auguste Comte
+was a writer of songs and asked if any one knew one of them which would
+suit a mezzo-soprano voice. Another was astonished that Louis XIV had not
+built one of the two railway stations of Versailles nearer the palace.
+
+Moreover, on my balcony, a member of the Institute, who saw Jupiter
+shining in the southern sky at the meridian point, over one of the cupolas
+of the Observatory, obstinately maintained in my presence that this
+luminary was the polar star. I did not dispute the point with him _too_
+long!
+
+There are not a few people who believe at once in the value of universal
+suffrage and in that of titles of nobility. Of course, we will not force
+these Janus-faced wise men to vote upon the admissibility of psychic
+phenomena into the sphere of science.
+
+But we will henceforth consider this admissibility as something granted,
+and, tossing back to the laughing sceptics, to the habitués of clubs and
+cliques, the general opinion of the world, of which I have just spoken,
+begin here our logical analysis.
+
+We have had under consideration during the course of this work several
+theories by scientific investigators which are worthy of attention. Let us
+first of all sum these up.
+
+    In the opinion of Gasparin, these unexplained movements are produced
+    by a _fluid_, emanating from us under the action of our will.
+
+    Professor Thury thinks that this fluid, which he calls _psychode_, is
+    a substance which forms a link between the soul and the body; but
+    there may also exist certain wills external to ourselves, and of
+    unknown nature, working side by side with us.
+
+    The chemist Crookes attributes the phenomena to psychic force, this
+    being the agent by which the phenomena are produced; but he adds that
+    this force may well be, in certain cases, seized upon and directed by
+    some other intelligence. "The difference between the partisans of
+    psychic force and those of Spiritualism," he writes, "consists in
+    this: we maintain that it is not yet _proved_ that there exists a
+    directing agent other than the intelligence of the medium and that
+    presence and actions of the spirits of the dead are felt in the
+    phenomena, while, on the contrary, the Spiritualists accept as an
+    article of faith, without demanding more proofs thereof, that these
+    spirits are the sole agents in the production of the observed facts."
+
+    Albert de Rochas defines these phenomena as "_an externalization of
+    motivity_," and considers them to be produced by the fluidic double,
+    "the astral body" of the medium, a nerve-fluid able to act and
+    perceive at a distance.
+
+    Lombroso declares that the explanation must be sought simply in the
+    nervous system of the medium, and that we have in the phenomena
+    _transformation of forces_.
+
+    Dr. Ochorowicz affirms that he has not found proofs in favor of the
+    Spiritualistic hypothesis, any more than he has in favor of the
+    intervention of external intelligences, and that the cause of the
+    phenomena is a _fluidic double_ detaching itself from the organism of
+    the medium.
+
+    The astronomer Porro is inclined to admit the possible action of
+    unknown spirits, of living forms different from our own, not
+    necessarily the souls of the dead, but psychical entities to be
+    studied. In a recent letter he wrote me that the theosophic doctrine
+    appeared to him to approach the nearest to a solution.[82]
+
+    Prof. Charles Richet thinks that the Spiritualistic hypothesis is far
+    from being demonstrated, that the observed facts relate to an entirely
+    different order of causes, as yet very difficult to disentangle and
+    that in the present state of our knowledge no final conclusion can be
+    agreed on.
+
+    The naturalist Wallace, Professor Morgan, and the electrician Varley
+    declare, on the other hand, that sufficient proof has been given them
+    to warrant them in accepting without reserve the Spiritualistic
+    doctrine of disembodied souls.
+
+    Prof. James H. Hyslop, of the University of Columbia, who has made a
+    special study of these phenomena, in the Proceedings of the London
+    Society for Psychical Research, and in his works _Science and a Future
+    Life_ and _Enigmas of Psychical Research_, thinks that there are not
+    yet enough severely critical verifications to warrant any theory.
+
+    Dr. Grasset, a disciple of Pierre Janet, does not admit displacement
+    of objects, or levitation, or the greater part of the facts described
+    in this book as proved, and thinks what is called Spiritualism is a
+    question of medical biology, of "the physiopathology of the nervous
+    centres," in which a celebrated cerebral polygon with a musical
+    conductor named O, plays an automatic rôle of a very curious
+    description.
+
+    Dr. Maxwell concludes from his observations that the greater part of
+    the phenomena, the reality of which cannot be doubted, are produced by
+    a force existing in us, that this force is intelligent, and that the
+    intelligence manifested comes from the experimenters. This would be a
+    kind of collective consciousness.
+
+    M. Marcel Mangin does not adopt this "collective consciousness," and
+    declares that it is certain that the being, in the séances, who
+    asserts that he is a manifestation is "the sub-consciousness of the
+    medium."
+
+The foregoing are some of the principal opinions. It would take a whole
+book to discuss in writing the proposed explanations, but that is not my
+object. My aim was to focus the question on what concerns THE
+ADMISSIBILITY OF THE PHENOMENA INTO THE SPHERE OF POSITIVE SCIENCE.
+
+However, now that this is done, we cannot but ask ourselves, what
+conclusions may be drawn from all these observations.
+
+If we wish to obtain, after this mass of verifications, a satisfactory
+rational explanation, it seems to me we must proceed gradually, classify
+the facts, analyze them, and only admit them in proportion to their
+absolute and demonstrated certainty. We live in a very complex universe,
+and the most singular confusion has arisen among phenomena which are very
+distinct one from another.
+
+As I said in 1869, at the tomb of Allan Kardec, "The causes in action are
+of several kinds, and are more numerous than one would suppose."
+
+Can we explain the observed phenomena, or at least any portion of it? It
+is our duty to try. For this purpose I shall classify them in the order of
+increasing difficulties. It is always advisable to begin with the
+beginning.
+
+May I hope that the reader will have got a clear idea in his mind of the
+experiments and observations set forth in the previous pages of this work?
+It would be a little insipid to refer every time to the pages where the
+phenomena have been described.
+
+    1. ROTATION OF THE TABLE, _with contact of the hands of a certain
+    number of operators_.
+
+    This rotation can be explained by an unconscious impulse given to the
+    table. All that is necessary is that each one push a little in the
+    same way, and the movement will take place.
+
+
+    2. MOVEMENT OF THE TABLE, _the hands of the experimenters resting upon
+    it_.
+
+    The operators push and the table is led along without their knowing
+    it, each one acting in a greater or less degree. They think they are
+    following it, but they are really leading it along. We have in this
+    only the result of muscular efforts, generally of a rather slight
+    nature.
+
+
+    3. LIFTING OF THE TABLE _on the side opposite to that upon which the
+    hands of the principal actor are placed_.
+
+    Nothing is more simple. The pressure of the hands upon a centre-table
+    with three legs suffices to produce the lifting of the leg the
+    farthest removed, and thus to strike all the letters of the alphabet.
+    The movement is less easy in the case of a table with four legs; but
+    it can also be obtained.
+
+    These three movements are the only ones, it seems to me, which can be
+    explained without the least mystery. Still, the third is only
+    explicable in case the table is not too heavy.
+
+
+    4. IMPARTING LIFE TO THE TABLE.
+
+    Several experimenters being seated around the table, and forming the
+    chain with the desire of seeing it rise, the waves of a kind of
+    vibrations (light at first) are perceived to be passing through the
+    wood. Then balancings are noticed, some of which may be due to
+    muscular impulses. But already something more is now mingled in the
+    process. The table seems to be set in motion of itself. Sometimes it
+    rises, no longer as if moved by a lever, or by pressure on one side,
+    but _under the hands_, as if it were sticking to them. This levitation
+    is contrary to the law of gravitation. Hence we have here a discharge
+    of force. This force emanates from our organism. There is no
+    sufficient reason to seek for anything else. Nevertheless, what we
+    have detected is a thing of prime importance.
+
+
+    5. ROTATION WITHOUT CONTACT.
+
+    The table being in rapid rotation, we can remove our hands from it,
+    and see it continue the movement. The velocity or momentum acquired
+    may explain the momentary continuation of this movement and the
+    explanation given in the case of No. 1 may suffice. But there is more
+    in it than this. Rotation is obtained by holding the hands at a
+    distance of some inches above the table, without any contact. A light
+    layer of flour dusted over the table is found to be untouched by a
+    single finger. Hence the force emitted by the operators must penetrate
+    the table.
+
+    The experiments prove that we have in us a force capable of acting at
+    a distance upon matter, a natural force, generally latent, but
+    developed in different degrees in different mediums. The action of the
+    force is manifested under conditions as yet imperfectly determined.
+    (See pp. 81, 248 _et seq._) We can act upon brute matter, upon living
+    matter, upon the brain and upon the mind. This action of the will is
+    shown in telepathy. It is shown more simply still by means of a
+    well-known experiment: at the theatre, in church, when hearing music,
+    a man accustomed to the exercise of will-power, and sitting several
+    rows of seats behind a woman, say, compels her to turn around in less
+    than a minute. A force emanates from us, from our spirit, acting
+    undoubtedly by means of etherwaves, the point of departure of which is
+    a cerebral movement.
+
+    And there is nothing very mysterious in this. I bring my hand near a
+    thermometer, and ascertain that something invisible is escaping from
+    my hand, and, at a certain remove, making the column of mercury rise.
+    This something else is heat; that is to say, aërial waves in movement.
+    Then why might not other radiations emanate from our hands and from
+    our whole being?
+
+    But, nevertheless, there is a very important scientific fact to be
+    established.
+
+    This physical force is greater than that of the muscles, as I am going
+    to prove.
+
+
+    6. LIFTING OF WEIGHTS.
+
+    A table is loaded with sacks of sand and with stones weighing
+    altogether from 165 to 176 pounds. The table lifts each of its three
+    legs several times in succession. But it succumbs under the load and
+    is broken. The operators ascertain that their muscular force would not
+    have sufficed to produce the observed movements. The will acts by a
+    dynamic prolongation.
+
+
+    7. LIFTINGS WITHOUT CONTACT.
+
+    The hands forming the chain some inches above the side of the table
+    which is to be lifted, and all wills being concentrated on the one
+    idea, the lifting of each of the legs in succession takes place. The
+    liftings are more readily obtained than rotations without contact. An
+    energetic will seems to be indispensable. The unknown force passes
+    from the experimenters to the table without any contact. If the table
+    is dusted over with flour, as I said, not the slightest finger-touch
+    is seen to be imprinted on it.
+
+    The will of the sitters is in play. The table is ordered to make such
+    and such a movement and it obeys. This will seems to be prolonged
+    beyond the bodies of the operating experimenters in the shape of a
+    force that is quite intense.
+
+    This power is developed by action. The balancings prepare for the
+    rising and the latter for complete levitation.
+
+
+    8. REDUCING THE WEIGHT OF THE TABLE OR OTHER OBJECTS.
+
+    A quadrangular table is suspended by one of its sides to a dynamometer
+    attached to a cord which is held above by some kind of a hook. The
+    needle of the dynamometer, which, in a state of rest, indicates 35
+    kilograms, gradually descends to 3, 2, 1, 0 kilograms.
+
+    A mahogany board is placed horizontally, and hung by one end to a
+    spring balance. This balance (or scales), has a point which touches a
+    pane of glass blackened by smoke. When this pane of glass is put in
+    movement, the needle traces a horizontal line. During the experiments,
+    this line is no longer straight, but marks reductions and increments
+    of weight, produced without any contact of hands. In the experiments
+    of Crookes we saw that the weight of a board increased almost 1-1/4
+    pounds.
+
+    The medium places his hands _upon_ the back of a chair and lifts the
+    chair.
+
+
+    9. AUGMENTATION OF THE WEIGHT OF A TABLE OR OTHER OBJECTS.--PRESSURES
+    EXERTED.
+
+    The dynamometric experiments that we have just recalled themselves go
+    to show this augmentation.
+
+    I have more than once seen, in other circumstances, a table become so
+    heavy that it was absolutely impossible for two men to lift it from
+    the floor. When they succeeded in doing so, in a measure, by means of
+    quick jerks, it still seemed to stick to the floor as if held by glue
+    or india rubber, which immediately pulled it back to the floor after
+    it had been slightly displaced.
+
+    In all these experiments, there is proof of the action of an unknown
+    natural force emanating from the chief experimenter or from the
+    collective powers of the group, an organic force under the influence
+    of the will. It is not necessary to suppose the presence of superhuman
+    spirits.
+
+
+    10. THE COMPLETE LIFTING UP, OR LEVITATION OF THE TABLE.
+
+    As there may be confusion in applying the word "lifting" to a table
+    which only rises on one side at a certain angle, while still touching
+    the floor, it is expedient to apply the word "levitation" to the case
+    in which it is completely separated from the floor.
+
+    Generally, in levitation, it rises from six to eight inches from the
+    floor, for some seconds only, and then falls back. It moves up in a
+    balancing, undulating, hesitating way, with effort, and then falls
+    straight down. While resting our hands upon it, we have the sensation
+    of a fluid resistance, as of it were in water,--the kind of fluid
+    sensation we experience when we bring a piece of iron into the field
+    of force of a magnet.
+
+    A table, a chair or other movable article sometimes rises, not merely
+    a foot or so, but almost to the height of one's head, and even as high
+    as the ceiling.
+
+    The force brought into play is considerable.
+
+
+    11. LEVITATION OF HUMAN BODIES.
+
+    This case is of the same order as the preceding. The medium may be
+    raised with his chair and placed upon the table, sometimes in unstable
+    equilibrium. He may also be lifted alone (without the chair).[83]
+
+    In this case the Unknown Force does not seem to be simply mechanical:
+    intention is mingled with the act, and ideas of precaution, which,
+    however may proceed from the mentality of the medium himself, aided
+    perhaps by that of the sitters. This fact seems to us to contravene
+    known scientific laws. It is the same case as that of the cat which
+    knows how to turn of itself, without any outside support or leverage,
+    when it falls from a roof, and always falls on its feet, a fact
+    contrary to the principles of mechanics taught in every university in
+    the world.
+
+
+    12. LIFTING OF VERY HEAVY PIECES OF FURNITURE.
+
+    A piano weighing more than 750 pounds rises up off of its two front
+    legs, and it is ascertained that its weight varies. The force with
+    which it is animated arises from the proximity of a child eleven years
+    old, but it is not the conscious will of this child which acts.--A
+    heavy oak dining-table may rise so high that its under side can be
+    inspected during the levitation.
+
+
+    13. DISPLACEMENT OF OBJECTS WITHOUT CONTACT.
+
+    A heavy easy-chair moves about of its own accord in the room. Heavy
+    curtains reaching from the ceiling to the floor are forcibly swelled
+    out as if by a gust of wind, and envelop as with a hood the heads of
+    persons seated at a table, at a distance of three feet and more. A
+    centre table persists in _the endeavor_ to climb upon the
+    experiment-table--and gets there. While a sceptical spectator is
+    bantering the "spirits," the table about which the experiments are
+    taking place makes a move towards the incredulous person, drawing the
+    sitters along with it, and pins him to the wall until he begs for
+    mercy.
+
+    As in the preceding cases, these movements may represent the
+    expression of the will of the medium, and may not necessarily indicate
+    the presence of a mind external to his own. Nevertheless--?
+
+
+    14. RAPS AND TYPTOLOGY.
+
+    In tables, in pianos, and other pieces of furniture, in the walls, in
+    the air, raps are heard, and their vibrations perceived by the touch.
+    They somewhat resemble the sounds obtainable by tapping against a
+    piece of wood with the joint of the bent finger. The question arises,
+    Whence come these noises? The question is asked aloud. They are
+    repeated. The request is made that a certain number of strokes be
+    rapped. The raps are heard. Well-known airs are accompanied by raps
+    beaten in perfect time with them and identifiable as the counterpart
+    of the airs. When bits of music are played, the accompaniment is
+    rapped out. Things take place as if an invisible being were listening
+    and acting. But how could a being without acoustic nerve and without a
+    tympanum hear? The sonorous waves must strike something in order to be
+    interpreted. Is this a mental transmission?
+
+    These raps are made. Who makes them? And how? The mysterious force
+    emits radiations of wave-lengths inaccessible to our retina, but
+    powerful and rapid, without doubt more rapid than those of light, and
+    situated beyond the ultraviolet. Besides, light impedes their action.
+
+    In proportion as we advance in the examination of the phenomena, the
+    psychic, intellectual, mental element is more and more mingled with
+    the physical and mechanical element. In the case we are considering we
+    are forced to admit the presence, the action, of a thought. Is this
+    thought simply that of the medium, of the chief experimenter, or the
+    resultant of the thoughts of all the sitters united?
+
+    Since these raps or those made by the legs of the table, on being
+    interrogated, dictate words and phrases and express ideas, there is
+    something more in the matter than a simple mechanical action. The
+    unknown force, the existence of which we have been obliged to admit in
+    the preceding observations, is in this case at the service of an
+    intelligence. The mystery grows complicated.
+
+    It is owing to this intellectual element that I proposed (before 1865;
+    see p. xix) to give the name "_psychic_" to this force, a name
+    proposed anew by Crookes in 1871. We saw also that, as early as the
+    year 1855, Thury had proposed the name "_psychode_" and "_ecteneic_"
+    force. From this on, it would be impossible for us in our examination
+    not to take into consideration this psychic force.
+
+    Up to this point, Gasparin's fluid might suffice, just as unconscious
+    muscular action sufficed for the first three classes of facts. But
+    starting from this fourteenth class, the psychic order plainly
+    manifests itself (and even in the preceding class we begin already to
+    divine its presence).
+
+
+    15. MALLET-BLOWS.
+
+    I have heard--as have all other experimenters--not only sharp light
+    raps upon a table, like those of which I have just been speaking, but
+    mallet-blows, or blows of the fist upon a door, capable of knocking
+    down a man if he had received them. Generally, these tremendous blows
+    are a protestation against a denial on the part of one of the sitters.
+    There is in them an intention, a will, an intelligence. They may also
+    be due to the medium, who is indignant, or who is amusing himself or
+    herself. The action is not muscular; for the hands and feet of the
+    medium are held, and the rapping may occur some distance away from him
+    or her.
+
+
+    16. TOUCHINGS.
+
+    Fraud can explain those which take place within the reach of the
+    medium's hands, for they only occur in the darkness. But they have
+    been felt at a certain distance beyond this reach as if the hands of
+    the medium were prolonged.
+
+
+    17. ACTION OF INVISIBLE HANDS.
+
+    An accordion in an open-work case, or cage, which keeps any other hand
+    from touching it, is held in one hand by the end opposite the keys.
+    Presently the instrument begins to lengthen and shorten of itself and
+    plays various melodies. An invisible hand with fingers (or something
+    like them), must therefore be acting. (Experiment of Crookes with
+    Home.) As the reader has seen I repeated this experiment with Eusapia.
+
+    Another time, a music-box, the handle of which was turned by an
+    invisible hand, played in perfect time with the music movements that
+    Eusapia was making upon my cheek.
+
+    An invisible hand forcibly snatched from my hand a block of paper
+    which I was holding out with extended arm at the height of my head.
+
+    Invisible hands removed from M. Schiaparelli's head his spectacles
+    (furnished with a spring), which were firmly fastened behind his ears,
+    and that so nimbly and with such light touch that he did not perceive
+    it until afterwards.
+
+
+    18. APPARITIONS OF HANDS.
+
+    The hands are not always invisible. Sometimes semi-luminous ones are
+    seen to appear in the dim light,--hands of men, hands of women, hands
+    of children. Sometimes they have clear-cut outlines. They are
+    generally firm and moist to the touch, sometimes icy cold. At times
+    they melt away in the hand. For my part I was never able to grasp one.
+    It was always the mysterious hand that took mine,--often feeling
+    through a curtain, or sometimes by nude contact, or pinching my ear,
+    or running its fingers through my hair with great rapidity.
+
+
+    19. APPARITIONS OF HEADS.
+
+    For my part, I have only seen two: the bearded silhouette at
+    Monfort-l'Amaury, and the head of a young girl with high-arched
+    forehead, in my drawing-room. In the case of the first I had believed
+    that there was a mask held at the end of a rod. But at my own home,
+    there was no possibility of an accomplice, and at present I am not
+    less sure of the first instance than of the other. Moreover, the
+    testimony of other observers is so precise and so often given that it
+    is imperative that it be classed with my own.
+
+
+    20. PHANTOMS.
+
+    I have never seen any of these nor photographed them, but it seems to
+    me impossible to be sceptical about that of Katie King, observed for
+    three consecutive years by Crookes and others who experimented with
+    the medium Florence Cook. One can scarcely doubt, also, the reality of
+    the phantoms seen by the committee of the Dialectical Society of
+    London. We have seen that trickery plays a frequent rôle in this sort
+    of apparitions; but, in the experiments just mentioned, the
+    observations were really conducted with such perspicacity that they
+    are safe from all objection, and have on them the stamp of a purely
+    scientific character.
+
+    These phantoms, like the heads and the hands mentioned, seem to be
+    condensations of fluids produced by the powers of the medium, and do
+    not prove the existence of independent spirits.
+
+    When the hand is stretched out, the rubbing of a beard can be felt
+    upon it. This happened to me, as well as to others. Did the beard
+    really exist, or was it only a case of tactual and visual sensations?
+    The case here immediately following pleads in favor of its reality.
+
+
+    21. IMPRESSIONS OF HEADS AND OF HANDS.
+
+    The heads and the hands formed are sufficiently dense to leave a mould
+    of their features and shape imprinted in the putty or the clay.
+    Perhaps the most curious thing is that it is not necessary that these
+    weird formations, these forces, be visible in order to produce
+    impressions. We have seen a vigorous gesture imprint itself at a
+    distance in clay.
+
+
+    22. PASSING OF MATTER THROUGH MATTER.--TRANSFERS, OR THE BRINGING IN
+    OF OBJECTS.
+
+    A book has been seen passing through a curtain. A bell has passed from
+    a library-room, locked with a key, into a drawing-room. A flower has
+    been seen passing perpendicularly downward through a dining-room
+    table. Some have thought they had ocular proof of the mysterious
+    appearance of plants, of flowers, of fruits, and other objects, which
+    (as the claim went) had passed through walls, ceilings, doors.
+
+    The latter phenomenon took place several times in my presence. But I
+    was never able to get certain proof of it under unimpeachable
+    conditions; and I have ferreted out many a trick.
+
+    The experiments of Zöllner (a wooden ring entering into another wooden
+    ring, a string tied at the two ends making a knot, etc.) would, of
+    course, be a thing of exceptional interest if the medium Slade had not
+    the bad reputation of being just a skilful prestidigitator,--a
+    reputation probably only too well merited. I should think that there
+    is good reason to suppose that the experiments of Crookes are
+    authentic.
+
+    Has space only three dimensions? We will set this question aside.
+
+
+    23. MANIFESTATIONS DIRECTED BY AN INTELLIGENCE.
+
+    These have been already glimpsed in a certain number of the preceding
+    cases. The forces in action here are of the psychical as well as the
+    physical class. The question is to know whether the intellect of the
+    medium and of the sitters is sufficient to explain everything.
+
+    In all the cases I have previously mentioned, this intellect seem to
+    suffice, but only by attributing to it occult faculties of prodigious
+    potency.
+
+    In the present state of our knowledge, it is impossible for us to
+    understand the way in which mind, conscious or unconscious, can lift a
+    table, make raps in wood, form a hand or a head, stamp an imprint. The
+    _modus operandi_ is absolutely unintelligible to us. Future science
+    will perhaps discover it. But all these actions never overpass the
+    limits of man's capacities, and let us admit, the capacity required is
+    not an extraordinary one.
+
+    The hypothesis of spirits of another order than that of living human
+    beings does not seem to be necessary.
+
+    The hypothesis of the doubling of the psychic personality of the
+    medium is the most simple. Is it sufficient to entirely satisfy us?
+
+    Hard blows on the table like those of a fist, contrasting with gentle
+    taps, may have this origin, in spite of appearance.
+
+    It is the same with apparitions of the hands, of heads, of spectral
+    forms. We cannot declare this origin of the phenomena to be
+    impossible; and it is more simple than to assume that they are due to
+    wandering spirits.
+
+    The conveying of objects over the heads of the experimenters in
+    complete darkness, without touching either chandelier or heads, is
+    scarcely comprehensible. But do we understand any better how a spirit
+    can have hands? And if it did, might it not amuse itself thus?
+    Spectacles are taken from a face without the act being perceived; a
+    handkerchief is removed from the neck, then snatched from between the
+    teeth that are holding it; a fan is transferred from one pocket to
+    another. Do latent faculties of the human organism suffice to explain
+    these intentional actions? It is right for us neither to affirm nor to
+    deny.
+
+I have thus passed in review the whole series of phenomena to be
+explained, at least all those within the limits of the plan of this work.
+
+A first, and obviously safe, conclusion is that man has in himself a
+fluidic and psychic force whose nature is still unknown, but which is
+capable of acting at a distance upon matter and of moving the same.
+
+This force is the expression of our will, of our desires; I mean as it
+appears in the first ten cases of the preceding classifications. For the
+other cases we must add the unconscious, the unforeseen, wills different
+from our conscious wills.
+
+The force is at once physical and psychical. If the medium puts forth a
+force of twelve or fourteen pounds to lift a table, his weight undergoes a
+corresponding increase. The hand which we see forming near him is able to
+grasp an object. The hand really exists, and is then reabsorbed. Might we
+not compare the force which brings it into existence with that
+building-force of nature, which reproduces a claw for the lobster and a
+tail for the lizard? The intervention of spirits is not all
+indispensable.[84]
+
+In mediumistic experiments things happen as if an invisible being were
+present, able to transport the different objects through the air, usually
+without striking against the heads of the persons who are sitting in
+various parts of the room in almost complete darkness; capable also of
+acting upon a curtain like a strong wind, pushing it far out, able to
+fling this curtain over your head, giving you a Capuchin hood or coiffure,
+and pressing strongly against your body, as if with two nervous arms, and
+touching you with a warm and living hand. I have perceived these hands in
+the most unmistakble way. The invisible being can condense itself
+sufficiently to become visible, and I have seen it passing in the air. To
+suppose that I, as well as other experimenters, was the dupe of an
+hallucination is an hypothesis which cannot be maintained for a single
+moment and would simply show that those who entertained the idea were far
+more likely to have an hallucination than we were, or else that they
+entertained the most inexcusable prepossession and prejudice. We were in
+the best possible condition for observing and analysizing any phenomena
+whatever and no sceptic will make us believe anything different on this
+point.
+
+There is certainly an invisible prolongation of the organism of the
+medium. This prolongation may be compared to the radiation which leaps
+from the loadstone to reach a bit of iron and put it into movement.
+
+We can also compare it with the effluvium which emanates from electrified
+bodies.[85]
+
+I also compared it some pages back to calorific waves.
+
+When a medium makes a gesture of striking the table with his closed fist,
+but stops short at a distance of from eight to twelve inches, and when, at
+every gesture, a sonorous stroke of the fist echoes in the table, we see
+in that the proof of a dynamic prolongation of the arm of the medium.
+
+When she pretends to imitate on my cheek the rotation of the crank of a
+music-box, and when this box keeps time with the imitated movement, stops
+when the fingers stop, plays the tune faster when the finger accelerates
+its circular tracings, goes slower when it goes slower, etc., we have here
+again proof of dynamic action at a distance.
+
+When an accordion plays of its own will, when a bell begins to ring of
+itself, when a lever indicates such and such a pressure, there is a real
+force in action.
+
+We must therefore admit, first of all, this prolongation of the muscular
+and nervous force of the subject. I am keenly sensible of the fact that
+this is a bold proposition, almost incredible, most strange and
+extraordinary; but after all the facts are there, and whether the matter
+irks us or not is a small matter.
+
+This prolongation is real, and only extends to a certain distance from the
+medium, a distance which can be measured, and which varies according to
+circumstances. But is it sufficient to explain all the observed phenomena?
+
+We are forced to admit that this prolongation, usually invisible, and
+impalpable, may become visible and palpable; take, especially, the form of
+an articulated hand, with flesh and muscles; and reveal the exact form of
+a head or a body. The fact is incomprehensible; but after so many
+different observations, it seems to me impossible to see in this curious
+phenomenon only trickery or hallucination. Logic lays its laws upon us and
+commands our respect.
+
+A fluidic and condensable double has therefore the power of gliding
+momentarily out from the body of the medium (for his presence is
+indispensable).
+
+How can this double, this fluidic body have the consistency of flesh and
+of muscles? We do not understand it. But it would neither be wise nor
+intelligent to admit only that which we can comprehend. It must be
+remembered that, for the greater part of the time, we imagine we
+comprehend things because we can give an explanation of them; that is all.
+Now this explanation rarely has any intrinsic value. It is only a
+framework of words tacked together. Thus you fancy you understand why an
+apple falls from the top of the tree, because you say that the earth
+attracts it. This is pure simple-mindedness. For in what does the
+attraction of the earth consist? You know nothing about it; but you are
+satisfied, because the fact is a common one.
+
+When the curtain is inflated as if pushed out by a hand, and when you feel
+you are pinched in the shoulder by a hand at the moment the curtain
+touches you, you have the impression that you are the dupe of an
+accomplice hidden behind the curtain. There is some one there who is
+playing a practical joke on you. You draw aside the curtain. Nothing!
+
+Since it is impossible for you to admit a trick of any kind, because you,
+and you alone, hung that curtain between the two walls; and since you know
+that there is no person behind it because you are close by it and have not
+lost it out of your sight; and since the medium is seated near you with
+his, or her, hands and legs held, you are forced to admit that a
+temporarily materialized being has touched you.
+
+It is certain that these facts may be denied and that they are denied.
+Those who have not personally verified them are excusable. It is not a
+question of ordinary events which take place every day and which everybody
+can observe. It is evident, as a general proposition, that, if we admit
+only what we have ourselves seen, we shall not get very far. We admit the
+existence of the Philippine Islands without having been there, of
+Charlemagne and of Julius Cæsar without having seen them, of total
+eclipses of the sun, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc., as facts of
+which we have not ourselves been eye-witnesses. The distance of a star,
+the weight of a planet, the composition of one of the heavenly bodies, the
+most marvelous discoveries of astronomy, do not excite scepticism, except
+in the minds of wholly uncultivated persons, because people in general
+appreciate the value of astronomic methods. But undoubtedly, in these
+psychical matters, the phenomena are so extraordinary that one is
+excusable for not believing them.
+
+Nevertheless, if anyone will give himself the trouble to reason he will
+positively be compelled to recognize that, in following on this trail, he
+is inevitably brought to a stand in face of the following dilemma: either
+the experimenters have been the dupes of the mediums, who have uniformly
+cheated, or else these stupefying facts actually exist. Now since the
+first hypothesis is eliminated, we are forced to admit the reality of the
+occurrences.
+
+A fluidic body is formed at the expense of the medium, emerges from his
+organism, moves, acts. What is the intelligent force that directs this
+fluidic body and makes it act in such or such a way? Either it is the mind
+of the medium, or it is another mind that makes use of this same fluid.
+There is no escape from this conclusion. I may remark that the
+meteorological conditions, fine weather, agreeable temperature,
+cheerfulness, high spirits, favor the phenomena; that the medium is never
+wholly out of touch with the manifestations, and frequently knows what is
+going to take place; that the cause escapes the mental grasp and is
+fugitive and capricious; and that the apparitions fade away like a dream
+as silently as they are formed.
+
+Note also that, in important manifestations, the medium suffers,
+complains, groans, loses an enormous amount of force, exhibits an
+astonishing nervous energy, experiences hyperæsthesia, and at the apogee
+of the manifestation, seems for an instant to be absolutely prostrated.
+And, in truth, why should not his mind as well as his fluidic force be
+haled out of his body and be exhausted in external work? The psychical
+force of a living human being is able, then, to create "material"
+phenomena--organs, spectral figures.
+
+But what is matter?
+
+My readers know that matter does not exist as it is perceived by our
+senses. These only give us incomplete impressions of an _Unknown Reality_.
+Analysis shows us that matter is only a form of energy.
+
+In the work called _A Propos d'Eusapia Paladino_, which sums up his
+experiments with this medium, M. Guillaume de Fontenay ingeniously tries
+to explain the phenomena by the dynamic theory of matter. It is probable
+that this explanation is one of those that make the nearest approach to
+the truth.
+
+According to this theory, the quality which seems to us characteristic of
+matter--solidity, stability--is no more substantial than the light which
+strikes our eyes, or the sound which enters our ears. We see; that is to
+say, we receive upon the retina rays which affect it. But around and on
+every side of the retina undulate countless other rays that leave no
+impression upon it. It is the same with the other senses.
+
+Matter, like light, like heat, like electricity, seems to be the result of
+a species of movement. Movement of what? Of the primitive monistic
+substance, quickened by manifold vibrations.
+
+Most assuredly, matter is not that inert thing that we commonly suppose.
+
+A comparison will aid in comprehending this. Take a carriage-wheel. Place
+it horizontally on a pivot. While the wheel is motionless, let a rubber
+ball fall between its spokes. This ball will almost always pass through
+between the spokes. Now give a slight movement to the wheel. The ball will
+be pretty often hit by the revolving spokes, and will rebound. If we
+increase the rotation, the ball will now no longer pass through the wheel,
+which will have become for it a wholly impenetrable disc.
+
+We can try a similar experiment by arranging the wheel vertically and
+shooting arrows through it. A bicycle-wheel will serve the purpose very
+well, owing to the slenderness of its spokes. When not in movement, the
+arrows will pass through it nine times out of ten. In movement, it will
+produce in the arrows deviations more or less marked. With increase in the
+speed, it would be made impenetrable, and all the arrows would be broken
+as if against the steel plating of an armored ship.
+
+These comparisons allow us to understand how matter is really only a mode
+of motion, only an expression of force, a manifestation of energy. It will
+disappear (it must be borne in mind) on analysis, which ends by taking
+refuge in the intangible, invisible, imponderable, and almost immaterial
+atom. The atom itself which was regarded as the basis of matter fifty
+years ago, has now disappeared, or rather has been metamorphosed and
+reappears as a hypothetical, impalpable vortex.
+
+I will allow myself to repeat here what I have said a hundred times
+elsewhere: _The universe is a dynamism_.
+
+The difficulty we have in explaining to ourselves apparitions,
+materializations, when we try to apply to them the ordinary conception of
+matter, is considerably lessened the moment we conceive that matter is
+only a mode of motion.
+
+Life itself, from the most rudimentary cell up to the most complicated
+organism, is a special kind of movement, a movement determined and
+organized by a directing force. According to this theory, momentary
+apparitions would be less difficult to accept and to comprehend. The vital
+force of the medium might externalize itself and produce in a point of
+space a vibratory system which should be the counterpart of itself, in a
+more or less advanced degree of visibility and solidity. These phenomena
+can with difficulty be reconciled with the old hypothesis of the
+independent and intrinsic existence of matter: They better fit that of
+matter as a mode of motion--in a word, simple movement, giving the
+sensation of matter.
+
+There is, of course, only one substance, the primitive substance, which
+antedates the original nebula--the womb from which all bodies in the
+universe have issued. The substances which the chemists take to be simple
+bodies--oxygen, hydrogen, azote, iron, gold, silver, etc.--are mineral
+elements which have been gradually formed and differentiated, just as,
+later, the vegetable and animal species were differentiated. And not only
+is the substance of the world one, but it also has the same origin as
+energy, and these two forms are mutually interchangeable. Nothing is lost,
+nothing is created, everything is transformed.[86]
+
+The unique substance is immaterial and unknowable in its essence. We see
+and touch only its condensations, its aggregations, its arrangements; that
+is to say, forms produced by movement. Matter, force, life, thought, are
+all one.
+
+In reality, there is only one principle in the universe, and it is at once
+intelligence, force, and matter, embracing all that is and all that
+possibly can be. That which we call matter is only a form of motion. At
+the basis of all is force, dynamism, and universal mind, or spirit.
+
+Visible matter, which stands to us at the present moment for the universe,
+and which certain classic doctrines consider as the origin of all
+things--movement, life, thought--is only a word void of meaning. The
+universe is a great organism controlled by a dynamism of the psychical
+order. Mind gleams through its every atom.
+
+The environment or atmosphere is psychic. There is mind in every thing,
+not only in human and animal life, but in plants, in minerals, in space.
+
+It is not the body which produces life: it is rather life which organizes
+the body. Does not the will to live increase the viability of enfeebled
+persons, just as the giving up of the wish to live may abridge life and
+even extinguish it?
+
+Your heart beats, night and day, whatever be the position of your body. It
+is a well-mounted spring. Who or what adjusted this elastic spring?
+
+The embryo is formed in the womb of the mother, in the egg of the bird.
+There is neither heart nor brain. At a certain moment the heart beats for
+the first time. Sublime moment! It will beat in the child, in the
+adolescent, in the man, in the woman, at the rate of about 100,000
+pulsations a day, of 36,500,000 a year, of 1,825,000,000 in fifty years.
+This heart that has just been formed is going to beat a thousand millions
+of pulsations, two thousand millions, three thousand millions, a number
+determined by its inherent force; then it will stop and the body will fall
+into ruins. Who or what wound up this watch once for all?
+
+Dynamism, the vital energy.
+
+What sustains the earth in space?
+
+Dynamism, the velocity of its movement.
+
+What is it in the bullet that kills?
+
+Its velocity.
+
+Everywhere energy, everywhere the invisible element. It is this same
+dynamism that produces the phenomena we have been studying. The question
+at present resolves itself into this: Does this dynamism belong wholly to
+the experimenters? We have so little real knowledge of our mental nature
+that it is impossible for us to know what this nature is capable of
+producing, even in certain states of unconsciousness--in fact especially
+in these. The directing intelligence is not always the personal, _normal_,
+intelligence of the experimenters or of any one whatever among them. We
+ask the entity what its name is, and it gives us a name which is not ours;
+it replies to our questions, and usually claims to be a discarnate soul,
+the spirit of a deceased person. But if we drive the question home, this
+entity finally steals away without having given us sufficient proofs of
+its identity. There results from this the impression that the "medium," or
+principal subject of the experiment, has responded for himself, has
+reflected himself, without knowing it.
+
+Moreover, this entity, this personality, this spirit, has his individual
+will, his caprices, his cantankerousness, and sometimes acts in opposition
+to our own thoughts. He tells us absurd, foolish, brutal, insane things,
+and amuses himself with fantastic combinations of letters, real
+head-splitting puzzles. It astonishes and stupefies us.
+
+What is this being?
+
+Two inescapable hypotheses present themselves. Either it is we who produce
+these phenomena or it is spirits. But mark this well: these spirits are
+not necessarily the souls of the dead; for other kinds of spiritual beings
+may exist, and space may be full of them without our ever knowing anything
+about it, except under unusual circumstances. Do we not find in the
+different ancient literatures, demons, angels, gnomes, goblins, sprites,
+spectres, elementals, etc? Perhaps these legends are not without some
+foundation in fact. Then we cannot but remark that, in our mediumistic
+studies and experiments, in order to succeed we always address an
+invisible being who is supposed to hear us. If this is an illusion, it
+dates from the very origin of Spiritualism, from the raps produced
+unconsciously by the Fox sisters in their chambers at Hydesville and at
+Rochester in 1848. But once more, this personification may pertain to our
+own being or it may represent a mind external to ourselves.
+
+In order to admit the first hypothesis we must admit at the same time that
+our mental nature is not simple, that there are in us several psychic
+elements, and that one at least of these elements may act unknown to
+ourselves, make raps in a table, move any piece of furniture, lift a
+weight, touch us with a hand that seems real, play an instrument, create a
+spectral figure, read hidden words, answer questions, act with a personal
+will--and all this, I repeat, without our own knowledge.
+
+This is tolerably complicated; but it is not impossible.
+
+That there are in us psychic elements, obscure, unconscious, capable of
+acting outside of the sphere of our normal consciousness, this is
+something we can notice every night in our dreams; that is to say, during
+a quarter, or a third part of our life. Scarcely has sleep closed our
+eyes, our ears, all our senses, than our thoughts begin to work just the
+same as during the day, though without rational direction, without logic,
+under the most incoherent forms, freed from our customary conceptions of
+space and time, in a world entirely different from the normal world. The
+physiologists and psychologists have for centuries been trying to
+determine the mechanism of the dream without having yet obtained any
+satisfactory solution of the problem. But the proved fact that we see
+sometimes, in our dreams, occurrences which take place at a distance,
+proves that we have in us unknown powers.
+
+Again, it is not rare for each of us to experience, sometimes (all our
+faculties being on the alert), the play of an interior power, distinct
+from our dominant reason. We are on the point of pronouncing words that
+are not a part of our habitual vocabulary, and ideas suddenly traverse and
+arrest the course of our thoughts. During the reading of a book which
+seemed interesting to us, our soul spreads her wings and flies to other
+realms, while our eyes continue in vain the mechanical act of reading. We
+are discussing certain projects in our mind, as if we were so many judges;
+and then, one would like to know in all simplicity, whence comes this
+distraction?
+
+In his tireless researches, the great investigator of psychic phenomena,
+Myers, to whom we owe synthetic studies upon the subliminal consciousness,
+reached the conviction, with Ribot, that "the _me_ is a co-ordination."
+
+    These supernormal phenomena (writes this competent and learned
+    inquirer) are due not to the action of the spirits of deceased
+    persons, as Wallace believes, but, for the most part, to the action of
+    an incarnate spirit, either that of the subject himself or of some
+    agent or other.[87]
+
+    The word "subliminal" means what is beneath the threshold (_limen_) of
+    the consciousness,--the sensations, the thoughts, the memories, which
+    remain at the bottom, and seem to represent a kind of sleeping _me_. I
+    do not pretend to affirm (adds the author) that there always exists in
+    us two _me's_ correlative and parallel: I denote rather by the
+    subliminal _me_ that part of the _me_ which ordinarily remains latent,
+    and I admit that there may be not merely co-operation between these
+    two quasi-independent currents of thoughts, but also changes of level
+    and alternations of personality.[88] Medical observation (Félida,
+    Alma) proves that there is in us a rudimentary supernormal faculty,
+    something which is probably useless to us, but which indicates the
+    existence, beneath the level of our consciousness, of a reserve of
+    latent unsuspected faculties.[89]
+
+What is it that is active in us in telepathic phenomena? We may recall
+the case of Thomas Garrison (_Society for Psychical Research_, VIII, p.
+125) who, while sitting with his wife at a religious service, suddenly
+gets up in the middle of the sermon, goes out of the church, and, as if
+impelled by an irresistible impulse, walks twenty miles afoot to go to see
+his mother, whom he finds dead on his arrival, although he did not know
+that she was ill and although she was relatively young (fifty-eight
+years). I have a hundred observations similar to this in writing before
+me. It is not our normal habitual nature that is in action in such a case
+as this.
+
+There is probably in us, more or less sentient, a sub-conscious nature,
+and it is this which seems to be at work in mediumistic experiences. I am
+pretty much of the opinion Myers expresses in the following paragraph:[90]
+
+    Spiritualists attribute the movement and the dictations at their
+    séances to the action of disembodied intelligences. But if a table
+    execute movements without being touched, there is no reason to
+    attribute these movements to the intervention of my deceased
+    grandfather, rather than to my own proper intervention; for if I do
+    not see how I could have done it myself, it is not clear to me how the
+    effect could have been produced by the action of my grandfather. As
+    for dictations, the most plausible explanation seems to me to be for
+    us to admit that they do not come from the conscious _me_, but from
+    that profound and hidden region where fragmentary and incoherent
+    dreams are elaborated.
+
+This explanatory hypothesis is held, with an important modification, by a
+distinguished savant to whom also we owe long and patient researches into
+the obscure phenomena of normal psychology; I mean Dr. Geley, who thus
+sums up his own conclusions:
+
+    A certain amount of the force, intelligence, and matter of the body
+    may perform work outside of the organism,--act, perceive, organize,
+    and think without the collaboration of muscles, organs, senses and
+    brain. It is nothing less than the uplifted sub-conscious portion of
+    our being. It constitutes, in truth, an externalizable sub-conscious
+    nature, existing in the _me_ with the normal conscious nature.[91]
+
+This sub-conscious nature does not seem to depend upon the organism. It is
+probably anterior to it, and will survive it. It seems to be superior to
+it, endowed with powers and acquirements very different from the powers
+and acquirements of the normal, supernormal, and transcendent
+consciousness.
+
+Assuredly, there is in this view of the case more than one mystery still,
+were it only the feat of performing a material act at a distance, and that
+(not less strange) of apparently having nothing to do with that kind of an
+act.
+
+The first rule of the scientific method is first to seek explanations in
+the known before having recourse to the unknown, and we should never fail
+to comply with this rule. But if this method of sailing does not bring us
+to port, it is our duty to confess it.
+
+I very much fear that that is what is the matter here. We are not
+satisfied. The explanation is not clear, and is floating a little too much
+at random in the waves--and the wavering uncertainty--of the hypothesis.
+
+At the point at which we have now arrived in this chapter of explanations
+we are precisely in the position of Alexander Aksakof when he wrote his
+great work, _Animism and Spiritualism_, in reply to the book of Dr. von
+Hartmann on _Spiritualism_. Hartman claimed to explain all of these
+psychical phenomena by the following hypothesis.
+
+    A nervous force producing, outside of the limits of the human body,
+    mechanical and plastic effects.
+
+    Duplicate hallucinations of this same nervous force, and producing
+    also physical and plastic effects.
+
+    A latent somnambulistic consciousness, capable (the subject being in
+    his normal state) of reading in the intellectual background of another
+    man, his present and his past, and being able to divine the future.
+
+Akaskof tried to see if these hypotheses (the last of which is a pretty
+bold one) are sufficient to explain everything, and he concludes that they
+are not. That is also my opinion. There is something else. This something
+else, this residue at the bottom of the crucible of experiment, is a
+psychic element, the nature of which remains still wholly hidden from us.
+I think that all the readers of this book will share my conviction.
+
+Anthropomorphic hypotheses are far from explaining everything. Besides,
+they are only hypotheses. We must not hide from ourselves that these
+phenomena introduce us into another world, into an unknown world, one that
+is still to be explored in its whole extent.
+
+As to beings different from ourselves,--what may their nature be? Of this
+we cannot form any idea. Souls of the dead? This is very far from being
+demonstrated. The innumerable observations which I have collected during
+more than forty years all prove to me the contrary. No satisfactory
+identification has been made.[92]
+
+The communications obtained have always seemed to proceed from the
+mentality of the group, or, when they are heterogeneous, from spirits of
+an incomprehensible nature. The being evoked soon vanishes when one
+insists on pushing him to the wall and having the heart out of his
+mystery. And then my greatest hope has been deceived, that hope of my
+twentieth year, when I would so gladly have received celestial light upon
+the doctrine of the plurality of worlds. The spirits have taught us
+nothing.
+
+Nevertheless, the agents seem sometimes to be independent. Crookes
+mentions having seen Miss Fox write automatically a communication for one
+of her sitters while another communication upon another subject was given
+to her for a _second_ person by means of the alphabet and by raps, and all
+the while she was chatting with a _third_ person upon another subject
+totally different from the other two. Does this remarkable fact prove with
+certainty the action of a spirit other than that of the medium?
+
+The same scientist mentions that, during one of his séances, a little rod
+crossed the table, in full light, and came and rapped his hand, giving him
+a communication by following the letters of the alphabet spelled out by
+him. The other end of the rod rested on the table at a certain distance
+from the hand of the medium Home.
+
+This case seems to me, as well as to Crookes, more conclusively in favor
+of an exterior spirit, so much the more since the experimenter having
+asked that the raps be given by the Morse telegraphic code, another
+message was thus rapped out. I also remember that the learned chemist
+mentions that the word "however" hidden by his finger, upon a newspaper,
+and unknown even to himself, was rapped out by a little rod.
+
+Wallace also mentions a name written upon a piece of paper fastened by him
+under the central leg of the experiment table; Joncières, a water-color
+correctly painted in complete darkness, and a musical theme written with a
+pencil; M. Castex Dégrange, the announcement of a death, and the place
+where a lost object might be found. We have also seen sentences dictated
+either backwards or in such a way that every other letter only must be
+read to get the sense, or else by strange combinations showing the action
+of an unknown intellect. We have a thousand examples of this kind.
+
+But if the mind of the medium may liberate itself and appear in an
+extra-normal state, why might it not be this mind which acts? Do we not
+have several distinct personalities in our dreams? If they could
+dynamically appear, would they not act somewhat in this way?
+
+We ought not to lose sight of the fact that these phenomena are of a
+_mixed_ character. They are at once physical and psychical, material and
+intellectual, are not always produced by our conscious will, and are
+rather the subject of _observation_ than _experiment_.
+
+It is expedient to insist on this characteristic. I one day, (January 31,
+1901) heard E. Duclaux, member of the Institute, director of the Pasteur
+Institute, express the following confused idea (an idea held by so many
+physicists and so many chemists), in a company which was yet quite
+competent to discuss these phenomena: "There is no scientific fact except
+a fact which can be reproduced at will."[93] What a singular reasoning!
+The witnesses of the fall of a meteor bring us an aërolite which has just
+fallen from the sky and been dug up, all hot, from the hole it had made in
+the ground. "Error! illusion!" we ought to reply: "We shall only believe
+when you repeat the experiment."
+
+They bring to us the body of a man killed by a stroke of lightning,
+stripped of his clothes, and shaved as if with a razor. "Impossible!" we
+ought to reply; "pure invention of your deluded senses." A woman sees
+appear before her, her husband, who has just died nearly two thousand
+miles away. We are asked to believe that this is not so, and will not be
+so until the apparition appears a second time.
+
+This confusion between observation and experiment is a very strange thing
+as coming from cultivated men.
+
+In psychical phenomena there is a voluntary, capricious, incoherent,
+intellectual element.
+
+I repeat, we must learn to comprehend that everything cannot be explained
+and resign ourselves to waiting for an extension of our knowledge. There
+is intelligence, thought, psychism, mind, in these phenomena. There is
+still more in certain communications. Can the observations be confirmed
+and justified by assuming the mind of the living merely as the active
+agents? Yes, perhaps, but only by attributing to us unknown and
+supernormal faculties. Yet it must be remembered that this is only an
+hypothesis. The Spiritualistic hypothesis of communication with the souls
+of the dead remains also as a working hypothesis.
+
+That souls survive the destruction of the body I have not the shadow of a
+doubt. But that they manifest themselves by the processes employed in
+séances the experimental method has not yet given us absolute proof. I add
+that this hypothesis is not at all likely. If the souls of the dead are
+about us, upon our planet, the invisible population would increase at the
+rate of 100,000 a day, about 36 millions a year, 3 billions 620 millions a
+century, 36 billions in ten centuries, etc.,--unless we admit
+re-incarnations upon the earth itself.
+
+How many times do apparitions, or manifestations occur? When illusions,
+auto-suggestions, hallucinations, are eliminated, what remains? Scarcely
+anything. Such an exceptional rarity as this pleads against the reality of
+apparitions.
+
+We may suppose, it is true, that all human beings do not survive their
+death, and that, in general, their psychical entity is so insignificant,
+so wavering, so ineffectual, that it almost disappears in the ether, in
+the common reservoir, in the environment, like the souls of animals. But
+thinking beings who have the consciousness of their psychical existence do
+not lose their personality, but continue the cycle of their evolution. It
+would seem natural therefore to see them manifest themselves under certain
+circumstances. Persons condemned to death, in consequence of judicial
+errors, and executed, should they not return to protest their innocence?
+Would it not be reasonable to suppose that persons put to death in such a
+way that violence was not suspected would return to accuse the assassins?
+Knowing the characters of Robespierre, of Saint-Just, of
+Fouquier-Tinville, I should like to have seen them revenge themselves a
+little on those who triumphed over them. The victims of '93, should they
+not have returned to disturb the sleep of the conquerors? Out of the
+twenty thousand citizens shot by fusillades during the time of the Commune
+of Paris I should like to have seen a dozen unceasingly harassing the Hon.
+M. Theirs, who was really too puffed up and vain-glorious over his having
+first permitted the organization of that insurrection and then punished
+it.
+
+Why do not children whose death is lamented by their parents ever come to
+console them? Why do our dearest attachments seem to disappear forever?
+And how about last wills and testaments stolen away, and the last will of
+the dead ignored and their intentions purposely misinterpreted?
+
+"It is only the dead that do not return," says an old proverb. This
+aphorism is not of absolute application, perhaps; but apparitions are
+rare, very rare, and we do not understand their precise nature. Are they
+actual apparitions of the dead? It is not yet demonstrated.
+
+Up to this day, I have sought in vain for certain proof of personal
+identity through mediumistic communications. And then one does not see why
+spirits, if they exist around us, should have need of mediums at all, in
+order to manifest themselves. They surely must form a part of nature, of
+the universal nature which includes all things.
+
+Nevertheless, it seems to me that the Spiritualistic hypothesis should be
+preserved by the same right as those I have summed up in the immediately
+preceding pages, for the discussions have not eliminated it.[94]
+
+But why are there manifestations the result of the grouping of five or six
+persons around the table? That this should be a _sine qua non_ is not a
+very likely thing either.
+
+It may be, it is true, that spirits exist around us, and that it is
+normally impossible for them to make themselves visible, audible, or
+tangible, not being able to reflect rays of light accessible to our
+retina, or to produce sonorous waves, or to effect touches. Therefore,
+certain conditions present in mediums might be necessary for their
+manifestation. Nobody has the right to deny this. But why so many puzzling
+incoherences and solecisms?
+
+I have on a bookshelf before me several thousand communications dictated
+by "spirits." In the last analysis, a dim obscurity remains hanging over
+the causes. Unknown psychic forces: fugitive entities; vanishing figures;
+nothing solid to grasp, even for the thought. These things do not yield us
+the consistency of a definition of chemistry or of a theorem in geometry.
+A molecule of hydrogen is a granite cliff in comparison.
+
+The greater part of the phenomena observed,--noises, movement of tables,
+confusions, disturbances, raps, replies to questions asked,--are really
+childish, puerile, vulgar, often ridiculous, and rather resemble the
+pranks of mischievous boys than serious bona-fide actions. It is
+impossible not to notice this.
+
+Why should the souls of the dead amuse themselves in this way? The
+supposition seems almost absurd.
+
+We know that an ordinary man does not change his intellectual or moral
+value from day to day, and, if his spirit continues to exist after the
+death of his body, we may expect to find it such as it was before. But why
+so many oddities and incoherences?
+
+However these things may be, it behooves us not to have any preconceived
+idea, and our bounden duty is to seek to prove the facts as they present
+themselves to us.
+
+The unknown natural force brought into play for the lifting of a table is
+not the exclusive property of mediums. In different degrees it forms a
+part of all organisms, with different coefficients, 100 for organisms such
+as those of Home, or Eusapia, 80 for others, 50 or 25 for less favored
+individuals. But I should hold it as certain that it never drops in any
+case to 0. The best proof of this is that, with patience, perseverance,
+and the exercise of the will, almost all the groups of experimenters who
+have seriously occupied themselves with these researches have succeeded in
+obtaining, not merely movements, but also complete levitations, raps, and
+other phenomena.
+
+The word "medium" scarcely has any longer a reason for being, since the
+existence of an intermediary between the spirits and us is not yet proved.
+But still the word may be preserved, logic being the rarest of things in
+grammar and in everything else that is human. The word "electricity" has
+had no connection for a long time with amber ([Greek: êlektron]), nor the
+word "veneration" with the genitive case of Venus (_Veneris_), nor the (at
+first astrological) term "disaster" with _aster_ (star), nor the word
+"tragedy" with _goat-song_ ([Greek: tragos ôdê]). But this does not hinder
+these words from being understood in their habitual sense.[95]
+
+As respects explanatory hypotheses, I repeat, the field is open to all. It
+is to be noted that communications dictated are closely related to the
+condition of mind, the ideas, the opinions, the beliefs, the knowledge,
+and even the literary culture, of the experimenters. They are like a
+reflection, or counterpart, of this ensemble of ideas and faculties.
+Compare the communications noted down in the house of Victor Hugo in
+Jersey, those of the Phalansterian Society of Eugéne Nus, those of
+astronomical meetings, those of religious believers,--Catholics,
+Protestants, etc.
+
+If the hypothesis were not so bold as to seem unacceptable to us, I should
+dare to think that the concentration of the thoughts of psychic
+experimenters creates a momentary intellectual being who replies to the
+questions asked and then vanishes.
+
+_Reflection, reflex action?_ That is perhaps the true expression.
+Everybody has seen his image reflected in a mirror, and nobody is
+astonished by it. However, analyse the thing. The more you look at this
+optical being moving there behind the mirror, the more remarkable the
+image appears to you. Now suppose looking-glasses had not been invented.
+If we had not knowledge of those immense mirrors which reflect whole
+apartments and the visitors in them, if we had never seen anything of the
+kind, and if someone should tell us that images and reflections of living
+persons could thus manifest themselves and thus move, we should not
+comprehend, and should not believe it.
+
+Yes, the ephemeral personification created in Spiritualistic séances
+sometimes recalls the image that we see in a mirror, which has nothing
+real in itself, but which yet exists and reproduces the original. The
+image fixed by the photograph is of the same kind, only durable. The
+potential image formed at the focus of the mirror of a telescope,
+invisible in itself, but which we can receive on a level mirror and study,
+at the same time enlarging it by the microscope of the eye-piece, perhaps
+approaches nearer to that which seems to be produced by the concentration
+of the psychical energy of a group of persons. We create an imaginary
+being, we speak to it, and in its replies it almost always reflects the
+mentality of the experimenters. And just as with the aid of mirrors we can
+concentrate light, heat, ether-waves, electric waves, in a focus, so, in
+the same way, it seems sometimes as if the sitters added their psychic
+forces to those of the medium, of the dynamogen, condensing the waves, and
+helping to produce a sort of fugitive being more or less material.
+
+The sub-conscious nature, the brain of the medium, or his astral body, the
+fluidic mind, the unknown powers latent in sensitive organisms, might we
+not consider these as the mirror which we have just imagined? And might
+this mirror also not receive and reproduce impressions, or influence, from
+a soul at a distance?
+
+But we must not generalize partial conclusions which we have already had
+much trouble in defining.
+
+I do not say that spirits do not exist: on the contrary, I have reasons
+for admitting their existence. Even certain sensations expressed by the
+animals,--by dogs, by cats, by horses,--plead in favor of the unexpected
+and impressive presence of invisible beings or agents. But, as a faithful
+servant of the experimental method, I think that we ought to exhaust all
+the simple, natural hypotheses, already known, before having recourse to
+others.
+
+Unfortunately, a large number of Spiritualists prefer not to go to the
+bottom of things, or analyse anything, but to be the dupes of nervous
+impressions. They resemble certain worthy women who tell their beads while
+believing that they have before them Saint Agnes or Saint Filomena. There
+is no harm in that, says some one. But it is an illusion. Let us not be
+its dupes.
+
+If the elementals, the _élémentaires_, the spirits of the air, the gnomes,
+the spectres of which Goethe speaks (following Paracelsus in this), exist,
+they are natural and not supernatural. They are in nature, for nature
+includes all things. The supernatural does not exist. It is then the duty
+of science to study this question as it studies all others.
+
+As I have already remarked, there are in these different phenomena several
+causes in action. Among these causes the ones that supposes the action to
+proceed from disembodied spirits, the souls of the dead, is a plausible
+hypothesis which ought not to be rejected without examination. It seems
+sometimes to be the most logical; but there are weighty objections to it,
+and it is of the highest importance to be able to demonstrate it with
+certainty. Its partisans _ought to be the first to approve the severity of
+the scientific methods which we apply in our studies of the phenomena_,
+for Spiritualism will receive thereby so much the more solid a foundation
+and will have so much the more value. The illusions and the artless faith
+of simple souls cannot give it any more solid and substantial basis. The
+religion of the future will be the religion of science. There is only one
+kind of truth.
+
+Sometimes authors are made to say that which they have never said. For my
+part, I have had frequent proof of this, notably in the case of
+Spiritualism. I should not be surprised if certain interpretations of the
+pages which precede should come to light, shaped into the opinion that I
+do not believe in the existence of spirits. Yet it will be impossible to
+find any affirmation of this kind in this work, or in any other published
+by me. What I say is that the physical phenomena studied in these pages
+_do not prove_ the existence of spirits, and may probably be explained
+without them,--that is, by unknown forces emanating from the
+experimenters, and especially from mediums. But these phenomena indicate,
+at the same time, the existence of a psychical atmosphere or environment.
+
+What is this environment? It is indeed very difficult to get a true idea
+of it, since we are not able to apprehend it by any of our senses. It is
+also very difficult not to admit it in view of the multitude of psychical
+phenomena. If we admit the survival of individual souls, what becomes of
+these souls? Where are they? It may be replied that the conditions of
+space and of time in which our material senses exist do not represent the
+real nature of space and time, that our estimates and our measures are
+essentially relative, that the soul, the spirit, the thinking entity, does
+not occupy space. Still, we may consider also that pure spirit does not
+exist, that it is attached to a substance occupying a certain point. We
+may also consider that all souls are not equal; that there is a superior
+and inferior class; that certain human beings are scarcely conscious of
+their existence; that superior souls, being self-conscious, as well after
+death as during life, preserve their entire individuality, have the power
+of continuing their evolution, of voyaging from world to world and adding
+to their moral and intellectual growth by successive reincarnations. But
+the others, the unconscious souls, are they more advanced the day after
+death than the day before? Why should death bestow upon them any
+perfection? Why should it make a genius out of an imbecile? How could it
+make a good man out of a bad one? Why should it turn an ignoramus into a
+wise man? How could it make a shining light out of an intellectual nobody?
+
+These unconscious souls,--that is to say, the multitude,--do they not
+disappear at death into the surrounding ether, and do they not constitute
+a kind of psychic atmosphere, in which a subtle analysis can discover
+spiritual as well as material elements? If the psychic force performs an
+action in the existing order of things, it is as worthy of consideration
+as the different forms of energy in operation in the ether.
+
+Without, then, admitting the existence of spirits to be demonstrated by
+the phenomena, we feel that these do not all belong to a simply material
+order,--physiological, organic, cerebral,--but that there is _something
+else_ involved, something else inexplicable in the actual state of our
+knowledge.
+
+But a something else of the psychical order. Perhaps we shall be able to
+go a little farther, some day, in our independent impartial researches,
+guided by the experimental scientific method, denying nothing in advance,
+but admitting whatever is proved by sufficient observation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To sum up: _In the actual state of our knowledge it is impossible to give
+a complete, total, absolute, final explanation of the observed phenomena_.
+The Spiritualistic hypothesis ought not to be dismissed. Still, we may
+admit the survival of the soul without necessarily admitting a physical
+communication between the dead and the living. But then all the observed
+facts leading up to the affirmation of this communication are worthy of
+the most serious attention of the philosopher.
+
+One of the chief difficulties in the way of these communications seems to
+be the condition itself of the soul freed from bodily senses. It would
+have other ways of perceiving. It would not see, hear, touch. How then can
+it enter into relation with our senses?
+
+There is a whole problem in that which is not to be neglected in the study
+of any psychical manifestations whatever.
+
+We take our ideas to be realities. This is a mistake. For example, to our
+senses the air is not a solid body; we pass through it without effort,
+while we cannot pass through an iron door. The converse is true of
+electricity: it passes through iron, and finds the air to be a solid
+impassible body. To the electrician, a wire is a canal leading electricity
+across the solid rock of the air. Glass is opaque to electricity and
+transparent to magnetism. The flesh is transparent to the X-rays, while
+glass is opaque, etc.
+
+We feel the need of explaining everything, and we are driven to admit only
+the phenomena of which we have had an explanation; but that does not prove
+that our explanations are valid. Thus for example, if some one had
+affirmed the possibility of instantaneous communication between Paris and
+London, before the invention of the telegraph, people would have regarded
+the assertion as utopian. Later it would not have been admitted, except on
+condition of the existence of a wire between the two stations, and any
+communication without the medium of an electric wire would have been
+declared impossible. Now that we have wireless telegraphy we can apply
+this discovery to the explanation of the phenomena of telepathy. But it is
+not yet proved that this explanation is the true one.
+
+Why do we wish to explain these phenomena at all hazards? Because we
+naïvely imagine that we are able to do so in the present state of our
+knowledge.
+
+The physiologists who claim to see daylight in this matter are like
+Ptolemy persisting in accounting for the movements of the heavenly bodies
+by holding to the idea of the immobility of the earth; or Galileo
+explaining the attraction of amber by the rarefaction of the surrounding
+air; or Lavoisier seeking (with the common people) the origin of aërolites
+in thunder storms or denying their existence; or Galvani, who saw in his
+frogs a _special_ organic electricity. I put my physiologists in good
+company, surely, and they have nothing of which to complain. But who does
+not feel that this natural propensity to explain everything is not
+justified, that science progresses from age to age, that what is not known
+to-day will be known later, and that we ought sometimes to know how to
+wait?
+
+The phenomena of which we are speaking are manifestations of the universal
+dynamism, with which our five senses put us very imperfectly in relation.
+We live in the midst of an unexplored world, in which the psychical forces
+play a role still very insufficiently investigated.
+
+These forces are of a class superior to the forces usually analyzed in
+mechanics, in physics, in chemistry: they are of the psychical order, have
+in them something vital and a kind of mentality. They confirm what we know
+from other sources,--that the purely mechanical explanation of nature is
+insufficient and that there is in the universe something else than
+so-called matter. It is not matter that rules the world: it is a dynamic
+and psychic element.
+
+What light will the study of these still unexplained forces shed upon the
+origin of the soul and upon the conditions of its survival? That is
+something that the future has to teach us.
+
+The truth that the soul is a spiritual entity distinct from the body is
+proved by other arguments. These arguments are not made for the purpose of
+injuring this doctrine; but while confirming it and while putting in clear
+light the application of psychic forces, they still do not solve the great
+problem by the material proofs that we should like to have.
+
+However, if the study of these phenomena has not yet yielded all that is
+claimed for it, nor all that it will in the future yield, we still cannot
+help recognizing that it has considerably enlarged the sphere of
+psychology, and that the knowledge of the nature of the soul and of its
+faculties has been once for all expanded under grander and deeper skies
+and wider horizons.
+
+There is in nature, especially in the domain of life, in the manifestation
+of instinct in vegetables and animals, in the general soul of things, in
+humanity, in the cosmic universe, a psychic element which appears more and
+more in modern studies, especially in researches in telepathy, and in the
+observation of the unexplained phenomena which we have been studying in
+this book. This element, this principle, is still unknown to contemporary
+science. But, as in so many other cases, it was divined by the ancients.
+
+Besides the four elements fire, water, air and earth, the ancients
+admitted a fifth, belonging to the material order, which they named
+_animus_, the soul of the world, the animating principle, ether.
+"Aristotle" (writes Cicero, _Tuscul. Quaest._ I. 22), "after having
+mentioned the four kinds of material elements, believes that we ought to
+admit a fifth kind from which the soul proceeds; for, since the soul and
+the intellectual faculties cannot reside in any of the material elements,
+we must admit a fifth kind, which had not yet received a name and which he
+styles _entelechy_; that is to say, eternal and continued movement." The
+four material elements of the ancients have been dissected by modern
+analysis. The fifth is perhaps more fundamental.
+
+Citing the philosopher Zeno, the same orator adds that this wise man did
+not admit this fifth principle, which might be compared to fire. But, from
+all the evidence, fire and thought are two distinct things.
+
+Virgil has written in the _Æneid_ (Book VI) these admirable verses which
+are known to everybody:
+
+  Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes
+  Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra
+  Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
+  MENS AGITAT MOLEM, _et magno se corpore miscet_.
+
+Martianus Capella, like all the authors of the first centuries of
+Christianity, mentions this directive force, also calling it the fifth
+element, and furthermore describes it under the name "ether."
+
+A Roman emperor, well known to the Parisians, since it was in their city
+(in the palace built by his grandfather near the present _Thermes_, or old
+Roman baths) that he was proclaimed emperor in the year 360 (I mean
+Julian, called the Apostate), celebrates this fifth principle in his
+discourse in honor of the "The Sun, the Monarch,"[96] styling it sometimes
+the solar principle, sometimes the soul of the world, or intellectual
+principle, sometimes ether, or the soul of the physical world.
+
+This psychical element is not confounded by the philosophers with God and
+Providence. In their eyes, it is something which forms part of nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One more word before closing. Human nature is endowed with faculties as
+yet little explored, that the observations made with mediums, or
+dynamogens, bring to light--such as human magnetism, hypnotism, telepathy,
+clairvoyance, and premonition. These unknown psychic forces are worthy of
+being embraced within the scope of scientific analysis. At present they
+have been almost as little studied as in the time of Ptolemy, and have not
+yet found their Kepler, and their Newton, yet fairly obtrude themselves
+upon our notice, and cry out to be examined.
+
+Many another unknown force will be revealed. The earth and the planets
+were circling about the sun in their harmonious orbits while astronomical
+theories saw in them only a complicated whirl of seventy-nine crystalline
+shells. Magnetism was encircling the earth with its currents long before
+the invention of the mariner's compass which reveals them to us. The waves
+of wireless telegraphy existed long before they were arrested in their
+flight. The sea was moaning along its shores ages before the ear of any
+being had come to hear it. The stars were darting their rays through the
+ether before any human eye had been raised to them.
+
+The observations set forth in this work prove that the conscious will, or
+desire, on the one hand, and the subliminal consciousness on the other
+hand, exert an influence, or perform work, beyond the limits of our body.
+The nature of the human soul is still a deep mystery to science and to
+philosophy.
+
+It seems rather remarkable that the conclusions drawn from my labors here
+are the same as those of my work _The Unknown_, which were founded upon
+the examination of the phenomena of telepathy, apparitions of the dying,
+communications at a distance, premonitory dreams, etc. Indeed, the
+following deductions were drawn at the close of that volume:
+
+1. _The soul exists as a real entity independent of the body._
+
+2. _It is endowed with faculties still unknown to science._
+
+3. _It is able to act at a distance, without the intervention of the
+senses._
+
+The conclusions of the present work concord with those of the former, and
+yet the subjects studied in this are entirely different from the
+subject-matter of that.
+
+I may sum up the whole matter with the single statement that there exists
+in nature, in myriad activity, a _psychic element_ the essential nature
+of which is still hidden from us. I shall be happy for my part, if I have
+helped to establish by these two works the above important principle,
+exclusively based upon the scientific verification of certain phenomena
+studied by the experimental method.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Academy of Sciences, its scepticism xvi, 19, investigates Angelica
+      Cottin, 224 _et seq._
+
+  Acoustic Mediumistic Phenomena,--Cases of, 71, 73, 89, 96, 112, 121,
+      144, 163, 167, 183, 274, 292, 299, 369, 373, 374, 378, 380.
+
+  Aksakof, Alexander, 63, 151, 178;
+    cited, 55, 66, 188, 435;
+    his account of alleged spirit communication regarding satellites of
+      Uranus, 50-52.
+
+  Albert the Great, xxi.
+
+  Alcofribaz Nazier, anagram signature of Rabelais, _q.v._
+
+  Alterations in weight of bodies in mediumistic phenomena (including
+      variations in scales without contact), 88, 153, 173, 199, 354, 413,
+      414.
+
+  Animism vs. Spiritism, 187 _et seq._
+
+  Antoniadi, M., report on E. Paladino, 109-111.
+
+  Apparitions, 419.
+    _See also_, Materializations.
+
+  Apports (objects brought in from outside the séance room), 99, 112, 186,
+      187, 292, 373, 378, 380.
+
+  Arago, 178;
+    investigates Angelica Cottin, 223;
+    alleged spirit communication from, 389.
+
+  Aristotle, quoted, 450.
+
+  Armelin G., report on E. Paladino, 103-109.
+
+  Ascensi M., 143.
+
+  Astral body, 166.
+
+  Astronomical discoveries, xvi.
+
+  Automatic writing and drawing, theories of, 26-30, 58 _et seq._;--methods
+      of, 28;
+    by Victorien Sardou, 25, 46;--by Camille Flammarion, 26, 47-49;
+    reflect the thoughts of the experimenter, 49 _et seq._;
+    by children, 274;
+    other cases, 384-387.
+
+  Azam, Dr., 141;
+    ---- Felida's case, 59.
+
+
+  Babinet, M., 266;
+    report on Angelica Cottin, 224-227;
+    de Gasparin's criticisms of, 260-265.
+
+  Baclé, Louis ("Louis Elbé"), 368.
+
+  Baschet, Réné, 34, 98, 101, 103, 128;
+    arms partial materialization, 131.
+
+  Basilewska, M. and Mme., 98, 101.
+
+  Bianchi, M., 147.
+
+  Binet, Alfred, 188.
+
+  Bisschofsheim, Mme., 101.
+
+  Blech family, hold sittings with E. Paladino, 63-84, 173.
+
+  Bloch, Andre, 84, 93, 101.
+
+  Bois, Jules, 84, 103, 128, 203.
+
+  Boisseaux, Mme., 173.
+
+  Boissier, Edmond, 27.
+
+  Bourrer, M., 141.
+
+  Boutigny, M., 114.
+
+  Brédif, C., medium, 196.
+
+  Brisson, Adolphe, 95, 98, 101, 103, 114, 128, 200, 203;
+    report on E. Paladino.
+
+  Brisson, Mme. A., 93, 95, 101, 103, 114.
+
+  Buffern, Prof., 151.
+
+  Buguet, medium, 196.
+
+  Burot, 141.
+
+
+  Cactoni, M. and Mme., 368.
+
+  Calonne, xvi.
+
+  Castex-Dégrange, M., 437;
+    reports of mediumistic phenomena, 381-393.
+
+  Charcot, Dr., 4.
+
+  Chardon, Dr. Beaumont, notes on Angelica Cottin, 223.
+
+  Chevigny, Countess de, 101.
+
+  Chevreul, M., 266.
+
+  Chiaia, Prof. E., first obtains impressions in clay through Paladino, 78;
+    challenges Lombroso to investigate Paladino, 136.
+
+  Cicero, quoted, 450.
+
+  Claretie, Jules, 45, 98;
+    report on E. Paladino, 98-101.
+
+  Coleman, Benjamin, 334.
+
+  Cook, Florence, medium (afterwards Mrs. Elgie Corner), remarkable case
+      of materialization, 334;
+    investigated by Crookes, 335-347.
+
+  Cottin, Angelica, the Electric Girl, 219;
+    Dr. Tanchou's report of, 220-222;
+    notes of M. Hebert, 222;
+    Dr. Beaumont Chardon, 223;
+    Academy of Sciences investigates, 224-227.
+
+  Coues, Dr. and Mrs. Elliott; report on mediumistic phenomena, 401-405.
+
+  Crookes, Sir William, 65, 121, 196, 297, 305, 358;
+    his experiments in psychical research, 306-347;
+    his mechanical contrivances for testing such phenomena, 308, 318, 319,
+      322, 323;
+    his views in 1898, 347-351;
+    his theory regarding such phenomena, 408.
+
+  Crystal vision, 292.
+
+  Cumberlandism, 171.
+
+  Curie, Pierre, 360.
+
+
+  Daguerre, an anecdote of, 11.
+
+  Dariex, Dr., 63, 173, 218, 368;
+    cited, 3, 210;
+    his opinion of fraud in mediums, 203-205.
+
+  D'Arsouval, Prof., 360.
+
+  Darkness as a factor in psychical phenomena, 10-13, 68, 89.
+
+  Davenport Brothers, the, xi, xiii, xiv, xxi.
+
+  Delanee, G., 84, 98, 101, 375.
+
+  Delfour, Abbe, cited, 398.
+
+  Delgaiz, Raphael, Husband of Eusapia Paladino, 67.
+
+  Desbeaux, Emilie, 173.
+
+  Dialectical Society of London, its organization, 289;
+    its experiments in psychical research, 291-302;
+    Huxley declines to join, 290;
+    Flammarion's letter to, 302-304.
+
+  Divination of Numbers, 240, 249 _et seq._
+
+  Double Personality, an hypothesis for spiritistic communication, 58 _et
+      seq._;
+    Dr. Pierre Janet's studies in, 60.
+
+  Drayson, Gen. A. W., on solution of scientific problems by Spirits, 50
+      _et seq._;
+    errors of, 53, 55.
+
+  Duclaux, E., 438.
+
+  Du Prel, Dr. Charles, 151.
+
+  Dusart, Dr., 289.
+
+  Dynamic theory of matter, 427.
+
+
+  Eglington, medium, 196.
+
+  Ephrussi, M., 101.
+
+  Ermacora, Dr., 151.
+
+
+  Faith not a necessity in psychic phenomena, 279.
+
+  Faraday, 188, 259, 262, 266.
+
+  Felida, case of double personality, 59.
+
+  Finzi, M., 151.
+
+  Flammarion, Camille, some scientific researches of, vi;
+    early writings on _Unknown Natural Forces_, xi;
+    experiments with Eusapia Paladino, 5-23, 63-134;
+    acquaintance with Allan Kardec, 24 _et seq._;
+    automatic writing by, 26;
+    delivers funeral oration of Kardec, 30;
+    experiments with Mme. Huet, 36 _et seq._;
+    letter to London Dialectical Society, 302-304;
+    his "General Inquiry" concerning unexplained phenomena, 376;
+    some specimen cases, 377-405.
+
+  Fluidic action, theories of, 166, 179, 253, 258, 282, 422, 427.
+
+  Fluidic projection of limbs, etc. _See_ Materializations.
+
+  Fontenay, Guillaume de, 3, 21, 84, 95, 368;
+    participates in Paladino sittings, 69-83, 123;
+    his dynamic theory of matter, 427-431.
+
+  Foucault, M., 264.
+
+  Fourth dimension, 420.
+
+  Fourton, Mme., 93, 95, 98, 101, 103, 114, 128, 202.
+
+  Fox sisters, case of the, 34.
+
+  Fox, Miss, automatic communication by, 437.
+
+  Fraud in mediums, 194, _et seq._
+
+  Frauenhofer, cited, 19.
+
+  Fremy, M., cited, xix.
+
+  Fresnel, 190.
+
+  Fulton's invention of steamboat, xvi.
+
+
+  Gagneur, Mme., 98, 101.
+
+  Galileo, alleged spiritistic communication from, 26, 47-49;
+    his erroneous theory for frictional attraction, 188, 189.
+
+  Galvani's experiments in electricity, xvi.
+
+  Gasparin, Count Agenor de, 305;
+    experiments with moving tables, 229-253;
+    his hypotheses, 253-258, 408;
+    his rejoinder to Babinet's negations, 258-265;
+    Prof. Thury's comments on, 268, 273, 276, 279, 282 _et seq._
+
+  Geley, Dr., his hypothesis of subliminal consciousness, 434.
+
+  Gerosa, Prof., 151.
+
+  Gigli, M., 143.
+
+  Girardin, Mme. de, 61.
+
+  Gramont, Count de, 173.
+
+  Grasset, Dr., his opinion on pyschical phenomena, 409.
+
+  Grove, quoted, xix.
+
+  Guerronnan, A., 173.
+
+  Gully, Dr., 334.
+
+
+  Hallucination, collective, does not satisfactorily account for
+      phenomena, 130, 179.
+
+  Harrison, William, 334.
+
+  Hartman, Dr. von, 435.
+
+  Hebert, M., note on Angelica Cottin, 322.
+
+  Herschel, William, 50.
+
+  Herschel, Sir John, cites, 50.
+
+  Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 305.
+
+  Home, Daniel Dunglas, 195, 437;
+    experiments with an accordion, 121;
+    Crooke's investigation of, 307-322;
+    324-334;
+    declares Miss Cook an impostor, 343.
+
+  Huet, Mme., mediumistic experiments with, 36 _et seq._
+
+  Hugo, Leopoldine, alleged spirit communication of, 212, _et seq._
+
+  Hugo, Victor, 61, 212, 443.
+
+  Husson, M., 263.
+
+  Huxley, T. H., his letter declining to join in psychical research, 290.
+
+  Hyslop, Prof. James H., 305;
+    his opinion on phenomena, 409.
+
+
+  Impressions in plastic substances, 420;
+    photographs of, 76, 138;
+    cases of, 22, 74-78, 158, 163, 184.
+
+  Institute, its disregard of papers on table-movements, 263.
+
+  Invisible hands, action of, 418.
+    _See also_, Acoustic phenomena, _and_ Materializations (tactile).
+
+  Intelligence manifested in mediumistic phenomena, 421.
+
+
+  James, Prof. William, 305.
+
+  Janet, Dr. Pierre, 60, 188.
+
+  Joncières, Victorin, 437;
+    reports mediumistic phenomena, 378-381.
+
+  Joubert, M., 37, 42.
+
+  Jouffroy's invention of the steamboat, xvi.
+
+  Julian the Apostate, cited, 451.
+
+  Jupiter, Sardou's drawings of landscapes in, 25, 45.
+
+
+  Kardec, Allan, his society for spiritualistic study, 24;
+    death of, 30;
+    his funeral oration by Flammarion, 30-32.
+
+  Kepler, 55.
+
+  King, John, alleged spirit control of E. Paladino, 71, 78, 141, 169;
+    a psychic double of Paladino, 166.
+
+  King, Katie, a materialized spirit, 141;
+    appears to Florence Cook and others, 334;
+    investigated by Crookes and other scientist, 335-346;
+    Home's opinion of her, 343.
+
+
+  Labadye, Countess de, 103.
+
+  Lacroix, medium, 196.
+
+  Laplace, 51.
+
+  Lateau, Louise, stigmata of, 20.
+
+  Laurent, M., 101.
+
+  Lebel, M., 218.
+
+  Le Bocain, M., 114;
+    report on E. Paladino, 116-118.
+
+  Le Bou, Dr. Gustave, report on E. Paladino, 101-103.
+
+  Lemerle, M., 368.
+
+  LeVerrier, 213.
+
+  Leymarie, Paul, 218.
+
+  Levitations, 5-8, 33, 79, 80, 118, 414-416;
+    photographs of, 6, 83, 156, 368;
+    denied by one sitter, 132;
+    the flour test of 1. without contact, 247, 248;
+    cases of, 6, 17, 70, 73, 74, 83, 88, 91, 93, 94, 96, 99, 104, 105,
+      111, 113, 114, 144-147, 154-156, 160, 164, 167, 174, 180, 183-87,
+      204, 229, 232, 236, 238, 239, 240-248, 292, 354, 357, 364, 368-370,
+      373, 379, 380, 403.
+
+  Lévy, Arthur, 200;
+    report on E. Paladino, 86-92.
+
+  Lévy, Mme. A., 200.
+
+  Levy, J. H., 289.
+
+  Lewes, George Henry, 290.
+
+  Lifting of weights, etc., 413.
+    _See also_, Levitation.
+
+  Lamoncelli, M., 147.
+
+  Lodge, Sir Oliver, 63, 65, 305;
+    his opinion of Paladino's phenomena, 167.
+
+  Lomatsch, J., 372.
+
+  Lombroso, Cesare, 63, 151, 178, 188;
+    Prof. Chiaia invites examination of Paladino, 136;
+    investigates Paladino, 143-150;
+    his theories regarding the phenomena, 150, 409.
+
+  Louis XIV, a fable of, 43.
+
+  Lubbock, Sir John, 289.
+
+  Luminous mediumistic phenomena, cases of, 74, 97, 105, 108, 125, 148,
+      186, 198, 371.
+
+  Luxmore, Mr., 334, 335.
+
+  Luys, Dr., 4.
+
+
+  Mairet, M., 98.
+
+  Mangin, Marcel, 162, 173, 218;
+    his opinion on psychical phenomena, 410.
+
+  Marcianus Capella, cited, 451.
+
+  Marks produced at a distance, 167.
+
+  Mars, discovery of satellites of, 55.
+
+  Martelet, Adele, relates an incident of Alfred de Musset, 398.
+
+  Materializations, theory of fluidic projection of limbs, etc., 121 _et
+      seq._, 166, 198, 208.
+    Cases of:
+      (a) TACTILE:--of hands or arms, 71, 72, 89, 97, 98, 101, 106-108,
+            111, 113, 116-118, 124, 146, 148, 160, 167, 174, 181, 186,
+            292, 371, 374;
+        of heads, 73, 89, 115, 161, 177, 187, 371.
+      (b) VISIBLE:--of hands and arms, 10, 73, 116, 159, 175, 185, 292;
+        of heads and busts, 21, 72, 115, 128, 177, 185, 366;
+        of complete figure, "Katie King," 334-346.
+
+  Mathieu, Georges, 93, 101, 200;
+    report on E. Paladino, 111-114.
+
+     "     P. F., 37.
+
+  Matter passing through matter, _see_ Solid.
+
+  Maxwell, Dr. Joseph, 63, 172, 173.
+    Extracts from his investigations, 360-368;
+    his opinions, 410.
+
+  Mediums, cheating of professional, 3, 207;
+    their conscious and unconscious deception, 4;
+    use of the word, 5;
+    their will and health as factors, 14;
+    pecuniary temptations of, 157.
+    _See also_, Brédif, Florence Cook, Angelica Cottin, Davenport
+      brothers, Eglington, Fox sisters, Daniel D. Home, Mme. Huet, Allan
+      Kardee, A. Politi, E. Paladino, Anna Rothe, Sambor, Slade, Mrs.
+      Williams, Mme. X.
+
+  Mediumistic Phenomena, a chapter in physics, 2;
+    effects of antipathy of by slanders, 15;
+    genuineness of, 21, 184;
+    reflections upon those of Paladino, 118 _et seq._;
+    experiments with an accordion, 121 _et seq._;
+    confirmatory of magnetism rather than hypnotism, 166;
+    always of psycho-physical nature, 166;
+    hypothesis of fluidic double (astral body), 166, 179;
+    fraud in, 194 _et seq._;
+    agency is in the person, not in the object, 254;
+    mechanical tests of, by Prof. Thury, 269 _et seq._;
+    by Sir William Crookes, 306 _et seq._;
+    unconscious muscular action considered, 280;
+    no indications of electricity in, 281;
+    experiments of London Dialectical Society, 291-303;
+    Sir William Crookes' experiments, 306-347;
+    his opinions of, 347-351;
+    investigations of Alfred Russel Wallace, 353-359;
+    of Dr. J. Maxwell, 359-368;
+    of other scientists, 368-375;
+    popular ignorance of, 406 _et seq._;
+    recapitulation of scientist's theories regarding, 408;
+    recapitulation of phenomena with Flammarion's comments, 411-423 _et
+      seq._;
+    subliminal consciousness as a factor in, 433 _et seq._;
+    Dr. von Hartmann's hypothesis, 435;
+    Aksakof's reply, 435;
+    of mixed character, 438.
+    _See also_, Acoustic phenomena, Alteration in weight, Apparitions,
+      Apports, Automatic writing, Fluidic Action, Impressions, Invisible
+      hands, Levitations, Luminous phenomena, Materializations, Movement
+      of objects, Ordeals, Predictions, Raps, Solid passing through solid,
+      Spirit communications, Spiritualism, Thermal radiations, Typtology,
+      Touchings, Writing produced at a distance.
+
+  Méry, Gaston, 84, 95, 375.
+
+  Miller, American medium, 375.
+
+  Milési, Prof., 368.
+
+  Mind, action of, upon matter, 283 _et seq._, 365.
+
+  Molière, xiv., quoted, 264, 265.
+
+  Montaigne, 1.
+
+  Morgan, Prof., 297-359;
+    accepts Spiritistic theory, 409.
+
+  Morselli, Prof. Enrico, 188;
+    investigates E. Paladino, 177-192.
+
+  Mouchez, Admiral, 197, 213.
+
+  Mouzay, Countess de, 211.
+
+  Movements of natural objects, in mediumistic phenomena, 411-416;
+    cases of, 9, 17, 70-74, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 105, 106, 108, 109,
+      111-114, 125, 126, 144, 147, 148, 156, 157, 163, 165, 167, 175, 176,
+      181-183, 185, 187, 234, 237, 271, 274, 275, 293, 295, 297, 299-301,
+      353, 354, 358, 359, 369, 370, 371, 373, 378, 382, 383, 398, 399, 403.
+
+  Musset, Alfred de, 398.
+
+  Myers, F. W. H., 63, 162, 305, 350;
+    on Subliminal Consciousness, 433, 434.
+
+
+  Newton, cited, 19.
+
+  Nus, Eugène, 61, 443.
+
+
+  Ochorowicz, Dr. Julien, 63, 162, 188;
+    his studies of Eusapia Paladino, 76-78;
+    his conclusions, 166, 409;
+    condemns the rejection of Paladino by English scientists, 168;
+    his explanation of her substitution of hands, 170.
+
+  Ordeals, 292.
+
+  Ostwald, Dr., arranges séance with E. Paladino, 15.
+
+
+  Paladino, Eusapia (Mme. Raphael Delgaiz), 2, 3;
+    her exhaustion after phenomena, 7;
+    her fraud (conscious and unconscious), 10;
+    influence of her health on experiments, 15;
+    darkness demanded for best results, 10, 68, 89;
+    her personality and history, 67, 86, 87, 140;
+    Flammarion's estimate of the comparative authenticity of her
+      phenomena, 70;
+    unknown natural forces evidenced, 80, 152;
+    investigated by Flammarion, 5-23, 63-134;
+    by Lombroso, 143-150;
+    by Enrico Morselli, and François Porro, 177-192;
+    by other scientists, at Milan, 151 _et seq._;
+    at other places, 162 _et seq._;
+    M. Antoniadi considers her phenomena fraudulent, 109-111;
+    unsuccessful attempt to photograph fluidic hand, 123;
+    M. L---- denies levitations, 132;
+    Professor Chiaia challenges Lombroso to investigate, 136;
+    photographs of facial imprints, 76, 136;
+    her spiritualistic education, 141;
+    her symptoms during the production of phenomena, 142;
+    her sensations, 143;
+    Ochorowicz's apparatus to control feet, 164;
+    results of sympathetic trance of a sitter, 165;
+    detected in fraud at Cambridge, 168;
+    an incident at Ochorowicz's home, 168 _et seq._;
+    her deceptions, their reasons and their relevance to phenomena,
+      194-211;
+    Dr. Dariex's opinion of them, 206;
+    her sensitiveness to suggestion, 207.
+    Reports on her phenomena by Dr. Julien Ochorowicz, 76-78, 166;
+    by Prof. Chiaia, 78, 136-140;
+    by Arthur Lévy, 86-92;
+    Adolph Brisson, 93, 94;
+    Victorien Sardou, 95-98;
+    Jules Claretie, 98-101;
+    Gustave Le Bon, 101-103;
+    G. Armelin, 103-109;
+    M. Antoniadi, 109-111;
+    M. Mathieu, 111-114;
+    M. Palotti, 114-116;
+    M. Le Bocain, 116-118;
+    A. de Rochas, 140-143, 174-176;
+    M. Ciolfi's account of Lombroso's séances, 143-150;
+    the Milan scientists, 151-161;
+    M. de Siemradski, 163, 164;
+    Sir Oliver Lodge, 167;
+    Sully-Prudhomme, 176;
+    François Porro's reports of séances with Morselli, 177-192.
+
+  Recorded cases of her phenomena.
+    (a) Raps (including typtological communications), 8, 13, 17, 70, 75,
+           80, 105, 114, 144, 145, 147, 175, 203.
+    (b) Movements of natural objects (_see also_ (d) apports), 9, 17,
+           70-74, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 105, 106, 108, 109, 111-114, 125,
+           126, 144, 147, 148, 156, 157, 163, 167, 175, 176, 181-183, 185,
+           187-203, 209, 210.
+    (c) Levitations, 6, 16, 70, 73, 74, 83, 88, 91, 93, 94, 96, 99, 104,
+           105, 111, 113, 114, 144-147, 154-156, 160, 164, 167, 174, 180,
+           183-187, 204, 364.
+    (d) Apports (objects brought in from outside the room), 99, 112, 186,
+           187.
+    (e) Alteration in weight of bodies and variation in weighing apparatus
+           without contact, 88, 153, 173, 191.
+    (f) Thermal radiations, 115, 117, 125, 186.
+    (g) acoustic phenomena (sounds other than raps q.v.), 71, 73, 89, 96,
+           112, 144, 163, 167, 183, 209, 210.
+    (h) writing and marks produced at a distance, 167.
+    (i) impressions in plastic substances, 22, 74-78, 158, 163, 184;
+      photographs of, 76.
+    (j) luminous phenomena, 74, 97, 105, 108, 125, 148, 186, 199.
+    (k) trance speaking, 71, 160.
+    (l) Materializations.
+      (I) Tactile,--of hands and arms, 71, 72, 89, 97, 98, 101, 106-108,
+           111, 113, 116-118, 124, 146, 148, 160, 167, 174, 181, 186;
+        of heads, 73, 89, 115, 161, 177, 187.
+      (II) visible,--of hands of arms, 10, 73, 116, 159, 175, 185;
+        of heads and busts, 21, 72, 115, 128, 177, 185, 366.
+    (m) a solid passing through a solid substance, 107, 128.
+    (n) cases apparently produced by fraud, 200.
+
+  Palotti, M., report on E. Paladino, 114-116.
+
+  Palotti, Mme., 114.
+
+  Pelletier, M., 220.
+
+  Penta, Dr., 147.
+
+  Phaedrus, quoted, xx.
+
+  Phalansterians, the, 61, 443.
+
+  Phantoms, 419, _see also_ Materializations.
+
+  Plautus, xiv.
+
+  Politi, Auguste, mediums, his phenomena, 368-371.
+
+  Poggenpohl, M. de, 373, 374.
+
+  Porro, François, report on E. Paladino, 177-192;
+    his theories, 409.
+
+  Predictions, 293, 384, 385.
+
+  Psychical research, utility of, v, viii, 2, 30-32;
+    the sceptic's attitude toward, vii;
+    ignorance of critics of, xii, xv;
+    scientists unwilling to recognize phenomena, 18-20;
+    value of cumulative testimony in, 191;
+    necessity of eliminating fraud in, 194;
+    society for, 305.
+
+  Psychological Institute invites E. Paladino to Paris, 3.
+
+
+  Rabelais, 1;
+    alleged spirit communications from, 38-40.
+
+  Radioculture, vi.
+
+  Raps (_see also_, Typtology), their connection with sitters, 22;
+    hypotheses for, 35;
+    Dr. J. Maxwell's Studies of, 360-364;
+    recapitulation of, 416-418;
+    cases of, 8, 13, 17, 75, 105, 144, 145, 147, 175, 232, 244, 292,
+      297-301, 353, 357.
+
+  Ravachol, alleged spirit communication from, 213.
+
+  Regnard, quoted, 101.
+
+  Ribero, M., 218.
+
+  Richet, Dr. Charles, 3, 63, 65, 84, 93, 95, 151, 162, 178, 202, 305;
+    his experiments in Algiers, 375;
+    his theory, 409.
+
+  Rochas, Count Albert de, 63, 84, 95, 162, 203, 289, 368;
+    cited, 3, 135, 179, 188, 198;
+    his theories, 409.
+
+  Rodiere, Mme., medium, 196.
+
+  Rothe, Anna, medium, 217.
+
+  Rothschild, Ed. de, 101.
+
+  Roure, Lucien, cited, 398.
+
+
+  Sabatier, A., 63, 173.
+
+  Sambor, Russian medium, his phenomena, 371-374.
+
+  Sardou, Victorien, 178, 203, 208;
+    early mediumistic experiences of, 25;
+    letter to Jules Claretie, 45;
+    report on E. Paladino, 95-98;
+    participates in Paladino sittings, 123, 124.
+
+  Sayn-Wittgenstein, Prince, 334.
+
+  Schiaparelli, 4, 63, 82, 151, 178, 194;
+    letter regarding E. Paladino, 64.
+
+  Secondary personality, _see_ Double Personality.
+
+  Sergines, M. de, 101.
+
+  Sexton, Dr., 334.
+
+  Sidgwick, Prof. Henry, 305.
+
+  Siemiradski, M. de, 162;
+    quoted, 163.
+
+  Simmons, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin, 368.
+
+  Sivel the aëronaut, alleged spirit communication from, 213.
+
+  Slade, Henry, medium, 66, 420;
+    his fraud, 196.
+
+  Socrates, vii.
+
+  Solid passing through a solid, cases of, 107, 128, 372;--a natural
+      parallel, 130.
+
+  Solovovo, Petrovo, describes Sambor's phenomena, 371-374.
+
+  Soul, the, xx, 82, 178, 188, 439, 452.
+
+  Spirit communications, 384-389;
+    erroneous, 51, 52, 57;
+    _see also_, Automatic writing, Raps, Trance-speaking.
+
+  Spiritualism (spiritism), 194;
+    its immateriality in psychical research, xx, 80;
+    has never taught anything new, 26, 436;
+    not proven by Paladino phenomena, 166;
+    dilemma between animism and, 188, 435;
+    Porro's opinion of its relation to Paladino, 190 _et seq._;
+   de Gasparin's arguments against, 285;
+    Thury's comments on, 285 _et seq._;
+    spiritistic hypothesis accepted by Cromwell Varley, 305, 409, by
+      Wallace, 409, by Prof. Morgan, 409;
+    spirits not necessarily souls of dead, 431;
+    still a working hypothesis, 439, 447;
+    arguments against its probability, 439 _et seq._
+
+  Squanquarillo, Joseph, 368.
+
+  Stewart, Prof. Balfour, 305.
+
+  Stock, Georges, 50.
+
+  Subliminal consciousness, Myers on, 433, 434;
+    Dr. Geeley's hypothesis, 434;
+    does not depend upon organism, 435.
+
+  Sully-Prudhomme, 173.
+
+  Syamour, Mme., 101.
+
+
+  Table movements, 411-413.
+    _See also_, Levitation _and_ Movements of Natural Objects.
+
+  Taine, quoted, 58.
+
+  Tamburini, M., 144.
+
+  Tanchou, Dr., report on Angelica Cottin, 219-222.
+
+  Tapp, Mr., 345.
+
+  Taton, M., 368.
+
+  Telekinesis, 61.
+
+  Thermal radiations (sensations of heat or cold in mediumistic
+      phenomena), 115, 117, 125, 186.
+
+  Thury, Marc, his researches into physical phenomena, 266-287;
+    his experiments, 269-276;
+    his theories, 276-287, 408.
+
+  Touchings in mediumistic phenomena, 418.
+    _See also_, Materializations (tactile).
+
+  Trance speaking, cases of, 71, 160, 293.
+
+  Typtology (intelligible communications by raps), code for, 8;
+    results generally tally, knowledge of the experimenters, 14, 37, 57;
+    apparently an extension of hand and brain, 33;
+    received through Mme. Huet, 37 _et seq._;
+    answers to unknown questions evidently guess-work, 240;
+    specimens of, 38-43, 70, 80, 114, 147, 203, 212, 237, 292, 293,
+      297-301, 355, 356, 380, 403, 437.
+    _See also_, Raps.
+
+
+  Unknown natural forces, v, xvii, 1-23, 2, 18;
+    extracts from Flammarion's monograph on, xi-xxi;
+    evinced in E. Paladino's phenomena, 80, 192;
+    hypotheses regarding, 81, 406 _et seq._;
+    danger of too great scepticism against recognition of, 188 _et seq._;
+    not the exclusive property of mediums, 442.
+
+  Uranus, the satellites of, spiritistic communications regarding, 50-57.
+
+
+  Vacquerie, Charles, 213.
+
+  Varennes, M. and Mlle. de, 95.
+
+  Varley, Cromwell F., 291, 297, 359;
+    accepts spiritistic hypothesis, 305, 409.
+
+  Vignon, Louis, 98, 101.
+
+  Virchow, cited, 20.
+
+  Virgil, quoted, 451.
+
+  Vizioli, M., 143.
+
+  Voltaire, 1.
+
+
+  Wagner, Prof., 162.
+
+  Wallace Alfred Russel, 65, 290, 297, 437;
+    accepts spiritistic theory, 409.
+
+  Watteville, Baron de, 63, 173, 218;--his investigations of mediumistic
+      phenomena, 353-359.
+
+  Weber, A., 372.
+
+  Wellemberg, M., 218.
+
+  Will, the, its influence upon phenomena, 273 _et seq._, 365.
+
+  Williams, Mrs., medium, 218, 219.
+
+  Wolf, M., 218.
+
+  Writing and marks produced at a distance, 167, 356, 371, 373, 379.
+
+
+  X., Mme., mediumistic séance with, 211-216.
+
+
+  Zeno, cited, 450.
+
+  Zöllner, Prof., 66, 178, 196, 420.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Sosie is a character in Plautus and Molière. Hermes takes Sosie's
+form, and, when the latter sees his double, he almost doubts his own
+identity. So the word came to mean a counterpart, a double, one's _alter
+ego_.--_Trans._
+
+[2] This seems to be a reference to the wardrobe used by the early
+Spiritualists as a cabinet in their demonstrations in public
+halls.--_Trans._
+
+[3] The cock scratching for grain finds a pearl.
+
+[4] In order that I may at once place before the eyes of my readers
+documentary evidence of these experiments, I reproduce here (Pl. I) a
+photograph taken at my apartments on the 12th of November in 1898. Any one
+can perceive by the horizontality of the arms, as well as by the distance
+between the feet of the table and the floor, that the elevation is from
+six to eight inches. The precise distance is marked on the figure
+itself,--a measurement taken the next day by propping up the table, with
+the aid of books, in the same position as it was. The medium has her two
+feet wholly under my right foot, while at the same time her knees are
+under my right hand. Her hands are upon the table grasped by my left hand
+and by that of the other critical observer or "control" (_contrôleur_),
+who has just placed a cushion before her to shield her very sensitive eyes
+from the flash of the magnesium light, and thus save her from a
+disagreeable nervous attack.
+
+These photographs, taken rapidly by magnesium light, are not perfect, but
+they are records.
+
+[5] See _L'Inconnu_, pp. 20-29.
+
+[6] Certain book-shops in Paris.--_Trans._
+
+[7] Oration delivered at the grave of Allan Kardec, by Camille Flammarion,
+Paris, Didier, 1869, pp. 4, 17, 22.
+
+[8] The author means, of course, by this phrase (_milieu ambiant_), the
+totality of psychic force present, the psychological atmosphere, the total
+mind-energy radiated by the several more or less sensitive or mediumistic
+members of the company.--_Trans._
+
+[9] This communication is given in English by the author.--_Trans._
+
+[10] Alcofribaz Nazier is well known as Rabelais' anagram, formed from his
+own name. It was the signature under which he published his
+_Pantagruel_.--_Trans._
+
+[11] A piece of typtological dictation of the same kind has been recently
+sent to me. Here it is:
+
+  IUTPTUOLOER
+  EIRFIEUEBN
+  SSOAGPRSTI
+
+Read successively, from top to bottom, one letter of each line, beginning
+on the left, and the sense will appear as follows: "Je suis trop fatiguê
+pour les obtenir." ("I am too tired to obtain them.")
+
+[12] This and the next dictation are rhymed verse in the original
+French.--_Trans._
+
+[13] In rhymed verses in the original.--_Trans._
+
+[14] A word of recent origin, meaning ambitious or pretentious people who
+want "to arrive," the _would-be's_. The word forms the title of a recent
+French novel, _L'Arriviste_, and (translated) of an English one called
+_The Climber_.--_Trans._
+
+[15] So in the original. Possibly M. Sardou was under the mistaken
+impression that Gulliver was a nom-de-plume for Dean Swift.--_Trans._
+
+[16] This inclination is really 82°, reckoning from the south, or 98° (90
++ 8°), counting from the north (see Fig. A).
+
+[17] I have just found in my library a book which was sent to me in 1888
+by the author, Major-General Drayson, the title of which is _Thirty
+Thousand Years of the Earth's Past History, Read by Aid of the Discovery
+of the Second Rotation of the Earth_. This second rotation would take
+place about an axis the pole of which would be 29° 25' 47" from the pole
+of the daily rotation, about 270 right ascension, and would be
+accomplished in 32,682 years. The author seeks to explain it by the
+glacial periods and variations of climate. But his work is full of
+confusions most strange and even unpardonable in a man versed in
+astronomical studies. The truth is that this General Drayson (who died
+several years ago) was not an astronomer.
+
+[18] _Intelligence_, Vol. I., preface, p. 16, edition of 1897. The first
+edition was published in 1868.
+
+[19] All those who occupy themselves with these questions are acquainted,
+among other cases, with that of Felida (studied by Dr. Azam). In the story
+of this young girl she is shown as endowed with two distinct personalities
+to such an extent that, in the second state, she becomes amorous ... and
+enceinte, without knowing anything about it in her normal condition. These
+states of double personalities have been methodically observed for thirty
+years.
+
+[20] _Psychological Automatism_, p. 401-402.
+
+[21] See Pl. IV. and V. I preserve with care a plaster cast of this
+imprint.
+
+[22] A. de Rochas, _The Externalization of Motivity_, fourth edition,
+1906, p. 406.
+
+[23] The reports of the sittings at Montfort-l'Amaury form the subject of
+a remarkable work by M. Guillaume de Fontenay, _Apropos of Eusapia
+Paladino_, one vol., 8vo. illustrated, Paris, 1898.
+
+[24] The respective places of the persons were not always those of the
+photographs. Thus, at the time of the production of the imprint, M. G. de
+Fontenay was at the right of Eusapia, and M. Blech at the same end of the
+table.
+
+[25] In the following sitting, of November 12, M. Antoniadi writes (with
+an excellent corroborative sketch): "Phenomenon observed with absolute
+certainty; the violin was thrown upon the table, twenty inches above the
+head of Eusapia."
+
+[26] This is absolutely true, says my son, who is reading over these
+lines.
+
+[27] During the correction of the proofs of these sheets (Oct., 1906), I
+received from Dr. Gustave Le Bon the following note:
+
+"At the time of her last sojourn in Paris (1906), I was able to obtain
+from Eusapia three séances at my house. I besought one of the keenest
+observers that I know, M. Dastre,--a member of the Academy of Science and
+professor of physiology at the Sorbonne,--to be kind enough to be present
+at our experiments. There were present also my assistant, M. Michaux, and
+the lady to whose kind offices I owe the presence of Eusapia.
+
+"Besides the levitation of the table, we several times, and almost in full
+light, saw a hand appear. At first it was about two inches and a half
+above Eusapia's head, then at the side of the curtain which partly covered
+her, about twenty inches from her shoulder.
+
+"We then organized, for the second séance, our methods of control. They
+were altogether decisive. Thanks to the possibility of producing behind
+Eusapia an illumination which she did not suspect, we were able to see one
+of her arms, very skilfully withdrawn from our control, move along
+horizontally behind the curtain and touch the arm of M. Dastre, and
+another time give me a slap on the hand.
+
+"We concluded from our observations that the phenomena observed had
+nothing supernatural about them.
+
+"As to the levitation of the table,--an extremely light one, placed before
+Eusapia, and which her hands scarcely left,--we have not been able to
+formulate any decisive explanation. I will only observe that Eusapia
+admitted that it was impossible for her to displace the slightest one of
+the very light objects placed upon that table."
+
+After writing this note, M. G. Le Bon said to me verbally that, in his
+opinion, everything in these experiments is fraud.
+
+[28] To these eight séances I might add a ninth, which took place on the
+succeeding December 5, in the study of Prof. Richet. Nothing remarkable
+occurred, unless it was the inflation, in full light, of a window curtain,
+which was about twenty-four inches from Eusapia's foot, my foot and leg
+being between it and her. The observation was absolutely accurate.
+
+[29] To what cause may we attribute the levitation of the table? We have
+undoubtedly not yet discovered the secret. The action of gravity may be
+counterbalanced by movement.
+
+You can amuse yourself, while at breakfast or dinner, by toying with a
+knife. If you hold it vertically in your tightly closed hand, its weight
+is counterbalanced by the pressure of the hand and it does not fall. Open
+your hand, still holding the knife grasped by the thumb and index finger,
+and it will slide as if it were in a too large tube. But move the hand by
+a rapid see-saw movement, from left to right, from right to left: you will
+thus create a centrifugal force which holds the object in vertical
+suspension, and which may even toss it above your hand and project it into
+the air, if the movement is rapid enough.
+
+What, then, sustains the knife, annihilates its weight? Force. Might it
+not be that the influence of the experimenters seated around the table
+puts in special movement the molecules of the wood? They are already set
+in vibration by variations of temperature. These molecules are particles
+infinitely small which do not touch each other. Might not a molecular
+movement counterbalance the effect of gravity? I do not present this as an
+explanation, but as an illustrative suggestion (_comme une image_).
+
+[30] M. Chiaia has sent me photographs of these prints. I reproduce some
+of them here (Pl. VII).
+
+[31] The word "trance" has been given to the peculiar state into which
+mediums fall when they lose the consciousness of their environment. It is
+a kind of somnambulistic sleep.
+
+[32] _Annales des sciences psychiques_, 181, p. 326.
+
+[33] However, some doubt may remain. In my photographs, also (Pl. I. and
+VI.), the foot of the table at the left of the medium is concealed. As I
+myself was at this very place, I am sure that the medium was unable to
+lift the table with her foot, for _this foot was held under mine_, not by
+a rod or by any support whatever; for I had a hand upon her legs, _which
+did not move_. The objection is moreover refuted by the experiment which I
+made on the 29th of March, 1906 (see p. 6), of a levitation, with Eusapia
+standing,--an experiment which had been made before on the 27th of July,
+1897, at Monfort-l'Amaury (see p. 82), the feet, very naturally, being
+visible. Hence there can be no doubt whatever about the complete
+levitation of the table floating in space. Aksakof obtained a levitation,
+in the séances at Milan, after having tied Eusapia's feet with two
+strings, the ends of which were short and had been sealed to the floor
+very near each foot.
+
+Farther on the reader will be given proof of other undeniable instances,
+among others, at pp. 164, 165.
+
+[34] I hear very often the following objection: "I shall only believe in
+mediums who are not remunerated; all those who are paid are under
+suspicion." Eusapia belongs to these last. Being without fortune, she
+never visits a city unless her travelling and hotel expenses are paid. She
+also loses her time, and is submitted to a not very agreeable inquisition.
+For my part, I do not admit the above objection at all. The physical and
+intellectual faculties have nothing in common with money-getting. It will
+be said that the medium is interested in deceiving and tricking: it
+increases her fees. But there are a good many other temptations in the
+world. I have seen unpaid mediums, men and women of society, cheat without
+any scruple, from pure vanity, or for a purpose still less fit to be
+avowed,--for the mere pleasure of trapping some one. The séances of
+Spiritualism have been made to serve useful and agreeable ends in
+fashionable society--and more than one marriage has originated there.
+
+We must be as sceptical about one class of mediums as about another.
+
+[35] These reports were published in detail in the work of M. de Rochas on
+_The Externalization of Motivity_, 4th edition, 1906, p. 170.
+
+[36] I will add, for the benefit of those who wish to try some of these
+psychic experiments, that the best conditions for success are to have a
+homogeneous, impartial, and sincere group, free from every preconceived
+idea, and not exceeding five or six persons in number. It is absurd to
+object that, in order to obtain the phenomena, _one must have faith_. But,
+while positive belief is not necessary, it is yet advisable not to
+exercise any hostile influence during a séance.
+
+[37] A very curious experiment made with a letter-weigher took place at
+l'Agnélas. In response to an impromptu suggestion made by M. de Gramont,
+Eusapia consented to try whether, by making vertical passes with her hands
+on each side of the tray of the letter-weigher (going as high as fifty
+grams), she could not lower it. She succeeded in doing so several times in
+succession, in the presence of five observers placed about her, who
+testified that she did not have in her fingers either thread or hair to
+press upon the tray.
+
+[38] Published by C. de Vesme in his _Revue des Études psychiques_, 1901.
+
+[39] Eusapia, as has been said, is unable either to read or write.
+
+[40] Arago, in 1846, with the "electric girl"; Flammarion, in 1861, with
+Allan Kardec, then afterwards with different mediums; Zöllner, in 1882,
+with Slade; Schiaparelli, in 1892 with Eusapia; Porro, in 1901, with the
+same medium (_Revue des Études psychiques_).
+
+[41] Notably in _Uranie_, in _Stella_, in _Lumen_, in _L'Inconnu_. See
+also above, p. 30 in my _Oration at the Grave of Allen Kardec_.
+
+[42] Slade was sentenced to three months of hard labor, in London, for
+swindling. He died in a private hospital, in the State of Michigan, in
+September, 1905.
+
+[43] _Annales des sciences psychiques_, 1896, p. 66.
+
+[44] We have already noticed (see p. 149) the practical joke of Professor
+Bianchi in a meeting of the most serious investigators.
+
+[45] See _Annales_, 1896. The report is very rich in records. The door of
+the wardrobe opened and closed of itself, several times in succession, in
+synchronism with the movements of the medium's hands, which were at about
+a yard's distance. A toy piano weighing about two pounds was moved about,
+and played several airs all alone, etc.
+
+[46] A Parisian Anarchist executed for dynamiting the houses of the Judges
+Benoit and Bulot. The popular chanson of the Anarchists called _La
+Ravachole_ originated in this man's deeds and personality. See Alvan
+Sanborn's _Paris and the Social Revolution_, Boston, 1905.--_Trans._
+
+[47] See also _Enquête sur l'authenticité des phénomènes electriques
+d'Angelique Cottin_. Paris, Germer Ballière, 1846. Also _L'Exteriorisation
+de la motricité_, by Albert de Rochas.
+
+[48] Lafontaine, who also studied Angelica's case, says that "when she
+brought her left wrist near a lighted candle, the flame bent over
+horizontally, as if continually blown upon." (_L'art de magnetiser_, p.
+273).
+
+M. Pelletier observed the same thing in the case of some of his subjects,
+when they brought the palm of the hand near a candle.
+
+Specialists call these points "hypnogenic points," from which fluidic
+streams radiate.
+
+[49] Arago.--_Trans._
+
+[50] _Études et lectures sur les sciences d'observations_, vol. II., 1856.
+
+[51] _Des Tables tournantes, du Surnaturel en général, et des Esprits, par
+le comte Agénor de Gasparin, Paris, Dentu, 1854._
+
+[52] The lady who soon after was styled "the medium."
+
+[53] This was the only table with casters that the operators made use of.
+
+[54] The allusion is to Faraday's explanation of Arago's discovery in the
+magnetism of rotation. Faraday showed that a rotating disk of non-magnetic
+metal would draw after it in similar rotation a magnetic needle suspended
+over it, and even a heavy magnet. See Professor Tyndall's _Faraday as a
+Discoverer_, pp. 25, 26.--_Trans._
+
+[55] The long scene from which this is taken in Molière is so full of
+Italian, Old French, and dog Latin, that it has not been translated by Van
+Laun. All but the last word (_juro_) of each stanza is spoken by the
+big-wigs in this mock examination of a baccalaureate medical student; that
+word is his:
+
+"Do you swear that in all consultations you will be of the ancient
+opinion, whether it be good or bad?"--"I swear it."--"To never make use of
+any remedies except those of the learned faculty of medicine, even should
+the patient burst and die of his disease?"--"I swear it."--_Trans._
+
+[56] _"Les Tables tournantes," considérés au point de vue de la question
+de physique générale qui s'y rattache. Genève, 1855._
+
+[57] _The dynamic force_ necessary to produce this uplift, if we admit
+that it was developed and accumulated during the five or ten minutes of
+playing that preceded the phenomenon, would not, on the other hand, be
+beyond the strength of the child; it would remain even much beneath the
+limit of his powers. In general, the force expended, in these phenomena of
+the tables, if one may judge by the degree of fatigue experienced by the
+operators, much surpasses what would be required to produce the same
+effects mechanically. There is, therefore, in this respect, no reason for
+admitting the intervention of a force foreign to the boy's own
+nature.--(_Thury._)
+
+[58] In the first experiments of Thury, eight persons remained an hour and
+a half standing, and then seated, around a table, without obtaining the
+least resulting movement. Two or three days after, on their second trial,
+the same persons, at the end of ten minutes, made a centre-table revolve.
+Finally, on the 4th of May, 1853, at the third or fourth trial, the
+heaviest tables began to move almost immediately.
+
+[59] In the case of difficult tests, when they took place on cold days, a
+warm spread was stretched over the table, and removed at the moment of the
+experiment. The operators themselves, before acting, held their hands open
+for a moment before a stove.
+
+[60] Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical
+Society, London: 1871.
+
+[61] In one vol. 8vo. Paris: Leymarie, 1900.
+
+[62] See, for example, the January number, 1876: _Sidereal Astronomy_.
+
+[63] Especially at Nice, in 1881 and 1884. Home died in 1886. He was born
+in 1833, near Edinburgh.
+
+[64] Sir William Huggins, an astronomer well known for his discoveries in
+spectrum analysis.
+
+[65] Edward William Cox.
+
+[66] Experimental Investigation on Psychic Force, by William Crookes, F.
+R. L., etc., London, Henry Gilman, 1871. The brochure was translated into
+French by M. Alidel, Paris. Psychical Science Publishing House, 1897.
+
+[67] The quotation occurs to me--"I never said it was possible, I only
+said it was true."
+
+[68] Katie King, _The Story of her Appearances_. Paris, Leymarie, 1899. I
+thought I would not reproduce these photographs here, because they did not
+seem to me to have come from Mr. Crookes himself. Florence Cook died in
+London on the 2d of April, 1904.
+
+[69] On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, London, 1875, French
+translation, Paris, 1889 (the English word _spiritualism_ is always used
+here in the sense of _spiritism_).
+
+[70] _Les Phénomènes psychiques._ One vol. 8vo. Paris, 1903.
+
+[71] As I said on a previous page, psychic forces have as much reality as
+physical and mechanical ones.
+
+[72] This is the same thing that I observed at Monfort-l'Amaury. See p.
+73.
+
+[73] The Italian journals reproduced a picturesque photograph of the table
+lifted almost to the height of the ceiling, at the moment it had passed
+over the heads of the sitters and was turning over (see A. de Rochas,
+_Extériorisation de la motricité_, 4th ed.). I do not reproduce it,
+because it does not seem to me to be authentic. Besides, the observers
+declared that they did not verify this phenomenon until _after_ its pro
+
+[74] _Annales des Sciences psychique_, 1902.
+
+[75] Several observations published in that work are however, connected in
+subject with the present one. For instance: a piano playing alone (p.
+108), a door opening of itself (p. 112), curtains shaken (p. 125),
+extravagant gambols of pieces of furniture (p. 133), raps (p. 146), bells
+ringing (p. 168), and numerous examples of unexplained disturbing noises
+coinciding with deaths.
+
+[76] The word used here by M. Castex-Dégrange is _tête de Turc_, a thing
+like the leather-covered bags in our gymnasiums, and used in fairs in
+France, to be pummelled by those wishing to try their strength.--_Trans._
+
+[77] I had considerable acquaintance with him at the Nice Observatory,
+where, in 1884 and 1885, I made with him spectroscopic observations on the
+rotation of the sun.--C. F.
+
+[78] In the séances of which I spoke in the early part of this book
+(second chapter), when the word "God" was dictated the table beat a
+salute.--C. F.
+
+[79] Goupil, _Pour et Contre_, p. 113.
+
+[80] It has been my desire to give in this place the result of the
+personal experience of a large number of men anxious to know the truth;
+above all to reply to ignorant journalists who invite their readers to
+indulge in supercilious scorn of these researches and experimenters. At
+the very moment when I was correcting the proofs of these last pages I
+received a journal, _Le Lyon républicain_, of the 25th of January, 1907,
+which has for its leading article a quite preposterous diatribe against me
+signed "Robert Estienne." The performance shows that the author does not
+know what he is talking about nor the man of whom he is treating.
+
+There is evidently no reason in the nature of things why the city of Lyons
+should be more disposed to error than any other point on the globe. But
+mark the coincidence: I received, at the same time, a number of
+_L'Université catholique_, of Lyons, in which a certain Abbé Delfour
+speaks of "supernatural contemporary facts" without understanding a word
+of the subject.
+
+No, the trouble is not with the city of Lyons merely. There are blind
+people everywhere. You can read a dissertation _ejusdem farinæ_, signed by
+the Jesuit Lucien Roure, in _Les Études religieuses_, published at Paris,
+with critical judgments worthy of a traveling salesman.
+
+In this connection, you can read in the _Nouveau Catèchisme du diocèse de
+Nancy_: "Q. What must we think of the demonstrated facts of Spiritualism,
+somnambulism, and magnetism?--A. We must attribute them to the devil, and
+it would be a sin to take part in them in any way whatever."
+
+[81] Newton, as is well known, declares, in his letter to Bentley, that he
+can only explain gravitation by supposing the existence of a medium which
+transmits it. Yet, to our senses, the ether would not be a material thing.
+But, however that may be, celestial bodies do certainly act at a distance
+one upon another.
+
+[82] The initiated know that according to this doctrine the terrestrial
+human being is composed of five entities: the physical body; the ethereal
+double, a little less gross, surviving the first for some time; the astral
+body, still more subtile; the mental body, or intelligence, surviving the
+three preceding; and finally the Ego, or indestructible soul.
+
+[83] These observations may be compared with a little social diversion
+which is rather popular, and is particularly described in one of the first
+works of Sir David Brewster (_Letters to Walter Scott upon Natural Magic_)
+in the following terms:
+
+"The heaviest person of the company lies down on two chairs, the shoulders
+resting on one and the legs on the other. Four persons, one at each
+shoulder and one at each foot, try to lift him, and at first find the
+thing difficult to do. Then the subject of the experiments gives two
+signals by clapping his hands twice. At the first signal, he and the four
+others inhale deeply. When the five persons are full of air he gives the
+second signal, which is for the lifting. This takes place without the
+least difficulty, as if the person lifted were as light as a feather."
+
+I have frequently performed the same experiment upon a man in a sitting
+posture by placing two fingers under his legs and two under his arm-pits,
+the operators inhaling all together uniformly.
+
+This is undoubtedly a case of biological action. But what is the essential
+nature of gravitation? Faraday regarded it as an "electro-magnetic" force.
+Weber explains the movement of the planets around the sun by
+"electro-dynamism." The tails of comets, always turned away from the sun,
+indicate a solar repulsion coincident with the attraction. We know no more
+to-day than in the time of Newton what gravitation really is.
+
+[84] It is not indispensable, even in certain cases in which it seems to
+be so. Let us take an example. At a séance in Genoa (1906), with Eusapia,
+M. Youriévich, general secretary of the Psychological Institute of Paris,
+besought the spirit of his father, who asserted that he was present before
+him in ghostly form, to give him a proof of identity by producing in the
+clay an impression of his hand, and above all of a finger the nail of
+which was long and pointed. The request was made in Russian, which the
+medium did not understand. Now this impression was sure enough obtained
+several months after, with the mark of the nail referred to. Does this
+fact prove that the soul of the father of the experimenter actually
+performed the act with his hand? No. The medium received the mental
+suggestion for producing the phenomenon, and did in fact produce it. The
+Russian language did not make any difference. The suggestion was received.
+Besides, the hand was much smaller than that of the man whose spirit was
+evoked.
+
+The experimenter next asks his deceased father to give him his blessing,
+and he perceives a hand which makes the sign of the cross before him (in
+the Russian style, the three fingers together) upon the forehead, the
+breast, and the two sides. The same explanation is applicable here.
+
+It was a mistake to say that this ghost and his son conversed together in
+the Russian tongue, as the published account said. M. Youriévich only
+heard some unintelligible sounds. People always exaggerate, and these
+exaggerations work the greatest possible harm to the truth. Why amplify?
+Is there not enough of the unknown in these mysterious phenomena?
+
+[85] In certain countries (Canada, Colorado), a gas-jet can be lighted by
+holding out the finger toward it.
+
+[86] See what I formerly wrote on this subject in _Lumen_, in _Uranie_, in
+_Stella_, and in my _Discours sur l'unité de force et l'unité de
+substance_, published in _l'Annuaire du Cosmos_, for 1865.
+
+[87] _The Human Personality_, p. 11.
+
+[88] _Id._, p. 23.
+
+[89] _Id._, p. 63.
+
+[90] _The Human Personality_, p. 313.
+
+[91] _The Subconscious Nature_, p. 82.
+
+[92] See my remarks in _The Unknown_, pp. 290-294.
+
+[93] See _Bulletin of the Psychological Institute_, Vol. I. pp. 25-40.
+
+[94] Quite recently I saw an account of some phenomena which rather plead
+in its favor than otherwise (_Bulletin of the Society for Psychical
+Studies of Nancy_, Nov.-Dec., 1906). Out of the eleven instances
+mentioned, the first and the second may have been taken from a cyclopedia,
+the third and the fourth from public journals; but, in the case of the
+seven others, the admission of the identity of apparitions with the
+originals they purported to represent is surely the best explanatory
+hypothesis.
+
+[95] As a forestalling of judgment on what is yet to be demonstrated, the
+word "medium" is a wholly improper term. It takes it for granted that the
+person endowed with these supra-normal psychic faculties is an
+intermediary between the spirits and the experimenters. Now while we may
+admit that this is sometimes the case, it is certainly not always so. The
+rotation of a table, its tipping, its levitation, the displacement of a
+piece of furniture, the inflation of a curtain, noises heard--all are
+caused by a force emanating from this protagonist of the company, or from
+their collective powers. We cannot really suppose that there is always a
+spirit present ready to respond to our fancies. And the hypothesis is so
+much the less necessary since the pretended spirits do not impart any new
+facts to us. For the greater part of the time, it is undoubtedly our own
+psychic force that is acting. The chief personage and principal actor in
+these experiments would be more accurately called a _dynamogen_, since he
+(or she) creates force. It seems, to me that this would be the best term
+to apply in this case. It expresses that which is proved by all the
+observations.
+
+I have known mediums very proud of their title, and sometimes found them a
+bit jealous of their fellows. They were convinced that they had been
+chosen by Saint Augustine, Saint Paul, and even Jesus Christ. They
+believed in the grace of the Most High and claimed (not without reason
+too) that, coming from other hands, these signatures were to be suspected.
+There is no sense in these rivalries.
+
+[96] See the _Complete Works of the Emperor Julian_, Paris, 1821. Vol. I.
+p. 375.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Footnote 73 is incomplete in the original text.
+
+The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
+letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mysterious Psychic Forces, by Camille Flammarion
+
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