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    marvel ; the writer , although he will not own himself convinced , emphatically declares that it is not an imposture . Our conviction was that a more barefaced and ignoble imposture had never been attempted ; and for that conviction we had irresistible proof . If this seems paradoxical—if I can say on the one hand that W . R / s report was an admirable one , and yet on the other that it was profoundly and essentially false in the conclusion to which it pointed—the paradox will only be one to those unaccustomed to sift evidence , and unacquainted with the worthlessness of " reported cases /*

    I will add to the paradox by saying that while the imposture is flagrant , there is nothing wonderful in its success . I am not astonished at any person ' s credulity . A man goes to a seance perfectly incredulous . He is staggered by the revelation of facts which it is absolutely impossible the Medium could know , facts perhaps known only to himself . The revelation is made to him in answer to a question thought , not spokenj no one knows the question but himself , no one knows the answer ; yet the answer is accurate ! Is it not marvellous ? Can it be a trick ? . From that moment the astonished questioner is a devout believer . And yet in the face of hundreds of such experiences I pronounce the Rapping a flagrant , a transparent trick : but to see through it you must be on your guard .

    Before I had witnessed these " astounding phenomena , " I had formed an hypothesis of the whole process , which turned out to be accurate . It did not seem in the least surprising to me that the questioner should be correctly answered , even when asking questions mentally , of which no living soul but his own knew the answer . I invariably said : " The cause of your delusion is that you direct your attention to the thing said , and not to the way in which it is said . Whatever the trick may be , it will be just as easy to answer a question of one kind as of another—the nature of the question

    has nothing to do with it . If you ask where your grandfather died , his death being a mystery to the whole world , the answer is as easy as if you ask where Napoleon died ; because as it is you who really give the answer , not the Medium , what you have in your mind is what will turn out to be the answer . You assure me solemnly that you do not tell the Medium anything ; I declare unequivocally that you do . It is the same in cases of Clairvoyance : you tell all , and fancy you are told . " You do not tell it in so many words , but unconsciously y ou are made to communicate the very thing you believe is communicated to you . "

    This reasoning , it is needless to say , had very little acceptance , it is stated here as an introduction to , and an explanation of the experiments I made . I had formed an hypothesis , and according to that hypothesis I framed certain traps into which the Medium would infallibly fall if my supposition were correct ; the hypothesis and the traps I explained to certain friends before the experiment was made , and the result not only fully confirmed expectation , but showed what was certainly not anticipated—viz ., that the trick was a miserably poor one—I thought it would be a good trick ,

    such as the " Magic chair , " " Magic wand , " " Mysterious lady , " or any of the clever conjuring tricks , whereas it really is dependent for its success on nothing but the amazing and active credulity of the audience . This is the conclusion of the writer in the Household Words , whose account is accurate , except perhaps in the explanation given of the " raps , " which is said to be made by the toes . The writer , however , laid no traps for Mrs . Hayden ( the Medium ) , he did not select " crucial instances . " I did ; and you shall presently learn what they were .

    Our party comprised Mr . and Mrs . Masters , Sir William , Mr . Purcell , and myself ( for obvious reasons the names given are fictitious , except my own ) . It was after dinner , and we were smoking our cigars , when the footman announced that Mrs . Hayden was in the drawing-room . We soon joined her there , and found her talking to Mrs . Masters about the " spirits , " in the most easy , familiar way—indeed , she always spoke of them without awe , but with implicit confidence—as if they had been pet

    monkeys . The conversation soon became general , as we formed a circle round the table . It of course turned upon the " Manifestations , " and Mrs . Hayden was copious in anecdotes ( adroitly mingled with aristocratic and well-known names ) of the surprising success which had attended her . At last , the rappings having announced that the ghosts were impatient to do something for the money paid , we took our cards , on which the letters of the alphabet , and the numerals from one to ten were printed , and the

    stance began . Sir William was the first . He thought of one dead . On asking whether the person he was then thinking of was present , an alacrity in rapping assured him of the fact . He took his card ; the raps were distinct ; but the letters were all wrong . He tried another spirit—again the letters indicated were wrong . He tried a third , but a third time nothing came right . I was beginning to pet anxious lest repented failures should alarm the Medium and make her give some evasive excuse ; so I suggested that Mr . Masters should try . He tried—but with the same desperate ill suejCcsh . It was now my turn . Let me pause here to remark that both Sir William and Mr . Masters were detennincd to give no clue whatever—they

    remained purely passive awaiting u result ; they passed their pencils along the alphabet with such terrible uniformity that the Medium was reduced to vague guessing , and of course in each guess it was thirty-five to one against her . This wus what I had anticipated ; but it was only negative evidence , and I was to elicit something positive . I thought of a relative of mine , and said aloud , " I should like to know if hIic is present . " Rapping answered " Yes . " Observe , the person I thought of was a real person—I was planning no trap this time , because

    the experiment was to be every way conclusive . I passed my pencil equally along the alphabet without once lingering , until after I had passed the letter J , with which her name began . Finding that I was not to have the real name , I thought I would try if I could not make the raps answer where I pleased . I chose N . Raps came ; N was written down . What name , thought I , shall it be ? Naomi or Nancy ? Before I had finally settled , my pencil had passed A , and as I saw E , I determined E should be the letter , and E was indicated . N E , of course , would do for Nelly , and Nelly was spelled ! Then came the surname , which ought to have begun with H ; but , as my pencil did not linger at H , on we passed until we came to S , 'which was indicated without any intention on my part . I had then

    to invent some name beginning with S , which was not done at once , from the very embarras de richesses , however I thought O would do , and O was indicated ; then R ; and after that I resolved the name should be Sorel . It is unnecessary to follow further thus in detail my first trial ; enough if I add that Nelly Sorel informed me she died in 1855 , leaving 6 children , 2 of whom were boys , the eldest 14—every answer being ludicrously wrong , but declared by me to be " astonishing , ' * which declaration was accepted in perfect faith by the Medium , who thought she had got one good , credulous listener at all events . That was my object—to make her fall into my trap it was necessary she should believe I was her dupe . ,

    As far as my hypothesis went it was confirmed by this conversation . I knew that it was the questioner who supplied the answer , and I made the answer turn out whatever I pleased—not , be it remembered , having that answer originally in my mind , so as to admit of any pretended " thought reading" but framing the answer according to the caprice of the moment , and invariably receiving the answer I had resolved on . Now you have only to replace acted credulity by real credulity , and the trick is explained . What I did consciously , the credulous do unconsciously . I spelled the words , so do they .. The Medium knows nothing ; she guesses according to ive ht in

    the indications you give , and only guesses right when you g rig - dications ; therefore if you ask what y ou and you alone can answer , she will answer it only on the supposition that you indicate by your manner what the answer is . But if any doubt lingers in y our mind , let this my second trial suffice . I had called up the spirit of one who did exist ; it was now time to call up one who never did exist . I asked for one of the Eumenides j the ready answer assured me of her presence ! So then I was at last in actual communication with one of the awful troupe—davfiaaroQ \ oXoe who " snore" so fearfully in CEschylus—one in whose nostrils the scent of human blood laughed , as we are

    toldo < r / x ? 7 Pporeuop alfxaTtov fie irpoayeAq . What " emendations" might I not get from her ! A bishopric was evidently within my grasp ! The result of my interview was that she died six years ago , aged 25 , leaving seven children ; facts for tho fir « t time placed at the disposal of some future Bloomfield . I called her back , subsequently , to ask her what sect she belonged to when in life , ( I asked this question audibly , not mentally—as , indeed , I had all the others ;) and the answer was , Jew . A Greek ghost

    embracing Judaism ! To show how completely the answers are made at random , when no clue is given , but only a < yes' « no' is required , here are four questions I wrote on a piece of paper , and the answers I received : — Had the ghost of Hamlet ' s father seventeen noses ? Yes . Had Semiramis ? Yes . Was Pontius Pilate an American ? No . Was he a leading tragedian ? Yes . I thought Mr . Purcell would have had a stroke of apoplexy , when 1 showed him these questions ; how he restrained the convulsion of laughter is a mvsterv !

    Let ' tne not forget , that when Mr . Purcell called up a spirit , the answers were tolerably correct , not quite , but still near enough to be curious to one unsuspicious ; he confessed afterwards , however , that he had semi-consciously assisted the Medium ; but , in his second conversation , he called up the spirit of an old family servant , who , at an advanced age , married an elderly woman , and who subsequently drowned himself . These were the questions and answers , as written down : — Does James miss his children ? Yes . ( Never had any . )

    How many had he ? Yes . How many boys ? Yes . What did he die of ? Wafer . To explain this " wafer , " it may be observed , that Mr . Purcell meant the death to be called water on the chest , which was his fallacious hint by way of an explanation of drowning ; and , when he said aloud that the word was incorrectly spelled wafer , whereas it ought to have been water on the chest , Mrs . Hayden pointed triumphantly to the accuracy , " only one letter wrong , you see ; wafer , instead of water ! " and she referred to this several times in the course of the evening .

    I have not half exhausted my stock of questions and answers written down at the time ; but the foregoing will surely suffice ; and , should they be deemed inconclusive , perhaps this one will close the question : As I had been so very successful in getting correct answers , and was evidently regarded by the spirits with singular partiality , they never declining to answer any question I put , it occurred to me to write this question on my paper , which I showed to Mr . Purcell : — Is Mrs . Hayden an impostor ?

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    262 T H E LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 12, 1853, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1977/page/22/