almost unanimous in their opinion that my proposed test was a fair one, and such as they wished to see tried, M. Lassaigne well knew that it was too certain and obvious a mode of testing to answer his purpose, and, therefore, under various pretexts, and in a most rude manner, he absolutely refused to try it. I therefore withdrew from the platform and left the room, feeling the force of the remark,- Ex uno disce omnes.' "1

And so it always proves in the end with these sham marvels; which, however specious they may appear at a distance, vanish under critical investigation like the mirage of the desert on nearer approach. The real marvels of Science, on the other hand, not only stand the test of the most critical examination, but prove more marvellous the more thoroughly they are investigated. Reason, it has well been said, can guide where Imagination scarcely dares to follow. And those who desire to find a true spring at which to slack their thirst for knowledge, need only follow the guidance of the Spectroscope and the Radiometer, to be led to wonders of which neither the 'Poughkeepsie Seer,' the 'Seeress of Prevorst,' nor any other of the reputed 'prophets' of Mesmerism or Spiritualism had ever dreamed.

My anxiety to impress on you the lessons which (as it seems to me) such exposures ought to afford in regard to the object of our present enquiry, leads me to ask your further attention to two other cases; in each of which a number of apparent successes of a most remarkable kind were obtained by what was subse

1 See Braid on Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magn tism, Hypnotism, and Electro-Biology, 1852; p. 115.

quently shown to have been an ingenious fraud, practised upon the honest patron of the performer, who was (like M. Houblier) his unsuspecting dupe.

In the course of his further search for clairvoyance, Dr. Forbes was requested by a legal gentleman whom he calls Mr. A. B., to witness the performances of a copying clerk in his employ, by name George Goble; whom he stated to be capable, in a large proportion of cases, of reading printed words enclosed in opaque boxes, without either mistake or preliminary guessing. Being at that time in the country, I did not accompany Dr. Forbes in his repeated visits to Mr. A. B.'s chambers; but I well remember his writing to me in some excitement after the first of them, that at last he seemed to have got hold of a genuine case of clairvoyance. He soon, however, recovered his equanimity and his scepticism; and felt that he must make a much more thorough enquiry, before he could be justified in accepting the case as genuine. George's 'dodge' consisted (as was subsequently proved) in furtively opening the box or other envelope, so as to get a peep at its contents, whilst sitting or lying face-downwards on a sofa; and in managing to conceal his having done so, by tearing open the box at the moment he proclaimed the word: his failures occurring when the box was so secured that he could not succeed in opening it, after manœuvring (it might be) for half an hour or more. Finding that in every one of George's successes the envelope might have been opened, whilst all the cases in which the boxes had certainly not been opened were complete failures-a consideration which, though

very obvious, seemed never to have suggested itself to the legal mind of George's patron-Dr. Forbes and Professor Sharpey (whom he had taken into council) devised a simple counter-dodge,' by which it should be rendered impossible for George to open the box for the purpose of reading the contained word, without the detection of his trick. This entirely succeeded; George was brought upon his knees and confessed his roguery, but protested that it was his first offence. You would scarcely credit the fact if it had not been self-recorded, that George's patron still continued to believe in his clairvoyant power; accepting his assurance that he had only had recourse to trickery when the genuine power failed him, and requesting Dr. Forbes to give him another trial. This Dr. F. consented to make, upon the sole condition that a small sealed box, containing a single word printed in large type, should be returned to him unopened with the word written upon the outside of it. Some days elapsed before George's 'lucidity' recovered from the shock of the exposure; but his master then informed Dr. F. that he had read the word IMPLEMENTS, or, as he spelled it, impelments, with great assurance of correctness. This, however, proving altogether wrong, the box was left in Mr. A. B.'s hands for a further space of two months; and no second guess having been then made, the real word was disclosed by Dr. F. to be OBJECTIONS.

The history of this enquiry, as detailed by Dr. Forbes,' brings into the strongest contrast the patient

Illustrations of Modern Mesmerism from Personal Investigation, London (Churchill) 1845, Third Series, pp. 63-89.

and honest search for truth of the cautious sceptic, willing to be convinced if satisfactory evidence could be adduced, and the easy credulity of the enthusiastic disciple, who not only eagerly accepted a conclusion opposed to universal experience, without taking any adequate precautions against trickery, but held to that conclusion after the trick had been not only exposed but confessed. And here, again, we see how, but for the interposition of a sceptical 'expert,' a case of sham clairvoyance would have been published to the world with the same unhesitating affirmation of its genuineness, as that which now claims credit for the exercise of Psychic Force' in causing accordions to play, and heavy tables to turn round or even to rise in the air, without muscular agency.1

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In the other case I have now to mention that of Mr. Hewes' 'Jack,' publicly exhibited at Manchester about the same time that Alexis was performing in London-the proof of clairvoyance, as shown in reading when the eyes had been effectually closed, seemed as complete as it was possible to obtain. Jack's eyelids were bound down by surgeons of that town (who were assuredly not confederates) with strips of adhesive plaster, over which were placed folds of leather, which again were kept in place by other plasters; the only condition made by Mr. Hewes being that the ridges of the eyebrows should not be covered, as it was there that Jack saw when 'lucid.' The results were truly surprising; there was no guessing, no need of prompting, no failure; 'Jack' read off, without the

1 See Serjeant Cox's letter in the Spectator, Nov. 11, 1876.

least hesitation, everything that was presented to him. The local newspapers were full of this new wonder ; and no documentary testimony in favour of clairvoyance could possibly be more conclusive. But, as usual, the marvel would not stand the test of close examination. A young Manchester surgeon, who had been experimenting upon himself, gave a public exhibition of his power of reading when his eyes had been made up' in precisely the same manner as 'Jack's,' and by the same gentlemen; the means he adopted being simply to work the muscles of his face, until he so far loosened the plasters as to obtain a crevice through which he could read by looking upwards. Mr. Hewes, who witnessed this performance, readily agreed that 'Jack' should be further tested; and it was settled, en petite comité, that after protecting his eyelashes with narrow strips of plaster, his eyelids should be covered with a thick coating of shoemaker's wax, leaving the superciliary ridges free. When this was done (not without considerable resistance on the part of 'Jack,' only kept under by the influence of his patron) the clairvoyant power was completely annihilated; but one thing 'Jack' plainly saw, even with his eyes shutthat 'his little game was up.' His patron, a gentleman of independent fortune, who had become an active propagandist of the belief he had honestly embraced, returned all the money which had been received for Jack's' performances, and 'Jack' withdrew into private life.

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Now I readily concede that neither the detection of 'Jack' and George Goble, nor the failure of Alexis