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He subsequently discovered that a plot had been laid by the woodranger, who coveted his farm, and who hoped to have him dispossessed by accusing him of stealing the tree." A clergyman in the diocese of Clogher gave a personal experience of table-turning to the present Dean of St. Patrick's, who kindly sent the same to the writer.
Even with the most sceptical, when the table is requested to go in a particular direction the muscles involuntarily tend thither. All the deepest analyses of scientific psychology are involved in this wretched little episode of table-turning, and it is not marvellous that the ordinary observer should perceive only the marvellous. So much for the movements. But how about the raps?
M. Benezet lived at Toulouse, in 1853; and his experiences had for their scene his own house, and that of his relations, M. and Mme. L. The affair began in table-turning and table-tilting: the tilts indicated the presence of 'spirits, which answered questions, right or wrong: under the hands of the L.'s the table became vivacious, and chased a butterfly.
Clearly the expedient of table-turning in court might be tried by conscientious witnesses, who have forgotten the circumstances on which they are asked to give evidence. As Dr. Carpenter remarks, quoting Mr. Lecky, 'our doctrine of unconscious cerebration inculcates toleration for differences not merely of belief, but of the moral standard'. And why not toleration for 'immoral' actions?
I replied quietly: "Pardon me, Mrs. James; I decline to discuss the matter. I am not interested in it." Sarah at this moment opened the door and showed in Cummings, for which I was thankful, for I felt it would put a stop to this foolish table-turning.
Here the seance was held, and no demon appeared, but a regular God of one of the first circles. So terrified was an onlooker that he crushed to death the living birds which he held in his hands for some ritual or magical purpose. It was a curious scene, a cosmopolitan confusion of Egypt, Rome, Isis, table-turning, the late Mr.
"A dead thing," he repeated. Then he went over to the spirit-stand and poured himself out more absinthe. "And you, doctor?" said Valentine. "What did you feel?" "I was thinking all the time," he said, "of other things. Not of the table or of table-turning." When he and Cuckoo left the flat that night, or rather in the chill first morning of the new year, they left Julian with Valentine.
In the Revue des Deux Mondes, for 1856, tome i., M. Littre published an article on table-turning and 'rapping spirits'. M. Littre was a savant whom nobody accused of superstition, and France possessed no clearer intellect. Yet his attitude towards the popular marvels of the day, an attitude at once singular and natural, shows how easily the greatest minds can pay themselves with words.
This is Shelley; a sentimentalist pure and simple; incapable of anything like inductive reasoning; unable to take cognisance of any facts but those which please his taste, or to draw any conclusion from them but such as also pleases his taste; as, for example, in that eighth stanza of the "Ode to Liberty," which, had it been written by any other man but Shelley, possessing the same knowledge as he, one would have called a wicked and deliberate lie but in his case, is to be simply passed over with a sigh, like a young lady's proofs of table-turning and rapping spirits.
I got such a shock that I determined never to have anything to do with table-turning again." The following extraordinary personal experience is sent by a lady, well known to the present writer, but who requests that all names be omitted. Whatever explanation we may give of it, the good faith of the tale is beyond doubt.
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