32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Then the Table-tilting came up. It was found that the table 

 would tilt in obedience to the directions of some spirit, who was in the 

 first instance (I speak now of about twenty years ago) always believed 

 to be an evil spirit. The table-tilting first developed itself in Bath, un- 

 der the guidance of some clergymen thei*e, who were quite satisfied 

 that the tiltings of the table were due to the presence of evil spirits. 

 And one of these clergymen went farther, and said that it was Satan 

 himself. But it was very curious that the answers obtained by the 

 rappings and tiltings of the tables always followed the notions of the 

 persons who put the questions. These clergymen always got these 

 answers as from evil spirits, or satisfied themselves that they were evil 

 spirits by the answers they got. But, on the other hand, other per- 

 sons got answers of a very different kind ; an innocent girl, for instance, 

 asked the table if it loved her, and the table jumped up and kissed her. 

 A gentleman who put a question to one of these tables got an extremely 

 curious answer, which affords a very remarkable illustration of the 

 principle I was developing to you in the last lecture the unconscious 

 action of the brain. He had been studying the life of Edward Young, 

 the poet, or at least had been thinking of writing it ; and the spirit of 

 Edward Young announced himself one evening, as he was sitting with 

 his sister-in-law the young lady who asked the table if it loved her. 

 Edward Young announced himself by the raps, spelling out the words 

 in accordance with the directions that the table received. He asked, 

 " Are you Young, the poet ? " " Yes." " The author of the ' Night 

 Thoughts ? ' " " Yes." " If you are, repeat a line of his poetry." And 

 the table spelled out, according to the system of telegraphy which had 

 been agreed upon, this line: 



" Man is not formed to question, but adore." 



He said, "Is this in the 'Night Thoughts?'" "No." " Where is 

 it ? " "JO B." He could not tell what this meant. He went home, 

 bought a copy of Young's works, and found that in the volume con- 

 taining Young's poems there was a poetical commentary on Job which 

 ended with that line. He was extremely puzzled at this ; but two or 

 three weeks afterward he found he had a copy of Young's works in 

 his own library, and was satisfied from marks on it that he had read 

 that poem before. I have no doubt whatever that that line had re- 

 mained in his mind, that is, in the lower stratum of it ; that it had been 

 entirely forgotten by him, as even the possession of Young's poems 

 had been forgotten ; but that it had been treasured up as it were in 

 some dark corner of his memory, and had come up in this manner, ex- 

 pressing itself in the action of the table, just as it might have come up 

 in a dream. 



These are curious illustrations, then, of the mode in which the 

 minds of individuals act when there is no cheating at all this action 

 of what we call the subjective state of the individual dominating these 



