PSYCHICAL RESEARCH OF THE CENTURY. ()77 



ward ca.s(^s of pi-emoiiitoi-y di-euin.s and tolepathic incid(mt8, which 

 they professed to be unable to explain away. The subjects of a cer- 

 tain Major Buckley (1S4()-1S5()) were deemed to be peculiarly clair- 

 voyant, and the anecdotes, in one or two cases, have good evidence. 

 The case of "Queen Mary^s Jewels'' (criticised in my ^'Book of 

 Dreams and Ghosts -) has, at all events, romantic historical interest. 

 In 1848 a very old set of l)eliefs was moved into new life. The noises 

 and disturbances in the family of the Foxes at Hydeville were only 

 a link in an historic chain of similar alleged occurrences. They are 

 of rather luore than dubious authenticity, liut they were the heg-imiino- 

 of modern "Spiritualism," with nmnberless impostures. The chief 

 thaumaturge and prophet of the movement was Daniel Dunglas Home 

 (his palmy years were 1855-1S65), who had a singular career of social 

 and magical successes in the courts and literary society of Europe. 

 Few feats of savage, or Neoplatonic, or saintly wonder-workers were 

 absent from his repertoire, and living men of the highest eminence in 

 physical science are still wholl}' unable to explain what they saw of 

 his performances. I have known but one case in which, on first-hand 

 evidence, imposture was attributed to him. But a jury practically 

 found him guilty of cajoling a silly old woman out of her money. 

 That is the blot on Home's escutcheon; for the rest, the great mass of 

 unpul)lished letters to him from mau}^ distinguished correspondents 

 attest his inexplica))le success. He was not a clever man, and. had he 

 not l)een a "medium," would have been a reciter and musician of the 

 drawing-room. Other "mediums" on the same lines have been 

 nunun-ous; few, if any, professionals have escaped exposure. Mean- 

 while, the theory of the feats, that they are caused by "spirits," is 

 now almost conlined to the half educated. 



Much, at this time, was Avritten about "table turning." This is a 

 form of automatism familiar to most savage races. A person, or 

 persons, touch a table, a stick, a pencil, or what not; the thing moves 

 under no conscious muscular action of theirs, and gives responses to 

 questions by its movements, in a variety of ways. These responses 

 are sometimes correct, though unknown to the operators. Dr. Car- 

 penter explained these things by a theory of "unconscious cerebra- 

 tion." Every one will admit that many things are registered in the 

 mind of whicb the ordinary consciousness is not aware. Many thmgs 

 once present to consciousness are forgotten. Again, a person speaks 

 to you when vour mind is engaged. You know nothing, consciously, 

 of what has been said, yet it is registered in the brain. The theory, 

 then, is that the "unconscious," or "subliminal," or -subconscious" 

 self expresses its knowledge through unconsciously exerted nuiscular 

 movements. But the phenomena were often ascribed to tli.> action of 

 "spirits" The philosophy of the unconscious, or subconscious, 

 studied by Kant and brought to England by Sir William Hamilton, 



