VENTRILOQUISM EXPLAINED. 167 



that the sound had a special reference to him 

 alone, operated upon his imagination, and he did 

 not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence 

 of the mysterious sound produced a superstitious 

 feeling at the moment. Many months afterwards 

 it was found that the sound arose from the partial 

 opening of the door of a wardrobe which was 

 within a few feet of the gentleman's head, and 

 which had been taken into the other apartment. 

 This wardrobe was almost always opened before 

 he retired to bed, and the door being a little too 

 tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort 

 of dull sound, resembling the note of a drum. 

 As the door had only started half an inch out of 

 its place, its change of position never attracted 

 attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come 

 in a different direction, and from a greater dis- 

 tance. 



When sounds so mysterious in their origin are 

 heard by persons predisposed to a belief in the 

 marvellous, their influence over the mind must 

 be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, 

 if it is made at all, will be made more in the hope 

 of confirming than of removing the original im- 

 pression, and the unfortunate victim of his own 

 fears will also be the willing dupe of his own 

 judgment. 



This uncertainty with respect to the direction 

 of sound is the foundation of the art of ventrilo- 

 quism. If we place ten men in a row at such a 

 distance from us that they are included in the 

 angle within which we cannot judge of the 

 direction of sound, and if in a calm day each of 

 them speaks in succession, we shall not be able 

 with closed eyes to determine from which of the 



