FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



expected to adhere, and that any departure from 

 them is to be rather deprecated than otherwise. 

 A friend once said to me, "As a man, I believe in 

 divining ; as a scientist, I can't." 



Many theories have been set up to account 

 for the phenomenon by those who have a belief 

 in it. Some attribute it to electricity, others to 

 magnetism, whilst some cherish the idea that it 

 is an altogether new force which, if its origin 

 and conditions could be traced out, would prove 

 of vast utility and importance to mankind. The 

 faculty possessed by some animals of scenting 

 water a considerable distance off may be worth 

 remembering when we begin to theorize. 



Premising, of course, that no claim to super- 

 natural power is, or can be, set up by those who 

 possess the divining gift, to what preliminary 

 conclusions does the evidence seem to point : 



1. That some persons are distinctly influ- 

 enced by the presence of water or metal. 



2. That this is not due to any law universally 

 applicable to all persons alike, but to some law 

 operation of which is dependent upon certain 

 exceptional conditions in the individual. 



3. That it is the physical rather than the 

 mental organization that is affected. 



Some years ago I laid the evidence I had 

 collected upon the subject before a meeting of 

 the Bath Field Club, when some additional infor- 

 mation of a remarkable and significant character 

 was furnished by several members from their 

 own experience. The general conclusion arrived 

 at was that water divining was no myth, but a 

 real power possessed by certain individuals. 



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