25: 



NATURE AND MAN. 



side of a large loo table supported on a pedestal springing from 

 three spreading feet, and left it resting on only two of its feet, 

 with its surface at an angle of about 45°. Having been admitted 

 to this seafice under a promise of non-interference, I waited until 

 its conclusion ; and then, going over to the table, set it up and 

 left it in the same position. For I had observed, when this was 

 done by the "medium," that the edge of the broad claw of each 

 foot, and the edge of its castor, bore on the ground together, so 

 as to afford a base which, though narrow, was sufficient for the 

 table to rest on, its weight happening to be balanced when thus 

 tilted half over. Several persons of great general intelligence 

 who were present at this seance (Mr. Robert Chambers among 

 the rest), assured me that if it had not been for my exposure of 

 this trick, they should have gone away in the belief that the 

 table was sustained by " spiritual " influence, as in no other way 

 could they suppose it to have kept its position against the force 

 of gravity. 



5. So strong was the impression made by the rope-tying and 

 other performances of the Davenport Brothers, about twenty 

 years ago, upon those who were already prepossessed in favour 

 of their "spiritualistic" claims, that I was pressed by men of 

 distinguished position to become a member of a committee for 

 their " scientific " investigation. Having a strong prepossession, 

 however, in favour of the common-sense view that these per- 

 formances were but the tricks of not very clever jugglers, and 

 learning that this inquiry was to take place in a darkened room, 

 and that the members of the committee must form a circle with 

 joined hands, I at once declined to have anything to do with it; 

 on the ground that, to exclude the use of the eyes and hands, 

 which the scientific investigator uses as his chief instruments of 

 research, was to render the inquiry utterly nugatory. Now that 

 the tricks of the Davenport Brothers have been not merely 

 imitated but surpassed by Messrs. Cooke and Maskelyne, I 

 suppose that no truly " rational " person would appeal to them as 

 evidence of " spiritual " agency. 



6. During the meeting of the British Association at Belfast 

 in 1874, a lady medium of great repute held spiritualistic 5'^a«<:^i', 

 at which she distributed flowers, affirmed to have been brought 



