366 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



The question is, how is it to be tested as to which 

 source it must be referred ? 



In the case of the person (a lady) to whom I refer, 

 the hand-writin^fT is not at all like hers. The formation 

 of the letters is quite different, often very quaint, as in 

 making little spirals or helices at the bottom of capital 

 letters ; or by beginning the circle of round letters as a, 

 0, g, etc., from left to right and then reversing it suddenly. 



Sometimes a word is spelt wrongly, a few letters only 

 being made ; the hand stops, pauses as if for reflection, 

 then begins again to spell the word rightly. A sentence 

 may be half written when the writer stops, dashes a line 

 to a distance and writes no more.^ 



Sometimes it shows humour. It wrote a sentence 

 very minutely; the lady said: "Why do you write so 

 small?" It immediately went on in a large childish 

 round hand. Such replies as " Don't be so inquisitive," 

 " Be patient," etc., come after questions, etc., etc. 



The subject-matter of the sentences often differs toto 

 ccelo from the lady's ordinary mental characteristics. 

 Thus, for example, when her second daughter was married 

 her hand wrote : " My word, you have put your foot into 

 it this time ! " I need hardly say there was nothing 

 whatever to justify this rude remark ; and it is difficult 

 to reconcile it with her own brain's automatic action ! 



On another occasion the lady asked some question 

 and the reply came, " Oh ! go to blazes ! " Could that 

 have been her own subliminal consciousness ; or the 

 subsequent communication in another hand-writing, " We 

 apologise for that rude remark " ? 



The writers'^ almost invariably say, "We"; e.g., 



1 Other " writers " have experienced this same peculiarity. 



2 There are several distinguishable by the various kinds of expres- 

 sions, etc. 



