368 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



moment — " Mending the hood," came the reply. He 

 had the curiosity to ask the carriage-builder if that was 

 true. It proved to be quite wrong. On the next occasion 

 he asked why the writer had told him wrong. The reply 

 came very deliberately — " F-O-O-L ! " The gentleman 

 asked no more questions. 



Another gentleman well-known in the horticultural 

 world told me that a " spirit " said on one occasion — " X 

 is dead, you will hear by the next mail from America". 

 He had no idea that his relative (X) was even ill. He 

 dated the paper and showed it to the late Dr. Hogg, who 

 corroborated the fact to me. On the day when the mail 

 was due, a black-edged envelope arrived at breakfast time. 

 He told me : " I handed it to my wife saying, ' you need 

 not open that ; X is dead. I knew it some time ago.' " 

 It proved to be true. 



Another curious instance was the following : A party 

 of young people were amusing themselves one evening 

 with planchette. The pencil wrote, " Jack will be here 

 to-night". This caused great amusement because Jack 

 was in India, or thought to be. But within half an hour 

 " Jack " walked into the room ! 



The following account of a "communication" by 

 automatic handwriting is given by Sir Horace Rumbold, 

 Bart., in his work Recollections of a Diplomatist} It oc- 

 curred at the house of the American minister " Governor " 

 Curtin, as told by himself to Sir Horace : " At the very 

 eve of the great war, he was hard at work one day in the 

 government offices at Philadelphia, when he was told 

 that a person wished to speak to him on important busi- 

 ness. Although very busy, he consented to see the 

 applicant for a few minutes. The man ushered in was 

 unknown to him, apparently in [)oor circumstances, 



^ Vol. ii., page 286. 



