VIII.] Table-Tippers. 127 



to protect his own pockets and the heads of his 

 dupes with asbestos cloth, without attracting notice. 

 Such a proceeding would require far less sl<:ill than 

 those of professional magicians, like Hermann or 

 Houdin, in comparison with whose truly wonderful 

 achievements the best performances of spiritualists 

 are not for a moment worthy to be named. 



Still keeping to Mr. Home, his famous trick of 

 " levitation," or appearing to float through the air 

 •out of one third-story window into another, seems 

 partly to illustrate the eff"ects of intense expectation 

 ,in producing ^^hallucination, partly to show us for the 

 thousandth time how little unsifted human testimony 

 is worth ; for on one occasion, while two " respectable 

 witnesses " were sure that they saw the great " me- 

 dium " come saihng feet foremost through the 

 window, their less gullible companion was equally 

 positive that the levitating gentleman was sitting 

 quietly in his arm-chair all the while! Nothing is 

 more common than for us to be told what people 

 of undoubted veracity have seen. For my own part, 

 if I were to answer frankly in such cases, I should 

 take my cue from a celebrated naturalist whose friend 

 was recounting to him a miraculous shower of frogs 

 from the sky. " It is fortunate," said he, " that you 

 have seen it, for now I can believe it. If I had seen 



