290 MY LIFE [Chap. 



and exhibited similar movements. An accordion was held 

 in Lord Brougham's hand and gave out a single note, but the 

 experiment was a failure; it would not play either in his 

 hand or mine. 



"A small hand-bell was then laid down with its mouth 

 on the carpet, and after lying for some time it actually rang 

 when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed 

 on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me 

 and placed itself in my hand. It did the same to L ord Brougham. 



" These were the principal experiments ; we could give no 

 explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be 

 produced by any kind of mechanism. Hands are sometimes 

 seen and felt, the hand often grasps another, and melts away 

 as it were under the grasp. 



" The object of asking Lord Brougham and me seems to 

 have been to get our favourable opinion of the exhibition, 

 but though neither of us can explain what we saw, we do not 

 believe that it was the work of idle spirits." 



I have italicized certain passages in this early letter to 

 compare with the corresponding parts of the letters Sir 

 David wrote to the Morning Advertiser about half a year 

 later, and it will be seen that the discrepancies are very 

 serious. He told the public that he had satisfied himself 

 that all could have been done by human hands and feet ; 

 whereas in his earlier private letter he terms them unaccount- 

 able, and says that he could not conjecture how they were done. 

 Neither did he tell the public of the tremulous motion up his 

 arms, while he denied that the bell rang at all, though he had 

 before said that it actually rang where nothing could have 

 touched it. 



If this case stood alone it would not, perhaps, be worth 

 mentioning, but a similar tendency has prevailed in all the 

 scientific opponents of spiritualism, one example of which I 

 have given in the case of Mr. Lewes's declaration that he had 

 forced Mrs. Hayden to avow herself an impostor, whereas 

 what happened really proved that Mrs. Hayden herself did 

 not consciously give the answers to his questions. 



One of the eminent men with whom I became acquainted 



