396 Afb Attempt to Analyse the 
son was concealed within it : it will further assure them that no- 
thing can pass in the interior without their knowledge, so long as 
this door continues open. 
The drawer stands next in the order of succession : it is open- 
ed, apparently j for the purpose of taking out the chess men, cushion, 
&c. but really to allow time for the player to change his position, 
(see Fig. 5.) and to replace the false back and partition, preparatory 
to the opening of the great cupboard. 
The machinery is so thinly scattered over this cupboard, that 
the eye surveys the whole space at one glance, and it might seem 
unnecessary to open a door at the back, and to hold a lighted candle 
there, as in the former instance ; but the artifice is dictated by sound 
policy, which teaches that the exhibitor cannot be too assiduous in 
affording facilities to explore every corner and recess, which, he well 
knows, contains nothing that he is desirous of concealing. 
The chest may now be wheeled round for the purpose of shew- 
ing the trunk of the figure ; leaving, however, the front doors of the 
great chamber open. The bunch of keys, too, should be suffered to 
remain in the door (D) ; for the apparent carelessness of such a pro- 
ceeding will serve to allay any suspicion which the circumstance of 
locking the door (B) might have excited, more especially as the tv/o 
doors resemble one another in point of construction. 
“ When the drapery has been lifted up, and the doors in the 
trunk and thigh opened, the chest may be returned to its former si- 
tuation, and the doors be closed. In the mean time the player 
should withdraw his legs from behind the drawer, as he will not so 
easily effect this movement after the drawer has been pushed in. 
Here let us pause a while, and compare the real state of the 
chest at this time, with the impression which, at a similar period of 
an exhibition of the Chess Player, has generally been left on the 
minds of the spectators ; the bulk of whom have concluded that 
each part of the chest had been successively exposed ; and that the 
whole was at that time open to inspection : whereas, on the con- 
trary, it is evident that some parts had been entirely withheld from 
view, others but obscurely shewn, and that nearly half of the chest 
was then excluded from their sight. Hence we learn how easily, 
in matters of this sort, the judgment may be led astray by an artful 
combination of circumstances, each assisting the other towards the 
attainment of one object. 
“ When the doors in front have been closed, the exhibitor may 
occupy as much time as he finds necessary, in apparently adjusting 
the machinery at the back, whilst the player is taking the position 
described in Figs. 7* and 8. In this position he will find no diffi- 
culty in executing every movement required of the automaton : his 
head being above the table, he will see the chess-board through the 
waistcoat as easily as through a veil ; and his left hand extending 
beyond the elbow of the figure, he will be enabled to guide its hand 
to any part of the board, and to take up and let go a chess man with 
no other delicate mechanism” than a string communicating with 
the finger. Flis right hand being within the chest, may serve to 
keep in motion the contrivance for producing the noise, which is 
