On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
that the general public are as incapable of correctly writing down what they hear as of correctly describing what they see ? I can only say for myself , that I wrote down what I heard , exactly as I heard it j that whenever a question was repeated ( and that was not often ) it was repeated in the same words ; that no observations of any kind intervened between the questions and answers in the part of the interrogatory which produced the most astounding results ; and that no interference , by word , look , or gesture , proceeded from any of the audience—for the simple reason , that none , of them knew whether the answers were right or wrong . ' I know all this just as well as I know that 1 am writing to you at the present moment .
2 . Now let us examine the questions taken down under these circumtances . We will only revert to two of them , in order to save time and space . But , for the sake of the point at issue between us , we will select the two questions which elicited the most marvellous answers , and one of which I know to have been immediately followed by the answer . They are these , ( I quote from my fifth letter ) : — " Q . How many people were seated at table ? A . ( given directly ) Seven , ( right ) . Q . How many ladies and how many gentlemen ? A . ( after a pause of perfect silence ) Four gentlemen and three ladies , ( right ) " First recapitulating the circumstance , that
these questions referred to a breakfast-party at Pans , given while the clairvoyante was at a watering-place in Somersetshire ; and that we knew , by every human means of knowledge , that no hint of the party , or of any matter connected with it , had been communicated to her , or to any one about her , —first recapitulating this , let me ask whether the two questions quoted are , in any sense of the word , " leading questions ? " and whether they are not , on the contrary , studiously confined to the simplest , baldest form of interrogatory ? If you believe that from such questions any guess could be formed by anybody ^ of what the required answer ought to be , I have been wasting my time in writing this letter ; but I know you don't .
Having done with the '' leading question" part of your explanation , let us get on to your notion that " anxious expressions , intonations , and the hundred suggestions of voice * and manner , " had something to do in producing the answers that we heard . If , by e ' anxious expressions , " you mean , expressions in words , the questions , as they stand , dispose of that hypothesis ; if you mean expression by look , I should like to know your idea of the " look" which can so eloquently accompany the question , " how many people were seated at tahle ? " as to inform the questioned person ( previously in a state of total ignorance on the subject ) that the right
answer was " seven ? " Or , if you would rather not tell me about the " look , " perhaps you will inforunne how an " intonation of voice" accompanying the same question , would be able to produce the same effect ? I should like to hear you sound that "intonation , " some day , after dinner , when we are in a comfortable state for judging of it , —say after a bottle of port apiece . The celebrated Irish echo , which , when a traveller says " How d'ye do ? " always replies , " Pretty well , thank ye , " would be nothing to the " intonation !" As for my friend's " manner" helping the clairvoyante , —I wish you had seen it ! He sat with both his hands on the elbows of her chair all the
time , certainly " suggesting" nothing in that direction . His face , whenever I looked at it ^ and that was pretty often , ) always wore the same expression of rigid attention , —nothing more ; and he plied his interrogatories with as much coolness and deliberation as if he had been a practised hand . But , let his manner have been any manner you like , if—accompanying the two questions I have quoted—it could have helped to betray what the answers ought to be , then , assuredly , one of the easiest stage-directions ever given to an actor , is that renowned direction in the old melodrama : — " Here the miser leans against the side-scene , and grows generous . "
3 . If you have any doubt whether our friend could be quite certain that m selecting the subject for experiment he was testing the clairvoyante as you tested her , " when she knew nothing of the case , and when her operator knew nothing , " and I may add , when nobody present , and nobody not present connected with the magnetizer or his family circle , knew anything either- ^ I refer you first , to our friend himself ; and secondly , to the statement of the matter contained in my fifth letter . In both cases you will find the evidence as clear and direct as evidence can possibly be .
And now I have done . If after this you still believe that , because your experiment failed , there must necessarily have been some failure in our experiment which we could not detect , I must give up all hope of convincing you . But why then did my experiment fail ? you will say . I again refer you to my letters . You will find failures faithfully reported there ; and yon will find the magnetizer himself quoted as saying , that what he suc-C e m at or » e time , he did not succeed in at another . Ho has failed in your ease—ho succeeded with us : he has succeeded with dozens of other L ° * ? mny yct sucoee < l with you , in the manner and under the cirmstanccs
^ which you would imagine least likely to produce success , In a co t U tim ° * Writ ° this lcttev > ( my last ) not with any wish t " 6 enter into % * r ° . V ^ ' 8 y OI \ tlie gcnerft * subject of clairvoyance , but simply to vindicate « xn }™ ex I ) cril « cnt to which you have referred in your letter , as a genuine that 1 ™ ° ?** aml tO try atl < l slvow you ' clear stTftightforwaru evidence , niisl n ^ In ysellf were mot duped by our own imaginations—not < 'verv T 7 clcccl ) tion of our own senses—and not unmindful of using and , > 088 . ca"tion , as well as of raising every fair difficulty in selecting prosecuting our test of the merits of clairvoyance . March 29 tlK W . W . C .
Untitled Article
BIRDS . Once in my vernal youth I stood , In the green shadow of a wood , Beneath the breeze and open sky , And ever as the evening fell , More darkly over heath arid dell , Saw the benighted birds go by . Ah , gentle birds ! I said , your nest Receives you soon to dewy rest ; G fly , kind birds , into my hand ! Some darling bird with light brown wings , That solely for one darling sings , And yet delights the listening land . O beat within this hand of mine , Beat on my breast ; and feeling thine , O winged love , I'll rest content : 0 wanderer wild , be tame with me , As I am tame ; and I shall be Most happy and most innocent . So in my vernal days I said , "With lifted hand and straining head , That looked into the darkening sky . But never , never bird would come ; Each found a fairer , dearer home , And ever , ever hurried by . So in my summer days I said , To birds more dear to heart and head , That wandered glittering through the land . But all my praying was no good , My longing was not understood , 1 hold no bird within my hand . M .
Untitled Article
SUM ME E DATS . In summer , when the days were long , We walked together in the wood ; Our heart was light , our step was strong , „ Sweet flutterings were there in our blood , In summer , when the days were long . We strayed from morn till evening came , We gathered flowers , and wove us crowns ; We walked ' mid poppies red as flame , Or sat upon the yellow downs , And always wished our life the same . In summer , when the days were long , We leapt the hedgerow , crost the brook ; And still her voice flowed forth in song , Or else she read some graceful book , In summer , when the days were long . And then we sat beneath the trees , With shadows lessening in the noon ; And in the sunlight and the breeze We feasted , many a gorgeous June , While larks were singing o ' er the leas . In summer , when the days were long , On dainty chicken , snow-white bread , We feasted , with , no grace but song ; We pluck ' d wild strawberries , ripe and red , In summer , when the days were long , We loved , and yet we knew it not—For loving seemed like breathing , then- — We found a heaven in every spot , Saw angels , too , in all good men , And dreamt of God in grove and grot . In summer , when the days are long , Alone I wander , muse alone ; I see her not , but that old song , Under the fragrant wind is blown , In summer , when the days are long ., Alone I wander in the wood , ' . , , But one fair spirit hears my sigha ; And half I see , so gJ < ul and good , The honest daylight of her eyes , That charmed me under earlier skies . In summer , when the days are long , I lovo her as wo loved of old ; My heart is light , my step is strong—For love brings back those hours of gold * In summer , when the days are long . M .
Untitled Article
April 8 , 1852 ] THE IiEADEB . 329
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1852, page 329, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1929/page/21/
-