shown by a dog at the moment of a supposed apparition to his master. That the dog exhibited horror when his owner thought he saw an apparition may be readily believed. All familiar with dogs know that nothing will terrify them more than an appearance of alarm on the part of their masters without visible cause. Of the same nature is the remark concerning the mysterious disturbances at the house of the Wesleys: "The mastiff was more afraid than any of the children." The volatile imaginations of children have never shown great horror of mysteries; they were sustained, too, by confidence in their parents. But the dog heard mysterious noises which naturally greatly agitated him.
Mr. Lang closes his remarks on this part of the subject by naïvely saying, "The case of Balaam's ass is sufficiently well known." This is not pertinent. Balaam's ass, according to the record, not only saw a supernatural appearance, but engaged in a process of reasoning in which he called up his past life to vindicate himself from abuse, and further engaged in a conversation with his master in the latter's vernacular. Indeed, he exhibited a cogency of reasoning which, applied to most of the tales adduced to prove the reality of apparitions, would effectually "lay" the ghosts.
Many persons fancy that mysterious noises which will appear to respond to questions, to make raps or answer raps, conclusively prove that they are directed by intelligence. Sometimes they may, and the intelligence is quite likely to be of human origin; but noises of atmospheric, chemical, or electrical origin may furnish astonishing coincidences, as fissures in the rocks are extremely difficult to be distinguished from hieroglyphics. Some years ago an alphabet based on the spiritualistic alphabet was applied to
