Spiritualism
179
inferred, in the accounts. The incident described by Mr. Smith stands, it must be admitted, altogether beyond the scope of legerdemain; if we accept the description as accurate—and Mr. Smith as a witness stands probably well above the average—it would go far to justify the Spiritualist belief in the operation of a novel power wielded by an extraneous intelligence.
From Mr. G. A. Smith[1]
12th June, 1885
[The account was written on the day following the séance.]
. . . We now expressed our desire to get something written which could be regarded as outside the knowledge of any of us—such as a certain word on a given line of a chosen page of a book.
I then went to the bookshelf, took a book at haphazard, without of course looking at the title, returned to my seat, placed the book upon the chair, and sat upon it whilst we were arranging the page, line, and word to be asked for. This point Mr. Templeton and I decided by each taking a few crayons and pencils from the table by chance, and counting them; Mr. Templeton had possessed himself of 18 pieces of crayon, and I had seized 9 pieces of pencil, we found on counting them; we therefore decided that the "controls" should be asked to write the last word of line 18 on page 9 of the book. This article I now produced, and laid it upon one of my slates, and Mr. Eglinton held the two close beneath the underneath of the table—the book of course being held firmly closed between the table and the slate. We then commenced conversing; in the midst of Mr. Eglinton's own remarks the writing was heard to commence. For about 25 seconds he was talking and the writing was going on simultaneously; he then ceased, and- ↑ Journal, S. P. R.. June, 1886.
