having chosen a book; we therefore thought it would be best for Mr. Pinnock, who knew Mr. Davey no better than I, to select another book.
(f) This he did. We washed the two slates, laid them face to face on the table, when the following words were written: "The difference in this respect." Mr. Pinnock now took down the book he had selected from the shelf, and handed it to me; I opened it at the 12th page and looked at the eighth line. I found the first two words completed a sentence; then came the five words above, and then two more to finish the line. I said the written words were right, but not complete. The slate was covered again, and three more words were written: "Shakespeare and Beaumont." On looking at the book I found "Shakespeare" was the last word in the line, the other two being in the next line. I said a word was still missed out. The slates were put together again, and two more words written. On looking at the book these turned out to be the two words terminating the last sentence. I said there was still the word missing, and this time the word "between" was written, making the sentence complete: "The difference in this respect between Shakespeare and Beaumont." I then asked for the last word in the line by itself, and this was written "Shakes," which was correct, as Shakespeare was half on one line and half on the other. The name of the book was Lectures on Shakespeare, etc.
Mr. Pinnock himself and Mr. Venner, the other witness, explain that the title was chosen mentally, the book not being removed from the shelves.
Mr. Davey tried several experiments of the kind. The method of procedure was to write down the passage beforehand on a slate which could be subsequently introduced by substitution. The real difficulty, of course, was to induce the sitters to select the book which Mr. Davey had predestined
