845. In the next case there is an apparent element of prophecy; and I quote it in order to show how fallacious this appearance is, and how easily an ordinary mental anticipation of the future, if it in any way becomes externalised, may look like a revelation. Miss Summerbell is well known to me as a careful observer.

(From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 2).

I have used Planchette a great deal, but the result has generally been nonsense; but I remembered two occasions when it correctly interpreted the thought of some one in the room, whose hands were not upon it. About a year ago, we were amusing ourselves by asking it what Christmas presents we should have. My hands were upon Planchette, and I believe Miss Lay's, but in any case it is quite certain that neither of the persons who were touching it could possibly know the answer to the question I asked. I said, "What will Miss T. have at Christmas?" Miss T. was in the room, but not near the table. Planchette immediately wrote down a rather large sum of money. I asked, "Who is to give it?" It wrote "B. and one other." Some weeks afterwards I met Miss T., who asked me if I remembered what Planchette had written. I remembered it perfectly. She said, "I have received more than that sum, but I knew about it at the time, though not the exact sum, and I believe that must have been thought-reading, for I am certain that nobody in the room knew of it but myself." The money was given by a relative whose surname begins with B., and another person.

On another occasion, we asked a friend to dictate a question, the answer to which we did not know. She said, "Who is coming to breakfast tomorrow?" Miss Lay and I placed our hands upon Planchette and asked the question. It wrote "Lucas." Our friend said that was the name of the gentleman who was coming to breakfast. Neither Miss Lay nor I had ever heard of him before. Our friend said, "Ask his Christian name." We asked; it wrote "William." "Is that right?" we asked our friend. "I don't know," VOL. II. she answered; "I never heard his Christian name." Then somebody else, who was not touching Planchette, remembered that there was a song by him somewhere among the music. We looked, and at length found the song by "William Lucas" - of whom we had never heard before, nor have we heard of him since. L. D. Summerbell.

I can thoroughly endorse these statements, and could multiply instances equally curious. - J. M. Lay.

The prophecy of the Christmas gift was doubtless a mere reflection of Miss TVs anticipation - transferred telepathically to the writer's subliminal self, and as regards the Christian name "William," we may assume that (as in the case of the word Went in a previous narrative) the name printed on the song, although no one consciously remembered it, had been vaguely noticed by Mr. Lucas' friend at some previous time, and now reappeared from the stores of unconscious memory.

846. In another case, Mr. Allbright, of Mariemont, Birmingham, a chemical manufacturer (whose letter to me I abbreviate here), asked a young lady, of whose complete ignorance of the facts of his business he felt quite sure, for the name of a waste product occurring on a large scale in his manufactory. He meant the answer to be "gypsum," but "chloride of calcium" was written, and this was also true; although, had he thought of this substance, he would have thought of it by its trade name of "muriate of lime." Again, he asked what was his firm's port of importation. He meant the answer to be "Gloucester," but "Wales" was written; and this again was true at the time, as he was just then importing through Cardiff. These answers startled him so disagreeably that he refused to make further experiments. But I cite the case here for the express purpose of pointing out that no insuperable difficulty is presented by the fact that the answers, while substantially known to the inquirer, were not those on which his supraliminal mind was fixed.

847. In my next case an answer is given which is in fact true, although the questioner believed it at the time to be false. The account, which I quote from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 5, came from Mr. W. Riddell of Dunster, Somerset.

July 1884.

The way I became acquainted with "Planchette" was as follows:- A friend of my wife's is staying with us, and one day she was talking about "Planchette," and saying that she had one at her home, in London, and had seen some remarkable answers given by it when a certain young lady had her hands on it. Both my wife and I laughed at the idea, saying nothing would make us believe in it. Miss B. (my wife's friend), to prove herself right, sent for her "Planchette." In the course of a day or two it arrived, and having put it together Miss B. and I tried it, but without any result beyond a few lines up and down the paper. Then my wife put her hands on it with Miss B., and in a very short time it began to move, and on being asked answered questions very freely, some rightly and some quite wrongly. Amongst those answered rightly were the following. (I may here observe that not only did my wife and myself not believe in it, but we were antagonistic to it in feeling.) Our first question was asked by myself, my wife and Miss B. having their hands on it. I said, "How many shillings has Miss B. in her purse?" Ans. - "Four"; right. I then asked how many coins I had in mine. Ans. - "Five"; right. I thought I had many more.

I then took a playing card from a pack in a box, looked at it, put it face down on a table, and asked for its colour. Ans. - "Red"; right. Number - "Seven"; right. Name - "Hearts"; right. This, I must confess, seemed to me very wonderful, as neither my wife nor Miss B. could possibly have known anything about the card. I then took a visiting card from the bottom of the basket, and having looked at it, placed it face downwards on the table, and asked "Planchette" for the name on it. This it seemed quite unable to give, but after a long time it wrote "clergyman," which was a wonderful answer, as the card was that of a Rev.-- who was here two winters ago, helping our rector. After this we did not get anything more satisfactory.

Now, here, as no complete list of the answers has been preserved, we cannot feel sure that the answer "five," as to the number of coins in Mr. Riddell's pocket, may not have been right by mere accident. But my point is that, even excluding the idea of mere chance coincidence, there is still nothing in the answer which obliges us to go beyond Mr. Riddell's own mind. His subliminal self may well have been aware of the number of coins in his pocket, although his supraliminal self was not.