to
account for the undoubted motion of a heavy table, free from the contact
of all present. After giving due weight to every known explanation, the
phenomena remain inexplicable to me."

TESTIMONY COLLECTED BY FREDERIC W. H. MYERS.

Next in order of time come two papers by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, under the
title of "Alleged Movements of Objects without Contact, occurring not in
the Presence of a Paid Medium." They are published in vol. vii. of the
_Proceedings_ of the Society for Psychical Research.[8] The first
article goes over most of the ground traversed in the earlier part of
this chapter, but devotes twenty lines only to the Report of the
Committee of the Dialectical Society, and refers only to Professor
Barrett's cases as having been already published. A number of other
cases are, however, described in detail. The evidence in these scarcely
comes up to the level of scientific, and unless it had been sifted by
so careful a critic as Mr. Myers, who convinced himself of the reality
of the facts, could hardly be considered of much value. The two
following cases in the first article present the strongest evidence.

(1) THE ARMSTRONG CASE.--Mr. George Allman Armstrong, of 8 Leeson Place,
Dublin, and Ardnacarrig, Bandon, writes an account dated 13th June 1887.
After vouching for the perfect good faith of the small group of
experimenters, he describes in detail the movements of a table. The
"rising" was generally preceded by a continuous fusillade of "knocks" in
the substance of the table. When the knocks had, as it were, reached a
climax, the table slowly swayed from side to side like a pendulum. It
would stop completely, and then, as if imbued with life, and quite
suddenly, would rise completely off the floor to a height of twelve or
fourteen inches at least. It nearly always came down with immense force,
and on several occasions proved destructive to itself, as the broken
limbs of the table used at Kinsale could testify. The table was a round,
rather heavy walnut one, with a central column standing on three claw
legs. Mr. Armstrong says that on several occasions he succeeded in
raising the table without contact. It rose to the fingers held over it
at a height of several inches, like the keeper of a strong
electro-magnet.[9]

(2) A BELL-RINGING CASE.--Mr. Myers, in introducing this case, says:
"The usual hypotheses of fraud, rats, hitched wires, &c., seem hard to
apply. The care and fulness with which it has been rec