ystal ball. As the
unconscious self suggests the pictures in the ball, so it may
suggest the unexplained noises. But while, as a rule, only one
gazer sees the visions, the sounds (usually but not invariably) are
heard by all present. On the whole, the one case wherein we find
facts, if only facts of hallucination, at the bottom of the belief
in a world-wide and world-old practice, rather tends in the
direction of belief in the other facts, not less universally
alleged. We know too much about mythology to agree with Dr.
Johnson, in holding that 'a belief, which prevails as far as human
nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth,' that
'those who never heard of one another would not have agreed in a
tale which nothing but experience could make credible'. But, on the
other hand, a belief is not necessarily untrue, because it is
universally diffused.

In the second place, crystal-gazing shows how a substratum of fact
may be so overlaid with mystic mummeries, incantations, fumigations,
pentacles: and so overwhelmed in superstitious interpretations,
introducing fairies and spirits, that the facts run the risk of
being swept away in the litter and dust of nonsense. Science has
hardly thought crystal-gazing worthy even of contempt, yet it
appears to deserve the notice of psychologists. To persons who can
'scry,' and who do not see hideous illusions, or become hypnotised,
or superstitious, or incur headaches, scrying is a harmless gateway
into Les Paradis Artificiels. 'And the rest, they may live and
learn.' {223}

A very few experiments will show people whether they are scryers, or
not. The phenomena, it seems, are usually preceded by a mistiness,
or milkiness, of the glass: this clears off, and pictures appear.
Even the best scryers often fail to see anything in the crystal
which maintains its natural 'diaphaneity,' as Dr. Dee says. Thus
the conditions under which the scryer can scry, are, as yet,
unascertained.

The phenomena of scrying were not unknown to Dr. Gregory, Professor
of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Gregory believed
in 'odylic fluid' on the evidence of Reichenbach's experiments,
which nobody seems to have repeated successfully under strict tests.
Clairvoyance also was part of Dr. Gregory's faith, and, to be fair,
phenomena were exhibited at his house, in the presence of a learned
and distinguished witness known to the writer, which could only be
accounted for ei