ther by thought transference, or by an almost, or
quite incredible combination of astuteness, and imposture on the
side of Dr. Gregory himself. In presence of the _clairvoyants_ the
nobleman of whom we speak thought not of his own house, but of a
room in the house of a friend. It possessed a very singular feature
which it is needless to describe here, but which was entirely out of
the experience of the clairvoyante. She described it, however,
expressing astonishment at what she 'saw'. This, unless Dr. Gregory
guessed what was likely to be thought of, and was guilty of
collusion, can only be explained by thought transference. In other
cases the doctor was convinced that he had evidence of actual
clairvoyance, and it is difficult to estimate the amount of evidence
which will clear such a belief of the charge of credulity. As to
'scrying' the doctor thought it could be done in 'mesmerised water,'
water bewitched. There is no reason to imagine that 'mesmerised' is
different from ordinary water. {224} He knew that folklore retained
the belief in scrying in crystal balls, and added some superfluous
magical incantations. The doctor himself was lucky enough to buy an
old magical crystal in which some boys, after long staring, saw
persons unknown to themselves, but known to the professor, and also
persons known to neither. A little girl, casually picking up a
crystal ball, cried, 'There's a ship in it, with its cloth all in
rags. Now it tumbles down, and a woman is working at it, and holds
her head in her hand.' This is a very fair example of a crystal
fancy picture. The child's mother, not having heard what the child
said, saw the same vision (p. 165). But this is a story at third
hand. The doctor has a number of cases, and held that crystal
possesses an 'odylic' quality. But a ball of glass serves just as
well as a ball of crystal, and is much less expensive.

Children are naturally visionaries, and, as such, are good subjects
for experiment. But it may be a cruel, and is a most injudicious
thing, to set children a-scrying. Superstition may be excited, or
the half-conscious tendency to deceive may be put in motion.

Socrates and Joan of Arc were visionaries as children. Had Joan's
ears been soundly boxed, as Robert de Baudricourt advised, France
might now be an English province. But they were not boxed, happily
for mankind. Certainly much that is curious may be learned by any
one who, having the confiden