se
a via media.

M. de Gasparin, the husband of the well-known author of The Near and
the Heavenly Horizons, was a table-turner, without being a
spiritualist. His experiments were made in Switzerland, in 1853; he
published a book on them, as we said; M. Figuier attacked it in Les
Mysteres de la Science, after M. de Gasparin's death, and the widow
of the author replied by republishing part of the original work. M.
de Gasparin, in the early Empire, was a Liberal, an anti-Radical, an
opponent of negro slavery, a Christian, an energetic honest man,
absolu et ardent, as he confesses.

His purpose was to demonstrate that tables turn, that the phenomenon
is purely physical, that it cannot be explained by the mechanical
action of the muscles, nor by that of 'spirits'. His allies were
his personal friends, and it is pretty clear that two ladies were
the chief 'agents'. The process was conducted thus: a 'chain' of
eight or ten people surrounded a table, lightly resting their
fingers, all in contact, on its surface. It revolved, and, by
request, would raise one of its legs, and tap the floor. All this,
of course, can be explained either by cheating, or by the
_unconscious_ pushes administered. If any one will place his hands
on a light table, he will find that the mere come and go of pulse
and breath have a tendency to agitate the object. It moves a
little, accompanying it you unconsciously move it more. The
experiment is curious because, on some days, the table will not
budge, on others it instantly sets up a peculiar gliding movement,
in which it almost seems to escape from the superimposed hands,
while the most wakeful attention cannot detect any conscious action
of the muscles. If you try the opposite experiment, namely
conscious pushing of the most gradual kind, you find that the
exertion is very distinctly sensible. The author has made the
following simple experiment.

Two persons for whom the table would _not_ move laid their hands on
it firmly and flatly. Two others (for whom it danced) just touched
the hands of the former pair. Any pressure or push from the upper
hands would be felt, of course, by the under hands. No such
pressure was felt, yet the table began to rotate. In another
experiment with another subject, the pressure _was_ felt (indeed the
owner of the upper hands was conscious of pressing), yet the table
did _not_ move. These experiments are, physiologically, curious,
but, of course, they