id so.
"6. If SOCINIUS was a good man, strike, &c.--It did so.
"7. If JESUS CHRIST be come in the flesh, strike, &c.--It did so.
"8. If salvation be of faith and works, strike, &c.--It did so.
"9. If salvation be by faith alone, strike, &c.--It did so.
"10. If DR. ACHILLI be a good man, strike, &c.--No reply.
"11. If DR. ACHILLI be turned Swedenborgeon, strike, &c.--It did so.
"12. If DR. NEWMAN be a good man, strike, &c.--It did so (very
quickly).
"13. If MR. TONNA be a good man, stop moving.--It continued moving.
"14. Strike the day of the month--It struck twenty-eight.
"15. Strike the hour.--It struck seven and a gentle lift of the leg.
[It was half-past seven].
"16. If it be right to go to a Socinian Chapel, strike, &c.--It did
so.
"17. If it be right to go to the theatre, strike, &c.--It did so.
"18. Say how many years it is since HER MAJESTY came to the throne.
"No one present knew the date of her accession. I may here say, that
I asked several questions on this principle, upon facts with which
none of us were acquainted.
"It struck sixteen.
"None of us could tell whether this was right or not, and,
therefore, one of the party left the room to fetch an almanack, and
when we had got the almanack we found that it was right."
Other ages were given by the table, according to the Reverend
experimenter; it also stopped when the Bible was placed upon it, like
the similarly possessed moveables of MESSRS. GODFREY and GILLSON. At
least so he would have us believe, or be accounted altogether
unbelieving. For he declares of Table Turning, that
"Those who have not witnessed its wonders, and disbelieve (or
attempt to explain away) the statements of those who _have_, must be
passed by as impracticable subjects, acting precisely on the
principle of the infidel HUME, who, because he never saw a miracle,
would have us infer that no one else ever did."
This is precisely the style in which Roman Catholic priests argue in
behalf of miraculous images, and if MR. DIBDIN did not profess a vast
abhorrence of Popery, he might be imagined to be one of the clerical
correspondents of the _Tablet_. In another place he says,
"If any one doubts my _veracity_, or questions the _possibility of
my senses being correct witnesses_--in such a case I have nothing to
reply to that person.
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