Here, then, assuredly, was a formula composed by some intelligence totally distinct from the conscious intelligence of either of the persons engaged in the experiment.

I proceeded to inquire as follows:-

183. I do not know this prayer. Where is it to be found? A. Old American Ritual.

184. Where can I get one? A. Most likely none in England.

185. Can you not write the prayer that I make use of in my own Lodge? A. No, I don't know it.

In these last answers we see a new moral element introduced. There is evasion, or subterfuge, of a more or less ingenious kind; and totally foreign to the whole character and natural disposition of the operator. A similar attempt at deliberate invention, rather than plead guilty to total ignorance, is contained in the following answers:-

May 7th. 255. In what Masonic degree was the Triple Word first used? A. Wife does not know.

256. Cannot you tell her? A. How can wife know what no one else does?

257. Does no one, then, know the answer to this? A. No one knows now.

258. What do you mean by "now"? Did any one once know? A. The last one who knew died at least twenty years ago.

259. What was his name? A. In America; don't know name.

And again, May 21st. 280. Can you write the Triple R.A. Word to-night? A. Abracadabra.

281. Wrong word. Try again. A. Wife can't write secret words.

282. Then why did you profess to write it the other day? A. I only wrote what wife knew.

283. But if she knows it why do you not write it to-night? A. You told her.

284. What did I tell her? A. One day when your influence over her was very strong.

(N.£. The answer to 284 is a case of "arrested" reply; i.e. it is a continuation of the reply to 283, without reference to question 284 at all).

285. Then why does she not write it now? A. Wife can't understand.

286. Is it my question, or the answer to it, that she can't understand? A. Don't know.

287. What is the matter with you to-night? A. You are tired and so is wife. I will conclude with a very pretty instance of a mistake instantly corrected.

It was on the same evening, May 10th; I had to preach on the following Whit-Monday, on the occasion of laying a foundation stone with Masonic ceremonial, so I asked:-

275. Give me a text for Whit-Monday's sermon. A. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.

The selection of a subject suitable for Whitsuntide is plainly the first idea caught by the intelligence; so I proceeded:-

276. That will not do for my subject. I want a text for the Monday's ser-mon. A. Let brotherly love continue.

850 A. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. (1893), pp. 61-64.

I had often urged that attempts should be made to imitate Mr. and Mrs. Newnham's series of experiments in the transference of an unseen question through an automatist's subliminal self to his pencil; and I was at length fortunate enough to find a friend - Mr. R. H. Buttemer, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a graduate in honours in Natural Science - willing to make a serious endeavour of this kind. Some perseverance was required; but a friend of Mr. Buttemer's, Mr. H. T. Green, having first been several times lightly hypnotised by Mr. Buttemer, showed during some months unmistakable power as a percipient. I was cognisant of the experiments throughout; although on the only occasion on which I was myself present Mr. Green's mind was distracted by a theological examination which he was to pass next day, and his pencil would write little but names of kings of Israel and Judah. The conditions were throughout good; the question being written down out of Mr. Green's sight, and indications carefully avoided. In the last sitting Mr. Green had his back to all the other persons present - which is, of course, the right plan; - and that sitting was, as will be seen, the best of all.

But considering the nature of the questions asked, there was, I think, little opportunity for unconscious indications, even when some of the persons who knew the question were within sight of Mr. Green. There was never any contact. The selection of questions and answers given below is a nearly average sample; - those which are omitted being mainly questions on private affairs, where the answers were necessarily less definite than numbers or letters, and where their degree of correctness would need cumbrous explanation. The best answer is certainly the spelling out of John Bou - from the unseen card.

The answers here classed as "irrelevant" were sometimes a reproduction of thoughts likely to be in the operator's mind (persons like Jeroboam and Omri frequently turning up); and sometimes, I think, represented imperfect efforts of the subliminal self to get at the unseen question. In this and other points these experiments resemble the much more completely successful Newnham series. There was no apparent reason for the cessation of Mr. Green's power. He was a healthy man, but had one or two trifling ailments during the experiments, which seemed to check the faculty for the time. Mr. Green, Mr. W., and Mr. S. are known to me; and all, I think, have pursued the inquiry in a scientific spirit. The frivolous and roundabout style of the replies is very characteristic of automatic messages in their earlier stages. I now give Mr. Buttemer's account.