860. I pass on to a series of messages which afford an interesting field for the discussion of the rival hypotheses of "cryptomnesia" and spirit-control. The automatist, who must here be called Mrs. R., is a lady well known to me for some years, and to whom I was first introduced by the late Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood (the cousin and brother-in-law of Charles Darwin, and himself a well-known savant), who reported certain messages obtained in his presence, and partly through his co-operation. Mrs. R., and her sister Mrs. V., now deceased, were for many years among Mr. Wedgwood's most valued friends. There can be no more question in my mind as to Mrs. R.'s scrupulous good faith than as to that of Mr. Wedgwood himself in endeavouring to recall the utmost that they had ever known of the personages who professed to be writing through the help of the two human hands. The question is one of subliminal memory; and as to this it may be remarked that Mr. Wedgwood's reading was wide, - but that he never, so far as I know, showed any automatic gift, nor obtained writing except with one of these two ladies.

On the other hand, Mrs. R.'s reading has not been wide in range; and both Mrs. R. and Mrs. V. had many psychical experiences, - most of them of a private nature,2 - in which Mr. Wedgwood was not concerned. The automatic impulse seems to have come from them; but it may be that Mr. Wedgwood's presence modified the character of the messages obtained. I give first a general account by Mr. Wedgwood of the mode of experiment.

1 See a recent case furnished by Sir Lawrence Jones, which I print at the end of the Appendix.

2 See, however, Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 293, for two experiences of Mrs. V.'s.

(From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 92).

My experience in planchette-writing has been mainly acquired in sitting with two sisters, whom I will call Mrs. R. and Mrs. V., of whom the younger, Mrs. V., has far the stronger influence in producing the writing. With her the board in general begins to move much sooner and in a more vivacious way than with her elder sister. When the two sit together the board moves rapidly along, like a person writing as fast as he can drive, while with me and one of the sisters the action is often feeble and labouring. But neither of the sisters can obtain anything whatever when they sit by themselves. The board remains absolutely motionless under the hands of the solitary operator.

When trying for writing we sit opposite each other at a small table, I with my right hand, my partner with her left on the planchette, while the writing produced is upright to me, and upside down to my partner, from whom, however, the effective influence seems to proceed. The precise nature of that influence is not very easy to understand, and is, I think, very commonly misapprehended. Writing by planchette is often called "automatic," and the pencil is conceived as being worked by the muscular action of the sitters, under the guidance of a blind impulse, as little understood by them as the finished result is foreseen by a pair of birds instinctively engaged in the construction of their first nest. But this is directly opposed to the experience of myself and my partners. When I am sitting at planchette with one of them, I know that I am merely following the movement of the board with my hand, and not in any way guiding it, my only difficulty being to avoid interfering with it. It seems to me exactly as if my partner, in whom I have perfect confidence, was purposely moving the board and I allowing my hand to follow her action, interfering with it as little as possible. And she gives to me an exactly corresponding account of her own share in the operation.

Thus we give to the outside world our united testimony of a fact which, as far as each of us is concerned, lies within our own direct knowledge, viz., that the writing traced out by the pencil is not produced by the muscular exertion of either of us.

We have, then, in planchette-writing, if our account is to be believed, the manifestation of an agency invisible to us, yet capable of moving the bodily pencil either in mere scribbling or in such a way as to fix an intelligent message on the paper.