the
relic being placed upon her head—she would at once pronounce a very
plausible, and often times a most wonderfully accurate, history of the
scenes which had been enacted within its former ancient environment.
Thus, if the object happened to be a geological specimen, she would
launch out into a glowing description of its surroundings when found ;
furthermore, going back into its history, before the earth's crust was
formed, she would trace it down through the various geological changes
it had experienced, until she finally landed it in the Professor's
cabinet. Again, a piece of mortar, let us say from the ancient dwelling
of Cicero, would be handed to her, and she would render a vivid
description of the domestic life of those persons who had occupied the
mansion, and would describe the several historic events which might
have been witnessed from the former habitat of the said piece of
mortar. And, so as to eliminate the factor of geological knowledge
already possessed on her part, and thus perhaps emotionally reproduced,
the professor would wrap the specimen in a piece of paper beforehand,
and would in this way carefully conceal from her ordinary objective
knowledge its particular character. But the result was always alike ;
she would read the history of the specimen under these guarded
conditions with the same apparent accuracy as before. Again, the
Professor did not forget that Telepathy (the faculty of
distance-viewing which some persons can bring to bear under favourable
conditions) was an element necessary to be likewise eliminated. The
possibility that she might be thus reading what was in his own mind at
the time, must also be therefore provided against. To secure which end
he wrapped a considerable number of specimens in separate packages
2
