shadowed
by it. When the Oracle is now to be consulted it is placed on a
pedestal, covered with a black cloth, immediately beneath a powerful
electric light. At some distance above it, between the Crystal and the
light, is suspended a bell-shaped reflector, of highly polished glass,
to which is attached an insulated wire, ending in a finger-piece. This
is held in the hand by the person who would consult the Oracle ; when,
by looking steadily into the Crystal, the future is indicated (if
proper conditions have been conscientiously obeyed) by a panorama which
portrays coming events.
It
is not generally known, or remembered, that during, or soon after, the
Commonwealth times, Crystal-gazing found so many advocates that it was
avowedly employed as a means for detecting minor offences and crimes ;
insomuch that King James I.—" the wisest fool in Christendom "—passed
laws making this Crystal-gazing a serious, and punishable offence. As
to some scientific explanation of the visions which seem to be often
indisputably produced under the (hypnotised ?) gaze of an honest
Crystal-reader (at the instance, and suggestion of an enquirer whose
subjected mind is already intent on the matters to be revealed, though
probably without his being sensibly aware of this), such visions are
quite explicable on the said ground of hypnotism, and telepathy. The
theory which now finds acceptance by the scientific world is that the
human mind is dual in its nature ; the upper (or " objective ") mind
being the medium by which wre reason, and conduct the
ordinary business of our daily life ; while the lower (or " subjective
") mind is the storehouse of memory, wherein every circumstance of
life, from the first dawn of reason, is carefully chronicled, and
remembered, though alto-
