An account

I felt distinctly and always rightly, when it would answer, and what it would answer. I found that it always answered the questions of which / knew the answer ; and was silent when I did not : e.g., it would not say how many years ago [the meeting was]. I was quite ignorant of where they met ; that was the only answer beyond my knowledge. [It is not known if this answer was correct.] All the names given are correct : my father's name was Robert, but he was always called Robin. Kate Gardiner was a friend of my father ; I believe she helped to arrange his marriage. Harriet Morant was his aunt. I am ignorant of much about this aunt ; and from reading some old correspondence in June, I was particularly anxious to learn more about these names. No one at the table can possibly have known anything whatever about any one of the names given. 1 It is, of course, a matter of interest to know what indications of genuine telepathy may be afforded by these less systematic trials. For experiments with a comparatively small number of subjects (like those before described), however conclusive we may consider them as to the existence of a special faculty, afford no means of judging how common that faculty may be. If it exists, 1 See another very similar case in Vol. ii., pp. 670-1. ii.] THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 85 we have no reason to expect it to be extremely uncommon ; on the contrary, we should rather expect to find an appreciable degree of it tolerably widely diffused. But (putting aside the results of § 7, above,) our only means, at present, for judging how far this is the case is by considering the evidence of persons who were, so to speak, amateur observers, and who in some cases were not even aware that the_ matter had any scientific importance. Such evidence must, of course, be received with due allowances, and, if it stood alone, might be wholly inadequate to establish the case for telepathic phenomena ; but if these be otherwise established, it would be illogical to shut our eyes to alleged results which fall readily into the same class, provided the trials appear to have been conducted with intelligence and care. It is unnecessary to say that this last proviso at once excludes the vast majority of the cases which one reads about in the newspapers, or hears discussed in private circles. We have already seen that the subject of thought-reading has obtained its vogue by dint of exhibitions which, however clever and interesting, have no sort of claim to the name. The prime requisite is that the conditions shall precl