The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1853-02-05

damp and the chill of yesterday consigned them
to the wardrobe aaain--thc sun was2hidden and
the saIulalon changed 10 "A very dull Day."
Tdble-ology.--
"GARplNER. Good master secretary,
| cry your honor mercy; you may, worst
Of all this table, say so.
CRoMwELI.. Why my lord?
GAR. Do not know you for layorcr
OF this new sect 20
Shakepe0rc's Henry WI.
The town, we elsewhere say, is filled with
excitement owing to the fantastic tricks cut By
whrIing tables, which seem possessed OF the
tcri, or some other less obnoxious spirit. And
not by the turning around Of tables alone, but
by their lapping out answers 10 questions put
by mcfinmS OF priests Of the Order of 'Rappers.'
Unless very many very sober and intelligent
citizens are deceived, the following is fact:
Let three. four, halt dozen, Or a dozen persons.
large or small, male or female, as chance
throws them together, form a circle around
table, each placing his or her right hand with
Il palm Hat IN lis sun face and their left hand
fat on the back Of the right hand Of the person
TO lheir left Let I, EN- mutually will that the
table shall tutn, the one way or the other, as
the! agree. Let them patiently stand in such
position ten, twenty, thirty or more minutes.
and the table Will start and move AROUND, aud
that quite rapidly, in the direction "wiied," or
agreed upon. When atall" starts, all the cir
Gle mus, move around with it, keeping their
hands as 5riurc and such is the power with
which they sometimes move, that 4 man may
jump, il is said. on top and be carried rapidly
aroun! with the table. All this, we say, is
intelligent people, who have been capcl imenl-
ing with the tables.
Nor TO the mysteries stop here. Some as
scrt thai obcdirnt 10 their call, the tables when
in moving mood. answer the questions they
PROFOUND with undeniabc certainty. Trans
forming plain piece of dining room furniture,
whose emission seemed only to be to bear bur
drns Of bread and butter and beef, into an en-
chanted telegraph, they disclose By it the secrets
OF the spirit world, or, what is worse, number
the years of madcns of'doubful age" and tell
TO ''anxious enquirers" the contents OF a spin
stcr's pocket.
Many are sure oflhcse things, but some there
be that doubt: and doubling, exclaim with
Capulct in sRomeo and Juict:'
"More light, yc knaves: and turn the tables"
and then assert tina; when more light and closer
scrutiny is brough, to bear the tables refuse to
tuIn.
The "hrning" seems pretty well established,
if crediiable witnesses can now DAYS establish
anything. As to the "rapping' there is not
such abundant evidence. We have seen no
Il table whrlng around in manner, at the
time inexplicable.
! Those who admit the fact that tables are thus
turned, resort TO various spcculalons in search
for an explanation; some skip by all reasoning
and account il to some supernatural agency.
Others seek natural cause and attribute it to
some working of animal magnetism or cleo
trlclty, which is moi yet fully comprchended; and
tH''C diC u lew WuO tuInk lHesC experiment. ,
which so many esteem the sheeresl humbug
are the faint dawnings of u day, the light of
which will reveal to US better knowledge of
the mystery of life and of the mofre porer and
phenomena of the UNIVERSAL few hopeful en-
qulrers who dream that they are laundering IN
the dark upon some beautiful natural law, anil
who cheer themselves amid the SCOTS of unbc :
levers with the remembrance that all great
discoveries in their incipIent stages were alike
the subjects of mockery. When Calico an
nounced that the Earth turned he was forced to
will not readily recant their belief in the turn
ing of the tables, but wait to see the mystery
revcalcd-and in The meantime let us all wait
while they have chance.