The Portland daily press., 1868-04-14

persons lay their their hands VIEW lohi ANU W.
not III any way influencing its notion i len one q
wheels move "PIanehette' t,ayerses tbe nan an
ald the pencil OF course following The motIop of IN
| wheels, whites the reply. '''o" VI 'n'
do you mean, asked {. that II al,vops doc g.,
with any one?" A""Ss uoeS 81
No IL rarely writes, at frs, for any one, but gel,
up and down, hut it will almost always write in tbs
en II the op rators peIses ere. But for some neo
Pc lt wont move at ALL must say he continued
tia tue an >Wefs are gene ally wrong and that IL,
propneces-irs fond ois prophecy--are- general,
o; Dut IS It not stiange that ii should write a
Very remarkd dryly
All, you don't believe it, and don't wonder"
ana then he told me his exl eriences of H. lar too
numerous TO mention, aud dwelt particularly IN ,be
II, st specim IN he ha of lis powefs ~ w '--s
" Two Ladies" he said, "had their hands on if and
was asked to question it, was as lncrefulons AZ
you are; SO resolved 10 ask a puzzler had hem
10 hear pu geon preach shortly be Io ieayi Ems.
and. 4 was struck with his text, the words ni viii, h
wills, u,sn me- remembered though hail forgotten
where tney came nom. So asked 'Pla nchet,e II
instantly wrote sd Uor,' and mentioned cbanter and
verse. we looked it up, aud it right! Now that
was extrordina'y, was not?" 0ft5s7
mo. l suppose you repeated the words of the
tsx and the young aides recognized it, and wrote
mot atal; asked where the text came from
witho It repeatIn it," . - ,'1i'o IA oii'
could not deny that the circumstances. as stated.
MAXI the very original remark 81 sboyd , mi, tn
nave witnessed 1t MYSELF ~ ho "
ouast H. ai enaL " was not necessary to ask the
.on donu, mel tai question was quite sniff
fenG; ana nat all languages were alike 10 II $50
NOW, ne SAID, don't Suppose am such a tooI
as TO believe That there Is anything sp inap or s
pernatural about t. mer Nv tell Won what T have
s sen Judge for yourself But as IL is getting into
li .,p sinali nours mast Don packing" -
Planehettep wa restored TO its usIIal nlace-R %
hat-boX-and went to bed 90 T p' '"'e - .
Il was I'M siole NOT to lee some interest in this
man whom had known intimateIv for naa ry
~ yeats;-a ran OF scrupl GUS truth-his perfect
-; "ard lfutnfulness proverbial anon
MS ~ nus man of great ability but wi hout one
pa tlcie OF i'm ginaiun,-in shorf Tho va To- 40
70 take up question Ii We III $ with enthusiasm or
creJuiity What was to Think He gave me III i.
word which knew onld tr So. that there wac No
trick nit,-thaI what he told me he had seen: and
ne chAltlged TO give themsttera talr rial, nd
Ju9se LOT nysef NOW, there are hundreds of men,
and more hundreds OF women from whom one vo Id
rerel statement OF this sort with MANY grains of
sat NOT because they are unworthy crelil but be-
cau,e their temi ornament would incline them 10 be
edcapfive" by the wonderful and the IN, sterious =
'omne sgnotam pro mngnifco." But my { len = as
nave sid was not one OF them one to be carried
away Dy apy speculative or imaginative question
ne is essentially clear-headeJ anu hardin aued and
IL would De a very poor compliment to hi, common
sease TO suppose that he believed in the spir uality
/ fell asleep. - " 80
Next morning at breakfast referred to "Plan-
ehette" Miss A. was evident Y convert NV
host said nothing. My hostess confesse She did NOT
quite ike It," Others rdculed it, and the subject
Must of the guests lie t that day TO make wav for
lew patch; and when evening came Miss A and
sat down to "PIanchette" with Two. at least. q.
our inosers-on, who had never heard Of the ''crt-
We placed our hands on ssPlanchette." and ask d
some question For while, it was statonary then
it beg IN to move under oar hands and In rn1 about
the paper, scoring lines up and down. Sometimes
iast, sometimes slow; our hands arcely touched
II. 1T Is merely the effect of pulsation,'' l SAID.
letters. go" ~ 'o' AL
our hrst question was, "Whatletters are engrav-
Gu ~ .ns locket? The locket was mine, and of
course CO.. knew the letters though had not opened
the locket tor long lime. Mis- A. was ignorant of
t4em There were four letters, of which K and B.
were the last TWO. Planchette wrote ssK. B." OBJ
served that the X ormed differently from the
manner in which 1 write The letter and I asked
ni this was eRe h t5e sne did
and on examining the letter in the ochet it exactly
correspont ed with it.
the lnh ence which produced them must presume
nave betn mine, not hers. yet mine involuntarily
ior sertainl did not Consciously direct the pencil
Indeed, he'd bsen dishonest, and inlentiona ly in
huenced IT, l should, l imagine have written all
the letters and not two only.
9 We my hostess five letters, which had reeeiv-
ed that day, and begged her to select one viii hout
nur hnowlt dge. and question "P anchette." She
Gid So asking the initia s of the wri,er The reply
was not written by * b., ut by one of our most
distinguished general officers; but il was placed in
an nvelope (Iot seen by us) directed by the owner
That the acti n of the pencil is generally infiu
enced by those whose hands are on the board 1
have no doubt; out assuming these persons 10 lie
honest, and TO abstain ir m any vount al move
ment 1T is equally beyond doubt that this influence
whatever 1t may be, is Involuntary 1t s OF course
perfectly easy to make tie pencil write en- agraph
wheels being as every one Knows mo, sensiiive
Let us snppo that A. and b. intend to make it
write one OF two thing is nece ssary either they
NUT be confeder ,te and agrye to write he same
word, or one must lie passive, and must atloao the
her to WI ire il. ~
Assume, for the sake of argument, this to be the
way III watch answers are p uduced how will the
following admit Of explanation?
One OF the guests, who had inst arrived, on the oe-
cason referred 10, asked-''At what town did pur-
chase these sleeve links?" Neither Mis-, A. nor 1
knew.
"riatche te' instantly in a great hurry. wrote.
TWro, g,n ed the inquirer, triumphantly;
But wrong as the answer was it was, in my judg-
ment an exceedingly curious answer, showing as
Thu 1k thai the influence Of those whose hands are
the board. is unconscious and involuntary : i
cera My was MT thinking of any pla in particu-
lar nor was Niss A.; but we both kneaD that the
shire man, aud that he hail Just come rom Inyer
ness. Here, Jhen was conglomeration of wo places
With which ne was connected, and this, / think
proves that Miss A. and were perfectly honest in
the matter. Had either of us intended to write
Aberdeen or Inverness, we shout scarcely have
pro.luced such quaint combination of the Two.
We put many more questi us that evening, the
answers 10 which were some right and some wrong
but am hound to say that all the answers were
wrong when the questions related to subjects I'M
known to us, and put bv third person And in
almost all cases. this has been the result of nv ex-
perience; but not in all, as will show afterwards
was suffieie entity interested in this curious little
maculne to maze esery kind OF experiment after
wards, that could think OF, my friend b. having
presented me with one. Biz. 1855
found most amusing in replying to answers re-
la ing TO the future, all the answ ers proving wrolg
OF course; but some were so unexpected, and so alb
srd, that they cased the greatest possible fun II
repielequa1y willingly in French or Latin an in
oriental languages In all cases where the experi-
ment was hsnestv made, the operators did not con-
Sciously influence the pencil. ~ "a &
The fIll0wing is curious, and, suppos.ng me to
De incapable Of al,ehood in the matter conclusive
instance Of this:- go Etfl-' Oh. "
A brace ct vas lying on the table. On the CLASH
was wo IN OrienCal characters; on the back u
The clasp We're I'M ias in Lnglish. / ad my hands
on I" Planehetie,"a friend joining me. knew he
iangu zee TO which the word belonged; NV friend
lil not. The question was, "What are the En0iis6
iniuas on tie back of the clasp" "Plancbe, te d
instead within the English letters at the back
WI tie the initial letter. in the Orienlsl Character
he word on the fro It Of the clap Now here was
fpls certanl contrary to any expectations which
mi hit lave been supposed to have formed. Ikoew
What was written on either side o. the clasp my
tfend did MT. ri had formed any exp-cta ion. i
would have been that planchette' would have
| W shed to aslonish my friend by making il apnea,
chat ,'Planth et,e' would answer the q estions put
til have written areply SO inappropriate " hal
,rouucedthe answer? Al least there was no C, lin
sion.
often "planehette misspells. Once it insisted
onspeinns " commander with one s'in;'' again anC
again We Wished it 10 81 ell it right but no. We trieC
1t letter by letter, lausi"g between each letter: b
oniy me +" M" would it write.
Had we intent ,naily influenced it's action, we
rely touid have made it write two VIII ch we fully
| ext cted it would do.
| Generally, its blunders in orthrogapby are the
5lunders OF tn Sc whose lands are on it, For ex
ample, it wrote a French word for me- and put az
accent N it, which sh uld not be thale; bectuse
believed 1t shonid be tn ere; and in writing a Latir
wo d for lad it spelt it as the lady thou !ht i
| should be sp 4t,-wrong
| - sum up, then: my experience OF "Planchette'
is that generally sits ut ances are unmsta abl,
| emanat ons l. ON ourselves without any conscious
etlrt OF WI on our parts as friend to whom l in
| troluced Fl nchette' ex'elently puts it. But, be
levlng, as of course do, hat Influence, what, "
er It be, Is purely natural for mead not say
that should deem it an in ~ t, my intellect wei,
itsuppoSed that lbelievsdit rnatural influence
the act tnat Its utterance is a mere eff of tn,
mind OF tine operator, does detract from the il
| terest il Is impossible not to feel in it.
Is 1t any ma ura power not yet Iullv understood
| Way does the pencil move? and if it moves, VIII,
| into inteliigble WORDS. whatever sense the,e word
| may have! WHY will il move for one, write fol
| another, ami do neither Tor thir t'f'..
Anotner peculiarly is, that # it writes word yot
can't read 1t rewrltes it-maniiAstly the wore
the same IN up and down strokes, in every twis
| anu turn over and over again, ii you will that y
should do So twill even repeat the scrbbles which
H. makes when 1t declines to write; and If the pencil
| is taken UP in the middle OF woro and put dow
az lin at the sa spot it will resume It's writing
finish the word. When in its it arrives at rh'
tge IT the naper it will often continue its wri ing
turning roun anu writing upside down, so that yol
| must reverse the pal er to read is writing.
| Generally Pr anchet e" will not write for ONT
person two being irenty required in most cases