Wells Samuel Roberts - The Salem Witchcraft, the Planchette Mystery, and Modern Spiritualism стр 12.

PLANCHETTES DIARY, edited by Kate Field, is an entertaining pamphlet, consisting of details in the authors experience, with little

or no speculation as to the origin or laws of the phenomena. The author herself was the principal medium of the communications, but she occasionally introduces experiences of others. The pamphlet serves to put one on familiar and companionable terms with the invisible source of intelligence, whatever that may be, illustrating the leading peculiarities of the phenomena, giving some tests of an outside directing influence more or less striking, and candidly recording the failures of test answers which were mixed up with the successes. We extract two or three specimens:

May 26th Evening. Our trio was reinforced by Mr. B., a clever young lawyer, who regarded Planchette with no favorable eye had no faith whatever in Spiritualism, and maintained that for his part he thought it quite as sensible, if not more so, to attribute unknown phenomena to white rabbits as to spirits Planchette addressed herself to Mr. B. thus:

You do not think that I am a spirit. I tell you that I am. If I am not an intelligence, in the name of common sense what am I? If you fancy I am white rabbits, then all I have to say is, that white rabbits are a deal cleverer than they have the credit of being among natural historians.

Later, doubt was thrown upon the possibility of getting mental questions answered, and Planchette retorted:

Do you fancy for one moment that I dont know the workings of your brain? That is not the difficulty. It is the impossibility almost of making two diametrically opposed magnetisms unite.

After this rebuke, Mr. B. asked a mental question, and received the following answer:

I am impelled to say that if you will persevere in these investigations, you may be placed en rapport with your wife, who would undoubtedly communicate with you. If you have any faith in the immortality of the soul, you can have no doubt of the possibility of spiritual influences being brought to bear upon mortals. It is no new thing. Ever since the world began, this power has been exerted in one way or another; and if you pretend to put any faith in the Bible, you surely must credit the possibility of establishing this subtile connection between man and so-called angels.

This communication was glibly written until within eleven words of the conclusion, when Planchette stopped, and I asked if she had finished.

No, she replied.

Then why dont you go on? I continued. I can write faster than this.

Planchette grew exceeding wroth at this, and dashed off an answer:

Because, my good gracious! you are not obliged to express yourself through anothers brain.

I took it for granted that Planchette had shot very wide of the mark in the supposed response to Mr. B.s mental query, and hence was not prepared to be told that it was satisfactory, in proof of which Mr. B. wrote beneath it:

Appropriate answer to my mental question, Will my deceased wife communicate with me? I. A. B.

May 28th. At the breakfast-table Mr. G. expressed a great desire to see Planchette perform, and she was brought from her box. Miss W. was also present. After several communications, Miss W. asked a mental question, and Planchette immediately wrote:

Miss W., that is hardly possible in the present state of the money market; but later, I dare say you will accomplish what you desire to undertake.

Miss W. Planchette is entirely off the track. My question was, Can you tell me anything about my nephew?

Mr. G. Well, it is certainly very queer. I asked a mental question to which this is to a certain extent an answer.

Mr. G. was seated beside me, thoroughly intent upon Planchette. Miss W. was at a distance, and not in any way en rapport with me. If this phenomenon of answering mental questions be clairvoyance, the situation of these two persons may account for the mixed nature of the answer, beginning with Miss W. and finishing with Mr. G.

for December, 1868, contains an interesting article entitled Planchette in a New Character . What the new character is in which it appears, may be learned from the introductory paragraph, as follows:

We, too, have a Planchette, and a Planchette with this signal merit: it disclaims all pretensions to supermundane inspirations; it operates freely indeed, with extraordinary freedom; it goes at the tap of the drum. The first touch of the operators, no matter under what circumstances it is brought out to reveal its knowledge, sets it in motion. But it brings no communications from any celestial or spiritual sources. Its chirography is generally good, and frequently excellent. Its remarks evince an intelligence often above that of the operators, and its talent at answering or evading difficult questions is admirable. We have no theories about it.

Although the writer in the paragraph above quoted disclaims all theories on the subject, he does propound a theory, such as it is; but of this we defer our notice until we come to put the several theories that have been offered into the hopper and grind them up together; at which time we will take some further notice of the amusing peculiarities of this writers Planchette.