are forced to bring to bear their own powers of close observation,
sharpened and educated by experience. Be it remembered that what we have
here stated applies solely to the process whereby the communication is
written on the slate; with the substance of the communication, whether
pertinent answers to questions or dreary platitudes, we are not now
dealing. Whether these answers be ascribed to Spirits, or to what is
termed clairvoyance, they would be none the less true or false if
delivered orally by the Medium; all that we are sure of is that the
writing down of these communications, be their substance what it may, is
performed in a manner so closely resembling fraud as to be
indistinguishable from it. It would be a mere matter of opinion that all
Independent Slate Writing is fraudulent; what is not a matter of opinion
is the conviction, which we have unanimously reached as a Commission, of
its non-spiritual character in every instance that has come before us.

An eminent professional juggler performed, in the presence of three of
our Commission, some Independent Slate Writing far more remarkable than
any which we have witnessed with Mediums. In broad daylight, a slate
perfectly clean on both sides was, with a small fragment of slate
pencil, held under a leaf of a small ordinary table around which we were
seated; the fingers of the juggler's right hand pressed the slate tight
against the underside of the leaf, while the thumb completed the
pressure, and remained in full view while clasping the leaf of the
table. Our eyes never for a fraction of a second lost sight of that
thumb; it never moved; and yet in a few minutes the slate was produced,
covered on both sides with writing. Messages were there, and still are
there, for we preserved the slate, written in French, Spanish, Dutch,
Chinese, Japanese, Gujerati, and ending with 'Ich bin ein Geist, und
liebe mein Lagerbier.' We were utterly baffled. For one of our number
the juggler subsequently repeated the trick and revealed its every