He remonstrated, and the chair returned to its usual position. 'This made a deep impression on M. Patris, and contributed in no slight degree to make him a converted character'-- a le faire devenir devot. {125a} Tales like this, with that odd uniformity of tone and detail which makes them curious, might be collected from old literature to any extent. Thus, among the sounds usually called 'rappings,' Mr. Crookes mentions, as matter within his own experience, 'a cracking like that heard when a frictional machine is at work'. Now, as may be read in Southey's Life of Wesley and in Clarke's Memoirs of the Wesleys, this was the very noise which usually heralded the arrival of 'Jeffrey,' as they called the Epworth 'spirit'. {125b} It has been alleged that the charming and ill-fated Hetty Wesley caused the disturbances. If so (and Dr. Salmon, who supports this thesis, does not even hazard a guess as to the modus operandi), Hetty must have been familiar with almost the whole extent of psychical literature, for she scarcely left a single phenomenon unrepresented. It does not appear that she supplied visible 'hands'. We have seen Glanvill lay stress on the apparition of a hand. In the case of the devil of Glenluce, 'there appeared a naked hand, and an arm from the elbow down, beating upon the floor till the house did shake again'. {126a} At Rerrick, in 1695, 'it knocked upon the chests and boards, as people do at a door'. 'And as I was at prayer,' says the Rev. Alexander Telfair, 'leaning on the side of a bed, I felt something thrusting my arm up, and casting my eyes thitherward, perceived a little white hand, and an arm from the elbow down, but it vanished presently.' {126b} The hands viewed, grasped, and examined by Home's clientele, hands which melted away in their clutch, are innumerable, and the phenomenon, with the 'cold breeze,' is among the most common in modern narratives. Our only conclusion is that the psychological conditions which begat the ancient narratives produce the new legends. These surprise us by the apparent good faith in marvel and myth of many otherwise credible narrators, and by the coincidence, accidental or designed, with old stories not generally familiar to the modern public. Do impostors and credulous persons deliberately 'get up' the subject in rare old books? Is there a method of imposture handed down by one generation of bad little girls to another? Is there such a thing as persistent identity of hallucination among the sane? This was Coleridge's theory, but it is not without difficulties. These questions are the present results of Comparative Psychological Research. HAUNTED HOUSES