Col. Deyer is an intelligent man, commanding the respect of his neighbors, and has held an appointment of considerable importance under the government at Washington. In a letter dated December 2d, 1893, he says:--"Thousands of people from various sections of the Union have visited the place--of course some laugh at it. I do myself sometimes, as I am not superstitious and take little stock in spooks or anything connected therewith; but the well is here, and still shows up many wondrous things, but not so plentiful nor so plainly as it did a year ago." We have presented in this well the most favorable conditions possible for crystal-gazing--a body of unusually clear sparkling water, lying upon a white sand bottom, and the rays of the sun reflected into it by means of a mirror;--no better "cup of divination" could be desired, nor any better circumstances for securing the psychical conditions favorable for the action of the subliminal self. The various methods of practising crystal-gazing here noticed may be looked upon simply as so many different forms of _sensory automatism_, referable in these instances to the sense of sight; and whether produced by using the "cup of divination," the ink or treacle in the palm of the hand, the jewels of the Jewish high-priest, the ordinary crystal or stone of the early Christian centuries, and even down to the experiments of Miss X., and the Society for Psychical Research, or last of all, the wells or springs of clear water, either the early ones of Greece and Rome, or the latest one on the farm of Col. Deyer, they are all simply methods of securing such a condition by gazing fixedly at a bright object, as best to facilitate communication between the ordinary or primary self, and the secondary or subliminal self. It is the first, and perhaps the most important, in a series of sensory automatisms, or those having reference to the senses, in distinction from motor automatisms, or those produced by various automatic actions of the body. These sensory automatisms are usually looked upon as hallucinations--but so far as the term hallucination conveys the idea of deception or falsity it is inappropriate, since the messages brought in this manner are just as real--just as veridical or truth-telling as automatic writing or speaking. Hearing is another form of sensory automatism, which, while less common than that of seeing, has also been noticed in all ages. The child Samuel, ministering to the High Priest Eli, three times in one night, heard himself called by name, and three times came to Eli saying, "Here am I;" adding at last, "for surely thou didst call me." The wise high-priest recognized the rare psychic qualities of the child and brought him up for the priesthood in place of his own wayward sons; and he became the great seer of Israel.