With regard to races, I have found good'subjects' amongst them all; but some of my greatest successes have been achieved with Englishmen and Germans. The more civilised the nation, the greater number of subjects' suitable for thought-reading experiments will it provide.

A Chinaman, under the rank of an ambassador with a touch of Western civilisation about him, is a hopeless case. There is no possibility of getting him to think squarely. North American Indians occasionally provide some interesting subjects, but it generally takes them about twenty-four hours to make up their minds what to think of, and they insist upon smoking whilst going about the experiment. It is difficult to make savage tribes understand what you are about, but when they do catch on' they are invariably frantic with delight. Experimenting with savages-especially if they happen to have cannibalistic tendencies-is not unfraught with danger. Once, when I was experimenting with a Maori chief, I felt convinced that the dominant idea in the old rascal's mind was how a thought-reader would taste in a pie. Luckily I had white friends with me at the time, and he did not seek to let this idea have practical effect.

Contrary to general expectation I do not look upon women as good subjects. They are, as a general thing, much too nervous and highly strung to concentrate their thoughts-I principally refer to public tests for any length of time. It is all very well if the experiment is an easy one and does not take long to fulfil; but if it be an intricate one, taking some time in its execution, you may depend upon it that she will have got heartily weary of it before she is half through with it. Moreover, with the natural perversity of her sex, she will commence to think of everything or everybody in the room, or perplex herself with the thought what Mrs. A. thinks of her, or what Miss B. would do in her place, or whether Mr. C. is of opinion she is making an exhibition of herself. With such thoughts running like wild-fire through her mind there is no room for that dominant idea which the operator is in search of.

Ladies, in their pliability, make, in most cases, very excellent 'subjects' for what is termed 'willing,' in which phase of experiment they are what is called 'willed' to do certain things desired by the ladies or gentlemen who have hold of them.

The method is for a lady to stand in the middle of the room, and for two so-called 'willers '-generally ladies-to place their hands upon her body, one hand in front and the other behind. Almost immediately the lady who is to find the object thought of moves off in the direction desired by the operators,' and, as a matter of fact, she is nearly always successful. Of course the ladies who hold her unconsciously assist her in the finding of the object, by the muscular pressure they exercise upon her. This method is very clumsy, and it is in no way adapted for the working out of experiments of a

complex character, or even for the finding in very small localities. The manipulation it entails is also much too apparent, and it provides no safeguard against guesswork. On the whole, however, it affords a very fair illustration of the general principle of mind acting on body producing muscular tensions in the direction of the locality on which the thoughts are concentrated.

In the method I adopt I invariably take the initiative, whether it be in the matter of searching for a pin or of writing down the number of a bank-note.

In my experiments I am always blindfolded, so that my attention shall not be distracted by light or movement. I generally take the left hand and place it on my forehead, and in such manner I can quite readily find the smallest objects. In working out actions such as imaginary murder tableaux, I prefer taking the patient's hand in my own, so that all the nerves and muscles may have full play.

Let it be clearly understood that I at no time get any so-called 'mental picture' of what is in the mind of my subject; but that. I am in every instance dependent upon the impressions conveyed to me through the action of his physical system (during contact with him) whilst under the influence of concentrated attention.

Some mystically inclined people claim to be able to read thoughts without contact. For my part I have never yet seen experiments of this kind successfully performed unless there had been opportunities for observing some phase of physical indication expressed by the subject, or unless the operator was enabled to gather information from suggestions unconsciously let fall by somebody around. I have on several occasions managed to accomplish tests without actual contact, but I have always been sufficiently near to my subject' to receive from him-and to act upon accordingly-any impressions that he physically might convey.

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In my case, thought-reading' is an exalted perception of touch. Given contact with an honest, thoughtful man, I can ascertain the locality he is thinking of, the object he has decided upon, the course he wishes to pursue, or the number he desires me to decipher almost as confidently as though I had received verbal communication from him.

I, of course, am not alone in this matter, there being without doubt thousands of people in the world who possess in a greater or lesser degree similar qualifications. Nine-tenths of them do not and, maybe, never will, know it, and a very great proportion of the remaining tenth would not take the trouble to develop the faculty. A continuous practice of these feats is not good for one. Whilst operating one is in a constant state of excitement, and the nerves are apt to become unhinged. Some amateur operators-especially the young and mystically emotional-who have not the remotest idea as to how they perform their experiments, or that they are capable of a physiological explanation, get so imbued with the mag

netic theory that they are always imagining they see 'auras' or feel 'strange magnetic currents' running through them. This is highly calculated to do their nervous systems some permanent injury, and the parents and guardians of such people would do well to put their veto upon the demonstrations.

The process known as 'thought-reading 'is quite a modern thing, and, so far as I can ascertain, it was altogether unknown to the ancients. When I was in India I made active inquiries on all sides as to whether there was any trace in the priestly and historical writings of similar experiments having been performed in the past. I was invariably answered in the negative; but one day an old Brahman at Bhavnagar told me that there was a tradition amongst the Brahmans that ages ago so far back that he could not fix the date-there were holy people who possessed the power of reading the thoughts of man. These wise men were in consequence set up as being only next to the gods, which made the divinities so wroth that they devoured them, or did away with them in some such effective manner-hence the dearth of thought-readers in Western India.

Later on this same old priest did me the extreme honour, in a poem read before the Prince in durbar, of placing me in point of glory very near some of the most reputable of their gods, all because I had successfully performed some experiments with his Highness the Thakore. Whether the Brahman flattered me in the hopes of obtaining backsheesh, or whether he was anxious for me to incur the displeasure of the deities referred to, I cannot say. In the first place, as a Christian I was bound not to hold the gods in question in very high respect, so I refused to be flattered and scattered no backsheesh; and in the second, after enjoying the Prince's splendid hospitality for a week, I left the state without any kind of mishap.

A noted Egyptologist told me, however, that he was of opinion that the Egyptian priests were adepts in the art of thought-reading, and that they were quite conversant with the methods adopted by myself. In fact, I believe I understood him to say that there was indirect evidence of such things having been in some of the recently discovered magic papyri. It is possible that if, as has been anticipated, these Egyptian priests and Persian magi were expert thoughtreaders,' they developed the process further than I have been able to do.

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For some time past I have not only ceased to further pursue my investigations in the matter of thought-reading,' but have virtually given up the practice thereof, other matters occupying my thoughts and my time. Although I shall no longer be actively identified with the subject, I cannot but hope that the impressions I have here let fall will be productive of good fruit.

STUART C. CUMBERLAND.

LOYALTY OF THE INDIAN

MOHAMMEDANS.

THE facility for travelling in comfort through India owing to the spread of railways has induced a swarm of tourists to visit that country, too many of whom consider it necessary to put into print useless descriptions of places and structures of which it would be difficult to write anything novel or amusing. The Taj at Agra, and Futtehpore Sikri, and the Ghauts of Benares, are as well known as Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, and the landing steps at Greenwich; and we talk of the shop of Manik Chund at Delhi as readily as of that of Liberty in Regent Street.

For a book to be of value something more than denunciations of the abominable hotels at Bombay and Calcutta, or stories of bowling over tigers,' or details of railway journeys and misdemeanours of Hindoo servants, is required. An account of one week's intimate intercourse with the Ryots of a district would be far more valuable. But it may be truly said a traveller cannot enter into any intimate intercourse with the Ryots; it is hard enough for the oldest resident to do so. Yet one does meet with men who have had constant, familiar, and friendly intercourse with the cultivators, having gained their confidence by kindly words and kindly acts, and by a thorough knowledge of the dialect of the district. Such men I have met, more of them outside the Civil Service proper than within its pale; men engaged in commerce, in the purchase of agricultural produce, others in engineering works and in forestry, and in those many occupations which give them opportunities of sitting under a tree and of hearing that which the Indian peasant desires or complains of. The exalted position of the civil servant and the awe he inspires are obstacles in the way of unrestrained intercourse, and the higher he rises and the greater his experience, the greater is the awe and the wider the gulf between him and those he governs.

Although the traveller cannot penetrate below the surface of Indian life, still from conversation with English officials, and with natives official and unofficial, specially in the independent states, and from the articles in the native press, one who has been a previous visitor to India can see how rapid and how high has been the advance of the tide of public opinion within a comparatively short

period. It was my good fortune to have been at Calcutta in 1875 during the visit of the Prince of Wales, and to have become acquainted with almost all the natives of high position who were present on that occasion. Many of them spoke to me, apparently with great frankness, on the social and political questions of the day. I should rather say on the political, for as to the social questions they had generally no strongly defined opinions, nor had they thought much on the subject. Even as regards political questions there seemed to be much timidity and no definite aims. During the last ten years, however, the progress of thought has been enormous; social questions are eagerly and profitably discussed, and what were formerly but floating ideas of political objects have now assumed definite shape, and have become, if I may use a vulgarism, the planks of an Indian platform. This is to be ascribed to the general increase of education, and to the diffusion of intercourse between men of all parts of the Indian continent, owing to the facilities for travelling by the construction of railways, and their remarkably low scale of fares.

The opinion of the English governing class on this progress of thought in India varies. Some denounce it, looking back with regret to the stagnation of old times; some regard it as inevitable, and accept it as such; and others, I must say the minority, welcome it as tending to raise our Indian fellow-subjects to higher and nobler ideas, to the practice of self-government, and thus to the level of European civilisation. Accepting this as a sound object of policy, they disregard the scurrilous and malignant outpourings of many of the Indian newspapers, and laugh at the inflated ridiculous harangues of young Bengal, knowing that in the background there are natives of moderation, good sense, and forethought, and that the conservative and somewhat timid nature of the Indian mind forbids the application of wild speculative theories to the political questions which affect the course of daily life. It has been my good fortune to meet such natives, and I am not without belief that every day their number is being increased, and that by degrees, with caution and discrimination, many of the demands now advanced may with safety be conceded. Among the most prominent of these demands are selfgovernment, reform of the constitution of the Indian Council, and the raising of the age for admission to the Civil Service. This is not the occasion to discuss at any length these demands. Suffice it to say, that the raising of the age of candidates has hardly an opponent in India. It finds favour, I believe, with the natives and the ruling powers alike, and would undoubtedly improve the class of English officials by enabling men who had taken degrees at the universities of the United Kingdom to compete, and who would come out matured in judgment and experience by the attrition of English life. As to reform in the Indian Council, no one can contend that, with the changes material and intellectual extending throughout India