385. “‘Each person desired the table to rap the number of years of his age, and it gave our ages as indicated only in our mind, endeavouring in the most curious manner to hurry when the number was large. I must own, to my shame, that I was rebuked by it, for having unintentionally diminished my age; the table gave forty-three instead of forty-two, because my wife, with a better memory, had thought of the correct number.
386. “‘Finally, having continued these experiments more than an hour, at which the neighbours and the servants of the farm were present, I felt that it was time to stop. I requested the table to raise; to raise again, and turn over on my side, which it did.
“‘Accept, gentlemen, the assurance of my best consideration,
A. De Gasparin.’
387. “We stop our citations here; for those who are not content with the testimony we have furnished, emanating as it does from philosophers, or men of serious minds, the same revelations appearing, too, in all parts of the world, will not be better satisfied by any thing we could add. A day is coming, however, that will open every mouth. Then from all those parlours so reserved before—from all those cabinets in which experiments had been conducted with closed doors, the truth will burst forth in its full power. Then it will be known that some of the most esteemed men of Paris, of the bench, pulpit, and men of letters, have both desired to see and have seen it; have desired to know and have known it. It will be known that the evil super-intelligence has been revealed to them, and that if they have been silent on the subject, or desired to suppress their name, it was only an act of prudence to restrain public opinion.
388. “But on that day what will Science be doing? We can boldly predict: the facts of to-day which it does admit, proving to amount to nothing, and the inadmissible facts being admitted, its faith will change, and its language become more modest. Like the ancient Augurs, two savants will not be able to look at each other any more without smiling, and often enough to exclaim: ‘It has been well said, my dear colleague; it has always been foretold, that “He, who is outside of pure mathematics, pronounces the word IMPOSSIBLE, WANTS PRUDENCE.’”
Arago.””