Ques.—Are they all well at home?
Ans.—With God all things are well.
Not being able to decipher this clearly, it repeated:
"With God all things are well. Trust Him."
I confess to having been impressed with these words, so solemn were they, so oracular, and, as it then appeared, so fitly spoken. At the time of making these experiments I was on board one of the Pacific Mail steamships, on my way to San Francisco; and I had reason to be particularly solicitous in regard to my future. But my companion, in these my first experiments, just entering a new and untried field, had far more cause of anxiety than myself in regard to the future. To her these warnings seemed singularly applicable. Satisfied that my coöperator exercised no voluntary control over the board, absolutely certain the words were not emanations of my own mind, and impelled by curiosity, I determined to try the effect of a few test questions, and, ridiculous as it may appear, ascertain from the instrument itself something of its nature.
Is there any power in Planchette, or is it merely a vehicle? I asked.
Ans.—Inactive bodies have no active agency.
Ques.—Whence come the words of Planchette—whence her intelligence?
Ans.—From the seat of intelligence in the one who commands me.
Ques.—Can you foretell coming events?