THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
is cloudless, and one does not feel the lightest breath of
wind.
The furniture is overturned and displaced, without any-
body touching it.
Pencils write of their own accord. Their writing is that
of Mr. Home, and they make the same mistakes as he does.
Those present feel themselves touched and seized by
invisible hands. These contacts, which seem to select ladies,
lack a serious side, and sometimes even propriety. We think
that we shall be sufficiently understood.
Visible and tangible hands come out, or seem to come out,
of tables; but in this case, the tables must be covered. The
invisible agent needs certain apparatus, just as do the cleverest
successors of Robert Houdin.
These hands show themselves above all in darkness; they
are warm and phosphorescent, or cold and black. They write
stupidities, or touch the piano; and when they have touched
the piano, it is necessary to send for the tuner, their contact
being always fatal to the exactitude of the instrument.
One of the most considerable personages in England, Sir
Bulwer Lytton, has seen and touched those hands; we have
read his written and signed attestation. He declares even
that he has seized them, and drawn them towards himself
with all his strength, in order to withdraw from their incognito
the arm to which they should naturally be attached. But the
invisible object has proved stronger than the English novelist,
and the hands have escaped him.
A Russian nobleman who was the protector of Mr. Home,
and whose character and good faith could not possibly be
doubted, Count A. B——, has also seen and seized with
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