My Library

others quite small indeed. The larger bundle he unrolled and spread upon the floor, on the space between the chairs and fauteuils. It was about three feet in diameter, and was painted in all sorts of colors, and figures entirely nondescript. The centre of this article was immediately that of the triangle, ‘The Symbolical figure of the Universe, or Oneness,’ as he called it, and of course was directly beneath the large chandelier. This done, he placed the saucer right upon the centre of the symbolical chart, if I may so term it. Then, unfastening the coils of wire, he laid one along the laps of the gentlemen on one side, and fastened it by means of a link and hook to two others, which passed in front of the other two sections of the human trine. The wire held by the ladies (for we all were directed to grasp the wire before us with one hand, and the hand of the next neighbor with the other) was common iron, wound with silver foil; the one before myself was steel, wound with gold wire; and the other was of solid gold, wound, as were the others, at intervals, with floss silk. The ladies grasped with the left hand, and joined their right, while with the gentlemen this order was reversed. The next proceeding on the part of Mai, was to place half of the gum into the saucer; upon this he emptied the vial of colorless liquid, and set fire thereto. It burned with a clear and steady bluish flame. The gum was gradually consumed, and a peculiar and