A TECHNIQUE known as book tests came to be used extensively by Mrs. Leonard's communicators, who, in fact, were said to have originated it. Certain books available to the sitter but from a home the medium had never seen were used to produce messages which, the communicators hoped, would go a long way toward establishing their identity. John or A. V. B. or one of the others would come to a sitting prepared with the location of a book, the page, and the line of a message which would have a special significance for the sitter in connection with thern. The clues were unintelligible until after they were followed up and the message decoded.

Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, one of the greatest minds in Psychical research, describes the operation of a book test:

The so-called book tests we have to examine are attempts by Mrs. Leonard's control, Feda, to indicate the contents of a particular page of a particular book which Mrs. Leonard has not seen with her bodily eyes, and which is not, at the time of the sitting, known to the sitter. For example, Feda might tell the sitter that the communicator wants him to go to the bookcase between the fireplace and the window in his study, and in the third shelf from the bottom to take the seventh book from the left and open it at the forty-eighth page, where, about one-third of the way down, he will find a passage which may be regarded as an appropriate message from the communicator to him. In the most typical cases the interior of the sitter's residence, and sometimes even the sitter's name, is unknown to Mrs. Leonard. The sitter himself is unlikely consciously to remember what book occupies the exact place indicated, and even if he has read the book, which he often has not, it is practically certain that he does not know what is on the specified page.

A simple book test is given in The Earthen Vesse 12 by Pamela Glenconner. Edward Wyndham Tennant ("Bim"), a son of Lord and Lady Glenconner, who fell in the Battle of the Somme in September, 1916, is the purporting communicator.

Lord Glenconner's chief interest, in the years before the war, was forestry; often in the course of family walks through the woods, he would gloomily say that the young trees were being ruined by "the beetle."

Young Bim had been known to whisper to his mother at the start of a family walk, "See if we can get through the wood without hearing about the beetle."

At a Leonard sitting December 17, 1917 Bim's brother David Tennant and his father were the sitters.

FEDA. Bim now wants to send a message to his father. This book is particularly for his father; underline that, he says. It is the ninth book on the third shelf counting from left to right in the bookcase on the right of the door in the drawing room. Take the title, and through it page thirty-seven. The ninth book in the shelf indicated was Trees. On page thirty-six, quite at the bottom and reading on to page thirty-seven it read: "Sometimes you will see curious marks in the wood; these are caused by a tunneling beetle, very injurious to the trees. . . ."

Mrs. Salter writes:

FEDA. [Dr. Verrall] went on to the shelf above the one Dora was on; ... he took the third book from the right and he took page seven of that book; and on page seven was something very characteristic of the Image. [Feda then explains to Mr. Irving that "the Image" is my little girl and continues.] There's something on that page that's very much to do with the Image, that refers to the Image, and he wanted it called the Image because of what's on that page. The third book from the right in the shelf indicated was Gilchrist's Life and Work of William Blake (1880), vol. i. Page seven is part of a chapter concerning Blake's childhood and the word "childhood" appears as a chapter heading at the top of the page. I will quote from the bottom of page six: ". . . and then unsophisticate green field and hedge row opened on the [p. 7] child's delighted eyes. A mile or two further through the large and pleasant village of Camberwell ... the sweet hill and sylvan wilds of rural Dulwich ... the fertile verdant meads of Walton-upon-Thames; much of the way by lane and footpath. The beauty of those scenes in his youth was a lifelong reminiscence with Blake, and stored his mind with lifelong pastoral images."

My daughter, just three years old, is called Imogen. At the first sitting I had with Mrs. Leonard after her birth I was told by Feda that my father intended to refer to her as "the Image," and she has habitually been called by that name at my subsequent sittings. Whether Mrs. Leonard has, or had at the time "the Image" was first referred to, any normal knowledge of my daughter's name, I cannot say, nor is the question material here. I take the reference in the test to be to the country scenes and "the child's delighted eyes." We live in a country village with fields and woodland all about us, and the love of flowers, which is characteristic of most small children, is very marked in linogcn. She usually notices any new flower she sees on her walks and asks its name. It will be observed that at the end of the paragraph from Gilchrist quoted above the word "images" occurs, making a definite link with the child's name. This I take to be the meaning of the words "he wanted it called the Image, because of what's on that Page.

Early in 1931 there was a vague reference that Dora would like to do a book test at the Stansfield home. But it was riot until September that thetnessage came through:

Extract from a Sitting with Mrs. Leonard on 24 September 1931

FEDA.. Mr. Bill, she's been to a place for some books, not in boxes or anything, Mr. Bill,but just ordinary book-test. To a place that you have been wanting her to go to for some time. You mentioned it last sitting . . . She is building up an S, S. And isn't there a B to do with it too? Mr. Bill, there is a name beginning with B connected too. It is possible you don't even know it, but Dora is right. Bur, bur, bull, boot ... ' Theodore Besterman, "A Series of Impressions from a House Unknown to the Medium, Sitter, and Recorder." Part II of "Evidential Extracts from Leonard Sittings." Proceedings S.P.R., Vol. XL, January, 1932.

Mrs. Leonard has, or had at the time "the Image" was first referred to, any normal knowledge of my daughter's name, I cannot say, nor is the question material here. I take the reference in the test to be to the country scenes and "the child's delighted eyes." We live in a country village with fields and woodland all about us, and the love of flowers, which is characteristic of most small children, is very marked in Imogen. She usually notices any new flower she sees on her walks and asks its name. It will be observed that at the end of the paragraph from Gilchrist quoted above the word "images" occurs, making a definite link with the child's name. This I take to be the meaning of the words "he wanted it called the Image, because of what's on that page.

Drayton Thomas reports many successful book tests. One of his earliest experiences of this nature he describes as follows:

We had discussed the possibility of audible sound being produced by my communicator to attract our attention at home. He tried, but rarely succeeded in making knocks which might not be attributed to ordinary creakings in floor or furniture. One night, however, I concluded that a special effort had been made and that the result was a definite success; for thrice I heard a loud double knock. I noted the incident and added it to a list of such items kept for reference. Three days later, at an interview with Mrs. Leonard, Feda greeted me with the assertion that she had succeeded in coming to our house and giving taps there. A few minutes later the following book test was given: "It is in a book behind your study door, the second shelf from the ground, and fifth book from the left. Near the top of page seventeen you will see words which serve to indicate what Feda was attempting to do when knocking in your room. Now that you are aware that it was Feda's attempt you will see the unmistakable bearing of these words upon it."

On returning home I found this book to be a volume of Shakespeare which commences with King Henry VI, and the third line from the top of the indicated page reads, "I will not answer thee with words, but blows." (Drayton Thomas, Some New Evidence for Human Survival, p. 15 London, W. Collins Sons, 1922.)

To sum up, of the twenty statements, ten are correct, six are partly correct, three are doubtful, and only one appears to be wrong. Not all the hits are of equal value, of course, but several are decidedly striking, particularly the approximation to the name Ballard, the name Evans, and the reference to rollers. On the whole, taking the circumstances into consideration, this series of twenty impressions provides good evidence that knowledge of Mr. and Mrs. Stansfield's house was obtained in sonic supernormal manncr. The important point in this connection is the fact that there is no direct link between the medium and the Stansfield's house, since the house is unknown to the medium, the sitter, and the recorder, and nobody in the Stansfield family has sat with Mrs. Leonard.

Mrs. Sidgwick's examination of Leonard book tests is probably the most complete and competent appraisal that has been made. Her report, 6 abridged, follows:

It is as excluding telepathy from the sitter that Feda professes interest in the book tests. She will say to a sitter who has not had one before: "He [the communicator] wants to give you one of the book tests . . . tests that prevent people thinking it is telepathy," or "this test is to do away with any idea (you) may have of telepathy." It is noticeable that the book tests in this collection are always given through Feda as an intermediary. Even communicators who themselves on occasion control directly, such as A. V. B., are represented as dictating their book tests to Feda. Feda, however, is not generally represented as herself perceiving the inside of the closed book. That is the function of the communicator. It is noticeable that throughout the large collection of book tests each sitter has his or her special communicator.

It will have been perceived from the general description I have given to a typical book test, that the plan of referring the sitter to a particular page for "a message" gives great opportunity for vagueness. It seldom happens that the sitter can say beforehand from Feda's description exactly what he expects to find. It is often almost presented to him as a kind of puzzle, as if the communicator said: "See if you can guess what I mean when I say there is a message for you on such and such a page." It would be an error, however, to suppose that on almost any page of any book something that may pass as a message may be found. The difficulty is in deciding what we may legitimately expect in the way of accidental coincidences; and this difficulty will be with us in a good many of the cases to be considered. It is obviously a matter on which people are likely to form different judgments to some extent, and in which bias might come in. For this reason I, as a person outside the experiments, have been asked to report on the evidence collected.

It should be understood from the beginning that many book tests and items of book tests are complete failures, and that apparent precision and fullness of detail in what the communicator says, and confidence expressed by him that the test should be a good one, are no guarantee of success. There were 34 sitters whose book tests were verified. These sitters had a total of 146 sittings at which book tests were given, and at these sittings about 532 separate book test items occurred, not including statements about titles or other outside things. The number of items at a sitting varied from 1 to 15. These 532 items may be classed as 92 successful; 100 approximately successful; 204 complete failures; 40 nearly complete failures; 96 dubious. Taking the first two classes together we may say that about 36%, of the attempts were approximately successful.

If the success of the test is beyond chance expectancy, then what kind of paranormal knowledge is displayed? If telepathy from the sitter or from any other human being is ruled out, could the knowledge have been possessed by the communicator before his death, so that his memory may be the source drawn on? In the absence of the first and second possibilities, the third would of course, if clairvoyance is excluded, give us evidence of survival.

If all these three questions are answered in the negative, but only then, do we seem driven to assume pure clairvoyance-a knowledge of physical appearances not obtained through anybody's senses. According to Feda, it is generally clairvoyance exercised by the corninunicator that is the source of the knowledge shown.

The test was given to Lady Troubridge and Miss Radclyffe-Hall September 12, 1917. A. V. B. was communicating. Feda began by stating that she would give another book test from a volume in M. R. H.'s bookshelves which had been used in previous tests. Near the top, but not the first sentence, on the fifty-second page in the nineteenth book from the window was a line which would apply to two different things-the ornament the sitter was wearing and also her interest in Psychical research.

The line, when discovered, read, "Today-tomorrow-yesterday-forever!" Mrs. Sidgwick says of it:

Now the ornament had a history causing it to be regarded in a marked degree with a sentiment which might be summarized in the words of the line; and as to Psychical research, it was the hope of proving the continuation of individual life beyond the grave, or, as we sometimes express it, life "forever," that led M. R. H. and U. V. T. to devote much time and energy to Psychical research. I think then that it must be admitted that without any straining we find up to a certain point the double appropriateness required. Is it sufficient to exclude accidental coincidence? Our decision must depend, partly at least, on an accumulation of similar evidence in other cases.While describing the location of this book, Feda digressed as follows:

FEDA. Feda don't know what this bit means, but she's showing a picture. She just flashed it up before Feda.

[Feda proceeds to describe a picture, quickly identified by the sitters as a small painting called "Le Canape Bleu," which was hanging close to the bookcase in question. The description, though not quite correct, is I think, and I believe every one would agree, unmistakable. The description is as follows:]

FEDA. It's somebody sitting down without many clothes on.

[This was said in rather a shocked tone suggesting disapproval of the absence of clothes.] They're bending down like this. (Feda assumes a pose, she bends far forward from the waist, extends her right arm, and drops her face on to the extended arm.)

SITTER. What more can you see?

FEDA. Well, one leg seems to be a bit over the other, like this.

[Feda assumes a position with her legs as well as she can do under a skirt; she elevates the right thigh till it almost touches her body, dropping at the same time the left leg till the knee nearly touches the ground.) You can only see one leg plainly, the other one seems to be underneath it. [This is, of course, not an accurate bit of description.]

Feda thinks it is something that you've got.

SITTER: Which of us?

FEDA. Feda thought it was Mrs. Una but isn't sure.

SITTER. Can you see what the figure is lying or sitting on?

FEDA. It's not lying, it's sitting, because Ladye can make Feda do it on this chair. There's something that looks rather round.

SITTER. She gives this picture after mentioning the books?

FEDA. Yes, while giving the test about the books, suddenly that picture came quick up. She hasn't got much clothes on, the woman hasn't. Ladye says you must put it in more artistic language than Feda's. Do you know, she's showing it in a funny kind of way like black and whity looking, the figure seems to show up light against dark; but Feda can't see any color. She says something about something with four lines going down. It's something to do with what the figure is sitting on. She's laughing.

SITTER. There's no mistaking now where the books are.

FEDA. She says, no, she thinks now that she knows them by heart. It's a funny position in that picture. It's silly Feda thinks, because you can't see the face. The fingers aren't quite straight; three of them are curved in rather, but the forefinger sticks out straighter, it's like this; (Feda takes a pose with her right hand, showing the second, third, and fourth fingers curved in, but the forefinger sticking out almost straight) Ladye's showing Feda that the wrist and hand make rather a smooth outline, not showing the bones or knuckles much, like you see sometimes.

This ends all the portion of the sitting connected with the book test. The picture so minutely and so nearly accurately described belongs, of course, to the external class of things-those known to the sitters and possibly telepathically learned from them.

Another important point to note is that the picture had been well known to the communicator in her lifetime, so that her memory may have been the source of information. She may have "flashed it up before Feda" from her own mind. It had been bought after being seen at an exhibition by A. V. B. and M. R. H. together, and it had afterwards hung in their house.

I will next quote a case in which the memory of the communicator seems almost certainly to be the source of information -so much so that if accurately described it serves as evidence of the communicator's identity in the same kind of way as would the reading of a sealed letter after the writer's death. The test was received by Mrs. Hugh Talbot, and is one of the earliest book tests of which we have a record. It was given on March 19, 1917, but most unfortunately was not recorded in writing till the end of December of the same year.

Mrs. Talbot's report, written out and sent to Lady Troubridge on December 29, 1917, is as follows:

Mrs. Leonard at this time knew neither my name nor address, nor had I ever been to her or any other medium, before, in my life.

On Monday the first part of the time was taken up by what one might call a medley of descriptions, all more or less recognizable, of different people, together with a number of messages, some of which were intelligible and some not. Then Feda gave a very correct description of my husband's personal appearance, and from then on he alone seemed to speak (through her of course) and a most extraordinary conversation followed. Evidently he was trying by every means in his power to prove to me his identity and to show me it really was himself, and as time went on I was forced to believe this was indeed so.

All he said, or rather Feda for him, was clear and lucid. Incidents of the past, known only to him and to me were spoken of, belongings trivial in themselves but possessing for him a particular personal interest of which I was aware, were minutely and correctly described, and I was asked if I still had them. Also I was asked repeatedly if I believed it was himself speaking, and assured that death was really not death at all, that life continued not so very unlike this life and that he did not feel changed at all. Feda kept on saying: "Do you believe, he does want you to know it is really himself." I said I could not be sure but I thought it must be true. All this was very interesting to me, and very strange, more strange because it all seemed so natural. Suddenly Feda began a tiresome description of a book, she said it was leather and dark, and tried to show me the size. Mrs. Leonard showed a length of eight to ten inches long with her hands, and four or five wide. She (Feda) said "It is not exactly a book, it is not printed, Fcda wouldn't call it a book, it has writing in." It was long before I could connect this description with anything at all, but at last I remembered a red leather notebook of my husband's, which I think he called a logbook, and I asked: "Is it a logbook?" Feda seemed puzzled at this and not to know what a logbook was, and repeated the word once or twice then said "Yes, yes, he says it might be a logbook." I then said "Is it a red book?" On this point there was hesitation, they thought possibly it was, though he thought it was darker. The answer was undecided, and Feda began a wearisome description all over again, adding that I was to look on page twelve, for something written (I am not sure of this word) there, that it would be so interesting after this conversation. Then she said "He is not sure it is page twelve, it might be thirteen, it is so long, but he does want you to look and to try and find it. It would interest him to know if this extract is there." I was rather half-hearted in responding to all this, there was so much of it, and it sounded purposeless and also I remembered the book so well, having often looked through it wondering if it was any good keeping it, although besides things to do with ships and my husband's work there were, I remembered, a few notes and verses in it. But the chief reason I was anxious to get off the subject was that I felt sure the book would not be forthcoming; either I had thrown it away, or it had gone with a lot of other things to a luggage room in the opposite block of flats where it would hardly be possible to get at it. However, I did not quite like to say this, and not attaching any importance to it, replied rather indefinitely that I would see if I could find it. But this did not satisfy Feda. She started all over again becoming more and more insistent and went on to say "He is not sure of the color, he does not know. There are two books, you will know the one he means by a diagram of languages in the front." And here followed a string of words, in what order I forget, "Indo-European, Aryan, Semitic languages," and others, repeating it several times, and she said "There are lines, but not straight, going like this"-drawing with her finger lines going out sideways from one center. Then again the words, "A table of Arabian languages, Semitic languages." I have tried to put it as she said it, but of course I cannot be sure she put the names in that order. What I am quite sure of is the actual words she used at one time or another. She said all the names and sometimes "table," sometimes "diagram" and sometimes "drawing," and all insistently. It sounded absolute rubbish to me. I had never heard of a diagram of languages and all these Eastern names jumbled together sounded like nothing at all, and she kept on repeating them and saying this is how I was to know the book, and kept on and on, "Will you look at page twelve or thirteen. If it is there, it would interest him so much after this conversation. He does want you to, he wants you to promise." By this time I had come to the conclusion that what I had heard of happening at these sittings had come to pass, viz. that the medium was tired and talking nonsense, so I hastened to pacify her by promising to look for the book, and was glad when the sitting almost at once came to an end.

I went home thinking very little of all this last part; still, after telling my sister and niece all that I considered the interesting things said in the beginning, I did mention that in the end the medium began talking a lot of rubbish about a book, and asking me to look on page twelve or thirteen to find something interesting. I was to know the book by a diagram of languages. After dinner, the same evening, my niece, who had taken more notice of all this than either my sister or myself, begged me to look for the book at once. I wanted to wait till the next day, saying I knew it was all nonsense. However, in the end I went to the book shelf, and after some time, right at the back of the top shelf I found one or two old notebooks belonging to my husband, which I had never felt I cared to open. One, a shabby black leather, corresponded in size to the description given, and I absentmindedly opened it, wondering in my mind whether the one I was looking for had been destroyed or only sent away. To my utter astonishment, my eyes fell on the words, "Table of Semitic or Syro-Arabian Languages," and pulling out the leaf, which was a long folded piece of paper pasted in, I saw on the other side "General table of the Aryan and IndoEuropean languages." It was the diagram of which Feda had spoken. I was so taken aback I forgot for some minutes to look for the extract. When I did I found it on page thirteen. I have copied it out exactly.

I cannot account now for my stupidity in not attaching more importance to what Feda was trying to say about the book, but I was so convinced, if any book was meant, it was the red book. This one I had never opened, and as I say there was little hope of getting the other, nor did I feel there could be anything in it my husband would want me to see. Also it was only my second sitting. I knew nothing of mediums and the descriptions seemed so endless and tedious. I cafi't see why now.

(Signed) LILY TALBOT

1 Oakwood Court
 

"I discovered by certain whispers which it was supposed I was unable to hear and from certain glances of curiosity or commiseration which it was supposed I was unable to see, that I was near death....

Presently my mind began to dwell not only on happiness which was to come, but upon happiness that I was actually enjoying. I saw long forgotten forms, playmates, school-fellows, companions of my youth and of my old age, who one and all, smiled upon me. They did not smile with any compassion, that I no longer felt that I needed, but with that sort of kindness which is exchanged by people who are equally happy. I saw my mother, father, and sisters, all of whom I had survived. They did not speak, yet they communicated to me their unaltered and unalterable affection. At about the time when they appeared, I made an cffort to realize my bodily situation . . . that is, I endeavored to connect my soul with the body which lay on the bed in my house ... the endeavor failed. I was dead. . . . "
Extract from Post Mortem. Author anon. (Blackwood & Sons, 1881.)
I do not attempt to reproduce the diagram of languages, which is complicated, but Fcda's description of it as having lines going out from a center is correct; this branching out from points and from lines happens repeatedly.

It will be generally agreed I think that the coincidence is quite beyond what can reasonably be attributed to chance. Further, the quotation on page thirteen of the notebook seems quite appropriate; and we may even regard it as probable that had contemporary notes been taken ofwhat was said at the sitting, the truth of the statement attributed to the communicator that the quotation "would be so interesting after this conversation" would have been still more apparent. The incident must, I think, rank among the best single pieces of definite evidence we have for memory of their earth life in communicators, and therefore of personal identity. But it is scarcely, strictly speaking, a book test.

The interesting incident just described is not a book test proper because it does not furnish evidence of knowledge by the communicator of present facts not within his memory, nor within the knowledge of living human beings. Of this there are no specimens among the book tests so striking as either the vision of the picture, or as Mrs. Talbot's test. Still there arc some striking cases, and to some of these we may proceed.

I will begin with the book test received on September 29, 1917, by Mrs. S. E. Beadon, the lady who, as mentioned above, introduced Mrs. Talbot to Mrs. Leonard. The communicator was her husband, Colonel Beadon. Mrs. Beadon reports Feda as saying:

In a squarish room are some books, not quite in the corner, but running by the wall to the corner from the window, a row of books. Counting from right to left the fifth book, page 71-Feda is not sure if it is 17 or 71. (After repeating both numbers several times Fcda says she is sure it is page 71 - second paragraph or about middle of the page.) On page 71 will be found a message from him to you. The message will not be as beautiful as he would like to make it, but you will understand he wants to make the test as good as he can. On the same shelf is a book in dirtyish brown cover and a reddish book and an old fashioned book.

(1) It refers to a past condition

(2) But has also an application to the present.

(3) It is an answer to a thought which was much more in your mind at one time than it is now -a question which was once much in your mind, but is not now, especially since you have known Feda.

(4) On the opposite page is a reference to fire.

(5) On the opposite side is a reference to light.

(6) On the opposite side is a reference. to olden times. These have nothing to do with the message but are just tests that you have the right page.

(7) On the same page or opposite page or perhaps over the leaf a very important word beginning with S.

(I asked if it was the top shelf, and Feda said "yes." It turned out that there was only one shelf.)
 

Verification

Six out of the seven indications of the message are found to be clear.

The room proved to be the dining room of my mother's house where I was staying temporarily. Mrs. Leonard had never been inside the house at all. The room was not square; one end was squared, the other end octagonal. There was an old volume of Dryden's poems and the others as described on the same shelf. The fifth book from right to left was a volume of poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I had never read O. W. Holmes' poems-pages 71 and 17 had the same thought expressed on both.

Page 71, second paragraph, has the following:

"The weary pilgrim slumbers,
His resting place unknown,
His hands were crossed, his lids were closed,
The dust was o'er him strown;
The drifting soil, the mouldering leaf
Along the sod were blown,
His mound has melted into Earth
His memory lives alone."

[The communicator] was killed in action in Mesopotamia. He was buried by chaplain and officers the same night near where he fell. The officer in charge wrote that all traces of the grave had been carefully obliterated to avoid desecration by the Arabs.

(1) The poem ("The Pilgrim's Vision") refers to early settlers in America- "refers to a past condition."

(2) It has an application in this verse to the communicator's own case. He received reverent burial, his resting place unknown.

(3) It was a question in my mind constantly at one time whether it would be possible to identify the spot with the help of the officers present, and when the war is over to mark it with a cross. I have thought very little of that lately and have not felt concerned as I did at first that his grave was unmarked and unknown.

On the opposite page is the following verse:

(4) Still shall the fiery pillar's ray

Along the pathway shine,

(5) To light the chosen tribe that sought

(6) This Western Palestine.

The reference to fire, light and the journey of the Israelites fulfills (4), (5) and (6).

(7) The important word beginning with S I cannot place definitely. This is the only point that is uncertain. Out of seven indications six are fulfilled. [Mrs. Beadon has since informed us that there is a poem called "The Steamboat" on the next page, that this title headed the page in capital letters, and the page was all about steamboats. This was her first book test and she was very critical, otherwise she does not think she would have said she could not trace "the important word beginning with "S" on the next page. At the time she thought it far-fetched to take it as more than a coincidence, but now she thinks it is what was intended. And certainly it corresponds to the statement made about it. It is an important word on the page, if not connected with the message.]

The appropriate verse on page 17 is:

The Indian's shaft, the Briton's ball,
The sabre's thirsting edge,
The hot shell shattering in its fall,
The bayonet's rending wedge,
Here scattered death; yet seek the spot,
No trace thine eye can see,
No altar,-and they need it not
Who leave their children free.

In this case I got the impression from [Feda] that "they" on the other side had chosen both [pages] and were uncertain which to proceed with. . . . It seems to me that page 17 gave the main message far the best. But on page 71 they were able to give more of the secondary tests that strengthen it. Taking botb 17 and 71 leaves no room for doubt as to the message, or for coincidence.

Here is another message Mrs. Beadon received on March 16, 1918. She reports:

FEDA. A single row of books over a window (aside Feda said, You mean beside a window of course-people do not put books over windows-no?) He will have it that the books are over a window. The window is not set like ordinary windows with the glass put in plain-this is set differently -the glass put in strongly with thick kind of ridge. Is there a sunk in look about this window? Mr. Will does not know how else to describe it but you will know what he means by sunk in.

In the library at [Mrs. Beadon's house] there is a single row of books over each of two small windows. The window panes arc a fancy shape heavily set in lead which makes a ridge round each pane. The windows are on each side of the fireplace in a recess sunk back from the rest of the room.

FEDA. The books are on the left and you must count 3rd book from the left, page 92. It is a message about the little girl whose foot was being treated. (This child, aged seven, and the remedial treatment, had been referred to by the communicator at a previous sitting.) It is what he is wishing and desiring for her. He is very much interested in this testit is that which he hopes she will attain while she is in the physical body. He wants her to, and he thinks she will.

Taking the books over the left-hand window and counting the third book from the left is a volume of a set of Cowper's pocms. Page 92 has this verse:

Farewell-enducd with all that could engage
All hearts to love thee, both in youth and age,
In prime of life, for sprightliness enroll'd
Among the gay, yet virtuous as the old.

A rather curious instance of persistent failure to describe, or at least to bring to the minds of the sittcrs, the place where the book in question was to be found, occurred to M. R. H. and U. V. T. in September 1917. A book test was given and elaborated on September 5 and at two subsequent sittings, it being stated that the book was at a flat which the two ladies had visited. But they have been quite unable to identify the flat. In this instance and others it is possible perhaps that the failure was in the memory of the sitters. In the following instance, however-and in some others-it is clear that the description was in fault. Mr. G. H. S., on June 2, 1917, was told by Feda:

She wants you when you get home to go to the room where the books are. She is showing Feda a dark room with books all round it and she is pointing to the third book on the second shelf from the floor, quite close to the door; and she says on page nineteen you will find a message from her.

Mr. G. H. S., who, in the course of the sitting, had had some communications from the same communicator which seem to have been remarkably veridical, says about this: "I felt that this was padding, as there is no such room or bookcase And in reply to further inquiries he says:

I have carefully examined the book indicated in every bookcase in the house, and there is no possibility of result. I think the whole section wrong because the tone of the voice was quite lifeless and different during this section,* and the detailed description of the room where the books were supposed to be (much more detailed than I have reproduced it) was quite obviousiy wrong, so far as concerns every house in which I have lived. [*Sitters who have sat often with Mrs. Leonard tell me that this lifeless kind of voice does not always mean failure in communication.]

This failure in a rather good sitting is more interesting than similar failures experienced by sitters who have received no communications, or hardly any, affording evidence of supernormal knowledge. I may remark here that, as far as I can learn, the bad book tests in the collection before us usually occur at sittings otherwise poor. The most successful sitters may of course at times have very poor sittings, and they may at times receive elaborate book tests consisting of a considerable number of items, which give no good results at all.

As a check to see whether the same sort of appropriate messages received in book tests might not also be received by chance, Mrs. Sidgwick made a pioneer study of the element of chance in book tests. In it she chose at random any page number and line and then looked on that specific page in a randomly selected book, hoping to find some message which might be considered as applying to her in some way. She learned that very few in any sense seemed suitable. Her fictitious experiments were too few to base conclusions upon, but so far as they went they tended to confirm the view that chance is not an easy explanation of success in even simple messages.

In an effort to estimate chance results on a large group of fictitious book tests, the Society for Psychical Research devised a group of tests similar to those of Mrs. Sidgwick. Under controlled conditions a number of people turned to stated locations in given books in an attempt to find certain messages which might apply to them personally. The results of these tests were handed to Colonel C. E. Baddeley for analysis. Colonel Baddeley published a table of percentages indicating the degree of success or failure which was obtained in these fictitious book tests. Out of 1800 separate book items, complete success was found in 34; partial or slight success in 85; complete, partial and slight success in 138. The percentage of complete and partial successes was 4.7.

In the non-fictitious book tests analyzed by Mrs. Sidgwick and described in this chapter, the first two classes together indicated that 36 per cent of the attempts were approximately successful. Thus the tests conducted by Feda resulted in a percentage of complete or partial success very considerably greater than the percentage obtained in the Baddeley fictitious book tests-36 per cent as compared with 4.7 per cent.

A later analysis of Leonard book tests was made in 1936 by Kenneth Richmond, and he apparently discovered something in the nature of evidence through cross-correspondence. A practicing psychologist who became interested in Psychical research after being asked to write a review of Raymond, Richmond was a long-time member of the Society for Psychical Research and served at different periods as secretary of the Society and editor of the journal.

"Hitherto," Richmond said, "book tests seem to have been examined-chiefly for their evidential value as units." It was often said that if only the exact words of the book could be given at the sitting, this would be conclusive. "It would, in fact," he said, "be cogent evidence only of extrasensory perception."

Richmond felt, however, that the appearance of a common aim, unsuspected by the sitters, in book tests given to different people, would at once give evidence of something beyond a display of mere extrasensory perception. In order to confirm this, Richmond looked carefully through some records in which one skilled communicator, purporting to be Dr. A. W. Verrall, was said to have taken part in various book tests given to several sitters. He discovered that Verrall's daughter, Mrs. W. H. Salter, Troubridge-Hall, and the Reverend W. S. Irving had all received references to Dante's La Vita Nuova, and remarks about "the new life" in other connections.

Since the sitters, in their consistent efforts to be objective, had not compared notes, they had overlooked the fact that all of these references, when considered together, were actually highly evidential of the particular interests of Dr. Verrall and his family. Verrall himself had been an Italian scholar and a student of Dante. The book was closely associated in his daughter's mind with her marriage and her mother's death. These associations were pointed out in the book test messages, with the additional suggestion of "a new life" in connection with the imminent birth of Dr. Verrall's grandchild.

Richmond believed that evidence of a unifying intent was clear in all these varied communications.