Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Religion, Supernaturalism, Politics, Religious Authority

    Discusses Nathaniel S Godfrey's and Edward Gillson's claim that table-turning is caused by 'Satanic Agency' (a reference to Godfrey 1853 and Gillson 1853). Concludes from an appraisal of these investigators' experiences of the nonsense spoken by tables that '"The Devil is an Ass" is now something more than the title of a comedy [i.e. Ben Jonson's play]'. Reports that 'our venerated Rector, the Rev. Dr. Dryport' denied 'supernatural events' and insisted that the table's identification of the Pope with Satan was caused by 'a very zealous Protestant'. Adds a description of an attempt to replicate one of Gillson's experiments with the conclusion that Emperor Nicholas I of Russia was on intimate terms with the Devil.