70. On board a ship of the Imperial French Navy, stationed in Chinese waters,
every soul, from the officers to the cabin boys, had taken up the amusement of "talking
with tables." One day, it occurred to some of them to address the spirit of a former
lieutenant of the same vessel, who had died two years before. He responded, and, after
several communications which struck them all with astonishment, he gave the
following message by raps "I beseech you to pay at once, to the Captain, the sum of-
(mention mg the amount), that I owe to him. I am sorry that it was not in my power to
repay it before I died." No one on board knew anything of the matter; the Captain
himself had
forgotten the debt thus alluded to, and which was a very trifling one ; but, on searching
his account-book, he found a mention of a loan made by him to this lieutenant, the
amount being exactly as stated by the table. Of whose "thought," we would ask, was
the knowledge thus displayed a "reflexion ?
