127. Direct writing, or pneumatography, is that which is produced
spontaneously, that is to say, without the help of the medium’s hand, or a pencil. It is
enough to provide
a clean sheet of paper (which can be done with all due precautions, so as to assure
ourselves that we have not been made the victims of trickery), to fold it up, and to put it
into a drawer, or upon a table; after which, if conditions are favourable, we find, and
perhaps in a very short time, various signs, letters, and even long communications,
traced upon the paper, usually with some black or grey substance having the appearance
of lead or crayon, sometimes as though traced with a red pencil, and sometimes, again,
as though written with common ink or even with printer's ink. When a pencil is placed
with the paper, we may suppose that the spirit has used it for writing; but when the
paper only is left, without anything else, it is evident that the writing is done with some
sort of material produced by the spirits them-selves ; but where do the spirits find that
material? To this question, the snuff-box above-mentioned was the means of procuring
for us an answer which appears to us to be conclusive.
