Nothing is more familiar than the fact that spirits who are speaking will declare something to be thus or so, for they think they know everything, and they will assert that something is so when it is not. It is evident from experiments I have made at times, what they are like, and how much they are to be believed. When asked whether they know how this or that matter stands, then one after another declares that it is thus or so, each differently from the other. Even if there be a hundred of them, each will tell it differently from the other, and do so on the spur of the moment, sure of themselves, as if it had to be so, when yet it is not. As soon as they notice anything that they do not know, they at once declare it to be thus or so. There are numerous other circumstances besides this, proving that they speak as if they know, when yet they do not know. 1748, 3 May.