1902. THAT VERY LITTLE CREDIT IS TO BE GIVEN TO SPIRITS SPEAKING. Nothing is more familiar to spirits who speak than to say that a thing is so or so; for they think that they know everything, and indeed solemnly assert that it is so, when yet it is not so. From experiments made several times, it may be evident of what quality they are, and how they are to be believed: when it is asked [of them] how this or that is, then one after another says that it is so, one differently from another; even if there were a hundred, one would say differently from another; and indeed for the time with confidence, as if it were so, when yet it is not so. As soon as they notice anything which they do not know, they immediately say it is so and so; besides very many other proofs that they speak as if they knew, yet they do not know. - 1748, May 3.