Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/320

300 when sitting in the dark, the pencil in her hand wrote rapidly a page or two (about 80 words) of Latin. From this time forward Mrs. Verrall has written frequently. She is conscious of the meaning of the actual word at the moment of writing, but it is forgotten almost as soon as written, and she never realises the drift of the whole passage until it is read through after completion. It is clear, therefore, that the messages so written are not composed by her ordinary consciousness. The script, as said, began with Latin, and Latin for long continued to be the chief language of the communications. Greek also appeared, but not so frequently; most of the communications now are written in English. Mrs. Verrall reads and speaks French fluently; and is also acquainted with Italian and German, but only a few words or phrases in any of these languages have appeared. Mrs. Verrall is constantly employed in reading and teaching Latin or Greek, and is, of course, well acquainted with both languages. But the Latin and Greek employed in the script are by no means the Latin and Greek which she would herself use. The Greek, in particular, not only contains many words unknown to classical Greek, but words not to be found in any dictionary, or words Greek in form but having apparently no meaning. Both in form and content, moreover, some of the Greek resembles the writings of the Neo-Platonists (Plotinus, Macrobius, etc.), with whom, until recently, Mrs. Verrall was entirely unacquainted. Speaking