themselves.  It was not, and could not have been, arrived at by any inductive reasoning.  In whatever way the shifting is managed, it is of course concealed at every step from observation.  To show that certain movements might possibly be effected in a certain way, is very far from showing that they are actually so effected.  There may be an infinity of other methods by which the same results may be obtained.  The probability of the one assumed proving the correct one is then as unity to infinity.  But, in reality, this particular point, the shifting of the partitions, is of no consequence whatever.  It was altogether unnecessary to devote seven or eight pages for the purpose of proving what no one in his senses would deny—­viz:  that the wonderful mechanical genius of Baron Kempelen could invent the necessary means for shutting a door or slipping aside a pannel, with a human agent too at his service in actual contact with the pannel or the door, and the whole operations carried on, as the author of the Essay himself shows, and as we shall attempt to show more fully hereafter, entirely out of reach of the observation of the spectators.

In attempting ourselves an explanation of the Automaton, we will, in the first place, endeavor to show how its operations are effected, and afterwards describe, as briefly as possible, the nature of the observations from which we have deduced our result.

It will be necessary for a proper understanding of the subject, that we repeat here in a few words, the routine adopted by the exhibiter in disclosing the interior of the box—­a routine from which he never deviates in any material particular.  In the first place he opens the door No.  I. Leaving this open, he goes round to the rear of the box, and opens a door precisely at the back of door No.  I. To this back door he holds a lighted candle.  He then closes the back door, locks it, and, coming round to the front, opens the drawer to its full extent.  This done, he opens the doors No. 2 and No. 3, (the folding doors) and displays the interior of the main compartment.  Leaving open the main compartment, the drawer, and the front door of cupboard No.  I, he now goes to the rear again, and throws open the back door of the main compartment.  In shutting up the box no particular order is observed, except that the folding doors are always closed before the drawer.

Now, let us suppose that when the machine is first rolled into the presence of the spectators, a man is already within it.  His body is situated behind the dense machinery in cupboard No.  T. (the rear portion of which machinery is so contrived as to slip en masse, from the main compartment to the cupboard No.  I, as occasion may require,) and his legs lie at full length in the main compartment.  When Maelzel opens the door No.  I, the man within is not in any danger of discovery, for the keenest eve cannot penetrate more than about two inches into the darkness within.  But the case is otherwise