GOETHE ON THOUGHT-READING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1281, 23 December 1884, Page 3

GOETHE ON THOUGHT-READING.

A correspondent of a Home paper calls attention to the following passage from Goethe’s prose works apropos of thought-reading ; “ One soul may have a decided influence upon another, merely by means of its silent presence, of which I could relate many instances. It has often happened to me that when I hare been walking with an acquaintance and have had a living image of something in rny mind, he has at once begun to speak of that very thing. I have, also known a man who, without saying a word, could suddenly silence a party engaged in cheerful conversation by the mere power of his mind. Nay, lie could also introduce a tone which would make everybody feel uncorafor srle. We have all something of electric end magnetic force within us. , . • _lt is possible, nay even probable, that if a young girl were, without knowing it, to find herself in a dark chamber with a man who designed to murder her, she would have an uneasy sense of his unknown presence, and that an anguish would soon come over her which would drive her to the family parlor.

This is very interesting, although we do not for a moment suppose that Goethe would have amused himself in watching the discovery of a pin. Would any thought-reader in taking a country walk with a novelist be able to discover the plot of a new noyel that novelist had cogitated and was about to put on paper ? ______