People, for instance, prepared a
certain number of questions and put them in sealed envelopes.
Then, on entering the presence of the horse, they would take one
of the envelopes at random, open it and write down the problem on
the black-board; and Mohammed or Zarif would answer with the same
facility and the same readiness as though the solution had been
known to all the onlookers. But was it really unknown to their
subconsciousness? Who could say for certain? Tests of this kind
require extraordinary precautions and a special dexterity; for
the action of the subconsciousness is so subtle, takes such
unexpected turns, delves in the museum of so many forgotten
treasures and operates at such distances that one is never sure
of escaping it. Were those precautions taken? I was not convinced
that they were; and, without pretending to decide the question, I
said to myself that my blissful ignorance of mathematics might
perhaps be of service in shedding light upon some part of it.
For this ignorance, however deplorable from other points of view,
gave me a rare advantage in this case. It was in fact extremely
unlikely that my subliminal consciousness, which had never known
what a cubic root was or the root of any other power, could help
the horse. I therefore took from a table a list containing
several problems, all different and all equally unpleasant
looking, covered up the solutions, asked Krall to leave the
stable and, when alone with Zarif, copied out one of them on the
black-board.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173