their shape and position in a degree
too great to be accounted for by the simple laws of perspective; and
subsequent examinations convinced us that these undue alterations were
attributable to mirrors in the interior of the trunk. The introduction
of mirrors among the machinery could not have been intended to
influence, in any degree, the machinery itself. Their operation,
whatever that operation should prove to be, must necessarily have
reference to the eye of the spectator. We at once concluded that these
mirrors were so placed to multiply to the vision some few pieces of
machinery within the trunk so as to give it the appearance of being
crowded with mechanism. Now the direct inference from this is that the
machine is not a pure machine. For if it were, the inventor, so far from
wishing its mechanism to appear complex, and using deception for
the purpose of giving it this appearance, would have been especially
desirous of convincing those who witnessed his exhibition, of the
_simplicity _of the means by which results so wonderful were brought
about.

6. The external appearance, and, especially, the deportment of the Turk,
are, when we consider them as imitations of _life, _but very indifferent
imitations. The countenance evinces no ingenuity, and is surpassed, in
its resemblance to the human face, by the very commonest of wax-works.
The eyes roll unnaturally in the head, without any corresponding motions
of the lids or brows. The arm, particularly, performs its operations in
an exceedingly stiff, awkward, jerking, and rectangular manner. Now, all
this is the result either of inability in Maelzel to do better, or of
intentional neglect--accidental neglect being out of the question, when
we consider that the whole time of the ingenious proprietor is occupied
in the improvement of his machines. Most assuredly we must not refer
the unlife-like appearances to inability--for all the rest of Maelzel's
automata are evidence of his full ability to copy the motions
and peculiarities of life with the most wonderful exactitude. The
rope-dancers, for example, are inimitable. When the clown laughs, his
lips, his eyes, his eye-brows, and eyelids--indeed, all the features of
his countenance--are imbued with their appropriate expressions. In both
him and his companion, every gesture is so entirely easy, and free from
the semblance of artificiality, that, were it not for the diminutiveness
of their size, and the fact of their being pa