hine,
sometimes slightly deviates from the _routine _which we have pointed
out, yet _reeler in _any instance does he _so _deviate from it as to
interfere with our solution. For example, he has been known to open,
first of all, the drawer--but he never opens the main compartment
without first closing the back door of cupboard No. 1--he never opens
the main compartment without first pulling out the drawer--he never
shuts the drawer without first shutting the main compartment--he never
opens the back door of cupboard No. 1 while the main compartment is
open--and the game of chess is never commenced until the whole machine
is closed. Now if it were observed that _never, in any single instance,
_did M. Maelzel differ from the routine we have pointed out as necessary
to our solution, it would be one of the strongest possible arguments in
corroboration of it--but the argument becomes infinitely strengthened
if we duly consider the circumstance that he _does occasionally _deviate
from the routine but never does _so _deviate as to falsify the solution.

15. There are six candles on the board of the Automaton during
exhibition. The question naturally arises--"Why are so many employed,
when a single candle, or, at farthest, two, would have been amply
sufficient to afford the spectators a clear view of the board, in a
room otherwise so well lit up as the exhibition room always is--when,
moreover, if we suppose the machine a _pure machine, _there can be no
necessity for so much light, or indeed any light at all, to enable _it
_to perform its operations--and when, especially, only a single candle
is placed upon the table of the antagonist?" The first and most obvious
inference is, that so strong a light is requisite to enable the man
within to see through the transparent material (probably fine gauze)
of which the breast of the Turk is composed. But when we consider the
arrangement of the candles, another reason immediately presents itself.
There are six lights (as we have said before) in all. Three of these are
on each side of the figure. Those most remote from the spectators are
the longest--those in the middle are about two inches shorter--and those
nearest the company about two inches shorter still--and the candles on
one side differ in height from the candles respectively opposite on the
other, by a ratio different from two inches--that is to say, the longest
candle on one side is about three inches shorter than the longest candl