[Footnote 8: Aubrey's _Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey_, vol.
iv.]
_Table-turning_ (Vol. viii., p. 57.).--Without going the length of
asserting, with La Bruyère, that "tout est dit," or believing, with
Dutens, that there is no modern discovery that was not known, in some
shape or other, to the ancients, it seems {330} not unreasonable to
suppose that table-turning, the principle of which lies so near the
surface of social life, was practised in former ages.
This reminds one of the expression, so familiar among controversialists,
of "turning the tables" upon an adversary. What is the origin of the
latter phrase? It is time some explanation of it were offered, if only to
caution the etymologists of a future age against confounding it with our
"table-turning."