{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20420/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20420","id":"gutenberg_20420","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20420","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Ghost stories"],"text":"Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREAL GHOST STORIES\n\n\n\nCollected and Edited\n\nBy\n\nWILLIAM T. STEAD\n\n\n\nNEW EDITION\n\nRe-arranged and Introduced\n\nBy\n\nESTELLE W. STEAD\n\n\n\nNEW YORK:\nGEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n\n1921\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nDuring the last few years I have been urged by people in all parts of\nthe world to re-issue some of the wonderful stories of genuine psychic\nexperiences collected by my Father several years ago.\n\nThese stories were published by him in two volumes in 1891-92; the\nfirst, entitled _Real Ghost Stories_, created so much interest and\nbrought in so large a number of other stories of genuine experiences\nthat the first volume was soon followed by a second, entitled _More\nGhost Stories_.\n\nThe contents of the two volumes, slightly curtailed, were, a few years\nlater, brought out as one book; but the three volumes have long been out\nof print and are practically unknown to the present generation.\n\nI remember when I was a child my Father read some of these stories aloud\nto us as he was making his collection; and I remember, too, how thrilled\nand awed we were, and how at times they brought a creepy feeling when at\nnight I had to mount many flights of stairs to my bedroom at the top of\nthe house.\n\nReading these stories again, after many years' study of the subject, I\nhave realised what a wealth of interesting facts my Father had gathered\ntogether, and that not only the gathered facts, but his own contributions,\nhis chapter on \"The Ghost That Dwelleth in Each One of Us\" and his\ncomments on the stories, show what an insight he had into and what an\nunderstanding he had of this vast and wonderful subject.\n\nI felt as I read that those who urged re-publication were right, that if\nnot a \"classic,\" as some have called it, it at least merits a place on\nthe shelves of all who study psychic literature and are interested in\npsychic experiences.\n\nI demurred long as to whether I should change the title. The word\n\"Ghost\" has to a great extent in modern times lost its true meaning to\nthe majority and is generally associated in many minds with something\nuncanny--with haunted houses and weird apparitions filling with terror\nthose who come into contact with them.\n\n\"Stories from the Borderland,\" \"Psychic Experiences,\" were among the\ntitles which suggested themselves to me; but in the end I decided to\nkeep the old title, and in so doing help to bring the word \"ghost\" back\nto its proper and true place and meaning.\n\n\"Ghost,\" according to the dictionary, means \"the soul of man; the soul\nof a deceased person; the soul or spirit separate from the body;\napparition, spectre, shadow\":--it comprises, in fact, all we mean when\nwe think or speak of \"Spirit.\" We still say \"The Holy Ghost\" as\nnaturally and as reverently as we say \"The Holy Spirit.\" So for the sake\nof the word itself, and because it covers everything we speak of as\nSpirit to-day; these two considerations take away all reason why the\nword should not be used, and it gives me great pleasure in re-issuing\nthese stories to carry on the title originally chosen by my Father.\n\nThere is a large collection of stories to be drawn upon, for besides\nthose given in the two volumes mentioned, many of equal interest and\nvalue appeared in _Borderland_, a psychic quarterly edited and\npublished by my Father for a period of four years in the nineties and\nnow long out of print.\n\nIf this first volume proves that those who advised me were right in\nthinking that these experiences will be a valuable addition to psychic\nliterature, I propose to bring out two further volumes of stories from\nmy Father's collection, and I hope to add to these a volume of stories\nof a later date, of which I already have a goodly store. For this\npurpose I invite those who have had experiences which they consider will\nbe of interest and value for such a collection, to send them to me so\nthat, if suitable and appropriate, they may be placed on record.\n\nIn bringing this Introduction to a close I should like to quote what my\nFather wrote in his Preface to the last edition published by him, as it\nembodies what many people are realising to-day. To them, as to him, the\nreality of the \"Invisibles\" is no longer a speculation. Therefore I feel\nthat these thoughts of his should have a place in this new edition of\nhis collection of _Real Ghost Stories_.\n\n\"The reality,\" he wrote, \"of the Invisibles has long since ceased to be\nfor me a matter of speculation. It is one of the things about which I\nfeel as certain as I do, for instance, of the existence of the people of\nTierra del Fuego; and while it is of no importance to me to know that\nTierra del Fuego is inhabited, it is of vital importance to know that\nthe spirits of the departed, and also of those still occupying for a\ntime the moveable biped telephone which we call our body, can, and given\nthe right conditions _do_, communicate with the physical\nunconsciousness of the man in the street. It is a fact which properly\napprehended would go far to remedy some of the worst evils from which we\nhave to complain. For our conception of life has got out of form, owing\nto our constant habit of mistaking a part for the whole, and everything\nlooks awry.\"\n\nEstelle W. Stead\n\nBank Buildings,\nKingsway, London, W.C.2.\n\n_Easter_, 1921.\n\n\n\n\nA PREFATORY WORD.\n\n\nMany people will object--some have already objected--to the subject of\nthis book. It is an offence to some to take a ghost too seriously; with\nothers it is a still greater offence not to take ghosts seriously\nenough. One set of objections can be paired off against the other;\nneither objection has very solid foundation. The time has surely come\nwhen the fair claim of ghosts to the impartial attention and careful\nobservation of mankind should no longer be ignored. In earlier times\npeople believed in them so much that they cut their acquaintance; in\nlater times people believe in them so little that they will not even\nadmit their existence. Thus these mysterious visitants have hitherto\nfailed to enter into that friendly relation with mankind which many of\nthem seem sincerely to desire.\n\nBut what with the superstitious credulity of the one age and the equally\nsuperstitious unbelief of another, it is necessary to begin from the\nbeginning and to convince a sceptical world that apparitions really\nappear. In order to do this it is necessary to insist that your ghost\nshould no longer be ignored as a phenomenon of Nature. He has a right,\nequal to that of any other natural phenomenon, to be examined and\nobserved, studied and defined. It is true that he is a rather difficult\nphenomenon; his comings and goings are rather intermittent and fitful,\nhis substance is too shadowy to be handled, and he has avoided hitherto\nequally the obtrusive inquisitiveness of the microscope and telescope.\n\nA phenomenon which you can neither handle nor weigh, analyse nor\ndissect, is naturally regarded as intractable and troublesome;\nnevertheless, however intractable and troublesome he may be to reduce to\nany of the existing scientific categories, we have no right to allow his\nidiosyncrasies to deprive him of his innate right to be regarded as a\nphenomenon. As such he will be treated in the following pages, with all\nthe respect due to phenomena whose reality is attested by a sufficient\nnumber of witnesses. There will be no attempt in this book to build up a\ntheory of apparitions, or to define the true inwardness of a ghost.\nThere will be as many explanations as there are minds of the\nsignificance of the extraordinary narratives which I have collated from\ncorrespondence and from accessible records. Leaving it to my readers to\ndiscuss the rival hypotheses, I will stick to the humbler mission of\nrecording facts, from which they can form their own judgment.\n\nThe ordinary temper of the ordinary man in dealing with ghosts is\nsupremely unscientific, but it is less objectionable than that of the\npseudo-scientist. The Inquisitor who forbade free inquiry into matters\nof religion because of human depravity, was the natural precursor of the\nScientist who forbids the exercise of the reason on the subject of\nghosts, on account of inherited tendencies to attribute such phenomena\nto causes outside the established order of nature. What difference there\nis, is altogether in favour of the Inquisitor, who at least had what he\nregarded as a divinely constituted authority, competent and willing to\npronounce final decision upon any subject that might trouble the human\nmind. Science has no such tribunal, and when she forbids others to\nobserve and to reflect she is no better than a blind fetish.\n\nEclipses in old days used to drive whole nations half mad with fright.\nTo this day the black disc of the moon no sooner begins to eat into the\nshining surface of the sun than millions of savage men feel \"creepy,\"\nand begin to tremble at the thought of the approaching end of the world.\nBut in civilised lands even the most ignorant regard an eclipse with\nimperturbable composure. Eclipses are scientific phenomena observed and\nunderstood. It is our object to reduce ghosts to the same level, or\nrather to establish the claim of ghosts to be regarded as belonging as\nmuch to the order of Nature as the eclipse. At present they are\ndisfranchised of their natural birthright, and those who treat them with\nthis injustice need not wonder if they take their revenge in \"creeps.\"\n\nThe third class of objection takes the ground that there is something\nirreligious and contrary to Christianity in the chronicling of such\nphenomena. It is fortunate that Mary Magdalene and the early disciples\ndid not hold that theory. So far from its being irreligious to ascertain\nfacts, there is a subtle impiety in the refusal to face phenomena,\nwhether natural or supernatural. Either these things exist or they do\nnot. If they do not exist, then obviously there can be no harm in a\nsearching examination of the delusion which possessed the mind of almost\nevery worthy in the Old Testament, and which was constantly affirmed by\nthe authors of the New. If, on the other hand, they do exist, and are\nperceptible under certain conditions to our senses, it will be difficult\nto affirm the impiety of endeavouring to ascertain what is their nature,\nand what light they are able to throw upon the kingdom of the Unseen. We\nhave no right to shut our eyes to facts and close our ears to evidence\nmerely because Moses forbade the Hebrews to allow witches to live, or\nbecause some of the phenomena carry with them suggestions that do not\naltogether harmonise with the conventional orthodox theories of future\nlife. The whole question that lies at bottom is whether this world is\ndivine or diabolic. Those who believe it divine are bound by that belief\nto regard every phenomenon as a window through which man may gain fresh\nglimpses of the wonder and the glory of the Infinite. In this region, as\nin all others, faith and fear go ill together.\n\nIt is impossible for any impartial man to read the narratives of which\nthe present book is composed without feeling that we have at least one\nhint or suggestion of quite incalculable possibilities in telepathy or\nthought transference. If there be, as many of these stories seem to\nsuggest, a latent capacity in the human mind to communicate with other\nminds, entirely regardless of the conditions of time and space, it is\nundeniable that this would be a fact of the very first magnitude. It is\nquite possible that the telegraph may be to telepathy what the stage\ncoach is to the steam engine. Neither can we afford to overlook the fact\nthat these phenomena have in these latter days signally vindicated their\npower over the minds of men. Some of the acutest minds of our time have\nlearned to recognise in them scientific demonstration of the existence\nof the fact that personal individuality survives death.\n\nIf it can be proved that it is occasionally possible for persons at the\nuttermost ends of the world to communicate instantaneously with each\nother, and even in some cases to make a vivid picture of themselves\nstand before the eyes of those to whom they speak, no prejudice as to\nthe unhealthy nature of the inquiry should be allowed to stand in the\nway of the examination of such a fact with a view to ascertaining\nwhether or not this latent capacity of the human mind can be utilised\nfor the benefit of mankind. Wild as this suggestion may seem to-day, it\nis less fantastic than our grandfathers a hundred years ago would have\ndeemed a statement that at the end of the nineteenth century portraits\nwould be taken by the sun, that audible conversation would be carried on\ninstantaneously across a distance of a thousand miles, that a ray of\nlight could be made the agent for transmitting the human voice across an\nabyss which no wire had ever spanned, and that by a simple mechanical\narrangement, which a man can carry in his hand, it would be possible to\nreproduce the words, voice, and accent of the dead. The photograph, the\ntelegraph, the telephone, and the phonograph were all more or less\nlatent in what seemed to our ancestors the kite-flying folly of Benjamin\nFranklin. Who knows but that in Telepathy we may have the faint\nforeshadowing of another latent force, which may yet be destined to cast\ninto the shade even the marvels of electrical science!\n\nThere is a growing interest in all the occult phenomena to which this\nwork is devoted. It is in evidence on every hand. The topic is in the\nair, and will be discussed and is being discussed, whether we take\nnotice of it or not. That it has its dangers those who have studied it\nmost closely are most aware, but these dangers will exist in any case,\nand if those who ought to guide are silent, these perils will be\nencountered without the safeguards which experience would dictate and\nprudence suggest. It seems to me that it would be difficult to do better\nservice in this direction than to strengthen the hands of those who have\nfor many years past been trying to rationalise the consideration of the\nScience of Ghosts.\n\nIt is idle to say that this should be left for experts. We live in a\ndemocratic age and we democratise everything. It is too late in the day\nto propose to place the whole of this department under the care of any\nBrahmin caste; the subject is one which every common man and woman can\nunderstand. It is one which comes home to every human being, for it adds\na new interest to life, and vivifies the sombre but all-pervading\nproblem of death.\n\nW. T. Stead.\n\n_London_, 1891.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                               PAGE\n\nPart I.--The Ghost That Dwells in Each of Us.\n\nChapter I. The Unconscious Personality                           17\n\n   \"   II. Louis V. and His Two Souls                            32\n\n   \"  III. Madame B. and Her Three Souls                         45\n\n   \"   IV. Some Suggested Theories                               52\n\n\nPart II.--The Thought Body, or the Double.\n\nChapter I. Aerial Journeyings                                    56\n\n   \"   II. The Evidence of the Psychical Research Society        72\n\n   \"  III. Aimless Doubles                                       86\n\n   \"   IV. The Hypnotic Key                                     101\n\n\nPart III.--Clairvoyance.--The Vision of the Out of Sight.\n\nChapter I. The Astral Camera                                    108\n\n   \"   II. Tragic Happenings Seen in Dreams                     127\n\n   \"  III. My Own Experience                                    141\n\n\nPart IV.--Premonitions and Second Sight.\n\nChapter I. My Own Extraordinary Premonitions                    145\n\n   \"   II. Warnings Given in Dreams                             160\n\n   \"  III. Premonitory Warnings                                 179\n\n   \"   IV. Some Historical and Other Cases                      192\n\n\nPart V.--Ghosts of the Living on Business.\n\nChapter I. Warnings of Peril and Death                          199\n\n   \"   II. A Dying Double Demands its Portraits!                211\n\n\nPart VI.--Ghosts Keeping Promise.\n\nChapter I. My Irish Friend                                      222\n\n   \"   II. Lord Brougham's Testimony                            231\n\n\nAppendix.--Some Historical Ghosts                               240\n\n\n\n\nREAL GHOST STORIES.\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE GHOST THAT DWELLS IN EACH OF US.\n\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nThe Unconscious Personality.\n\n\n\"Real Ghost Stories!--How can there be real ghost stories when there are\nno real ghosts?\"\n\nBut are there no real ghosts? You may not have seen one, but it does not\nfollow that therefore they do not exist. How many of us have seen the\nmicrobe that kills? There are at least as many persons who testify they\nhave seen apparitions as there are men of science who have examined the\nmicrobe. You and I, who have seen neither, must perforce take the\ntestimony of others. The evidence for the microbe may be conclusive, the\nevidence as to apparitions may be worthless; but in both cases it is a\ncase of testimony, not of personal experience.\n\nThe first thing to be done, therefore, is to collect testimony, and by\nway of generally widening the mind and shaking down the walls of\nprejudice which lead so many to refuse to admit the clearest possible\nevidence as to facts which have not occurred within their personal\nexperience, I preface the report of my \"Census of Hallucinations\" or\npersonal experiences of the so-called supernatural by a preliminary\nchapter on the perplexing subject of \"Personality.\" This is the question\nthat lies at the root of all the controversy as to ghosts. Before\ndisputing about whether or not there are ghosts outside of us, let us\nface the preliminary question, whether we have not each of us a\nveritable ghost within our own skin?\n\nThrilling as are some of the stories of the apparitions of the living\nand the dead, they are less sensational than the suggestion made by\nhypnotists and psychical researchers of England and France, that each of\nus has a ghost inside him. They say that we are all haunted by a\nSpiritual Presence, of whose existence we are only fitfully and\nsometimes never conscious, but which nevertheless inhabits the innermost\nrecesses of our personality. The theory of these researchers is that\nbesides the body and the mind, meaning by the mind the Conscious\nPersonality, there is also within our material frame the soul or\nUnconscious Personality, the nature of which is shrouded in unfathomable\nmystery. The latest word of advanced science has thus landed us back to\nthe apostolic assertion that man is composed of body, soul and spirit;\nand there are some who see in the scientific doctrine of the Unconscious\nPersonality a welcome confirmation from an unexpected quarter of the\nexistence of the soul.\n\nThe fairy tales of science are innumerable, and, like the fairy tales of\nold romance, they are not lacking in the grim, the tragic, and even the\nhorrible. Of recent years nothing has so fascinated the imagination even\nof the least imaginative of men as the theory of disease which\ntransforms every drop of blood in our bodies into the lists in which\nphagocyte and microbe wage the mortal strife on which our health\ndepends. Every white corpuscle that swims in our veins is now declared\nto be the armed Knight of Life for ever on the look-out for the microbe\nFiend of Death. Day and night, sleeping and waking, the white knights of\nlife are constantly on the alert, for on their vigilance hangs our\nexistence. Sometimes, however, the invading microbes come in, not in\ncompanies but in platoons, innumerable as Xerxes' Persians, and then\n\"e'en Roderick's best are backward borne,\" and we die. For our life is\nthe prize of the combat in these novel lists which science has revealed\nto our view through the microscope, and health is but the token of the\ntriumphant victory of the phagocyte over the microbe.\n\nBut far more enthralling is the suggestion which psychical science has\nmade as to the existence of a combat not less grave in the very inmost\ncentre of our own mental or spiritual existence. The strife between the\ninfinitely minute bacilli that swarm in our blood has only the interest\nwhich attaches to the conflict of inarticulate and apparently\nunconscious animalculae. The strife to which researches into the nature\nand constitution of our mental processes call attention concerns our\nconscious selves. It suggests almost inconceivable possibilities as to\nour own nature, and leaves us appalled on the brink of a new world of\nbeing of which until recently most of us were unaware.\n\nThere are no papers of such absorbing interest in the whole of the\n\"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research\" as those which deal\nwith the question of the Personality of Man. \"I,\" what am I? What is our\nEgo? Is this Conscious Personality which receives impressions through\nthe five senses, and through them alone, is it the only dweller in this\nmortal tabernacle? May there not be other personalities, or at least one\nother that is not conscious, when we are awake, and alert, and about,\nbut which comes into semi-consciousness when we sleep, and can be\ndeveloped into complete consciousness when the other personality is\nthrown into a state of hypnotic trance? In other words, am I one\npersonality or two? Is my nature dual? As I have two hemispheres in my\nbrain, have I two minds or two souls?\n\nThe question will, no doubt, appear fantastic in its absurdity to those\nwho hear it asked for the first time; but those who are at all familiar\nwith the mysterious but undisputed phenomena of hypnotism will realize\nhow naturally this question arises, and how difficult it is to answer it\notherwise than in the affirmative. Every one knows Mr. Louis Stevenson's\nwonderful story of \"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.\" The dual nature of man,\nthe warfare between this body of sin and death, and the spiritual\naspirations of the soul, forms part of the common stock of our orthodox\nbelief. But the facts which recent researches have brought to light seem\nto point not to the old theological doctrine of the conflict between\ngood and evil in one soul, but to the existence in each of us of at\nleast two distinct selfs, two personalities, standing to each other\nsomewhat in the relation of man and wife, according to the old ideal\nwhen the man is everything and the woman is almost entirely suppressed.\n\nEvery one is familiar with the phenomenon of occasional loss of memory.\nMen are constantly losing consciousness, from disease, violence, or\nviolent emotion, and emerging again into active life with a gap in their\nmemory. Nay, every night we become unconscious in sleep, and rarely, if\never, remember anything that we think of during slumber. Sometimes in\nrare cases there is a distinct memory of all that passes in the sleeping\nand the waking states, and we have read of one young man whose sleeping\nconsciousness was so continuous that he led, to all intents and\npurposes, two lives. When he slept he resumed his dream existence at the\npoint when he waked, just as we resume our consciousness at the point\nwhen we fall asleep. It was just as real to him as the life which he\nlived when awake. It was actual, progressive, continuous, but entirely\ndifferent, holding no relation whatever to his waking life. Of his two\nexistences he preferred that which was spent in sleep, as more vivid,\nmore varied, and more pleasurable. This was no doubt an extreme and very\nunusual case. But it is not impossible to conceive the possibility of a\ncontinuous series of connected dreams, which would result in giving us a\nrealizing sense of leading two existences. That we fail to realize this\nnow is due to the fact that our memory is practically inert or\nnon-existent during sleep. The part of our mind which dreams seldom\nregisters its impressions in regions to which on waking our conscious\npersonality has access.\n\nThe conception of a dual or even a multiple personality is worked out in\na series of papers by Mr. F. W. H. Myers[1], to which I refer all those\nwho wish to make a serious study of this novel and startling hypothesis.\nBut I may at least attempt to explain the theory, and to give some\noutline of the evidence on which it is based.\n\n        [1] \"Human Personality\" (Longmans, Green & Co.)\n\nIf I were free to use the simplest illustration without any pretence at\nscientific exactitude, I should say that the new theory supposes that\nthere are inside each of us not one personality but two, and that these\ntwo correspond to husband and wife. There is the Conscious Personality,\nwhich stands for the husband. It is vigorous, alert, active, positive,\nmonopolising all the means of communication and production. So intense\nis its consciousness that it ignores the very existence of its partner,\nexcepting as a mere appendage and convenience to itself. Then there is\nthe Unconscious Personality, which corresponds to the wife who keeps\ncupboard and storehouse, and the old stocking which treasures up the\naccumulated wealth of impressions acquired by the Conscious Personality,\nbut who is never able to assert any right to anything, or to the use of\nsense or limb except when her lord and master is asleep or entranced.\nWhen the Conscious Personality has acquired any habit or faculty so\ncompletely that it becomes instinctive, it is handed on to the\nUnconscious Personality to keep and use, the Conscious Ego giving it no\nlonger any attention. Deprived, like the wife in countries where the\nsubjection of woman is the universal law, of all right to an independent\nexistence, or to the use of the senses or of the limbs, the Unconscious\nPersonality has discovered ways and means of communicating other than\nthrough the recognised organs of sense.\n\nHow vast and powerful are those hidden organs of the Unconscious\nPersonality we can only dimly see. It is through them that Divine\nrevelation is vouchsafed to man. The visions of the mystic, the\nprophecies of the seer, the inspiration of the sibyl, all come through\nthis Unconscious Soul. It is through this dumb and suppressed Ego that\nwe communicate by telepathy,--that thought is transferred without using\nthe five senses. This under-soul is in touch with the over-soul, which,\nin Emerson's noble phrase, \"abolishes time and space.\" \"This influence\nof the senses has,\" he says, \"in most men, overpowered their mind to\nthat degree that the walls of time and space have come to look real and\ninsurmountable; and to speak with levity of these limits is in the world\nthe sign of insanity. Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the\nforce of the soul.\" It is this Unconscious Personality which sees the\n_Strathmore_ foundering in mid-ocean, which hears a whisper spoken\nhundreds of miles off upon the battlefield, and which witnesses, as if\nit happened before the eyes, a tragedy occurring at the Antipodes.\n\nIn proportion as the active, domineering Conscious Personality\nextinguishes his submissive unconscious partner, materialism flourishes,\nand man becomes blind to the Divinity that underlies all things. Hence\nin all religions the first step is to silence the noisy, bustling master\nof our earthly tabernacle, who, having monopolised the five senses, will\nlisten to no voice which it cannot hear, and to allow the silent\nmistress to be open-souled to God. Hence the stress which all spiritual\nreligions have laid upon contemplation, upon prayer and fasting. Whether\nit is an Indian Yogi, or a Trappist Monk, or one of our own Quakers, it\nis all the same. In the words of the Revivalist hymn, \"We must lay our\ndeadly doing down,\" and in receptive silence wait for the inspiration\nfrom on high. The Conscious Personality has usurped the visible world;\nbut the Invisible, with its immeasurable expanse, is the domain of the\nSub-conscious. Hence we read in the Scriptures of losing life that we\nmay find it; for things of time and sense are temporal, but the things\nwhich are not seen are eternal.\n\nIt is extraordinary how close is the analogy when we come to work it\nout. The impressions stored up by the Conscious Personality and\nentrusted to the care of the Unconscious are often, much to our disgust,\nnot forthcoming when wanted. It is as if we had given a memorandum to\nour wife and we could not discover where she had put it. But night\ncomes; our Conscious Self sleeps, our Unconscious Housewife wakes, and\nturning over her stores produces the missing impression; and when our\nother self wakes it finds the mislaid memorandum, so to speak, ready to\nits hand. Sometimes, as in the case of somnambulism, the Sub-conscious\nPersonality stealthily endeavours to use the body and limbs, from all\ndirect control over which it is shut out as absolutely as the inmate of\na Hindu zenana is forbidden to mount the charger of her warrior spouse.\nBut it is only when the Conscious Personality is thrown into a state of\nhypnotic trance that the Unconscious Personality is emancipated from the\nmarital despotism of her partner. Then for the first time she is allowed\nto help herself to the faculties and senses usually monopolised by the\nConscious Self. But like the timid and submissive inmate of the zenana\nsuddenly delivered from the thraldom of her life-long partner, she\nimmediately falls under the control of another. The Conscious\nPersonality of another person exercises over her the same supreme\nauthority that her own Conscious Personality did formerly.\n\nThere is nothing of sex in the ordinary material sense about the two\npersonalities. But their union is so close as to suggest that the\nintrusion of the hypnotist is equivalent to an intrigue with a married\nwoman. The Sub-conscious Personality is no longer faithful exclusively\nto its natural partner; it is under the control of the Conscious\nPersonality of another; and in the latter case the dictator seems to be\nirresistibly over-riding for a time all the efforts of the Conscious\nPersonality to recover its authority in its own domain.\n\nWhat proof, it will be asked impatiently, is there for the splitting of\nour personality? The question is a just one, and I proceed to answer it.\n\nThere are often to be found in the records of lunatic asylums strange\ninstances of a dual personality, in which there appear to be two minds\nin one body, as there are sometimes two yolks in one egg.\n\nIn the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, M. Jules Janet records the\nfollowing experiment which, although simplicity itself, gives us a very\nvivid glimpse of a most appalling complex problem:--\n\n\"An hysterical subject with an insensitive limb is put to sleep, and is\ntold, 'After you wake you will raise your finger when you mean Yes, and\nyou will put it down when you mean No, in answer to the questions which\nI shall ask you.' The subject is then wakened, and M. Janet pricks the\ninsensitive limb in several places. He asks, 'Do you feel anything?' The\nconscious-awakened person replies with the lips, 'No,' but at the same\ntime, in accordance with the signal that has been agreed upon during the\nstate of hypnotisation, the finger is raised to signify 'Yes.' It has\nbeen found that the finger will even indicate exactly the number of\ntimes that the apparently insensitive limb has been wounded.\"\n\n\n_The Double-Souled Irishman._\n\nDr. Robinson, of Lewisham, who has bestowed much attention on this\nsubject, sends me the following delightful story about an Irishman who\nseems to have incarnated the Irish nationality in his own unhappy\nperson:--\n\n\"An old colleague of mine at the Darlington Hospital told me that he\nonce had an Irish lunatic under his care who imagined that his body was\nthe dwelling-place of two individuals, one of whom was a Catholic, with\nNationalist--not to say Fenian--proclivities, and the other was a\nProtestant and an Orangeman. The host of these incompatibles said he\nmade it a fixed rule that the Protestant should occupy the right side of\nhis body and the Catholic the left, 'so that he would not be annoyed wid\nthem quarrelling in his inside.' The sympathies of the host were with\nthe green and against the orange, and he tried to weaken the latter by\nstarving him, and for months would only chew his food on the left side\nof his mouth. The lunatic was not very troublesome, as a rule, but the\nattendants generally had to straight-waistcoat him on certain critical\ndays--such as St. Patrick's Day and the anniversary of the battle of the\nBoyne; because the Orange fist would punch the Fenian head unmercifully,\nand occasionally he and the Fenian leagued together against the\nOrangeman and banged him against the wall. This lunatic, when\nquestioned, said he did his best to keep the peace between his\ntroublesome guests, but that sometimes they got out of hand.\"\n\n\n_Ansel Bourne and A. J. Brown._\n\nA similar case, although not so violent or chronic in its manifestation,\nis recorded in Vol. VII. (Part xix.) of the Psychical Research Society's\nProceedings, as having occurred on Rhode Island some years ago. An\nexcellent citizen, and a very religious lay preacher, of the name of\nAnsel Bourne, was the subject:--\n\nOn January 17th, 1887, he went from his home in Coventry, R.I., to\nProvidence, in order to get money to pay for a farm which he had\narranged to buy, leaving his horse at Greene Station, in a stable,\nexpecting to return the same afternoon from the city. He drew out of the\nbank 551 dollars, and paid several small bills, after which he went to\nhis nephew's store, 121, Broad Street, and then started to go to his\nsister's house on Westminster Street. This was the last that was known\nof his doings at that time. He did not appear at his sister's house, and\ndid not return to Greene.\n\nNothing was heard of him until March the 14th, when a telegram came from\na doctor in Norristown, Philadelphia, stating that he had just been\ndiscovered there. He was entirely unconscious of having been absent from\nhome, or of the lapse of time between January 17th and March 14th. He\nwas brought home by his relatives, who, by diligent inquiry were able to\nmake out that Mr. Ansel Bourne, five weeks after leaving Rhode Island,\nopened a shop in Norristown, and stocked it with toys and confectionery\nwhich he purchased in Philadelphia. He called himself A. J. Brown, and\nlived and did business, and went to meeting, like any ordinary mortal,\ngiving no one any suspicion that he was any other than A. J. Brown.\n\nOn the morning of Monday, March 14th, about five o'clock, he heard, he\nsays, an explosion like the report of a gun or a pistol, and, waking, he\nnoticed that there was a ridge in his bed not like the bed he had been\naccustomed to sleep in. He noticed the electric light opposite his\nwindows. He rose and pulled away the curtains and looked out on the\nstreet. He felt very weak, and thought that he had been drugged. His\nnext sensation was that of fear, knowing that he was in a place where he\nhad no business to be. He feared arrest as a burglar, or possibly\ninjury. He says this is the only time in his life he ever feared a\npoliceman.\n\nThe last thing he could remember before waking was seeing the Adams\nexpress wagons at the corner of Dorrance and Broad Streets, in\nProvidence, on his way from the store of his nephew in Broad Street to\nhis sister's residence in Westminster Street, on January 17th.\n\nThe memory of Ansel Bourne retained absolutely nothing of the doings of\nA. J. Brown, whose life he had lived for nearly two months. Professor\nWilliam James hypnotised him, and no sooner was he put into the trance\nand was told to remember what happened January 17th, 1887, than he\nbecame A. J. Brown again, and gave a clear and connected narrative of\nall his doings in the Brown state. He did not remember ever having met\nAnsel Bourne. Everything, however, in his past life, he said, was \"mixed\nup.\" He only remembered that he was confused, wanted to get somewhere\nand have rest. He did not remember how he left Norristown. His mind was\nconfused, and since then it was a blank. He had no memory whatever of\nhis name or of his second marriage and the place of his birth. He\nremembered, however, the date of his birth, and of his first wife's\ndeath, and his trade. But between January 17th, 1887, and March 14th he\nwas not himself but another, and that other one Albert J. Brown, who\nceased to exist consciously on March 14th, but who promptly returned\nfour years afterwards, when Ansel Bourne was hypnotised, and showed that\nhe remembered perfectly all that happened to him between these two\ndates. The confusion of his two memories in his earlier life is\npuzzling, but it in no way impairs the value of this illustration of the\nexistence of two independent memories--two selfs, so to speak, within a\nsingle skin.\n\nThe phenomenon is not uncommon, especially with epileptic patients.\nEvery mad-doctor knows cases in which there are what may be described as\nalternating consciousnesses with alternating memories. But the\nexperiments of the French hypnotists carry us much further. In their\nhands this Sub-conscious Personality is capable of development, of\ntuition, and of emancipation. In this little suspected region lies a\ngreat resource. For when the Conscious Personality is hopeless,\ndiseased, or demoralised the Unconscious Personality can be employed to\nrenovate and restore the patient, and then when its work is done it can\nbecome unconscious once more and practically cease to exist.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nLouis V. and His Two Souls.\n\n\nThere is at present[2] a patient in France whose case is so\nextraordinary that I cannot do better than transcribe the report of it\nhere, especially because it tends to show not only that we have two\npersonalities, but that each may use by preference a separate lobe of\nthe brain. The Conscious Personality occupies the left and controls the\nright hand, the Unconscious the right side of the head and controls the\nleft hand. It also brings to light a very curious, not to say appalling,\nfact, viz., the immense moral difference there may be between the\nConscious and the Unconscious Personalities. In the American case Bourne\nwas a character practically identical with Brown. In this French case\nthe character of each self is entirely different. What makes the case\nstill more interesting is that, besides the two personalities which we\nall seem to possess, this patient had an arrested personality, which was\nonly fourteen years old when the age of his body was over forty. Here is\nthe report, however, make of it what you will.\n\n        [2] 1891.\n\n\"Louis V. began life (in 1863) as the neglected child of a turbulent\nmother. He was sent to a reformatory at ten years of age, and there\nshowed himself, as he has always done when his organization had given\nhim a chance, quiet, well-behaved, and obedient. Then at fourteen years\nold he had a great fright from a viper--a fright which threw him off his\nbalance, and started the series of psychical oscillations on which he\nhas been tossed ever since. At first the symptoms were only physical,\nepilepsy and hysterical paralysis of the legs; and at the asylum of\nBonneval, whither he was next sent, he worked at tailoring steadily for\na couple of months. Then suddenly he had a hystero-epileptic\nattack--fifty hours of convulsions and ecstasy--and when he awoke from\nit he was no longer paralysed, no longer acquainted with tailoring, and\nno longer virtuous. His memory was set back, so to say, to the moment of\nthe viper's appearance, and he could remember nothing since. His\ncharacter had become violent, greedy, quarrelsome, and his tastes were\nradically changed. For instance, though he had before the attack been a\ntotal abstainer, he now not only drank his own wine, but stole the wine\nof the other patients. He escaped from Bonneval, and after a few\nturbulent years, tracked by his occasional relapses into hospital or\nmadhouse, he turned up once more at the Rochefort asylum in the\ncharacter of a private of marines, convicted of theft, but considered to\nbe of unsound mind. And at Rochefort and La Rochelle, by great good\nfortune, he fell into the hands of three physicians--Professors Bourru\nand Burot, and Dr. Mabille--able and willing to continue and extend the\nobservations which Dr. Camuset at Bonneval, and Dr. Jules Voisin at\nBicetre, had already made on this most precious of _mauvais sujets_\nat earlier points in his chequered career.\n\n\"He is now no longer at Rochefort, and Dr. Burot informs me that his\nhealth has much improved, and that his peculiarities have in great part\ndisappeared. I must, however, for clearness sake, use the present tense\nin briefly describing his condition at the time when the long series of\nexperiments were made.\n\n\"The state into which he has gravitated is a very unpleasing one. There\nis paralysis and insensibility of the right side, and, as is often the\ncase in right hemiplegia, the speech is indistinct and difficult.\nNevertheless he is constantly haranguing any one who will listen to him,\nabusing his physicians, or preaching--with a monkey-like impudence\nrather than with reasoned clearness--radicalism in politics and atheism\nin religion. He makes bad jokes, and if any one pleases him he\nendeavours to caress him. He remembers recent events during his\nresidence at Rochefort asylum, but only two scraps of his life before\nthat date, namely, his vicious period at Bonneval and a part of his stay\nat Bicetre.\n\n\"Except this strange fragmentary memory, there is nothing very unusual\nin this condition, and in many asylums no experiments on it would have\nbeen attempted. Fortunately the physicians at Rochefort were familiar\nwith the efficacy of the contact of metals in provoking transfer of\nhysterical hemiplegia from one side to the other. They tried various\nmetals in turn on Louis V. Lead, silver, and zinc had no effect. Copper\nproduced a slight return of sensibility in the paralysed arm, but steel\napplied to the right arm transferred the whole insensibility to the left\nside of the body.\n\n\"Inexplicable as such a phenomenon is, it is sufficiently common, as\nFrench physicians hold, in hysterical cases to excite little surprise.\nWhat puzzled the doctors was the change of character which accompanied\nthe change of sensibility. When Louis V. issued from the crisis of\ntransfer with its minute of anxious expression and panting breath, he\nmight fairly be called a new man. The restless insolence, the savage\nimpulsiveness, have wholly disappeared. The patient is now gentle,\nrespectful, and modest, can speak clearly, but he only speaks when he is\nspoken to. If he is asked his views on religion and politics, he prefers\nto leave such matters to wiser heads than his own. It might seem that\nmorally and mentally the patient's cure had been complete.\n\n\"But now ask what he thinks of Rochefort; how he liked his regiment of\nmarines. He will blankly answer that he knows nothing of Rochefort, and\nwas never a soldier in his life. 'Where are you then, and what is the\ndate of to-day?' 'I am at Bicetre; it is January 2nd, 1884, and I hope\nto see M. Voisin, as I did yesterday.'\n\n\"It is found, in fact, that he has now the memory of two short periods\nof life (different from those which he remembers when his right side is\nparalysed), periods during which, so far as now can be ascertained, his\ncharacter was of this same decorous type, and his paralysis was on his\nleft side.\n\n\"These two conditions are what are called his first and his second, out\nof a series of six or more through which he can be made to pass. For\nbrevity's sake I will further describe his fifth state only.\n\n\"If he is placed in an electric bath, or if a magnet is placed on his\nhead, it looks at first sight as though a complete physical cure had\nbeen effected. All paralysis, all defect of sensibility, has\ndisappeared. His movements are light and active, his expression gentle\nand timid, but ask him where he is, and you will find that he has gone\nback to a boy of fourteen, that he is at St. Urbain, his first\nreformatory, and that his memory embraces his years of childhood, and\nstops short on the very day on which he had the fright from the viper.\nIf he is pressed to recollect the incident of the viper, a violent\nepileptiform crisis puts a sudden end to this phase of his personality.\"\n(Vol. IV. pp. 497, 498, 499, \"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical\nResearch\").\n\nThis carries us a good deal further. Here we have not only two distinct\npersonalities, but two distinct characters, if not three, in one body.\nAccording to the side which is paralysed, the man is a savage reprobate\nor a decent modest citizen. The man seems born again when the steel\ntouches his right side. Yet all that has happened has been that the\nSub-conscious Personality has superseded his Conscious Personality in\nthe control of Louis V.\n\n\n_Lucie and Adrienne._\n\nThe next case, although not marked by the same violent contrast, is\nquite as remarkable, because it illustrates the extent to which the\nSub-conscious Self can be utilized in curing the Conscious Personality.\n\nThe subject was a girl of nineteen, called Lucie, who was highly\nhysterical, having daily attacks of several hours' duration. She was\nalso devoid of the sense of pain or the sense of contact, so that she\n\"lost her legs in bed,\" as she put it.\n\nOn her fifth hypnotisation, however, Lucie underwent a kind of\ncatalepsy, after which she returned to the somnambulic state; but that\nstate was deeper than before. She no longer made any sign whether of\nassent or refusal when she received the hypnotic commands, but she\nexecuted them infallibly, whether they were to take effect immediately,\nor after waking.\n\nIn Lucie's case this went further, and the suggested actions became\nabsolutely a portion of the trance-life. She executed them without\napparently knowing what she was doing. If, for instance, in her waking\nstate she was told (in the tone which in her hypnotic state signified\ncommand) to get up and walk about, she walked about, but to judge from\nher conversation she supposed herself to be still sitting quiet. She\nwould weep violently when commanded, but while she wept she continued to\ntalk as gaily and unconcernedly as if the tears had been turned on by a\nstop-cock.\n\nAny suggestion uttered by M. Janet in a brusque tone of command reached\nthe Unconscious Self alone; and other remarks reached the subject--awake\nor somnambulic--in the ordinary way. The next step was to test the\nintelligence of this hidden \"slave of the lamp,\" if I may so term\nit--this sub-conscious and indifferent executor of all that was bidden.\nHow far was its attention alert? How far was it capable of reasoning and\njudgment? M. Janet began with a simple experiment. \"When I shall have\nclapped my hands together twelve times,\" he said to the entranced\nsubject before awakening her, \"you will go to sleep again.\" There was no\nsign that the sleeper understood or heard; and when she was awakened the\nevents of the trance were a blank to her as usual. She began talking to\nother persons. M. Janet, at some little distance, clapped his hands\nfeebly together five times. Seeing that she did not seem to be attending\nto him, he went up to her and said, \"Did you hear what I did just now?\"\n\"No; what?\" \"Do you hear this?\" and he clapped his hands once more.\n\"Yes, you clapped your hands.\" \"How often?\" \"Once.\" M. Janet again\nwithdrew and clapped his hands six times gently, with pauses between the\nclaps. Lucie paid no apparent attention, but when the sixth clap of this\nsecond series--making the twelfth altogether--was reached, she fell\ninstantly into the trance again. It seemed, then, that the \"slave of the\nlamp\" had counted the claps through all, and had obeyed the order much\nas a clock strikes after a certain number of swings of the pendulum,\nhowever often you stop it between hour and hour.\n\nThus far, the knowledge gained as to the unconscious element in Lucie\nwas not direct, but inferential. The nature of the command which it\ncould execute showed it to be capable of attention and memory; but there\nwas no way of learning its own conception of itself, if such existed, or\nof determining its relation to other phenomena of Lucie's trance. And\nhere it was that automatic writing was successfully invoked; here we\nhave, as I may say, the first fruits in France of the new attention\ndirected to this seldom-trodden field. M. Janet began by the following\nsimple command: \"When I clap my hands you will write Bonjour.\" This was\ndone in the usual scrawling script of automatism, and Lucie, though\nfully awake, was not aware that she had written anything at all.\n\nM. Janet simply ordered the entranced girl to write answers to all\nquestions of his after her waking. The command thus given had a\npersistent effect, and while the awakened Lucie continued to chatter as\nusual with other persons, her Unconscious Self wrote brief and scrawling\nresponses to M. Janet's questions. This was the moment at which, in many\ncases, a new and invading separate personality is assumed.\n\nA singular conversation gave to this limited creation, this statutory\nintelligence, an identity sufficient for practical convenience. \"Do you\nhear me?\" asked Professor Janet. Answer (by writing), \"No.\" \"But in\norder to answer one must hear.\" \"Certainly.\" \"Then how do you manage?\"\n\"I don't know.\" \"There must be somebody that hears me.\" \"Yes.\" \"Who is\nit?\" \"Not Lucie.\" \"Oh, some one else? Shall we call her Blanche?\" \"Yes,\nBlanche.\" Blanche, however, had to be changed. Another name had to be\nchosen. \"What name will you have?\" \"No name.\" \"You must, it will be more\nconvenient.\" \"Well, then, Adrienne.\" Never, perhaps, has a personality\nhad less spontaneity about it.\n\nYet Adrienne was in some respects deeper down than Lucie. She could get\nat the genesis of certain psychical manifestations of which Lucie\nexperienced only the results. A striking instance of this was afforded\nby the phenomena of the hystero-epileptic attacks to which this patient\nwas subject.\n\nLucie's special terror, which recurred in wild exclamation in her\nhysterical fits, was in some way connected with hidden men. She could\nnot, however, recollect the incident to which her cries referred; she\nonly knew that she had had a severe fright at seven years old, and an\nillness in consequence. Now, during these \"crises\" Lucie (except,\npresumably, in the periods of unconsciousness which form a pretty\nconstant element in such attacks) could hear what Prof. Janet said to\nher. Adrienne, on the contrary, was hard to get at; could no longer obey\norders, and if she wrote, wrote only \"J'ai peur, j'ai peur.\"\n\nM. Janet, however, waited until the attack was over, and then questioned\nAdrienne as to the true meaning of the agitated scene. Adrienne was able\nto describe to him the terrifying incident in her childish life which\nhad originated the confused hallucinations which recurred during the\nattack. She could not explain the recrudescence of the hallucinations;\nbut she knew what Lucie saw, and why she saw it; nay, indeed, it was\nAdrienne, rather than Lucie, to whom the hallucination was directly\nvisible.\n\nLucie, it will be remembered, was a hysterical patient very seriously\namiss. One conspicuous symptom was an almost absolute defect of\nsensibility, whether to pain, to heat, or to contact, which persisted\nboth when she was awake and entranced. There was, as already mentioned,\nan entire defect of the muscular sense also, so that when her eyes were\nshut she did not know the position of her limbs. Nevertheless it was\nremarked as an anomaly that when she was thrown into a cataleptic state,\nnot only did the movements impressed upon her continue to be made, but\nthe corresponding or complimentary movements, the corresponding facial\nexpression, followed just as they usually follow in such experiments.\nThus, if M. Janet clenched her fist in the cataleptic state, her arm\nbegan to deal blows, and her face assumed a look of anger. The\nsuggestion which was given through the so-called muscular sense had\noperated in a subject to whom the muscular sense, as tested in other\nways, seemed to be wholly lacking. As soon as Adrienne could be\ncommunicated with, it was possible to get somewhat nearer to a solution\nof this puzzle. Lucie was thrown into catalepsy; then M. Janet clenched\nher left hand (she began at once to strike out), put a pencil in her\nright, and said, \"Adrienne, what are you doing?\" The left hand continued\nto strike, and the face to bear the look of rage, while the right hand\nwrote, \"I am furious.\" \"With whom?\" \"With F.\" \"Why?\" \"I don't know, but\nI am very angry.\" M. Janet then unclenched the subject's left hand, and\nput it gently to her lips. It began to \"blow kisses,\" and the face\nsmiled. \"Adrienne, are you still angry?\" \"No, that's over.\" \"And now?\"\n\"Oh, I am happy!\" \"And Lucie?\" \"She knows nothing; she is asleep.\"\n\nIn Lucie's case, indeed, these odd manifestations were--as the pure\nexperimentalist might say--only too sanative, only too rapidly tending\nto normality. M. Janet accompanied his psychological inquiries with\ntherapeutic suggestion, telling Adrienne not only to go to sleep when he\nclapped his hands, or to answer his questions in writing, but to cease\nhaving headaches, to cease having convulsive attacks, to recover normal\nsensibility, and so on. Adrienne obeyed, and even as she obeyed the\nrational command, her own Undine-like identity vanished away. The day\ncame when M. Janet called on Adrienne, and Lucie laughed and asked him\nwho he was talking to. Lucie was now a healthy young woman, but\nAdrienne, who had risen out of the unconscious, had sunk into the\nunconscious again--must I say?--for ever more.\n\nFew lives so brief have taught so many lessons. For us who are busied\nwith automatic writing the lesson is clear. We have here demonstrably\nwhat we can find in other cases only inferentially, an intelligence\nmanifesting itself continuously by written answers, of purport quite\noutside the normal subject's conscious mind, while yet that intelligence\nwas but a part, a fraction, an aspect, of the normal subject's own\nidentity.\n\nAnd we must remember that Adrienne--while she was, if I may say so, the\nUnconscious Self reduced to its simplest expression--did, nevertheless,\nmanifest certain differences from Lucie, which, if slightly exaggerated,\nmight have been very perplexing. Her handwriting was slightly different,\nthough only in the loose and scrawling character so frequent in\nautomatic script. Again, Adrienne remembered certain incidents in\nLucie's childhood which Lucie had wholly forgotten. Once more--and this\nlast suggestion points to positive rather than to negative\nconclusions--Adrienne possessed a faculty, the muscular sense, of which\nLucie was devoid. I am anxious that this point especially should be\nfirmly grasped, for I wish the reader's mind to be perfectly open as\nregards the relative faculties of the Conscious and the Unconscious\nSelf. It is plain that we must be on the watch for completion, for\nevolution, as well as for partition, for dissolution, of the corporate\nbeing.\n\n\n_Felida X. and her Submerged Soul._\n\nSide by side with this case we have another in which the Conscious\nPersonality, instead of being cured, has been superseded by the\nSub-conscious. It was as if instead of \"Adrienne\" being submerged by\nLucie, \"Adrienne\" became Lucie and dethroned her former master. The\nwoman in question, Felida X., has been transformed.\n\nIn her case the somnambulic life has become the normal life; the \"second\nstate,\" which appeared at first only in short, dream-like accesses, has\ngradually replaced the \"first state,\" which now recurs but for a few\nhours at long intervals. Felida's second state is altogether superior to\nthe first--physically superior, since the nervous pains which had\ntroubled her from childhood had disappeared; and morally superior,\ninasmuch as her morose, self-centred disposition is exchanged for a\ncheerful activity which enables her to attend to her children and to her\nshop much more effectively than when she was in the _etat bete_, as\nshe now calls what was once the only personality that she knew. In this\ncase, then, which is now of nearly thirty years' standing, the\nspontaneous readjustment of nervous activities--the second state, no\nmemory of which remains in the first state--has resulted in an\nimprovement profounder than could have been anticipated from any moral\nor medical treatment that we know. The case shows us how often the word\n\"normal\" means nothing more than \"what happens to exist.\" For Felida's\nnormal state was in fact her morbid state; and the new condition which\nseemed at first a mere hysterical abnormality, has brought her to a life\nof bodily and mental sanity, which makes her fully the equal of average\nwomen of her class. (Vol. IV. p. 503.)\n\n\n\n\nChapter III.\n\nMadame B. and Her Three Souls.\n\n\nMarvellous as the cases cited in the last chapter appear, they are\nthrown entirely into the shade by the case of Madame B., in which the\ntwo personalities not only exist side by side, but in the case of the\nSub-conscious self knowingly co-exist, while over or beneath both there\nis a third personality which is aware of both the other two, and\napparently superior to both. The possibilities which this case opens up\nare bewildering indeed. But it is better to state the case first and\ndiscuss it afterwards. Madame B., who is still under Prof. Richet's\nobservations,[3] is one of the favourite subjects of the French\nhypnotiser. She can be put to sleep at almost any distance, and when\nhypnotised completely changes her character. There are two well-defined\npersonalities in her, and a third of a more mysterious nature than\neither of the two first. The normal waking state of the woman is called\nLeonie I., the hypnotic state Leonie II. The third occult Unconscious\nPersonality of the lowest depth is called Leonie III.\n\n        [3] 1891.\n\n\"This poor peasant,\" says Professor Janet, \"is in her normal state a\nserious and somewhat melancholy woman, calm and slow, very gentle and\nextremely timid. No one would suspect the existence of the person whom\nshe includes within her. Hardly is she entranced when she is\nmetamorphosed; her face is no longer the same; her eyes, indeed, remain\nclosed, but the acuteness of the other senses compensates for the loss\nof sight. She becomes gay, noisy, and restless to an insupportable\ndegree; she continues good-natured, but she has acquired a singular\ntendency to irony and bitter jests.... In this state she does not\nrecognise her identity with her waking self. 'That good woman is not I,'\nshe says; 'she is too stupid!'\"\n\nMadame B. has been so often hypnotised, and during so many years (for\nshe was hypnotised by other physicians as long ago as 1860), that Leonie\nII. has by this time acquired a considerable stock of memories which\nMadame B. does not share. Leonie II., therefore, counts as properly\nbelonging to her own history and not to Madame B.'s all the events which\nhave taken place while Madame B.'s normal self was hypnotised into\nunconsciousness. It was not always easy at first to understand this\npartition of past experiences.\n\n\"Madame B. in the normal state,\" says Professor Janet, \"has a husband\nand children. Leonie II., speaking in the somnambulistic trance,\nattributes the husband to the 'other' (Madame B.), but attributes the\nchildren to herself.... At last I learnt that her former mesmerisers, as\nbold in their practice as certain hypnotisers of to-day, had induced\nsomnambulism at the time of her accouchements. Leonie II., therefore,\nwas quite right in attributing the children to herself; the rule of\npartition was unbroken, and the somnambulism was characterised by a\nduplication of the subject's existence\" (p. 391).\n\nStill more extraordinary are Leonie II.'s attempts to make use of Leonie\nI.'s limbs without her knowledge or against her will. She will write\npostscripts to Leonie I.'s letters, of the nature of which poor Leonie\nI. is unconscious.\n\nIt seems, however, that when once set up this new personality can\noccasionally assume the initiative, and can say what it wants to say\nwithout any prompting. This is curiously illustrated by what may be\ntermed a conjoint epistle addressed to Professor Janet by Madame B. and\nher secondary self, Leonie II. \"She had,\" he says, \"left Havre more than\ntwo months when I received from her a very curious letter. On the first\npage was a short note written in a serious and respectful style. She was\nunwell, she said--worse on some days than on others--and she signed her\ntrue name, Madame B. But over the page began another letter in quite a\ndifferent style, and which I may quote as a curiosity:--'My dear good\nsir,--I must tell you that B. really makes me suffer very much; she\ncannot sleep, she spits blood, she hurts me. I am going to demolish her,\nshe bores me. I am ill also. This is from your devoted Leontine' (the\nname first given to Leonie II).\n\n\"When Madame B. returned to Havre I naturally questioned her concerning\nthis curious missive. She remembered the first letter very distinctly,\nbut she had not the slightest recollection of the second. I at first\nthought there must have been an attack of spontaneous somnambulism\nbetween the moment when she finished the first letter and the moment\nwhen she closed the envelope. But afterwards these unconscious,\nspontaneous letters became common, and I was better able to study the\nmode of their production. I was fortunately able to watch Madame B. on\none occasion while she went through this curious performance. She was\nseated at a table, and held in the left hand the piece of knitting at\nwhich she had been working. Her face was calm, her eyes looked into\nspace with a certain fixity, but she was not cataleptic, for she was\nhumming a rustic tune; her right hand wrote quickly, and, as it were,\nsurreptitiously. I removed the paper without her noticing me, and then\nspoke to her; she turned round wide-awake but was surprised to see me,\nfor in her state of distraction she had not noticed my approach. Of the\nletter which she was writing she knew nothing whatever.\n\n\"Leonie II.'s independent action is not entirely confined to writing\nletters. She observed (apparently) that when her primary self, Leonie\nI., discovered these letters she (Leonie I.) tore them up. So Leonie II.\nhit upon a plan of placing them in a photographic album into which\nLeonie I. could not look without falling into catalepsy (on account of\nan association of ideas with Dr. Gibert, whose portrait had been in the\nalbum). In order to accomplish an act like this Leonie II. has to wait\nfor a moment when Leonie I. is distracted, or, as we say, absent-minded.\nIf she can catch her in this state Leonie II. can direct Leonie I.'s\nwalks, for instance, or start on a long railway journey without baggage,\nin order to get to Havre as quickly as possible.\"\n\nIn the whole realm of imaginative literature, is there anything to\ncompare to this actual fact of three selves in one body, each struggling\nto get possession of it? Leonie I., or the Conscious Personality, is in\npossession normally, but is constantly being ousted by Leonie II., or\nthe Subconscious Personality. It is the old, old case of the wife trying\nto wear the breeches. But there is a fresh terror beyond. For behind\nboth Leonie I. and Leonie II. stands the mysterious Leonie III.\n\n\"The spontaneous acts of the Unconscious Self,\" says M. Janet, here\nmeaning by _l'inconscient_ the entity to which he has given the\nname of Leonie III., \"may also assume a very reasonable form--a form\nwhich, were it better understood, might perhaps serve to explain certain\ncases of insanity. Mme. B., during her somnambulism (_i.e._ Leonie\nII.) had had a sort of hysterical crisis; she was restless and noisy and\nI could not quiet her. Suddenly she stopped and said to me with terror.\n'Oh, who is talking to me like that? It frightens me.' 'No one is\ntalking to you.' 'Yes! there on the left!' And she got up and tried to\nopen a wardrobe on her left hand, to see if some one was hidden there.\n'What is that you hear?' I asked. 'I hear on the left a voice which\nrepeats, \"Enough, enough, be quiet, you are a nuisance.\"' Assuredly the\nvoice which thus spoke was a reasonable one, for Leonie II. was\ninsupportable; but I had suggested nothing of the kind, and had no idea\nof inspiring a hallucination of hearing. Another day Leonie II. was\nquite calm, but obstinately refused to answer a question which I asked.\nAgain she heard with terror the same voice to the left, saying, 'Come,\nbe sensible, you must answer.' Thus the Unconscious sometimes gave her\nexcellent advice.\"\n\nAnd in effect, as soon as Leonie III. was summoned into communication,\nshe accepted the responsibility of this counsel. \"What was it that\nhappened?\" asked M. Janet, \"when Leonie II. was so frightened?\" \"Oh!\nnothing. It was I who told her to keep quiet; I saw she was annoying\nyou; I don't know why she was so frightened.\"\n\nNote the significance of this incident. Here we have got at the root of\na hallucination. We have not merely inferential but direct evidence that\nthe imaginary voice which terrified Leonie II. proceeded from a\nprofounder stratum of consciousness in the same individual. In what way,\nby the aid of what nervous mechanism, was the startling monition\nconveyed?\n\nJust as Mme. B. was sent, by means of passes, into a state of lethargy,\nfrom which she emerged as Leonie II., so Leonie II., in her turn, was\nreduced by renewed passes to a state of lethargy from which she emerged\nno longer as Leonie II. but as Leonie III. This second waking is slow\nand gradual, but the personality which emerges is, in one important\npoint, superior to either Leonie I. or Leonie II. Although one among the\nsubject's phases, this phase possesses the memory of every phase. Leonie\nIII., like Leonie II., knows the normal life of Leonie I., but\ndistinguishes herself from Leonie I., in whom, it must be said, these\nsubjacent personalities appear to take little interest. But Leonie III.\nalso remembers the life of Leonie II.--condemns her as noisy and\nfrivolous, and is anxious not to be confounded with her either. \"Vous\nvoyez bien que je ne suis pas cette bavarde, cette folle; nous ne nous\nressemblons pas du tout.\"\n\nWe ask, in amazement, how many more personalities may there not be\nhidden in the human frame? Here is simple Madame B., who is not one\nperson but three--first her commonplace self; secondly, the clever,\nchattering Leonie II., who is bored by B., and who therefore wants to\ndemolish her; and thirdly, the lordly Leonie III., who issues commands\nthat strike terror into Leonie II., and disdains to be identified with\neither of the partners in Madame B.'s body.\n\nIt is evident, if the hypnotists are right, that the human body is more\nlike a tenement house than a single cell, and that the inmates love each\nother no more than the ordinary occupants of tenemented property. But\nhow many are there of us within each skin who can say?\n\n\n\n\nChapter IV.\n\nSome Suggested Theories.\n\n\nOf theories to account for these strange phenomena there are enough and\nto spare. I do not for a moment venture to claim for the man and wife\nillustration the slightest scientific value. It is only a figure of\nspeech which brings out very clearly one aspect of the problem of\npersonality. The theory that there are two independent personalities\nwithin the human skin is condemned by all orthodox psychologists. There\nis one personality manifesting itself, usually consciously, but\noccasionally unconsciously, and the different method of manifestation\ndiffers so widely as to give the impression that there could not be the\nsame personality behind both. A man who is ambidextrous will sign his\nname differently with his right or left hand, but it is the same\nsignature. Mr. Myers thinks that the Secondary Personality of Subliminal\nConsciousness is merely a phase of the essential Unity of the Ego. Some\ntime ago he expressed himself on this subject as follows:--\n\n\"I hold that hypnotism (itself a word covering a vast variety of\ndifferent states) may be regarded as constituting one special case which\nfalls under a far wider category--the category, namely, of developments\nof a Secondary Personality. I hold that we each of us contain the\npotentialities of many different arrangements of the elements of our\npersonality, each arrangement being distinguishable from the rest by\ndifferences in the chain of memories which pertain to it. The\narrangement with which we habitually identify ourselves--what we call\nthe normal or primary self--consists, in my view, of elements selected\nfor us in the struggle for existence with special reference to the\nmaintenance of ordinary physical needs, and is not necessarily superior\nin any other respect to the latent personalities which lie alongside of\nit--the fresh combinations of our personal elements which may be evoked\nby accident or design, in a variety to which we at present can assign no\nlimit. I consider that dreams, with natural somnambulism, automatic\nwriting, with so-called mediumistic trance, as well as certain\nintoxications, epilepsies, hysterias, and recurrent insanities, afford\nexamples of the development of what I have called secondary mnemonic\nchains; fresh personalities, more or less complete, alongside the normal\nstate. And I would add that hypnotism is only the name given to a group\nof empirical methods of inducing these fresh personalities.\"\n\nA doctor in philosophy, to whom I submitted these pages, writes me as\nfollows:--\"There can be no doubt that every man lives a sub-conscious as\nwell as a conscious life. One side of him is closed against examination\nby himself (_i.e._ unconscious); the other is conscious of itself.\nThe former carries on processes of separation, combination, and\ndistribution, of the thought-stuff handed over to it, corresponding\nalmost exactly to the processes carried on by the stomach, which, as\ncompared with those of eating, etc., go on in the dark automatically.\"\n\nAnother doctor, not of philosophy but of medicine, who has devoted\nspecial attention to the phenomenon of sleep, suggests a new\nillustration which is graphic and suggestive. He writes:--\n\n\"With regard to dual or multiple consciousness, my own feeling has\nalways been that the _individuals_ stand one behind the other in\nthe chambers of the mind, or else, as it were, in concentric circles.\nYou may compare it to the Jewish tabernacle. First, there is the court\nof the Gentiles, where Ego No. 1 chaffers about trifles with the outer\nworld. While he is so doing Ego No. 2 watches him from the court of the\nLevites, but does not go forth on small occasions. When we 'open out' to\na friend the Levite comes forth, and is in turn watched by the priest\nfrom the inner court. Let our emotions be stirred in sincere converse\nand out strides the priest, and takes precedence of the other two, they\nfalling obediently and submissively behind him. But the priest is still\nwatched by the high priest from the tabernacle itself, and only on great\nand solemn occasions does he make himself manifest by action. When he\ndoes, the other three yield to his authority, and then we say the man\n'speaks with his whole soul' and 'from the bottom of his heart.' But\neven now the Shekinah is upon the mercy-seat within the Holy of holies,\nand the high priest knows it.\"\n\nThe latest word[4] of the French psychologists is thus stated by M.\nFoueillee:--\n\n\"Contemporary psychology deprives us of the illusion of a definitely\nlimited, impenetrable, and absolutely autonomous I. The conception of\nindividual consciousness must be of an idea rather than of a substance.\nThough separate _in_ the universe, we are not separate _from_\nthe universe. Continuity and reciprocity of action exist everywhere.\nThis is the great law and the great mystery. There is no such thing as\nan isolated and veritably monad being, any more than there is such a\nthing as an indivisible point, except in the abstractions of geometry.\"\n\n        [4] 1891.\n\nWhatever may be the true theory, it is evident that there is enough\nmystery about personality to make us very diffident about dogmatising,\nespecially as to what is possible and what is not.\n\nWhether we have one mind or two, let us, at least, keep it (or them)\nopen.\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nTHE THOUGHT BODY, OR THE DOUBLE.\n\n\"And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken,\nnamed Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she ran in and told how\nPeter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But\nshe constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his\nangel (or double).\"--Acts xil. 13-15.\n\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nAerial Journeyings.\n\n\nI began to write this in the autumn of 1891 in a small country-house\namong the Surrey hills, whither I had retreated in order to find\nundisturbed leisure in which to arrange my ideas and array my facts. It\nwas a pleasant place enough, perched on the brow of a heath-covered\nslope that dipped down to a ravine, at the head of which stands\nProfessor Tyndall's house with its famous screen. Hardly a mile away\nnorthward lies the Devil's Punch Bowl, with its memorial stone erected\nin abhorrence of the detestable murder perpetrated on its rim by\nruffians whose corpses slowly rotted as they swung on the gibbet\noverhead; far to the south spreads the glorious amphitheatre of hills\nwhich constitute the Highlands of the South.\n\nThe Portsmouth road, along which for hundreds of years rolled to and fro\nthe tide of martial life between London and the great Sea Gate of the\nRealm, lies near by, silent and almost disused. Mr. Balfour's land, on\nthe brow of Hindhead, is enclosed but not yet built upon, although a\nwhole archipelago of cottages and villas is springing up amid the\nheather as the ground slopes towards Selborne--White's Selborne--that\ncan dimly be descried to the westward beyond Liphook Common. Memories\nthere are, enough and to spare, of the famous days of old, and of the\nnot less famous men of our own time; but the ghosts have fled. \"There\nused to be a ghost in the mill,\" said my driver, \"and another in a\ncomparatively new house over in Lord Tennyson's direction, but we hear\nnothing about them now.\" \"Not even at the Murder Stone of the Devil's\nPunch Bowl?\" \"Not even at the Murder Stone. I have driven past it at all\nhours, and never saw anything--but the stone, of course.\"\n\nYet a more suitable spot for a ghost could hardly be conceived than the\nrim of the Devil's Punch Bowl, where the sailor was murdered, and where\nafterwards his murderers were hanged. I visited it late at night, when\nthe young moon was beginning to struggle through the cloudy sky, and\nlooked down into the ravine which Cobbett declared was the most horrid\nplace God ever made; but no sign of ghostly visitant could be caught\namong the bracken, no sound of the dead voices was audible in the air.\nIt is the way with ghosts--they seldom appear where they might be looked\nfor. It is the unexpected in the world of shadows, as in the workaday\nworld, which always happens.\n\nOf this I had soon a very curious illustration. For, although there were\nno ghosts in the Devil's Punch Bowl by the Murder Stone, I found that\nthere had been a ghost in the trim new little villa in which I was\nquartered! It didn't appear to me--at least, it has not done so as yet.\nBut it appeared to some friends of mine whose statement is explicit\nenough. Here was a find indeed. I spent most of my boyhood within a mile\nof the famous haunted house or mill at Willington, but I had never slept\nbefore in a place which ghosts used as a trysting place. I asked my\nhostess about it. She replied, \"Yes, it is quite true; but, although you\nmay not believe it, I am the ghost.\" \"You? How?\" \"Yes,\" she replied,\nquite seriously; \"it is quite true what your friends have told you. They\ndid see what you would correctly describe as an apparition. That is to\nsay, they saw a more or less shadowy figure, which they at once\nidentified, and which then gradually faded away. It was an apparition in\nthe true sense of the word. It entered the room without using the door\nor window, it was visibly manifested before them, and then it vanished.\nAll that is quite true. But it is also true that the ghost, as you call\nit, was my ghost.\" \"Your ghost, but----\" \"I am not dead, you are going\nto say. Precisely. But surely you must be well aware of the fact that\nthe ghosts of the living are much better authenticated than ghosts of\nthe dead.\"\n\nMy hostess was the daughter of a well-known London solicitor, who, after\nspending her early youth in dancing and riding and other diversions of\nyoung ladies in society who have the advantage of a house in Park Lane,\nsuddenly became possessed by a strange, almost savage, fascination for\nthe occult lore of the ancient East. Abandoning the frivolities of\nMayfair, she went to Girton, where she plunged into the study of\nSanscrit. After leaving Girton, she applied herself to the study of the\noccult side of Theosophy. Then she married a black magician in the\nplatonic fashion common to Occultists, early Christians, and Russian\nNihilists, and since then she has prosecuted her studies into the\ninvisible world with ever-increasing interest.\n\n\n_The Thought Body._\n\n\"I see you are incredulous,\" she replied; \"but, if you like, I will some\ntime afford you an opportunity of proving that I am simply speaking the\ntruth. Tell me, will you speak to me if I appear to you in my thought\nbody?\" \"Certainly,\" I replied, \"unless I am struck dumb. Nothing would\nplease me better. But, of course, I have never seen a ghost, and no one\ncan say how any utterly unaccustomed experience may affect him.\"\n\"Unfortunately,\" she replied, \"that is too often the case. All those to\nwhom I have hitherto appeared have been so scared they could not speak.\"\n\"But, my dear friend, do you actually mean to say that you have the\nfaculty of----\" \"Going about in my Thought Body? Most certainly. It is\nnot a very uncommon faculty, but it is one which needs cultivation and\ndevelopment.\" \"But what is a Thought Body?\" My hostess smiled: \"It is\ndifficult to explain truths on the plane of thought to those who are\nimmersed body and soul in matter. I can only tell you that every person\nhas, in addition to this natural body of flesh, bones, and blood, a\nThought Body, the exact counterpart in every respect of this material\nframe. It is contained within the material body, as air is contained in\nthe lungs and in the blood. It is of finer matter than the gross fabric\nof our outward body. It is capable of motion with the rapidity of\nthought. The laws of space and time do not exist for the mind, and the\nThought Envelope of which we are speaking moves with the swiftness of\nthe mind.\"\n\n\"Then when your thought body appears?\"\n\n\"My mind goes with it. I see, I hear, and my consciousness is with my\nThought Envelope. But I want to have a proper interview while on my\nthought journeys. That is why I ask you if you would try to speak to me\nif I appear.\"\n\n\"But,\" I objected, \"do you really mean that you hope to appear before\nme, in my office, as immaterial as gas, as visible as light, and yet to\nspeak, to touch?\"\n\n\"That is just what I mean,\" she replied, laughing, \"that and nothing\nless. I was in your office the other morning at six o'clock, but no one\nwas there. I have not got this curious power as yet under complete\ncontrol. But when once we are able to direct it at will, imagine what\npossibilities it unfolds!\"\n\n\"But,\" said I, \"if you can be seen and touched, you ought to be\nphotographed!\"\n\n\"I wish to be photographed, but no one can say as yet whether such\nthought bodies can be photographed. When next I make the experiment I\nwant you to try. It would be very useful.\"\n\nUseful indeed! It does not require very vivid imagination to see that if\nyou can come and go to the uttermost parts of the world in your thought\nshape, such Thought Bodies will be indispensable henceforth on every\nenterprising newspaper. It would be a great saving on telegraphy. When\nmy ideal paper comes along, I mentally vowed I would have my hostess as\nfirst member of my staff. But of course it had got to be proved, and\nthat not only once but a dozen times, before any reliance could be\nplaced on it.\n\n\"I often come down here,\" said my hostess cheerfully, \"after breakfast.\nI just lie down in my bedroom in town, and in a moment I find myself\nhere at Hindhead. Sometimes I am seen, sometimes I am not. But I am\nhere; seen or unseen, I see. It is a curious gift, and one which I am\nstudying hard to develop and to control.\"\n\n\"And what about clothes?\" I asked. \"Oh,\" replied my hostess airily, \"I\ngo in whatever clothes I like. There are astral counterparts to all our\ngarments. It by no means follows that I appear in the same dress as that\nwhich is worn by my material body. I remember, when I appeared to your\nfriend, I wore the astral counterpart of a white silk shawl, which was\nat the time folded away in the wardrobe.\"\n\nAt this point, however, in order to anticipate the inevitable\nobservation that my hostess was insane, I think I had better introduce\nthe declarations of my two friends, who are quite clear and explicit as\nto their recollection of what they saw.\n\nMy witnesses are mother and daughter. The daughter I have seen and\ninterviewed; the mother I could not see, but took a statement down from\nher husband, who subsequently submitted it in proof to her for\ncorrection. I print the daughter's statement first.\n\n\"About eighteen months ago (in May, 1890) I was staying at the house of\nmy friend in M---- Mansions. Mrs. M. had gone to her country house at\nHindhead for a fortnight and was not expected back for a week. I was\nsitting in the kitchen reading Edna Lyall's 'Donovan.' About half-past\nnine o'clock I distinctly heard Mrs. M. walk up and down the passage\nwhich ran from the front door past the open door of the room in which I\nwas sitting. I was not thinking of Mrs. M. and did not at the time\nrealize that she was not in the flat, when suddenly I heard her voice\nand saw her standing at the open door. I saw her quite distinctly, and\nsaw that she was dressed in the dress in which I had usually seen her in\nan evening, without bonnet or hat, her hair being plaited low down close\nto the back of her head. The dress, I said, was the same, but there were\ntwo differences which I noticed at once. In her usual dress, the silk\nfront was grey; this time the grey colour had given place to a curious\namber, and over her shoulders she wore a shawl of white Indian silk. I\nnoticed it particularly, because the roses embroidered on it at its ends\ndid not correspond with each other. All this I saw as I looked up and\nheard her say, 'T----, give me that book.' I answered, half\nmechanically, 'Yes, Mrs. M.,' but felt somewhat startled. I had hardly\nspoken when Mrs. M. turned, opened the door leading into the main\nbuilding, and went out. I instantly got up and followed her to the door.\nIt was closed. I opened it and looked out, but could see nobody. It was\nnot until then that I fully realised that there was something uncanny in\nwhat I had seen. I was very frightened, and after having satisfied\nmyself that Mrs. M. was not in the flat, I fastened the door, put out\nthe lights, and went to bed, burying my head under the bedclothes.\n\n\"The post next day brought a letter from Mrs. M. saying that she was\ncoming by eleven o'clock. I was too frightened to stay in the house, and\nI went to my father and told him what I had seen. He told me to go back\nand hear what Mrs. M. had to say about the matter. When Mrs. M. arrived\nI told her what I had seen on the preceding evening. She laughed, and\nsaid, 'Oh! I was here then, was I? I did not expect to come here.' With\nthat exception I have seen no apparition whatever, or had any\nhallucination of any kind, neither have I seen the apparition of Mrs. M.\nagain.\"\n\nAfter hearing this statement I asked Mrs. M. what she meant by the\nremark she had made on hearing Miss C.'s explanation of what she had\nwitnessed. My hostess replied, \"That night when I passed into the trance\nstate, and lay down on the couch in the sitting-room at Hindhead, I did\nso with the desire of visiting my husband, who was in his retreat at\nWimbledon. That, I should say, was between nine and half-past. After I\ncame out of the trance I was conscious that I had been somewhere, but I\ndid not know where. I started from Hindhead for Wimbledon, but landed at\nM---- Mansions, where, no doubt, I was more at home.\" \"Then you had no\nmemory of where you had been?\" \"Not the least.\" \"And what about the\nshawl?\" \"The shawl was one that Miss C. had never seen. I had not worn\nit for two years, and the fact that she saw it and described it, is\nconclusive evidence against the subjective character of the vision. The\noriginals of all the phantom clothes were at M---- Mansions at the time\nMiss C. saw me wearing them. I was not wearing the shawl. At the time\nwhen she saw it on my Thought Body it was folded up and put away in a\nwardrobe in an adjoining room. She had never seen it.\" I asked Miss C.\nwhat was the appearance of Mrs. M. She replied, \"She just looked as she\ndoes always, only much more beautiful.\" \"How do you account,\" said I to\nmy hostess, \"for the change in colour of the silk front from grey to\namber?\" She replied, \"It was a freak.\"\n\nI then asked Mr. C., the father of the last witness, what had occurred\nin his wife's experience. Here is the statement which his wife made to\nhim, and which he says is absolutely reliable. \"I was staying at\nHindhead, in the lodge connected with the house in which you are\nstaying. I was in some trouble, and Mrs. M. had been somewhat anxious\nabout me. I had gone to sleep, but was suddenly aroused by the\nconsciousness that some one was bending over me. When I opened my eyes I\nsaw in shimmering outline a figure which I recognised at once as that of\nMrs. M. She was bending over me, and her great lustrous eyes seemed to\npierce my very soul. For a time I lay still, as if paralysed, being\nunable either to speak or to move, but at last gaining courage with time\nI ventured to strike a match. As soon as I did so the figure of Mrs. M.\ndisappeared. Feeling reassured and persuaded that I had been deluded by\nmy senses, I at last put out the light and composed myself to sleep. To\nmy horror, no sooner was the room dark than I saw the spectral,\nshimmering form of Mrs. M. moving about the room, and always turning\ntowards me those wonderful, piercing eyes. I again struck a match, and\nagain the apparition vanished from the room.\n\n\"By this time I was in a mortal terror, and it was some time before I\nventured to put out the light again, when a third time I saw the\nfamiliar presence which had evidently never left the room, but simply\nbeen invisible in the light. In the dark it shone by its own radiance. I\nwas taken seriously ill with a violent palpitation of the heart, and\nkept my light burning. I felt so utterly upset that I could not remain\nany longer in the place and insisted next morning on going home. I did\nnot touch the phantom, I simply saw it--saw it three times, and its\nhaunting persistency rendered it quite impossible for me to mistake it\nfor any mere nightmare.\"\n\nNeither Mrs. nor Miss C. have had any other hallucinations, and Mrs. C.\nis strongly sceptical. She does not deny the accuracy of the above\nstatement, but scouts the theory of a Thought Body, or of any\nsupernatural or occult explanation. On hearing Mrs. C.'s evidence I\nasked my hostess whether she was conscious of haunting her guest in this\nway. \"I knew nothing about it,\" she replied; \"all that I know was that I\nhad been much troubled about her and was anxious to help her. I went\ninto a very heavy, deep sleep; but until next morning, when I heard of\nit from Mrs. C. I had no idea that my double had left my room.\" I said,\n\"This power is rather gruesome, for you might take to haunting me.\" \"I\ndo not think so, unless there was something to be gained which could not\nbe otherwise secured, some benefit to be conferred upon you.\" \"That is\nto say, if I were in trouble or dangerously ill, and you were anxious\nabout me, your double might come and attend my sick-bed.\" \"That is quite\npossible,\" she said imperturbably. \"Well,\" said I, \"when are you coming\nto be photographed?\" \"Not for many months yet,\" she replied, with a\nlaugh. \"For the Thought Body to leave its corporeal tenement it needs a\nconsiderable concentration of thought, and an absence of all disturbing\nconditions or absorbing preoccupations at the time. I see no reason why\nI should not be photographed when the circumstances are propitious. I\nshall be very glad to furnish you with that evidence of the reality of\nthe Thought Body, but such things cannot be fixed up to order.\"\n\nThis, indeed, was a ghost to some purpose--a ghost free from all the\nweird associations of death and the grave--a healthy, utilisable ghost,\nand a ghost, above all, which wanted to be photographed. It seemed too\ngood to be true. Yet how strange it was! Here we have just been\ndiscussing whether or not we have each of us two souls, and, behold! my\ngood hostess tells me quite calmly that it is beyond all doubt that we\nhave two bodies.\n\n\n_Three Other Aerial Wanderers._\n\nA short time after hearing from my hostess this incredible account of\nher aerial journeyings, I received first hand from three other ladies\nstatements that they had also enjoyed this faculty of bodily\nduplication. All four ladies are between twenty and forty years of age.\nThree of them are married. The first says she has almost complete\ncontrol over her movements, but for the most part her phantasmal\nenvelope is invisible to those whom she visits.\n\nThis, it may be said, is mere conscious clairvoyance, in which the\nfaculty of sight was accompanied by the consciousness of bodily\npresence, although it is invisible to other eyes. It is, besides, purely\nsubjective and therefore beside the mark. Still, it is interesting as\nembodying the impressions of a mind, presumably sane, as to the\nexperiences through which it has consciously passed. On the same ground\nI may refer to the experience of Miss X., the second lady referred to,\nwho, when lying, as it was believed, at the point of death, declares\nthat she was quite conscious of coming out of her body and looking at it\nas it lay in the bed. In all the cases I have yet mentioned the\ndeparture of the phantasmal body is accompanied by a state of trance on\nthe part of the material body. There is not dual consciousness, but only\na dual body, the consciousness being confined to the immaterial body.\n\nIt is otherwise with the experience of the fourth wanderer in my text.\nMrs. Wedgwood, the daughter-in-law of Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the\nwell-known philologist, who was Charles Darwin's cousin, declares that\nshe had once a very extraordinary experience. She was lying on a couch\nin an upper room one wintry morning at Shorncliffe, when she felt her\nThought Body leave her and, passing through the window, alight on the\nsnowy ground. She was distinctly conscious both in her material body and\nin its immaterial counterpart. She lay on the couch watching the\nmovements of the second self, which at the same moment felt the snow\ncold under its feet. The second self met a labourer and spoke to him. He\nreplied as if somewhat scared. The second self walked down the road and\nentered an officer's hut, which was standing empty. She noted the number\nof guns. There were a score or more of all kinds in all manner of\nplaces; remarked upon the quaint looking-glass; took a mental inventory\nof the furniture; and then, coming out as she went in, she regained her\nmaterial body, which all the while lay perfectly conscious on the couch.\nThen, when the two selves were reunited, she went down to breakfast, and\ndescribed where she had been. \"Bless me,\" said an officer, who was one\nof the party, \"if you have not been in Major ----'s hut. You have\ndescribed it exactly, especially the guns, which he has a perfect mania\nfor collecting.\"\n\nHere the immaterial body was not only visible but audible, and that not\nmerely to the casual passer-by, but also to the material body which had\nfor the moment parted with one of its vital constituents without losing\nconsciousness.\n\nIt must, of course, be admitted that, with the exception of the\nstatement by my two friends as to the apparition of Mrs. M.'s immaterial\nbody, none of the other statements can pretend to the slightest\nevidential value. They may be worth as much as the confessions of the\nwitches who swore they were dancing with Satan while their husbands held\ntheir material bodies clasped in their arms; but any explanation of\nsubjective hallucination or of downright lying would be preferred by the\nmajority of people to the acceptance of the simple accuracy of these\nstatements. The phenomenon of the aerial flight is, however, not\nunfamiliar to those who are interested in this subject.\n\n\n_Mrs. Besant's Theory._\n\nI asked Mrs. Besant whether she thought my hostess was romancing, and\nwhether my friend had not been the victim of some illusion. \"Oh, no,\"\nsaid Mrs. Besant cheerfully. \"There is nothing improbable about it. Very\npossibly she has this faculty. It is not so uncommon as you think. But\nits exercise is rather dangerous, and I hope she is well instructed.\"\n\"How?\" I asked. \"Oh,\" Mrs. Besant replied, \"it is all right if she knows\nwhat she is about, but it is just as dangerous to go waltzing about on\nthe astral plane as it is for a girl to go skylarking down a dark slum\nwhen roughs are about. Elementals, with the desire to live, greedily\nappropriating the vitality and the passions of men, are not the\npleasantest companions. Nor can other astrals of the dead, who have met\nwith sudden or violent ends, and whose passions are unslaked, be\nregarded as desirable acquaintances. If she knows what she is about,\nwell and good. But otherwise she is like a child playing with dynamite.\"\n\n\"But what is an astral body?\"\n\nMrs. Besant replied, \"There are several astrals, each with its own\ncharacteristics. The lowest astral body taken in itself is without\nconscience, will, or intelligence. It exists as a mere shadowy phantasm\nonly as long as the material body lasts.\" \"Then the mummies in the\nMuseum?\" \"No doubt a clairvoyant could see their astrals keeping their\nsilent watch by the dead. As the body decays so the astral fades away.\"\n\"But that implies the possibility of a decaying ghost?\" \"Certainly. An\nold friend of mine, a lady who bears a well-known name, was once haunted\nfor months by an astral. She was a strong-minded girl, and she didn't\nworry. But it was rather ghastly when the astral began to decay. As the\ncorpse decomposed the astral shrank, until at last, to her great relief,\nit entirely disappeared.\"\n\nMrs. Besant mentioned the name of the lady, who is well known to many of\nmy readers, and one of the last to be suspected of such haunting.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nThe Evidence of the Psychical Research Society.\n\n\nIn that great text-book on the subject, \"The Phantasms of the Living,\"\nby Messrs. Gurney, Myers, and Podmore, the phenomenon of the Thought\nBody is shown to be comparatively frequent, and the Psychical Research\nSociety have about a hundred recorded instances. I will only quote here\ntwo or three of the more remarkable cases mentioned in these imposing\nvolumes.\n\nThe best case of the projection of the Thought Body at will is that\ndescribed, under the initials of \"S. H. B.,\" in the first volume of the\n\"Phantasms,\" pp. 104-109. Mr. B. is a member of the Stock Exchange, who\nis well known to many intimate friends of mine as a man of high\ncharacter. The narrative, which is verified by the Psychical Research\nSociety, places beyond doubt the existence of powers in certain\nindividuals which open up an almost illimitable field of mystery and\nspeculation. Mr. B.'s story, in brief, is this:--\n\n\"One Sunday night in November, 1881, I was in Kildare Gardens, when I\nwilled very strongly that I would visit in spirit two lady friends, the\nMisses V., who were living three miles off in Hogarth Road. I willed\nthat I should do this at one o'clock in the morning, and having willed\nit I went to sleep. Next Thursday, when I first met my friends, the\nelder lady told me she woke up and saw my apparition advancing to her\nbedside. She screamed and woke her sister, who also saw me.\" (A signed\nstatement by both sisters accompanies this narrative. They fix the time\nat one o'clock, and say that Mr. B. wore evening dress.)\n\n\"On December 1st, 1882, I was at Southall. At half-past nine I sat down\nto endeavour to fix my mind so strongly upon the interior of a house at\nKew, where Miss V. and her sister lived, that I seemed to be actually in\nthe house. I was conscious, but I was in a kind of mesmeric sleep. When\nI went to bed that night I willed to be in the front bedroom of that\nhouse at Kew at twelve, and make my presence felt by the inmates. Next\nday I went to Kew. Miss V.'s married sister told me, without any\nprompting from me, that she had seen me in the passage going from one\nroom to another at half-past nine o'clock, and that at twelve, when she\nwas wide awake, she saw me come into the front bedroom where she slept\nand take her hair, which is very long, into my hand. She said I then\ntook her hand and gazed into the palm intently. She said, 'You need not\nlook at the lines, for I never had any trouble.' She then woke her\nsister. When Mrs. L. told me this I took out the entry I had made the\nprevious night and read it to her. Mrs. L. is quite sure she was not\ndreaming. She had only seen me once before, two years previously, at a\nfancy ball.\n\n\"On March 22nd, 1884, I wrote to Mr. Gurney, of the Psychical Research\nSociety, telling him I was going to make my presence felt by Miss V., at\n44, Norland Square, at mid-night. Ten days afterwards I saw Miss V.,\nwhen she voluntarily told me that on Saturday at midnight she distinctly\nsaw me, when she was quite wide awake. I came towards her and stroked\nher hair. She adds in her written statement, 'The appearance in my room\nwas most vivid and quite unmistakable.' I was then at Ealing.\"\n\nHere there is the thrice-repeated projection at will of the Thought Body\nthrough space so as to make it both visible to, and tangible by,\nfriends. But the Conscious Personality which willed the visit has not\nyet unlocked the memory of his unconscious partner, and Mr. B., although\nable to go and see and touch, could bring back no memory of his aerial\nflight. All that he knew was that he willed and then he slept. The fact\nthat he appeared is attested not by his consciousness, but by the\nevidence of those who saw him.\n\n\n_A Visitor from Burmah._\n\nHere is a report of the apparition of a Thought Body, the material\noriginal of which was at the time in Burmah. The case is important,\nbecause the Thought Body was not recognised at the time, showing that it\ncould not have been a subjective revival of the memory of a face. It is\nsent me by a gentleman in South Kensington, who wishes to be mentioned\nonly by his initials, R.S.S.\n\n\"Towards the close of 1888 my son, who had obtained an appointment in\nthe Indian Civil Service, left England for Burmah.\n\n\"A few days after his arrival in Rangoon he was sent up the country to\njoin the District Commissioner of a district still at that period much\nharassed by Dacoits.\n\n\"After this two mails passed by without news of him, and as, up to this\nperiod, his letters had reached us with unfailing regularity, we had a\nnatural feeling of anxiety for his safety. As the day for the arrival of\nthe third mail drew near I became quite unreasonably apprehensive of bad\nnews, and in this state of mind I retired one evening to bed, and lay\nawake till long past the middle of the night, when suddenly, close to my\nbedside, appeared very distinctly the figure of a young man. The face\nhad a worn and rather sad expression; but in the few seconds during\nwhich it was visible the impression was borne in upon me that the vision\nwas intended to be reassuring.\n\n\"I cannot explain why I did not at once associate this form with my son,\nbut it was so unlike the hale, fresh-looking youth we had parted from\nonly four or five months previously that I supposed it must be his\nchief, whom I knew to be his senior by some five years only.\n\n\"I retailed this incident to my son by the next mail, and was perplexed\nwhen I got his reply to hear that his chief was a man with a beard and\nmoustache, whereas the apparition was devoid of either. A little later\ncame a portrait of himself recently taken. It was the subject of my\nvision, of which the traits had remained, and still remain, in every\ndetail, perfectly distinct in my recollection.\"\n\n\n_Thought Visits Seen and Remembered._\n\nHere is an account of a visit paid at will, which is reported at first\nhand in the \"Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society.\" The\nnarrator, Mr. John Moule, tells how he determined to make an experiment\nof the kind now under discussion:--\n\n\"I chose for this purpose a young lady, a Miss Drasey, and stated that\nsome day I intended to visit her, wherever the place might be, although\nthe place might be unknown to me; and told her if anything particular\nshould occur to note the time, and when she called at my house again to\nstate if anything had occurred. One day, about two months after (I not\nhaving seen her in the interval), I was by myself in my chemical\nfactory, Redman Row, Mile End, London, all alone, and I determined to\ntry the experiment, the lady being in Dalston, about three miles off. I\nstood, raised my hands, and willed to act on the lady. I soon felt that\nI had expended energy. I immediately sat down in a chair and went to\nsleep. I then saw in a dream my friend coming down the kitchen stairs\nwhere I dreamt I was. She saw me, and exclaimed suddenly, 'Oh! Mr.\nMoule,' and fainted away. This I dreamt and then awoke. I thought very\nlittle about it, supposing I had had an ordinary dream; but about three\nweeks after she came to my house and related to my wife the singular\noccurrence of her seeing me sitting in the kitchen where she then was,\nand she fainted away and nearly dropped some dishes she had in her\nhands. All this I saw exactly in my dream, so that I described the\nkitchen furniture and where I sat as perfectly as if I had been there,\nthough I had never been in the house. I gave many details, and she said,\n'It is just as if you had been there.'\" (Vol. III. pp. 420, 421.)\n\nMr. W. A. S., to quote another case, in April, 1871, at two o'clock in\nthe afternoon, was sitting in a house in Pall Mall. He saw a lady glide\nin backwards at the door of the room, as if she had been slid in on a\nslide, each part of her dress keeping its proper place without\ndisturbance. She glided in until the whole of her could be seen, except\nthe tip of her nose, her lips, and the tip of her chin, which were\nhidden by the edge of the door. She was an old acquaintance of his, whom\nhe had not seen for twenty or twenty-five years. He observed her closely\nuntil his brother entered the house, and coming into the room passed\ncompletely through the phantasm, which shortly afterwards faded away.\nAnother person in the room could not see it. Some years afterwards he\nlearned that she had died the same year, six months afterwards, from a\npainful cancer of the face. It was curious that the phantasm never\nshowed him the front of its face, which was always hidden by the door.\n(Vol. II. p. 517.)\n\nSometimes, however, the Thought Body is both conscious and visible,\nalthough in most cases when visible it is not conscious, and retains no\nmemory of what has passed. When it remembers it is usually not visible.\nIn Mr. Dale Owen's remarkable volume, \"Footfalls on the Boundary of\nAnother World,\" there is a narrative, entitled \"The Visionary\nExcursion,\" in which a lady, whom he calls Mrs. A., whose husband was a\nbrigadier-general in India, describes an aerial flight so explicitly\nthat I venture to reprint her story here, as illustrating the\npossibility of being visible and at the same time remembering where you\nhad been:--\n\nIn June of the year 1857, a lady, whom I shall designate as Mrs. A., was\nresiding with her husband, a colonel in the British army, and their\ninfant child, on Woolwich Common, near London.\n\nOne night in the early part of that month, suddenly awaking to\nconsciousness, she felt herself as if standing by the bedside and\nlooking down upon her own body, which lay there by the side of her\nsleeping husband. Her first impression was that she had died suddenly,\nand the idea was confirmed by the pale and lifeless look of the body,\nthe face void of expression, and the whole appearance showing no sign of\nvitality. She gazed at it with curiosity for some time, comparing its\ndead look with that of the fresh countenances of her husband and of her\nslumbering infant in the cradle hard by. For a moment she experienced a\nfeeling of relief that she had escaped the pangs of death; but the next\nshe reflected what a grief her death would be to the survivors, and then\ncame the wish that she had broken the news to them gradually.\n\nWhile engaged in these thoughts she felt herself carried to the wall of\nher room, with a feeling that it must arrest her further progress. But\nno, she seemed to pass through it into the open air. Outside the house\nwas a tree; and this also she seemed to traverse as if it interposed no\nobstacle. All this occurred without any desire on her part.\n\nShe crossed Woolwich Common, visited the Arsenal, returned to the\nbarracks, and then found herself in the bed-chamber of an intimate\nfriend, Miss L. M., who lived at Greenwich. She began to talk; but she\nremembered no more until she waked by her husband's side. Her first\nwords were, \"So I am not dead after all.\" She told her husband of her\nexcursion, and they agreed to say nothing about it until they heard from\nMiss L. M.\n\nWhen they met that lady, two days after, she volunteered the statement\nthat Mrs. A. had appeared to her about three o'clock in the morning of\nthe night before last, robed in violet, and had a conversation with her\n(\"Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World,\" p. 256.)\n\n\n_A Doctor's Experience of the Dual Body._\n\nWhatever may be thought of the Psychic's description of her experiences\nin her thought journey, they are vivid and realistic. Here is the\ndescription given by a medical man in a well-known watering-place on the\nsouth coast of his experience in getting into his material body after an\naerial excursion:--\n\n\"I was engaged to a young lady whom I very much loved. During the early\npart of this engagement I visited the Hall in the village, not far from\nthe Vicarage, where the young lady resided. I was in the habit of\nspending from Sunday to Monday at the Hall. On one of these mornings of\nmy departure I found myself standing between the two closed windows in\nthe lady's bedroom. It was about five o'clock on a bright summer\nmorning. Her room looked eastward, mine directly west, and the church\nstood between the two houses, which were about five hundred yards apart.\nI have no impression whatever how I became transplanted from the house.\nThe lady was in a camp bedstead, directly opposite to me, looking at and\nreaching out her arms towards me, when my disembodied spirit instantly\ndisappeared to join the material body which it had left in some\nmysterious way. As I returned and was fitting in to my body on my left\nside, when half united I could see within me the ununited spiritual part\non glow like an electric light, while the other united half was hidden\nin total darkness, looking black as through a thunder cloud, when, like\nthe shutting of a drawer, the whole body became united, and I awoke in\ngreat alarm, with a belief that if any one had entered my room and moved\nmy body from the position in which it lay on its back, the returning\nspirit could not have joined its material case, and that death, as it is\nvulgarly called, would have been inevitable.\"\n\nIn the morning at the breakfast-table the young lady said she had a\nstrange experience. She saw M.D. in her bedroom, looking at her as she\nsat up in bed, and that he disappeared after a short stay; but how he\ngot there she could not say, as she was positive she had locked her\nbedroom door. So one experience corroborated the other.[5]\n\n        [5] Quoted from a remarkable work by James Gillingham, surgical\n        mechanist, Chard, Somerset. Mr. Gillingham sent me the name of\n        the doctor, and assures me that the narrative is quite\n        authentic.\n\n\n_Speaking Doubles._\n\nWhile discussing the subject, some friends called at Mowbray House, and\nwere, as usual, asked to pay toll in the shape of communicating any\nexperience they had had of the so-called supernatural. One of my\nvisitors gave me the following narrative, the details of which are in\nthe possession of the Psychical Research Society:--\n\n\"Some years ago my father and another son were crossing the Channel at\nnight. My mother, who was living in England, was roused up in the middle\nof the night by the apparition of my father. She declares that she saw\nhim quite distinctly standing by her bedside, looking anxious and\ndistraught. Knowing that at that moment he was in mid-Channel, she\naugured that some disaster had overtaken him or the boy. She said, 'Is\nthere some trouble?' He said, 'There is; the boy----' and then he faded\nfrom her sight. The curious part of the story is that my father at that\nvery time had been thinking on board the steamer of having to tell his\nwife of the loss of the boy. The lad had been missed, and for a short\ntime father feared he had fallen overboard. Shortly afterwards he was\ndiscovered to be quite safe. But during the period of suspense father\nwas vividly conscious of the pain of having to break the news to his\nwife. It was subsequently proved by a comparison of the hour that his\ndouble had not only appeared but had spoken at the very moment he was\nthinking of how to tell her the news midway between France and England.\"\n\nAnother case in which the double appeared was that of Dr. F. R. Lees,\nthe well-known temperance controversialist. On communicating with the\nDoctor, the following is his reply:--\n\n\"The little story or incident of which you have heard occurred above\nthirty years ago, and may be related in very few words. Whether it was\ncoincidence, or transference of vivid thought, I leave to the judgment\nof others.\n\n\"I had left Leeds for the Isle of Jersey (though my dear wife was only\njust recovering from a nervous fever) to fulfil an important engagement.\nOn a Good Friday, myself and a party of friends in several carriages\ndrove round a large portion of the island, coming back to St. Heliers\nfrom Bouley Bay, taking tea about seven o'clock at Captain ----'s villa.\nThe party broke up about ten o'clock, and the weather being fine and\nwarm, I walked to the house of a banker who entertained me. Naturally,\nmy evening thoughts reverted to my home, and after reading a few verses\nin my Testament, I walked about the room until nearly eleven, thinking\nof my wife, and breathing the prayer, 'God bless you.'\n\n\"I might not have recalled all the circumstances, save for the letter I\nreceived by the next post from her, with the query put in: 'Tell me what\nyou were _doing within a few minutes of eleven o'clock_ on Friday\nevening? I will tell you in my next why I ask; for something happened to\nme.' In the middle of the week the letter came, and these words in\nit:--'I had just awoke from a slight repose, when I saw you in your\nnight-dress bend over me, and utter the words, \"God bless you!\" I seemed\nalso to feel your breath as you kissed me. I felt no alarm, but\ncomforted, went off into a gentle sleep, and have been better ever\nsince.' I replied that this was an exact representation of my mind and\nwords.\"\n\nHere there was apparently the instantaneous reproduction in Leeds of the\nimage, and not only of the image but of the words spoken in Jersey, a\nhundred miles away. The theory that the phantasmal body is occasionally\ndetachable from the material frame accounts for this in a fashion, and\nthat is more than can be said for any other hypothesis that has yet been\nstated. In neither of these cases did an early death follow the\napparition of the dual body.\n\n\n_An Unknown Double Identified._\n\nNeither of these stories, however, is so wonderful as the following\nnarrative, which is forwarded to me by a correspondent in North Britain,\nwho received the statement from a Colonel now serving in India on the\nBengal Staff, whose name is communicated on the understanding that it is\nnot to be made public:--\n\n\"In the year 1860 I was stationed at Banda, in Bundelcund, India. There\nwas a good deal of sickness there at the time, and I was deputed along\nwith a medical officer to proceed to the nearest railway station at that\ntime Allahabad, in charge of a sick officer. I will call myself Brown,\nthe medical officer Jones, and the sick officer Robertson. We had to\ntravel very slowly, Robertson being carried by coolies in a doolie, and\non this account we had to halt at a rest-house, or pitch our camp every\nevening. One evening, when three marches out of Banda, I had just come\ninto Robertson's room about midnight to relieve Jones, for Robertson was\nso ill that we took it by turns to watch him, when Jones took me aside\nand whispered that he was afraid our friend was dying, that he did not\nexpect him to live through the night, and though I urged him to go and\nlie down, and that I would call him on any change taking place, he would\nnot leave. We both sat down and watched. We had been there about an hour\nwhen the sick man moved and called out. We both went to his bedside, and\neven my inexperienced eyes saw that the end was near. We were both\nstanding on the same side of the bed, furthest away from the door.\n\n\"Whilst we were standing there the door opened, and an elderly lady\nentered, went straight up to the bed, bent over it, wrung her hands and\nwept bitterly. After a few minutes she left; we both saw her face. We\nwere so astonished that neither of us thought of speaking to her, but as\nsoon as she passed out of the door I recovered myself and, as quickly as\npossible, followed her, but could not find a trace of her. Robertson\ndied that night. We were then about thirty miles from the nearest\ncantonment, and except the rest-house in which we were, and of which we\nwere the only occupants, there was not a house near us. Next morning we\nstarted back to Banda, taking the corpse with us for burial.\n\n\"Three months after this Jones went to England on leave, and took with\nhim the sword, watch, and a few other things which had belonged to the\ndeceased to deliver to his family. On arrival at Robertson's home, he\nwas shown into the drawing-room. After waiting a few minutes, a lady\nentered--the same who had appeared to both of us in the jungle in India;\nit was Robertson's mother. She told Jones that she had had a vision that\nher son was dangerously ill, and had written the date, etc., down, and\non comparing notes they found that the date, time, etc., agreed in every\nrespect.\n\n\"People to whom I have told the story laugh at me, and tell me that I\nmust have been asleep and dreamed it, but I know I was not, for I\nremember perfectly well standing by the bedside when the lady appeared.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter III.\n\nAimless Doubles.\n\n\nThe following curious experience is sent me by a commercial traveller,\nwho gives his name and address in support of his testimony. Writing from\nNottingham, he says:--\n\n    \"On Tuesday, the 6th October, I had a very singular experience. I am\n    a commercial traveller, and represent a firm of cigar manufacturers.\n    I left my hotel about four o'clock on the above date to call upon a\n    customer, a Mr. Southam, Myton Gate, Hull. I met this gentleman in\n    the street, nearly opposite his office; he shook hands, and said,\n    'How are you? I am waiting to see a friend; I don't think I shall\n    want any cigars this journey, but look in before eight o'clock.' I\n    called at 7.30, and spoke to the clerk in the office. He said, 'Mr.\n    Southam has made out your cheque and there is also a small order.' I\n    said, 'Thanks, I should have liked to have seen him; he made an\n    appointment this afternoon for about eight.' The clerk said,\n    'Where?' I said, 'Just outside.' He said, 'That is impossible, as\n    both Mr. and Mrs. Southam have been confined to their room for a\n    fortnight and have never been out.' I said, 'How strange. I said to\n    Mr. S----, \"You look different to your usual; what's the matter with\n    you?\" Mr. S---- said, \"Don't you see I am in my _deshabille_?\"' The\n    clerk remarked, 'You must have seen his second self, for he has not\n    been up to-day.' I came away feeling very strange.\n\n    \"J. P. Brooks.\n\n    \"Sydney Villa, Ratcliffe Road, Bridgeford.\"\n\n\nMrs. Eliz. G. L----, of H---- House, sends me the following report of\nher experience of the double. She writes:--\n\n\"The only time I ever saw an apparition was on the evening of the last\nday of May, 1860. The impression then made is most vivid, and the day\nseldom recurs without my thinking of what happened then.\n\n\"It was a little after seven o'clock, the time for my husband's return\nfrom business. I was passing through the hall into the dining-room,\nwhere tea was laid, when (the front door being open) I saw my husband\ncoming up the garden path, which was in a direct line with the hall. It\nwas broad daylight, and nothing obstructed my view of him, and he was\nnot more than nine or ten yards from me. Instead of going to him, I\nturned back, and said to the servant in the kitchen, 'Take tea in\nimmediately, your master is come.' I then went into the dining-room,\nexpecting him to be there. To my great surprise the room was empty, and\nthere was no one in the garden. As my father was very ill in the next\nhouse but one to ours, I concluded that Mr. L---- had suddenly\ndetermined to turn back and enquire how he was before having tea. In\nhalf an hour he came into the room to me, and I asked how my father was,\nwhen, to my astonishment, he told me that he had not called, but had\ncome home direct from the town. I said, '_You were in the garden half\nan hour ago_, I saw you as distinctly as I see you now; if you were\nnot there _then_, you are not here _now_,' and I grasped his\narm as I spoke to convince myself that it was really he. I thought that\nmy husband was teasing me by his repeated denials, and that he would at\nlast confess he was really there; and it was only when he assured me in\nthe most positive and serious manner that he was a mile away at the time\nI saw him in the garden, that I could believe him. I have never been\nable to account for the appearance. There was no one I could possibly\nhave mistaken for Mr. L----. I was in good health at the time, and had\nno illness for long afterwards. My mother is still living, and she can\ncorroborate my statement, and bear witness to the deep impression the\noccurrence made upon me. I _saw_ my husband as plainly as I have\never seen him since during the many years we have lived together.\"\n\n\n_Two Dundee Doubles._\n\nMr. Robert Kidd, of Gray Street, Broughty Ferry, who has filled many\noffices in Dundee, having been twenty-five years a police commissioner\nand five years a magistrate there, sends me the following report of two\ncases of the double:--\n\n\"A few years ago I had a shop on the High Street of Dundee--one door and\none window, a cellar underneath, the entrance to which was at one corner\nof the shop. There was no way of getting in or out of the cellar but by\nthat stair in the corner. It was lighted from the street by glass, but\nto protect that there was an iron grating, which was fixed down. Well, I\nhad an old man, a servant, named Robert Chester. I sent him a message\none forenoon about 12 o'clock; he was in no hurry returning. I remarked\nto my daughter, who was a book-keeper, whose desk was just by the\ntrap-door, that he was stopping long. Just as I spoke he passed the\nwindow, came in at the door, carrying a large dish under his arm, went\nright past me, past my daughter, who looked at him, and went down into\nthe cellar. After a few minutes, as I heard no noise, I wondered what he\ncould be about, and went down to see. There was no Robert there. I\ncannot tell what my sensations were when I realized this; there was no\npossibility of his getting out, and we both of us saw and heard him go\ndown. Well, in about twenty minutes he re-passed the window, crossed the\nfloor, and went downstairs, exactly as he had the first time. There was\nno hallucination on our part. My daughter is a clever, highly-gifted\nwoman; I am seventy-eight years of age, and have seen a great deal of\nthe world, a great reader, etc., etc., and not easily deceived or apt to\nbe led away by fancy, and I can declare that his first appearance to us\nwas a reality as much as the second; We concluded, and so did all his\nrelations, that it portended his death, but he is still alive, over\neighty years of age. I give this just as it occurred, without any\nvarnish or exaggeration whatever. The following narrative I firmly\nbelieve, as I knew the parties well, and that every means were used to\nprove its truthfulness.\n\n\"Mr. Alexander Drummond was a painter, who had a big business and a\nlarge staff of men. His clerk was Walter Souter, his brother-in-law,\nwhose business it was to be at the shop (in Northgate, Dundee) sharp at\nsix o'clock in the morning, to take an account of where the men were\ngoing, quantity of material, etc. In this he was assisted by Miss\nDrummond. One morning he did not turn up at the hour, but at twenty past\nsix he came in at the door and appeared very much excited; but instead\nof stepping to the desk, where Mr. and Miss Drummond were awaiting him,\nhe went right through the front shop and out at a side door. This in\nsight of Mr. and Miss D----, and also in sight of a whole squad of\nworkmen. Well, exactly in another twenty minutes he came in, also very\nmuch excited, and explained that it was twenty minutes past six when he\nawakened, and that he had run all the way from his house (he lived a\nmile from the place of business). He was a very exemplary, punctual man,\nand when Mr. Drummond asked him where he went to when he came first, he\nwas dumbfounded, and could not comprehend what was meant. To test his\ntruthfulness, Mr. D---- went out to his wife that afternoon, when she\ntold him the same story; that it was twenty past six o'clock when he\nawoke, and that he was very much excited about it, as it was the first\ntime he had slept in. This story I believe as firmly as in my own case,\nas it was much talked about at the time, and I have just told it as it\nwas told to me by all the parties. Of course I am a total stranger to\nyou, and you may require to know something about me before believing my\nsomewhat singular stories. I am well known about here, have filled many\noffices in Dundee, and have been twenty-five years a police\ncommissioner, and five years a magistrate in this place, am very well\nknown to the Right Honourable C. Ritchie, and also to our county member,\nMr. Barclay. If this little story throws any light upon our wondrous\nbeing I shall be glad.\"\n\n\n_A Manchester Parallel._\n\nThe following narrative, supplied by Mr. R. P. Roberts, 10, Exchange\nStreet, Manchester, appears in the \"Proceedings of the Psychical\nResearch Society.\" It is a fitting pendant to Mr. Kidd's story:--\n\n\"The shop stood at the corner of Castle Street and Rating Row,\nBeaumaris, and I lived in the latter street. One day I went home to\ndinner at the usual hour. When I had partly finished I looked at the\nclock. To my astonishment it appeared that the time by the clock was\n12.30. I gave an unusual start. I certainly thought that it was most\nextraordinary. I had only half-finished my dinner, and it was time for\nme to be at the shop. I felt dubious, so in a few seconds had another\nlook, when to my agreeable surprise I found that I had been mistaken. It\nwas only just turned 12.15. I could never explain how it was I made the\nmistake. The error gave me such a shock for a few minutes as if\nsomething had happened, and I had to make an effort to shake off the\nsensation. I finished my dinner, and returned to business at 12.30. On\nentering the shop I was accosted by Mrs. Owen, my employer's wife, who\nused to assist in the business. She asked me rather sternly where I had\nbeen since my return from dinner. I replied that I had come straight\nfrom dinner. A long discussion followed, which brought out the following\nfacts. About a quarter of an hour previous to my actual entering the\nshop (_i.e._ about 12.15), I was seen by Mr. and Mrs. Owen and a\nwell-known customer, Mrs. Jones, to walk into the shop, go behind the\ncounter, and place my hat upon the peg. As I was going behind the\ncounter, Mrs. Owen remarked, with the intention that I should hear,\n'that I had arrived now that I was not wanted.' This remark was prompted\nby the fact that a few minutes previous a customer was in the shop in\nwant of an article which belonged to the stock under my charge, and\nwhich could not be found in my absence. As soon as this customer left I\nwas seen to enter the shop. It was observed by Mr. and Mrs. Owen and\nMrs. Jones that I did not appear to notice the remark made. In fact, I\nlooked quite absent-minded and vague. Immediately after putting my hat\non the peg I returned to the same spot, put my hat on again, and walked\nout of the shop, still looking in a mysterious manner, which induced one\nof the parties, I think Mrs. Owen, to say that my behaviour was very\nodd, and she wondered where I was off to.\n\n\"I, of course, contradicted these statements, and endeavoured to prove\nthat I could not have eaten my dinner and returned in a quarter of an\nhour. This, however, availed nothing, and during our discussion the\nabove-mentioned Mrs. Jones came into the shop again, and was appealed to\nat once by Mr. and Mrs. Owen. She corroborated every word of their\naccount, and added that she saw me coming down Rating Row when within a\nfew yards of the shop; that she was only a step or two behind me, and\nentered the shop in time to hear Mrs. Owen's remarks about my coming too\nlate. These three persons gave their statement of the affair quite\nindependently of each other. There was no other person near my age in\nthe Owens' establishment, and there could be no reasonable doubt that my\nform had been seen by them and by Mrs. Jones. They would not believe my\nstory until my aunt, who had dined with me, said positively that I had\nnot left the table before my time was up. You will, no doubt, notice the\ncoincidence. At the moment when I felt, with a startling sensation, that\nI ought to be at the shop, and when Mr. and Mrs. Owen were extremely\nanxious that I should be there, I appeared to them looking, as they\nsaid, 'as if in a dream or in a state of somnambulism.'\" (\"Proceedings\nof the Psychical Research Society,\" Vol. I. p. 135-6.)\n\n\n_A Very Visible Double._\n\nA correspondent, writing from a Yorkshire village, sends me the\nfollowing account of an apparition of a Thought Body in circumstances\nwhen there was nothing more serious than a yearning desire on the part\nof a person whose phantasm appeared to occupy his old bed. My\ncorrespondent, Mr. J. G. ----, says that he took it down from the lips\nof one of the most truthful men he ever knew, and a sensible person to\nboot. This person is still living, and I am told he has confirmed Mr.\nG----'s story, which is as follows:--\n\n\"Sixty years ago I was a farm servant at a place in Pembrokeshire (I can\ngive the name, but don't wish it to be published). I was about fifteen\nyears old. I, along with three other men-servants, slept in a granary in\nthe yard. Our bedchamber was reached by means of ten broad stone steps.\nIt was soon after Allhallows time, when all farm servants change places\nin that part of the country. A good and faithful foreman, who had been\nyears on the farm, had this time desired a change, and had engaged to\nservice some fifteen miles off, a change which he afterwards much\nregretted.\n\n\"One night I woke up in my bed some time during the small hours of the\nmorning, and obedient to the call of nature, I got up, opened the door,\nand stood on the upper step of the stairs. It was a beautiful moonlight\nnight. I surveyed the yard and the fields about. To my surprise, but\nwithout the least apprehension, I noticed a man coming down a field,\njump over a low wall, and walk straight towards me. He stepped the three\nfirst steps one by one, then he took two or three steps at a stride. I\nknew the man well and recognised him perfectly. I knew all the clothes\nhe wore, particularly a light waistcoat which he put on on great\noccasions. As he drew near me I receded to the doorway, and as he lifted\nup his two hands, as in the act of opening the door, which was open\nalready, I fled in screaming, and passing my own bed jumped in between\ntwo older men in the next bed. And neither time nor the sympathy of my\ncomrades could pacify me for hours.\n\n\"I told my tale, which, after searching and seeing nobody, they\ndisbelieved and put down to my timidity.\n\n\"Next morning, however, just as we were coming out from breakfast, in\nthe presence of all of us the discharged foreman was seen coming down\nthe same field, jumping the wall, walking toward the sleeping chamber,\nascending the steps, lifting up his two hands to open the door in the\nself-same manner in every particular as I had described, and went\nstraight to the same bed as I got into.\n\n\"I asked him, 'Were you here last night, John?'\n\n\"'No, my boy,' was the answer; 'my body was not here, but my mind was. I\nhave run away from that horrid place, travelled most of the night, and\nevery step I took my mind was fixed on this old bed, where my weary\nbones might be at rest.'\"\n\nI can supply names and all particulars, but do not wish them to be\npublished.\n\n\n_Seeing Your Own Thought Body._\n\nIn his \"Footfalls\" Mr. Owen records a still more remarkable case of the\nduplication of the body. A gentleman in Ohio, in 1833, had built a new\nhouse, seventy or eighty yards distant from his old residence on the\nother side of a small ravine. One afternoon, about five o'clock, his\nwife saw his eldest daughter, Rhoda, aged sixteen, holding the youngest,\nLucy, aged four, in her arm, sitting in a rocking-chair, just within the\nkitchen door of the new residence. She called the attention of another\nsister to what she saw, and was startled to hear that Rhoda and Lucy\nwere upstairs in the old house. They were at once sent for, and on\ncoming downstairs they saw, to their amazement, their exact doubles\nsitting on the doorstep of the new house. All the family\ncollected--twelve in all--and they all saw the phantasmal Rhoda and\nLucy, the real Rhoda and Lucy standing beside them. The figures seated\nat the hall door, and the two children now actually in their midst, were\nabsolutely identical in appearance, even to each minute particular of\ndress. After watching them for five minutes, the father started to cross\nthe ravine and solve the mystery. Hardly had he descended the ravine\nwhen the phantasmal Rhoda rose from the rocking chair, with the child in\nher arms, and lay down on the threshold. There she remained a moment or\ntwo, and then apparently sank into the earth. When the father reached\nthe house no trace could be found of any human being. Both died within a\nyear.\n\nA correspondent of my own, a dressmaker in the North of England, sends\nme the following circumstantial account of how she saw her own double\nwithout any mischief following:--\n\n\"I have a sewing-machine, with a desk at one side and carved legs\nsupporting the desk part; on the opposite side the machine part is. The\nlid of the machine rests on the desk part when open, so that it forms a\nhigh back. I had this machine across the corner of a room, so that the\ndesk part formed a triangle with the corner of the room. I sat at the\nmachine with my face towards the corner. To my left was the window, to\nmy right the fire; at each side of my chair the doors of the machine\nwalled me in as I sat working the treadles. Down each side of the\nmachine are imitations of drawers. The wood is a beautiful walnut. I was\nsewing a long piece of material which passed from left to right. It was\ndinnertime, so I looked down to see how much more I had to do. It was\nalmost finished, but there, in the space near the window, between the\nwall and the machine, was a full-sized figure of myself from the waist\nupwards. The image was lower than myself, but clear enough, with brown\nhair and eyes. How earnestly the eyes regarded me; how thoughtfully! I\nlaughed and nodded at the image, but still it gazed earnestly at me. At\nits neck was a bright red bow, coming unpinned. Its white linen collar\nwas turned up at the right-hand corner.\n\n\"When I got down to dinner I told my brother George I had seen Pepper's\nGhost, and it was a distinct image of myself, clear enough, and yet I\ncould see the wall and the side of the machine through the image, and\nGeorge said, 'Had it a red bow and white collar on?' 'Oh, yes,' I said.\n'It was just like me, only nicer, and when I laughed and nodded, it\nlooked grave.' 'Very likely,' said George. 'It would think you very\nsilly. And was its bow coming unpinned?' 'Yes,' I replied; 'and the\nright point of its collar was turned up.' He reached me a hand-mirror,\nand I saw that my bow was coming unpinned and the right point of my\ncollar was turned up. So it could not have been a reflection, or it\nwould not have been the right point, but the left of my collar that was\nturned up.\"\n\n\n_The Wraith as a Portent._\n\nIn the North country it is of popular belief that to see the ghost of a\nliving man portends his approaching decease. The Rev. Henry Kendall, of\nDarlington, from whose diary (unpublished) I have the liberty to quote,\nnotes the following illustration of this belief, under date August 16th,\n1870:--\n\n\"Mrs. W. mentioned a curious incident that happened in Darlington: how\nMrs. Percy, upholsterer, and known to several of us, was walking along\nthe street one day when her husband was living, and she saw him walking\na little way before her; then he left the causeway and turned in at a\npublic-house. When she spoke to him of this, he said he had not been\nnear the place, and she was so little satisfied with his statement that\nshe called in at the 'public,' and asked them if her husband had been\nthere, but they told her 'No.' In a very short period after this\nhappened he died.\"\n\nThe phenomenon of a dual body haunted the imagination of poor Shelley.\nShortly before his death he believed he had seen his wraith:--\n\n\"On the 23rd of June,\" says one of his biographers, \"he was heard\nscreaming at midnight in the saloon. The Williamses ran in and found him\nstaring on vacancy. He had had a vision of a cloaked figure which came\nto his bedside and beckoned him to follow. He did so, and when they had\nreached the sitting-room, the figure lifted the hood of his cloak and\ndisclosed Shelley's own features, and saying, 'Siete soddisfatto?'\nvanished. This vision is accounted for on the ground that Shelley had\nbeen reading a drama attributed to Calderon, named 'El Embozado o El\nEncapotado,' in which a mysterious personage who had been haunting and\nthwarting the hero all his life, and is at last about to give him\nsatisfaction in a duel, finally unmasks and proves to be the hero's own\nwraith. He also asks, 'Art thou satisfied?' and the haunted man dies of\nhorror.\"\n\nOn the 29th of June some friends distinctly saw Shelley walk into a\nlittle wood near Lerici, when in fact he was in a wholly different\ndirection. This was related by Byron to Mr. Cowell.\n\nIt is difficult to frame any theory that will account for this double\napparition, except, of course, the hypothesis of downright lying on the\npart of the witnesses. But the hypothesis of the duplication of the body\nin this extraordinary fashion is one which cannot be accepted until the\nimmaterial body is photographed under test conditions at the same time\nthat the material body is under safe custody in another place. Of\ncourse, it is well to bear in mind that to all those who profess to know\nanything of occult lore, and also to those who have the gift of\nclairvoyance, there is nothing new or strange in the doctrine of the\nimmaterial body. Many clairvoyants declare that they constantly see the\napparitions of the living mingling with the apparitions of the dead.\nThey are easily distinguishable. The ghost of a living person is said to\nbe opaque, whereas the ghost of one from whom life has departed is\ndiaphanous as gossamer.\n\nAll this, of course, only causes the unbeliever to blaspheme. It is to\nhim every whit as monstrous as the old stories of the witches riding on\nbroomsticks. But the question is not to be settled by blasphemy on one\nside or credulity on the other. There is something behind these\nphantasmal apparitions; there is a real substratum of truth, if we could\nbut get at it. There seems to be some faculty latent in the human mind,\nby which it can in some cases impress upon the eye and ear of a person\nat almost any distance the image and the voice. We may call it telepathy\nor what we please. It is a marvellous power, the mere hint of which\nindefinitely expands the horizon of the imagination. The telephone is\nbut a mere child's toy compared with the gift to transmit not only the\nsound of the voice but the actual visible image of the speaker for\nhundreds of miles without any conductor known to man.\n\n\n\n\nChapter IV.\n\nThe Hypnotic Key.\n\n\nHypnotism is the key which will enable us to unlock most of these\nmysteries, and so far as hypnotism has spoken it does not tend to\nencourage the belief that the immaterial body has any substance other\nthan the hallucination of the person who sees it. Various cases are\nreported by hypnotist practitioners which suggest that there is an\nalmost illimitable capacity of the human mind to see visions and to hear\nvoices. One very remarkable case was that of a girl who was told at\nmidsummer by the hypnotist, when in the hypnotic state, that he would\ncome to see her on New Year's Day. When she awoke from the trance she\nknew nothing about the conversation. One hundred and seventy-one days\npassed without any reference to it. But on the 172nd day, being New\nYear's Day, she positively declared that the doctor had entered her\nroom, greeted her, and then departed. Curiously enough, as showing the\npurely subjective character of the vision, the doctor appeared to her in\nthe depth of winter, wearing the light summer apparel he had on when he\nmade the appointment in July. In this case there can be no question as\nto the apparition being purely subjective. The doctor did not make any\nattempt to visit her in his immaterial body, but she saw him and heard\nhim as if he were there.\n\nThe late Mr. Gurney conducted some experiments with a hypnotic subject\nwhich seem to confirm the opinion that the phantasmal body is a merely\nsubjective hallucination, although, of course, this would not explain\nhow information had been actually imparted to the phantasmal visitant by\nthe person who saw, or imagined they saw, his wraith. Mr. Gurney's cases\nare, however, very interesting, if only as indicating the absolute\ncertainty which a hypnotised patient can be made to feel as to the\nobjectivity of sights and sounds:--\n\n\"S. hypnotised Zillah, and told her that she would see him standing in\nthe room at three o'clock next afternoon, and that she would hear him\ncall her twice by name. She was told that he would not stop many\nseconds. On waking she had no notion of the ideas impressed upon her.\n\n\"Next day, however, she came upstairs about five minutes past three,\nlooking ghastly and startled. She said, 'I have seen a ghost.' I assumed\nintense amazement, and she said she was in the kitchen cleaning some\nsilver, and suddenly she heard her name called sharply twice over,\n'Zillah!' in Mr. Smith's voice. She said, 'And I dropped the spoon I was\nrubbing, and turned and saw Mr. S., without his hat, standing at the\nfoot of the kitchen stairs. I saw him as plain as I see you,' she said,\nand looked very wild and vacant.\n\n\"The next experiment took place on Wednesday evening, July 13th, 1887,\nwhen S., told her, when hypnotised, that the next afternoon, at three\no'clock, she would see me (Mr. Gurney) come into the room to her. She\nwas further told that I would keep my hat on and say, 'Good-morning,'\nand that I would remark, 'It is very warm,' and would then turn round\nand walk out.\n\n\"Next day this is what Zillah reported. She said, 'I was in the kitchen\nwashing up, and had just looked at the clock, and was startled to see\nhow late it was (five minutes to three) when I heard footsteps coming\ndown the stairs--rather a quick, light step--and I thought it was Mr.\nSleep' (the dentist whose rooms are in the house), 'but as I turned\nround, with a dish mop in one hand and a plate in the other, I saw some\none with a hat on who had to stoop as he came down the last step, and\nthere was Mr. Gurney. He was dressed just as I saw him last night, black\ncoat and grey trousers, his hat on, and a roll of paper like manuscript\nin his hand, and he said, \"Oh! good-afternoon;\" and then he glanced all\nround the kitchen and he glanced at me with an awful look, as if he was\ngoing to murder me, and said, \"Warm afternoon, isn't it?\" and then\n\"Good-afternoon,\" or \"Good-day,\" I am not sure which, and then turned\nand went up the stairs again; and after standing thunderstruck a minute,\nI ran to the foot of the stairs and saw just like a boot disappearing on\nthe top step.' She said, 'I think I must be going crazy. Why should I\nalways see something at three o'clock each day after the seance?'\" (Vol.\nV. pp. 11-13.)\n\nWhatever hypothesis we select to explain these mysteries, they do not\nbecome less marvellous. Even if we grant that it is mere telepathy, or\nmind affecting mind at a distance without the use of the recognised\norgans of sense or of any of the ordinary conducting mediums, what an\nenormous extension it gives to the ordinary conception of the limits of\nthe human mind! To be able instantaneously to paint upon the retina of a\nfriend's eye the life-like image of ourselves, to make our voice sound\nin his ears at a distance of many miles, and to communicate to his mind\ninformation which he had never before heard of, all this is, it may be\nadmitted, as tremendous a draft upon the credulity of mankind as the\nfavourite Theosophical formula of the astral body. Yet who is there who,\nin face of the facts and experiences recorded above, will venture to\ndeny that one or other of these hypotheses alone can account for the\nphenomena under consideration?\n\nIt is obvious that when once the possibility of the Double is admitted,\nmany mysteries could be cleared up, although it is also true that a\ngreat many inconveniences would immediately follow; the establishment of\nthe reality of the double would invalidate every plea of _alibi_.\nIf a man can really be in two places at one time, there is an end to the\nplea which is most frequently resorted to by the accused to prove their\ninnocence. There are other inconveniences, which are alluded to in the\nfollowing letter from a lady correspondent, who believes that she has\nthe faculty in frequent, although uncertain and unconscious, use:--\n\n\"'I saw you yesterday, and you cut me.' Such was the remark I frequently\nheard from my friends: in the broad daylight they saw me in street or\ntram, etc. Once a personal friend followed me into church on Christmas\nDay in a city at least 100 miles from where I really was. Another time I\nsat two pews in front of a friend at a cathedral service. When I denied\nhaving been there, she said, 'It's no good talking: I saw you, and you\ndidn't want to wait for me.' 'But,' I said, 'you have my word that I was\nnot there.' 'Yes,' she said, 'but I have my sight, and I saw you.' Of\ncourse, I naturally thought it was some one like me, and said, perhaps\nrather sarcastically, 'Would it be very strange if any one else bore\nsome resemblance to me?' 'No,' said my friend, 'it would not; but\nsomeone else doesn't wear your clothes.' On one occasion I remember\nthree people saw me where I certainly was not physically present the\nsame day; all knew me personally. I often bought books of a man who kept\na second-hand bookstall. One day he told me that he had a somewhat rare\nedition of a book I wanted, but that it was at the shop. I said, 'I'll\ncome across to-morrow for it if I make up my mind to give the price.'\nThe next day I was prevented from going, and went the day after, to hear\nit was sold. 'Why didn't you keep it?' I asked. 'I thought you did not\nwant it when you came yesterday and did not buy it.' 'But I didn't come\nyesterday.' 'Why, excuse me, you did, and took the book up and laid it\ndown again while I was serving Mr. M., and you went away before I could\nask you about it; Mr. M. remarked that it was strange you did not answer\nhim when he spoke.' When I asked the gentleman referred to, he confirmed\nthe story. Mrs. B. also saw me lower down the same street that morning.\n\n\"Still it never struck me that it was anything strange; I was only\nrather curious to see the woman who was so like me. I saw her in an\nunexpected manner. Going into my room one night, I happened to glance\ndown at my bed, and saw a form there. I thought it strange, yet was not\nstartled. I bent over it, and recognised my own features distinctly. I\nwas in perfect health at the time, and no disaster followed.\"\n\n\n_Queen Elizabeth's Double._\n\nIn a volume published by Macmillan & Co., entitled \"Legendary Fictions\nof the Irish Celt,\" I find the following references to the Double:--\n\n\"If this phantom be seen in the morning it betokens good fortune and\nlong life to its prototype; if in the evening a near death awaits him.\nThis superstition was known and felt in England even in the reign of\nElizabeth. We quote a passage from Miss Strickland's account of her last\nillness:--\n\n\"'As her mortal illness drew towards a close, the superstitious fears of\nher simple ladies were excited almost to mania, even to conjuring up a\nspectral apparition of the Queen while she was yet alive. Lady\nGuildford, who was then in waiting on the Queen, leaving her in an\nalmost breathless sleep in her privy chamber, went out to take a little\nair, and met her Majesty, as she thought, three or four chambers off.\nAlarmed at the thought of being discovered in the act of leaving the\nRoyal patient alone, she hurried forward in some trepidation in order to\nexcuse herself, when the apparition vanished away. She returned\nterrified to the chamber, but there lay the Queen still in the same\nlethargic slumber in which she left her.'\"\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE--THE VISION OF THE OUT OF SIGHT.\n\n\"Moreover, the spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the East gate,\nand, behold, at the door of the gate five-and-twenty men, among whom I\nsaw,\" etc.--Ezekiel xi. 1.\n\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nThe Astral Camera.\n\n\nWhen I was staying at Orchard Lea, in Windsor Forest, I did most of my\nwriting in a spacious window on the first floor looking out over the\ngarden. It opened French fashion, and thereby occasioned a curious\noptical illusion, which may perhaps help to shed some light upon the\nphenomena now under consideration. For when the sun was high in the sky\nand the French window was set at a certain angle, the whole of the\nflowers, figures, etc., on my right hand appeared reflected upon the\nlawn on the left hand as vividly as if they actually existed in\nduplicate. So real was the illusion that for some hours I was under the\nimpression that a broad yellow gravel path actually stretched across the\nlawn on my left. It was only when a little dog ran along the spectral\npath and suddenly vanished into thin air that I discovered the illusion.\nNothing could be more complete, more life-like. The real persons who\nwalked up the gravel to the house walked across the spectral gravel,\napparently in duplicate. Both could be seen at one and the same time. I\ninstantly thought that they could be photographed, so as to show the\nduplication produced by the illusion. Unfortunately, although the\nspectral path was distinctly visible through the glass to the eye, no\nimpression whatever was left on the sensitive plate. My friend writes:--\n\n\"I have tried the phantom path, and I am sorry to say it is too phantom\nto make any impression on the plate. All that you get is the blaze of\nlight from the glass window, some very faint trees, and no path at all.\nPossibly, with a June sun, it might have been different; but I doubt it,\nas one is told never to put the camera facing a window. It is having to\ntake through the glass window which is fatal.\"\n\nThis set me thinking. It was a simple optical illusion, no doubt,\nsimilar to that which enabled Pepper to produce his ghosts at the\nPolytechnic. But what was the agency which enabled me to see the figures\nand flowers, and trees and gravel, all transferred, as by the cunning\nact of some magician, from the right to the left? Simply a swinging pane\nof perfectly transparent glass. To those who have neither studied the\nlaws of optics nor seen the phenomenon in question, it must seem\nimpossible that a pellucid window-pane could transfer so faithfully that\nwhich happened at one end of the garden to the other as to cause it to\nbe mistaken for reality. Yet there was the phenomenon before my eyes.\nThe dog ran double--the real dog to the right, the spectral dog to the\nleft--and no one could tell at first sight \"t'other from which.\" Now,\nmay it not be that this supplies a suggestion as to the cause of the\nphenomenon of clairvoyance? Is it not possible that there may exist in\nNature some as yet undiscovered analogue to the swinging windowpane\nwhich may enable us to see before our eyes here and now events which are\ntranspiring at the other end of the world? In the mysterious,\nsubconscious world in which the clairvoyant lives, may there not be some\nsubtle, sympathetic lens, fashioned out of strong affection or some\nother relation, which may enable some of us to see that which is quite\ninvisible to the ordinary eye?\n\n\n_A Surrey Laundry Seen in Cornwall._\n\nSuch thoughts came to my mind when I asked the Housekeeper whether she\nhad ever seen any of the phantasmal apparitions of her mistress, my\nhostess, Mrs. M. The housekeeper, a comfortable, buxom Cornish woman,\nsmiled incredulously. No, she had seen nothing, heard nothing, believed\nnothing. \"As to phantasmal bodies, she would prefer to see them first.\"\n\"Had she ever seen a ghost?\" \"No, never.\" \"Had ever had any\nhallucinations?\" \"No.\" But one thing had happened, \"rather curious\" now\nthat she came to think of it. Last year, when living on the coast far\ndown in the west country, she had suddenly seen as in a dream the house\nin Hindhead where we were now standing. She had never been in Surrey in\nher life. She had no idea that she would ever go there, nor did she know\nthat it was in Surrey. What she saw was the laundry. She was standing\ninside it, and remarked to her husband how strange and large it looked.\nShe looked out at the windows and saw the house and the surroundings\nwith strange distinctness. Then the vision faded away, leaving no other\nimpress on the mind than that she had seen an exceptionally large\nlaundry close to a small country-house in a place where she had never\nbeen in before.\n\nSix months passed; she and her husband had decided to leave the west\ncountry and take a housekeeper and gardener's post elsewhere. They\nreplied to an advertisement, were appointed by my hostess; they\ntransferred themselves to Hindhead, where they arrived in the dead of\nwinter. When they reached their new quarters she saw, to her infinite\nastonishment, the precise place she had seen six months before. The\nlaundry was unmistakable. There is not such another laundry in the\ncounty of Surrey. There it was, sure enough, and there was the house,\nand there were all the surroundings exactly as she had seen them down on\nthe south-west coast. She did not believe in ghosts or phantasmal bodies\nor such like things, but one thing she knew beyond all possibility of\ndoubt. She had seen her new home and laundry on the top of Hindhead,\nwhen living in the west country six months before she ever set foot in\nSurrey, or even knew of the existence of Mrs. M. \"The moment I saw it I\nrecognised it and told my husband that it was the identical place I had\nseen when in our old home.\"\n\n\n_William Howitt's Vision._\n\nThe Housekeeper's story is very simple, and almost too commonplace. But\nits significance lies in those very characteristics. Here was no\nconsuming passion, no bond of sympathy, nothing whatever material or\nsentimental to act as the refracting medium by which the Hindhead\nlaundry could have been made visible in South Devon. Yet similar\nphenomena are of constant occurrence. A very remarkable case in point is\nthat of William Howitt who, when on a voyage out to Australia, saw his\nbrother's house at Melbourne so plainly that he described it on board\nship, and recognised it the moment he landed. Here is his own version of\nthis remarkable instance of clairvoyance:--\n\n\"Some weeks ago, while yet at sea, I had a dream of being at my brother's\nat Melbourne, and found his house on a hill at the further end of the\ntown, and next to the open forest. His garden sloped a little down the\nhill to some brick buildings below; and there were greenhouses on the\nright hand by the wall, as you look down the hill from the house. As I\nlooked out of the window in my dream, I saw a wood of dusky-foliaged\ntrees having a somewhat segregated appearance in their heads--that is,\ntheir heads did not make that dense mass like our trees. 'There,' I said\nto some one in my dream, 'I see your native forest of eucalyptus!'\n\n\"This dream I told to my sons and to two of my fellow-passengers at the\ntime, and on landing, as we walked over the meadows, long before we\nreached the town, I saw this very wood. 'There,' I said, 'is the very\nwood of my dream. We shall see my brother's house there! And so we did.\nIt stands exactly as I saw it, only looking newer; but there, over the\nwall of the garden, is the wood, precisely as I saw it and now see it as\nI sit at the dining-room window writing. When I looked on this scene I\nseem to look into my dream.\" (Owen's \"Footfalls,\" p. 118.)\n\nThe usual explanation of these things is that the vision is the revival\nof some forgotten impressions on the brain. But in neither of the\nforegoing cases will that explanation suffice, for in neither case had\nthe person who saw ever been in the place of which they had a vision.\nOne desperate resource, the convenient theory of pre-existence, is\nuseless here. The fact seems to be that there is a kind of invisible\ncamera obscura in Nature, which at odd times gives us glimpses of things\nhappening or existing far beyond the range of our ordinary vision. The\nother day when in Edinburgh I climbed up to the Camera Obscura that\nstands near the castle, and admired the simple device by which, in a\ndarkened room upon a white, paper-covered table, the whole panorama of\nEdinburgh life was displayed before me. There were the \"recruities\"\ndrilling on the Castle Esplanade; there were the passers-by hurrying\nalong High Street; there were the birds on the housetops, and the\nlandscape of chimneys and steeples, all revealed as if in the crystal of\na wizard's cave. The coloured shadows chased each other across the\npaper, leaving no trace behind. Five hundred years ago the owner of that\ncamera would have been burned as a wizard; now he makes a comfortable\nliving out of the threepennypieces of inquisitive visitors. Is it\npossible to account for the phenomena of clairvoyance other than by the\nsupposition that there exists somewhere in Nature a gigantic camera\nobscura which reflects everything, and to which clairvoyants habitually,\nand other mortals occasionally, have access?\n\n\n_Seen and Heard at 150 Miles Range._\n\nThe preceding incidents simply record a prevision of places subsequently\nvisited. The following are instances in which not only places, but\noccurrences, were seen as in a camera by persons at a distance varying\nfrom 150 to several thousand miles. Space seems to have no existence for\nthe clairvoyant. They are quoted from the published \"Proceedings of the\nPsychical Research Society\":\n\nOn September 9th, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, Major-General R----,\nC.B., then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely and dangerously\nwounded; and supposing himself to be dying, asked one of the officers\nwith him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, who at\nthe time was fully 150 miles distant, at Ferozepore.\n\n\"On the night of September 9th, 1848,\" writes his wife, \"I was lying on\nmy bed between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my husband\nbeing carried off the field, seriously wounded, and heard his voice\nsaying, 'Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife.' All the\nnext day I could not get the sight or the voice out of my mind. In due\ntime I heard of General R---- having been severely wounded in the\nassault of Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. It was\nnot for some time after the siege that I heard from General L----, the\nofficer who helped to carry General R---- off the field, that the\nrequest as to the ring was actually made to him, just as I heard it at\nFerozepore at that very time.\" (Vol. I. p. 30.)\n\n\n_A Royal Deathbed in France seen in Scotland._\n\nThe above case is remarkable because the voice was transmitted as well\nas the spectacle. In the next story the ear heard nothing, but the scene\nitself was very remarkable. A correspondent of the Psychical Research\nSociety writes that whilst staying with her mother's cousin, Mrs.\nElizabeth Broughton, wife of Mr. Edward Broughton, Edinburgh, and\ndaughter of the late Colonel Blanckley, in the year 1844, she told her\nthe following strange story:--\n\n\"She awoke one night and aroused her husband, telling him that something\ndreadful had happened in France. He begged her to go to sleep again and\nnot to trouble him. She assured him that she was not asleep when she saw\nwhat she insisted on then telling him--what she saw, in fact, was;\nFirst, a carriage accident--which she did not actually see, but what she\nsaw was the result--a broken carriage, a crowd collected, a figure\ngently raised and carried into the nearest house, then a figure lying on\na bed, which she then recognised as the Duke of Orleans. Gradually\nfriends collecting round the bed--among them several members of the\nFrench royal family--the queen, then the king, all silently, tearfully\nwatching the evidently dying duke. One man (she could see his back, but\ndid not know who he was) was a doctor. He stood bending over the duke,\nfeeling his pulse, his watch in the other hand. And then all passed\naway; she saw no more. As soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her\njournal all that she had seen. From that journal she read this to me. It\nwas before the days of electric telegraph, and two or more days passed\nbefore the _Times_ announced 'The Death of the Duke of Orleans.'\nVisiting Paris a short time afterwards, she saw and recognised the place\nof the accident and received the explanation of her impression. The\ndoctor who attended the dying duke was an old friend of hers, and as he\nwatched by the bed his mind had been constantly occupied with her and\nher family.\" (Vol. II. p. 160.)\n\n                      *            *            *\n\nThe doctor's sympathy may have been the key to the secret camera of\nNature, but it in no wise \"explains\" how a lady in Edinburgh could see\nwhat went on inside a house in Paris so clearly as to know what had\nhappened two days before the intelligence reached the _Times_.\n\n\n_An African Event Seen in England._\n\nHere is another story where the event occurred in Africa and was seen in\nEngland. A correspondent from Wadhurst, West Dulwich, S.E., says:--\n\n\"My late husband dreamt a certain curious dream about his brother, Mr.\nRalph Holden, who was at that time travelling in the interior of Africa.\nOne morning, in June or July, 1861, my husband woke me with the\nannouncement, 'Ralph is dead.' I said, 'You must be dreaming.' 'No, I am\nnot dreaming now; but I dreamt twice over that I saw Ralph lying on the\nground supported by a man.' They learnt afterwards that Ralph must have\ndied about the time when his brother dreamt about him and that he had\ndied in the arms of his faithful native servant, lying under a large\ntree, where he was afterwards buried. The Holden family have sketches of\nthe tree and the surroundings, and, on seeing it, my husband said, 'Yes,\nthat is exactly the place where I saw Ralph in my dream, dying or\ndead.'\" (Vol. I. p. 141.)\n\n\n_A Vision Which Saved Many Lives._\n\nDr. Horace Bushnell, in his \"Nature and the Supernatural,\" tells a\nstory, on the authority of Captain Yonnt, which differs from the\nforegoing in having a definite purpose, which, fortunately, was\nattained. Captain Yonnt, a patriarch in the Napa valley of California,\ntold Dr. Bushnell that six or seven years before their conversation he\nhad seen a vision which saved several lives. Here is his story:--\n\n\"About six or seven years previous, in a mid-winter's night, he had a\ndream, in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants\narrested by the snows of the mountains and perishing rapidly by cold and\nhunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge,\nperpendicular front of white rock cliff; he saw the men cutting off what\nappeared to be tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow; he\ndistinguished the very features of the persons and the look of their\nparticular distress. He awoke profoundly impressed by the distinctness\nand apparent reality of the dream. He at length fell asleep, and dreamed\nexactly the same dream over again. In the morning he could not expel it\nfrom his mind. Falling in shortly after with an old hunter comrade, he\ntold his story, and was only the more deeply impressed by his\nrecognising without hesitation the scenery of the dream. This comrade\ncame over the Sierra, by the Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a\nspot in the Pass answered exactly his description. By this the\nunsophistical patriarch was decided. He immediately collected a company\nof men, with mules and blankets and all necessary provisions. The\nneighbours were laughing meantime at his credulity. 'No matter,' he\nsaid, 'I am able to do this, and I will; for I verily believe that the\nfact is according to my dream.' The men were sent into the mountains one\nhundred and fifty miles distant, directly to the Carson Valley Pass. And\nthere they found the company exactly in the condition of the dream, and\nbrought in the remnant alive.\" (\"Nature and the Supernatural,\" p. 14.)\n\n\n_The Vision of a Fire._\n\nThe wife of a Dean of the Episcopal Church in one of the Southern States\nof America was visiting at my house while I was busy collecting\nmaterials for this work. Asking her the usual question as to whether she\nhad ever experienced anything of the phenomena usually called\nsupernatural, apparently because it is not the habitual experience of\nevery twenty-four hours, she ridiculed the idea. Ghosts? not she. She\nwas a severely practical, matter-of-fact person, who used her natural\nsenses, and had nothing to do with spirits. But was she quite sure; had\nnothing ever occurred to her which she could not explain? Then she\nhesitated and said, \"Well, yes; but there is nothing supernatural about\nit. I was staying away down in Virginia, some hundred miles from home,\nwhen one morning, about eleven o'clock, I felt an over-powering\nsleepiness. I never sleep in the daytime, and that drowsiness was, I\nthink, almost my only experience of that kind. I was so sleepy I went to\nmy room and lay down. In my sleep I saw quite distinctly my home at\nRichmond in flames. The fire had broken out in one wing of the house,\nwhich I saw with dismay was where I kept all my best dresses. The people\nwere all about trying to check the flames, but it was of no use. My\nhusband was there, walking about before the burning house, carrying a\nportrait in his hand. Everything was quite clear and distinct, exactly\nas if I had actually been present and seen everything. After a time I\nwoke up, and, going downstairs, told my friends the strange dream I had\nhad. They laughed at me, and made such game of my vision that I did my\nbest to think no more about it. I was travelling about, a day or two\npassed, and when Sunday came I found myself in a church where some\nrelatives were worshipping. When I entered the pew they looked rather\nstrange, and as soon as the service was over I asked them what was the\nmatter. 'Don't be alarmed,' they said, 'there is nothing serious.' They\nthen handed me a postcard from my husband, which simply said, 'House\nburned out; covered by insurance.' The date was the day on which my\ndream occurred. I hastened home, and then I learned that everything had\nhappened exactly as I had seen it. The fire had broken out in the wing\nwhich I had seen blazing. My clothes were all burnt, and the oddest\nthing about it was that my husband, having rescued a favourite picture\nfrom the burning building, had carried it about among the crowd for some\ntime before he could find a place in which to put it safely.\"\nSwedenborg, it will be remembered, also had a clairvoyant vision of a\nfire at a great distance.\n\n\n_The Loss of the \"Strathmore.\"_\n\nA classic instance of the exercise of this faculty is the story of the\nwreck of the _Strathmore_. In brief the story is as follows:--The\nfather of a son who had sailed in the _Strathmore_, an emigrant\nship outward bound from the Clyde, saw one night the ship foundering\namid the waves, and saw that his son, with some others, had escaped\nsafely to a desert island near which the wreck had taken place. He was\nso much impressed by this vision that he wrote to the owner of the\n_Strathmore_, telling him what he had seen. His information was\nscouted; but after awhile the _Strathmore_ was overdue and the\nowner got uneasy. Day followed day, and still no tidings of the missing\nship. Then, like Pharaoh's butler, the owner remembered his sins one day\nand hunted up the letter describing the vision. It supplied at least a\ntheory to account for the vessel's disappearance. All outward bound\nships were requested to look out for any survivors on the island\nindicated in the vision. These orders being obeyed, the survivors of the\n_Strathmore_ were found exactly where the father had seen them. In\nitself this is sufficient to confound all accepted hypotheses. Taken in\nconnection with other instances of a similar nature, what can be said of\nit excepting that it almost necessitates the supposition of the\nexistence of the invisible camera obscura which the Theosophists\ndescribe as the astral light?\n\n\n_The Analogy of the Camera Obscura._\n\nClairvoyance can often be explained by telepathy, especially when there\nis strong sympathy between the person who sees and the person who is\nseen. Mr. Edward R. Lipsitt, of Tralee, sends me the following\nnarrative, which illustrates this fact:--\n\n\"I beg to narrate a curious case of telepathy I experienced when quite a\nboy. Some ten years ago I happened to sleep one night in the same room\nwith a young friend of about my own age. There existed a very strong\nsympathy between us. I got up early and went out for a short walk,\nleaving my friend fast asleep in his bed. I went in the direction of a\nwell-known lake in that district. After gazing for some moments at the\nsilent waters, I espied a large black dog making towards me. I turned my\nback and fled, the dog following me for some distance. My boots then\nbeing in a bad condition, one of the soles came off in the flight;\nhowever, I came away unmolested by the dog. But how amazed was I when\nupon entering the room my friend, who was just rubbing his eyes and\nyawning, related to me my adventure word by word, describing even the\ncolour of the dog and the very boot (the right one) the sole of which\ngave way!\"\n\n\n_Motiveless Visions._\n\nThere is often no motive whatever to be discovered in the apparition. A\nremarkable instance of this is recorded by Mr. Myers in an article in\nthe _Arena_, where the analogy to a camera obscura is very close. The\ncamera reflects everything that happens. Nothing is either great or\nsmall to its impartial lens. But if you do not happen to be in the right\nplace, or if the room is not properly darkened, or if the white paper is\ntaken off the table, you see nothing. We have not yet mastered the\nconditions of the astral camera. Here, however, is Mr. Myers' story,\nwhich he owes to the kindness of Dr. Elliott Coues, who happened to call\non Mrs. C---- the very day on which that lady received the following\nletter from her friend Mrs. B----.\n\n    \"'Monday evening, January 14th, 1889.\n\n    \"'My Dear Friend,--I know you will be surprised to receive a note\n    from me so soon, but not more so than I was to-day, when you were\n    shown to me clairvoyantly, in a somewhat embarrassed position. I\n    doubt very much if there was any truth in it; nevertheless, I will\n    relate it, and leave you to laugh at the idea of it.\n\n    \"'I was sitting in my room sewing this afternoon, about two o'clock,\n    when what should I see but your own dear self; but, heavens! in what\n    a position. Now, I don't want to excite your curiosity too much, or\n    try your patience too long, so will come to the point at once. You\n    were falling up the front steps in the yard. You had on your black\n    skirt and velvet waist, your little straw bonnet, and in your hand\n    were some papers. When you fell, your hat went in one direction, and\n    the papers in another. You got up very quickly, put on your bonnet,\n    picked up the papers, and lost no time getting into the house. You\n    did not appear to be hurt, but looked somewhat mortified. It was all\n    so plain to me that I had ten to one notions to dress myself and\n    come over and see if it were true, but finally concluded that a\n    sober, industrious woman like yourself would not be stumbling around\n    at that rate, and thought I'd best not go on a wild goose chase.\n    Now, what do you think of such a vision as that? Is there any\n    possible truth in it? I feel almost ready to scream with laughter\n    whenever I think of it; you did look _too_ funny, spreading\n    yourself out in the front yard. \"Great was the fall thereof.\"'\n\n\"This letter came to us in an envelope addressed: Mrs. E. A. C----, 217\nDel. Ave., N.E., Washington, D.C., and with the postmarks, Washington,\nD.C., Jan. 15, 7 a.m., 1889, and Washington, N.E.C.S., Jan. 15, 8 a.m.\n\n\"Now the point is that every detail in this telepathic vision was\ncorrect. Mrs. C---- had actually (as she tells me in a letter dated\nMarch 7th, 1889) fallen in this way, at this place, in the dress\ndescribed, at 2.41, on January 14th. The coincidence can hardly have\nbeen due to chance. If we suppose that the vision preceded the accident,\nwe shall have an additional marvel, which, however, I do not think we\nneed here face. 'About 2,' in a letter of this kind, may quite\nconceivably have meant 2.41.\"\n\nThe exceeding triviality of the incident often destroys the possibility\nof belief in the ordinary superstition that it was a direct Divine\nrevelation. This may be plausible in cases of the _Strathmore_,\nwhere the intelligence was communicated of the loss of an English ship,\nbut no one can seriously hold it when the only information to be\ncommunicated was a stumble on the stairs.\n\nConsidering the enormous advantages which such an astral camera would\nplace in the hands of the detective police, I was not surprised to be\ntold that the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department in\nLondon and Chicago occasionally consult clairvoyants as to the place\nwhere stolen goods are to be found, or where the missing criminals may\nbe lurking.\n\n\n_Mr. Burt's Dream._\n\nWhen I was in Newcastle I availed myself of the opportunity to call upon\nMr. Burt, M.P. On questioning him as to whether he had ever seen a\nghost, he replied in the negative, but remarked that he had had one\nexperience which had made a deep impression upon his mind, which partook\nmore of the nature of clairvoyance than the apparition of a phantom. \"I\nsuppose it was a dream,\" said Mr. Burt. \"The dream or vision, or\nwhatever else you call it, made a deep impression upon my mind. You\nremember Mr. Crawford, the Durham miners' agent, was ill for a long time\nbefore his death. Just before his death he rallied, and we all hoped he\nwas going to get better. I had heard nothing to the contrary, when one\nmorning early I had a very vivid dream. I dreamed that I was standing by\nthe bedside of my old friend. I passed my hand over his brow, and he\nspoke to me with great tenderness, with much greater tenderness than he\nhad ever spoken before. He said he was going to die, and that he was\ncomforted by the long and close friendship that had existed between us.\nI was much touched by the feeling with which he spoke, and felt awed as\nif I were in the presence of death. When I woke up the impression was\nstill strong in my mind, and I could not resist the feeling that\nCrawford was dying. In a few hours I received a telegram stating that he\nwas dead. This is more remarkable because I fully expected he was going\nto get better, and at the moment of my dream he seems to have died. I\ncannot give any explanation of how it came about. It is a mystery to me,\nand likely to remain so.\"\n\nThis astral camera, to which \"future things unfolded lie,\" also retains\nthe imperishable image of all past events. Mr. Browning's great uncle's\nstuds brought vividly to the mind of the clairvoyant a smell of blood,\nand recalled all the particulars of the crime of which they had been\nsilent witnesses. Any article or relic may serve as a key to unlock the\nchamber of this hidden camera.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nTragic Happenings Seen in Dreams.\n\n\n_An Irish Outrage Seen in a Dream._\n\nOne of the best stories of clairvoyance as a means of throwing light on\ncrime is thus told by a correspondent of the Psychical Research Society:\n\nOne morning in December, 1836, he had the following dream, or, he would\nprefer to call it, revelation. He found himself suddenly at the gate of\nMajor N. M.'s avenue, many miles from his home. Close to him was a group\nof persons, one of whom was a woman with a basket on her arm, the rest\nmen, four of whom were tenants of his own, while the others were unknown\nto him. Some of the strangers seemed to be murderously assaulting H. W.,\none of his tenants, and he interfered. \"I struck violently at the man on\nmy left, and then with greater violence at the man's face on my right.\nFinding, to my surprise, that I had not knocked down either, I struck\nagain and again with all the violence of a man frenzied at the sight of\nmy poor friend's murder. To my great amazement I saw my arms, although\nvisible to my eye, were without substance, and the bodies of the men I\nstruck at and my own came close together after each blow through the\nshadowy arms I struck with. My blows were delivered with more extreme\nviolence than I ever think I exerted, but I became painfully convinced\nof my incompetency. I have no consciousness of what happened after this\nfeeling of unsubstantiality came upon me.\" Next morning he experienced\nthe stiffness and soreness of violent bodily exercise, and was informed\nby his wife that in the course of the night he had much alarmed her by\nstriking out again and again with his arms in a terrific manner, 'as if\nfighting for his life.' He, in turn, informed her of his dream, and\nbegged her to remember the names of those actors in it who were known to\nhim. On the morning of the following day (Wednesday) he received a\nletter from his agent, who resided in the town close to the scene of the\ndream, informing him that his tenant had been found on Tuesday morning\nat Major N. M.'s gate, speechless and apparently dying from a fracture\nof the skull, and that there was no trace of the murderers. That night\nhe started for the town, and arrived there on Thursday morning. On his\nway to a meeting of magistrates he met the senior magistrate of that\npart of the country, and requested him to give orders for the arrest of\nthe three men whom, besides H. W., he had recognised in his dream, and\nto have them examined separately. This was at once done. The three men\ngave identical accounts of the occurrence, and all named the woman who\nwas with them. She was then arrested, and gave precisely similar\ntestimony. They said that between eleven and twelve on the Monday night\nthey had been walking homewards along the road, when they were overtaken\nby three strangers, two of whom savagely assaulted H. W., while the\nother prevented his friends from interfering. H. W. did not die, but was\nnever the same man afterwards; he subsequently emigrated. (Vol. I. p.\n142.)\n\nThe advantage which would accrue from the universal establishment of\nthis instantaneous vision would not be unmixed. That it is occasionally\nvery useful is obvious.\n\n\n_A Clairvoyant Vision of a Murder._\n\nThe most remarkable experiment in clairvoyant detection that I have ever\ncome across is told by Dr. Backman, of Kalmar, in a recent number of the\n\"Psychical Research Society's Proceedings.\" It is as follows:--\n\n\"In the month of October, 1888, the neighbourhood of Kalmar was shocked\nby a horrible murder committed in the parish of Wissefjerda, which was\nabout fifty kilometres from Kalmar as the crow flies. What happened was\nthat a farmer named P. J. Gustafsson had been killed by a shot when\ndriving, having been forced to stop by stones having been placed on the\nroad. The murder had been committed in the evening, and a certain tramp\nwas suspected, because Gustafsson, in his capacity of under bailiff, had\narrested him, and he had then undergone several years' penal servitude.\n\n\"This was all that I or the public knew about the case on November 1st\nof the same year. The place where the murder was committed and the\npersons implicated in it were quite unknown to me and the clairvoyant.\n\n\"On the same day, November 1st, having some reason to believe that such\na trial would be at least partially successful, I experimented with a\nclairvoyant, Miss Agda Olsen, to try if it was possible to get some\ninformation in this way about such an event.\n\n\"The judge of the neighbourhood, who had promised to be present, was\nunfortunately prevented from coming. The clairvoyant was hypnotised in\nmy wife's presence, and was then ordered 'to look for the place where\nthe murder had been committed and see the whole scene, follow the\nmurderer in his flight, and describe him and his home and the motive for\nthe murder.' Miss Olsen then spoke as follows, in great agitation,\nsometimes using violent gestures. I took notes of her exact words and\nreproduce them here fully.\n\n\"'It is between two villages--I see a road--in a wood--now it is\ncoming--the gun--now he is coming along, driving--the horse is afraid of\nthe stones--hold the horse! hold the horse! now! now he is killing\nhim--he was kneeling when he fired--blood! blood!--now he is running in\nthe wood--seize him!--he is running in an opposite direction to the\nhorse in many circuits--not on any footpaths. He wears a cap and grey\nclothes--light--has long coarse brown hair, which has not been cut for a\nlong time--grey-blue eyes--treacherous looks--great dark brown beard--he\nis accustomed to work on the land. I believe he has cut his right hand.\nHe has a scar or a streak between his thumb and forefinger. He is\nsuspicious and a coward.\n\n\"'The murderer's home is a red wooden house, standing a little way back\nfrom the road. On the ground-floor is a room which leads into the\nkitchen, and from that again into the passage. There is also a larger\nroom which does not communicate with the kitchen. The church of\nWissefjerda is situated obliquely to your right when you are standing in\nthe passage.\n\n\"'His motive was enmity; it seems as if he had bought something--taken\nsomething--a paper. He went away from home at daybreak, and the murder\nwas committed in the evening.'\n\n\"Miss Olsen was then awakened, and like all my subjects, she remembered\nperfectly what she had been seeing, which had made a very profound\nimpression on her; she added several things which I did not write down.\n\n\"On November 6th (Monday) I met Miss Olsen, and she told me in great\nagitation that she had met the murderer from Wissefjerda in the street.\nHe was accompanied by a younger person and followed by two policemen,\nand was walking from the police office to the gaol. I at once expressed\nmy doubts of her being right, partly because country people are\ngenerally arrested by the country police, partly because they are always\ntaken directly to gaol. But when she insisted on it, and maintained that\nit was the person she had seen when asleep, I went to the police office.\n\n\"I inquired if any one had been arrested on suspicion of the crime in\nquestion, and a police-constable answered that such was the case, and\nthat, as they had been taken to the town on Sunday, they had been kept\nin the police-station over night, and after that had been obliged to go\non foot to gaol, accompanied by two constables.\" (The police-constable,\nT. A. Ljung, states that Dr. Backman described quite accurately the\nappearance of the house, its furniture, how the rooms were situated,\nwhere the suspected man lived, and gave a very correct account of Niklas\nJonnasson's personal appearance. The doctor also asked him if he had\nobserved that Jonnasson had a scar on his right hand. He said he had not\nthen observed it, but ascertained later that it really was so, and\nJonnasson said that he got it from an abscess).\n\n\"The trial was a long one, and showed that Gustafsson had agreed to buy\nfor Jonnasson, but in his own name, the latter's farm, which was sold by\nauction on account of Jonnasson's debts. This is what is called a\nthief's bargain. Gustafsson bought the farm, but kept it for himself.\nThe statements of the accused men were very vague; the father had\nprepared an _alibi_ with much care, but it failed to account for\njust the length of time that was probably enough to commit the murder\nin. The son tried to prove an _alibi_ by means of two witnesses,\nbut these confessed that they had given false evidence, which he had\nbribed them to do when they were in prison with him on account of\nanother matter.\n\n\"But though the evidence against the defendants was very strong, it was\nnot considered that there was sufficient legal evidence, and, there\nbeing no jury in Sweden, they were left to the verdict of posterity.\"\n(pp. 213-216.)\n\n\n_A Terrible Vision of Torture at Sea._\n\nThe following marvellous story of a vision reaches me from Scotland. The\nRev. D. McQueen writes me from 165, Dalkeith-road, Edinburgh, December\n14th, as follows:--\n\n\"I have been much interested in your Ghost Stories. I wish to inform you\nof one I have heard, and which I think eclipses in interest, minuteness\nof detail, and tragical pathos anything I have ever known, and which, if\npublished and edited by your graphic pen, would cause a sensation in\nevery scientific society in Great Britain.\n\n\"It is not in my power to write the whole story, as it is nearly\nsufficient for a pamphlet by itself, but its accuracy can be vouched for\nby many of the most respectable and intelligent people in the\nneighbourhood of Old Cumnock. I heard the story some years ago, and\nwould have written you sooner, only I wished to make inquiries as to the\nwhereabouts of the subject of the remarkable vision.\n\n\"About twenty years ago a young man belonging to Ayrshire embarked from\nan Australian port to re-visit his friends in this country. His mother\nand father still live. The former saw all that befell her son from the\nmoment he set foot on the deck till he was consigned to the sea. She can\ndescribe the port from which he sailed, the crew of the ship, his fellow\npassengers. It was a weird story, for her son, by name George, was done\nto death by the brutality of the officers. This was partially\ncorroborated by a passenger named Gilmour, who called on her after his\narrival in London. When he entered the house she said, 'Why did you\nallow them to ill-use my son.' He started, and said, 'Who told you?' She\nrelated all that happened during the weeks her son was ill, and when she\nfinished her guest fainted. According to her, her son was ill-used from\nthe time he started till his death. For example, she saw her son struck\nby a ball of ropes, as she said (a cork fender). He said that was so.\nShe saw him put into a strait jacket and lowered into the hold of the\nship, which actually took place. She saw them playing cards on deck and\nputting the counters into her son's pocket, which were actually found in\nhis clothes when they came back. She can describe the berth her son\noccupied, the various parts of the ship, with an accuracy that is\nsurprising to one that never has been on board ship. And last of all she\ntells the manner of his burial, the dress, the service that was read,\nthe body moving, the protest of one passenger that he was not dead. She\nhad a succession of trances by day and night which are unparalleled. She\nsaw some of the painful scenes in church, and has been known to cry out\nin horror and agony. If you could only get some one to take it down from\nher own lips--she alone can tell it--you would make a narrative that\nwould thrill the heart of every reader in the kingdom. The woman is\nreliable. She is the wife of a well-to-do farmer. Her name is Mrs.\nArthur, Benston Farm, Old Cumnock.\n\n\"I have written an incoherent letter, as I am hurried at present, but I\nhope you will see your way to investigate it. I say again, I have never\nheard so weird and true a tale. But get the lady to tell her own story.\nIt is wonderful! wonderful!\"\n\nOn January 9th, 1892, the Rev. A. Macdonald, of the U.P. Manse, Old\nCumnock, wrote to me as follows:--\n\n\"I have much pleasure in replying to the questions you put to me,\nwhether I am aware of the clairvoyant experiences of Mrs. Arthur\n(Benston, New Cumnock), and whether I consider her a reliable witness.\n\n\"It is many years since I heard Mrs. Arthur relate her strange visions,\nand there are other friends, beside myself, who have heard the same\nnarrative from her own lips.\n\n\"Mrs. Arthur, I hold, is incapable of inventing the story which she\ntells, for she is a truthful, conscientious, and Christian woman. She\nherself believes in the reality of the vision as firmly as she believes\nin her own existence. The death of her son on his way back from\nAustralia was the cause of a sorrow too deep for the mother to weave\nsuch a romance around it. Further, her statements are not the accretions\nof after years, but were told, and told freely, at the time when her son\nwas known to have died. This is about twenty years ago. During these\ntwenty years she has not varied in her statements, and repeats them\nstill with all the faith and with all the circumstantial details of the\nfirst narration.\n\n\"I consider her vision--extending as it does from the time the\nhomeward-bound vessel left the harbour, over many days, until the burial\nof her son's body at sea--worthy of a place alongside the best of the\nGhost Stories you have given to the world.\"\n\nMr. Arthur, the son of the percipient in this strange story, wrote to me\nas follows from Loch-side, New Cumnock, Ayrshire, on the 14th January,\n1892:--\n\n\"My mother, Mrs. Arthur, of Benston, New Cumnock, Ayrshire, received\nyour valued favour of 8th inst., together with a copy of the Christmas\nNumber of the _Review of Reviews_. The circumstances you refer to\nhappened twenty-one years ago, a short account of which appeared in a\nScotch paper, and a much fuller one appeared in an Australian paper,\nbut, unfortunately, no copy has been preserved, even the diary in which\nthe particulars were written has been destroyed.\n\n\"It would not serve any good purpose for you to send a shorthand writer\nto interview my mother, as she is approaching fourscore years, and her\nmemory is rapidly failing. I believe I can get a very full account\n(barring _minutiae_) from a younger brother. But if the young man\nwho was a fellow-passenger with my brother (when my brother died at sea\noff the Cape of Good Hope) is still alive, he is the proper party to\ngive a full and minute account. He was the party who informed my parents\nof my brother's death. My mother lost no time in visiting him for\nparticulars. I think the young man's name was Gilmour. He was then in\nthe neighbourhood of Edinburgh. When he began to narrate what had taken\nplace, my mother stopped him and asked him to listen to her. She then\nwent on to say that on a certain date, while she was about her usual\nhousehold duties, her son came into the room where she was, said so and\nso and so and so, and walked out. Mr. Gilmour said that what she had\nsaid was exactly what had occurred during his illness, and the date he\nhad visited her was the day of his death.\n\n\"I was at this time living in Belize, British Honduras. On my mentioning\nthis circumstance to some of my friends there, Mr. Cockburn, who was\nPolice Magistrate in Belize, said that his daughter, Miss Cockburn, had\na similar experience. He lived at that time in Grenada, and Miss\nCockburn was at school in England. One day she was out walking with the\nother school girls; suddenly she saw her mother walking along the street\nin front of her. Miss C. ran off to speak to her, but before she caught\nher up, her mother turned down a side street. When the daughter reached\nthe corner the mother was nowhere to be seen. Miss Cockburn wrote to her\nmother, telling her what she had seen, by the outgoing mail. Her letter\ncrossed one from her father, telling her that her mother had died that\nday.\"\n\nClairvoyance is closely related to the phenomenon of the Double, for the\nclairvoyant seems to have either the faculty of transporting herself to\ndistant places, or of bringing the places within range of her sight.\nHere is a narrative sent me by Mr. Masey, Fellow of the Geological\nSociety, writing to me from 8, Gloucester Road, Kew, which illustrates\nthe connection between clairvoyance and the Double:--\n\n\"Mrs. Mary Masey, who resided on Redcliffe Hill, Bristol, at the\nbeginning of this century, was a member of the Society of Friends, and\nwas held in high esteem for piety.\n\n\"A memorable incident in her life was that one night she dreamt that a\nMr. John Henderson, a noted man of the same community, had gone to\nOxford, and that he had died there. In the course of the next day, Mr.\nHenderson called to take leave of her, saying he was going to Oxford to\nstudy a subject concerning which he could not obtain the information he\nwanted in Bristol. Mrs. Masey said to him, 'John Henderson, thou wilt\ndie there.'\n\n\"Some time afterwards, Mrs. Masey woke her husband one night, saying,\n'Remember, John Henderson died at Oxford at two o'clock this morning,\nand it is now three.' Her husband, Philip Masey, made light of it; but\nshe told him that while asleep she had been transported to Oxford, where\nshe had never been before, and that she had entered a room there, in\nwhich she saw Mr. John Henderson in bed, the landlady supporting his\nhead, and the landlord with several other persons standing around. While\ngazing at him some one gave him medicine, and the patient, turning\nround, perceived her, and exclaimed, 'Oh, Mrs. Masey, I am going to die;\nI am so glad you are come, for I want to tell you that my father is\ngoing to be very ill, and you must go and see him.' He then proceeded to\ndescribe a room in his father's house, and a bureau in it, 'in which is\na box containing a remedy; give it him, and he will recover.' Her\nimpression and recollection of all the persons in the room at Oxford was\nmost vivid, and she even described the appearance of the house on the\nopposite side of the street. The only person she appeared not to have\nseen in the room was a clergyman who was present. The husband of Mrs.\nMasey accompanied Mr. Henderson's father to the funeral, and on their\njourney from Bristol to Oxford by coach (the period being before\nrailways and telegraphs existed), Mr. Philip Masey related to him the\nparticulars of his son's death, as described by his wife, which, on\narrival, they found to have been exactly as told by Mrs. Masey.\n\n\"Mrs. Masey was so much concerned about the death of Mr. Henderson,\njun., that she forgot all about the directions he had given her\nrespecting the approaching illness of his father, but some time\nafterwards she was sent for by the father, who was very ill. She then\nremembered the directions given her by the son on his death-bed at\nOxford. She immediately proceeded to the residence of Mr. Henderson, and\non arrival at the house she found the room, the bureau, the box, and the\nmedicine exactly as had been foretold to her. She administered the\nremedy as directed, and had the pleasure of witnessing the beneficial\neffect by the complete recovery of Mr. Henderson from a serious\nillness.\"\n\nHere we have almost every variety of psychic experience. First of all\nthere is second sight pure and simple; second, there is the aerial\njourney of the Double, with the memory of everything that had been seen\nand heard at the scene which it had witnessed; third, there is\ncommunication of information which at that moment was not known to the\npercipient; fourth, we have another prediction; and finally, we have a\ncomplete verification and fulfilment of everything that was witnessed.\nIt is idle to attempt to prove the accuracy of statements made\nconcerning one who has been dead nearly a hundred years, but the story,\nalthough possessing no evidential value, is interesting as an almost\nunique specimen of the comprehensive and complicated prophetic ghost and\nclairvoyant story.\n\nThese facts, which are well accredited, would seem to show that in the\nbook of Job Elihu was not far wrong when he said, \"In slumberings upon\nthe bed God openeth the ears of men and sealeth their destruction.\" Or,\nto quote from an author who uses more modern dialect, it justifies\nAbercromby's remark that \"the subject of dreaming appears to be worthy\nof careful investigation, and there is much reason to believe that an\nextensive collection of authentic facts, carefully analysed, would\nunfold principles of very great interest in reference to the philosophy\nof the mental powers.\"\n\nClairvoyance is a gift, and a comparatively rare gift. It is a gift\nwhich requires to be much more carefully studied and scientifically\nexamined than it has been hitherto. It is a by-path to many secrets. It\nmay hold in it the clue to the acquisition of great faculties, hitherto\nregarded as forbidden to mere mortals.\n\n\n\n\nChapter III.\n\nMy Own Experience.\n\n\nIt is difficult for those who are not clairvoyant to understand what\nthose who are clairvoyant describe, often with the most extraordinary\nprecision and detail. Unfortunately for myself I am not a clairvoyant,\nbut on one occasion I had an experience which enabled me to understand\nsomething of clairvoyant vision. I had been working late at night, and\nhad gone to bed at about two o'clock in the morning somewhat tired,\nhaving spent several hours in preparing \"Real Ghost Stories\" for the\npress. I got into bed, but was not able to go to sleep, as usual, as\nsoon as my head touched the pillow. I suppose my mind had been too much\nexcited by hard work right up to the moment of going to bed for me\nreadily to go to sleep. I shut my eyes and waited for sleep to come;\ninstead of sleep, however, there came to me a succession of curiously\nvivid clairvoyant pictures. There was no light in the room, and it was\nperfectly dark; I had my eyes shut also. But, notwithstanding the\ndarkness, I suddenly was conscious of looking at a scene of singular\nbeauty. It was as if I saw a living miniature about the size of a\nmagic-lantern slide. At this moment I can recall the scene as if I saw\nit again. It was a seaside piece. The moon was shining upon the water,\nwhich rippled slowly on to the beach. Right before me a long mole ran\nout into the water. On either side of the mole irregular rocks stood up\nabove the sea-level. On the shore stood several houses, square and rude,\nwhich resembled nothing that I had ever seen in house architecture. No\none was stirring, but the moon was there, and the sea and the gleam of\nthe moonlight on the rippling waters was just as if I had been looking\nout upon the actual scene. It was so beautiful that I remember thinking\nthat if it continued I should be so interested in looking at it that I\nshould never go to sleep. I was wide awake, and at the same time that I\nsaw the scene I distinctly heard the dripping of the rain outside the\nwindow. Then suddenly, without any apparent object or reason, the scene\nchanged. The moonlit sea vanished, and in its place I was looking right\ninto the interior of a reading-room. It seemed as if it had been used as\na schoolroom in the daytime and was employed as a reading-room in the\nevening. I remember seeing one reader, who had a curious resemblance to\nTim Harrington, although it was not he, hold up a magazine or book in\nhis hand and laugh. It was not a picture--it was there. The scene was\njust as if you were looking through an opera-glass; you saw the play of\nthe muscles, the gleaming of the eye, every movement of the unknown\npersons in the unnamed place into which you were gazing. I saw all that\nwithout opening my eyes, nor did my eyes have anything to do with it.\nYou see such things as these, as it were, with another sense, which is\nmore inside your head than in your eyes. This was a very poor and paltry\nexperience, but it enabled me to understand better than any amount of\ndisquisition how it is that clairvoyants see. The pictures were\n_apropos_ of nothing; they had been suggested by nothing I had been\nreading or talking of, they simply came as if I had been able to look\nthrough a glass at what was occurring somewhere else in the world. I had\nmy peep and then it passed, nor have I had a recurrence of a similar\nexperience.\n\n\n_Crystal-Gazing._\n\nCrystal-gazing is somewhat akin to clairvoyance. There are some people\nwho cannot look into an ordinary globular bottle without seeing pictures\nform themselves, without any effort or will on their part, in the\ncrystal globe. This is an experience which I have never been able to\nenjoy. But I have seen crystal-gazing going on at a table at which I\nhave been sitting on one or two occasions with rather remarkable\nresults. The experiences of Miss X. in crystal-gazing have been told at\nlength and in detail in the \"Proceedings of the Psychical Research\nSociety.\" On looking into the crystal on two occasions as a test, to see\nif she could see me when she was several miles off, she saw, not me, but\na different friend of mine on each occasion, whom she had never seen,\nbut whom she immediately identified on seeing them afterwards at my\noffice.\n\nCrystal-gazing seems to be the least dangerous and most simple of all\nmethods of experimenting. You simply look into a crystal globe the size\nof a five-shilling piece, or a water-bottle which is full of clear\nwater, and is placed so that too much light does not fall upon it, and\nthen simply look at it. You make no incantations and engage in no\nmumbo-jumbo business; you simply look at it for two or three minutes,\ntaking care not to tire yourself, winking as much as you please, but\nfixing your thought upon whoever it is you wish to see. Then, if you\nhave the faculty, the glass will cloud over with a milky mist, and in\nthe centre the image is gradually precipitated in just the same way as a\nphotograph forms on the sensitive plate. At least, the description given\nby crystal-gazers as to the way in which the picture appears reminded me\nof nothing so much as what I saw when I stood inside the largest camera\nin the world, in which the Ordnance Survey photographs its maps at\nSouthampton.\n\n\n\n\nPART IV.\n\nPREMONITIONS AND SECOND SIGHT.\n\n\"But there are many such things in Nature, though we have not the right\nkey to them. We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an\natmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring in it, or how it is\nconnected with our own spirit. So much is certain--that in particular\ncases we can put out the feelers of our soul beyond its bodily limits,\nand that a presentiment, nay, an actual insight into, the immediate\nfuture is accorded to it.\"--Goethe's \"Conversations with Eckermann.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nMy Own Extraordinary Premonitions.\n\n\nIf clairvoyance partakes of the nature of the camera obscura, by which\npersons can see at a distance that which is going on beyond the direct\nrange of their vision, it is less easy to suggest an analogy to explain\nthe phenomena of premonition or second sight. Although I have never seen\na ghost--for none of my hallucinations are scenic--I may fairly claim to\nhave a place in this census on the ground of the extraordinary\npremonitions I have had at various times of coming events. The second\nsight of the Highlander is always scenic; he does not hear so much as he\nsees. If death is foreshadowed, the circumstances preceding and\nfollowing the event pass as in dramatic scene before the eyes of the\nseer. It is much as if the seers had access to a camera obscura which\nenabled them not only to see that which was occurring at the same moment\nin various parts of the world, but in its magic mirror could reflect\nevents which have not yet been as if they were already existent.\n\nThe phenomena of premonition, combined with the faculties of\nclairvoyance by which the percipient is able to reproduce the past, make\na great breach in our conceptions of both time and space. To the Deity,\nin the familiar line of the hymn, \"future things unfolded lie\"; but from\ntime to time future things, sometimes most trivial, sometimes most\nimportant, are unfolded to the eye of mortal man. Why or how one does\nnot know. All that he can say is that the vision came and went in\nobedience to some power over which he had no conscious control. The\nfaculty of foreseeing, which in its higher forms constitutes no small\npart of a prophet's power, is said to exist among certain families, and\nto vary according to the locality in which they are living. Men who have\nsecond sight in Skye are said to lose it on the mainland. But residence\nin Skye itself is not sufficient to give the Englishman the faculty once\nsaid to be possessed by its natives. In England it is rare, and when it\nexists it is often mixed up with curious and somewhat bewildering\nsuperstitions, signs and omens portending death and disaster, which can\nhardly be regarded as being more than seventh cousins of the true\nfaculty.\n\nI can make no claim to the proud prerogative of the seer, but upon\nseveral occasions I have had some extraordinary premonitions of what was\nabout to happen. I can give no explanation as to how they came, all that\nI know is they arrived, and when they arrived I recognised them beyond\nall possibility of mistake. I have had three or four very striking and\nvivid premonitions in my life which have been fulfilled to the letter. I\nhave others which await fulfilment. Of the latter I will not speak\nhere--although I have them duly recorded--for were I to do so I should\nbe accused of being party to bringing about the fulfilment of my own\npredictions. Those which have already been fulfilled, although of no\ngeneral importance to any one else, were of considerable importance to\nme, as will be seen by the brief outline concerning three of them.\n\n\n_Leaving Darlington Fore-seen._\n\nThe first occasion on which I had an absolutely unmistakable intimation\nof the change about to occur in my own circumstances was in 1880, the\nyear in which I left the editorship of the _Northern Echo_ to\nbecome the assistant of Mr. John Morley[6] on the _Pall Mall\nGazette_.\n\n        [6] Now Lord Morley.\n\nOn New Year's Day, 1880, it was forcibly impressed upon my mind that I\nwas to leave Darlington in the course of that year. I remember on the\n1st of January meeting a journalistic confrere on my way from Darlington\nstation to the _Northern Echo_ office. After wishing him a Happy\nNew Year, I said, \"This is the last New Year's Day I shall ever spend in\nDarlington; I shall leave the _Northern Echo_ this year.\" My friend\nlooked at me in some amazement, and said, \"And where are you going to?\"\n\"To London,\" I replied, \"because it is the only place which could tempt\nme from my present position, which is very comfortable, and where I have\nperfect freedom to say my say.\" \"But,\" said my friend, somewhat\ndubiously, \"what paper are you going to?\" \"I have no idea in the world,\"\nI said; \"neither do I know a single London paper which would offer me a\nposition on their staff of any kind, let alone one on which I would have\nany liberty of utterance. I see no prospect of any opening anywhere. But\nI know for certain that before the year is out I shall be on the staff\nof a London paper.\" \"Come,\" said my friend, \"this is superstition, and\nwith a wife and family I hope you will do nothing rashly.\" \"You need not\nfear as to that,\" I said; \"I shall not seek any position elsewhere, it\nwill have to come to me if I have to go to it. I am not going to throw\nmyself out of a berth until I know where my next place is to be. Humanly\nspeaking, I see no chance of my leaving Darlington, yet I have no more\ndoubt than of my own existence that I shall be gone by this time next\nyear.\" We parted.\n\nThe General Election soon came upon us, and when the time came for\nrenewing my engagement on the _Northern Echo_, I had no option but\nto renew my contract and bind myself to remain at Darlington until July,\n1880. Although I signed the contract, when the day arrived on which I\nhad either to give notice or renew my engagement, I could not shake from\nme the conviction that I was destined to leave Darlington at least six\nmonths before my engagement expired. At that time the _Pall Mall\nGazette_ was edited by Mr. Greenwood, and was, of all the papers in\nthe land, the most antipathetic to the principles upon which I had\nconducted the _Northern Echo_.\n\nThe possibility of my becoming assistant editor to the editor of the\n_Pall Mall Gazette_ seemed at that time about as remote as that of\nthe Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland receiving a cardinal's hat\nfrom the Pope of Rome. Nevertheless, no sooner had Mr. Gladstone been\nseated in power than Mr. George Smith handed over the _Pall Mall\nGazette_ to his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson. Mr. Greenwood\ndeparted to found and edit the _St. James' Gazette_, and Mr. Morley\nbecame editor. Even then I never dreamed of going to the _Pall\nMall_. Two other North-country editors and I, thinking that Mr.\nMorley was left in rather a difficulty by the secession of several of\nthe _Pall Mall_ staff, agreed to send up occasional contributions\nsolely for the purpose of enabling Mr. Morley to get through the\ntemporary difficulty in which he was placed by being suddenly summoned\nto edit a daily paper under such circumstances.\n\nMidsummer had hardly passed before Mr. Thompson came down to Darlington\nand offered me the assistant editorship. The proprietor of the\n_Northern Echo_ kindly waived his right to my services in deference\nto the request of Mr. Morley. As a result I left the _Northern\nEcho_ in September, 1880, and my presentiment was fulfilled. At the\ntime when it was first impressed upon my mind, no living being probably\nanticipated the possibility of such a change occurring in the _Pall\nMall Gazette_ as would render it possible for me to become assistant\neditor, so that the presentiment could in no way have been due to any\npossible calculation of chances on my part.\n\n\n_The Editorship of the \"Pall Mall Gazette.\"_\n\nThe second presentiment to which I shall refer was also connected with\nthe _Pall Mall Gazette_, and was equally clear and without any\nsuggestion from outward circumstances. It was in October, 1883. My wife\nand I were spending a brief holiday in the Isle of Wight, and I remember\nthat the great troopers, which had just brought back Lord Wolseley's\narmy from the first Egyptian campaign, were lying in the Solent when we\ncrossed. One morning about noon we were walking in the drizzling rain\nround St. Catherine's Point. It was a miserable day, the ground slippery\nand the footpath here and there rather difficult to follow. Just as we\nwere at about the ugliest part of our climb I felt distinctly, as it\nwere, a voice within myself saying: You will have to look sharp and make\nready, because by a certain date (which as near as I can recollect was\nthe 16th of March next year) you will have sole charge of the _Pall\nMall Gazette_.\n\nI was just a little startled and rather awed because, as Mr. Morley was\nthen in full command and there was no expectation on his part of\nabandoning his post, the inference which I immediately drew was that he\nwas going to die. So firmly was this impressed upon my mind that for two\nhours I did not like to speak about it to my wife. We took shelter for a\ntime from the rain, but afterwards, on going home, I spoke on the\nsubject which filled me with sadness, not without reluctance, and said\nto my wife, \"Something has happened to me which has made a great\nimpression upon my mind. When we were beside St. Catherine's Lighthouse\nI got into my head that Mr. Morley was going to die.\" \"Nonsense,\" she\nsaid, \"what made you think that?\" \"Only this,\" said I, \"that I received\nan intimation as clear and unmistakable as that which I had when I was\ngoing to leave Darlington, that I had to look sharp and prepare for\ntaking the sole charge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ on March 16th\nnext. That is all, and I do not see how that is likely to happen unless\nMr. Morley is going to die.\" \"Nonsense,\" said my wife, \"he is not going\nto die; he is going to get into Parliament, that is what is going to\nhappen.\" \"Well,\" said I, \"that may be. Whether he dies or whether he\ngets into Parliament, the one thing certain to me is that I shall have\nsole charge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ next year, and I am so\nconvinced of that that when we return to London I shall make all my\nplans on the basis of that certainty.\" And so I did. I do not hedge and\nhesitate at burning my boats.\n\nAs soon as I arrived at the _Pall Mall Gazette_ office, I announced\nto Mr. Thompson, to Mr. Morley, and to Mr. Milner,[7] who was then on\nthe staff, that Mr. Morley was going to be in Parliament before March\nnext year, for I need hardly say that I never mentioned my first\nsinister intimation. I told Mr. Morley and the others exactly what had\nhappened, namely, that I had received notice to be ready to take sole\ncharge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ by March 16th next. They shrugged\ntheir shoulders, and Mr. Morley scouted the idea. He said he had almost\ngiven up the idea of entering Parliament, all preceding negotiations had\nfallen through, and he had come to the conclusion that he would stick to\nthe _Pall Mall Gazette_. I said that he might come to what\nconclusion he liked, the fact remained that he was going to go.\n\n        [7] Now Lord Milner.\n\nI remember having a talk at the time with Mr. Milner about it. I\nremarked that the worst of people having premonitions is that they\ncarefully hide up their prophecies until after the event, and then no\none believed in them. \"This time no one shall have the least doubt as to\nthe fact that I have had my premonition well in advance of the fact. It\nis now October. I have told everybody whom it concerns whom I know. If\nit happens not to come to pass I will never have faith in my\npremonitions any more, and you may chaff me as much as you please as to\nthe superstition. But if it turns up trumps, then please remember that I\nhave played doubles or quits and won.\"\n\nNobody at the office paid much attention to my vision, and a couple of\nmonths later Mr. Morley came to consult me as to some slight change\nwhich he proposed to make in the terms of his engagement which he was\nrenewing for another year. As this change affected me slightly he came,\nwith that courtesy and consideration which he always displayed in his\ndealings with his staff, to ask whether I should have any objection to\nthis alteration. As he was beginning to explain what this alteration\nwould be I interrupted him. \"Excuse me, Mr. Morley,\" said I, \"when will\nthis new arrangement come into effect?\" \"In May, I think,\" was the\nreply. \"Then,\" said I, \"you do not need to discuss it with me. I shall\nhave sole charge of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ before that time. You\nwill not be here then, you will be in Parliament.\" \"But,\" said Mr.\nMorley, \"that is only your idea. What I want to know is whether you\nagree to the changes which I propose to make and which will somewhat\naffect your work in the office?\" \"But,\" I replied, \"it is no use talking\nabout that matter to me. You will not be here, and I shall be carrying\non the _Pall Mall Gazette_; then what is the use of talking about\nit.\" Then Mr. Morley lifted his chin slightly in the air, and looking at\nme with somewhat natural disdain, he asked, \"And, pray, do you mean to\ntell me that I have not to make a business arrangement because you have\nhad a vision?\" \"Not at all,\" said I; \"you, of course, will make what\nbusiness arrangements you please,--I cannot expect you to govern your\nconduct by my vision;--but as I shall have charge of the paper it is no\nuse discussing the question with me. You can make what arrangements you\nplease so far as I am concerned. They are so much waste paper. I ask you\nnothing about the arrangement, because I know it will never come into\neffect so far as relates to my work on the paper.\" Finding that I was\nimpracticable, Mr. Morley left and concluded his arrangement without\nconsultation. One month later Mr. Ashton Dilke sickened with his fatal\nillness, and Mr. Morley was elected on February 24th, 1884, as Liberal\ncandidate for Newcastle-on-Tyne. I remember that when the news came to\nNorthumberland Street, the first remark which Mr. Thompson made was,\n\"Well, Stead's presentiment is coming right after all.\"\n\nI remember all through that contest, when the issue was for some time\nsomewhat in doubt, feeling quite certain that if Mr. Morley did not get\nin he would die, or he would find some other constituency. I had no\nvision as to the success of his candidature at Newcastle. The one thing\ncertain was that I was to have charge of the paper, and that he was to\nbe out of it. When he was elected the question came as to what should be\ndone? The control of the paper passed almost entirely into my hands at\nonce, and Mr. Morley would have left altogether on the day mentioned in\nmy vision, had not Mr. Thompson kindly interfered to secure me a holiday\nbefore saddling me with the sole responsibility. Mr. Morley, therefore,\nremained till midsummer; but his connection with the paper was very\nslight, parliamentary duties, as he understood them, being incompatible\nwith close day-to-day editing of an evening paper.\n\nHere, again, it could not possibly have been said that my premonition\nhad any share in bringing about its realisation. It was not known by Mr.\nAshton Dilke's most intimate friends in October that he would not be\nable to face another session. I did not even know that he was ill, and\nmy vision, so far from being based on any calculation of Mr. Morley's\nchances of securing a seat in Parliament, was quite independent of all\nelectoral changes. My vision, my message, my premonition, or whatever\nyou please to call it, was strictly limited to one point, Mr. Morley\nonly coming into it indirectly. I was to have charge of certain duties\nwhich necessitated his disappearance from Northumberland Street. Note\nalso that my message did not say that I was to be _editor_ of the\n_Pall Mall Gazette_ on Mr. Morley's departure, nor was I ever in\nstrict title editor of that paper. I edited it, but Mr. Yates Thompson\nwas nominally editor-in-chief, nor did I ever admit that I was editor\nuntil I was in the dock at the Old Bailey, when it would have been\ncowardly to have seemed to evade the responsibility of a position which\nI practically occupied, although, as a matter of fact, the post was\nnever really conferred upon me.\n\n\n_My Imprisonment._\n\nThe third instance which I will quote is even more remarkable, and\nentirely precluded any possibility of my premonition having any\ninfluence whatever in bringing about its realization. During what is\nknown as the Armstrong trial it became evident from the judge's ruling\nthat a conviction must necessarily follow. I was accused of having\nconspired to take Eliza Armstrong from her parents without their\nconsent. My defence was that her mother had sold the child through a\nneighbour for immoral purposes. I never alleged that the father had\nconsented, and the judge ruled with unmistakable emphasis that her\nmother's consent, even if proved, was not sufficient. Here I may\ninterpolate a remark to the effect that if Mrs. Armstrong had been asked\nto produce her marriage lines the sheet anchor of the prosecution would\nhave given way, for long after the trial it was discovered that from a\npoint of law Mr. Armstrong had no legal rights over Eliza, as she was\nborn out of wedlock. The council in the case, however, said we had no\nright to suggest this, however much we suspected it, unless we were\nprepared with evidence to justify the suggestion. As at that time we\ncould not find the register of marriage at Somerset House the question\nwas not put, and we were condemned largely on the false assumption that\nher father had legal rights as custodian of his daughter. And this, as\nit happened, was not the case. This, however, by the way.\n\nWhen the trial was drawing to a close, conviction being certain, the\nquestion was naturally discussed as to what the sentence would be. Many\nof my friends, including those actively engaged in the trial on both\nsides, were strongly of opinion that under the circumstances it was\ncertain I should only be bound over in my own recognisance to come up\nfor judgment when called for. The circumstances were almost\nunprecedented; the judge, and the Attorney-General, who prosecuted, had\nin the strongest manner asserted that they recognised the excellence of\nthe motives which had led me to take the course which had landed me in\nthe dock. The Attorney-General himself was perfectly aware that his\nGovernment could never have passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act--would\nnever even have attempted to do so--but for what I had done. The jury\nhad found me guilty, but strongly recommended me to mercy on the ground,\nas they said, that I had been deceived by my agent. The conviction was\nvery general that no sentence of imprisonment would be inflicted.\n\nI was never a moment in doubt. I knew I was going to gaol from the\nmoment Rebecca Jarrett broke down in the witness-box. This may be said\nto be nothing extraordinary; but what was extraordinary was that I had\nthe most absolute conviction that I was going to gaol for two months. I\nwas told by those who considered themselves in a position to speak with\nauthority that I was perfectly safe, that I should not be imprisoned,\nand that I should make preparations to go abroad for a holiday as soon\nas the trial was over.\n\nTo all such representations I always replied by asserting with the most\nimplicit confidence that I was certain to go to gaol, and that my\nsentence would be two months. When, however, on November, 10th, 1885, I\nstood in the dock to receive sentence, and received from the judge a\nsentence of three months, I was very considerably taken aback. I\nremember distinctly that I had to remember where I was in order to\nrestrain the almost irresistible impulse to interrupt the judge and say,\n\"I beg your pardon, my lord, you have made a mistake, the sentence ought\nto have been _two_ months.\" But mark what followed. When I had been\nduly confined in Coldbath-on-the-Fields Prison, I looked at the little\ncard which is fastened on the door of every cell giving the name of the\nprisoner, his offence, and the duration of his sentence. I found to my\ngreat relief that my presentiment had not been wrong after all. I had,\nit is true, been sentenced to three months' imprisonment, but the\nsentence was dated from the first day of the sessions. Our trial had\nbeen a very long one, and there had been other cases before it. The\nconsequence was that the judge's sentence was as near two months as he\npossibly could have passed. My actual sojourn in gaol was two months and\nseven days. Had he sentenced me to two months' imprisonment I should\nonly have been in gaol one month and seven days.\n\nThese three presentiments were quite unmistakable, and were not in the\nleast to be confounded with the ordinary uneasy forebodings which come\nand go like clouds in a summer sky. Of the premonitions which still\nremain unfulfilled I will say nothing, excepting that they govern my\naction, and more or less colour the whole of my life. No person can have\nhad three or four premonitions such as those which I have described\nwithout feeling that such premonitions are the only certainties of the\nfuture. They will be fulfilled, no matter how incredible they may\nappear; and amid the endless shifting circumstances of our life, these\nfixed points, towards which we are inevitably tending, help to give\nsteadiness to a career, and a feeling of security to which the majority\nof men are strangers.[8] Premonitions are distinct from dreams, although\nmany times they are communicated in sleep. Whether in the sleeping or\nwaking stage there are times when mortal men gain, as it were, chance\nglimpses behind the veil which conceals the future. Sometimes this\npremonition takes the shape of a deep indwelling consciousness, based\nnot on reason or on observation, that for us awaits some great work to\nbe done, which we know but dimly, but which is, nevertheless, the one\nreality of life.\n\n        [8] One of the premonitions referred to by my Father was\n        fulfilled on that fatal night in April, 1912, when the Titanic\n        struck an iceberg and sunk with 1,600 souls, and his life on\n        this plane ended.\n\n        He had known for years and stated the fact to many that he would\n        not die in his bed and that his \"passing\" would be sudden and\n        dramatic--that he would, as he put it, \"die in his boots.\"\n\n        As to the actual cause or place of his \"passing\" he had no\n        premonition--but rather inclined to the idea that he would be\n        kicked to death in the streets by an angry mob whilst defending\n        some unpopular cause.    E. W. Stead.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nWarnings Given in Dreams.\n\n\nIn my case each of my premonitions related to an important crisis in my\nlife, but often premonitions are of a very different nature. One which\nwas told me when I was in Glasgow came in a dream, but it is so peculiar\nthat it is worthy of mention in this connection. The Rev. William Ross,\nminister of the Church of Cowcaddens, in Glasgow, is a Highlander. On\nthe Sunday evening after I had addressed his congregation, the\nconversation turned on premonitions and second sight, and he told me the\nfollowing extraordinary dream:--When he was a lad, living in the\nHighlands, at a time when he had never seen a game of football, or knew\nanything about it, he awoke in the morning with a sharp pain in his\nankle. This pain, which was very acute, and which continued with him\nthroughout the whole day, was caused, he said, by an experience which he\nhad gone through in a dream. He found himself in a strange place and\nplaying at a game which he did not understand, and which resembled\nnothing that he had seen played among his native hills. He was running\nrapidly, carrying a big black thing in his arms, when suddenly another\nyouth ran at him and kicked him violently on the ankle, causing such\nintense pain that he woke. The pain, instead of passing away, as is\nusual when we happen anything in dreamland, was very acute, and he\ncontinued to feel it throughout the day.\n\nTime passed, and six months after his dream he found himself on the\nplaying fields at Edinburgh, engaged in his first game of football. He\nwas a long-legged country youth and a swift runner, and he soon found\nthat he could rush a goal better by taking the ball and carrying it than\nby kicking it. After having made one or two goals in this way, he was\nendeavouring to make a third, when, exactly as he had seen in his dream,\na player on the opposite side swooped upon him and kicked him heavily\nupon the ankle. The blow was so severe that he was confined to the house\nfor a fortnight. The whole scene was exactly that which he had witnessed\nin his dream. The playing fields, the game, the black round ball in his\narms, and finally the kick on the ankle. It would be difficult to\naccount for this on any ground of mere coincidence, the chances against\nit are so enormous. It is a very unusual thing for any one to suffer\nphysical pain in the waking state from incidents which take place in\ndreams.\n\n\n_A Premonition of a Bad Debt._\n\nWhen in Edinburgh I had the good fortune to meet a gentleman, who had\nheld an important position of trust in connection with the Indian\nrailways. Speaking on the subject of premonitions, he said that on two\noccasions he had had very curious premonitions of coming events in\ndreams. One was very trivial, the other more serious, but both are quite\ninexplicable on the theory of coincidence. The evidential value is\nenhanced by the fact that each time he mentioned his dreams to his wife\nbefore the realisation came about. I saw his wife and she confirmed his\nstories. The first was curious from its simplicity. A certain debtor\nowed Mr. T. an amount of some L30. One morning he woke up and informed\nhis wife that he had had a very disagreeable dream, to the effect that\nthe money would never be paid, and that all he would recover of the debt\nwas seven pounds odd shillings and sixpence. The number of shillings he\nhad forgotten, but he remembered distinctly the pounds and the sixpence.\nA few days later he received an intimation that something had gone wrong\nwith the debtor, and the total sum which he ultimately recovered was the\nexact amount which he had heard in his dream and had mentioned on the\nfollowing morning to his wife.\n\n\n_A Dream of Death._\n\nHis other dream was more curious. An acquaintance of his in India was\ncompelled to return home on furlough on account of the ill-health of his\nwife, and he agreed to let his bungalow to Mr. T. One morning Mr. T.\nwoke up and told his wife of what he had dreamt. He had gone to Lucknow\nrailway station to take possession of Mr. C's. bungalow, but when\nstepping on the platform the stationmaster had told him that Mr. C. was\ndead, and that he hoped it would not make any difficulties about the\nbungalow. So deeply impressed was he with the dream that he telegraphed\nto his friend C. to ask when he was going to start for England, feeling\nby no means sure that the reply telegram might not announce that he was\ndead. The telegram, however, came back in due course. Mr. C. stated that\nhe was going to leave on such and such a date. Reassured, therefore, Mr.\nT. dismissed the idea of the dream as a subjective delusion. At the\nappointed time he departed for Lucknow. When he alighted he was struck\nby the strange resemblance of the scene to that in his dream, and this\nwas further recalled to his mind when the stationmaster came up to him\nand said, not that Mr. C. was dead but that he was seriously ill, and\nthat he hoped it would not make any difference about the bungalow. Mr.\nT. began to be uneasy. The next morning, when he entered the office, his\nchief said to him, \"You will be very sorry to hear that Mr. C. died last\nnight.\" Mr. T. has never had any other hallucinations, nor has he any\ntheory to account for his dreams. All that he knows is that they\noccurred, and that in both cases what he saw was realised--in one case\nto the very letter, and in the other with a curious deviation which adds\nstrong confirmatory evidence to the _bona fides_ of the narrator.\nBoth stories are capable of ample verification if sufficient trouble\nwere taken, as the telegram in one case could be traced, the death\nproved, and in the other the receipt might probably be found.\n\nDreams which give timely notice of coming accidents are, unfortunately,\nquite as often useless as they are efficacious for the protection of\nthose to whom they are sent. Mr. Kendall, from whose psychical diary I\nhave often quoted, sends me the following story of a dream which\noccurred, but which failed to save the dreamer's leg, although he\nstruggled against it, and did his best to avert his evil fate:--\n\n\"Taking tea at a friend's house in the road where I live, I met with the\nRev. Mr. Johnson, superintendent of the South Shields Circuit among the\nPrimitive Methodists. He spoke with great confidence of the authenticity\nof a remarkable dream which he related. He used to reside at Shipley,\nnear Bradford. His class-leader there had lost a leg, and he had heard\ndirect from himself the circumstances under which the loss took place\nand the dream that accompanied. This class-leader was a blacksmith at a\nmanufacturing mill which was driven by a water-wheel. He knew the wheel\nto be out of repair, when one night he dreamed that at the close of the\nday's work the manager detained him to repair it, that his foot slipped\nand became entangled between the two wheels, and was injured and\nafterwards amputated. In consequence he told his wife the dream in the\nmorning, and made up his mind to be out of the way that evening, if he\nwas wanted to repair the wheel. During the day the manager announced\nthat the wheel must be repaired when the workpeople left that evening,\nbut the blacksmith determined to make himself scarce before the hour\narrived. He fled to a wood in the vicinity, and thought to hide himself\nthere in its recesses. He came to a spot where some timber lay which\nbelonged to the mill, and detected a lad stealing some pieces of wood\nfrom the heap. He pursued him in order to rescue the stolen property,\nbecame excited, and forgot all about his resolution. He found himself\nere he was aware of it back at the mill just as the workpeople were\nbeing dismissed. He could not escape, and as he was principal smith he\nhad to go upon the wheel, but he resolved to be very careful. In spite\nof his care, however, his foot slipped and got entangled between the two\nwheels just as he had dreamed. It was crushed so badly that he had to be\ncarried to the Bradford Infirmary, where the leg was amputated above the\nknee. The premonitory dream was thus fulfilled throughout.\"\n\n\n_A Death Warning._\n\nA much more painful story and far more detailed is contained in the\nfifth volume of the \"Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society,\" on\nthe authority of C. F. Fleet, of 26, Grosvenor Road, Gainsborough. He\nswears to the authenticity of the facts. The detailed story is full of\nthe tragic fascination which attaches to the struggle of a brave man,\nrepeatedly warned of his coming death, struggling in vain to avert the\nevent which was to prove fatal, and ultimately perishing within the\nsight of those to whom he had revealed the vision. The story in brief is\nas follows: Mr. Fleet was third mate on the sailing ship _Persian\nEmpire_, which left Adelaide for London in 1868. One of the crew,\nCleary by name, dreamed before starting that on Christmas morning, as\nthe _Persian Empire_ was passing Cape Horn in a heavy gale, he was\nordered, with the rest of his watch, to secure a boat hanging in davits\nover the side. He and another got into the boat, when a fearful sea\nbroke over the ship, washing them both out of the boat into the sea,\nwhere they were both drowned. The dream made such an impression upon him\nthat he was most reluctant to join the ship, but he overcame his\nscruples and sailed. On Christmas Eve, when they were nearing Cape Horn,\nCleary had a repetition of his dream, exact in all particulars. He\nuttered a terrible cry, and kept muttering, \"I know it will come true.\"\nOn Christmas Day, exactly as he had foreseen, Cleary and the rest of the\nwatch were ordered to secure a boat hanging in the davits. Cleary flatly\nrefused. He said he refused because he knew he would be drowned, that\nall the circumstances of his dream had come true up to that moment, and\nif he went into that boat he would die. He was taken below to the\ncaptain, and his refusal to discharge duty was entered in the log. Then\nthe chief officer, Douglas, took the pen to sign his name. Cleary\nsuddenly looked at him and exclaimed, \"I will go to my duty for now I\nknow the other man in my dream.\" He told Douglas, as they were on deck,\nof his dream. They got into the boat, and when they were all making\ntight a heavy sea struck the vessel with such force that the crew would\nhave been washed overboard had they not clung to the mast. The boat was\nturned over, and Douglas and Cleary were flung into the sea. They swam\nfor a little time, and then went down. It was just three months after he\nhad dreamed of it before leaving Adelaide.\n\nHere we have inexorable destiny fulfilling itself in spite of the\nstruggles of its destined victim. It reminds me of a well-known Oriental\nstory, which tells how a friend who was with Solomon saw the Angel of\nDeath looking at him very intently. On learning from Solomon whom the\nstrange visitor was, he felt very uncomfortable under his gaze, and\nasked Solomon to transport him on his magic carpet to Damascus. No\nsooner said than done. Then said the Angel of Death to Solomon, \"The\nreason why I looked so intently at your friend was because I had orders\nto take him at Damascus, and, behold, I found him at Jerusalem. Now,\ntherefore, that he has transported himself thither I shall be able to\nobey my orders.\"\n\n\n_A Life Saved by a Dream._\n\nThe Rev. Alexander Stewart, LL.D., F.S.A., etc., Nether Lochaber, sends\nme the following instance of a profitable premonition:--\n\n\"It was in the winter of 1853 that my brother-in-law, Mr. Kenneth\nMorrison, came on a visit to us here at the Manse of Nether Lochaber.\nMr. Morrison was at that time chief officer of the steamship _City of\nManchester_, of the Inman line, one of the ocean 'greyhounds' of her\nday, sailing between Liverpool and Philadelphia.\n\n\"In my service here, at the time of Mr. Morrison's visit, was a native\nof Lochaber, Angus MacMaster by name, an active, intelligent man, of\nabout thirty years of age, a most useful man, a capital shot, an expert\nangler, and one of the best violinists in the West Highlands. No great\nwonder, therefore, that Morrison took a liking for Angus, and that the\nend of it was that Morrison invited Angus to join him on board the\n_City of Manchester_, where, it was arranged, he should act as one\nof the steerage stewards, and, at the same time, as Mr. Morrison's\nvalet. To this Angus very willingly agreed, and so it was that when Mr.\nMorrison's leave of absence expired, he and Angus joined the _City of\nManchester_ at Liverpool.\n\n\"Within a twelvemonth afterwards, Mr. Morrison wrote to say that he was\nabout to be promoted to the command of the new Inman Steamship _City\nof Glasgow_--at that time, of her class and kind, the finest ship\nafloat--and that having got a few weeks' holiday, he was coming down to\nvisit his friends in Lochaber, bringing Angus MacMaster along with him,\nfor he had proved so good and faithful a servant that he was resolved\nnot to part with him.\n\n\"Sooner than was expected, and when his leave had only extended to some\ntwenty days, Captain Morrison was summoned to Liverpool to take charge\nof his ship, which had already booked her full complement of passengers,\nand taken in most of her cargo, and only required some little putting to\nrights, which had better be done under her commander's supervision,\nbefore she sailed on her maiden trip to Philadelphia. 'I must be off the\nday after to-morrow,' said Morrison, as he handed the letter to me\nacross the table. 'Please send for Angus,' he continued, 'I wish him to\ncome at once, that we may be ready to start by Wednesday morning.' This\nwas at the breakfast table on a Monday morning; and that same evening\nAngus, summoned by a special messenger from the glen in which he was\nstaying with his friends, arrived at the Manse, but in so grave and\ncheerless a mood that I noticed it at once, and wondered what could be\nthe matter with him. Taking him into a private room, I said, 'Angus,\nCaptain Morrison leaves the day after to-morrow. You had better get his\nthings packed at once. And, by the way, what a lucky fellow you are! If\nyou did so well on the _City of Manchester_, you will in a year or two\nmake quite a fortune in the _City of Glasgow_.' To my astonishment Angus\nreplied, 'I am not going in the _City of Glasgow_--at least, not on this\nvoyage--and I wish you could persuade Captain Morrison--the best and\nkindest master ever man had--not to go either.' 'Not going? What in the\nworld do you mean, Angus?' was my very natural exclamation of surprise.\n'Well, sir,' said Angus (the reader will please understand that our talk\nwas in Gaelic). 'Well, sir,' said Angus, 'You must not be angry with me\nif I tell you that on the last three nights my father, who has been dead\nnine years, as you know, has appeared to me and warned me not to go on\nthis voyage, for that it will prove disastrous. Whether in dream or\nwaking vision of the night, I cannot say; but I saw him, sir, as\ndistinctly as I now see you; clothed exactly as I remember him in life;\nand he stood by my bedside, and with up-lifted hand and warning finger,\nand with a most solemn and earnest expression of countenance, he said,\n\"Angus, my beloved son, don't go on this voyage. It will not be a\nprosperous one.\" On three nights running has my father appeared to me in\nthis form, and with the same words of warning; and although much against\nmy will, I have made up my mind that in the face of such warning, thrice\nrepeated, it would be wrong in me to go on this voyage. It does not\nbecome me to do it, but I wish you, sir, would tell Captain Morrison\nwhat I have now told you; and persuade him if possible to make the best\nexcuse he can, and on no account to go on this voyage in the _City of\nGlasgow_.' I said all I could, of course, and when Captain Morrison was\ntold of it, he, too, said all he could to shake Angus from his\nresolution; but all in vain. And so it was that Morrison left without\nhim; poor Angus actually weeping as he bade his master good-bye.\n\n\"Early in March of that year, the _City of Glasgow_, with a valuable\ncargo and upwards of five hundred passengers on board, sailed under\nMorrison's command for Philadelphia; and all that was good and\nprosperous was confidently predicted of the voyage of so fine a ship\nunder charge of so capable a commander. When sufficient time had\nexpired, and there was still no word of the ship's arrival at\nPhiladelphia, Angus came to enquire if we had heard anything about her.\nI could only reply that there was as yet no word of her, but that the\nowners, in reply to my inquiries, were confident of her safety--their\ntheory being that something had gone wrong with her engines, and that\nshe was probably proceeding under sail. 'Pray God it may be so!' said\nAngus, with the tears in his eyes; and then in his own emphatic\nlanguage--_ach s'eagal leam, aon chuid dhuibhse na dhomhsa nach tig fios\nna forfhais oiree gu brath_--(but great is my fear that neither to you,\nsir, nor to me shall word of her safety, or message from her at all ever\narrive). And it was even so: from the day she left the Mersey until this\nday no word of the _City of Glasgow_ has ever been heard. It was the\nopinion of those best able to offer a probable conjecture at the time,\nthat she must have come into contact with an iceberg, and instantly gone\ndown with all on board.\n\n\"I may add that Angus was a Catholic, and that Father Macdonald, his\npriest, told me shortly afterwards that Angus, before my messenger\ncalling him to the Manse could have reached him, had communicated the\nthrice-repeated dream or vision to him in confession, and precisely in\nthe same terms he used in describing it to me. When no hope of the\nsafety of the _City of Glasgow_ could any longer be entertained, Angus\nemigrated to Australia, whence after the lapse of several years, he\nwrote me to say that he was well and doing well. Whether he is still in\nlife, or gone over to the majority, I do not know.\"\n\n\n_A Highlander's Dream of his Drowning._\n\nAnother story, which was sent me by my old friend the housekeeper of the\nHon. Auberon Herbert's Highland retreat on the shores of Loch Awe, is an\nawful tale of destiny, the premonition of which only renders it more\ntragic.\n\nThey were all sitting round the fire one winter night each relating his\nbest story. Each had told his story of the most wonderful things he had\nheard or seen in the Ghost line except Martin Barraw from Uist who sat\nsilently listening to all.\n\n\"Come, Martin,\" said the man of the house \"are you not going to tell a\nstory, I am sure you know many?\"\n\n\"Well yes,\" said Martin. \"I know some and there is one strange one,\nrunning in my mind all this night, that I have never told to anyone yet,\nbut I think I must tell it to-night.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, do, Martin,\" cried all present.\n\n\"Well,\" said Martin, \"you all I am sure remember the night of the fatal\nboat accident at Portroch ferry, when Murdoch McLane, big David the\nGamekeeper, and Donald McRae, the ferryman were drowned and I was the\nonly one saved of the four.\"\n\n\"Yes we do that Martin, remember it well,\" said the good man, \"that was\nthe night the Taybridge was blown down, it was a Sunday night the 28th\nof Dec. '79.\"\n\n\"Yes you are right that was the very night. Well you know Murdoch and I\nwere Salmon watching down the other side of the Loch that winter. Well\none night about the middle of November we were sitting by the side of\nAltanlarich, it would be about midnight, we had sat for some time\nwithout speaking I thought Murdoch was asleep and I was very nearly so,\nwhen suddenly Murdoch sprung to his feet with a jump that brought me to\nmine in a second.\n\n\"Goodness what is wrong with you,\" said I, looking round in every\ndirection to see what startled him but could see nothing.\n\n\"'O dear, dear! what a horrid dream I have had,' said he. 'A dream,'\nsaid I. 'My' I thought you had seen a ghost or something by the spring\nyou gave.'\n\n\"'Well! you would spring too if you could and you drowning.' Then he\ntold me that he thought it was the 28th of December and there was such a\nstorm he had never seen anything like it in his life before. 'We were\ncrossing the loch at the ferry,' said he. 'We had the big white boat and\nfour oars on her. Big David the keeper Donald the ferryman you and I.\nAnd man but it was awful. The boat right up on end at times every wave\nwashing over us and filling the boat more and more, and no way of\nbailing her, because no one could let go his oar, you and I were on the\nweather side, and Big David and Donald on the other, they of course had\nthe worst of it, we got on until we were near the other side, the waves\nwere getting bigger and the boat getting heavier, we were going to run\nfor the creek, when she was struck by a huge wave that filled her up to\nthe seats and sent David and Donald on their backs, they lost their\noars, and the next wave came right over her and down she went. The other\ntwo never were seen, you and I came up and tried to swim to the shore,\nyou got near enough to catch a rope that was thrown you, but I could not\nget through the tremendous waves and was just going down when I awoke\nwith such a start.'\n\n\"'My what a frightful dream,' said I. 'I should not like to have such a\ndream although I do not believe in dreams or Ghosts or these things it\nwas the rain falling on your face did it.'\n\n\"'Well! maybe it was' said he, but all the same I could see he was\nthinking a good deal about it all night, although I tried to laugh him\nout of it. Well time passed until about the beginning of December there\nwas heavy rain. Murdoch went home to see his wife and family as all the\nrivers were flooded and there was no need of watching. He was on his way\nback to his work on the evening of the next day, when he got to the\nferry, it was raining and blowing like to blow the breeks off a Hieland\nman as they say. 'Dear me Murdoch,' said Donald the ferryman, 'you\nsurely, don't mean to go out to-night.'\n\n\"'It is very stormy,' said Murdoch, 'if you would be so kind as come\nover for me at six o'clock in the morning I would go home again I must\nbe down passed the Governor's before he gets up you know.'\n\n\"'Oh! I'll do that for you Murdoch,' said Donald. So Murdoch went home\nagain that night and next morning by six o'clock he was at the ferry\nagain. 'Well done, Donald. You are a man of your word,' said he, as he\nsaw what he thought was Donald on the pier waiting him with his boat\nalong side,--the morning was calm and fair though pretty dark, he\nthought it strange Donald did not answer him, but hurrying down the pier\nwas about to step into the boat, when he felt someone strike him a\nviolent blow on the ear with the open hand. Looking sharply round he was\nastonished to find no one near, but he thought as he turned round he had\nseen a dark shadow disappear in the distance.\n\n\"'God be with us,' said he, turning to Donald, 'what was that?' He was\nhorror struck to see a most hideous object for what he had taken to be\nDonald, glaring at him with eyes of fire. 'God have mercy on my soul,'\nsaid he, as he turned to run, but he had no sooner done so than he was\nseized by a grasp of iron and pressed down towards the boat, then began\na struggle for life. He wrestled and struggled with all his strength and\nyou know he was a very strong man, but he could do nothing in the iron\ngrasp of his foe, and that foe a mere shadow, he was surely and steadily\nforced towards the boat, he was being forced over the side of the pier\nand into the boat through which he could see the waves rolling quite\nclearly, it was a mere shadow also.\n\n\"'Oh God help me,' he cried from the depth of his heart as he gave\nhimself up for lost. Suddenly as though forced by some unseen power the\ngrasp that held him ceased and Murdoch fell back upon the pier\nunconscious.\n\n\"How long he lay he could not say, but it was Donald throwing water in\nhis face that brought him round, they went into the Hotel where the\npeople were just getting up, and he got a glass of brandy to steady his\nnerves, and after a short time they started and Murdoch got back to his\nwork sometime during the day, where he told me the whole affair.\n\n\"Poor Murdoch was much changed after that, for the few days that he\nlived you could easily see the thing was pressing upon his mind a good\ndeal.\n\n\"I need not tell you of the boat accident, you all know that well enough\nalready, how Murdoch's dream became true even to the very letter. Mr.\nRoss the Minister was preaching in the little church up here we went to\nput him across the Loch and it was while coming back that we were caught\nin the storm and the boat was swamped. Big David and Donald never were\nseen. Murdoch and I tried to swim to the shore but he only got a short\nway when he also sank and was drowned. I got near enough to catch a rope\nthat they threw out to me and they pulled me in although I was just\nabout dead too.\"\n\nThere are many cases of this unavailing warning. Mr. T. A. Hamilton, of\nRyedale Terrace, Maxwelltown, Dumfries, writes:--\n\n\"Thirty years ago I had the misfortune to lose my right eye under\npeculiar circumstances, and the night previous to the day on which it\nhappened my sister dreamt that it had happened under precisely the same\ncircumstances to which it did, and related her dream to the household\nbefore it had occurred. The distance between the scene of the accident\nand the house in which she slept was eight miles.\"\n\n\n_How a Betting Man was Converted._\n\nOne of the most interesting cases of premonitions occurring in a dream\nis that which I have received from the Rev. Mr. Champness, who is very\nwell known in the Wesleyan denomination, and whose reputation for\nsterling philanthropy and fervent evangelical Christianity is much wider\nthan his denomination. Here is the story, as Mr. Champness sends it\nme:--\n\n\"Some years ago, when working as an Evangelist, it was arranged that I\nshould conduct a Mission in a town which I had never visited before, and\nwhere, so far as I remember, I did not know a single person, though I\nought to say I was very much interested in what I had heard about the\nplace, and had been led to think with some anxiety about the Mission. It\nwould appear that on the Saturday night preceding the Mission a man in\nthe town dreamed that he was standing opposite the chapel where the\nMission was to be held, and that while he was standing there watching\nthe people leave the chapel, a minister, whom he had never seen before,\ncame up to him and spoke to him with great earnestness about religious\nmatters. He was so much impressed by the dream that he awoke his wife,\nand told her how excited he was. On the Sunday morning he went to the\nchapel, and greatly to his astonishment, when I came into the pulpit he\nsaw that I was the man whom he had seen in his dream. I need not say\nthat he was very much impressed, and took notice of everything that the\npreacher said and did. When he got home he reminded his wife of the\ndream he had had, and said, 'The man I saw in my dream was the preacher\nthis morning, and preaches again to-night.' This interested his wife so\nmuch that she went to chapel with him in the evening. He attended on\nMonday and Tuesday evenings. On the Tuesday evening after the service he\nwaited outside the chapel. To his great surprise, when I came out of the\nchapel I walked straight up to him, and spoke to him energetically, just\nas he had seen on the Saturday night. The whole thing was gone over\nagain in reality, just as it had been done in the vision. On the\nWednesday evening he was there again, and I remonstrated with those who\nhad not yielded to the claims of Jesus Christ. I pushed them very hard,\nand was led to say, without premeditation, 'What hinders you? Why do you\nnot yield yourself to Christ? Have you something on a horse?' Strange to\nsay, there was a race to be run next day, and he had backed the\nfavourite, and stood to win 8 to 1. As he said afterwards, 'I could not\nlug a racehorse to the penitent form.' After the service, he went\nstraight to the man with whom he had made the bet, and said, 'That bet's\noff,' at which the man was very glad, as he expected to lose the bet.\nSure enough, when the race was run the one that had been backed did win,\nbut he had given up any intention of winning money in that way, and that\nnight decided to become a Christian. He has since then died, and I have\ngood hope of seeing him in the country where we may perhaps understand\nthese things better than we do now.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter III.\n\nPremonitory Warnings.\n\n\nOne of the most curiously detailed premonitory dreams that I have ever\nseen is one mentioned in Mr. Kendall's \"Strange Footsteps.\" It is\nsupplied by the Rev. Mr. Lupton, Primitive Methodist minister, a man of\nhigh standing in his Connection, whose mind is much more that of the\nlawyer than that of poet or dreamer:--\n\n\"By the District Meeting (Hull District) of 1833, I was restationed for\nthe Malton Circuit, with the late Rev. T. Batty. I was then\nsuperintendent of the Lincoln Circuit; and, up to a few days before the\nchange, Mrs. Lupton and myself were full of anticipation of the\npleasures we should enjoy among our old friends on being so much nearer\nhome. But some time before we got the news of our destination, one\nnight--I cannot now give the date, but it was during the sittings of the\nConference--I had a dream, and next morning I said to my wife, 'We shall\nnot go to Malton, as we expect, but to some large town: I do not know\nits name, but it is a very large town. The house we shall occupy is up a\nflight of stairs, three stories high. We shall have three rooms on one\nlevel: the first--the kitchen--will have a closed bed in the right\ncorner, a large wooden box in another corner, and the window will look\ndown upon a small grass plot. The room adjoining will be the best room:\nit will have a dark carpet, with six hair-seated mahogany chairs. The\nother will be a small bed-room. We shall not worship in a chapel, but in\na large hall, which will be formed like a gallery. There will be a\npulpit in it, and a large circular table before it. The entrance to it\nwill be by a flight of stairs, like those in a church tower. After we\nhave ascended so far, the stairs will divide--one way leading up to the\nleft, to the top of the place. This will be the principal entrance, and\nit leads to the top of the gallery, which is entered by a door covered\nwith green baize fastened with brass nails. The other stairs lead to the\nfloor of the place; and, between the door and the hall, on the\nright-hand side, in a corner, is a little room or vestry: in that vestry\nthere will be three men accustomed to meet that will cause us much\ntrouble; but I shall know them as soon as ever I see them, and we shall\nultimately overcome them, and do well.'\n\n\"By reason of some mishap or misadventure, the letter from Conference\nwas delayed, so that only some week or ten days prior to the change I\ngot a letter that informed me my station was Glasgow. You may judge our\nsurprise and great disappointment; however, after much pain for mind,\nand much fatigue of body and expense (for there were no railways then,\nand coaching was coaching in those days), we arrived at No. 6, Rotten\nRow, Glasgow, on the Saturday, about half-past three. To our surprise we\nfound the entrance to our house up a flight of stairs (called in\nScotland _turnpike stairs_) such as I saw in my dream. The house\nwas three stories high also, and when we entered the kitchen door, lo,\nthere was the closed bed, and there the box (in Scotland called a\n_bunker_). I said to Mrs. Lupton, 'Look out of the window,' and she\nsaid, 'Here is the plot of grass.' I then said, 'Look into the other\nrooms,' and she replied, 'Yes, they are as you said.' My colleague, Mr.\nJ. Johnson, said, 'We preach in the Mechanics' Institution Hall, North\nHanover Street, George Street, and you will have to preach there in the\nmorning.' Well, morning came; and, accompanied by Mr. Johnson, I found\nthe place. The entrance was as I had seen in my dream. But we entered\nthe hall by the right; there was the little room in the corner. We\nentered it, and one of the men I had seen in my dream, J. M'M----, was\nstanding in it. We next entered the hall; there was the pulpit and the\ncircular table before it. The hall was galleried to the top; and, lo,\nthe entrance door at the top was covered with green baize and brass\nnails. Only one man was seated, J. P----; he was another of the men I\nsaw in my dream. I did not wait long before J. Y----, the other man,\nentered. My dream was thus so far fulfilled. Well, we soon had very\nlarge, overflowing congregations. The three men above named got into\nloose, dissipated habits; and, intriguing for some months, caused us\nvery much trouble, seeking, in conjunction with my colleague, to form a\ndivision and make a party and church for him. But, by God's help, their\nschemes were frustrated, and I left the station in a healthy and\nprosperous state.\"\n\nMrs. Dean, of 44, Oxford Street, writes as follows:--\n\n\"Early this summer, in sleep, I saw my mother very ill in agony, and\nwoke, repeating the words, 'Mother is dying.' I looked anxiously for a\nletter in the morning, but no sign of one; and to several at breakfast I\ntold my dream, and still felt anxious as the day wore on. In the\nafternoon, about three o'clock, a telegram came, saying, 'Mother a\nlittle better; wait another wire.' About an hour afterwards came a\nletter with a cheque enclosed for my fare, urging me to come home at\nonce, 'for mother, we fear, is dying.' My mother recovered; but upon\ngoing home a short time after, I saw my mother just as she then was at\nthat time, and my stepfather used the words just as I received\nthem--'Mother is dying.' They live in Liverpool, and I am in London.\"\n\nThe following is from the diary of the Rev. Henry Kendall, from which I\nhave frequently quoted:--\n\n\"Mr. Marley related this evening a curious incident that occurred to\nhimself long ago. When he was a young man at home with his parents,\nresiding at Aycliffe, he was lying wide awake one morning at early dawn\nin the height of summer when his father came into his bedroom dressed\njust as he was accustomed to dress--red waistcoat, etc.--but with the\naddition of a tasselled nightcap which he sometimes kept on during the\nday. His father had been ailing for some time, and said to him,\n'Crawford, I want you to make me a promise before I die.' His son\nreplied, 'I will, father; what is it?' 'That you will take care of your\nmother.' 'Father, I promise you.' 'Then,' said the father, 'I can die\nhappy,' and went out at the window. This struck Mr. M. as an exceedingly\nodd thing; he got out of bed and looked about the room and satisfied\nhimself that he had made no mistake, but that he had really talked with\nhis father and seen him go out at the window. In the morning, when he\nentered his father's room, the first words he heard were, 'Crawford, I\nwant you to make me a promise before I die.' Mr. M. replied, 'Father, I\nwill; what is it?' 'That you will take care of your mother.' 'Father, I\npromise you.' 'Then I can die happy.' Thus the conversation that took\nplace during the night under such singular circumstances was repeated\nverbatim in the morning; and while it implied that the father had been\npreviously brooding over the subject of his wife's comfort after he\nshould be taken away, it also supplied important evidence that the\nstrange affair of the night was not mere imagination on the part of the\nson. The father died soon afterwards.\"\n\n\n_A Spectral Postman._\n\nOf a somewhat similar nature, although in this case it was visible and\nnot audible, is that told me by the Rev. J. A. Dalane, of West\nHartlepool, who, on August 14th, 1886, about three o'clock in the\nmorning, saw a hand very distinctly, as in daylight, holding a letter\naddressed in the handwriting of an eminent Swedish divine. Both the hand\nand the letter appeared very distinctly for the space of about two\nminutes. Then he saw a similar hand holding a sheet of foolscap paper on\nwhich he saw some writing, which he, however, was not able to read.\nAfter a few minutes this gradually faded and vanished away. This was\nrepeated three different times. As soon as it had disappeared the third\ntime he got up, lighted the gas, and wrote down the facts. Six hours\nafterwards, at nine o'clock, the post brought a letter which in every\nparticular corresponded to the spectral letter which had been three\ntimes shown to him in the early morning.\n\n\n_An Examination Paper Seen in Dream._\n\nThe Rev. D. Morris, chaplain of Walton Gaol, near Liverpool, had a\nsimilar, although more useful experience, as follows:--\n\n\"In December, 1853, I sat for a schoolmaster's certificate at an\nexamination held in the Normal College, Cheltenham. The questions in the\nvarious subjects were arranged in sections according to their value, and\nprinted on the margin of stiff blue-coloured foolscap, to which the\nanswers were limited. It had been the custom at similar examinations in\nprevious years for the presiding examiners to announce beforehand the\ndaily subjects of examinations, but on this occasion the usual notice\nwas omitted.\n\n\"After sitting all day on Monday, my brain was further excited by\nanxious guessings of the morrow's subjects, and perusals of my\nnote-books. That night I had little restful sleep, for I dreamt that I\nwas busy at work in the examination hall, I had in my dream vividly\nbefore me the Geometry (Euclid) paper. I was so impressed with what I\nhad seen that I told my intimate friends to get up the bottom question\nin each section (that being the bearer of most marks), and, it is\nneedless to say, I did the same myself. When the geometry paper was\ndistributed in the hall by the examiners, to my wonder it was really in\nevery respect, questions and sections, the paper that I had seen in my\ndream on the Monday night.\n\n\"Nothing similar to it happened to me before or since. The above fact\nhas never been recorded in any publication.\"\n\n\n_Forebodings and Dreams._\n\nAn instance in which a dream was useful in preventing an impending\ncatastrophe is recorded of a daughter of Mrs. Rutherford, the\ngranddaughter of Sir Walter Scott. This lady dreamed more than once that\nher mother had been murdered by a black servant. She was so much upset\nby this that she returned home, and to her great astonishment, and not a\nlittle to her dismay, she met on entering the house the very black\nservant she had met in her dream. He had been engaged in her absence.\nShe prevailed upon a gentleman to watch in an adjoining room during the\nfollowing night. About three o'clock in the morning the gentleman\nhearing footsteps on the stairs, came out and met the servant carrying a\nquantity of coals. Being questioned as to where he was going, he\nanswered confusedly that he was going to mend the mistress's fire, which\nat three o'clock in the morning in the middle of summer was evidently\nimpossible. On further investigation, a strong knife was found hidden in\nthe coals. The lady escaped, but the man was subsequently hanged for\nmurder, and before his execution he confessed that he intended to have\nassassinated Mrs. Rutherford.\n\nA correspondent in Dalston sends me an account of an experience which\nbefell him in 1871, when a lady strongly advised him against going from\nLiverpool to a place near Wigan, where he had an appointment on a\ncertain day. As he could not put off the appointment, she implored him\nnot to go by the first train. In deference to her foreboding, he went by\nthe third train, and on arriving at his destination found that the first\ntrain had been thrown off the line and had rolled down an embankment\ninto the fields below. The warning in this case, he thinks, probably\nsaved his life.\n\nAnother correspondent, Mr. A. N. Browne, of 19, Wellington Avenue,\nLiverpool, communicates another instance of a premonitory dream, which\nunfortunately did not avail to prevent the disaster:\n\n\"My sister-in-law was complaining to me on a warm August day, in 1882,\nof being out of sorts, upset and altogether depressed. I took her a bit\nto task, asked her why she was depressed, and elicited that she was\ntroubled by dreaming the preceding night that her son Frank, who was\nspending his holidays with his uncle near Preston, was drowned. Of\ncourse I ridiculed the idea of a dream troubling any one. But she only\nanswered that her dreams often proved more than mere sleep-disturbers.\nThat was told to me at 2 p.m. or about. At 6.30 we dined, and all\nthought of the dream had vanished out of my mind and my sister-in-law\nseemed to have overcome her depression. We were sitting in the\ndrawing-room, say 8 p.m., when a telegram arrived. My sister-in-law\nreceived it, turned to her husband and said, 'It is for you, Tom.' He\nopened it and cried, 'My God! My God!' and fell into a chair. My\nsister-in-law snatched the telegram from her husband, looked at it,\nscreamed, and fell prostrate. I in turn took the telegram, and read,\n'Frank fell in the river here to-day, and was drowned.' It was a\ntelegram from the youth's uncle, with whom he had been staying.\"\n\nDr. H. Grosvenor Shaw, M.R.C.S., medical officer to one of the asylums\nunder the London County Council, sends me the following brief but\nstriking story, which bears upon the subject under discussion:--\n\n\"Four men were playing whist. The man dealing stopped to drink, and\nwhilst drinking the man next to him poked him in the side, telling him\nto hurry up. Some of the fluid he was drinking entered the larynx, and\nbefore he could recover his breath he fell back, hitting his head\nagainst the door post, and lay on the ground stunned for something under\na minute. When he came to he was naturally dazed, and for the moment\nsurprised at his surroundings. He said he had been at the bedside of his\nfriend--mentioning his name--who was dying. The next morning a telegram\ncame to say the friend was dead, and he died, it was ascertained at the\nexact time the accident at the card table took place. I would remark the\ndead man had been enjoying perfect health, and no one had received any\ninformation that he was ill, which illness was sudden.\"\n\n\n_A Vision of Coming Death._\n\nOne familiar and very uncanny form of premonition, or of foreseeing, is\nthat in which a coffin is seen before the death of some member of the\nhousehold. The following narrative is communicated to me by Mrs. Crofts,\nof 22, Blurton Road, Clapton. She is quite clear that she actually saw\nwhat she describes:--\n\n\"A week prior to the death of my husband, when he and I had retired to\nrest, I lay for a long while endeavouring to go to sleep, but failed;\nand after tossing about for some time I sat up in bed, and having sat\nthus for some time was surprised to see the front door open, I could see\nthe door plainly from where I was, our bedroom door being always kept\nopen. I was astonished but not afraid when, immediately after the door\nopened, two men entered bearing a coffin which they carried upstairs,\nright into the room where I was, and laid it down on the hearth-rug by\nthe side of the bed, and then went away shutting the front door after\nthem. I was of course somewhat troubled over the matter, and mentioned\nit to my husband when having breakfast the following morning. He\ninsisted that I had been dreaming, and I did not again let the matter\ntrouble my mind. A week that day my husband died very suddenly. I was\nengaged in one of the rooms upstairs the evening afterwards, when a\nknock came to the door, which was answered by my mother, and I did not\ntake any notice until I heard the footsteps of those coming up the\nstairs, when I looked out, and lo! I beheld the two men whom I had seen\nbut a week previously carry and put the coffin in exactly the same place\nthat they had done on their previous visit. I cannot describe to you my\nfeelings, but from that time until the present I am convinced that, call\nthem what you like--apparitions, ghosts, or forewarnings--they are a\nreality.\"\n\n\n_Profitable Premonitions._\n\nThere are, however, cases in which a premonition has been useful to\nthose who have received timely warning of disaster. The ill-fated\n_Pegasus_, that went down carrying with it the well-known Rev. J.\nMorell Mackenzie, an uncle of the well-known physician, who preserves a\nportrait of the distinguished divine among his heirlooms, is associated\nwith a premonition which saved the life of a lady and her cousin, the\nwives of two Church of England ministers. They had intended to sail in\nthe _Pegasus_ on Wednesday, but a mysterious and unaccountable\nimpression compelled one of the ladies to insist that they should leave\non the Saturday. They had just time to get on board, and so escaped\ngoing by the _Pegasus_ which sailed on the following Wednesday and\nwas wrecked, only two on board being saved.\n\nLike to this story, in so far as it records her avoidance of an accident\nby the warning of a dream, but fortunately not resembling it in its more\nghostly detail, is the story told in Mrs. Sidgwick's paper on the\nEvidence for Premonitions, on the authority of Mrs. Raey, of 99, Holland\nRoad, Kensington. She dreamed that she was driving from Mortlake to\nRoehampton. She was upset in her carriage close to her sister's house.\nShe forgot about her dream, and drove in her carriage from Mortlake to\nher sister's house. But just as they were driving up the lane the horse\nbecame very restive. Three times the groom had to get down to see what\nwas the matter, but the third time the dream suddenly occurred to her\nmemory. She got out and insisted on walking to the house. He drove off\nby himself, the horse became unmanageable, and in a few moments she came\nupon carriage, horse, and groom, all in a confused mass, just as she had\nseen the night before, but not in the same spot. But for the dream she\nwould certainly not have alighted from the carriage.\n\n\n_The Visions of an Engine-Driver._\n\nIn the same paper there is an account of a remarkable series of dreams\nwhich occurred to Mr. J. W. Skelton, an American engine-driver, which\nwere first published in Chicago in 1886. Six times his locomotive had\nbeen upset at high speed, and each time he had dreamed of it two nights\nbefore, and each time he had seen exactly the place and the side on\nwhich the engine turned over. The odd thing in his reminiscences is that\non one occasion he dreamed that after he had been thrown off the line a\nperson in white came down from the sky with a span of white horses and a\nblack chariot, who picked him off the engine and drove him up to the sky\nin a south-easterly direction. In telling the story he says that every\npoint was fulfilled excepting that--and he seems to regard it quite as a\ngrievance--the chariot of his vision never arrived. On one occasion only\nhis dream was not fulfilled, and in that case he believed the accident\nwas averted solely through the extra precaution that he used in\nconsequence of his vision.\n\n\n_Wanted a Dream Diary._\n\nOf premonitions, especially of premonitions in dreams, it is easy to\nhave too much. The best antidote for an excessive surfeit of such things\nis to note them down when they occur. When you have noted down 100\ndreams, and find that one has come true, you may effectively destroy the\nsuperstitious dread that is apt to be engendered by stories such as the\nforegoing. It would be one excellent result of the publication of this\nvolume if all those who are scared about dreams and forebodings would\ntake the trouble to keep a dream diary, noting the dream and the\nfulfilment or falsification following. By these means they can not only\nconfound sceptics, who accuse them of prophesying after the event, but\nwhat is much more important, they can most speedily rid themselves of\nthe preposterous delusion that all dreams alike, whether they issue from\nthe ivory gate or the gate of horn, are equally to be held in reverence.\nA quantitative estimate of the value of dreams is one of those things\nfor which psychical science still sighs in vain.\n\n\n\n\nChapter IV.\n\nSome Historical and Other Cases.\n\n\nOf the premonitions of history there are many, too familiar to need more\nthan a passing allusion here. The leading case is, of course, the dream\nof Pilate's wife, which, if it had been attended to, might have averted\nthe crucifixion. But there again foreknowledge was impotent against\nfate. Calphurnia, Caesar's wife, in like manner strove in vain to avert\nthe doom of her lord. There is no story more trite than that which tells\nof the apparition which warned Brutus that Caesar would make Philippi his\ntrysting-place. In these cases the dreams occurred to those closely\nassociated with the doomed. One of the best known of dream presentiments\nin English history occurred to a person who had no connection with the\nvictim. The assassination of Mr. Perceval in the Lobby of the House of\nCommons was foreseen in the minutest detail by John Williams, a Cornish\nmine manager, eight or nine days before the assassination took place.\nThree times over he dreamed that he saw a small man, dressed in a blue\ncoat and white waistcoat, enter the Lobby of the House of Commons, when\nimmediately another person, dressed in a snuff-coloured coat, took a\npistol from under his coat and shot the little man in his left breast.\nOn asking who the sufferer was he was informed that it was Mr. Perceval,\nChancellor of the Exchequer. He was so much impressed by the dream that\nhe consulted his friends as to whether he should not go up to London and\nwarn Mr. Perceval. Unfortunately they dissuaded him, and on May 13th the\nnews arrived that Mr. Perceval had been killed on the 11th. Some time\nafterwards, when he saw a picture of the scene of the assassination, it\nreproduced all the details of the thrice-dreamed vision. There does not\nseem to have been any connection between Mr. Williams and Mr. Perceval,\nnor does there seem to have been any reason why it should have been\nrevealed to him rather than to any one else.\n\n\n_The Inner Light of the Quakers._\n\nThe Quakers, whether it is because they allow their Unconscious\nPersonality to have more say in their lives than others who do not\npractise quietism as a religion, or whether it be from any other cause,\nit is difficult to say, seem to have more than their fair share of\npremonitions. Every one remembers how George Fox saw a \"waft\" of death\ngo out against Oliver Cromwell when he met him riding at Hampton Court\nthe day before he was prostrated with his fatal illness. Fox was full of\nvisions. He foresaw the expulsion of the \"Rump\", the restoration of\nCharles II., and the Fire of London. Stephen Grellet is another notable\nFriend who was constantly foreseeing things. He not only foresaw things\nhimself, but his faculty seemed to bring him into contact with others\nwho foresaw things; and in his Life there is an excellent instance of a\npremonitory dream, told by Countess Tontschkoff three months before\nNapoleon's Invasion. The countess, whose husband was a general in the\nRussian army, dreamed that her father came to the room, holding her only\nson by the hand, and, in a tone of great sadness, said, \"All thy\ncomforts are gone; thy husband has fallen at Borodino.\"\n\nAs her husband at that time was sleeping beside her she dismissed the\nmatter as a mere dream. But when it was repeated a second and a third\ntime, she awoke her husband and asked him where Borodino was. She told\nhim her dream, and they searched through the maps with the greatest\ncare, but could not discover any such place. Three months later Napoleon\nentered Russia, and fought the bloody battle which opened the way to\nMoscow near the river Borodino, from which an obscure village takes its\nname. Her father holding her son by the hand, announced her husband's\ndeath, in the exact terms that she had heard him use in her dream three\nmonths before. She instantly recognised the inn in which she was then\nstaying as the place that she had seen in her dream.\n\n\n_Goethe's Grandfather._\n\nGoethe, in his Autobiography, records the fact that his maternal\ngrandfather had a premonition of his election to the aldermanic dignity,\nnot unlike that which I had about my premotion to the _Pall Mall_.\nGoethe writes:--\n\n\"We knew well enough that he was often informed, in remarkable dreams,\nof things which were to happen. For example, he assured his wife, at a\ntime when he was still one of the youngest magistrates, that at the very\nnext vacancy he should be appointed to a seat on the board of aldermen.\nAnd when, very soon after, one of the aldermen was struck with a fatal\nstroke of apoplexy, he ordered that on the day when the choice was to be\nmade by lot the house should be arranged and everything prepared to\nreceive the guests coming to congratulate him on his elevation; and,\nsure enough, it was for him that the golden ball was drawn which decides\nthe choice of aldermen in Frankfort. The dream which foreshadowed to him\nthis event he confided to his wife as follows: He found himself in\nsession with his colleagues, and everything was going on as usual, when\nan alderman, the same who afterwards died, descended from his seat, came\nto my grandfather, politely begged him to take his place, and then left\nthe chamber. Something similar happened on the provost's death. It was\nusual in such cases to make great haste to fill the vacancy, seeing that\nthere was always ground to fear that the Emperor, who used to nominate\nthe provost, would some day or other reassert his ancient privilege. On\nthis particular occasion the sheriff received orders at midnight to call\nan extra session for the next morning. When in his rounds the officer\nreached my grandfather's house, he begged for another bit of candle to\nreplace that which had just burned down in his lantern. 'Give him a\nwhole candle,' said my grandfather to the woman; 'it is for me he is\ntaking all this trouble.' The event justified his words. He was actually\nchosen provost. And it is worthy of notice that the person who drew in\nhis stead, having the third and last chance, the two silver balls were\ndrawn first, and thus the golden one remained for him at the bottom of\nthe bag.\" (Quoted by Owen, in \"Footfalls on the Boundary of Another\nWorld.\")\n\n\n_Miss X.'s Dogcart._\n\nSome people have this gift of seeing in advance very much developed.\nThere is, for instance, Miss X----, of the Psychical Research Society,\nwhose exploits in seeing a dogcart and its passengers half an hour\nbefore they really arrived, has taken its place as the classical\nillustration of this fantastic faculty of intermittent foresight. As the\nstory is so well authenticated, and has become a leading case in the\ndiscussion, I reprint the passage in which it occurs from the\n\"Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society.\"\n\nThe narrative is by a friend of the recipient:--\n\n\"About eight years ago (April, 1882), X. and I were staying in a country\nhouse, in a neighbourhood quite strange to us both. One morning, soon\nafter our arrival, we drove with a party of four or five others in a\nwaggonette to the neighbouring town, and, on our return, as we came in\nsight of the house, X. remarked to our hostess, 'You have very early\nvisitors; who are your friends?'\n\n\"We all turned to find the cause of the question, but could see no one,\nand as we were still in view of the front door on which Miss X.'s eyes\nwere fixed, we asked her what she could possibly be dreaming of. She\nthen described to us, the more minutely that we all joined in absolute\ndenial of the existence of anything at all, the appearance of a dog-cart\nstanding at the door of the house with a white horse and two men, one of\nwhom had got down and was talking to a terrier; she even commented upon\nthe dress of one of the gentlemen, who was wearing an ulster, she said,\na detail which we certainly should not have supposed it possible for her\nto recognise at such a distance from the spot. As we drove up the drive\nX. drew attention to the fresh wheel marks, but here also we were all\nunable to see as she did, and when we arrived at the house and found no\nsign of cart and visitors, and on inquiry learned that no one had been\nnear in our absence, we naturally treated the whole story as a mistake,\ncaused by X.'s somewhat short sight.\n\n\"Shortly after she and I were in an upstairs room in the front of the\nhouse, when the sound of wheels was heard, and I went to the window to\nsee what it might be. 'There's your dog-cart, after all!' I exclaimed;\nfor there before the door was the identical dog-cart as X. had described\nit, correct in every detail, one of the gentlemen--having got down to\nring the bell--being at the moment engaged in playing with a small\nfox-terrier. The visitors were strangers to our friends--officers from\nthe barracks near, who had driven over with an invitation to a ball.\n\n\"C. having read over D.'s account, had added, 'This is substantially the\nsame account as I heard from one of the party in the carriage.' Mr.\nMyers adds, 'I heard C., an old family servant, tell the story\nindependently with the same details.'\n\n\"Both D. and I were surprised at her accurate knowledge of the story,\nwhich she had not learnt from us, but from another lady present on the\noccasion.\" (\"Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society,\" Vol. VI. p.\n374.)\n\n\n\n\nPART V.\n\nGHOSTS OF THE LIVING ON BUSINESS.\n\n\"'A strange coincidence,' to use a phrase\nBy which such things are settled nowadays.\"--Byron.\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nWarnings of Peril and Death.\n\n\nIt is said that every family has a skeleton in its cupboard. It would be\nequally true to say that every family has a ghost in its records.\nSometimes it is a ghost of the living, sometimes of the dead; but there\nare few who, if they inquire among their relatives, will not find one or\nmore instances of apparitions, which, however small their evidential\ncredentials, are implicitly accepted as genuine by those who witnessed\nthem. In taking the Census of Hallucinations I made inquiry of an old\nschoolfellow of mine, who, after I came to Wimbledon, was minister of\nthe Congregational Church in that suburb. He subsequently removed to\nPortsmouth, where I found him with his father one morning, on the\noccasion of the laying of the foundation-stone of the new Sunday school.\nOn mentioning the subject of the Census of Ghosts, the Rev. Mr. Talbot,\nsenior, mentioned a very remarkable apparition which, unlike most\napparitions, appeared in time to save the life of its owner.\n\n\n_How a Double Saved a Life._\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Talbot, the father of my late pastor, gave me the following\naccount of the apparition:--\n\n\"My mother had an extraordinary power of foreseeing and also of seeing\nvisions. Of her premonitions and dreams I could give you many instances;\nbut as that is not the point at present, I will give you the narrative\nof her other faculty, that of seeing spiritual or phantasmal forms which\nwere not visible to others. We were sitting at tea one evening when my\nmother suddenly exclaimed, 'Dear me, Mrs. Lister is coming up the path,\nwith her handkerchief to her eyes as if crying, on her way to the door.\nWhat can have brought her out at this time? There seems to be something\nthe matter with her head. I will go to the door and let her in.' So\nsaying, my mother arose and went to the front door, where she firmly\nexpected to find Mrs. Lister. None of the rest of us had seen Mrs.\nLister come up the path, but as our attention might have been occupied\nin another direction we did not think anything of it. To my mother's\nastonishment, when she reached the door Mrs. Lister was not visible. She\ncame back into the room much disturbed. 'There is something the matter\nwith Mrs. Lister,' she said. 'I am certain there is. Yoke the horse and\nwe will drive over at once to the Listers' house'--which stood about one\nmile from our place--'and see what is the matter.'\n\n\"My father, knowing from of old that mother had reason for what she\nsaid, yoked the horse and drove off with my mother as rapidly as\npossible to Lister's house. When they arrived there they knocked at the\ndoor; there was no answer. Opening the door they found no one\ndownstairs. My mother then went to Mrs. Lister's bedroom and found the\nunfortunate lady, apparently breathing her last, lying in a pool of\nblood. Her husband, in a fit of insanity, had severely beaten her and\nleft her for dead, and then went and drowned himself in a pond.\n\n\"My father immediately went off for a doctor, who was able to stitch up\nMrs. Lister's worst wounds and arrest the bleeding. In the end Mrs.\nLister recovered, owing her life entirely to the fortunate circumstance\nthat at the moment of losing consciousness she had apparently been able\nto project a visual phantasm of herself before the window of our\ntea-room. She was a friend of my mother's, and no doubt in her dire\nextremity had longed for her company. This longing in Mrs. Lister, in\nsome way unknown to us, probably produced the appearance which startled\nmy mother and led to her prompt appearance on the scene of the tragedy.\"\n\nThis story was told me by Mr. Talbot, who was then a boy, seated at the\ntable at which his mother witnessed the apparition, and was regarded by\nhim as absolutely true. Evidence in support of it now will be somewhat\ndifficult to get, as almost all the witnesses have passed over to the\nmajority, but I have no reason to doubt the truth of the story.\n\n\n_More Doubles Seeking Help._\n\nThe story of Mrs. Lister's double appearing to Mrs. Talbot when in\nimminent peril of death, however it may be scouted by the sceptics, is\nat least entirely in accord with many other narratives of the kind.\n\nA member of the Psychical Research Society in Southport sends me the\nfollowing account of an apparition of a severely wounded man, which\nbears considerable resemblance to Mr. Talbot's, although its evidential\nvalue is nothing like so good. Its importance rests solely in the fact\nthat the apparition appeared as the result, not of death, but of a very\nserious injury which might have had fatal consequences:--\n\n\"Some years ago, a lady named L. B. was staying with relations at\nBeckenham, her husband being away at a shooting party in Essex. On a\ncertain afternoon, when she had, as she says, no especial reason for her\nhusband being recalled to her mind, she was somewhat surprised, on\nlooking out of her bedroom window, to see him, as she imagined, entering\nthe front garden gate. Wondering what could have been the cause of the\nunexpected arrival, she exclaimed to her sister-in-law, 'Why, there's\nTom!' and went downstairs thinking to meet him entering the house. He\nwas nowhere to be seen. Not long afterwards there arrived the news that\nher husband had been shot accidentally and considerably injured.\nDirectly they met she related to him her curious vision, and on\ncomparing notes it was discovered that it had certainly taken place more\nor less at the same hour as the accident, the husband declaring that as\nhe fainted away his wife was most distinctly present in his thoughts.\nThere was, unfortunately, no means of exactly fixing the hour, but there\nwas no doubt at the time that the two occurrences--viz. the\nhallucination and the accident--must have anyhow taken place within a\nshort time of one another, if not simultaneously.\"\n\nHere we have an incident not unlike that which occurred to Mrs.\nTalbot--the unexpected apparition of the phantasm or dual body of one\nwho at the moment was in imminent danger of death. Tales of this class\nare somewhat rare, but when they do occur they indicate conclusively\nthat there is no connection between the apparition of the wraith and the\ndecease of the person to whom it belongs.\n\nHere is another story that is sent me by a correspondent in Belsize Park\nGardens, who vouches for the _bona fides_ of the lady on whose\nauthority he tells the tale:--\n\n\"A Scotch waitress in my employ, whilst laying the cloth for dinner one\nday, was startled by perceiving her father's face looking at her through\nthe window. She rushed out of the room and opened the front door,\nexpecting to see him. Greatly surprised at finding no trace of him,\nafter carefully searching the front garden, and looking up and down the\nroad, she came in, and sitting down in the hall nearly fainted with\nfright. On inquiring for particulars she told me she had distinctly seen\nher father's face, with a distressed expression upon it, looking\nearnestly at her. She seemed much troubled, and felt sure something was\nwrong. A few days after this vision a letter came, saying that her\nfather (a Scotch gamekeeper) had been thrown from a dog-cart and nearly\nkilled. She left my employ to go and nurse him.\"\n\n\n_Two Doubles Summon a Priest to Their Deathbeds._\n\nThe next narrative should rather have come under the head of\npremonitions, but as the premonition in this case was accompanied by an\napparition, I include it in the present chapter. It is, in its way, even\nmore remarkable than Mr. Talbot's story. It is more recent, it is\nprophetic, and the apparitions of two living men appeared together to\npredict the day of their death. The narrative rests on the excellent\nauthority of the Rev. Father Fleming, the hard-working Catholic priest\nof Slindon, in Sussex. I heard of it from one of his parishioners who is\na friend of mine, and on applying to Father Fleming, he was kind enough\nto write out the following account of his strange experience, for the\ntruth of every word of which he is prepared to vouch. In all the wide\nrange of spectral literature I know no story that is quite like this:--\n\n\"I was spending my usual vacation in Dublin in the year 1868, I may add\nvery pleasantly, since I was staying at the house of an old friend of my\nfather's, and whilst there was treated with the attention which is\nclaimed by an honoured guest, and with as much kindness and heartiness\nas if I were a member of his family. I was perfectly comfortable,\nperfectly at home. As to my professional engagements, I was free for the\nwhole time of my holiday, and could not in any manner admit a scruple or\ndoubt as to the manner in which my work was done in my absence, for a\nfully qualified and earnest clergyman was supplying for me. Perhaps this\npreamble is necessary to show that my mind was at rest, and that nothing\nin the ordinary course of events would have recalled me so suddenly and\nabruptly to the scene of my labours at Woolwich. I had about a week of\nmy unexpired leave of absence yet to run when what I am about to relate\noccurred to me. No comment or explanation is offered. It is simply a\nnarrative.\n\n\"I had retired to rest at night, my mind perfectly at rest, and slept,\nas young men do in robust health, until about four o'clock in the\nmorning. It appeared to me about that hour that I was conscious of a\nknock at the door. Thinking it to be the man-servant who was accustomed\nto call me in the morning, I at once said, 'Come in.' To my surprise\nthere appeared at the foot of the bed two figures, one a man of medium\nheight, fair and well fleshed, the other tall, dark, and spare, both\ndressed as artisans belonging to Woolwich Arsenal. On asking them what\nthey wanted, the shorter man replied, 'My name is C----s. I belong to\nWoolwich. I died on ---- of ----, and you must attend me.'\n\n\"Probably the novelty of the situation and feelings attendant upon it,\nprevented me from noticing that he had used the past tense. The reply\nwhich I received to my question from the other man was like in form, 'My\nname is M----ll, I belong to Woolwich, I died on ---- of ----, and you\nmust attend me.' I then remarked that the past tense had been used, and\ncried out, 'Stop! You said \"died,\" and the day you mentioned has not\ncome yet?' at which they both smiled, and added, 'We know this very\nwell; it was done to fix your attention, but'--and they seemed to say\nvery earnestly and in a marked manner--'you must attend us!' at which\nthey disappeared, leaving me awe-stricken, surprised, and thoroughly\naroused from sleep. Whether what I narrate was seen during sleep, or\nwhen wholly awake, I do not pretend to say. It appeared to me that I was\nperfectly awake and perfectly conscious. Of this I had no doubt at the\ntime, and I can scarcely summon up a doubt as to what I heard and saw\nwhilst I am telling it. As I had lighted my lamp, I rose, dressed, and\nseating myself at a table in the room, read and thought, and, I need\nhardly say, from time to time prayed, and fervently, until day came.\nWhen I was called in the morning, I sent a message to the lady of the\nhouse to say that I should not go to the University Chapel to say Mass\nthat morning, and should be present at the usual family breakfast at\nnine.\n\n\"On entering the dining-room my hostess very kindly inquired after my\nhealth, naturally surmising that I had omitted Mass from illness, or at\nleast want of rest and consequent indisposition. I merely answered that\nI had not slept well, and that there was something weighing heavily upon\nmy mind which obliged me to return at once to Woolwich. After the usual\nregrets and leave-takings, I started by the mid-day boat for England. As\nthe first date mentioned by my visitors gave me time, I travelled by\neasy stages, and spent more than two days on the road, although I could\nnot remain in Dublin after I had received what appeared to me then, and\nappears to me still, as a solemn warning.\n\n\"On my arrival at Woolwich, as may be easily imagined, my brother clergy\nwere very puzzled at my sudden and unlooked-for return, and concluded\nthat I had lost my reckoning, thinking that I had to resume my duties a\nweek earlier than I was expected to do. The other assistant priest was\nwaiting for my return to start on his vacation--and he did so the very\nevening of my return. Scarcely, however, had he left the town when the\nfirst of my visitors sent in a request for me to go at once to attend\nhim. You may, perhaps, imagine my feelings at that moment. I am sure you\ncannot realise them as I do even now after the lapse of so many years.\nWell, I lost no time. I had, in truth, been prepared, except hat and\numbrella, from the first hour after my return. I went to consult the\nbooks in which all the sick-calls were entered and to speak to our aged,\nrespected sacristan who kept them. He remarked at once, 'You do not know\nthis man, father; his children come to our school, but he is, or has\nalways been, considered as a Protestant.' Expressing my surprise, less\nat the fact than at his statement, I hurried to the bedside of the\nsufferer. After the first few words of introduction were over he said,\n'I sent for you, father, on Friday morning early and they told me that\nyou were away from home, but that you were expected back in a few days,\nand I said I would wait.' I found the sick man had been stricken down by\ninflammation of the lungs, and that the doctor gave no hope of his\nrecovery, yet that he would probably linger some days. I applied myself\nvery earnestly indeed to prepare the poor man for death. Again the next\nday, and every day until he departed this life, did I visit him and\nspent not minutes but hours by his bedside.\n\n\"A few days after the first summons came the second. The man had\npreviously been a stranger to me, but I recognised him by his name and\nappearance. As I sat by his bedside he told me, as the former had\nalready done, that he had sent for me, had been told that I was absent,\nand had declared that he would wait for me. Thus far their cases were\nalike. In each case there was a great wrong to be undone, a conscience\nto be set right that had erred and erred deeply--and not merely that, it\nis probable, from the circumstances of their lives, that it was\nnecessary that their spiritual adviser should have been solemnly warned.\nThey made their peace with God, and I have seldom assisted at a deathbed\nand felt greater consolation than I did in each and both of these. Even\nnow, after the lapse of many years, I cannot help feeling that I\nreceived a very solemn warning in Dublin, and am not far wrong in\ncalling it, the Shadow of Death.--T. O. Fleming.\"\n\n\n_A Double From Shipboard._\n\nDuring my visit to Scotland in the month of October the subject of\nGhosts naturally formed the constant topic of conversation, and many\nstories were told of all degrees of value bearing upon the subject. The\nfollowing narrative came to me as follows: We had been visiting the\nForth Bridge, driving down from Edinburgh in the public conveyance.\nShortly before our visit three men had fallen from one of the piers of\nthe bridge and been killed. The question was mooted as to whether or not\nthey would haunt the locality, and from this the conversation naturally\nturned to apparitions of all kinds.\n\nAs we reached Edinburgh on our return a middle-aged passenger who had\nbeen seated on a seat in front turned round and said, \"What do you make\nof this story, for the truth of which I can vouch:--A young sailor,\nwhose vessel at that moment was lying at Limerick Harbour, appeared to\nhis father, who at that time was at home with the rest of his family in\nDublin. He appeared to him in the early morning. At breakfast his father\ntold the rest of his family that he had seen his son, who had said to\nhim: 'In my locker you will find a Bible in the pocket of my coat. In\nthat Bible you will find a place-keeper which was given me by my\nsweetheart after I left home, and on it are the words, \"Remember me.\"'\nThat day at noon the young sailor, after making ready dinner for the\ncrew, went up aloft, missed his footing, fell, and was killed. His\neffects were fastened up in his locker and sent through the Customs\nHouse to his father. When they arrived the locker was opened, and\nexactly as the apparition had described the Bible was found in the\npocket of the coat, and in the Bible a place-keeper, which none of the\nfamily had seen, on which were the words 'Remember me.'\" \"But,\" said I\nto my fellow-passenger, \"how do you know that the story is true?\"\n\"Because,\" he said, \"the sailor was my brother, and I remember my father\ntelling us about the vision at the breakfast-table.\"\n\nUnfortunately I did not ask for the name and address of my informant. We\nwere just alighting from the drag, and I contented myself with giving\nhim my name and address, and asking him to write out an account with\nfull particulars, dates, etc. with verification. This he promised to do,\nbut, unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten his promise, and a story\nwhich, if fully verified, would be very valuable, can only be mentioned\nas a sample of the narratives which are reported on every hand if people\nshow any disposition to receive them with interest, or, in fact, with\nanything but scornful contempt.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nA Dying Double Demands its Portraits!\n\n\nPerhaps the most remarkable and most authentic ghost is a ghost which\nappeared at Newcastle, for the purpose of demanding its photographs! The\nstory was first told me by the late secretary of the Bradford\nAssociation of Helpers, Mr. Snowden Ward. I subsequently obtained it\nfirst hand from the man who saw the ghost. Running from the central\nrailway station at Newcastle, a broad busy thoroughfare connects Neville\nStreet with Grainger Street. On one side stands St. John's Church, on\nthe other the Savings Bank, and a little past the Savings Bank,\nproceeding from the station, stand the shops and offices of Grainger\nStreet. It is a comparatively new street, and is quite one of the last\nplaces in the world where one would expect to find visitants of a\nghostly nature. Nevertheless, it was in one of the places of business in\nthis busy and bustling thoroughfare that the ghost in question appeared,\nfor that it did appear there can be no manner of doubt. Even if all the\nother cases published in this book were discarded as lacking in\nevidential value, this would of itself suffice to establish the fact\nthat apparitions appear, for the circumstances are such as to preclude\nthe adoption of any of the usual hypotheses to account for the\napparition. I called upon Mr. Dickinson at 43, Grainger Street, on\nOctober 14th, examined his premises, was shown the entry in his book,\nand cross-examined himself and Miss Simon, the lady clerk, who figures\nin the subsequent narrative. It will probably be best to reprint the\nstatement, which originally appeared in the _Practical Photographer_,\nmerely filling in names and supplementing it here and there with a\nlittle more detail:--\n\n\"On Saturday, the 3rd of January this year,\" said Mr. Dickinson, \"I\narrived at my place of business, 43, Grainger Street, Newcastle, a few\nminutes before 8 a.m. The outer door is protected by an iron gate in\nwhich is a smaller lock-up gate, through which I passed into the\npremises. Having opened the office and turned the gas on at the meter,\nand lit the gas fire, I stood at the office counter for a few minutes\nwaiting for the lad who takes down the iron gate at the front door.\"\n\nMr. Dickinson told me that the reason he was down so early was because\nthe lad who usually brought the keys was ill, and he had come earlier\nthan usual on that account. The place is lit with electric light. Mr.\nDickinson does not remember turning on the light, although, as it was\nonly eight o'clock on the 3rd of January, he must have done so in order\nto read the entry in the book.\n\nBefore the lad came, a gentleman called to inquire if his photographs\nwere finished.\n\nHe was a stranger to him. He came into the room and came up to the\ncounter in the ordinary way. He was wearing a hat and overcoat, and\nthere was nothing unusual about his appearance excepting that he did not\nseem very well. \"He said to me, 'Are my photographs ready?' I said, 'Who\nare you? We are not opened yet.' He said his name was Thompson. I asked\nhim if he had the receipt (which usually accompanies any inquiry), and\nhe replied that he had no receipt, but his photograph was taken on\nDecember 6th and that the prints were promised to be sent to him before\nthis call.\n\n\"I then asked him whether it was a cash order or a subscription one. The\nreason for asking this is because we have two books in which orders are\nentered. He said he had paid for them at the time; his name would\ntherefore be in the cash orders. Having got the date and his name, I\nreferred to my book, and found the order as he stated. I read out to him\nthe name and address, to which he replied, 'That is right.'\n\n\"Here is an exact copy of the entry in the order book:--\n\n    7976.        Sat., Dec. 6th, /90.\n\n    Mr. J. S. Thompson,\n    154, William Street, Hebburn Quay.\n\n    6 cabinets.         7/- pd.\n\n\"The above was written in pencil; on the margin was written in ink,\n'Dec. 16,' which, Mr. Dickinson explained, is the date on which the\nnegative came to the office, named and numbered, and ready to go to the\nprinters.\n\n\"Below this again was written in ink.\n\n    5th.--3 Cabinets gratis, neg. broken, letter sent asking to re-sit.\n\n\"In my book I found a date given, on which the negative was ready to be\nput into the printer's hands; and the date being seventeen days\nprevious, I had no hesitation in saying, 'Well, if you call later on you\nwill get some;' and I called his attention to the fact that it was very\nearly, and explained to him that the employes would not be at work until\nnine o'clock, and if he could call after that time he would be certain\nto get some of his photographs. He said 'I have been travelling all\nnight, and cannot call again.'\n\n\"Some short time before I had been at a hydropathic establishment in\nYorkshire, and had travelled home at night. When he said he had been\ntravelling all night, I remembered my own journey, and I thought perhaps\nhe had been to some hydropathic establishment to benefit his health; and\nfinding that he was getting no better, he had come back, perhaps to die,\nfor he looked wretchedly ill. He spoke weariedly and rather impatiently,\nwhen he said he could not call again.\n\n\"With that, he turned abruptly and went out. Anxious to retain his\ngood-will, I shouted after him, 'Can I post what may be done?' but I got\nno answer. I turned once more to the book, looked at the number, and on\na slip of paper wrote _No. 7976, Thompson, post_. (This I wrote\nwith pen and ink, and have the paper yet.).\"\n\nMr. Dickinson said he had handed over this piece of paper to a\nrepresentative of the Psychical Research Society who had lost it. It\nwas, however, a mere memorandum written on the back of a traveller's\ncard.\n\n    \"At nine o'clock, when Miss Simon (clerk and reception room\n    attendant, a bright, intelligent young lady) came, I handed the slip\n    of paper to her, and asked her to have it attended to, telling her\n    that the man had called for them, and seemed much disappointed that\n    he had not received them before. Miss Simon, with considerable\n    surprise, exclaimed, 'Why, an old man called about these photographs\n    yesterday (Friday), and I told him they could not be ready this week\n    owing to the bad weather, and that we were nearly three weeks behind\n    with our work.' I suggested that it was quite time Mr. Thompson's\n    were ready, and inquired who was printing the order. I was told that\n    it was not in print, and, pointing to a pile of negatives, Miss\n    Simon said 'Thompson's is amongst that lot, and they have been\n    waiting quite a fortnight.' I asked to be shown the negative, and\n    about half an hour later Miss S. called me saying 'This is\n    Thompson's negative.'\n\n    \"I took it in my hands and looked at it carefully, remarking, 'Yes,\n    that is it; that is the chap who called this morning.'\"\n\n    Mr. Dickinson said he had no difficulty in recognising it, although\n    the man wore a hat and top-coat when he called, whereas in the\n    portrait the sitter wore neither hat nor top-coat.\n\n    \"Miss Simon again referred to the fact that she had told the man who\n    had called on the previous day that none were done, or could be done\n    that week. 'Well,' I said, 'put this to one side, and I will see to\n    it myself on Monday, and endeavour to hurry it forward.' On the\n    Monday (January 5th) I was in one of the printing-rooms, and about\n    10.30 a.m., having one or two printing-frames empty, I thought of\n    Thompson's negative, and accordingly went down to the office and\n    asked Miss S. for it. 'Oh! yes,' she replied, 'and here are a few\n    more equally urgent, you may take them as well.' I said, 'That\n    cannot be, as I have only two or three frames at liberty' (she had\n    about twenty negatives in her hand, holding them out to me); 'give\n    me Thompson's first, and let me get my mind at rest about it.' To\n    which she answered, 'His is amongst this lot, I will have to pick it\n    out.' (Each negative was in a paper bag.)\n\n    \"I offered to help her, and she commenced at one end of the batch\n    and I at the other; and before we got halfway through I came across\n    one which I knew was very urgent, and turned away to look up the\n    date of taking it, when crash! went part of the negatives on the\n    floor. This accident seemed so serious that I was almost afraid to\n    pick up the fallen negatives, but on doing so, one by one, I was\n    greatly relieved to find _only one_ was broken; but, judge of\n    my horror to find that that one was Thompson's!\n\n    \"I muttered something (not loud, but deep), and would fain have\n    relieved my feelings, but the presence of ladies restrained me (this\n    accident being witnessed also by my head printer, Miss L.).\n\n    \"I could not honestly blame Miss Simon for this--each thought the\n    other was holding the lot, and between us we let them drop.\n\n    \"The negative was broken in two, right across the forehead of\n    figure. I put the pieces carefully away, and taking out a memo.\n    form, wrote to Mr. Thompson, asking him to kindly give another\n    sitting, and offering to recoup him for his trouble and loss of\n    time. This letter was posted five minutes after the negative was\n    broken, and the affair was forgotten by me for the time.\n\n    \"However, on Friday, January 9th, I was in the printing-room\n    upstairs, when I was signalled by the whistle which communicates\n    with the office, and Miss Simon asked if I could go down, as the\n    gentleman had called about the negative. I asked 'What negative?'\n    'Well,' she replied, 'the one we broke.'\n\n    \"'Mr. Thompson's,' I answered. 'I am very busy and cannot come down,\n    but you know the terms I offered him; send him up to be taken at\n    once.'\n\n    \"'But he is _dead_!' said Miss Simon.\n\n    \"'Dead!' I exclaimed, and without another word I hastened down the\n    stairs to my office. Here I saw an elderly gentleman, who seemed in\n    great trouble.\n\n    \"'Surely,' said I to him, 'you don't mean to say that this man is\n    dead?'\n\n    \"'It is only too true,' he replied.\n\n    \"'Well, it must have been dreadfully sudden,' I said,\n    sympathetically, 'because I saw him only last Saturday.'\n\n    \"The old gentleman shook his head sadly, and said, 'You are\n    mistaken, for he died last Saturday.'\n\n    \"'Nay,' I returned, 'I am not mistaken, for I recognised him by the\n    negative.'\n\n    \"However, the father (for such was his relationship to my sitter)\n    persisted in saying I was mistaken, and that it was he who called on\n    the Friday and not his son, and, he said, 'I saw that young lady\n    (pointing to Miss Simon), and she told me the photographs would not\n    be ready that week.'\n\n    \"'That is quite right,' said Miss Simon, 'but Mr. Dickinson also saw\n    a gentleman on the Saturday morning, and, when I showed Mr.\n    Dickinson the negative, he said, \"Yes, that's the man who called.\" I\n    told Mr. Dickinson _then_ of your having called on the Friday.'\n\n    \"Still Mr. Thompson, sen., seemed to think that we were wrong, and\n    many questions and cross-questions I put to him only served to\n    confirm him in his opinion that I had got mixed; but this he\n    said--no one was authorised to call, nor had they any friend or\n    relative who would know of the portraits being ordered, neither was\n    there any one likely to impersonate the man who had sat for his\n    portrait.\n\n    \"I had no further interview with the old gentleman until a week\n    later, when he was much calmer in his appearance and conversation,\n    and at this interview he told me that his son died on Saturday,\n    January 3rd, at about 2.30 p.m.; he also stated that at the time I\n    saw him (the sitter) he was unconscious, and remained so up to the\n    time of his death. I have not had any explanation of this mysterious\n    visit up to present date, February 26th, 1891.\n\n    \"It is curious to me that I have no recollection of hearing the man\n    come upstairs, or of him going down. In appearance he was pale and\n    careworn, and looked as though he had been very ill. This thought\n    occurred to me when he said he had been travelling all night.\n\n    \"James Dickinson.\n\n    \"43, Grainger Street, Newcastle.\"\n\nMiss Simon, in further conversation with me, stated that when the father\ncalled on Friday night and asked for the photographs, he came late, at\nleast after the electric light was lit. He seemed disappointed, but made\nno further remark when he was told they were not ready. Mr. Dickinson\nstated that in conversation with the father afterwards, he told him that\nhis son, on the Friday, had been delirious and had cried out for his\nphotographs so frequently that they had tried to get them, and that was\nwhy he had called on Friday night. Hebburn is on the south side of the\nTyne, about four miles from Newcastle. The father was absolutely certain\nthat it was physically impossible for his son to have left the house. He\ndid not leave it. They knew the end was approaching, and he and his wife\nwere in constant attendance at the death-bed. He also stated that it was\nimpossible, from the position of the bedroom, for him to have left the\nhouse, even if he had been able to get out of bed without their hearing\nhim. As a matter of fact, he did not get out of bed, and at the moment\nwhen his Double was talking to Mr. Dickinson in Grainger Street he was\nlying unconscious at Hebburn.\n\nIt is impossible to explain this on the theory that Mr. Dickinson\nvisualised the impression left upon his mind by Mr. Thompson, for Mr.\nDickinson had never seen Mr. Thompson in his life. Neither could he have\ngiven apparent objectivity to a photograph which he might possibly have\nseen, although Mr. Dickinson asserts that he had never seen the\nphotograph until it was brought him on the Saturday morning. If he had\ndone so by any chance he would not have fitted his man with a top-coat\nand hat. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as a subjective\nhallucination; besides, the evidence afforded by the looking up of the\nbook, the making an entry of what occurred, and the conversation which\ntook place, in which the visitor mentioned facts which were not present\nin Mr. Dickinson's own mind, but which he verified there and then by\nlooking up his books, bring it as near certainty as it is possible to\narrive in a case such as this. Whoever the visitor was, it was not a\nsubjective hallucination on the part of Mr. Dickinson.\n\nIt is equally impossible to believe that it was the actual Mr. Thompson,\nbecause he was at that moment within six hours of death, and the\nevidence of his father is that his son at that moment was physically\nincapable of getting out of bed, and that he was actually lying\nunconscious before their eyes at Hebburn at the moment when his\napparition was talking to Mr. Dickinson at Newcastle. The only other\nhypothesis that can be brought forward is that some one personated\nThompson. Against this we have the fact that Mr. Dickinson, who had\nnever seen Thompson, recognised him immediately as soon as he saw the\nnegative of his portrait.\n\nFurther, if any one had come from Hebburn on behalf of Thompson, he\nwould not have asserted that he was Thompson himself, knowing, as he\nwould, that he was speaking to a photographer, who, if the photographs\nhad been ready, would at once have compared the photographs with the\nperson standing before him, when the attempted personation would at once\nhave been detected. Besides, no one was likely to have been so anxious\nabout the photographs as to come up to Newcastle an hour before the\nstudio opened in order to get them.\n\nWe may turn it which way we please, there is no hypothesis which will\nfit the facts except the assumption that there is such a thing as a\nThought Body, capable of locomotion and speech, which can transfer\nitself wherever it pleases, clothing itself with whatever clothes it\ndesires to wear, which are phantasmal like itself. Short of that\nhypothesis, I do not see any explanation possible; and yet, if we admit\nthat hypothesis, what an immense vista of possibilities is opened up to\nour view!\n\n\n\n\nPART VI.\n\nGHOSTS KEEPING PROMISE.\n\n\"There is something in that ancient superstition\nWhich erring as it is, our fancy loves.\"--Scott.\n\n\n\n\nChapter I.\n\nMy Irish Friend.\n\n\nMany of the apparitions that are reported are of phantasms that appear\nin fulfilment of a promise made to survivors during life. Of this class\nI came, in the course of my census, upon a very remarkable case.\n\nAmong my acquaintances is an Irish lady, the widow of an official who\nheld a responsible position in the Dublin Post Office. She is Celt to\nher back-bone, with all the qualities of her race. After her husband's\ndeath she contracted an unfortunate marriage--which really was no\nmarriage legally--with an engineer of remarkable character and no small\nnative talent. He, however, did not add to his other qualities the\nsaving virtues of principle and honesty. Owing to these defects my\nfriend woke up one fine morning to find that her new husband had been\nmarried previously, and that his wife was still living.\n\nOn making this discovery she left her partner and came to London, where\nI met her. She is a woman of very strong character, and of some\nconsiderable although irregular ability. She has many superstitions, and\nher dreams were something wonderful to hear. After she had been in\nLondon two years her bigamist lover found out where she was, and leaving\nhis home in Italy followed her to London. There was no doubt as to the\nsincerity of his attachment to the woman whom he had betrayed, and the\nscenes which took place between them were painful, and at one time\nthreatened to have a very tragic ending.\n\nFortunately, although she never ceased to cherish a very passionate\naffection for her lover, she refused to resume her old relations with\nhim, and after many stormy scenes he departed for Italy, loading her\nwith reproaches. Some months after his departure she came to me and told\nme she was afraid something had happened to him. She had heard him\ncalling her outside her window, and shortly afterwards saw him quite\ndistinctly in her room. She was much upset about it.\n\nI pooh-poohed the story, and put it down to a hallucination caused by\nthe revival of the stormy and painful scenes of the parting. Shortly\nafterwards she received news from Italy that her late husband, if we may\nso call him, had died about the same time she heard him calling her by\nher name under her window in East London.\n\nI only learnt when the above was passing through the press that the\nunfortunate man, whose phantasm appeared to my friend, died suddenly\neither by his own hand or by accident. On leaving London he drank on\nsteadily, hardly being sober for a single day. After a prolonged period\nof intoxication he went out of the house, and was subsequently found\ndead, either having thrown himself or fallen over a considerable height,\nat the foot of which he was found dead.\n\nI asked Mrs. G. F.--to write out for me, as carefully as she could\nremember it after the lapse of two years, exactly what she saw and\nheard. Here is her report:--\n\n\n_The Promise._\n\n\"In the end of the summer of 1886 it happened one morning that Irwin and\nmyself were awake at 5.30 a.m., and as we could not go to sleep again,\nwe lay talking of our future possible happiness and present troubles. We\nwere at the time sleeping in Room No. 16, Hotel Washington, overlooking\nthe Bay of Naples. We agreed that nothing would force us to separate in\nthis life--neither poverty nor persecution from his family, nor any\nother thing on earth. (I believed myself his wife then.) We each agreed\nthat we would die together rather than separate. We spoke a great deal\nthat morning about our views of what was or was not likely to be the\ncondition of souls after death, and whether it was likely that spirits\ncould communicate, by any transmitted feeling or apparition, the fact\nthat they had died to their surviving friends. Finally, we made a solemn\npromise to each other that whichever of us died first would appear to\nthe other after death if such was permitted.\n\n\"Well, after the fact of his being already married came to light, we\nparted. I left him, and he followed me to London on December '87. During\nhis stay here I once asked if he had ever thought about our agreement as\nto who should die first appealing to the other; and he said, 'Oh,\nGeorgie, you do not need to remind me; my spirit is a part of yours, and\ncan never be separated nor dissolved even through all eternity; _no,\nnot even_ though you treat me as you do; even though you became the\nwife of another you cannot divorce our spirits. And whenever my spirit\nleaves this earth I will appear to you.'\n\n\"Well, in the beginning of August '88 he left England for Naples; his\nlast words were that I would never again see him; I should _see_\nhim, but not alive, for he would put an end to his life and heart-break.\nAfter that he never wrote to me; still I did not altogether think he\nwould kill himself. On the 22nd or 23rd of the following November ('88),\nI posted a note to him at Sarno post office. No reply came, and I\nthought it might be he was not at Sarno, or was sick, or travelling, and\nso did not call at the post office, and so never dreamed of his being\ndead.\"\n\n\n_Its Fulfilment._\n\n\"Time went on and nothing occurred till November 27th (or I should say\n28th, for it occurred at 12.30, or between 12 and 1 a.m., I forget the\nexact time). It was just at that period when I used to sit up night\nafter night till 1, 2, and 3 o'clock a.m. at home doing the class books;\non this occasion I was sitting close to the fire, with the table beside\nme, sorting cuttings. Looking up from the papers my eyes chanced to fall\non the door, which stood about a foot and a half open, and right inside,\nbut not so far in but that his clothes touched the edge of the door,\nstood Irwin; he was dressed as I last had seen him--overcoat, tall hat,\nand his arms were down by his sides in his natural, usual way. He stood\nin his exact own perfectly upright attitude, and held his head and face\nup in a sort of dignified way, which he used generally to adopt on all\noccasions of importance or during a controversy or dispute. He had his\nface turned towards me, and looked at me with a terribly meaning\nexpression, very pale, and as if pained by being deprived of the power\nof speech or of local movements.\n\n\"I got a shocking fright, for I thought at first sight he was living,\nand had got in unknown to me to surprise me. I felt my heart jump with\nfright, and I said, 'Oh!' but before I had hardly finished the\nexclamation, his figure was fading way, and, horrible to relate, it\nfaded in such a way that the flesh seemed to fade out of the clothes, or\nat all events the hat and coat were longer visible than the whole man. I\nturned white and cold, felt an awful dread; I was too much afraid to go\nnear enough to shut the door when he had vanished. I was so shaken and\nconfused, and half paralysed, I felt I could not even cry out; it was as\nif something had a grip on my spirit, I feared to stir, and sat up all\nnight, fearing to take my eyes off the door, not daring to go and shut\nit. Later on I got an umbrella and walked tremblingly, and pushed the\ndoor close without fastening it. I feared to touch it with my hand. I\nfelt such a relief when I saw daylight and heard the landlady moving\nabout.\n\n\"Now, though I was frightened, I did not for a moment think he was dead,\nnor did it enter my mind then about our agreement. I tried to shake off\nthe nervousness, and quite thought it must be something in my sight\ncaused by imagination, and nerves being overdone by sitting up so late\nfor so many nights together. Still, I thought it dreadfully strange, it\nwas _so real_.\"\n\n\n_A Ghost's Cough._\n\n\"Well, about three days passed, and then I was startled by hearing his\nvoice outside my window, as plain as a voice could be, calling,\n'Georgie! Are you there, Georgie?' I felt certain it was really him come\nback to England. I could not mistake his voice. I felt quite flurried,\nand ran out to the hall door, but no one in sight. I went back in, and\nfelt rather upset and disappointed, for I would have been glad if he had\ncome back again, and began to wish he really would turn up. I then\nthought to myself, 'Well, that was so queer. Oh, it _must_ be\nIrwin, and perhaps he is just hiding in some hall door to see if I\n_will_ go out and let him in, or what I will do. So out I went\nagain. This time I put my hat on, and ran along and peeped into hall\ndoors where he might be hiding, but with no result. Later on that night\nI could have sworn I heard him cough twice right at the window, as if he\ndid it to attract attention. Out I went again. No result.\n\n\"Well, to make a long story short, from that night till about nine weeks\nafter that voice called to me, and coughed, and coughed, sometimes every\nnight for a week, then three nights a week, then miss a night and call\non two nights, miss three or four days, and keep calling me the whole\nnight long, on and off, up till 12 midnight or later. One time it would\nbe, 'Georgie! It's _me_! Ah, Georgie!' Or, '_Georgie_, are you\nin? Will you _speak_ to Irwin?' Then a long pause, and at the end\nof, say, ten minutes, a most strange, unearthly _sigh_, or a\ncough--a perfectly intentional, forced cough, other times nothing but,\n'Ah, Georgie!' On one night there was a dreadful fog. He called me so\nplain, I got up and said, 'Oh, really! that man _must_ be here; he\nmust be lodging somewhere near, as sure as life; if he is not outside I\nmust be going mad in my mind or imagination.' I went and stood outside\nthe hall door steps in the thick black fog. No lights could be seen that\nnight. I called out, 'Irwin! Irwin! here, come on. I _know_ you're\nthere, trying to humbug me, I _saw_ you in _town_; come on in,\nand don't be making a fool of yourself.'\n\n\"Well, I declare to you, a voice that seemed _within three yards_\nof me, replied out of the fog, 'It's _only Irwin_,' and a most\nawful, and great, and supernatural sort of sigh faded away in the\ndistance. I went in, feeling quite unhinged and nervous, and could not\nsleep. After that night it was chiefly sighs and coughing, and it was\nkept up until one day, at the end of about nine weeks, my letter was\nreturned marked, 'Signor O'Neill e morto,' together with a letter from\nthe Consul to say he had died on November 28th, 1888, _the day on\nwhich he appeared to me_.\"\n\n\n_The Question of Dates._\n\nOn inquiring as to dates and verification Mrs. F---- replied:--\n\n    \"I don't know the _hour_ of his death, but if you write to Mr.\n    Turner, Vice Consul, Naples, he can get it for you. He appeared to\n    me at the hour I say; of course there is a difference of time\n    between here and Naples. The strange part is that once I was\n    informed of his death by human means (the letter), his spirit seemed\n    to be satisfied, for no voice ever came again after; it was as if he\n    wanted to inform and make me know he had died, and as if he\n    _knew_ I had not been informed by human agency.\n\n    \"I was so struck with the apparition of November 28th, that I made a\n    note of the date at the time so as to tell him of it when next I\n    wrote. My letter reached Sarno a day or two after he died. There is\n    no possible doubt about the voice being his, for he had a peculiar\n    and uncommon voice, one such as I never heard any exactly like, or\n    like at all in any other person. And in life he used to call me\n    through the window as he passed, so I would know who it was knocked\n    at the door, and open it. When he said, '_Ah!_' after death, it\n    was so awfully sad and long drawn out, and as if expressing that now\n    all was over and our separation and his being dead was all so very,\n    very pitiful and unutterable; the sigh was so real, so almost\n    _solid_, and discernible and unmistakable, till at the end it\n    seemed to have such a supernatural, strange, awful dying-away sound,\n    a sort of fading, retreating into distance sound, that gave the\n    impression that it was not _quite all_ spirit, but that the\n    spirit had some sort of visible and half-material being or\n    condition. This was especially so the night of the fog, when the\n    voice seemed nearer to me as I stood there, and as if it was able to\n    come or stay nearer to me because there _was_ a fog to hide its\n    materialism. On each of the other occasions it seemed to keep a good\n    deal further off than on that night, and always sounded as if at an\n    elevation of about 10ft. or 11ft. from the ground, except the night\n    of the fog, when it came down on a _level_ with me as well as\n    nearer.\n\n    \"Georgina F----.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter II.\n\nLord Brougham's Testimony.\n\n\nWhen we come to the question of the apparition pure and simple, one of\nthe best-known leading cases is that recorded by Lord Brougham, who was\ncertainly one of the hardest-headed persons that ever lived, a Lord\nChancellor, trained from his youth up to weigh evidence. The story is\ngiven as follows in the first volume of \"Lord Brougham's Memoirs\":--\n\n\"A most remarkable thing happened to me, so remarkable that I must tell\nthe story from the beginning. After I left the High School I went with\nG----, my most intimate friend, to attend the classes in the University.\nThere was no divinity class, but we frequently in our walks discussed\nmany grave subjects--among others, the immortality of the soul and a\nfuture state. This question, and the possibility of the dead appearing\nto the living, were subjects of much speculation, and we actually\ncommitted the folly of drawing up an agreement, written with our blood,\nto the effect that whichever of us died the first should appear to the\nother, and thus solve any doubts we had entertained of the 'life after\ndeath.'\n\n\"After we had finished our classes at the college, G---- went to India,\nhaving got an appointment there in the Civil Service. He seldom wrote to\nme, and after the lapse of a few years I had nearly forgotten his\nexistence.... One day I had taken, as I have said, a warm bath; and,\nwhile lying in it and enjoying the comfort of the heat, I turned my head\nround, looking towards the chair on which I had deposited my clothes, as\nI was about to get out of the bath. On the chair sat G----, looking\ncalmly at me. How I got out of the bath I know not; but on recovering my\nsenses I found myself sprawling on the floor. The apparition, or\nwhatever it was that had taken the likeness of G----, had disappeared.\n\n\"This vision had produced such a shock that I had no inclination to talk\nabout it, or to speak about it even to Stewart, but the impression it\nmade upon me was too vivid to be easily forgotten, and so strongly was I\naffected by it that I have here written down the whole history, with the\ndate, December 19th, and all the particulars, as they are now fresh\nbefore me. No doubt I had fallen asleep, and that the appearance\npresented so distinctly before my eyes was a dream I cannot for a moment\ndoubt; yet for years I had had no communication with G----, nor had\nthere been anything to recall him to my recollection. Nothing had taken\nplace concerning our Swedish travels connected with G----, or with\nIndia, or with anything relating to him, or to any member of his family.\nI recollected quickly enough our old discussion, and the bargain we had\nmade. I could not discharge from my mind the impression that G---- must\nhave died, and that his appearance to me was to be received by me as a\nproof of a future state. This was on December 19th, 1799.\n\n\"In October, 1862, Lord Brougham added as a postscript:--'I have just\nbeen copying out from my journal the account of this strange dream,\n\"Certissima mortis imago!\" And now to finish the story begun about sixty\nyears since. Soon after my return to Edinburgh there arrived a letter\nfrom India announcing G----'s death, and stating that he died on\nDecember 19th.'\"\n\n\n_A Vow Fulfilled._\n\nVery many of the apparitions of this description appear in connection\nwith a promise made during lifetime to do so. A lady correspondent sends\nme the following narrative, which she declares she had from the sister\nof a student at the Royal Academy who was personally known to her. He\ntold the story first to his mother, who is dead, so that all chance of\nverifying the story is impossible. It may be quoted, however, as a\npendant to Lord Brougham's vision, and is much more remarkable than his,\ninasmuch as the phantom was seen by several persons at the same time:--\n\n\"I think it was about the year 1856 as nearly as I can remember, that a\nparty of young men, students of the Royal Academy, and some of them\nmembers also, used to meet in a certain room in London, so many evenings\nin the week, to smoke and chat. One of them--the son of a colonel in the\narmy, long since dead--this only son kept yet a remnant, if no more, of\nthe faith of his childhood, cherished in him by his widowed mother with\njealous care, as he detailed to her from time to time fragments of the\nnightly discussions against the immortality of the soul.\n\n\"On one particular evening the conversation drifted into theological\nmatters--this young Academician taking up the positive side, and\nasserting his belief in a hereafter of weal or woe for all _human_\nlife.\n\n\"Two or three of the others endeavoured to put him down, but he,\nmaintaining his position quietly, provoked a suggestion, half in earnest\nand half in jest, from one of their number, that the first among them\nwho should die, should appear to the rest of their assembly afterwards\nin that room at the usual hour of meeting. The suggestion was received\nwith jests and laughter by some, and with graver faces by others--but at\nlast each man solemnly entered into a pledge that if he were the first\nto die amongst them, he would, if permitted, return for a few brief\nseconds to this earth and appear to the rest to certify to the truth.\n\n\"Before very long one young man's place was empty. No mention being made\nof the vow that they had taken, probably time enough had elapsed for it\nto have been more or less, for the present, forgotten.\n\n\"The meetings continued. One evening when they were sitting smoking\nround the fire, one of the party uttered an exclamation, causing the\nrest to look up. Following the direction of his gaze, each man saw\ndistinctly for himself a _shadowy_ figure, in the likeness of the\nonly absent one of their number, distinctly facing them on the other\nside of the room. The eyes looked earnestly, with a yearning, sad\nexpression in them, slowly upon each member there assembled, and then\nvanished as a rainbow fades out of existence from the evening sky.\n\n\"For a few seconds no one spoke, then the most confirmed unbeliever\namong them tried to explain it all away, but his words fell flat, and no\none echoed his sentiments; and then the widow's son spoke. 'Poor ---- is\ndead' he said, 'and has appeared to us according to his vow.' Then\nfollowed a comparison of their sensations during the visitation, and all\nagreed in stating that they felt a cold chill similar to the entrance of\na winter fog at door or window of a room which has been warm, and when\nthe appearance had faded from their view the cold breath also passed\naway.\n\n\"I _think_, but will not be positive on _this_, the son of the\nwidow lady died long after this event, but how long or how short a time\nI never heard; but the facts of the above story were told me by the\nsister of this young man. I also knew their mother well. She was of a\ngentle, placid disposition, by no means excitable or likely to credit\nany superstitious tales. Her son returned home on that memorable evening\nlooking very white and subdued, and, sinking into a chair, he told her\nhe should never doubt again the truths that she had taught him, and a\nlittle reluctantly he told her the above, bit by bit, as it were, as she\ndrew it from him.\"\n\nA similar story to the foregoing one was supplied me by the wife of the\nRev. Bloomfield James, Congregational minister at Wimbledon. (1891). It\nis as follows:--\n\n\"My mother, aunt, and Miss E., of Bideford, North Devon, were at school\ntogether at Teignmouth. The two latter girls formed a great friendship,\nand promised whichever died first would come to the other. About the\nyear 1815 or 1816 my aunt Charlotte was on the stair coming from her\nroom when she saw Miss E. walking up. Aunt was not at all frightened, as\nshe was expecting her friend on a visit, and called out, 'Oh, how glad I\nam to see you, but why did you not write!' A few days afterwards news\ncame of Miss E.'s death on that evening.\"\n\nIt is very rare that the apparition speaks; usually it simply appears,\nand leaves those who see it to draw their own inferences. But sometimes\nthe apparition shows signs of the wound which caused its death. The most\nremarkable case of this description is that in which Lieutenant Colt, of\nthe Fusiliers, reported his death at Sebastopol to his brother in\nScotland more than a fortnight before the news of the casualty arrived\nin this country.\n\n\n_The Case of Lieutenant Colt._\n\nCaptain G. F. Russell Colt, of Gartsherrie, Coatbridge, N.B., reports\nthe case as follows to the Psychical Society (Vol. i. page 125):--\n\n\"I had a very dear brother (my eldest brother), Oliver, lieutenant in\nthe 7th Royal Fusiliers. He was about nineteen years old, and had at\nthat time been some months before Sebastopol. I corresponded frequently\nwith him, and once when he wrote in low spirits, not being well, I said\nin answer that he was to cheer up, but that if anything did happen to\nhim he was to let me know by appearing to me in my room. This letter, I\nfound subsequently, he received as he was starting to receive the\nsacrament from a clergyman who has since related the fact to me.\n\n\"Having done this he went to the entrenchments and never returned, as in\na few hours afterwards the storming of the Redan commenced. He, on the\ncaptain of his company falling, took his place and led his men bravely\non. He had just led them within the walls, though already wounded in\nseveral places, when a bullet struck him in the right temple and he fell\namongst heaps of others, where he was found in a sort of kneeling\nposture (being propped up by the other dead bodies) thirty-six hours\nafterwards. His death took place, or rather he fell, though he may not\nhave died immediately, on September 8th, 1855.\n\n\"That night I awoke suddenly and saw facing the window of my room by my\nbedside, surrounded by a light sort of phosphorescent mist, as it were,\nmy brother kneeling. I tried to speak but could not. I buried my head in\nthe bedclothes, not at all afraid (because we had all been brought up\nnot to believe in ghosts and apparitions), but simply to collect my\nideas, because I had not been thinking or dreaming of him, and indeed\nhad forgotten all about what I had written to him a fortnight before. I\ndecided that it must be fancy and the moonlight playing on a towel, or\nsomething out of place; but on looking up again there he was, looking\nlovingly, imploringly, and sadly at me. I tried again to speak, but\nfound myself tongue-tied. I could not utter a sound. I sprang out of\nbed, glanced through the window, and saw that there was no moon, but it\nwas very dark and raining hard, by the sound against the panes. I turned\nand still saw poor Oliver. I shut my eyes, walked through it, and\nreached the door of the room. As I turned the handle, before leaving the\nroom, I looked once more back. The apparition turned round his head\nslowly, and again looked anxiously and lovingly at me, and I saw then\nfor the first time a wound on the right temple with a red stream from\nit. His face was of a waxy pale tint, but transparent looking, and so\nwas the reddish mark. But it was almost impossible to describe his\nappearance. I only know I shall never forget it. I left the room and\nwent into a friend's room, and lay on the sofa the rest of the night. I\ntold him why, I also told others in the house, but when I told my father\nhe ordered me not to repeat such nonsense, and especially not to let my\nmother know.\n\n\"On the Monday following I received a note from Sir Alexander Milne to\nsay that the Redan was stormed, but no particulars. I told my friend to\nlet me know if he saw the name among the killed and wounded before me.\nAbout a fortnight later he came to my bedroom in his mother's house in\nAthole Crescent in Edinburgh, with a very grave face. I said, 'I suppose\nit is to tell me the sad news I expect,' and he said, 'Yes.' Both the\ncolonel of the regiment and one or two officers who saw the body\nconfirmed the fact that the appearance was much according to my\ndescription, and the death-wound was exactly where I had seen it. His\nappearance, if so, must have been some hours after death, as he appeared\nto me a few minutes after two in the morning.\n\n\"Months later his little Prayer-book and the letter I had written to him\nwere returned to Inveresk, found in the inner breast pocket of the tunic\nwhich he wore at his death. I have them now.\"\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nSOME HISTORICAL GHOSTS.\n\n\nThe following collection presents a list of names--more or less well\nknown--with which ghost stories of some kind are associated. The\nauthority for these stories, though in many cases good, is so varied in\nquality that they are not offered as evidential of anything except the\nwide diversity of the circles in which such things find acceptance.\n\n\n_Royal._\n\nHenry IV., of France, told d'Aubigne (see d'Aubigne Histoire\nUniverselle) that in presence of himself, the Archbishop of Lyons, and\nthree ladies of the Court, the Queen (Margaret of Valois) saw the\napparition of a certain cardinal afterwards found to have died at the\nmoment. Also he (Henry IV.) was warned of his approaching end, not long\nbefore he was murdered by Ravaillac, by meeting an apparition in a\nthicket in Fontainebleau. (\"Sully's Memoirs.\")\n\nAbel the Fratricide, King of Denmark was buried in unconsecrated ground,\nand still haunts the wood of Poole, near the city of Sleswig.\n\nValdemar IV. haunts Gurre Wood, near Elsinore.\n\nCharles XI., of Sweden, accompanied by his chamberlain and state\nphysician, witnessed the trial of the assassin of Gustavus III., which\noccurred nearly a century later.\n\nJames IV., of Scotland, after vespers in the chapel at Linlithgow, was\nwarned by an apparition against his intended expedition into England.\nHe, however, proceeded, and was warned again at Jedburgh, but,\npersisting, fell at Flodden Field.\n\nCharles I., of England, when resting at Daventree on the Eve of the\nbattle of Naseby, was twice visited by the apparition of Strafford,\nwarning him not to meet the Parliamentary Army, then quartered at\nNorthampton. Being persuaded by Prince Rupert to disregard the warning,\nthe King set off to march northward, but was surprised on the route, and\na disastrous defeat followed.\n\nOrleans, Duke of, brother of Louis XIV., called his eldest son\n(afterwards Regent) by his second title, Duc de Chartres, in preference\nto the more usual one of Duc de Valois. This change is said to have been\nin consequence of a communication made before his birth by the\napparition of his father's first wife, Henrietta of England, reported to\nhave been poisoned.\n\n\n_Historical Women._\n\nElizabeth, Queen is said to have been warned of her death by the\napparition of her own double. (So, too, Sir Robert Napier and Lady Diana\nRich.)\n\nCatherine de Medicis saw, in a vision, the battle of Jarnac, and cried\nout, \"Do you not see the Prince of Conde dead in the hedge?\" This and\nmany similar stories are told by Margaret of Valois in her Memoirs.\n\nPhilippa, Wife of the Duke of Lorraine, when a girl in a convent, saw in\nvision the battle of Pavia, then in progress, and the captivity of the\nking her cousin, and called on the nuns about her to pray.\n\nJoan of Arc was visited and directed by various Saints, including the\nArchangel Michael, S. Catherine, S. Margaret, etc.\n\n\n_Lord Chancellors._\n\nErskine, Lord, himself relates (Lady Morgan's \"Book of the Boudoir,\"\n1829, vol. i. 123) that the spectre of his father's butler, whom he did\nnot know to be dead, appeared to him in broad daylight, \"to meet your\nhonour,\" so it explained, \"and to solicit your interference with my lord\nto recover a sum due to me which the steward at the last settlement did\nnot pay,\" which proved to be the fact.\n\n\n_Cabinet Ministers._\n\nBuckingham, Duke of, was exhorted to amendment and warned of approaching\nassassination by apparition of his father, Sir George Villiers, who was\nseen by Mr. Towers, surveyor of works at Windsor. All occurred as\nforetold.\n\nCastlereagh, Lord (who succeeded the above as Foreign Secretary), when a\nyoung man, quartered with his regiment in Ireland, saw the apparition of\n\"The Radiant Boy,\" said to be an omen of good. Sir Walter Scott speaks\nof him as one of two persons \"of sense and credibility, who both\nattested supernatural appearances on their own evidence.\"\n\nPeel, Sir Robert, and his brother, both saw Lord Byron in London in\n1810, while he was, in fact, lying dangerously ill at Patras. During the\nsame fever, he also appeared to others, and was even seen to write down\nhis name among the inquirers after the King's health.\n\n\n_Emperors._\n\nTrajan, Emperor, was extricated from Antioch during an earthquake, by a\nspectre which drove him out of a window. (Dio Cassius, lib. lxviii.)\n\nCaracalla, Emperor, was visited by the ghost of his father Severus.\n\nJulian the Apostate, Emperor, (1) when hesitating to accept the Empire,\nsaw a female figure, \"The Genius of the Empire,\" who said she would\nremain with him, but not for long. (2) Shortly before his death, he saw\nhis genius leave him with a dejected air. (3) He saw a phantom\nprognosticating the death of the Emperor Constans. (See S. Basil.)\n\nTheodosius, Emperor, when on the eve of a battle, was reassured of the\nissue by the apparition of two men; also seen independently by one of\nhis soldiers.\n\n\n_Soldiers._\n\nCurtius Rufus (pro-consul of Africa) is reported by Pliny to have been\nvisited, while still young and unknown, by a gigantic female--the Genius\nof Africa--who foretold his career. (Pliny, b. vii. letter 26.)\n\nJulius Caesar was marshalled across the Rubicon by a spectre, which\nseized a trumpet from one of the soldiers and sounded an alarm.\n\nXerxes, after giving up the idea of carrying war into Greece, was\npersuaded to the expedition by the apparition of a young man, who also\nvisited Artabanus, uncle to the king, when, upon Xerxes' request,\nArtabanus assumed his robe and occupied his place. (Herodotus, vii.)\n\nBrutus was visited by a spectre, supposed to be that of Julius Caesar,\nwho announced that they would meet again at Philippi, where he was\ndefeated in battle, and put an end to his own life.\n\nDrusus, when seeking to cross the Elbe, was deterred by a female\nspectre, who told him to turn back and meet his approaching end. He died\nbefore reaching the Rhine.\n\nPausanius, General of the Lacedaemonians, inadvertently caused the death\nof a young lady of good family, who haunted him day and night, urging\nhim to give himself up to justice. (Plutarch in Simone.)\n\nDio, General, of Syracuse, saw a female apparition sweeping furiously in\nhis house, to denote that his family would shortly be swept out of\nSyracuse, which, through various accidents was shortly the case.\n\nNapoleon, at S. Helena, saw and conversed with the apparition of\nJosephine, who warned him of his approaching death. The story is\nnarrated by Count Montholon, to whom he told it.\n\nBlucher, on the very day of his decease, related to the King of Prussia\nthat he had been warned by the apparition of his entire family, of his\napproaching end.\n\nFox, General, went to Flanders with the Duke of York shortly before the\nbirth of his son. Two years later he had a vision of the\nchild--dead--and correctly described its appearance and surroundings,\nthough the death occurred in a house unknown to him.\n\nGarfield, General, when a child of six or seven, saw and conversed with\nhis father, lately deceased. He also had a premonition, which proved\ncorrect, as to the date of his death--the anniversary of the battle of\nWickmauga, in which he took a brave part.\n\nLincoln, President, had a certain premonitory dream which occurred three\ntimes in relation to important battles, and the fourth on the eve of his\nassassination.\n\nColigni, Admiral, was three times warned to quit Paris before the Feast\nof St. Bartholemew but disregarded the premonition and perished in the\nMassacre (1572).\n\n\n_Men of Letters._\n\nPetrarch saw the apparition of the bishop of his diocese at the moment\nof death.\n\nEpimenides, a poet contemporary with Salon, is reported by Plutarch to\nhave quitted his body at will and to have conversed with spirits.\n\nDante, Jacopo, son of the poet, was visited in a dream by his father,\nwho conversed with him and told him where to find the missing thirteen\ncantos of the Commedia.\n\nTasso saw and conversed with beings invisible to those about him.\n\nGoethe saw his own double riding by his side under conditions which\nreally occurred years later. His father, mother, and grandmother were\nall ghost-seers.\n\nDonne, Dr., when in Paris, saw the apparition of his wife in London\ncarrying a dead child at the very hour a dead infant was in fact born.\n\nByron, Lord is said to have seen the Black Friar of Newstead on the eve\nof his ill-fated marriage. Also, with others, he saw the apparition of\nShelley walk into a wood at Lerici, though they knew him at the time to\nbe several miles away.\n\nShelley, while in a state of trance, saw a figure wrapped in a cloak\nwhich beckoned to him and asked, Siete soddisfatto?--are you satisfied?\n\nBenvenuto Cellini, when in captivity at Rome by order of the Pope, was\ndissuaded from suicide by the apparition of a young man who frequently\nvisited and encouraged him.\n\nMozart was visited by a mysterious person who ordered him to compose a\nRequiem, and came frequently to inquire after its progress, but\ndisappeared on its completion, which occurred just in time for its\nperformance at Mozart's own funeral.\n\nBen Jonson, when staying at Sir Robert Cotton's house, was visited by\nthe apparition of his eldest son with a mark of a bloody cross upon his\nforehead at the moment of his death by the plague. He himself told the\nstory to Drummond of Hawthornden.\n\nThackeray, W. M. writes, \"It is all very well for you who have probably\nnever seen spirit manifestations, to talk as you do, but had you seen\nwhat I have witnessed you would hold a different opinion.\"\n\nMrs. Browning's spirit appeared to her sister with warning of death.\nRobert Browning writes, Tuesday, July 21st, 1863, \"Arabel (Miss Barrett)\ntold me yesterday that she had been much agitated by a dream which\nhappened the night before--Sunday, July 19th. She saw _her_, and asked,\nWhen shall I be with you? The reply was, Dearest, in five years, where\nupon Arabel awoke. She knew in her dream that it was not to the living\nshe spoke.\" In five years, within a month of their completion, Miss\nBarrett died, and Browning writes, \"I had forgotten the date of the\ndream, and supposed it was only three years, and that two had still to\nrun.\"\n\nHall, Bishop, and his brother, when at Cambridge each had a vision of\ntheir mother looking sadly at them, and saying she would not be able to\nkeep her promise of visiting them. She died at the time.\n\nDr. Guthrie was directed, by repeated pullings at his coat, to go in a\ncertain direction, contrary to previous intention, and was thus the\nmeans of saving the life of a parishioner.\n\nMiller, Hugh, tells, in his \"Schools and Schoolmasters,\" of the\napparition of a bloody hand, seen by himself and the servant but not by\nothers present. Accepted as a warning of the death of his father.\n\nPorter, Anna Maria, when living at Esher, was visited one afternoon by\nan old gentleman--a neighbour, who frequently came in to tea. On this\noccasion he left the room without speaking, and fearing that something\nhad happened she sent to inquire, and found that he had died at the\nmoment of his appearance.\n\nEdgworth, Maria, was waiting with her family for an expected guest, when\nthe vacant chair was suddenly occupied by the apparition of a sailor\ncousin, who stated that his ship had been wrecked and he alone saved.\nThe event proved the contrary--he alone was drowned.\n\nMarryat, Captain--the story is told by his daughter--while staying in a\ncountry-house in the North of England saw the family ghost--an\nancestress of the time of Queen Elizabeth who had poisoned her husband.\nHe tried to shoot her, but the ball passed harmlessly into the door\nbehind, and the lady faded away--always smiling.\n\nDe Stael, Madame, was haunted by the spirit of her father, who\ncounselled and helped her in all times of need.\n\nL.E.L.'s ghost was seen by Dr. Madden in the room in which she died at\nCape Coast Castle.\n\nDe Morgan, Professor, writes: \"I am perfectly convinced that I have both\nseen and heard, in a manner that should make unbelief impossible, things\ncalled spiritual which cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable\nof explanation by imposture, coincidence, or mistake.\"\n\nFoote, Samuel, in the year 1740, while visiting at his father's house in\nTruro, was kept awake by sounds of sweet music. His uncle was about the\nsame time murdered by assassins.\n\n\n_Men of Science._\n\nDavy, Sir Humphrey, when a young man, suffering from yellow fever on the\nGold Coast, was comforted by visions of his guardian angel, who, years\nafter, appeared to him again--incarnate--in the person of his nurse\nduring his last illness.\n\nHarvey, William, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, used to\nrelate that his life was saved by a dream. When a young man he was\nproceeding to Padua, when he was detained--with no reason alleged--by\nthe governor at Dover. The ship was wrecked, and all on board lost, and\nit was then explained that the governor had received orders--in a\ndream--to prevent a person, to whose description Harvey answered, from\ngoing on board that night.\n\nFarquhar, Sir Walter, physician (made a baronet in 1796), visited a\npatient at Pomeroy Castle. While waiting alone a lady appeared to him,\nexhibiting agony and remorse (who proved to be the family ghost)\nprognosticating, the death of the patient, which followed.\n\nClark, Sir James, Wife of, while living in their house in Brook Street,\nsaw the apparition of her son, Dr. J. Clark, then in India, carrying a\ndead baby wrapped in an Indian shawl. Shortly afterwards, he did, in\nfact, send home the body of a child for interment, which had died at the\nhour noted, to fill up the coffin it was wrapped up in an Indian scarf.\n\nHerbert of Cherbury, Lord, one of the first to systematise deism, when\nin doubt whether he should publish his \"De Veritate,\" as advised by\nGrotius, prayed for a sign, and heard sounds \"like nothing on earth,\nwhich did so comfort and cheer me, that I took my petition as granted.\"\n\nBacon, Francis, was warned in a dream of his father's approaching end,\nwhich occurred in a few days.\n\n\n_Theologians._\n\nLuther, Martin, was visited by apparitions,--one, according to\nMelancthon, who announced his coming by knocking at the door.\n\nMelancthon says that the apparition of a venerable person came to him in\nhis study and told him to warn his friend Grynaeus to escape at once\nfrom the danger of the Inquisition, a warning which saved his life.\n\nZwingli was visited by an apparition \"with a perversion of a text of\nScripture.\"\n\nOberlin, Pastor, was visited almost daily by his deceased wife, who\nconversed with him, and was visible not only to himself, but to all\nabout him.\n\nFox, George, while walking on Pendle Hill, Yorkshire, saw his future\nconverts coming towards him \"along a river-side, to serve the Lord.\"\n\nNewman, Cardinal, relates in a letter, Jan. 3rd, 1833, that when in\nquarantine in Malta, he and his companions heard footsteps not to be\naccounted for by human agency.\n\nWilberforce, Bishop, experienced remarkable premonitions, and phenomena\neven more startling are attributed to him.\n\nSaints.--The stories of visions, apparitions, etc. which are told in\nconnection with the Saints are far too numerous to quote. The following,\nhowever, may be referred to as of special interest:--(1) _Phantasms of\nthe Living._--St. Ignatius Loyala, Gennadius (the friend of St.\nAugustine), St. Augustine himself, twice over (he tells the story\nhimself, Serm. 233), St. Benedict and St. Meletius, all appeared during\nlife in places distant from their actual bodily whereabouts. (2)\n_Phantasms of the Dead._--St. Anselm saw the slain body of William\nRufus, St. Basil that of Julian the Apostate, St. Benedict the ascent to\nheaven of the soul of St. Germanus, bishop of Capua--all at the moment\nof death. St. Augustine and St. Edmund, Archbishops of Canterbury, are\nsaid to have conversed with spirits. St. Ambrose and St. Martin of Tours\nreceived information concerning relics from the original owners of the\nremains. (3) _Premonitions._--St. Cyprian and St. Columba each foretold\nthe date and manner of his own death as revealed in visions.\n\n\n_Miscellaneous._\n\nHarcourt, Countess when Lady Nuneham, mentioned one morning having had\nan agitating dream, but was met with ridicule. Later in the day Lord\nHarcourt--her husband's father--was missing. She exclaimed, \"Look in the\nwell,\" and fainted away. He was found there with a dog, which he had\nbeen trying to save.\n\nAksakoff, Mme., wife of Chancellor Aksakoff, on the night of May 12th,\n1855, saw the apparition of her brother, who died at the time. The story\nis one very elaborate as to detail.\n\nRich, Lady Diana, was warned of her death by a vision of her own double\nin the avenue of Holland House.\n\nBreadalbane, May, Lady, her sister (both daughters of Lord Holland), was\nalso warned in vision of her death.\n\nThe Daughter of Sir Charles Lee.--This story, related by the Bishop of\nGloucester, 1662, is very well known. On the eve of her intended\nmarriage with Sir W. Perkins, she was visited by her mother's spirit,\nannouncing her approaching death at twelve o'clock next day. She\noccupied the intervening time with suitable preparations, and died\ncalmly at the hour foretold.\n\nBeresford, Lady, wife of Sir Tristam, before her marriage in 1687, made\na secret engagement with Lord Tyrone, that which ever should die first\nwould appear to the other. He fulfilled his promise on October 15th,\n1693, and warned her of her death on her forty-eighth birthday. All was\nkept secret, but after the fated day had passed, she married a second\ntime, and appeared to enter on a new lease of life. Two years later,\nwhen celebrating her birthday, she accidentally discovered that she was\ntwo years younger than had been supposed, and expired before night. The\nstory is one of the best known and most interesting in ghost-lore.\n\nFanshawe, Lady, when visiting in Ireland, heard the banshee of the\nfamily with whom she was visiting, one of whom did in fact die during\nthe night. She also relates (in her \"Memoirs,\" p. 28) that her mother\nonce lay as dead for two days and a night. On her return to life she\ninformed those about her that she had asked of two apparitions, dressed\nin long, white garments, for leave, like Hezekiah, to live for fifteen\nyears, to see her daughter grow up, and that it was granted. She died in\nfifteen years from that time.\n\nMaidstone, Lady, saw a fly of fire as premonitory of the deaths--first,\nof her husband, who died in a sea-fight with the Dutch, May 28th, 1672,\nand second, of her mother-in-law, Lady Winchilsea.\n\nChedworth, Lord, was visited by a friend and fellow-sceptic, saying he\nhad died that night and had realised the existence of another world.\nWhile relating the vision the news arrived of his friend's death.\n\nRambouillet, Marquis of, had just the same experience. A\nfellow-unbeliever, his cousin, the Marquis de Precy, visited him in\nParis, saying that he had been killed in battle in Flanders, and\npredicting his cousin's death in action, which shortly occurred in the\nbattle of the Faubourg St. Antoine. (Quoted by Calmet from \"Causes\nCelebres,\" xi. 370.)\n\nLyttleton, Lord (third), died Nov. 27th, 1799, was warned of his death\nthree days earlier, and exhorted to repentance. The story, very widely\nquoted, first appears in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxxxv. 597. He\nalso himself appeared to Mr. Andrews, at Dartford Mills, who was\nexpecting a visit from him at the time.\n\nMiddleton, Lord, was taken prisoner by the Roundheads after the battle\nof Worcester. While in prison he was comforted by the apparition of the\nlaird Bocconi, whom he had known while trying to make a party for the\nking in Scotland, and who assured him of his escape in two days, which\noccurred.\n\nBalcarres, Lord, when confined in Edinburgh Castle on suspicion of\nJacobitism, was visited by the apparition of Viscount Dundee--shot at\nthat moment at Killiecrankie.\n\nHolland, Lord (the first), who was taken prisoner at the battle of St.\nNeot's in 1624, is said still to haunt Holland House, dressed in the cap\nand clothes in which he was executed.\n\nMontgomery, Count of, was warned by an apparition to flee from Paris,\nand thus escaped the Massacre of St. Bartholemew. (See Coligni.)\n\nShelburne, Lord, eldest son of the Marquis of Lansdowne, is said, in\nMrs. Schimmelpenninck's Memoirs, to have had, when five years old, a\npremonitory vision of his own funeral, with full details as to\nstoppages, etc. Dr. Priestley was sent for, and treated the child for\nslight fever. When about to visit his patient (whom he expected to find\nrecovered) a few days later, he met the child running bare-headed in the\nsnow. When he approached to rebuke him the figure disappeared, and he\nfound that the boy had died at the moment. The funeral was arranged by\nthe father--then at a distance--exactly in accordance with the\npremonition.\n\nEglinton, Lord, was three times warned of his death by the apparition of\nthe family ghost, the Bodach Glas--the dark-grey man. The last\nappearance was when he was playing golf on the links at St. Andrews,\nOctober 4th, 1861. He died before night.\n\nCornwall, the Duke of, in 1100, saw the spectre of William Rufus pierced\nby an arrow and dragged by the devil in the form of a buck, on the same\nday that he was killed. (Story told in the \"Chronicle of Matthew\nParis.\")\n\nChesterfield, Earl of (second), in 1652, saw, on waking, a spectre with\nlong white robes and black face. Accepting it as intimation of some\nillness of his wife, then visiting her father at Networth, he set off\nearly to inquire, and met a servant with a letter from Lady\nChesterfield, describing the same apparition.\n\nMohun, Lord, killed in a duel in Chelsea Fields, appeared at the moment\nof his death, in 1642, to a lady in James's Street, Covent Garden, and\nalso to the sister (and her maid) of Glanvil (author of \"Sadducismus\nTriumphatus\").\n\nSwifte, Edmund Lenthal, keeper of the Crown jewels from 1814, himself\nrelates (in Notes and Queries, 1860, p. 192) the appearance, in Anne\nBoleyn's chamber in the Tower, of \"a cylindrical figure like a glass\ntube, hovering between the table and the ceiling\"--visible to himself\nand his wife, but not to others present.\n\n\n\nW Mate & Sons (1919) Ltd., Bournemouth.","title":"Real Ghost Stories","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":64488}